Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

Giving up is unforgivable.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / BabyGate II: Tulsa

BabyGate II: Tulsa

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Baby gates are deployed in Oklahoma in anticipation of the arrival of a giant orange crybaby.

BabyGate II: Tulsa

The mayor of Tulsa, a Republican, posted a Facebook message (reprinted in the linked article) that sounds sort of like he’s prepping a war-weary people for a siege. In a sense, he is:

Tulsa will be the first city in the country to host a major event on Saturday. We do this as our positive COVID-19 cases are rising, but while our hospital capacity remains strong. Some think it is great, some think it is reckless. Regardless of where each of us falls on that spectrum, we will go through it as a community.

As you go through this weekend, please keep in mind what every person you encounter has been through over the last few months. They may think the shut down was a conspiracy or that it ended too soon. But they went through it too. We all have that in common. We each have our own stories from it to share, with a stranger this weekend or with our grandkids years from now.

Just what a divided community needs: the chance to play host to the most divisive figure in the country. It has to happen because Trump desperately craves adulation from people dumb enough to camp out on a sidewalk in June in Tulsa, Oklahoma — in the middle of a pandemic — for the opportunity to scream and spray droplets all over each other in an enclosed space, all for the glorification of Trump.

Trump seems to expect trouble:

Americans have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. But between the curfews and baby gates, maybe Trump will be able to create a MAGA bubble. If not, perhaps the Secret Service will have a travel-size bunker in the venue to which he can retreat. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  2. 2.

    hells littlest angel

    Some think it is great, some think it is reckless.

    Translation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    I wish Democratic leaders would get out there and tell people (our people): “just stay away from this.  If you’re going to protest, stay well away from these physically & mentally diseased trumpublicans and have a masked, socially distant rally in some pleasant park far away.”

    Maybe they already have, I dunno.

  10. 10.

    MattF

    @Jeffro: Agree. There’s always the possibility that Trump will do or say something exceptionally stupid, because… Sigh.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    Recently a Donnie-endorsed congressman in VA05 lost his nomination in a drive-thru convention.

    BlueVirginia.US

    So…how about the Republican VA05 nominee (Bob Good) being forced to run a write-in campaign, while the incumbent Republican Congressman (Denver Riggleman) runs as a third-party, independent conservative candidate? If that happens, one would have to think that this Trump district, which has already moved from “Likely Republican” to “Leans Republican” in many political analysts’ ratings, would then move towards “Toss-up” or even “Leans Democratic.” And with, essentially, two Republicans running against one of these fine Democrats, things could get verrrry interesting on November 3rd! Stay tuned…

    Clowns.

    We need to fight for every seat. These clowns are not invincible, even in “red” districts.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    FelonyGovt

    Seriously, how does this man think he’s going to win reelection when he has divided the country so badly that people think taking health precautions is controversial?  When so many people hate him?

  13. 13.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Oh holy shit. I’m in today’s Chicago Tribune. It’s just a small piece in the monthly section they run on senior living, but it’s there. It’s for THE WYSMAN, obviously, or really because they think it’s cute that someone my age wrote a book. I hate cute.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    Relatedly,

    In countries keeping the coronavirus at bay, experts watch U.S. case numbers with alarm

    As coronavirus cases surge in states across the South and West of the United States, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored.

    “It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,” said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has confirmed only three new cases over the last three weeks and where citizens have now largely returned to their pre-coronavirus routines.

  18. 18.

    Calouste

    The shitgibbon doesn’t expect trouble, he wants trouble. What do you think yesterday’s campaign ads with Nazi symbols were except a reach out to white “supremacists” that he is on their side and they should fight for him?

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    John has a great tweet on the sidebar:

    This country doesn’t have an antifa problem, it has a fascist problem. Deal with the fascists and antifa members will go back to making artisanal ice cubes, roller derby, pta meetings, and trading sourdough cultures.

  24. 24.

    Anonymous At Work

    Not a “MAGA bubble” but a “MAGA safe-space without triggerings”. If you could add snowflakes to that sentence somehow, even better.

