Stephen Miller is writing Trump's speech on racism? This is actually good news. Finally, before talking about something, Trump is going to consult a subject matter expert.
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) June 9, 2020
Good news: Somebody managed to talk the Squatter-in-Chief out of his Big Speech on Race. Possibly on the grounds that the lamestream Media would fail to present it properly (running a split screen of protestors willfully throwing themselves in front of police batons, or failing to insert the requisite applause loops after every big moment).
As a consolation, it’s been announced he gets to Resume His Ever-Popular Rallies. Starting with one on June 19th, Juneteenth, in the city known for the Greenwood Massacre, “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.”
On Juneteenth, Trump's going to hold a rally in a city that is the site of probably the largest incidence of white-on-black racist violence since the end of slavery. At a time when he's defending racist policing and, uh, the Confederacy. So that's neat. https://t.co/6GV8Ct6D0W
— Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) June 10, 2020
Reagan in Philadelphia Mississippi=Trump in Tulsa on Jeneteenth https://t.co/7C4fBQtMi7
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) June 10, 2020
Some will no doubt argue that not one white person in a thousand has the vaguest idea of the meaning behind Juneteenth, but we can be sure that whoever chose the date (*cough* Steven Miller *cough*) knew exactly how offensive it would be — as will that loyal portion of Trump’s Base that constitutes the ‘very fine people’ who show up at Klan rallies.
In the NYTimes, Annie Karni:
President Trump will return to the campaign trail on June 19 with a rally in Tulsa, Okla., for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced most of the country into quarantine three months ago, a campaign official said Wednesday, as polls show former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. establishing a significant national lead over Mr. Trump and the president’s approval ratings plummeting.
Oklahoma, a deep-red state Mr. Trump won four years ago by 36 percentage points, began lifting restrictions on businesses on April 24 and moved into Phase 3 of its reopening on June 1, allowing summer camps to open and workplaces to return with full staffing levels.
Trump campaign officials are unlikely to put into place any social distancing measures for rally attendees, or require them to wear masks, people familiar with the decision-making process said, adding that it would be unnecessary because the state is so far along in its reopening.
Mr. Trump has also made it clear he doesn’t want to speak in front of gatherings that look empty because of social distancing, or to look out on a sea of covered faces as he tries to project a positive message about the country returning to normal life and the economy roaring back, even as his top health advisers have warned the pandemic is far from over. “Oh my goodness,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, said Tuesday. “Where is it going to end? We’re still at the beginning of it.”
Campaign officials said they were considering some modest attempts at reducing risk by providing hand sanitizer on site, but said no final decisions had been made about how to safely bring together a large group of people…
Mr. Trump will return to the campaign trail on Juneteenth, an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States and celebrated as African-Americans’ Independence Day. After weeks of protests over the killing of George Floyd in police custody, protests and marches are already planned this year for the holiday in many states…
In March, as the country began to shut down to help stop the spread of the virus, Mr. Trump reluctantly canceled campaign rallies planned for Colorado, Nevada and Wisconsin, and he has not been out for an official campaign event since then.
Instead, for weeks, he tried to use the White House briefing room as a rally stand-in, holding 90-minute news conferences where he aimed to rebrand himself as a “wartime president.” But those efforts quickly devolved into fights with reporters as the president made stunningly inaccurate claims, including a suggestion that injecting disinfectant into the human body could help combat the coronavirus.
In response, his poll numbers have dipped and his aides have warned him that his behavior is hurting him with many critical voting blocs, like older people and women…
Republicans in Washington say that it has become increasingly clear to them that Mr. Trump cannot win the election from behind the Resolute Desk and that they are hoping the return to the campaign trail will offer the president a familiar and beloved outlet that will energize him.
But for years now, Mr. Trump’s rallies have not shocked, awed and driven news cycles the way they did during the 2016 election, when he was an unknown political entity…
People who can remember back to January 2019 might recall that Stephen Miller was behind Trump's primetime address during the government shutdown, which was also supposed to be unifying. (It…did not unify.)
