Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

People are weird.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

T R E 4 5 O N

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: This’ll Make That Orange Head Explode

Open Thread: This’ll Make That Orange Head Explode

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Open Thread: This'll Make That Orange Head Explode
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – OCTOBER 29: Former U.S. President Barack Obama gives his wife Michelle a kiss as they close the Obama Foundation Summit together on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology on October 29, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. The Summit is an annual event hosted by the Obama Foundation. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

My day just got made! A one hour, primetime special on….wait for it….ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX

In an hourlong televised event airing May 16, Obama will congratulate graduating high school seniors and “reflect” on the COVID-19 pandemic. The special, titled Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020, will air on ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC at 8 p.m. EST. It will be streamed on multiple platforms, too.

Notable celebrities will also join in, including Lakers’ forward LeBron James, Malala Yousafzai, The Jonas Brothers, Yara Shahidi, Bad Bunny, Lena Waithe, Pharrell Williams, Megan Rapinoe, H.E.R., and Ben Platt. The event will be hosted by the LeBron James Family Foundation, as well as the XQ Institute and Entertainment Industry Foundation.

 

Seriously, can you imagine the temper-tantrum in the Oval office when Trump finally finds out? (I’m sure they’re doing their best to hide it from him while they hide the good china).

Graduate Together:
America Honors the Class of 2020

As coronavirus has prompted the cancellation of high school graduation ceremonies across the country, The Entertainment Industry Foundation, The LeBron James Family Foundation, XQ Institute, and a broad coalition of partners are coming together to pay tribute to millions of high school seniors, their extraordinary teachers, and their families, as we rally everyone around a message of hope and unity.

Graduate Together: America Honors the Class of 2020 will air simultaneously across ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as a broad alliance of social media and streaming platforms. The one-hour primetime special airs on Saturday, May 16, and will honor the more than 3 million high school seniors across the country.

Artists, athletes, musicians, commencement speakers, influencers, and cultural icons will show their support with performances and messages featuring students, teachers, and their families from coast to coast.

This will be a moment to come together—as one nation—to applaud this rite of passage. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the Class of 2020’s achievements.

We’ve been coping with this crisis together. Now it’s time to look ahead together. Let’s start by celebrating the graduates of the Class of 2020 and the pivotal role they will play in rethinking and reshaping the path forward.

And then an online party:

Obama will also participate in an event for HBCU institutions called Show Me Your Walk at 2 p.m. on the same day. On June 6, he will give a Dear Class of 2020 Commencement Address at 3 p.m. EST via YouTube.

https://youtu.be/rxpTjcouaeQ

Open thread

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    Zzyzx

    You know you’re old when you have no clue who half the notable celebrities are. Outside of the sports stars, these could be made up names for all I know.

  4. 4.

    zhena gogolia

    @Zzyzx:

    Lakers’ forward LeBron James, Malala Yousafzai, The Jonas Brothers, Yara Shahidi, Bad Bunny, Lena Waithe, Pharrell Williams, Megan Rapinoe, H.E.R., and Ben Platt.

    Okay, let me try. LeBron James I know and anyway he’s identified there. Yousafzai got the Nobel Prize, heroic Pakistani women’s rights advocate who was nearly killed. Jonas Brothers, inexplicably persistent pop group. Yara Shahidi I think is on Black-ish or something. Bad Bunny, no clue. Lena Waithe is a writer, director, I think. Pharrell Williams “Happy,” source for Al Yankovic’s “Tacky” is how I think of him. Megan Rapinoe plays soccer. H.E.R. no clue. Ben Platt is a Broadway star, Dear Evan Hansen. I’m old too but I read People magazine.

  6. 6.

    Jeffery

    @Zzyzx: I stop following pop culture almost 50 years ago. I find out about “Stars” and their careers when they die or do reunion tours.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    Fox, huh? What’s the Latin->Trumpish translation for “et tu, Brute?”

     

    (“No dictator has ever been treated as unfairly as me! Fake Scrolls!”)

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    My day just got made! A one hour, primetime special on….wait for it….ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX

    Oh, man. talk about tic.. tic.. tic….

