And I hope to land a date with Carmen Electra, but I don’t plan my future around it. https://t.co/nnHkEAKRLW
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) August 25, 2020
The staging and costuming is very… military. pic.twitter.com/GIbuaxQG9H
— Emily Rauhala (@emilyrauhala) August 26, 2020
Michelle Obama absolutely didn't give this speech.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) August 26, 2020
Melania, like Larry Kudlow, is speaking about Covid-19 in the *past* tense.
More than a thousand people died from Covid in the U.S. today.
Again.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 26, 2020
Except for the immense cynicism behind it, which you're ignoring. https://t.co/h3TTMDmVeb
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 26, 2020
Trump announced that Melania would hold a news conference to address reports that she violated immigration laws when she first came to the U.S. He said this would happen "over the next couple of weeks."
That was almost exactly 4 years ago. Still waiting.https://t.co/S5Dm8Xc8nW— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) August 26, 2020
Also, Florida Grifter Crony…
Pretty amazing foresight to have Pam Bondi give a speech blasting corrupt nepotism and undeserved enrichment on the government’s back as a prelude to…(checks notes) speeches from two Trump kids and his wife.
— (((Michael Koplow))) (@mkoplow) August 26, 2020
What a remarkable choice.https://t.co/eam0o9ktyF
— Olivier Knox (@OKnox) August 26, 2020
Specifically a bribe from his charity that is now outlawed per an agreement with the State of New York that also resulted in basically half the remaining RNC speakers being barred from running another charity. https://t.co/9HuGGlLfH6
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) August 26, 2020
But they pulled the QAnon / Protocols speaker… for now…
“Hours before she was set to speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, Mary Ann Mendoza took to Twitter and urged her followers to investigate a supposed Jewish plot to enslave the world.” https://t.co/6SDmPxEcp4
— andrew kaczynski?? (@KFILE) August 25, 2020
She shouldn't have been there. It was a monumental failure of vetting. She's not a freak exception, but representative of a real strand of Republican politics. That said, it's good the Trump campaign is repudiating her and not going to the mat for her. https://t.co/mIVQM3NRuJ
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) August 26, 2020
YES. We're upset about the anti-Semitism, but never forget this woman was there for racist reasons. Her son was tragically killed in a car crash with a drunk driver who happened to be undocumented, so they put her on stage to blame foreigners for sins that are not unique to them. https://t.co/AET288NgZn
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) August 26, 2020
gotta put five bucks here trump finds out they cancelled her and forces her back on the schedule tomorrow
— kilgore trout, new tone haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 26, 2020
EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED!!!
Mary Ann Mendoza, the "angel mom" speaking tonight at #RNC2020 about her son who died in a car crash with an immigrant, spoke at an event promoting Steve Bannon's fraudulent border wall scheme that got him arrested: https://t.co/iqgITkdtyW pic.twitter.com/74chfz6aJQ
— Jean Guerrero (@jeanguerre) August 25, 2020
germy
Betty Cracker
Glad someone mentioned that the “Angel Mom” concept the Trumps created and continuously exploit, with the eager participation of Fox News, is racist garbage. They’d stand there with their mouths agape if you called Harry Dunn’s mother an “Angel Mom.”
Chyron HR
…yet.
Ohio Mom
If you decide against scheduling an anti-Semite, nobody knows. If you schedule one and pull her at the last minute, everybody knows.
The anti-Semites are impressed that you thought highly enough of her to give her a platform; they don’t hold it against you that you cancelled her at the last moment because Hey, everyone knows how all powerful those Jews are, duh.
For those who aren’t anti-Semites, you gain points for coming to your senses and cancelling the speech. Win-win.
Or am I giving the RNC planners too much credit? No doubt they’d like to be that strategic but maybe they aren’t that smart?
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Or Heather Heyer’s mom…
They really are shameless. It’s all just mouth noises in service to their cause – maintaining power at any cost.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Ohio Mom:
The TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) spent three nights discussing Ilhan Omar’s “all about the benjamins” comments.
After the third night, my wife and I looked at each other and said “Again?”