— Dara Lind (@DLind) June 9, 2020
Tulsa on Juneteenth. Has Miller's fingerprints all over it.
— MLG (@N0t0ri0usMLG) June 10, 2020
In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests he's doing a tour of the confederacy with a detour to stand on stage with Joe Arpaio.
Subtle. https://t.co/fef3eMvqIV
— Viridian Forest Autonomous Zone (@weedlewobble) June 10, 2020
last four years in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/XAwpq957xI
— Josh Fruhlinger (@jfruh) June 11, 2020
I suspect many other Repub governors quietly told the White House they didn’t want any large gatherings in their state. https://t.co/fWGbs6G18B
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) June 10, 2020
jeffreyw
Fuck Trump
schrodingers_cat
Some horrible new executive orders on immigration are on the way.
Jeffro
I’m seeing increasing numbers of articles about how we are re-opening too soon, how we’re not even through the first wave, etc etc. GOOD.
This thing is nowhere near over, unfortunately. We are going to keep limping along (or worse) until the new administration takes power and gets this country…well, 73% of it, anyway…organized and focused on attacking this virus in a smart, systematic, scientific way.
Speaking of the next administration, I see the Biden campaign is out front of trumpov’s “rigged election” BS by flat-out saying the military will remove the little orange man if he refuses to leave. That’s. Awesome! Go Uncle Joe!
Baud
Biden should go to Appomattox.
@Jeffro:
Nice.
MattF
Plan A (A speech! On racism!) was such an obviously a bad idea that even the Trumpites recoiled. So, Plan B is to put Trump’s utter, pathological lack of empathy on public display. Again. Good one! I’m for it!
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Yes. I have been getting advance warning and rumors about them through work.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: link to Biden’s statement here
MattF
@Jeffro: I’m sure they’ve gamed it out. The strategy at this point is to say clearly ‘We’ve thought about this. We have a strategy to deal with it’.
Barbara
Arizona and North Carolina have an escalating, not a declining, problem with the pandemic. Arizona in particular seems to be looking at hospital capacity issues.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
A drinking game:
Take a shot of really cheap plastic bottle whiskey every time he says the words incredible, tremendous, really, very, dominate and unbelievable. “People say” (or variations of it, like “many are saying/telling me”) get two shots. The use of “sir” gets three shots”.
If he says “nobody has done more for the coloreds than me”, drink the entire bottle and pass out.
Mary G
I believe this is going to backfire on him. Plenty of people who’d never heard of the Tulsa massacre saw Watchmen on HBO.
Also the best sellers on FTFNYT nonfiction today:
Nonfiction
WHITE FRAGILITY
by Robin DiAngelo
SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE
by Ijeoma Oluo
HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST
by Ibram X. Kendi
Read Review
ME AND WHITE SUPREMACY
by Layla F. Saad
THE NEW JIM CROW
by Michelle Alexander
White people are trying to learn.
The Moar You Know
No, that’s terrible news. I have a running bet with a coworker, I think he can get his approval down to under 35% by Election Day.
@jeffreyw: If you’re going to hit every thread with this as the first post, I am 100% in support.
Kay
Incumbents are hard to beat and Trump has purchased a lot of loyalty with the tax cuts, gutting of environmental regs and far Right judges. That’s not even counting the astronomic levels of corruption they’re all personally financially benefiting from and the huge grifter operation – the pundits, the authors, etc. Billions and billions and billions of dollars are at stake. They’ll do anything to retain power.
Baud
@MattF:
Part of me hopes to see Trump being thrown out of the White House. Bad for the country, but it would be enjoyable to watch.
germy
I wonder how many confederate flags will wave at these rallies?
Kay
@Jeffro:
My husband believes this too. He thinks it’s naive to think people who only follow the laws they like will follow election procedure, including voluntarily leaving if they’re defeated.
