Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

How stupid are these people?

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

The lights are all blinking red.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Oval Office Occupant Finds Some African-Americans to Speak Over

Open Thread: Oval Office Occupant Finds Some African-Americans to Speak Over

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Per the NYTimes, “In Criminal Justice Speech, Trump Belittles Obama’s Efforts for Black People”:

… Opening a three-day forum on criminal justice that will later feature his Democratic rivals, Mr. Trump promoted the bipartisan criminal justice overhaul he signed last year and invited to the stage several people who were released from prison as a result of the new law or his own commutation decisions.

Last year’s overhaul, the First Step Act, was an example of the power of bipartisanship, he said, praising the Republicans and Democrats who worked on it for their efforts “to restore hope and optimism where they’re really needed the most and where there was very little.”

But as his hourlong speech went on, his message of harmony gave way to his trademark partisan attacks on Democrats…

He recalled the 2016 speech in which he urged black voters to support him because “what the hell do you have to lose,” repeating the line multiple times and saying his administration had kept its promise to those voters.

And he described how his administration had helped historically black colleges and universities and suggested that voters “check out the last administration and see what they did for you.”

“Not too much,” he said…

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  2. 2.

    Bobby Thomson

    She effectively turned his PR grab into a vivid demonstration/reminder of what a racist asshole Trump is.

    I mean, he was going to do that anyway, because that’s who he is, but she brought it attention and media focus.

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    I want her as the candidate so badly. I’ll vote for any of them (except Sanders or Gabbard), but I really want her.

    ETA: I’ll vote for, contribute to, and work for any of them (except Sanders and Gabbard).

  4. 4.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Video shows the Black man who gave Dump the award hugged him, but Dump was mortified and pushed him off.

  8. 8.

    lamh36

    The group giving Trump an award is lead by a Trump appointee…so once again basically Chumo gave himself an award

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    @MattF: Benedict College like most HBCU are in a financial bind and in need to the funding that the govt provides, more so than non HBCU. And Chumo and co vindictive enough and DeVos crooked enough to hold funds from these institutions.

    Still, HBCUs are a place where the administration has found a mini-refuge. Why? Bc the schools, which are in dire financial straits, need the federal $$$, and will take a momentarily upset student body to maintain those relationships. Story w/ @MaggieAstor
    twitter.com/asteadwesley/status/1187857355205206016?s=21

  11. 11.

    pinacacci

    Who invited him, who is in the school administration, yeah they might need federal cash but is it worth your soul? Telling students to stay in their dorms? THIS IS INSANE.

    Too much reality for me today. This is just batshit insane.

  16. 16.

    Martin

    Telling you all, getting the energy behind those protesters is worth so many more votes than the however many Ohio diner independents who might pull the lever for Biden over Trump.

  18. 18.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    Anyone want to lay odds that Benedict College will soon announce an investigation into Biden?

  19. 19.

    lamh36

    I knew there was gonna be a way to totally report in this in a negative slant and first up MSNBC?

    2020 candidate Sen. Kamala Harris had refused to attend a criminal justice forum in protest of an award it was giving to Pres. Trump for criminal justice reform. But she spoke there today and explained what changed her mind.

    Next up The Hill…

    Harris reverses course, will not boycott forum at South Carolina college that honored Trump hill.cm/wXu4E3D

    Like fuqn clockwork ??

    … false narrative. @KamalaHarris did not “change her mind”–she forced the group who gave the award to withdraw due to her boycott. Fix your story & stop re-writing black women’s accomplishments. It doesn’t take #KHive to call this out.

    twitter.com/vabvox/status/1188189680107491329?s=21

    Sigh…

  20. 20.

    germy

    I kept running into black Trump supporters I met across the country at other Trump rallies, who had come into SC to give the president a friendly audience.

    People must be getting paid to crisscross the country for his rallies. Unless they’re all independently wealthy?

  24. 24.

    zhena gogolia

    @lamh36:

    You would like Jon Zal.