Will they be doing feature stories on this for three nights? Or when Gaetz invited the holocaust denier to the SOTU? I don’t remember the networks mentioning that one at all.
WaterGirl
Handmaidens & Sisterwives Edition
Inspired title, Anne Laurie!
senyordave
@Ohio Mom: II’m Jewish, I can’t imagine anyone who is Jewish who isn’t already for Trump being remotely impressed by this.
Brachiator
@Ohio Mom:
They ain’t that smart. And some folks who love Trump because they think he is good for Israel have to pretend that the cultivation of right wing bigots is no big deal.
But it is much the same for some in the GOP. Have we heard anything from Log Cabin Republicans about why they still support Trump?
Ohio Mom
senyordave: oh, I’m Jewish too. I was thinking about the few Republicans left who know it’s not cool to say racist and anti-Semitic things outloud.
The ones who I’m surrounded by here in Midwest Red suburbia, who don’t even know when they are repeating anti-Semitic tropes and also insist “we all worship the same God.” Um, no we really don’t.
The Thin Black Duke
@senyordave: They’re preaching to the choir. And, oddly enough, I find that encouraging because as rock solid as the support of Trump’s base is, it’s not enough (crossing my fingers) to get him reelected.
Cheryl Rofer
prufrock
Does David Brooks think being constantly ratioed is a good thing?
Oh wait, strike every word after think.
O. Felix Culpa
@Cheryl Rofer: Some of us are not ok with that. Hopefully enough of us to win in November.
rp
@Ohio Mom: I think you’re giving them too much credit. They stand to lose more Jewish GOP voters and other non-true believers from that stunt than they gain from anti-semites and other racists (who were going to vote for him anyway).
ETA: Put another way, if they needed to do that to shore up the anti-semite vote, they have much larger problems.
Cheryl Rofer
@O. Felix Culpa: I keep wondering if he puts off more people with that shit, or if the attraction to his believers is enough.
Or if nobody really listens to the conventions and it doesn’t matter to the voting.
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
Is there anyone who thinks Trump is good for Israel outside of Evangelicals who think that Israel must expand to its biblical borders before Jesus will return in fulfillment of prophecy and finally exterminate the perfidious Jews once and for all?
MattF
IMO, QANON picks up several time-tested antisemitic tropes, and this is a reason it continues to propagate. Even apart from blaming Soros for financing everything, there’s babies and Satan, and Hollywood, and… well, y’know, evil Democrats.
marklar
@Ohio Mom:
Also, Senyor Dave and others,
Now I know where to come if I ever need to find a Zoominyan!
NotMax
@above
“Somebody find a gay black Mexican Jew we can shove onstage for a minute. Stat.”
//
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke: Seconded.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.*
* Interesting note.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I honestly didn’t remember the name and had to google Harry Dunn. He was killed August 27, 2019, almost a year to the day. It feels like years and years ago.
The Thin Black Duke
@Cheryl Rofer: Thing is, while people can ignore kids in cages, the blatant corruption, the escalating displays of police brutality at protests, the lousy economy and Trump’s malicious stupidity, people can’t ignore the pandemic and sooner or later, in spite of the news trying to whitewash the administration’s monstrous non-response to the crisis, everybody in the country is going to be impacted by COVID-19. And after outbreaks continue in the schools, restaurants, movie theaters, bars and nursing homes, people are going to want somebody that’s going to fix this shit. And that won’t be Trump.
p.a.
@rp: Nah… gotta think any Jewish supporters still with him are in for the duration: Charlottesville, “very fine people…”. If that wasn’t a tell, there ain’t any tells. Bob & Jonathan Kraft, New Englander here lookin’ at you.
zhena gogolia
@Cheryl Rofer:
What do you mean by the president emulating Putin? I didn’t watch any of it.
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke:
I read that and thought “how can people ignore that?” but before I could even type it out, I thought: My sister does that. She doesn’t pay any attention to the news because she says there’s nothing she can do about it, so she tunes it all out.
By the way, what’s the emoji for frustration and rage?
