Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

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

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / If I May Have Your Attention: An Important Message From the Current President of the United States

If I May Have Your Attention: An Important Message From the Current President of the United States

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Everybody move out sharply!

Break

For those of you unable to watch (and if you are not watching it, what is wrong with you?!?!?!?!), President Obama just leveraged both Presidents Bush to smack Chief Justice Roberts, as well as Senator McConnell and his current Republican majority in the Senate on the former’s gutting the Voting Rights Act and the latter’s failure to fix it. And challenging the latter to now pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

217Comments

  2. 2.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    For those of you unable to watch (and if you are not watching it, what is wrong with you?!?!?!?!), President Obama just leveraged both Presidents Bush to smack Chief Justice Roberts, as well as Senator McConnell and his current Republican majority in the Senate on the former’s gutting the Voting Rights Act and the latter’s failure to fix it. And challenging the latter to now pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020.

    B-but the Iraq War! Bush was a war criminal! This just proves that both parties are exactly the same! No matter who wins we all lose. Biden will only continue the corrupt imperialistic policies that BOTH parties have had for decades! Standing Rock happened under Obama’s watch but you limousine liberals barely cared then. Blue MAGA!

    /clueless Rose Twitter Brigade

    More seriously I love this reply to that tweet:

    Jeff Tiedrich
    @itsJeffTiedrich

    4h

    Replying to

    @realDonaldTrump
    and
    @Varneyco

    Herman Cain just died from the virus you called a hoax and no worse than the flu. WEAR A MASK, DOOFUS

  4. 4.

    japa21

    I wouldn’t doubt it if more people watched this funeral than Trump’s inauguration. At least I think we should make sure Trump thinks that.

  6. 6.

    West of the Rockies

    Wow. Way to cheapen the office, Donny. So weird that I don’t recall Obama (either Bush, Clinton, Reagan, either Roosevelt, or either Adams) hocking business interests on White House time.

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JoyceH: I like the fact that he had to, or he had Scavino or Scavino realized he had to, put NY in parentheses because the President’s supporters in the middle of nowhere won’t have any idea where Long Island is.

  9. 9.

    Quinerly

    @JoyceH: it was a direct smack at the Godfather Pizza guy dying of Covid. ?

    And to think Cain gave his life for Trump by attending that Tulsa Rally.

     

    Thoughts and prayers.

  11. 11.

    kindness

    Republicans no longer have any shame.  I’m not sure they ever did have any, they just used to claim they could muster it up.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    The WH press corp was called to the WH a hour ago, but so far no word why.    Did pissy pants staff drug him?

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    @Quinerly: Jeebus. I forgot how petty he is. And sorry if I get back to New York I’m getting pizza where the Italians are. In Brooklyn.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @West of the Rockies: If they were making a trip and stopping in someone’s restaurant or store or shop they would. But they didn’t have a history of doing erratic things on official time.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    CBS said the speech was a tribute to Lewis and a call to action.   I think it was Margaret Brennan who mentioned that Lewis was arrested 45 times for the right to vote and we should not forget that.

  19. 19.

    LuciaMia

    Watching the honor guard carrying  John Lewis’ casket, representing the branches of the military. Was just curious, could they volunteer for this or be assigned?

  20. 20.

    piratedan

    @JPL: my guess is so that they would not be in attendance to the Lewis memorial.  Why would Trump want “his” press corps seeing that?  Might remind the reporters that getting answers to questions used to happen in this country… can’t have that.

  21. 21.

    JPL

    This is from pissy pants

    My friend Herman Cain, a Powerful Voice of Freedom and all that is good, passed away this morning. Herman had an incredible career and was adored by everyone that ever met him, especially me. He was a very special man, an American Patriot, and great friend. I just got off……the phone with his amazing wife Gloria, daughter, Melanie, and son Vincent to express my deepest condolences to the entire family.

  22. 22.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I hope some local reporter with a long memory follows up with this guy when his pizza business slowly dies from lack of business.

    Jeez, it’s not like there isn’t a really good pizza joint in every strip mall on Long Island.

    Trump really is a human plague….

  23. 23.

    JPL

    If the current president were to suddenly die, what past presidents would attend his funeral?

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    Also, when I lived in Bethpage, I’d go and get pizza at Pappardelle’s, which is just across the street from the LIRR stop in Bethpage. In case anyone was curious.

  29. 29.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    Obama’s eulogy was such a smack in the head. I so miss having a real president, and it’s such a walk into a glass door to realize what we’ve lost in 4 short years.

    But President Obama’s eulogy/speech was a call to action that we (or at least I) have needed. It was a high-level map and call-out of steps we need to take Right. Now. as a minimum to get back on track.

    And it was an elixir to hear from a real president again.

  30. 30.

    Yutsano

    @JPL: I think they would probably show up out of protocol but not speak. What would any one of them have to say really?

