Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not trust women.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / President Obama Addresses The Nation: Live Townhall

Reader Interactions

236Comments

  2. 2.

    Patricia Kayden

    Jimmy Carter: "Rosalynn and I are pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation.""We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality…We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this." https://t.co/T9Pa1GovpR— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 3, 2020

  19. 19.

    Feathers

    Someone will write a dissertation on the rearranging of the bookcases for Obama’s online talks during these “unsettling times.”

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    I keep crying today.  Seeing our great president and feeling like that old song – you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

  27. 27.

    germy

    Wait.  I thought McConnell told Obama to shut his mouth?

     

    How is this happening?

  30. 30.

    cain

    Data driven solutions – ♥ Unlike the Tangelo Tyrant

    No point asking him what he thought of Obama’s speech because there are just way too much higher level english for him to understand.

  31. 31.

    Feathers

    @dmsilev: As someone fully in the Karen demographic, she is wildly unpopular. Hell, Karen probably hates other Karens for being so obvious and tacky.

  32. 32.

    germy

    @dmsilev:

    Obama just lost the Karen demographic.

    The “I’m going to walk my dog off-leash even though the rules say otherwise” demographic* is not happy with Obama’s speech.

    *Also known as the folks on my bike path.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    The thick book with the red spine to his left — that cover reminds me that I’ve seen it … Does anyone recognize it?

    (The reason I do better listening rather than watching speeches…)

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense:   I’m just burned out.  Seeing the Fox watching assholes schooling us that “it wasn’t tear gas, libtards!” just took it out of me.

  36. 36.

    cain

    MIchael’ Smith’s bookshelf looks like it’s all going to fall down at any moment.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    I want their book jackets to be searchable.  Always curious what ppl have in their homes…  these aren’t the big art and design books always foisted on us with interior design photos.

  38. 38.

    wvng

    A President speaking in complete sentences, rallying actual facts to make a coherent argument, is nearly disorienting at this point.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    Let them demonstrate what a nothing pepper spray or smoke booms are, just like ManCow showed waterboarding to be a nothing.

  41. 41.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Nothing is more Barack Obama than to use the advertising power of a speech by himself to lure people into watching a video of experts discussing how to actually fix an issue.

  43. 43.

    germy

    “There has never been a president in the White House who has been more supportive of HBCUs and their mission than President Trump” https://t.co/ooezBsHR20

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2020

    President Donald J. Trump is hereby known as the First Black President.

    We don’t want to claim Obama anymore, as he didn’t do a damn thing for the black community.

    — Errol Webber For Congress (CA-37) (@ErrolWebber) June 3, 202

    Errol, you’d better run that past your president first.  He might not be comfortable going that far with you…

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:   Yep.  Those rubber bullets (mind you, not used in Lafayette Park) — can take out an eye and do a lot of damage.  We don’t seem to be talking about those …

  48. 48.

    Martin

    @cain: Antifa is most of us. We just show up on a different schedule. The young people jumped right out in front of this, but as we’re seeing in DC, more and more people show up as the threat grows.

    Those of us who remember presidents before Obama know there’s always a little undercurrent of fascism at the federal level in this country, so we’re a little slower to jump.

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    Elegant and noncommittal living area behind Holder.  No bookshelves.  Kind of soothing, like a high end hotel lobby.

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    I love being around smart people talking.  We see it so little these days WRT the tragic administration now.

  54. 54.

    mad citizen

    @Elizabelle:  I’m trying to leave this event but seeing the different scenes is keeping me here. Your shelves comment was hilarious.

    Getting a lot of beige from Holder’s house, and he’s blending in. Maybe we all start to look like our houses over time…

  55. 55.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Elizabelle:

    What were they basing this shit on? The claims of the Park Police? Why should they automatically be believed? These assholes should be asked this to their faces: why should the Park Police be taken at their word when we saw with our own eyes tear gas being used?

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):   You saw with your own eyes?

    Hey, libtard.  That’s not the White House/Fox News official line.  There’s a memo out.  Learn up.

    They’re saying it was smoke bombs and pepper balls.  And then, that is ALL that they say.  (Speaking of the wingnuts in my personal orbit. Which are limited, I am delighted to say.)

  59. 59.

