.
You think you hate your job…
The El Paso mayor announces President Trump will visit Wednesday. “He is President of the United States, so in that capacity I will fulfill my obligation to meet with him.” Adds he’s received “emails & phone calls” about the visit and “that’s why I’m saying what I’m saying now.”
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 5, 2019
“He’s suffering too!”…
“Trump is expected to visit Texas and Ohio later this week, based on federal flight information. He is scheduled to travel to Bedminster, New Jersey, for an extended vacation at the end of the week.” https://t.co/RSXlgS7NvD
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 5, 2019
… A White House official confirmed Monday that Trump was postponing his trip to the sprawling retirement community, where he was scheduled to discuss Medicare at an invitation-only event Tuesday that was generating excitement in an area where Trump enjoys strong support.
…John Temple, chairman of the Sumter County Republican Party, said he received an email announcing the postponement shortly after Trump addressed the nation Monday about the shootings in Dayton and El Paso.
In the days leading up to event in The Villages, Temple and other GOP officials have been inundated with requests for tickets. State and local elected officials had planned to attend the event, which was scheduled to be held at a 1,000-seat theatre…
(Cruel snark: After the ‘Toledo’ fiasco, either his handlers are taking some private time to adjust his meds before letting him speak in public again… or they’re rewarding him with extra play-time for not adding his own ‘very fine people’ gloss. Maybe both!)
Honestly a bit surprised no commentator has yet suggested that Trump is a political genius for distracting the media from his God-awful handling of mass shootings by triggering a market panic.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 6, 2019
Proud to be a Democrat.
Donald Trump is enabling white supremacy—and Republicans are enabling him. And when Congress and the American people have tried to fight the gun violence epidemic, @SenateMajLdr has put the NRA first. If we want action, we need to take back the Senate and end the filibuster. pic.twitter.com/aFzwt5lNk7
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 5, 2019
Interesting: @BetoORourke tells @jonfavs he’s open to an Australia-style mandatory buyback program for guns.
That makes him the most prominent Democratic presidential candidate favoring that idea. pic.twitter.com/Rb0xsSPlav
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 6, 2019
“I’m too busy watching what he’s doing to hear what he’s saying.” pic.twitter.com/4QE5NVZY5n
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) August 5, 2019
“They're not immigrants doing these things. They're American citizens doing these things,” Joe Biden says on CNN, responding to Trump linking an enhancement of gun-buying background checks with immigration.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) August 6, 2019
Two background check bills have already passed the House. The Senate has an opportunity to pass them—but Mitch McConnell refuses to act. @SenateMajLdr, you must bring the Senate back into session to vote on this important legislation.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 5, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
Caught a coon in the chicken coop this AM. Blech.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
Since it’s an Open Thread, I just learned that my dad passed away. I have tickets to go home to San Diego on Tuesday and hoped he’d hang in there until then for one last visit. I’m still trying to process it.
rikyrah
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
Sorry for your loss ???
OzarkHillbilly
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): It’s tough. Sorry to hear this.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
geg6
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
I’m so sorry. It’s hard to lose a parent. They are always there throughout your life, for good or bad, and suddenly they aren’t. It’s disorienting amidst the sadness. My sympathies to you and your family.
Betty Cracker
The disappointment at The Villages of the Darned must be palpable. I don’t know how widespread this is, but in my county, Trumpism has splintered the Republican Party, even though it owns every single elected office. There’s one local buffoon who tries to out-Trump everyone else. He started a Trump Club within the county Republican Party when he decided the regular Republicans weren’t Trumpy enough. The club has since split off into its own entity with its own meetings and facilities (in a tacky strip mall that this yahoo happens to own — hope he’s fleecing his fellow Republicans like his idol). If (please God!) we defeat Trump in 2020, it will be delicious to watch them devour each other.
Betty Cracker
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): That’s terrible news. I am sorry. Peace and strength to you and your family.
Sloane Ranger
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I’m so sorry for your loss My sympathy to you and your family. I have been there and know what you are going through.
Baud
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
My condolences.
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Trumpie Bros?
Brachiator
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): Very sorry for your loss.
Baud
If Bernie doesn’t drop by Thanksgiving, I might have to support Biden just to keep Bernie out.
Baud
Mike in NC
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): Condolences.
JPL
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I’m so sorry for your loss.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: How much damage?
Baud
@Kay:
It’s just like when they caused 9/11.
Mike in NC
On our last visit to Florida we passed by The Villages. May that community disappear into a giant sinkhole.
Today we’re in Kirkwall, Scotland in the Orkney Islands. Sun is trying to come out, but all in all it’s shaping up to be a nice mild day. Coach ride to Stromness will include a visit to the standing stones; touch the wrong one and you might get transported back to the 18th Century! I just want to stand on the shore of Scapa Flow, of which I’ve a great deal (former major naval base).
Kay
Feel the enthusiasm. They’re deadbeats, too, the Trump Administration. They haven’t paid the city for the last visit. Pay up, jerks.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat)
Thank you everyone. I usually lurk, but this place is always so amazingly supportive of those in need. I needed that feeling of community, so thank you.