    Think he’ll demand equal time when he gives a commencement talk to the combined web traffic of Liberty, Regents, Bob Jones U and Sarah Huckabee’s proud alma mater, Waxahootchie College of Embalming Arts, Confederate History and Creation Science

    ETA: @SiubhanDuinne: someone speculated yesterday that Fredo fronting a move to buy OANN is shot across Uncle Rupert’s bow. I’d love to see them go to war

  11. 11.

    Cacti

    Didn’t even see this yesterday, but I’m all smiles.

    NBC News President and MSNBC Chairman Andy Lack resigns on the heels of flogging “Tara-Reade’s” borscht-scented fabrications against Joe Biden.

    Laughing at you, Andy. Not with you.

  12. 12.

    Mikeindublin

    No doubt Fox News will be running Rev Wright and weather underground documentaries all day.

  13. 13.

    Calouste

    What are the odds that the shitgibbon is going to demand to be in there as well and make a complete ass of himself? (Ok, chances of the latter are 100%).

  14. 14.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Donnie’s mad that he doesn’t get invited to the cool parties anymore.

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    Seriously, can you imagine the temper-tantrum in the Oval office when Trump finally finds out? (I’m sure they’re doing their best to hide it from him while they hide the good china).

    Yeah, but Obama won’t be serving hamburgers, so there!

    Is Trump still speaking at the military academy, or did that get cancelled? Or already happen?

  16. 16.

    Jinchi

    Seriously, can you imagine the temper-tantrum in the Oval office when Trump finally finds out?

    Trump prefers the poorly educated, so he’ll probably counter with a special on FOX congratulating all the high school students who recently dropped out and joined right wing militias to go storm state capitol buildings across the country.

  17. 17.

    dexwood

    Any chance the Orange Plague will try to hijack the networks at that time with an important address to the nation?

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    someone speculated yesterday that Fredo fronting a move to buy OANN is shot across Uncle Rupert’s bow. I’d love to see them go to war

    Rooting for injuries and ordering all the popcorn.

  20. 20.

    Mezz

    I audibly gasped when President Obama popped up in the Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls documentary (The Last Dance — really good.) I was SO excited to see him, to hear his voice, to hear some competent communication.

    I got f***ing teary. It was 5am and I was watching it by myself.
    So obviously most of us here will be super excited. What will Trump do to sabotage it? Turn off the Internet? Cancel graduations?

  21. 21.

    Jinchi

    @dexwood: Odds are high.

    But instead of the expected coronavirus update, it will be a report that Bob Barr has found proof that Obama personally installed listening devices in Trump’s microwave.

    When asked for evidence, he’ll claim that it’s secret intelligence that he’s prohibited from revealing, just like the evidence that corona was deliberately created in a lab in Wuhan China.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    We delivered signs to the high school graduates yards and it was just so great. They were so cute- they came out and were really excited, like all out of proportion to what we did – I think the shut down has been hard for them. I love kids that age and I got all choked up. You have to bring a fire truck for extra pizazz.

    I just wish we had done a better job taking care of the country for them. We did a bad job. No dodging that, I don’t think. Handing them a big fucking mess, really.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    Ben Platt will get my class of 2020 kid squealing. That’s my report from observation of the post-millennial cohort.

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Zzyzx:

    Don’t feel bad, I don’t know who hald of these people are either and I’m young. The only names aside from LeBron James I recognize are the Jonas Brothers

  26. 26.

    Hildebrand

    H.E.R (aka Gabriella Wilson)  is a phenomenal young R&B talent – and a killer guitar player.  I love watching her performances.

  29. 29.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    Yeah, but Obama won’t be serving hamburgers, so there!

    God that shit still pisses me off over a year later. The sycophantic need to defend Trump for every little fucking thing drives me crazy. I mean, criticizing Trump over serving fast food slop to college athletes is not controversial and it’s not being elitist. It was Trump being a cheap ass during the shutdown who couldn’t go the extra mile and buy real resturant-quality burgers and fries. I’ll never understand why he couldn’t have just gotten his nearby Trump Hotel (which probably had a resturant in it) to cater the damn thing. Probably no money in it for him

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

     

    FOX? That’s … unexpected.

     

    @SiubhanDuinne:  Not at all.  Fox is owned by Disney.  Fox News is still owned by Murdoch.  Two completely separate companies at this point.