    MomSense

    @Elizabelle:

    Harris posted a scene from a demonstration.  All the protesters were lying on their stomachs while a woman read Mr. Floyd’s last words.  Momma help me.  Momma I hurt.  Everything hurts.  It breaks me thinking about the kind of suffering that brings a man to call for mom in pain and distress.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    Base policy on reality rather than stereotypes.  That would be … refreshing.

  64. 64.

    Martin

    @mad citizen: My sense with seeing a lot of people in their homes recently via Zoom that I’ve known for decades, is that interesting people have interesting homes and uninteresting people, well, don’t.

  67. 67.

    mad citizen

    Having to do hundreds on work webinars now all remotely and seeing the rise of the Chat function, I wonder if Obama has a direct route into speaking, or is he just another dude having to type something into the chat box?

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    I am liking this cool young guy.  More level-headed and humane peeps like him, please.  He’s the best speaker of the young, so far.

  74. 74.

    mad citizen

    @Martin: If by interesting you mean a lot of books and crap, that would be me–but it’s out of control.  So when I have be on video I move so the view behind me is spartan house view, or sometimes a blank wall (which I agree is the worst).  Just saying us hoarders can’t let people see our stuff, it’s too much.                      I’m working on it…

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    “Not just a liberal city but an equitable city.”  Now that’s an interesting concept to discuss.

  76. 76.

    Feathers

    @Elizabelle: I was hoping for Bo to show up, but I know Obama doesn’t pander that way. Might for one of the children’s book readings, but not here.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: Should of been on my Zoom meeting earlier. Ruby was the only thing holding that video-teleconference together. But don’t look directly at her – the cuteness, it burns!

  81. 81.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: It had better be as I’m pretty sure the image was taken from either a People’s Republic of China or North Korean propaganda poster from the 1950s or 1960s. The book in that image is Mao’s Little Red Book.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    Backwards planning.  Cool.  Has a different meaning than with our misadministration today.

  85. 85.

    cain

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Nothing is more Barack Obama than to use the advertising power of a speech by himself to lure people into watching a video of experts discussing how to actually fix an issue.

    Even smarter saying that he will be hanging around the panel – so that people will continue to watch even after he is no longer visible.

  88. 88.

    Cacti

    The funniest thing today by far was Trump going all George Costanza during the fire, and saying he was just inspecting the bunker to make sure it was safe.  LoL

    He was not cowering in it, so stop saying that!!!1!

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    Great point.   Being called “soft on crime” because discussing a comprehensive solution.

    I don’t know what jackal suggested police should recruit from the social worker ranks (or from folks drawn to that aspect of the work), but it’s a great idea, IMHO.

  92. 92.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: Nope. There are no pictures of me on the Internet. There’s a video the Army posted, but I can’t control that. There are no images of my dog, my parents, etc, etc. Nothing that could be used for facial recognition. No social media footprint. Nothing.

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah:   Got to confess, I have never watched any footage of the killing.  I guess I should.

    I would love it if cable or network TV just ran 8+ minutes of silence.  That was a long damn time.

    The calling out for his mother ….  mm mmm  mmm.

  94. 94.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    Gym Jordan was in charge of their wrestling program wasn’t he? I imagine quite a few college sports programs have systemic problems, sadly

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    @Adam L Silverman:   Pretty much for me, too.  I have a dog as my FB avatar.  Don’t put up personal photos.  Want to be under the radar, online.  Privacy, such as it is, is another privilege.

  97. 97.

    cain

    @rikyrah:

    I started tearing up just reading it here :(:( :( To reach out to your mom while your life ebbs away.. I just can’t..

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @raven: Oh, not just wrestling. Marching band, other sports. Of course it varies across the university, but despite what we think of undergraduate behavior, I can assure you that kind of systemic sexual harassment doesn’t come out of nowhere. It grew in the organization, and spread from activity to activity. Individual students just aren’t there long enough to build that kind of legacy – it gets passive approval from administrators, played down because the activity is deemed too important to the organization to sully by revealing it needs to be cleaned up. Leadership knows about it, makes passive demands that it get fixed, while making active demands that it not be disturbed too much to jeopardize the revenue stream.