I don’t know why they would start following laws either, honestly.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
“Sure, he’s an authoritarian with definite dictatorial impulses, but look at what he’s done to appoint judges, sign tax cuts and rescind environmental regulations”.
– “Smart” Trump-Supporting Conservatives and Libertarians
MattF
@The Moar You Know: The Trump approval/disapproval numbers at 538 are continuing on-trend, only a percent or two away from their recent highs and lows.
https://fivethirtyeight.com
germy
Baud
@germy:
It’s what they did the last election.
Citizen_X
Wouldn’t North Carolina just say, “No, you can’t have your Klan rally here?” The other states mentioned, sure.
Sab
@Mary G: I was just thinking that, that publicizing some historical context for Juneteenth could be a really good idea.
lee
That might be true elsewhere but in Texas it is taught in multiple classes in multiple grades. I’d guess for natives it is close to 80% know the significance.
The weird thing is why is it that we picked when the news reached Texas as the day to celebrate.
As a Texan I’m not opposed to it, I’ve always thought it was just weird.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Wonder if, once Biden is sworn in, Trump will be arrested by the FBI. Mueller said he would absolutely be indicted were he not president.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s so, so much money at stake. We haven’t seen anything yet compared to what we see as they try to retain power. The gutting of environmental and consumer and workplace safety regs were all done by executive order or administrative rule too, so Trump leaves they all lose the lawless free for all they operate within under him.
The Trump Administration set aside huge stores of ammunition in DC to shoot protesters. We’ll be lucky if we get out of this without state v citizen violence.
Buckle up. It’s going to be uglier than we can even imagine now.
Snarki, child of Loki
“Mr. Trump has also made it clear he doesn’t want to speak in front of gatherings that look empty because of social distancing, or to look out on a sea of covered faces”
Just inject all the Trump rally-goes with bleach on their way into the venue, problem solved!.
(will prove their loyalty to God-Emperor Trump, also, too)
Barbara
@Mary G: I doubt if it will backfire in any rational sense. Basically, Trump feeds on chaos and conflict and anything he does that gets people talking loudly about him is perceived as a victory. Indeed, the more distraught they are the happier he is. Do not underestimate his instinct for turning chaos to his advantage. I have no doubt that in the next few days he will be using the protests as an argument for letting him have rallies in places like Pennsylvania.
I don’t mean to sound jaded or cynical or uninterested in the titles you posted. It’s not that at all. It’s that I think it futile to think that they serve as a meaningful counterweight for those who support Trump. If they cared about any of those things they wouldn’t support him in the first place.
My take is that Trump going to Oklahoma is like some has been band getting a gig at the local high school auditorium. It’s a sign of how far things have fallen with him in charge.
ETA: Hence, all of his pronouncements regarding protesters. He is just dying for them to use violence so he can unleash true mayhem. He WANTS violence. Same with Cotton. They see it as an opportunity. So far, it appears that most protesters actually understand this.
germy
MattF
@germy: Funny how the Romans were just heads on shelves.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Because the people who enforce these particular laws don’t give a shit what Trump says. Blue states are going to hold their elections. Purple states are going to hold their elections because the system has enough inertia only a united government could stop it. Red states are not going to sit this out and watch only Democrats sent to Congress and the EC. When Trump declares the election illegitimate the Secret Service will still switch loyalty to Biden come Inauguration Day and carry him out of the White House. The military has already told him they won’t break the constitution for him. Roberts and McConnell, the two most actually powerful Republicans, know that only loyalty to the system has kept California, New York, and probably some other states in the Union. If they break that, they have no ash heap to rule. The election will happen and Trump’s sore loser tantrums are moot.
low-tech cyclist
Trump having a rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth? I think that even puts Reagan’s starting his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, MS in the shade.
Whatever one’s worst expectations are for Trump, count on him to find a way to be even worse.
He makes motherfucking Nixon look like a normal, mainstream President by comparison. And I remember most of the bad shit Nixon did.
Patricia Kayden
Disturbing.