    This won’t be getting carried on Fox News for any number of reasons, lol

    Be interesting to see if Trump knows the difference.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    Gee, wonder what day and time the FCC will suddenly announce for a “test of national broadcasting emergency lockdown.”

    //

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @The Moar You Know:

    Not at all.  Fox is owned by Disney.  Fox News is still owned by Murdoch.  Two completely separate companies at this point.

    I did not know that. I think I knew it at some point and forgot, but there’s isn’t a twenty-five year-old joke about a long-dead comedian to express that.

  35. 35.

    Kent

    Very nice of Obama to step up and show us what a REAL president looks like and how a REAL president acts in times of crisis.

    The contrast helps remind us of how infinitely far from ‘normal’ we are with Trump.

    And if it reminds a few more voters who still haven’t figured it out yet so much the better.

  37. 37.

    FelonyGovt

    Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican (I think) reggaeton singer.

    Look at me! And I’m 66!

    ETA interesting to see Condoleeza Rice among the speakers.

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    Um, I know who Alicia Keys is…and the Obamas too, of course ;)

    Other than that?  I got nothin’…

     

    /didn’tthinkIwasthatold

  49. 49.

    Miss Bianca

    @Zzyzx: Right? I was thinking that myself. Thinking, “oh, I could love a band called Bad Bunny – wait, is that a band or a person?

    ETA: Person, got it!

  50. 50.

    Gravenstone

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not much of a war, one upstart US hard right cable channel versus an (unfortunately) worldwide empire of broadcast and cable networks, as well as myriad newspapers. Murdoch probably wouldn’t even deign to sniff dismissively at them before crushing OANN.

  51. 51.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Trump is already throwing a tantrum.  Some polite racists – um, moderate Republicans, aired a commercial against him.  In return, he called George Conway ‘Moonface’, which is an ethnic slur against Asians.  I was unaware that Conway was half-Fillipino, but a white supremacist like Trump pays a lot more attention to these things.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @JMG:

    Clarification:

    Now that Fox Corp. has sold off most of its entertainment properties, it has become a stand-alone company that will retain ownership of its broadcast network, owned-and-operated network affiliates, the Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network and Fox Sports.

  53. 53.

    cain

    It’s always fun watching you olds trying to figure out the guest list ;) [runs]

  55. 55.

    ET

    Twitter raging and whining are going to be EPIC.  Lots of capitalization and incoherence.

  56. 56.

    kindness

    Without thinking very hard about the Obama show, what you bet Trump schedules a ‘News Conference’ during that exact same time?

    Whocouldaknown?

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    @dmsilev: Fox and Fox News are different outfits.

    Fox gave us The Simpsons.

    Fox News gave us Trump.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    Hildebrand

    @Jeffro: Yes she was!  I love watching her play –  her ability to (seemingly) effortlessly move from guitar to piano and back is just jaw-dropping.

  65. 65.

    Gravenstone

    @Miss Bianca: Sarcasm or no, if you’ve ever heard Babymetal, you’ve heard an example of kawaii metal – typically cute (kawaii in Japanese) girls fronting typically male metal musicians.

  68. 68.

    Miss Bianca

    @Gravenstone: I *LOVE* Babymetal!! I introduced a Babymetal video to this forum one time on a music thread just to make some heads melt down – so I’m surprised I have’t heard of Ironbunny. Off to Le Google…

  70. 70.

    japa21

    Well, just fund out my oldest grandson will have an actual commencement ceremony at his private HS near Fort Lost in the Woods Missouri on the 17th of this month. We are invited. Normally we would go a day or two ahead but if we go it will be drive the 6 hours there, attend the ceremony heavily masked, go to my son’s house for a small celebration and drive the 6 hours back.   That’s if we go.

    Some other things are happening from a medical standpoint with Mrs. Japa which may impact the decision. Although she really wants to go bad and see her grandchildren.

  71. 71.

    BruceFromOhio

    Graduate Together: America Honors the Class of 2020 will air simultaneously across ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as a broad alliance of social media and streaming platforms. The one-hour primetime special airs on Saturday, May 16, and will honor the more than 3 million high school seniors across the country.

    That is absolutely fabulous! Can’t wait to see who says what!