    Disclaimer: I know the head of OSU pretty well, and it’s not a coincidence that this stuff started to get addressed and news coverage when he arrived. I don’t mean that to suggest he’s an extraordinary individual, just that he was an outsider that hadn’t priced in that behavior to the institution, so he was far better able to take steps that other administrators struggled to do. His administrative background didn’t involve big Div 1 sports universities, but much more academically oriented institutions where sports were very much a non-critical or even non-existent part of the institution. I think it’s fair to say he was pretty horrified with what he found, and quickly learned that for sports-dominated campuses, not that unusual.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    @cain:   It made me think of some of the accounts you hear from war, and injured and dying soldiers.

  101. 101.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Elizabelle:

    They’re saying it was smoke bombs and pepper balls.

    What a load of shit. Apparently, pepper balls are unpleasant too and have more or less the same effects as tear gas

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    I love that Brittany is a former teacher.  It is great training for so many fields.

    Maybe we should recruit cops from teachers, too.  It happens.

    Don’t let the ammosexuals overwhelm the ranks of police candidates.  Retrain:  it’s smarter to NOT have to use your weapon.  What can you do to achieve that?  What skills?  What qualities?

  108. 108.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I was thinking over the last few days how incredible it is that Black Lives Matter has been apparently mainstreamed now. The contrast between now and 2014 or 2016 is amazing. The MSM, for the moment, is pushing back against the CW pushed by the law enforcement and conservatives.

    People who have said “All Lives Matter” BS have been criticized and public figures have lost their jobs for it.

    It’s an interesting question what caused this to happen specifically. The stress of the pandemic? Trump making the situation worse? Increased cultural awareness? Progress made since 2014, such as pro-CIvil Rights DAs being elected? Hell, NASCAR issued a condemnation a few days ago of the Floyd killing. I can’t imagine this happening 10 years ago

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    Obama giving Eric Holder his props.  Rebuilt the Civil Rights Division within the Justice Department.

    Maybe Holder can return as an emeritus in 2017.  Cannot even imagine all the rebuilding, and the looting/destruction/neglect that will turn up.

  110. 110.

    Elizabelle

    Damn.  Listen to Obama.  These fools are not just going to go with their gut.  //

  111. 111.

    mad citizen

    Just noticed how Obama is using the “rule of thirds” by placing himself off center in the frame.  Wonder if he thought of that or had someone suggest it.  Also the two shelves behind his head are empty, the better for him to show up

     

    Oooops–he just used the MLK quote that was actually another person decades before.  Read about that a few weeks ago.  Arc of the moral universe…

  112. 112.

    Patricia Kayden

    Law Enforcement, don’t get mad at the citizens of the world because we would like you to stop breaking the LAW. It’s a simple equation that you should accept. It’s never going to change. The UNNECESSARY pain you inflict is just not part of the job.— Ice Cube (@icecube) June 3, 2020

  113. 113.

    Martin

    @Elizabelle: No counter space? Who the fuck parks their dildos on the kitchen counter like a stand mixer? Do people that don’t cook just repurpose the spice rack spot for dildo organization?

  115. 115.

    Martin

    @Elizabelle: Reminder that Obama’s first choice to replace Holder was Kamala Harris. Harris turned him down. She wants a bigger say. Biden knows this.

  117. 117.

    MomSense

     

    @rikyrah:  it broke me.  That was the thing that got me when I first saw the video and then to see it re-enacted today and to hear the pain in the woman’s voice as she cried out in Floyd’s words just destroyed me again.  There is something so down to the core of life and death about crying out for your mom.  And then I think of that fucking murderer cop with his hands in his damn pockets – so nonchalant about his evil.

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    @mad citizen:   Except for the waterdog figurine, Obama’s background looks real generic.  Cannot believe there would be that much shelf space without books on it …

    It’s almost too clean.  Impersonal.  But the guy who is speaking is just right.

  119. 119.

    Martin

    @MomSense: Remember, the cop knew Floyd. They both worked as bouncers at the same restaurant/club. No fucking way he didn’t know exactly who was under his knee.

  120. 120.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:   Ike.  Yes!  Under the football.  And some kind of “American Library” whatever volume of a classic work to its far left.

  125. 125.