  33. 33.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @JPL: “If the current president were to suddenly die, what past presidents would attend his funeral?”

    They might want to be sure that he’s really, most sincerely, dead.

  34. 34.

    Keith P.

    Who the hell would take pizza recommendations from someone who puts ketchup on a well-done steak?

  35. 35.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Yutsano:

    There’s a metric shit ton of Italian Americans on Long Island, and in IMHO the pizza is better and cheaper.

    It’s pretty much the highlight of the place (I grew up there), along side awesome bagels.

    But there were always better bagel shops and delis in the city.

  36. 36.

    germy

    @JoyceH:

    Um…. WHY is Trump flacking for some local pizza joint?

    He flew a trump flag at his business and took some criticism for it.

    Trump is just honoring his sacrifice.

  37. 37.

    Jay C

    @JoyceH:

     

    I read somewhere today this this guy Guy had gotten some local flak in LI for some Trump flag or sign he had decorated defaced his pizzeria with, so I guess Donny felt he ought to give him a shout-out just to MAGA (Make Antipasto Great Again??)….

  40. 40.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Oooh, just looked at their website, that’s not good pizza. Orange (probably cheap cheddar) in the cheese… no no.

    Totally fascist way to make pizza.  :)

  41. 41.

    Yutsano

    @LeftCoastYankee: I haven’t been back in that area since forever. I really need to go back. My Guatemalan friend Rodrigo is one of my NYC peeps who would love to show me stuff now. And get pupusas. Since that was our thing when I was in Baltimore.

  43. 43.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @germy:

    “But, this woman took it upon herself to — not knowing me, not knowing my family, not knowing my grandchildren… She took it upon herself because she saw a flag in the back to try to put me out of business,” he said.

    Caligiuri added that he had not only the support of his local community which “rallied behind” him, but he’d received phone calls from around the country.

    “It’s really wonderful. It’s really humbling,” he concluded.

    So, that’s why. How fucking pathetic. Does he think these MAGA goons will be with him forever?

    And honestly? I hate the term “cancel culture”. Boycotts have been a thing for a very long time. That woman has the right to do what’s she’s doing. It doesn’t matter who the fuck he is or what his family is like. That’s like all of the “in their heart” bullshit. The fact that he decided to fly that flag in his place of business not only tells everybody else all they need to know about him, but basically invited blowback

  44. 44.

    germy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The fact that he decided to fly that flag in his place of business not only tells everybody else all they need to know about him

    It tells me he most likely bribes health inspectors.

  45. 45.

    Ken

    @Amir Khalid: What’s the going rate to have POTUS endorse your pizza parlour with the local clientele?

    Given that we’re talking about the man who “won” Spy magazine’s cheapness test by cashing a 13-cent check, I’m guessing around five bucks and a coupon good for 10% off breadsticks with any large pizza (dine-in only).

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) I :   Wilson would have hated Trump because of his efforts to destroy the international community.   Jackson would have despised Trump as a coward.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    Oprah Winfrey will not appear on the cover of her magazine for the first time in 20 years.

    The September cover is Breonna Taylor.

    WaPost:

    Taylor was “just like me,” Winfrey wrote. “She was just like you. And like everyone who dies unexpectedly, she had plans. Plans for a future filled with responsibility and work and friends and laughter.”

    O magazine commissioned the cover from 24-year-old digital artist Alexis Franklin, who based the portrait on a widely shared photo Taylor took of herself: “Every stroke was building a person: each eyelash, each wisp of hair, the shine on her lips, the highlight on her cheek,” Franklin said in a statement.
    The issue, which hits newsstands Aug. 11, will be one of the last regular print editions of O magazine. The publication announced earlier this week that it plans to alter its approach to print after December.

  49. 49.

    Mike in NC

    Are Goya products flying off the shelves since Fat Bastard posed with them on his desk? Everything he touches dies.

  51. 51.

    germy

    @JPL:

    It’s a grift that often works.   Didn’t someone solicit donations to “build the wall” and then pocket the money?

    I was going to say these scams won’t work after November, but they’ll probably strengthen if trump loses.

  52. 52.

    CarolDuhart2

    Trump’s funeral: no eulogies.  They won’t be able to find anyone to say anything good about him.  No mourners.  He won’t be missed by anyone except the MAGAs, and they didn’t even show up for his inauguration.  Unmarked grave. (Goes without saying)

  53. 53.

    evodevo

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You jest, but over at Naked Capitalism this is the kind of dreck they put up all the time.  Over there, Obama is the worst, except for Hitlary, and virtually any Dem proposal/policy you can think of is a sellout to the man…I quit going there quite a while ago because of that crap….

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    That’s um, kind of very Trumply Trump to be shouting out about another pizza business on the day pizza baron/crazy ass Herman Cain leaves this mortal coil.