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    MITCH DANIELS IS ALREADY AT IT WITH THE LOOK FORWARD NOT BACK CRAP AND WHERE. IS. MY. BAT???!!!!?

     

    Heretofore obscure politicians have also been handed plenty of airtime to pronounce on the pandemic. At least in the short term, they are “saving lives”; hard to be unpopular doing that. Of course, trading near-term benefits they collect for long-term costs someone else can deal with is what politicians do (#nationaldebt).

    Most industries are taking a terrible beating, but the news media are suddenly on a roll, at least in audience. All those eyeballs stuck at home, and desperate for news about the virus that is the reason. There has been a lot of smart and responsible reporting but also a ton of the other kind: anecdotal, sensationalist, alarmist. The old print maxim, “If it bleeds, it leads,” now has its modern-day update, “If it’s sick, it clicks.”

    Again, my hope is that what we’ve been doing will be fully vindicated. I want us to discover that this was the wisest course, that the ghastly price we’re paying was all worth it. But it’s the long term that matters. I can already hear the outcry claiming, “They lied to us.”

    THEY DID LIE YOU ASSHOLE

    Sweden (hey, wasn’t it just yesterday we were being lectured to admire and emulate its health-care system?) has been criticized for a high per capita coronavirus death rate after declining to shut down its entire society. But what if after a year or two Sweden’s rate is far below ours, due to the herd immunity we are postponing? What if people as thoughtful as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman have been right about protecting the most vulnerable without ruining the futures of millions?

    Let’s not reprise Iraq. How about we self-vaccinate against HRD [“hindsight recrimination syndrome”] and all agree that, whatever comes, people right now are doing their best with the information they have. If their judgments turn out to be mistaken, let’s avoid another orgy of tribal recrimination and agree that we won’t repeat the errors. Here’s a type of HRD immunity we can achieve without becoming ill ourselves.

    THEY AREN’T DOING THEIR BEST, YOU ASSHOLE.  THEY’RE CONFISCATING PPE, JARED HAS NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT HE’S DOING, AND THEY’RE ABOUT TO WRAP UP THEIR STUPID TASK FORCE.

    Oh HELLLLLLLL no

  74. 74.

    Anya

    I am so glad. Generation Z deserves a lot of praise and attention. Old cranks keeps shititng on them and calling them spoilt and constantly comparing them to the “greatest generation” or whatever, meanwhile mistaking them for my generation. I am pretty sure President Obama will be inspiring.

    The only negative thing that might come out of this is Trump will get jealous and insist to speak at the military academy.

  76. 76.

    Anya

    @dexwood: I think they can refuse to air his deranged modified rally. I vaguely remember the networks refusing to air an Obama address or am I miss remembering this?

  77. 77.

    zhena gogolia

    @Amir Khalid:

    Hmmm . . .

    Malala Yousafzai (Urdu: ملالہ یوسفزئی‎; Pashto: ملاله یوسفزۍ‎ [məˈlaːlə jusəf ˈzəj];[2] born 12 July 1997),[2][3] also known mononymously as Malala, is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.[4] She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become “the most prominent citizen” of the country.[5]

    Yousafzai was born to a Pashtun family in Mingora, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

  79. 79.

    The Moar You Know

     

    I vaguely remember the networks refusing to air an Obama address or am I miss remembering this?

    @Anya: you are not.

  82. 82.

    glory b

    @Hildebrand: She plays piano and drums too, from what I understand. She had a few Grammy nominations I believe, but they got swept by Billie Eilish (sp).

  83. 83.

    glory b

    @The Moar You Know: Yes, in his first year he wanted to give students a “Welcome back to school, study hard and do great things” address, but a bunch of Tea Party flavored parents went crazy, even though he gave all of the networks the speech in advance. The networks declined to air it.

    There was another time he asked for prime time air time for an address to the country and was declined, I don’t remember the subject.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @The Moar You Know:

    Fox is owned by Disney. Fox News is still owned by Murdoch. Two completely separate companies at this point.

    I honestly had no idea. Thanks.

  88. 88.

    HeartlandLiberal

    What would really put the icing on the cake as far as making Trump explode, would be for Obama and Michelle to invite Joe Biden to make a guest appearance and speak to the graduates. Please, oh please, oh please.

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