    MoreJon Zal Retweeted Team Kamala
    Y’all are sleepin’ on this woman and it is driving me f’n crazy. I will wholeheartedly support whoever gets the nomination, but I am telling you right now that @KamalaHarris will turn out the vote like no other candidate in this race, and that is the key to winning in 2020.

  25. 25.

    Gvg

    Seriously, I laugh every time I hear that Trump quote about all his life he has fought for fairness and opportunity for African Americans…..I mean LOL! I’d like the media to show multiple interviews of people laughing at that particular nonsense. It wouldn’t be too hard.

  26. 26.

    patrick II

    Wasn’t a criminal reform act one of the bills Mcconnell held up so Obama wouldn’t get credit?

  27. 27.

    Mary G

    When I saw that only seven students were there, I thought it was because the rest of the student body were boycotting.
    This is even worse. The students at “Liberty” University weren’t penned up in their dorms, I bet. Blatant racism. Disgusting. That’s one of the things he wants to go back to the olden days. The award was probably a quid pro quo to keep him from cutting funding. Nice college you got here, be a shame if something would happen to it.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    @Mary G:

    Nice college you got here, be a shame if something would happen to it.

    Like maybe the students boycott and go someplace else? Certainly the idea would cross my mind.

  29. 29.

    hells littlest angel

    @Gvg: For instance, Trump fought for the opportunity for Central Park Five to be executed for a crime they didn’t commit.

  31. 31.

    laura

    I want Senator Harris to be the candidate so much. I’ll start working her campaign in November, tabling at the farmer’s market, phone banking and precinct walking.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    Good for Kamala. We all need to prevent Donnie’s attempts to nomalize his behaviors and policies.

    In other news, BBC:

    Labour has said leaked government papers “confirm its worst fears” about plans to dilute workers’ rights after Brexit.

    The documents, revealed by the Financial Times, say that the drafting of commitments on workers’ rights and the environment in the Brexit deal “leaves room for interpretation”.

    Labour said it is a “blueprint” for ending “vital rights and protections”.

    But Business Minister Kwesi Kwarteng said the claims are “way exaggerated”.

    The leaked paper suggests that the government believes there is considerable scope to diverge from the EU on employment rights and other regulations after Brexit, despite its pledge to maintain a “level playing field” in Boris Johnson’s latest deal.

    In Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal, references to a level playing field – the idea that the UK and EU countries keep their rules and standards close to prevent one trying to gain a competitive advantage – were removed from the legally binding withdrawal agreement.

    Instead, they were put into the non-binding “political declaration”, which describes the potential future relationship between the UK and EU.

    According to the FT, the leaked document says the UK’s and EU’s interpretation of the “level playing field” pledge will be “very different”, and the text represents a “much more open starting point” for negotiations over a future trade deal.

    Purportedly drafted by the Brexit department, the paper appears to contradict promises by the prime minister on Wednesday that the UK is committed to the “highest possible standards” for the environment and rights at work.

    It comes as EU leaders consider their decision on a new deadline for Brexit, having agreed to an extension in principle after the UK government admitted it could not meet its 31 October deadline.

    The document will fuel fears among some in the EU that Boris Johnson is planning to shape Britain into a Singapore-style economy, with low taxes and light regulation, which could compete against Europe by potentially downgrading rights.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.) “Potentially” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there…

    This is my shocked, shocked face.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Redshift

    @trollhattan:

    “Bipartisan Justice”? WTF does that even mean?

    It means you only get as much justice as Republicans will allow you to have. If only they meant it in that mocking sense, it would actually be an appropriate award for Trump.

  35. 35.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:
    Basically it means whatever word salad rolling around in that excuse for a brain that trump has which was closest to his pie hole while he was doing his version of speaking. IOW it’s bullshit.

  37. 37.

    Mary G

    Well that’s a first (that I’ve seen anyway). RBG just got a standing ovation on the way to her seat at the National Opera.— Julian Sanchez (@normative) October 26, 2019

  38. 38.

    glory b

    Remember, the Trump organization fought the biggest housing discrimination case that HUD had brought to date.
    With Roy Cohn by his side, he dragged the litigation out much longer than necessary, even Fred Trump wanted to throw in the towel, but Donald insisted they fight it out.