    Although the tweet preceded news of Cain’s passing FROM COVID.  Albeit, maybe Republicans heard earlier.

  55. 55.

    Zinsky.

    Well, if it is absurd for the President of the United States to be promoting a small, independent pizzeria in New York, how absurd is it for the President to be endorsing a particular television network (OAN and Fox) and even specific shows on those networks??  I’m sorry – that is both pathetic and scary.  It’s like living in a country ruled by a malicious clown.

  57. 57.

    SiubhanDuinne

    One commenter on Trump’s twitter thread said he (commenter) went to Patio Pizza to pick up an order, and not one employee was wearing a mask — not the owner, not the cashier, not the kitchen staff.

  60. 60.

    donnah

    Adam, glad to read you again. I have been pondering the info you posted about the resurgence in interest for hydroxy as a Covid treatment and how it’s part of a bigger picture to shove blame from Trump and onto Democrats for the spread of the virus. I wasn’t sure how they would tie it into being a reliable cure, but seeing Louie Gohmert being diagnosed and declaring he’s going to use it I wonder if he’s a key to doing that.

    Or maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist.

  62. 62.

    germy

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yes, I would expect any restaurant run by trumpers to not follow basic safety rules, and of course ignore all food safety codes.

    Health inspectors are deeply resented, probably offered bribes.

  63. 63.

    jonas

    Not going to bother chasing down the reason the Leader of the Free World has somehow found time to endorse a Long Island pizzeria, but I will wager it’s because the owner is a Proud Conservative™ and was not requiring masks or distancing at his business and got shut down by Cuomo’s totally unfair nazi code enforcers.

  64. 64.

    Yutsano

    @donnah: He’s not smart enough to play along like that. It’s much more likely he just believes it will help him. Will be fascinating to see what kinds of effects it will have on him.

  65. 65.

    Mike in NC

    @JPL: So the Godfather’s Pizza dude rated condolences, but 150,000+ other people did not. Got it.

  66. 66.

    germy

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:  I don’t think it’s a scavino tweet.

    The Donald is glued to Fox News, and they reported the pizza owner being cancelled for flying a trump flag.  We never heard that story because we’re not in that bubble, but it’s been big news in wingnutistan.  Trump just wants to show his appreciation, like the russian mobster he is.

    In this case, trump = putin and the pizza place = trump.

  68. 68.

    Gravenstone

    @JPL: I’m honestly surprised that he acknowledged Cain’s passing. Well, someone with the keys to his Twitter account did at any rate.

  69. 69.

    JDM

    @JoyceH:

    “Um…. WHY is Trump flacking for some local pizza joint?”

     

    Same reason Jim Varney did all those Earnest ads for local businesses.  They pay you, you do the ad.

  71. 71.

    barbequebob

    @LeftCoastYankee: Yes, much of  the white flight from Brooklyn and Queens moved to “Long Island*” especially Nassau County. There they raised a new generation of racists (who are not racist, so they say), at least that is what my brother-in-law did.  A fair number were Italian, but plenty of other white ethnic groups too.

    *many of the people in the Queens neighborhood I grew up in that were “moving to Long Island”, were in fact moving about 10-15 miles east to Nassau County and were apparently unaware that they were geographically already on Long Island. But, culturally and socio-economically not part of NYC.

  72. 72.

    chopper

    why would i take pizza advice from a guy who stacks his slices and eats them with a fork and knife?

  73. 73.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: Well, someone with the keys to his Twitter account did at any rate.

    I’m rather looking forward to the first lawsuit challenging some Trump administration policy change on the grounds that it was only announced on twitter, so it’s impossible to say the policy was actually set by the president versus, say, his golf caddy.

  74. 74.

    mad citizen

    With #44 in the news this afternoon, thought back to one of his practices, while the current President tweets about a pizza joint that flies his campaign flag.  I was just thinking about this one small, consistent act that didn’t even get much attention, but the contrast could not be greater.  From a 2018 piece on the Australian news site (abc.net.au  abc.net.au/news/2018-09-30/dear-mr-president-letters-to-barack-obama/10309108)
    If you wrote a letter to Barack Obama during his presidency, there is a 0.1 per cent chance he wrote back to you.
    Those might not sound like great odds — but compared to his predecessors, Mr Obama made public correspondence a priority in the White House.
    He read 10 letters every evening — a selection dubbed the “10Lads”, or “10 letters a day”.
    The letters — detailing everything from personal stories of loss, frustrations with the administration and even children’s homework — form a collective American tableau, writes Jeanne Marrie Laskas in her book, To Obama: With Love, Joy, Hate and Despair.

    10,000 letters a day
    On average, the former president received 10,000 letters every day.
    The task of combing through these letters rested with a large group of 30 staffers, approximately 500 volunteers and various interns.
    “It was quite an operation,” Laskas says.

  78. 78.

    germy

    @Cacti:  Notice his right arm hanging, also.