  25. 25.

    MisterForkbeard

    As you go through this weekend, please keep in mind what every person you encounter has been through over the last few months. They may think the shut down was a conspiracy or that it ended too soon. But they went through it too. We all have that in common.

    What the utter honk is this? It’s a crazy town non-sequitur: “Look, you may be an murderous cult member or just a grandma, but we’ve all been to Arby’s and we have that in common.”

  26. 26.

    feebog

    @MattF:

    Agree. There’s always the possibility that Trump will do or say something exceptionally stupid, because… Sigh.

    You misspelled certainty.

  27. 27.

    West of the Cascades

    @Jeffro: the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park (honoring the victims of the 1921 race massacre) is about 12 blocks away from the BOK Center where the rally will be — more than enough to keep people protesting peacefully away from the MAGAnuts.

  30. 30.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jeffro: I think that’s probably a good idea. A statement along the lines of:

    “We think protest is valuable, and the protests over the last few weeks have been historical, breathtaking and effective.

    Please stay away from this viral swap meet: It’s mismanaged horribly in a national disease hotspot with little to no safety precautions besides making sure Trump will have a bunker to retreat to. And Trump is already threatening peaceful protesters over Twitter.

    We believe that there is a significant chance you will get hurt if you attend, and all protesters and attendees should keep this in mind before going.”

  34. 34.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    I think walling off the MAGAts so sensible people can stay away and the MAGAts can infect each other is excellent.  I’m just sorry for the convention center workers.

  38. 38.

    Leto

    @Elizabelle: the finest hand crafted ice cubes, using only locally sourced ice cube trays, and employing master cube craftsmen. Just $79.99, or you can sign up for our monthly delivery service of six exquisitely crafted cubes, for just $39.99 a month. Operators standing by! (Operators, for that “old timey” feel)

  39. 39.

    Galahad Threepwood

    Ugh.  This is all so avoidable and unnecessary. And the macho posturing again.  He can’t stop hoping for someone else to bust heads on his behalf.

    Really seems like the only way Trump can win re-election at this point is through cheating, voter suppression, or both.  He’s such a toxic figure already and his recent actions have all been geared toward ramping up the toxicity.  You don’t win people to your cause that way.

  43. 43.

    ryk

    Just returned from a trip to Costco. There was exactly one person in the store not wearing a mask. But he had on a Hawaiian shirt and a red MAGA hat. He made eye contact with me and grinned like a possum. I did not punch him, but I reeeeeally wanted to…

  48. 48.

    JCJ

    Wow.  I just listened to a patient go off on some nonsense about how the media hates Trump, how awful the governor is because of the safer at home order, how awful the Democrats are, etc.  I considered shouting “Bingo!” as he filled the entire MAGAt bingo card.

  49. 49.

    MisterForkbeard

    @HumboldtBlue: I personally think it’s great that she showed up to celebrate Juneteenth with all of her black friends.

    @JCJ: Are you allowed to hand them a cup of disinfectant and whisper “You know what to do”?

  51. 51.

    oatler.

    Don’t mean to play Cassandra, but I don’t think his health will survive the election.

  52. 52.

    Punchy

    @dmsilev: I’m waiting for the (likely, soon) day that the EU, UK, and A/P just straight-up ban US citizens from visiting.   Maybe there’ll be a carve-out for business travel, but right now the world looks at us as a bunch of dumb fucking disease vectors….

  53. 53.

    JoyceH

    Health officials are reporting that the recent protests are having very little impact on coronavirus spread. Just watch. If the Tulsa hatefest turns out to be a superspreader event, it’s going to turn into a conspiracy theory. It won’t be because the idiots packed themselves indoors and didn’t wear masks in a locality experiencing an outbreak. It will be because the Democrats genetically engineered the virus to attack them.  (George Soros will have something to do with it.)

  54. 54.

    Jinchi

    @ryk: There was exactly one person in the store not wearing a mask.