Roger Moore
Am I the only person who thinks the line of flags are the wrong color? Our flag isn’t supposed to be just red, white, and blue; the colors are supposed to be specific shades, and those flags are not the right shade. I don’t know if their camera crew screwed up the white balance- OK, I know the camera crew screwed up the white balance, because the rest of the picture is off, too- or if they just bought cut-rate flags, but it’s definitely not right. It’s a minor point, but it drives me to distraction every time I see a shot from that location.
zhena gogolia
J.-L. Cauvin nails it again. So many funny lines here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMtiyPKsNOY
Leto
@SiubhanDuinne: Like everything in the Trumpov presidency, it’s kind of breaking the relativity theory: we’re all experiencing time during this presidency as this never ending thing. I occasionally see posts about the Dunns, via some of my FB groups, and they’re still trying to seek justice for their son. It won’t happen as long as the orange turd and BoJo are in office. I just hope they find some kind of peace moving forward.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
You are very charitable. Yet we have that story about the Utah teens who organized a counter “wear your mask” movement when their parents were trying to organize a “nobody wear a mask at school” movement.
That just happened this week.
Leto
@WaterGirl: Not an emoji but the closest I can come now a days: Frustration and rage
mad citizen
The Trump-Bondi photo looks like a Scorcese crime movie. And since we’re living this awful reality in a very public way because EVERY F-ING THING IS ABOUT TRUMP, there is no need to make the movie.
The Lincoln Project tagline really has it nailed: Trump or America.
Malovich
Just finished reading ‘Pale Rider’ by Laura Spinney. It was a look at how the Spanish Flu affected history and why it went down the memory hole, written in 2017. Eerily echoes current events; upshot is that we still haven’t digested what happened to us.
The good news is that this is likely going to kick us collectively leftward as we struggle to come up with policies to cope with this profound event in the future. Until the next one.
Oh, right, RNC blah blah blah. I have the impression that they’re trying to hold their bases’ attention at this point.
laura
@WaterGirl: ???? some combination of these should suffice for frustration and rage.
The Thin Black Duke
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: As I said, “sooner or later”. You can only play Russian Roulette for so long before you blow your head off.
mad citizen
@Roger Moore: Could be that particular photo–the red and white look too bright.
Question:
What are the exact shades of the colors blue and red?
Answer:
The exact shades of blue and red are numbers 80075 and 80180 in the Standard Color Card of America published by the Color Association of the United States. In the Pantone system the colors are: Blue PMS 282 and Red PMS 193. The RGB numbers are: #002868 (blue) and #BF0A30 (red).
From an American legion page: https://www.legion.org/flag/questions-answers/91472/what-are-exact-shades-colors-blue-and-red#:~:text=The%20exact%20shades%20of%20blue,282%20and%20Red%20PMS%20193.
My reaction like others was: that’s a F-ton of flags! There is such a thing as too many.
Patricia Kayden
Jinchi
Exactly. This is why I don’t give Trump campaign any credit for “repudiating her”. She was scheduled to give a speech on a dog whistle issue, she was removed when it seemed like there might be blowback.
And yet her message was delivered louder than it would have if she ever took the stage.
WereBear
@The Thin Black Duke:
I understand the red state people are still in denial.
But Sturgis is coming.
zhena gogolia
I just saw a headline from People about how Melania spoke of the Covid toll. WHAT ABOUT HER HUSBAND?
It’s like they farmed it out to the “First Lady” to acknowledge that 180,000 Americans have died.
Remember Benghazi?
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Supposedly this is supposed to be frustration:
And this is supposed to be rage:
(I suppose neither of them will post, which is just as well…) ;-)
HTH!!
Cheers,
Scott.
The Thin Black Duke
@Patricia Kayden: Cops don’t see black people, they only see a chalk outline on a sidewalk.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
I sometimes worry that we’ve gotten so used to a deteriorating quality of life that we’ll accommodate Covid like we’ve accommodated everything else.
Right now they’re busy lowering expectations for mail service. It’s new so people are still mad when it’s worse, but another term and it’d be like “this is how it is”.