    He’s wearing a mask, though.

    Explains the cognitive test, apparently.

  79. 79.

    Chyron HR

    @germy: 

    flying a trump flag

    It’s a small thing, but I do want to memorialize the fact that the GOP once lost their shit because they thought the state flag of Ohio was an “Obama Flag”.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: I just read that article, I don’t think that Mr. Caliguiri or Fox News understands what cancel means.

  81. 81.

    Anotherlurker

    @barbequebob: This is true.  I lived in Peter King’s district and he accurately reflects the deep seated racism of his cop, firemen construction worker constituents .  NY 2 sucks.

  82. 82.

    Yutsano

    @kindness: It was a bit confusing but this location looks like the original. There might be one in Times Square that might be related but it’s closed for now. But this looks like a place where I would want to get a pie with friends.

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LeftCoastYankee: Yep. One of the two highlights of my miserable year teaching at Long Island University was the pizza and the bagels. The other being the Bond Street Dojo in Manhattan.

  86. 86.

    Mike in NC

    Ah, Long Island. Where every other person we ran into made Archie Bunker seem reasonable. Ain’t going back!

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: Yep. And then the bit they built at lowest cost for dollar on the contract fell into the Rio Grande.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: He’s so badly cancelled that Fox News covered it, when he put it out on social media, which is how Fox News found out about it, a bunch of the President’s supporters started ordering pizza from him, and now the President tweeted that people should buy his pizza.

    I should be so cancelled.

  90. 90.

    Shana

    @Snarki, child of Loki: I just thought of the funeral scene in Charade where one of the dead man’s former comrades sticks a pin in his corpse to make sure he was dead.

     

    ETA Ken got there first.

  92. 92.

    Cacti

    @germy: The circumducting movement of his leg was so obvious, I didn’t even notice that he wasn’t swinging his right arm at all while walking.

    Good catch.

    Yep.  Looks like he’s got right sided hemiplegia.

  93. 93.

    chopper

    @Cacti:

    i’ll have you know it was his leather-soled shoes that made walking down that ramp so dangerous for him. if he’d had a stroke we’d see cognitive issues!

  96. 96.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    @CarolDuhart2: And a Confederate flag on the coffin?

    Harry Truman was wrong: the White House is not haunted. If it was, wouldn’t the late presidents take turns beating Trump nightly? As a finale, it’s either Taft sitting on him, or Lincoln grabbing him, lifting him overhead, and throwing him into or through a wall.

  99. 99.

    randy khan

    @JPL:

    All the living ones except Carter would attend because they’re not utterly devoid of understanding about what’s right and proper to do.  Although it’s possible that none of them would be invited, in which case they wouldn’t crash the, uh, party.  (I think that if Trump realized that an invitation to his funeral would result in mandatory attendance, he would invite all of them, but I also think he would be worried that they wouldn’t come at all, which would make him look bad, so I can see him leaving instructions not to invite any living Presidents.)

  100. 100.

    jonas

    @Cacti: It’s also frequently been cited as a classic symptom of frontotemporal dementia. But this, the jerky arm movements (see his Memorial Day ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns), the ramp episode, inability to bring a cup to his mouth, etc., and I’d say, yeah, he definitely had some kind of stroke.

  101. 101.

    raven

    @Cacti: I’m having a hell of a time with my left leg. I walk a mile and lose strength and get a sort of flop foot. My physical therapist threw in the towel after a month of now results from PT. I had a lacunar stroke about two years ago but it doesn’t seem like this is related.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    So do we know whether any TV stations cut away from Obama at the funeral for John Lewis?  Or did they stick with Obama/John Lewis?

  107. 107.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    It’s proper to think of Nassau and Suffolk counties as “the provinces” as they’re full of provincials, many of them would be terrified if they were dropped off in Times Square.

  108. 108.

    mad citizen

    @Cacti: To answer, Hell yes I’ve seen it.  I’ve been reading the Tom Joseph twitter religiously for a couple of months (the trump dementia theory guy).  Today his tweet was that based on trump in Texas yesterday, the cabinet should remove trump today (yes he has hysterical posts).  I think it’s dementia (with possible a stroke mixed in, maybe some drug use/abuse as well), but it’s on a slower path than Tom Joseph thinks.  Usually when I watch trump he seems fairly there, although the word salad does seem worse.  I do notice a LOT of shoulder jerking and right arm jerking.  It’s VERY noticeable and I really wonder why the WH press–or any press–is not making it a story.  These are not normal moves of a healthy person, even an aged person (or woman or man or camera or tv).

    Then there’s the nonstory of his trip 3 weeks ago to Walter Reed (no evidence of visiting soldiers);  his bragging about the cognitive test.  What the hell is going on?

  113. 113.