Mallard Filmore
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
When a company is merged into another company, it usually takes 3 months for layoffs to start. I expect something similar here.
It will take weeks or months to hire the prosecutors, collect the documents and evidence, and get the paperwork going.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
I thought Mueller been had done that.
different-church-lady
Trump’s got a little problem: the only stunts he has left that will energize his base are going to energize his opposition just as much, if not more.
Jinchi
Coronavirus cases in Florida are surging right now. Let’s hope Jacksonville in August doesn’t look like NYC in April.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
I have a fantasy of a disgruntled sound man at a Mini-Nurmberg rally splicing in the soundtrack of an actual Nurmberg rally, a section towards the end as Hitler is winding it up and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. The idea of the reactions to a long volley of “Sieg Heil” among the Trumpers is fun to imagine. Would some join in? I don’t put it past some of these clods
An old, crazed starets can dream, can’t he?
Kay
I still think he’s horrible and weak for going along with it, but I do appreciate the apology. The standard is really low. An apology rockets you right to the top, ethically, in the Trump Administration.
The rest of them are worse.
I also think we need more information on what they were planning with that massive military build up in DC. I want to know how far they all went following Dear Leader before someone pulled back. I think the public needs to know that, to protect themselves.
low-tech cyclist
Reminds me of this Doonesbury from early 1974, which has Nixon speaking in Fritters, Alabama.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
If the country can take what Trump has already done to it, I think it can survive seeing him forcibly removed.
Patricia Kayden
kindness
I find it repulsive that the Vichy NY Times take on it doesn’t mention the massacre in Tulsa or the racism for picking that date to hold the rally. God damn they are all in on Republican/fascist rule.
Barbara
@low-tech cyclist: I remember that! Well, barely, but I do remember reading that at the time.
Mallard Filmore
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
OK. One month. It will still take time to put senior people in charge and staff up the departments.
As far as I am concerned, it should only take a week to send Trump to The Hague for baby snatching.
Kay
I know it’s hard to rank Trump appointees because the quality is so low overall, but he seems especially bad. A smarmy, weasel-y liar. Slick. His career needs to end. He lies. He can’t be trusted anymore.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Oh, I would love that so much.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
@Mallard Filmore: Okaaaay…I suppose a month isn’t that bad. Can I at least have ice cream while I wait?
germy
artem1s
@Baud:
I think it would be immensely good for the country to see that upward failing privileged asshole get dragged across the Sun King’s rug in the Oval Office, down the front steps and dispatched out the front gate like the bum he is. The David Brooks of the world would benefit immensely from knowing that ‘yes’ this can happen to them too. That the free ride is over and no one gets to pull a Ken Lay and declare themselves ‘not responsible’ for the messes they created.
It wasn’t a mistake impeaching Nixon, but letting Ford get away with pardoning him WAS. The part that was bad for the country last time we had to eject an unqualified thief from the WH was not following thru and holding him and his cronies accountable. All because the couch fainter’s thought the country couldn’t handle it. /FFS
germy
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Barbara:
My take is that Trump going to Oklahoma is like some has been band getting a gig at the local high school auditorium. It’s a sign of how far things have fallen with him in charge.
Like RATT being on that GEICO commercial (which is one of my favorites – love the expressions on the woman’s face).
Omnes Omnibus
@Krope, the Formerly Dope: Did you eat your Brussels sprouts?
Mike in NC
Just a couple of observations before I head out for an eye exam:
(1) Fat Bastard is so delusional that he thinks the economy is going to come “bouncing back” to normal in just a couple of months to save his bloated sorry ass, when any actual economist will tell you it will take a year or two to recover if we’re that lucky.
(2) Forty years ago I drove cross country to change duty stations and spent a night in a squalid motel outside of Oklahoma City. There was a fight with beer bottles taking place in the parking lot. I was so creeped out I actually wedged a chair against the door when I tried to go to sleep. I never saw a bigger shithole. Look at the fuckers those people send to DC.