    MomSense

    @Martin:

    If we find out that Chauvin was part of a counterfeit operation and that’s why he responded the way he did – I’m going to wish we could go back to stoning people to death.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    I listened in on a Zoom with Sherrod Brown and Ohio county chairs. Number one concern of the Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) chair from her Democrats is voting process, they’re worried about Trump and suppression or cheating. Sherrod said the focus will be early vote, early vote, early vote and he will work to “protect” vote by mail from Trump and the GOP.  He wants them to set a goal to have at least 50% of their vote banked during the 3 and a half weeks prior to the election. He said they have 1500 Biden volunteers in Ohio right now and he wanted to emphasize that in his opinion Biden is the best we could get at the top of the ticket for Ohio, in terms of downballot. He said he has a role in the Biden campaign on messaging in Ohio- what they should focus on- because he knows the state and wins here running as a progressive.

    There were then the usual complaints- not enough focus on rural counties, yard signs. Always with the yard signs :)

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Welp, as someone who’s been mocking his silence…

    “I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis writes. “The words ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.” He goes on, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

    “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis writes. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

  130. 130.

    mad citizen

    @Kay: My wife and me love the early voting.  The thing about mail voting to me is the uncertainty if my vote arrived and was counted, even though I know the chance of it not is super small.  I wish there could be a voting receipt email that shows you that your vote was counted and how you voted for each office–not just for mail voting, but in person voting as well.

  133. 133.

    Elizabelle

    re Making a case to the FOP:  Police officers are going to be safer.  They will be able to do their jobs better … less distracted by things that don’t require an armed response.

    He’s right.  You are going to have the police rank and file (or at least leadership) into any reforms and change.

    Changing culture is hard.  Sometimes the dynamics within the unions themselves are different …

  135. 135.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    “Dr. Amy Action Fan Club” yard signs are outnumbering Biden yard signs by 3 to 1, and it’s a pretty blue neighborhood. There’s one Trump/Pence sign, but it’s on the inside of the house. Pussy MAGAt.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @mad citizen:

    I love early voting too. I’m in love with the idea of banking votes. I don’t know why people leave it to the last minute! You could get hit by a bus.
    Sherrod’s nice on voting talk because he was a Sec of State so he speaks in very practical and specific terms.

  137. 137.

    jonas

    Mattis writes. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.

    …and for two of those years, I went along and enabled the treasonous bastard, and for more than a year after that stayed silent while the crimes mounted. FTFY, General.

  138. 138.

    MomSense

    @mad citizen:

    My hero Theodore Parker!  He was a bad ass abolitionist preacher and organizer.  Keep top eye open!

    Interesting tidbit is that MLK considered converting to Universalism when he was in the doctoral program at BU, but he decided that culturally the Baptist Church was the better platform for organizing in the South.

    I paid my respects at Parker’s grave in Florence, Italy many years ago.  Part of the inscription reads that he freed us from slavery and superstition.  

  140. 140.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @mad citizen:

    I know in Ohio, there’s a website maintained that has public voting records. You can look up where your absentee application/ballot is and whether it’s been received or not

  141. 141.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I know people love them so give the people what they want but they don’t matter. They really don’t. Unless it’s to make people happy and that’s reason enough, I suppose. They just don’t make a bit of difference as far as votes.

  142. 142.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  re early voting

    I don’t know why people leave it to the last minute! You could get hit by a bus.

    I know.  I always talk to people about being called out of town for a family emergency, or a job, or someone’s sick or injured.  The vote is precious.

    They’re not driving to Election Day in their Oldsmobile anymore.  Those days be gone.

    Being able to just breeze in and out of a polling place is probably a big sign of privilege.  BUT:  if there’s early satellite voting locations — you can just breeze in and out.

    I also tell them:  once you vote, the campaigns get a record of whose votes are in.  They stop calling you.  That’s huge, especially for anyone who still has a landline.

    We really just need to study what the asshole legislature in North Carolina was trying to do away with, and that’s the road map.

  149. 149.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   That’s great.  Just about a bumpersticker.  At least a poster.

    They want to steal your vote.  BANK IT.  Vote early.

  151. 151.

    Elizabelle

    @Edith:   Please tell us:  what is his full name?

    Great guy.  Got a lot of exposure today.  Someone to watch.