    Kelly

    I remember Senator Paul Wellstone’s memorial where the Republicans (and Jesse Ventura) collapsed on their fainting couches when speakers called on everyone to continue his work. “Politicizing a politician’s memorial?   How unbearably gauche.”

  115. 115.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will reconsider an order from a panel of its judges that sought to block Michael Flynn’s judge from probing the reasons the Justice Department wants Flynn’s case dropped.

    From Talking Points Memo

  116. 116.

    mad citizen

    @WaterGirl: Was watching it on ABC–all funeral.  I don’t think they would cut in for trump anyway unless he was resigning.  ABC did a nice job with several reporters talking about Lewis in personal ways after the ceremony was done.  The fact that the coverage was even on the networks is amazing to me–almost like some atonement or chance to show america our better side considering the nightmare we are all living through.

  117. 117.

    raven

    @Adam L Silverman: I didn’t realize there was more than one campus.

     

    The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds were the athletic teams representing Long Island University’s campus in Brooklyn, New York in intercollegiate athletics, including men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, and track; women’s-only bowling, lacrosse, softball, tennis, and volleyball; and men’s-only baseball. The Blackbirds competed in NCAA Division I and were members of the Northeast Conference.[2]

  118. 118.

    NoraLenderbee

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Exactly. If you choose to display a symbol publicly, then of course people will judge you, to a greater or lesser extent,  on the basis of the symbol. You can’t fly a flag and then complain “But you don’t know the real me!”

  119. 119.

    raven

    The LIU Sharks are the athletics teams representing Long Island University’s (LIU) campuses in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York.[2] The Sharks compete in NCAA Division I athletics[3] and are members of the Northeast Conference.[4] The LIU Sharks are the result of the July 1, 2019 unification of the athletic departments which had previously represented two separate campuses of LIU, the NCAA Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the NCAA Division II LIU Post Pioneers.[5][6]

  120. 120.

    Mike in NC

    Try to imagine what Gordon Ramsay would find if he were to ever inspect the kitchen at a Trump property.

  121. 121.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca: Wilson is very much an “aside from that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play” person.  If you can get past the racism, he was a progressive and a strong internationalist.  OTOH, you can’t really get past the racism.  Jackson was personally brave. That is the only positive thing I can say.  But, yeah, still better than Trump.

  124. 124.

    West of the Rockies

    @CarolDuhart2:

    There will, however, be a massive line of people waiting to relieve themselves as soon as the plywood Trump coffin is shoved into a hole via a bulldozer.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: I was there for the 2006-2007 year. The colors were green and goldish yellow. And I guess the mascot was the Pioneers.

  126. 126.

    Chris Johnson

    @Chyron HR:

    But I thought “Pizza” was a secret liberal codeword for child molestation?

    That’s the only reason the guy tweeted it. Coded QAnon message to remind the QAnons that they think all Dems run a cannibal pedophile ring. It’s effectively abandoning the actual Republicans, who are NOT all QAnons, to run with the Russia-driven conspiracy theory ring in the belief that they will be his only refuge.

    That part is true, but unhelpful, since QAnon are not heroic freedom fighters. QAnon are panicked and shall we say uncritical wingnuts, not even as well armed as the traditional Republican militia folks.

    The neonazis and white supremacists do not feel the need to make up crazy shit to justify their murderousness, they just basically own it, like ‘yeah, we’re the master race, what of it?’. But Trump is not turning to them, Trump turns to QAnon for protection.

    Seems like a bad move on his part.

  127. 127.

    Mike S

    @Adam L Silverman: it was an all around great eulogy and speech.

    I’m curious to know if you know much about Heather Cox Richardson. She’s all the rage on Facebook and seems to be quite intelligent about much of what is going on but I’m always leary of people who seem to me to have come out of nowhere.

  129. 129.

    raven

    @Adam L Silverman: This one?

     

    LIU Riverhead is home to the Homeland Security Management Institute, which offers homeland security training. The institute has been designated a “Homeland Security Center of Excellence” by the United States Congress. Programs are also available in education, special education, literacy, communication studies, new media, cyber security, applied behavior analysis, and TESOL.

  131. 131.

    Momentary

    @barbequebob: my Italian-American grandparents moved the family from Brooklyn to Nassau County to keep their sons out of the Mob, is the way I always heard it.  That’s why the other branches of the family all have Brooklyn brownstones and we do not ;)

  132. 132.

    Gravenstone

    @Chyron HR: I particularly loved Malkin going off about the “Obama flag”, since it was the state flag of Ohio. You know, the state she allegedly went to college in? You’d like to think she looked up once or twice on campus and saw it flying there alongside the stars and stripes…

    Of course, I think she’s also the cretin who claimed Obama was flanked by union flags on a visit to Wisconsin. Funny how the Wisconsin state flag has the year it was granted statehood on it. Funnier still she thought that was the number for the “union local”.

  135. 135.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Glad to see that proceeding, as it should!