Brachiator
Trump clearly doesn’t care and Steven Miller is probably beside himself with unsavory delight.
Didn’t Reagan once begin his campaign at some city with a notorious racist past?
Not to be outdone, the Trump team said, “hold my Klan robe.”
These people are just amazing, and not in a good way.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
And that was only 16 years after the crimes. Lots of the perpetrators were still alive.
A modern equivalent would be building a radical madrassa at the site of the WTC in 2017
BruceFromOhio
A racist superspreader event during a pandemic, in the face of global protest against racism. It’s like a stupid fascist trifecta.
SFAW
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Although I would love to see that, and the follow-on, the Murderer-in-Chief will never see the inside (as a “guest”) of any jail/penitentiary/correctional facility. Unless the prosecution is able to eliminate a particular 35-40 percent of the jury pool, there will always be some number of Shitgibbonistas who will vote to acquit.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Point being that all our cherished republican “never trumpers” see trump as a stain on their wonderful, grand old party.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
No, after the ice cream. I always save the best for last.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Plan C; hold a campaign rally on the site and anniversary of a notorious race right that’s almost sure to allow his racist supporters to let their freak flag fly while sickening and killing many of them. I think Trump is doing a triple on the wrong thing at the wrong moment.
Kay
We’re all going to get another huge helping of gaslighting as the entire Trump Administration now works as hard as they can to pretend Covid no longer exists while 100k more die.
It’s exhausting, the lying. It’s tiring trying to remain in reality in the face of the constant lies. Like trying to stand upright in a gale force wind. You start to understand why people go along with it in authoritarian states. It’s easier.
randy khan
@MattF:
The long-term chart shows that his approval and disapproval gyrate a bit, but he’s been on a steady downward path since the brief “rally around the flag” period at the end of March. He’s now only a couple of points off his high disapproval (although he’s further away from his low approval number).
What we don’t know is if this is a real trend that will stick, but if you’re on Team Trump, it’s got to be worrisome.
Jinchi
Don’t forget to add: ‘..big, tough guys and they were crying’
And the classic: ‘Believe me’
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: Ten days after the event, when it’s crystal-clear to everyone which way the wind is blowing, he realizes it looked really bad and he says some words. Big fucking deal. That and $2.75 will get him a ride on the subway.
randy khan
@Mallard Filmore:
I don’t disagree about the likely timing (and of course indicting a former President will require approval by at least the Attorney General), but my guess is that there are plenty of career assistant U.S. attorneys who will be ready to go on Day 1, so there wouldn’t be any need to wait to hire prosecutors.
MattF
@germy: Not Rubin:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
New prediction, in order to distract the press from the upcoming New Greenswood massacre Trump will order a nuclear attack on Yellowstone National park to show Trump is tough of volcanoes.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Apparently noble General Mattis doesn’t like Milley because he is fat. Has Mattis seen the man he worked for?
tokyokie
As someone who was born and raised in Northeast Oklahoma, I wonder whether der Trumpenführer is doing this to call attention to Northeast Oklahoma’s racist past, especially during the 1920s, as a way of providing publicity for the forthcoming Martin Scorsese movie. The horrifying truth is that the Greenwood Pogrom wasn’t even the worst racial atrocity in the Tulsa area during the 1920s, it was the Osage Reign of Terror.
When Oklahoma was opened to white settlement, an area’s settlers tended to be from the adjoining state: Republican farmers around Enid, Texans along the Red River, and Arkansas crackers in the hills in the eastern part of the state. Tulsa prospered for a while, largely because the nation’s second-largest inland pool of oil happened to be in Osage County on Tulsa County’s northern border, but it failed to diversify its economy, and as the energy industry consolidated in Houston, Tulsa’s economy stagnated for years. The smart young people left, and a whole lot of goobers were left behind.
Tulsa also has one of the country’s most notoriously racist police forces. So things could become especially ugly.
randy khan
@SFAW:
Indict him in the Southern District of New York (aka Manhattan) or DC.