  153. 153.

    dmsilev

    @JPL:

    When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    Whoa.  Events are moving in Richmond.  WaPost top of the website:
    Northam to announce plans to remove Richmond’s iconic statue of Robert E. Lee
    Personally, I would trash Jefferson Davis’s first.  But good to go.

    There is going to be whining in the hot town tonight.  Wish I could be a fly on the wall at my rebel yell brother in law’s house.

    There are strengths to a governor not being allowed to immediately succeed himself.

    Making everybody wear masks in indoor spaces.   Even you patriots from the red counties.   And now:  taking down Master Robert.

  156. 156.

    Martin

    @JPL: You know, that feedback would have been much more useful 3 years ago. There were plenty of contrite Nazis in late 1945. Not so many in 1943.

    Put in less inflammatory terms: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

    Mattis spent a lot of time doing nothing. I don’t see why he deserves particular credit now that his name is forever tied to this shitshow – which he could have prevented.

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    Dang.  There’s a reason Jeff Davis might be safe for now.

    Of the series of statues along Monument [Avenue], the iconic statue of Lee is the only one under state control. Northam has said since the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 that he favors removal, but had not acted.
    This year the General Assembly passed a bill, signed into law by Northam, that gives localities the authority to decide the fates of war memorials on their own property.

    News of the pending announcement was greeted with roaring cheers among demonstrators gathered Wednesday at the foot of the statue.
    I would have guessed Lee might be the last to depart from that side of Monument.  Whoa.  Northam proposes putting it in “storage.”

    Wonder if armed yahoos will be out now, protesting their heritage.

  163. 163.

    PsiFighter37

    @jonas: I made the same point elsewhere, but TBH, we take the allies we can get now. I do hope he apologizes more fully when Trump is out of the White House, but it might not happen. From what I read, he’s not really on our side, policy-wise, to begin with. There’s a reason Obama basically sidelined him.

  164. 164.

    JPL

    James Mattis

    Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

    Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

  165. 165.

    FelonyGovt

    @Elizabelle: I voted by mail (actually, dropped my ballot off early at the library) for the first time this year in the primary, and I will never go back. I used to really enjoy the feeling of going in to vote on Election Day, but I’m now sold on getting my vote in early.

  167. 167.

    Spanky

    In Mattis’ defense, things got a lot worse after he left. In a lot of cases I think he took Trump’s orders as suggestions, and sort of forgot them.

  168. 168.

    Calouste

    @JPL: I don’t think it’s an accident that the two four stars that have made extensive statements against the shitgibbon and his “handling” of current events in the last few days have been the last former Chief of Staff appointed by a Republican, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the last former Secretary of Defense appointed by a Republican, General James Mattis.

  171. 171.

    zhena gogolia

    @JPL:

    I just subscribed to the Atlantic

    It’s an excellent statement. I’m not going to carp about it. He’s saying what needs to be said and not mincing words.

  172. 172.

    Elizabelle

    @MattF:   That’s the best one yet.  Thwack.

    Also for the yahoos watching Fox who tell us “it wasn’t tear gas.”

    Ad just went with “gas.”  And photos of police with dogs from the 1960s.

    Very strong ad.  Trump is a coward, and so are his supporters.

  173. 173.

    Feathers

    @Martin: Makes sense. In my white collar crime sociology class, we learned that if you are putting together a shady white collar outfit you recruit from fraternities, scholarship athletes, and, to a lesser extent, military. The reason is that they have experience with organizations where you have to keep your mouth shut when a “brother” is doing wrong. You not only want to recruit people without a moral compass who are in it for the cash, it is just as important to weed out anyone uncomfortable with moral compromise. You can drop hints, all deniable, and people who don’t want in will remove themselves from contention.

  174. 174.

    Kay

    @Martin:

    Mattis spent a lot of time doing nothing

    Arguably the timing is good, though, if we want to get rid of them and we do. We want one or two high profile denouncements a week until November. Think of them as anti-endorsements. There’s a momentum to these things.

  176. 176.

    Feathers

    @MattF: They need a whole one on driving the priests away from the church with tear gas so Trump could speak in front of it. My guess is that this is why we are seeing Evangelical pushback from Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen at the protests.

    That moment is a clear sign that Trump has no respect for religion or the church. I don’t think they thought he did, but they saw where they could end up if they waited for him to build more power.