“You can’t go to Canada anymore” Oh, okay. I guess I didn’t have to..go places. I’ll try not to be so demanding.
zhena gogolia
@Kay:
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking. They’re USED to Covid.
ETA: Of course that will change immediately should Biden be allowed to take office.
Baud
@Kay: I think as long as we’re not willing to accept with incremental progress, we’ll have to get used to incremental regress.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
They’ve lowered expectations for federal disaster relief in general. It came out last week that they withheld California wildfire assistance because conservatives don’t much LIKE California.
This is now the standard. You may get it, you may not. Certainly don’t count on it.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Would you accept a 1% death rate for a chance to obliterate your mortal enemy?
At this point, I don’t know if I would or not.
StringOnAStick
@Citizen Alan: My husband is Jewish and his cousins the dentist and MD couple in Detroit suburbs knew plenty of fellow Jews who supported tRump the first time. The reasons given were (1) tax cuts and (2) support for Israel and Bibi. His cousins recognised the latent fascism then, and it’s been on bullhorn levels ever since but the Jews we know who support Bibi do not waver.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
I saw Florida and Louisiana are on track for a hurricane. I thought “well, they’ll probably get help. The Trump Administration needs them”.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: In the end, they’ll do something about the pandemic because it’s bad for business.
Baud
@Kay:
It was mostly performance art.
Jinchi
There are a faction of ultra-orthodox Jews who are very happy with Trump. It’s not an accident that their views overlap with Evangelicals in all but the specific details.
zhena gogolia
Does anybody know what Cheryl was referring to when she said that Trump emulated Putin last night? I’m curious, I didn’t watch any of it.
ETA: Did he poison somebody on camera?
Kay
@Baud:
I’ll need to see it first. Not just the numbers but the actual fund transfer.
Baud
@Kay: Fair enough. When it comes to Trump, the best policy is “don’t trust and verify”.
mad citizen
@Kay: My stepson (46 years old) recently watched the movie 28 Days with his new domestic partner (it’s official in California!) girlfriend. I had to look up the movie (watched it 2-3 years ago) spoiler alert! — we could become like that when the protagonist is in the deadly pandemic in the U.K. but looks up to see a passenger jet flying over and realizes the whole time it’s just the U.K. that is suffering.
Hey, I just learned the 2020 Tour de France is happening! France outlaws gatherings of over 5,000 people. How to count the people along the route? Fans required to wear masks. the ESPN Q&A says the whole thing could crash and burn, though. If one rider tests positive the team is out of the race.
The Moar You Know
@The Thin Black Duke: Nobody’s ignoring any of that. They’re either horrified, or are thinking “this is exactly what I voted for”. The few Trump supporters I know aren’t 100% happy about the kids in cages thing as they simply think they should be dumped right on the other side of the border.
Or in the middle of the desert with no water. I’ve heard both “fine ideas” from those people.
Barbara
@Baud: On the other hand, California’s Republican delegation is still one of the largest in the nation even if they are in the clear minority in California — exceeded by Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Cheryl Rofer
@zhena gogolia:
ETA: And illegally used two Marines to do it.
mrmoshpotato
Ok, AL’s overview of Shitshow Night 2 was enough. Thanks for putting in the work.
More baseball awaits. (With southside DAY BASEBALL! as an appetizer)
Barbara
@The Moar You Know: Article in the NYT this morning made that same point. There are many people who are quite happy with what Trump hath wrought. They got exactly what they voted for.
zhena gogolia
@Cheryl Rofer:
Barf.
Ken
To me, “you all have to be sent to Israel to die in nuclear fire so Jesus will come again” seems more than a detail, but opinions may vary.
Cheryl Rofer
@zhena gogolia: Exactly
Kay
@mad citizen:
I was surprised more people weren’t upset it’s so difficult for them to leave the country. They’re all screaming about masks and I’m thinking “hey dumbass! He trapped you here!”
It’s not that they GO. It’s that they CAN’T, now. He literally took something of value from them, all of them. Do they watch the Trump people gadding around the world and wonder how this ended up that the “public servants” can travel and they can’t?