Problem solved.
Barbara
@Kay: It still hard for me to grasp how stupid they must be to clear Lafayette Square like that. I realize that Ivanka and Hope Hicks (the two underbus-ees) are vapid and devoid of deep understanding about anything, nonetheless, anyone who has been in Washington D.C. for more than two months, whether it’s Bill Barr or someone else, would have to requisite knowledge to say “no, no, this is what people do in Lafayette Square. It’s what it’s there for!”
Bill Barr has worked probably not more than 8 blocks away, and often much closer, for his whole damned career.
Jinchi
Ford got away with that? Seems like he was a lame duck president for two years until voters could kick him to the curb.
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: Was there ever any doubt?
Mallard Filmore
@MattF: I don’t want the Republican party to suffer a humiliating defeat this November, I want 2020 to be the last year the GOP has a voice in USA politics.
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: I lived in the MD suburbs of DC during Dubya’s time and there were always protesters outside the WH. Always. It used to surprise any overseas visitors we had. Can’t believe that I am actually looking at those times nostalgically. How far to the bottom has the Tangerine T dragged us.
Jinchi
And then gets you fired.
Baud
@artem1s: I hear you, but I think I’d prefer that he leave the White House without drama. Not that it is likely…
sphouch
Anybody planning on touching on POTUS bragging about how easy it was for the S.S. to handle protesters? https://twitter.com/AngrierWHStaff/status/1271075723839778817
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Career military expect civilians to be fat.
randy khan
@Baud:
If he gets crushed in November (my fervent wish), my money is still on him slinking off to Mar-a-Lago sometime before Inauguration Day and not returning as the most likely outcome.
Jinchi
Ah, an optimist! Here’s hoping your words are prophetic.
Jeffro
Exactly. He riles up his base, and he riles up ours even more. @different-church-lady:
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
This rant about Nascar banning the Confederate flag is a thing of beauty.
Stay with it for at least a minute. Beauty, I tell you.
Belafon
Lady Antebellum is changing their name to Lady A.
https://twitter.com/ladyantebellum/status/1271094931227119620?fireglass_rsn=true
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
“that I just learned about and suddenly care deeply about”
LOL.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: And I expect generals not to fall for pretty girls peddling snake oil or enable despotic Orange tyrants.
ETA: Especially those who are held up as examples of astute judgement and moral rectitude.
A Ghost to Most
@Belafon: Where the A stands for Asshole.
Eunicecycle
@artem1s: Are you talking about Nixon? Because a lot of his enablers did go to prison. If you are talking about Bush Jr., well yeah….
Dorothy A. Winsor
Trump does know that the crowd at his rally won’t all be tested like anyone who comes near him now is, right? Maybe he’s planning on a sneeze guard between him and the attendees.
feebog
@lee:
Because Texas was the last slave state to receive notice of the proclamation.
@lee:
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: They have been there since the 80s! People basically live there. Most days it’s not crowded with protesters, but that’s where you go when you protest. It’s where the stage was for the protests of incarceration of children at the border. The super large protests are in front of the Capitol, but the medium and small ones are placed depending on which branch you are protesting.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Have you ever seen Trump mingle with his supporters? He hates his supporters.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud:
Gotta agree with him on that one.
Barbara
@randy khan: Mine too. Sixty days of uninterrupted golfing. I honestly don’t think he cares enough about other people or policy goals to engage in damage control. The psychic cost would be too high.
Just One More Canuck
@low-tech cyclist:
The series for the whole week is amazingly relevant today
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Not that I approve of the Tangerine T at all, but have you seen his supporters?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@schrodingers_cat:
True, but he hates them for difference reasons than we hate them.
schrodingers_cat
What is a group of Karens called?
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Well, only one of those expectations is based on observable evidence. I don’t expect generals to be particularly good at anything outside of their field.