    Or they are chickenshits who see which way the winds are blowing.

  179. 179.

    Elizabelle

    The NY Times’ take on the Obama presentation we just watched.

    Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on every mayor in the United States to review use-of-force policies and make progress on police reforms during his first on-camera remarks since a wave of protests and violence after the killing of George Floyd convulsed the country and upended the 2020 election.

    Mr. Obama, adopting a notably more measured and less confrontational tone than President Trump, said that the crisis was “unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime” and that it offered an opportunity to curb police violence that would prompt a political “awakening” to unite the country around racial justice and police reform.

    The former president — who is taking pains to address the crisis without upstaging Joseph R. Biden Jr., his friend and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — was appearing at a round-table event with his former attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., from Washington as part of a video town hall series sponsored by the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit group Mr. Obama founded.

    Mr. Obama echoed two online essays he posted over the last week in which he implored young protesters to channel their rage into political action turning out for Mr. Biden in November and to embrace local reforms to hold police officers accountable for abuses of power.

    “This is something that’s got to change,” Mr. Obama said, arguing the challenges of the last few weeks were the result of structural problems in the country. “They’re the result of a long history of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining and institutionalized racism that too often have been the plague of this original sin of our society.”

    He was also fielding a series of prescreened questions mediated by Mr. Holder. In recent appearances, Mr. Obama has become more forceful in his criticism of the White House, hammering President Trump’s actions without invoking his successor’s name. Mr. Obama rebuked the current administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as “chaotic” and questioned Mr. Trump’s commitment to the “rule of law” in a call with former members of his White House team last month.

    Mr. Obama’s passions are running high, and the disciplined former president is finding it harder to stay on script, friends said. Over the last few days, he has been working the phones with close associates, including Mr. Holder, venting his disgust at the White House’s response to the protests and strategizing about the best way to address the issues without inflaming the crisis or squaring off into a one-on-one fight with Mr. Trump, people close to him said.
    ======

    Stay on script?  What??  And this gem: “adopting a notably more measured and less confrontational tone.”  Say what?  That is ObamaStyle.

  181. 181.

    James E Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    They’re saying it was smoke bombs and pepper balls.

    Reminds me of the passionate clip v magazine debates that follow every mass shooting.

  182. 182.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: Since I am a subscriber I get the crossword puzzle half off.  Once that charge goes through in a few weeks, I’m done with the print access.

  183. 183.

    Patricia Kayden

    Mattis is still holding back, though. He's privately told friends that Trump's behavior is far worse than the reports & that the republic is on shaky footing. He knows so much more than he's currently divulging.— Robert Draper (@DraperRobert) June 3, 2020

  184. 184.

    Brachiator

    @Feathers:

    That moment is a clear sign that Trump has no respect for religion or the church. I don’t think they thought he did, but they saw where they could end up if they waited for him to build more power.

    Some evangelicals make the Bible a fetish object. The photo of Trump holding the Bible up is all the church and religion they need to go into a swoon. .

  185. 185.

    MattF

    @Feathers: Trump didn’t speak, in fact. Just stood there brandishing a Bible. I have no idea what goes on in Osteen’s or Robertson’s head, sounds like they were not impressed by Trump’s piety.

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    @James E Powell:   That is what I said.  It was not commented upon.

    Made me sad.  It’s exactly the same deflecting strategy.

    Although:  if they won’t work with us, maybe we should just bulldoze them.  I am way less sympathetic to the Second Amendment when you have these yahoos showing up at political protests with big guns.

    I think a lot of us don’t want to see the camo yahoos taking the legislatures hostage.  There are more of us.  First a bird refuge, and now the Michigan statehouse.  No, no, no.

  191. 191.

    Elizabelle

    @Patricia Kayden:

    [Mattis has] privately told friends that Trump’s behavior is far worse than the reports & that the republic is on shaky footing.

    I suspect a lot of elected Republicans in DC have noticed that.  And yet they do … nothing.

    A Confederacy of Cowards, too.

  196. 196.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Elizabelle: The Harbaughs are good folks. Waaaaay too Catholic for my tastes, but their hearts are in the right place. For the most part Bawlmer football fans appreciate having Jim’s big brother John coaching the flock here.