    I wonder if they are slow walking this thing… First it took awhile for the en banc (sp?) request to be made, now it seems like it took a couple of weeks for them to make this announcement.

    Maybe their calendar will be full and it will be awhile before the case can be heard?

  136. 136.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Yutsano:

    To be clear, visiting Brooklyn would be infinitely better than Long Island, but if you ever are unfortunate enough to be on Long Island, get some pizza to improve the situation.

  137. 137.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike S: I don’t know her personally, but she’s legit. She’s a professor of history who specializes in the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

  138. 138.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: I only taught at the main campus, which was on the old CW Post estate. Hence the school’s official name of LI U/CW Post.

  139. 139.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: Nope. That’s way out in Suffolk County. I was the graduate and undergraduate coordinator and senior assistant professor – I chose not to come in with tenure, but negotiated an expedited go up within two years of arrival position as all my assistant professor work had been visiting and this choice was mine, I could’ve come in at the associate professor level if I wanted to – in the Department of Criminal Justice and Security Administration. Which for some bizarre reason that definitely benefited my bank account, was in the School of Business, not the College of Arts and Sciences. The Homeland Security Institute was the Vice President for Academic Affairs baby. He had a legitimate beef with my department chair who had recruited me and for whom I was supposed to be the heir apparent. That didn’t really work out when I refused to fix student’s grades, including those of student athletes, and blew the whistle on that and his pay for play scheme with the masters program. Resigned in protest, took every bit of documentation – and I had saved everything – right over and left it with the VP for Academic Affairs, and that was the end of that. Several weeks later I was offered the position with the US Army, which was the contract position that took me to Iraq, was the finalist for the open section head position for counter-terrorism at the NJ Office of Homeland Security, and was contacted about interviewing for a position at the National Counterterrorism Center. The latter two got mucked up for bureaucratic reasons, so I accepted the contract with the Army to go to Iraq.

  141. 141.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @barbequebob:

    That sounds about right.  My dad used to tell tales about being the last white kid in his Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood.

    He used to tell it as a demonstration of how poor his family was.  When I was younger I thought he had little awareness of the racism of the story or the “white flight” from Brooklyn in general, but in his later years he would say the odd thing about how badly black people were treated.

    Not sure if he was coming along towards the end, or if I was just paying attention better.

  143. 143.

    Barbara

    I couldn’t watch the funeral straight through and I just finished watching Bill Clinton.  No matter how many times I hear him I am struck by what an incredible speaker he is.  And the end — it gave me chills.

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    a hundred days out and he’s desperate to delegitimize the results. Kellyanne must’ve staged a puppet-theatre play to explain the internal polls for him

    Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 29m
    Must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months, or even years later!

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Roger Moore: were they already divorced then? Or was that a different commercial? A different time when he totally didn’t need the money.

  146. 146.

    Mike in NC

    @Roger Moore:  There is also video out there of Trump wearing a yellow (how appropriate!) suit and dancing with people dressed up as chickens. Talk about undignified. Anything for a buck, it would appear.

  147. 147.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, I wasn’t even 10 before I knew I wouldn’t be living there when I grew up.

    And it took almost 20 years but we finally have 2 decent bagel shops in Portland… although it could be my standards have eroded.  Don’t think I’m going back to LI to find out though.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @West of the Rockies:There will, however, be a massive line of people waiting to relieve themselves as soon as the plywood Trump coffin is shoved into a hole via a bulldozer.

    Hello? Did someone call my name?

  151. 151.

    Ken

    @LeftCoastYankee: And it took almost 20 years but we finally have 2 decent bagel shops in Portland…

    Don’t you mean the Smoking Ruins™ of Portland?

    Sorry if you’re in one of the other Portlands. If so, does your city have any plans to change its name, to avoid accidentally being targeted by Safety Troopers™?

  152. 152.

    Matt McIrvin

    Great move for John Lewis to get ahead of any possible pearl-clutching about people politicizing the occasion of his funeral by getting it started himself.

  156. 156.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: yes (yawn) Donald, there’s no possible way we could have to wait a couple of days…tell you what, how about we make it so landslide-obvious that even you know to grab a duffel bag of cash and run for it?  Sound good?

  157. 157.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Adam L Silverman: na. Spousal unit works in NHaven Moderns Italian Bomb for the win. Or Frank Pepes or the Pepperoni at Bar. Annnnddd now I m starving!

  158. 158.

    Chetan Murthy

    @PAM Dirac: Gonna be a line around the block, yo’.  Gonna be kids makin’ bank, selling Big-Gulp-sized soft drinks in that line.

  162. 162.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Still job hunting, and had a recruiter contact me today for a start-up that uses AI to to help security analysts review video.

    Not thrilled about joining the military industrial complex, but helping the military protect troops might be something I’m willing to do.