CaseyL
T* and the GOP have completed their transformation into the Neo-Confederate Party. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear T* say something about issuing an Executive Order repealing the 13th-15th Amendments. (“Can do he do that?” “Who’s going to stop him?”)
Covid-19 superspreader event in Tulsa OK, check.
Covid-19 superspreader event in Jacksonville FL, check.
If T* and his CREEPsters want to sicken and kill off their supporters months before Election Day, that’s fine with me.
SFAW
@randy khan:
OK. Thanks for pointing out the flaw in my logic. I feel better now.
Although I bet that even in NYC/DC, the defense could find some RWMF who will acquit, no matter the evidence. But then again, what high-end lawyer will take the case pro bono (since the Deadbeat-in-Chief never pays his bills)?
Jinchi
A good sign for anyone rooting for Harris or Warren as VP:
Or… maybe not?
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I like the line in his bio: “you’re here because you thought that video was real.”
Belafon
@Jinchi: Why wouldn’t that also be Harris or Warren? I’d argue that neither of them would really care if they’re comfortable or not.
FelonyGovt
From @top: Republicans “are hoping the return to the campaign trail will offer the president a familiar and beloved outlet that will energize him”.
Amazing how they treat him- publicly- like an understimulated three year old who needs a trip to a theme park.
germy
@FelonyGovt:
Like an understimulated three year old who can pass all the laws they want.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Why not? I don’t see either Harris or Warren having a problem performing that function.
misterpuff
Hey Trumpie. Bring the Jubilee!
misterpuff
@Mary G: It’d be a good time for the Medi-ah to recount the Tulsa Massacre. Pogrom.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Fuck Trump = the new Blecch. IOW a day ending in “y.”
trollhattan
@randy khan:
Important to remember that Trump does nothing and it’s his minions who do the damage. Whether he’s physically at the WH or Timbuktu, the looting will reach new heights between November and January. It will be a very dangerous time.
cmorenc
@jeffreyw:
I presume you meant to add “with a rusty chainsaw”, rather than in the Biblical sense.
Kay
@Barbara:
I think he was excited about his new role as fake general. Inspecting the troops. Bringing in his own troops from the prison guard ranks.
One of the never Trumper’s called Barr’s secret police “slovenly and menacing”. I lol’ed.
cmorenc
@SFAW:
I KNOW, I KNOW, CALL ON MEEE!
Alan Dershowitz.
Frankensteinbeck
@randy khan:
Tough one. He’s going to want so much pathetically, mind-bogglingly petty revenge, and he’s going to want so many records destroyed. He’s heavily committed to both. But he’s also lazy as shit and whiny and miserable. I’m leaning to ‘destroy records’ winning out, but you present a real possibility.
James E Powell
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I read the comments. Almost nobody realized he is a comedian and that it is a parody. Poe’s Law.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You are absolutely on point.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Why not booth? Trump’s slinks off to a resort, claims Pence is President during “the Antifa Crises” and then order his minions to destroy records and refuse to turn over their offices to the new administration. Presumably one two of the Trump admin are dumb enough to go to jail as a loyalty test to The Donald in Chief.
Ksmiami
@Mallard Filmore: ding ding ding. The GOP must be obliterated
LuciaMia
I wonder if, God help us all, if they somehow think this is addressing racism in a somehow positive way. Being at Tulsa, he can crow about how far we’ve come. (Instead of killing large amounts of black people we’re down to one at a time.)
And the Juneteenth date ? I can see Trump bragging on the lines of ‘We stopped slavery. What a country.!’ (If you hadnt enslaved people to begin with…)
Amir Khalid
@Jinchi:
It’s obviously a good sign that Biden neither needs nor wants a yes-woman. It shows he has the strength to take criticism and learn — drawing a clear contrast with the incumbent Scheißgibbon.