  197. 197.

    raven

    Mattis’s dissatisfaction with Trump was no secret inside the Pentagon. But after his resignation, he argued publicly—and to great criticism—that it would be inappropriate and counterproductive for a former general, and a former Cabinet official, to criticize a sitting president. Doing so, he said, would threaten the apolitical nature of the military. When I interviewed him last year on this subject, he said, “When you leave an administration over clear policy differences, you need to give the people who are still there as much opportunity as possible to defend the country. They still have the responsibility of protecting this great big experiment of ours.” He did add, however: “There is a period in which I owe my silence. It’s not eternal. It’s not going to be forever.”

  198. 198.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro:   I am going to shower and head down there with my iPhone.  And a camera too, although I suck at using it.

    I’ve been awful and not put together the post for you jackals, but I was there Saturday dusk (everything clean as a whistle) and then Sunday after the … ahem … enhancements to the monuments.

    Gonna see if we have some lunkheads walking around with guns.  Did see one couple of them on Saturday.  But only those two.

    ETA:  It’s still 90 degrees out there.

  199. 199.

    Jeffro

    @Patricia Kayden: last warning shot…shut up and limp into November, Donnie, or it all comes out.

    He won’t shut up, of course, so can I get odds on him even being president* on 11/3?  Forced resignation, impeachment and removal, stroke, ‘other’…these are not 0% possibilities.

    Also: anyone know where a guy can get some tar and a large supply of feathers?

  200. 200.

    debbie

    @MattF:

    Small quibble: Wish they had fit in, “And he did all this right after taking a phone call with Vladimir Putin.”

  201. 201.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator: I WAVES THE MAGIC BOOK AND THEIR EYES GO ALL GOOGLY!!

    trumpov, that most devout of Christians, that deeply spiritual human being…I can see why they fall for it…NOT.

  202. 202.

    bluehill

    The assemblage of DOJ paramilitary forces is a real concern. They aren’t there to keep the peace.

  205. 205.

    dmsilev

    @cain:

    Trump’s gonna ask for it so he can replace Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial with Robert E. Lee.

    No way Trump would do that. He’d be angling to replace Lincoln’s statue with one of himself.

  206. 206.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @dmsilev: No way Trump would do that. He’d be angling to replace Lincoln’s statue with one of himself.

    Considering the way the Linclon memorial is being defended I think Trump’s aids to Trump they already did that.

  207. 207.

    raven

    @Ella in New Mexico: I have a neighbor who is “on the Jesus team” and he is relentless in his pursuit of Trump. He’s also been extremely negative about Biden. . . until yesterday!

  209. 209.

    Martin

    @JPL: I read it. If he thought the President represented an existential threat to the country, Congress was more than happy to hear from him especially when there was ample evidence he was coordinating with a foreign power to get elected.

    Something about enemies foreign and domestic…

    Actions are time dependent. Calling the fire department because your house is on fire only to have them respond 2 days later and defend their actions as ‘we showed up, didn’t we?’ simply doesn’t fly. Generals of all people should understand this.

  210. 210.

    Mike in NC

    So Mattis finally speaks up. Where are Tillerson, McMaster, Bolton and all the other bozos who cast in their lot with Fat Bastard?

  214. 214.

    JPL

    Click on nytimes.com and washingtonpost.com and look at the placement of the Mattis news.    It’s stunning.

  215. 215.

    piratedan

    something I’ve pondered for a bit here… while many of our political opponents are odious low cunning dirtbags, not all of them are, as we collectively witness the opportunistic response of how quickly certain rogue elements sortied and tried to hijack these local civic protests to try and cast them as reckless looters at each opportunity.  It made me wonder/speculate that there some extremely savvy in the shadows string pullers out there… is that evidence of Putin still doing what he can to support his puppet?

  216. 216.

    Sloane Ranger

    Nice to listen to a US President who can talk on whole sentences and develop a logical argument. I’d almost forgotten they existed. Was that fat book with the red jacket one of the later Harry Potter’s? It reminded me of them.

    I confess my eyes were drawn to the vase of flowers on the middle shelf to Obama’s right (our left). It seems an odd place to put them, they look crowded with the flowers brushing the against the shelf above.

    Mattis – better late than never. Must see the way the wine’s blowing. CNN seems to think his intervention will have an affect on the troops around the White House making them more likely to question dodgy orders.