    Most of the stores around here just refuse entry to anyone not wearing a mask. I suppose management is lucky to have the law to point to. The employees can just shrug and say ‘Sorry man, you’ll have to take it up with the Governor.’

  55. 55.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    @Leto: I always wondered about “Operators are standing by!”

    Couldn’t they get those folks some chairs? Cheap bastards

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:

    That is actually a very good idea. Normally I’d say confrontational is best, but given the current medical situation protesting in a way that doesn’t add an additional layer of exposure and possibly removes a layer of cops making it worse sounds like the best of both worlds.

  59. 59.

    Jinchi

    @oatler.: Don’t mean to play Cassandra

    Cassandra’s curse was that no one ever believed her. Her prophesies were always true.

  63. 63.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: It’s a little patronizing/cute. I see what Dorothy says about it.

    Still cool! Small blurb from your local newspaper. She’s famous now.

  64. 64.

    Betty

    @JCJ: That’s the litany. He has it down pat. Poisoned people spewing hatred at those they accuse of hating them.  Facebook encouraging it daily.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @dmsilev:

    Had a fellow employee ask me if there might ever be a vaccine. Told him that probably at best it takes 18-24 months. He’s not dumb, just normally informed in this day and age. Normal people actually do/can understand this crap but someone with their head up their ass is not going to see it, because they don’t want to.

  70. 70.

    patrick II

    @Jinchi:

    Take your mask off, sneeze, and then say “Sorry I have the virus and sneezing into the mask was too much trouble.”

  72. 72.

    Gravenstone

    As I have noted elsewhere, give it 14 days for incubation and the widespread appearance of symptoms, and any covid-19 outbreak associated with rally attendees with show up around … July 4. How very fucking patriotic of them!

  73. 73.

    CaseyL

    @WereBear:

    This is an entirely self-inflicted disaster

     

    The T* Administration in a nutshell.

    Life in these here United States as a failed state.

  74. 74.

    HumboldtBlue

    @WaterGirl:

    The Garlands in Barrington upon Tweed.

    What in the ever-loving hell, Lady Dorothy Winsor, wife of Viscount Spencer Horace Edward Stites Winsor of Avondale is gracing us with her presence!

    Milady, t’is truly an honor, may I offer some of this mead?

  75. 75.

    Baud

    Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis.

    You will be welcomed as liberators.

  81. 81.

    Aleta

    Something that would be cool to see in men over 35 who have money and education and power: affect regulation. Why is everyone always flipping out.

    The choices w/emotions are not just REPRESS or ACT OUT. You have a complete experience of an emotion, meditate on it & THEN choose a wise course of action. If you don’t have vitality, adaptability, resilience & honesty abt heartbreak, you’re far too easily trolled & traumatized.

    @page88

    For one thing I’ve noticed, some white men over 35 who have money and education and power don’t do affect regulation because flipping out or shutting down is a short cut to control.  *

    At Trump’s rallies his campaign people use flipping out to take people to the edge of losing control, and then they turn them loose.

    * Or change the subject /shut someone up /get someone to soothe you.

  83. 83.

    Barbara

    @Jeffro: I would love it if no one showed up because, really, he wants lots of protesters and he wants them to be violent so that he can inflict violence on them and beat his chest about what a strong leader he is.  I hope people deny him what he wants.

  84. 84.

    Gravenstone

    @Punchy: Yup. Until we get actual adults in charge who take this shit seriously, and stop this ad hoc state by state mishmash response there is absolutely zero reason for countries who have controlled the virus to let Americans in. We should all be considered as potential disease carriers until proven otherwise.

  86. 86.

    encephalopath

    Some people get the freedom of association and the freedom to travel in public spaces and others do not.

    The difference comes down to your political affiliations. If you bow before Lord Dampnutz you get civil rights. If not then your assembly is unlawful.

  87. 87.

    Gravenstone

    @JoyceH: In QAnonworld, yes. In the real world, it will be a useful empirical example of the difference between widespread adoption of masking versus the active eschewing of the same.

  88. 88.

    different-church-lady

    Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!

    Well yeah, of course his base is going to get treated differently at his rally, as opposed to the real world.