artem1s
@Jinchi:
He was never elected to the VP or Presidency. He was
rewardedappointed to lead the cover up of Nixon’s crimes and CABAL of conspirators who would go on to commit the same shit over and over again. I have no doubt that there were strings attached to his VP nomination. So what if he was a lame duck, one term President? He had one job to do and he did it and was rewarded with a fine, comfortable life. Even if he was never the most popular guy in the GOP, he still had membership to the insiders club for life. He should have paid a much higher price than getting to live high on the hog and play golf for the rest of his life.jimmiraybob
Everyone will be breathing and shouting in his direction at the rallies in the presumable enclosed space. A cloud of tiny tiny MAGA droplets. I hope the Secret Service will be wearing masks.
jimmiraybob
@Jinchi:
A good sign for anyone rooting for Harris or Warren as VP:
Does anybody know if Susan Rice might be in the running?
LuciaMia
On Inauguration Day ,its the tradition for the old Prez to welcome the incoming Prez to the WH. Can perfectly believe Trump being so petty as refusing to meet Biden.
gwangung
@Jinchi: Harris might fill that bill…particularly if he admits he was wrong on segregation. That would be a good look.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Thanks for reminding us. You are absolutely on point.
James E Powell
@Kay:
Absolutely. And their voters view this election as a critical moment in the history, a battle for survival. Just like in 2016, they believe that if they lose this election, their America is over for good.
J R in WV
@SFAW:
Are you kidding? All the prosecution has to do is bring the charges in DC, where the crimes were mostly committed, and it’s a done deal. People in DC that would be likely to be on a jury pool will be people who work in the government, and they will all hate Trump.
Amir Khalid
@jimmiraybob:
Who knows if she even wants to be VP? Anyhoodles, I doubt the Biden campaign is going to announce a shortlist.
JaneE
My family is from Oklahoma, and from Tulsa and most still live less than an hour away. It would not surprise me at all if some of my relatives didn’t attend a Trump rally. The family members who lived in Tulsa were the most rabid racists of all the Oklahoma relatives, shocking even my parents, who left the state back in the 30’s. They did tone it down over the years, or maybe we just all avoided anything that might trigger an outburst of racism.
They never did understand that we could not understand how they could feel that way.
JaneE
@schrodingers_cat: How about a Karensel?
Mai naem mobile
I hate this guy. No fucking low is low enough. And the cruelty. There is no bottom to his and his enablers’ cruelty. If this pig loses this November I wouldn’t be surprised if he and his pals has a killing spree of minorities around the country. He will probably go out with a flying of the Confederate flag with a bunch of Klan members following him. I sincerely hope the wealthy elite/social set in NY and Florida visibly shun him and his whole extended family. I want the name Trump to become the 2000’s version name Hitler. And same goes for anybody who worked in his administration.
cain
let’s work to make that happen and then go after them and put em in jail. End this cottage industry of grift.
Bill Arnold
@Barbara:
Yup. Think of some influence ops against D.J. Trump as poisoning his food, (Sometimes subtly; he must suspect everything and everyone!)
Soprano2
My podcasts are two months behind, so I’m just now listening to this Fresh Air podcast from March 24th. https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2020/03/24/820108192/fresh-air-for-march-24-2020-max-brooks-on-planning-for-a-pandemic?showDate=2020-03-24 Boy, if you didn’t feel rage about how Trump handled this before, listen to this podcast where Max Brooks explains how they could have used the Defense Production Act to get stuff done, and other things like that. It’s stuff you already know, but hearing it said at the end of March…….ggggggggrrrrrrrrrr
Aziz, light!
My nephew’s extremely liberal/progressive wife is a member of the Tulsa City Council. Change is coming, even there. In some states it’s a slower process. In “blood-red” states like Oklahoma, liberals are 35 to 40 percent of the population and they need our support.
Bill Dunlap
As Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan wrote many years ago:
Little bee sucks the blossom
The big bee gives the honey
Dark man picks the cotton
The white man gets the money.
Take me back to Tulsa. . . .
Procopius
@SFAW: “But then again, what high-end lawyer will take the case pro bono (since the Deadbeat-in-Chief never pays his bills)?”
Alan Dershowitz.