So much of Trump is just a bad deal for people. That’s where I get offended. I myself would have NEVER agreed to this shitty deal. Theyr’e still paying 55 cents for a stamp but it takes 14 days longer? How fucking stupid are these people that they accepted that? None of it is cheaper! They spend money like drunken sailors. It’s just lower quality, same high price.
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: Who’s got a better tailor?
The Moar You Know
@Cheryl Rofer: I find it odd, and not in a way that implies connections or anything – that the Mormons and the Russians have independently arrived at the same end stage game with regards to interior decorating; everything in white with gold trim. It’s weird. I wish one of them would change, don’t care which.
Don K
You haven’t heard? Dear Leader is the most pro-LGBT President in the history of the country! No, the mosy pro-LGBT leader in the history of the world! Electing Biden would be a massive step backwards for LGBT rights.
Roger Moore
@Citizen Alan:
There is a small but noisy group of Jews who don’t distinguish between supporting Likuk and supporting Israel who also like Trump.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: My son recently came back to the US from Kyiv, but there’s a possibility he could get a job offer there. He’d consider it if the offer comes through, but now he can’t go back. Ukraine does not permit entry for anyone coming from a “red zone” country. Which the USofA is.
Roger Moore
@mad citizen:
It’s not just the one photo. Every photo I’ve seen in that location looks wrong to me. There’s something up with the flags or the lighting or something.
germy
Roger Moore
@StringOnAStick:
If you support Bibi, you’re already on-board with fascism.
The Thin Black Duke
@Barbara: Yeah, but that’s why I’m trying to say: as long as somebody’s else’s baby is being tossed out in the bathwater, they don’t care, so it can be ignored. “I don’t care, do u?” Believe me, I know how callous people are. But eventually, these sociopaths will care about the pandemic because they can’t ignore it when it either kills them or someone they know. And yeah, it’s depressing to realize that if it wasn’t for COVID-19, it’s likely that Trump would be reelected. It is what it is.
Elizabelle
Jennifer Rubin speaks for me. Again.
WaPost: Don’t want to watch the RNC? You’re in good company.
She also makes the very good point that constant exposure to all the ugliness and urgency of the Trump/Fox News world can desensitize one to the lies and hate speech, as it is meant to.
The RNC is a planet I do not wish to visit. Nor TrumpWorld. Just say no.
The Moar You Know
@Kay: The number of people who want to leave the country is minuscule. 95% of Americans do not have passports.
My wife had a teaching colleague over the other night to hash out lesson plans. She’s in her late 40s. Never left the country. Thinks we’re insane to do so. Was utterly appalled at my wife’s and my tales of going down clubbing in TJ when we were back in high school. Asked how many trips we’d taken down there.
We both had lost count. Me, I’d been down there over a dozen times by the time i was 14. It’s in the hundreds. And we’ve both been all over the world now. Most Americans don’t give a shit about their freedom to travel, but we sure do.
Helps to live in a border town; helps to have had dads who were airline pilots. Travel was expected in our families. It’s not for most people.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Roger Moore: And the random smart aleck in me wants to know if the flags were made in the U.S. (and sweatshops in Saipan and Tinian don’t count) and if they were union made…
Elizabelle
That “Angel Mom” stuff is disgusting. Shame on them. I know. They have none.
But: deplorable.
Betty Cracker
It horrifies me that Trump’s approval rating has remained about the same despite the deaths of 177K Americans and the accompanying economic hardships that are a direct result of his administration bungling the pandemic response. But it’s clarifying too. Can we still save this republic, weighed down as we are by so many stupid, cruel and/or checked-out people? Well, we’ll find out soon enough. In a way, that’s a comfort, at least to me.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Rubin’s going to win me over. She’d better not betray my trust. That’s a genuine, thoughtful, kind thing for her to say. And TRUE!
I’m not watching the convention, nor their highlights, nor the hot takes, nor the tweets. I just want it gone.