Before I heard the news, I spent the first day off I’ve had in ages meeting up with a fellow American. No matter what we talked about we ended up circling back to politics and the question of how can we fix things when the Republicans consistently cheat and break the rules? We also agreed that we want to see Trump family and his low-level hires fitted for orange jumpsuits.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Maybe we’re approaching rock bottom at last. We know Trump isn’t the disease, only a particularly ugly symptom. But maybe he can be the awful symptom that finally makes this country acknowledge its diseased state. That is my hope, anyway.
Citizen Scientist
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): my condolences.
Kay
@Baud:
The only reason they’re denouncing her is she’s unpopular and she makes the race competitive. If 37 people had liked the Facebook page they’d put it in their platform. They have one moderate Republican in the state leg. She gets a lot of attention, being the only moderate, which is the only reason I know about her. You really wonder about those people. She never gets anything. The loonies always shut her down. Just switch parties.
Yeah, sure Peggy. That’s happening. They had a bill moving at the time of the shooting that would end all regulation for concealed carry. No requirements at all. We have a sign on the door with the state statute exception for a private business saying they can’t bring a gun in here. They’re doing it anyway. I had one in here the other week wearing a jean jacket in 90 degree weather. I could tell by the way he was keeping his arms down while signing at the counter he had a gun in a shoulder holster. I said “did you bring a gun in here?” and he turned and walked out. So, yes. He did. So fucking sick of these people.
debbie
I hope there are signs welcoming Trump to Toledo when the plane lands in Dayton.
debbie
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
I’m so sorry to read this. This happened to me when my dad died late at night back in the 1970s. Paced all night waiting for the airline offices to open so I could get a flight home. It sucked to be so far away.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Surprisingly enough, none. I first heard something hitting the metal automatic door and thought it might be the roosters having a tiff. After a few minutes I heard it again and thought, maybe not. When I opened the door the coon was at the auto door, more concerned with getting out than he was with eating the tasty chickens just 3 feet away. He was a clever little fucker, too clever.
At least it wasn’t 30-50 wild hogs coming for my grandbabies.
Baud
@Kay:
If they’re not checked, the Republicans will make gun ownership a civil right protected from discrimination like race and sex. Your sign will brand you a bigot, and libertarian Rand Paul will be perfectly ok with it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Misery loves company.
debbie
@Kay:
Kay, speaking of lies:
Last night, I was watching the 10pm newscast on the local Fox station (along with its sister ABC station, owned by Sinclair), and about halfway through, the anchor reported that they had reviewed the Dayton shooter’s Twitter accounts and found that he, like the El Paso shooter, were “leftists, anti-Trump, and Elizabeth Warren supporters.” Not even a “some people think” or something similar!
I’m going to email Sherrod and my representative (Joyce Beatty) tonight, but would you know of a state or federal agency where I can report this to that isn’t already Trumpified or DeWinified?
This wasn’t the opinion section of the broadcast. It was reported as straight news!
Kay
@Baud:
Well, there will be a lot of us because I see the sign almost everywhere. Interesting how all these rock-ribbed Republicans in this town exempt themselves from their own laws. They make the courthouse any more “secure” no one outside police and judges are going to be permitted to enter. They’re backing these laws while setting up safe areas for themselves. I get it, I really do, I think it is an absolute threat and you’d have to be a moron to miss it, but extend that courtesy to the rest of the population! Jesus. Give them that. They used to hold mediations in a bank conference room in one of the counties. They quietly changed it to the law library at the courthouse because they want them to go thru a metal detector. So THE BANK is too risky for us, but not the general population?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
You don’t want to get stuck in a room filled with angry females!
Baud
@Kay:
I read that as meditations and thought that was awfully Marianne for your small town.
What’s the point of ruling others if you have to subject yourself to the same rules?
satby
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I am so sorry for the loss of your dad. It’s extra hard when you miss that last chance to see them again. Deepest condolences to you and your family.
debbie
@Kay:
You know nothing will happen. DeWine is going to announce his gun policy later today. Bogus. The GOP won’t even agree to red flag legislation which would permit intervention when a potentially dangerous person has guns. I watched a GOP legislator claim that this kind of thing was unconstitutional. He wouldn’t let Kasich pass it, and he won’t let DeWine pass it either.
Kay
@debbie:
There is no such state agency. I suppose you could make some kind of “deceived consumer” complaint to the AG but I don’t imagine it would do any good. There’s a set of heavily regulated transactions- automobiles, real estate, (oddly) sweepstakes are heavily regulated in Ohio but the complaints have money damages, the consumer is harmed financially, not “truth” damages.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: glad to hear there was no carnage.
Baud
@debbie:
That’s how I feel at Balloon Juice sometimes.
Baud
@debbie:
I’m surprised the intertubes hasn’t responded yet.
Emma
@rikyrah: I am so, so sorry. We all contemplate our parents’ mortality at some point, but it’s so hard to deal with the reality of it.
satby
@Baud: different audience. They propagandized their target audience and that’s all that mattered. If they have to do a “correction” it will be a 30 second one at a daytime hour when most people don’t have the news on. Mission accomplished: more disinformation, more public polarization.