    Dig deeper into the national agencies they also work with… ICE, CBP…

    OH HELL NO. Especially since their software is probably being used to identify friends of mine who’ve protested.

  163. 163.

    joel hanes

    @Cacti:

    Yes, and the uncontrolled tremor in his right hand — the same hand that couldn’t hold a glass of water.

    And there’s an earlier video of Trump outright dragging his right leg after making a speech.

  167. 167.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Chyron HR:

    But I thought “Pizza” was a secret liberal codeword for child molestation? 

    What if it’s a French bread pizza?

  169. 169.

    Mary G

    Considering the Republicans’ penchant for projection, I fear for the children in the basement of this pizza parlor.

  170. 170.

    Ocotillo

    Maybe flying the Trump flag is a good thing for a business.  That way, the MAGAts can go there and the rest of us can be somewhere else?  I still am amazed at my trips into the “heartland” and all of the MAGA signs and flags.

  173. 173.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @chopper: … if he’d had a stroke we’d see cognitive issues!

    Slightly o/t, but – it ain’t necessarily so.

    One of my dearest friends – former teacher & near-second-dad – suffered a stroke at a pre-millennium Thanksgiving dinner in Europe. It attacked neither motor nerves nor cognition, but his sensorium. After that he never spent a day pain-free. I asked him what it was like, & he said,

    Like an electric current running down one whole side of your body that never shuts off.

    He took the strongest pain meds available & they barely helped – & every month or so his body would react to them & he had to be hospitalized for a few days to “dry out.” I spent some time researching for him some pretty grim treatment options – surgically inserted electrodes, gamma irradiation – but he was that desperate.

    His mind was still sharp as a tack until he passed a few years later, but hospodi Bozhe, the constant pain hammered a physically active & vigorous man in his 60s into a shuffling shell of himself.

    Just so you know, it ain’t necessarily so.

  174. 174.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But that’s just it Adam, he was going to be cancelled but then the MAGA cult saved him from oblivion!

    Now, could you be so kind as to subscribe to my newsletter? It gives you all sorts of good advice on investing in precious metals like gold and silver. They’ll last you all the way until the Second Coming, brother

  175. 175.

    Dave

    Not crazy as a PR move. Currently Gohmert has a 96% chance of recovering if he did nothing so pedalling useless cures just gets people confident and spending. They’ll accept a 4% death rate to keep fearless leader in power

  177. 177.

    Chris

    “If cancel culture was real, then John Yoo would be in jail”  Mehdi Hasan

    luv “wingnutistan”

  178. 178.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NoraLenderbee:

    Yup. Plus it just comes across as whining. At least have the courage of your convictions and accept the consequences, good and bad

  180. 180.

    cmorenc

    Meanwhile, over on Fox, guess who the headline person is giving tribute to John Lewis (without so much as a single peep anywhere on-site about Obama’s eulogy)?

    MIKE HUCKABEE, I kid you not.  Nothing from Huckabee about Lewis’s role in the Civil Rights or Voting Rights history.

    Also, Herman Cain gets equal billing with John Lewis in their top headline stories.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: I think they talked about this on a Lawfare podcast at some point… and they seemed to think Judge Sullivan will not likely prevail in the end.  I hope they are wrong.

    My opinion:  Institutions need to push back hard when these outlaws flaunt the rule of law and give special favors to Trumplings.

  183. 183.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    I think they talked about this on a Lawfare podcast at some point… and they seemed to think Judge Sullivan will not likely prevail in the end.  I hope they are wrong.

    Do you remember their reasoning? It seems like an open and shut case of corruption to simply dismiss a case when the accused already entered into a plea deal. Not to mention the evidence against Flynn

  184. 184.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I guess I thought that if they were alive today, they would be able to look past all of that like so many other Republicans have. Because white supremacy

  185. 185.

    danielx

    @chopper:

    Could be worse – I saw a piece the other day about using fish sticks to make fish tacos, which ranks right down there with tater tot casserole. Clearly a person who hasn’t hit the grocery for a while, or has no taste, or both.

  186. 186.

    Fair Economist

    @evodevo:

    You jest, but over at Naked Capitalism this is the kind of dreck they put up all the time.

    Naked Capitalism went south shortly after Yves started begging for money (2011? something like that). In particular it became super-hostile to any attacks on Russians or Russian influence. I honestly think the Russians bought it. Possibly not directly, they just give Yves a big contribution anytime she attacks those opposing fascism, racism, or Putin.

  189. 189.

    dmsilev

    @Kelly:

    I remember Senator Paul Wellstone’s memorial where the Republicans (and Jesse Ventura) collapsed on their fainting couches when speakers called on everyone to continue his work. “Politicizing a politician’s memorial?   How unbearably gauche.”

    ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.’