  40. 40.

    glory b

    @Mary G: Humpf, she needed to have stepped down in Obama’s first term. Now, the future of the country hangs on her elderly, fraigle self. Obama could have appointed a younger, healthier justice.
    She’s not the progressive hero she’s been made out to be. She just has good PR.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: @Cheryl Rofer: I was listening to I don’t know what MSNBC show in the car the other day, and some of the usual suspects were lamenting the decline of Republicans, in this specific case I think it was Rob Portman, who said he would under no circumstances vote to remove trump. What happened? Why are they like that? And I thought; Do they really not get it? It’s all about RBG. And the lower courts of course, but replacing RBG fills both their long-term goals, and the shorter term one of owning the libs.

    A corollary: Why don’t they care about Russia and now trump actively working to undermine the elections: Because it works for them.

  43. 43.

    Josie

    @lamh36:

    This is so typical. It’s as though she doesn’t exist for the press and pundits. I think being a woman of color is a double hit. They just will not permit her to be noticed. It is infuriating.

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    John Kelly said today, basically, that trump is over his head and needs minders

    Annie Karni @ anniekarni
    PressSec responds to Kelly:
    “I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President.”

    joshtpm
    It’s really chairman kim territory`

    Matt Ford Retweeted Annie Karni
    Seeing a lot of tweets comparing this to North Korea. Those folks do it so they won’t be executed. This is worse.

  45. 45.

    lgerard

    This is the greatest statement to come out of the White House in quite some time

    Kelly’s comments come after his successor, now acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, brashly confirmed and then denied earlier this month that Trump froze nearly $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country into investigating Democrats.
    Trump weighed in Saturday on Kelly’s interview with the Washington Examiner, saying in a statement to CNN, “John Kelly never said that, he never said anything like that. If he would have said that I would have thrown him out of the office. He just wants to come back into the action like everybody else does.”
    White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham added, “I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President.”

    It is right up there with that Steven Miller classic

    “Our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”

  47. 47.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lgerard:

    Rebecca Ballhaus @ rebeccaballhaus
    John Kelly says he warned Trump before he left: “Whatever you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ someone who won’t tell you the truth — don’t do that. Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached.”

    Asha Rangappa @ AshaRangappa_
    Is anyone else tired of the self-appointed saviors of this admin, who use Trump’s incompetence as evidence how important and indispensable they are? If POTUS needs a babysitter to avoid committing high crimes and misdemeanors, it means he’s unfit to be there in the first place.

  48. 48.

    Ken

    @lgerard:

    “I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great President.”

    I could imagine anyone saying that, though in my imagination they’d have to be making air quotes around “genius”.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: The GOP operatives have been saying stuff like this for ages. Remember Rove?

    The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore.” He continued “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” – Suskind, Ron (2004-10-17). Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush. The New York Times Magazine.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    Matt

    @lamh36:

    And Chumo and co vindictive enough and DeVos crooked enough to hold funds from these institutions.

    But the university administration thinks those same vindictive crooks are going to go, “oh, THOSE blahs kissed ass that one time so we’ll spare them” when it comes time to hurt some people to get the base excited? Being that stupid should be reason enough to lose their jobs.

  59. 59.

    Nora

    The part of that article that made me almost have a coronary on the spot:

    In 2016, a decrease in black turnout in cities such as Milwaukee, Detroit and Philadelphia helped Mr. Trump win key swing states by razor-thin margins, propelling him to an Electoral College victory.

    Oh yeah, it just HAPPENED that there was a decrease in black turnout in those cities, I guess the black people just couldn’t be bothered to vote, as if this were just some interesting astronomical phenomenon that no one could have possibly affected in any way.

    The votes were SUPPRESSED, you total horses’ asses! The Republican Party went out of its way to SUPPRESS black votes in those cities to make sure Trump got those razor thin margins, and the New York Times can’t even be bothered to MENTION that.

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