  89. 89.

    different-church-lady

    @WereBear: He’s gonna say at least 15 things that are no longer popular with 80% of the country. So yeah, he’s gonna self-inflict like crazy.

  90. 90.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @AnneWith: @Victor Matheson: That Herald piece was nice. This local publicity is being generated by my building, ie The Garlands. Their sales people have been stymied by the lockdown, and they need to keep looking for new residents since older ones sometimes…. move on?

    @Baud: @Baud: You know though, I sell a lot of books to grandparents looking for gifts.

  94. 94.

    different-church-lady

    @HumboldtBlue: Loved this reply:

    For people who are facing an increasingly energetic level of popular unrest, they sure do go out of their way to act like ill-fated French aristocrats.

  99. 99.

    Barbara

    @HumboldtBlue: The replies are savage. There are many to choose from but I think this one expresses my view of Mrs. Trump:

    She’s like a social media influencer translated into binary code and then back into a human body.

    There is something unreal about her — someone who is always in model mode.

  101. 101.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Gravenstone:

     

    there is absolutely zero reason for countries who have controlled the virus to let Americans in.

    Countries in Southeast Asia are negotiating a travel bubble. Australia, New Zealand, Viet Nam, etc… A white list.

    Then there will be countries where travel is restricted to essential and business people, to keep the traffic volume manageable. A 2 week isolation period will be required.

    Finally there will be a blacklist … I am sure we will be at the top.

  104. 104.

    LuciaMia

    Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who

    Oooh, looks like somebody pulled out their Thesaurus!

  107. 107.

    LuciaMia

    Some think it is great, some think it is reckless.

    Dont know why this popped into my head:

    “Some gave them white bread,

    And some gave them brown;

    Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town.”

  108. 108.

    catclub

    @gene108:

    This is an entirely self-inflicted disaster in the making.

    Wonderful summary of the entire Trump presidency.

     

    and the self who inflicted it was US voters. Combined with the suicide pact part of the Constitution.

    Thanks fellow citizens!

  109. 109.

    catclub

    @Barbara: he wants lots of protesters and he wants them to be violent so that he can inflict violence on them and beat his chest about what a strong leader he is.  I hope people deny him what he wants.

     

    me too.

  110. 110.

    Just Chuck

    protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes

    I’m more a “ne’er do well” type myself.  I feel excluded.

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    travel-size bunker in the venue to which he can retreat

    We know his tiny, short-fingered baby hands would fit in a travel-size bunker, but what about the rest of his fat, orange, fascist, Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby ass?

  112. 112.

    cmorenc

    @FelonyGovt:

    Seriously, how does this man think he’s going to win reelection when he has divided the country so badly that people think taking health precautions is controversial?  When so many people hate him?

    By suppressing or depressing enough voters who might otherwise be inclined to vote against him from being able to turn out, or being sufficiently motivated to turn out.  Coupled with making sure the number of MAGAs and GOP voters who do turn out is at least a sliver greater than the number of Biden voters he can’t dissuade or prevent from turning out in just-enough states to win the electoral vote, even if he loses the aggregate national popular vote by a much greater margin than in 2016, in which the overwhelming Biden majority in states like Cal and NY can go such on lemons, and so can the Biden voters who lost by a sliver (in some due to voter suppression/dissuasion) just-enough swing states to get Trump the extra electoral votes he needed to reach 270.

  114. 114.

    Shana

    @Jinchi: To be fair everyone had to go through special scanners at the Washington Wizards game I attended that Obama went to early in his first term.

  116. 116.

    The Moar You Know

    It will break Trump’s mind and soul if nobody even bothered to show up to protest. Because is trying to provoke some shit.

  117. 117.

    Raoul

    I’m slightly shocked that the mayor actually acknowledged that some people think what Trump (and the mayor) are doing is reckless. Because that really is the word. Though negligent also comes to mind.

    Relatedly, I will grant that apparently, Trump’s “nobody knew about Juneteenth” comment was about 60% truthier than most of his nobody-tinged self-owns.

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