    So much for conservatives revering the lessons of the past…

  192. 192.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @evodevo:

    @Fair Economist:

    Funny you should mention Naked Capitalism. They have some…. interesting opinions about us over here on Balloon Juice

    Nothing different than what would’ve been seen on the likes of Firedoglake, for example

  193. 193.

    Kirk Spencer

    (and if you are not watching it, what is wrong with you?!?!?!?!),
    Oh, you know. Essential employee, no tv where I work, little things like that.

    Seriously, I get the point and attempted humor, but I’m beginning to be frustrated at the fact the commonal reference point is stuck at home and assuming only the stupid are out and about. There is a third category; I’d work from home if I could.

  194. 194.

    CaseyL

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): IIRC, the federal government has an absolute right to not pursue cases in court if it decides not to.

    When Obama first came into office, the DOJ withdrew from a case being argued in court,  the Defense of Marriage Act, no less, which was being challenged in court.  The GOP went nuts at the time, funding a private law firm to pursue the case without the DOJ. (They lost anyway – I don’t remember off the top of my head if this was the big Marriage Equality case, or one of the smaller ones that led to it.)

    That was a civil rather than criminal case, so there was no plea standing, and it was still being argued.  So I’m not sure how similar the cases are.  But there is definitely precedent for the US Government to walk away from a case.

  197. 197.

    JPL

    @Matt McIrvin:   One of the reporters on CBS said she got a text and responded that you do know he was arrested dozens of time for the right to vote.

  201. 201.

    Quinerly

    Very low energy Trump trying to read prepared statement right now. I hadn’t actually seen him in awhile. Definitely in some sort of physical decline. Breathing heavy, very bloated face. Anybody else watching?

  202. 202.

    jl

    Don’t know if this Vanity Fair article has been highlighted yet.

    Kushner assembled a team that was actually competent and expert to plan and execute a national testing infrastructure. They produced a good plan that was cancelled out of an immoral, criminal and deeply stupid partisan electoral bet. As disaster subsequently loomed, Kushner went to his billionaire business buddies and cooked up an illegal and incompetent attempt to score tests at the last minute that blew up in their faces.

    How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”

    Katherine Eban

    “Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert. ”

    vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/how-jared-kushners-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air

  203. 203.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @CaseyL:

    You’re probably correct, but I don’t think the government should have absolute right to just walk away from cases like Flynn’s. It smacks of obvious corruption. Anybody not willfully ignorant can see it. There have to be guardrails. Another flaw in our system, just how state secretaries of state can oversee their own elections once in office

  204. 204.

    evodevo

    @Fair Economist: Yes.. I noticed that also.  They totally dismiss at every opportunity the fact of Russian meddling, Russian fellow travelers, Mueller’s investigation, or any findings from the intelligence services.  It’s just amazin how far down the hole they went.  I followed Yves during the runup to the Crash of ‘O8 and bought her book on the debacle …full of good info.  However, like you said, after about 2010 it all started to unravel.  That blog-minder of hers, Lambert or whatever, does a lot of the play-by-play with regard to the Links posts.  Maybe that person is an outsized influence.

  205. 205.

    jl

    @jl: Also, in same article, says Birx really believed the models that said the covid-19 epidemic would end soon…. soon given what? No national plan?

    I wonder if that was the IHME model that was so prominent at the WH. A person could eyeball that models predictions and see it was not any good for anything after the peak of an epidemic curve, on several counts.

    What a needless tragic and criminal mess.

    Edit: the idea that the epidemic would be confined to any region or community was insane and extremely ignorant. It would go everywhere, through every community. Remember from the early days, the ‘before times’ when it was a rich person’s international travelers disease? Then it went to poor and minority essential workforce. Now it’s circulating in privileges sports world.

    Several weeks of scary swamped hospital stories and slowly tailing off death counts and refrigerator body semi-trailers are baked into AZ, FL and TX. No way to escape that. And some forecasting models with good performance predicting move into AK, MO and neighboring states.

  206. 206.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    I came across some article on NC on maybe Russiagate. Typed in NC with balloon juice out of curiosity. Sure enough results popped up. Mostly former BJ commenters complaining about the “group think” on BJ etc

  212. 212.

    jl

    @Baud:

    ” I didn’t realize other blogs read the sub 10,000 URLs. ”

    BJ blog punches above it’s weight into the almost top 9,000 blogs.

  213. 213.

    cckids

    @NoraLenderbee:If you choose to display a symbol publicly, then of course people will judge you, to a greater or lesser extent,  on the basis of the symbol. You can’t fly a flag and then complain “But you don’t know the real me!”

    At this point, someone choosing to fly Trump’s flag tells me all I need to know about them. They’re on the side of stupidity, racism and evil. They don’t give one single fuck about the country. All I need to know.

  217. 217.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Kirk Spencer: right there with you. I have been going to work at my regular building since this started. Wearing a mask a good part of the day Every work day. I m jealous of people who can work from home

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