It is a civil war.
Kay
@debbie:
The red flag laws are good. They’re narrow. The protection orders they have now are too broad to apply and what’s happening is they’re using them to reach guns when the rest of the law doesn’t really apply. So by refusing gun regulation gun nuts are putting people into an “abusive” or “harassing” category they don’t belong. Judges know guns are dangerous. Their worst nightmare is they don’t take the weapons and there’s a shooting. It’s personal to them. They are terrified something happens after there’s paper filed that connects them to the threat.
People do work arounds when laws are irrational. They try. They can regulate guns or we will overly regulate PEOPLE and slap labels on them that don’t apply to reach the gun. It’s already happening.
rikyrah
@Kay:
That he stiffs the municipalities should not be a surprise, but, it’s still trifling ?
Baud
@satby:
Oh I know. But I assume their audience has some liberals in the community who watch the local news and would have responded by tweeting something.
Betty Cracker
Trump is tweet-quoting Fox and Friends segments on how unfair it is that he’s being blamed for the El Paso shooting:
Well, no, GWB did not condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook because President Obama didn’t spend three solid years demonizing children, teachers and school administrators before the massacre. And non-lunatics didn’t say PBO was “out of Control” because PBO addressed the nation as a human being who was capable of empathy and grief instead of snort-reading a hostage video script.
Moments later:
The least racist person in history! Then Trump retweeted a Moscow Mitch tweet about D-Day for no earthly reason that I can fathom. Maybe because that was the last speech he gave that was well received? Y’all’s guess is as good as mine. Jesus, the crazy. It never stops.
debbie
@Kay:
Rats, but thanks.
debbie
@Baud:
I thought about posting on their FB page, but figured I’d regret the responses from their fans.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): Sorry for your loss.
Baud
@debbie:
Send an email to these guys. They might be able to look into it.
https://www.freepress.net
Emma
@Betty Cracker: I have given up listening to the creature and outsource all monitoring to strong people such as yourself. The best decision I’ve ever made was to ignore twitter and facebook.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: He had definitely come to the realization of the depth of his mistake.
debbie
@Baud:
I will, thanks. I also want to let Elizabeth Warren know.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ha! What’s “Oh, shit!” in raccoon-speak?
satby
@debbie: what about Media Matters?
OzarkHillbilly
Germans kept up at night by noisy igelsex (that’s hedgehog coupling)
Another for the “Headlines I never thought I’d see” file.
@debbie: Uuuurpp.
rikyrah
Kamala2020 #KHive (@thatgirlfrmOhio) Tweeted:
Bernie supporters are scrubbing their Twitter interactions with the Dayton shooter. https://twitter.com/thatgirlfrmOhio/status/1158489456980180994?s=17
gbbalto
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): My condolences and peace to you and your family.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: I’m not even sure what to make of that.
Amir Khalid
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
My condolences.
Ben Cisco
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): My condolences on your loss. Lost my dad the same way; was packed to go home when I got the call. I wish you peace and healing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie: Maybe contact the advertisers for the segment?
Immanentize
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): That is hard — I hope your father died in a way that was as painless and peaceful as possible. And going back to see family and friends will hopefully be a balm.
MomSense
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
I’m so sorry. Sending you peace and healing.
Steeplejack (phone)
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat):
Sorry to hear it. My deepest condolences. ?
Elizabelle
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): You missed him by a week? My condolences to you and your family. I hope you all share some really good “Dad” stories.
debit
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I’m so sorry.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie @ Top:
Kaitlan Collins @ Twitter:
“I guess for people who have lots of time on their hands, I’ll deal with the emails & calls”?
So sorry to trouble you with responding to your constituents in the wake of a mass murder in your city, Mayor Margo.
This asshole is a Republican too. He undoubtedly voted for Trump. Margo deserves his suffering.
Mary G
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I’m sorry you missed seeing your dad one last time. May his memory be a blessing.
Dog Mom
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): May you find strength in the days to come. Safe travels and wishing peace to your family as you honor your father’s life.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat) : So sorry for the loss of your father.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: haha Thank the lord you didn’t need your AK47
Joy in FL
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): I’m sorry for your loss.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: Sonic’s brethren must be having this loud hedgehog sex on a Sunday. Don’t they know German law? Sunday is a day of quiet.
What’s hedgehog for “Oh ya! Oh ya! Oh ya! Oh ya!”?
Neldob
@debbie: Do it. Give em a reality check. Sign it Patriot for Truth. I don’t have a Facebook account so talk is cheap.
TomatoQueen
@mrmoshpotato: oyez oyez oyez
Yutsano
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo expat): Oh no. I’m very sorry. Much love and healing light to you and your family right now.
debbie
@satby:
Thanks. I see they have a contact page. On it!
Procopius
@Kay: One of the first things I learned about in my Commercial Law 101 class was that much of what we call deceptive advertising is speech protected by the First Amendment. It was called by the courts “commercial puffery.” That is, the courts ruled that it was up to the consumer to be aware that vendors might exaggerate the virtues of their product. I’m sure the same thing is true of political speech, which is why InfoWars is still available for discerning conspiracy theorists.