  217. 217.

    Jeffro

    People…I get that Mattis is several days late and several dollars short here…I’m not defending him…

    …but c’mon, this is unprecedented.  And appreciated.

    trumpov is not invincible, and every straw that’s placed on the orange ‘camel’s back helps.

  218. 218.

    geg6

    @mad citizen:

    First year of no excuse absentee voting here in PA this year.  My John and I both got email confirmations when they were received.  You can also check on the PA Secretary of State website.  Don’t know where you live, but I assumed other states that did mail in voting did the same.  Guess not.

  219. 219.

    Kay

    @Mike in NC:

    Where are Tillerson, McMaster, Bolton and all the other bozos who cast in their lot with Fat Bastard?

    I don’t know but since they waited this long I hope they do one July, one August and one September. Then Mattis can come back in October and release the rest of what he knows.

  222. 222.

    Brachiator

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    For those who that think all “Evangelicals” are right-wing grifting kooks who lay hands on the putrid corpse of Donald Trump like he’s the Holy Grail

    Not all. Just most of them. Good to see any exceptions.

  223. 223.

    Martin

    Worth noting that in the GOP heart of Orange County, virtually all Trump 2020 signs have vanished. They were up 2 weeks ago, and they have steadily been coming down.

    Not going to attribute that to any change in voting practice, but I’ll put it on the spectrum of ‘don’t want be embarrassed’ to ‘what if black people come to our neighborhood’. They are extremely reliable GOP voters, but they are also of the kind to at least claim to read George Will, not listen to Tucker Carlson. Their privilege largely comes from their relationships, and I can tell you, those relationships are getting strained bigly right now.

  224. 224.

    Jeffro

    @JPL: Just saw the WaPo headline and agree.

    Mattis is late, but he’s setting a marker here: use of the military like this is completely unacceptable.  It’s what finally got him to speak out.  And if trumpov can’t use the military to abuse peaceful protestors and project ‘toughness’…well, then it’s up to him to call up his ‘very fine people’.  As dangerous as that is, it will only cost him support (of multiple kinds).

    Limp along until November if you want to, Donnie, but you’re done.

  225. 225.

    Calouste

    @Martin: Mattis probably knew that there was no way the Senate was going to impeach (as was shown earlier this year), so whatever he would have said wouldn’t have much effect. It has a lot more effect now.

  226. 226.

    Jeffro

    @Martin: Exactly.  He’s completely and utterly stuck to his ‘very fine people’ and nothing else (well, except failure in the face of a pandemic and epic economic collapse, that is).

    Five. More. Months, GOP.

  227. 227.

    Miss Bianca

    @MomSense: I’m not that old school – just having someone kneel on his neck and choke him to death would be fine with me. Eye for an eye.

    Yes, I am feeling bloody-minded these days.

  231. 231.

    Scott Alloway

    @rikyrah: His pleas were so painful, so devastating, so hard to digest. I cannot think of his pain without cringing. The suffering he experienced cannot be put to rest by mere convictions of the guilty. It must be expunged by the removal and shunning of those who fail to rebuke the racism, sexism, class disparities that are tearing society apart.

  233. 233.

    Barbara

    @Elizabelle: Not all statues or property on which they sit are owned by the state. Probably going after those that the state controls.

  234. 234.

    kmeyerthelurker

    @jonas: I hear you.  But now is not the time to be turning away potential allies.  I welcome any & all, including late converts, at this point.

  235. 235.

    Inspectrix

    I liked this from Obama’s remarks at the end and excuse any of my transcription errors:
    we all have a role to play
    we all play a part.
    the more specific, practical we are in the short term,
    as well as visionary in the long term
    the better we are going to be

    @ELizabelle: I live in a liberal, but not equitable city so that really resonated with me.

    I thought the moderator Brittany Packnett Cunningham was fantastic.
    Organizations mentioned:
    8cantwait.org and joincampainzero.org
    colorofchange.org

  236. 236.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Elizabelle: Trashing the Jefferson Davis statue would be the politically easy choice. Nobody but the most hardcore Confederate apologists likes Jefferson Davis. Going after the one of Lee is far more powerful symbolism because that’s the one that will get the most pushback.

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