Anya
David Brooks describes Melania’s speech as “relatively decent,” which means it absolutely sucked.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: She’s right. As someone else put it, the constant stream of corruption, bigotry and cruelty works like a denial-of-service attack. You get overwhelmed and shut down.
I watched the first half hour of the first night of the RNC. Even fortified by a couple of glasses of wine, that was as much as I could stand. I didn’t watch a minute of it last night and haven’t read anything about it outside the headlines. Self care!
Uncle Cosmo
Keep in mind, for most “folks who love Trump because they think he is good for Israel,” what they consider “good for Israel” is to stick around for its cameo in the End Times – when it’s destroyed & all the Jews die & go straight to Hell. God’s Plan & all that.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Good analogy.
MattF
@Anya: ‘Relative’ to speeches from her relatives, I guess.
mad citizen
I mentioned the “not able to leave the country” issue to my wife the other night–whether it had been mentioned anytime last week. Then I quickly realized the Democrats should not go there too much–it looks elitist. Aside from personal travel, there is business travel not happening because the trumpcult is so very inept. The old Republican party would be upset as such a prospect…
Gin & Tonic
@The Moar You Know:
Took 5 seconds to Google that
ETA: Maybe your nym should be “the less you know”
mrmoshpotato
@Anya: David Brooks can suck a dead horse’s ass. Any questions?
SiubhanDuinne
@The Moar You Know:
This can’t be right. Will you provide a source for this statistic, please?
ETA: Thanks, G&T. I’d still like to know where Moar came up with that number.
Ken
@MattF: I think “relative” to everything else we saw last night.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. Everything that Trump does is meant to demoralize those who are not his incredible shrinking base.
We cannot give in to hopelessness or despair. Be proactive there. She is right about self-care.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato: I have a question — which dead horse?
Jinchi
That’s actually a bit intriguing. Since the race takes place over several weeks, there’s serious incentive for all riders to be vigilant. Nobody wants to be on the team that was about to win the tour until one of the members decided to celebrate early.
WereBear
The RNC convention is not sugar-coating their message to pull in swing voters, are they? They are this-close to wearing hoods and burning a cross onstage.
Because their internal polling, which is accurate because they are paying for real stuff, tells them that all they have left is The Base.
They must wring every vote out of that Base. Because they can’t get votes anywhere else.
tokyokie
Good lord, the picture at the top of this post is the first I’ve seen of the outfit the Third Lady wore last night, and I immediately thought of Elvis Costello’s anti-fascist paranoia ditty “Green Shirt”:
But you tease, and you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself but somebody’s gonna get it
And I hope I’m not the only one who gets it.
Baud
@WereBear:
It’s two-fold. They want their base to turn out. But their base is also part of their disinformation apparatus in local communities throughout the country. They want to motivate the base to connect with GOP sympathetic low-information voters in a way that mass media can’t reach.
gene108
@Kay:
It started, when Republican Senators threatened to hold up hurricane Sandy relief for NJ and NY. We had the votes to get relief passed, but there were some folks who really wanted to stick to Democratic* run states.
*Chris Christie was governor of NJ, but not batshit fundamentalist for them, I guess.
snoey
@Gin & Tonic:
My wife is the director of a small suburban library here. She’s gradually re-opening.
They were swamped the moment they announced passport processing was coming back.
Frankensteinbeck
@Citizen Alan:
Yes. Very much so. Almost every strong Islamaphobe thinks Trump is good for Israel. They define ‘good for Israel’ as ‘allows and encourages Israel to kill as many Muslims as Israel wants.’ This is synonymous with supporting Netenyahu, since Netenyahu is a genocidal racist. This includes a serious (but thankfully nowhere close to a majority) block of American Jews.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Ummm….the deader, the better?
Jinchi
@Ken: Both groups believe they are God’s chosen people and they’ll excuse any action done in defense of that.
The detail is them disagreeing over who is his true favorite.
Hoodie
@Elizabelle: Woke up with that “Sunday morning going down” feeling after just a brief exposure to that toxic waste emanating from DC last night, the images of Tiffany’s dead black eyes and bleach blond roots for some reason etched on my retina. I don’t want to fall into denialism, but Rubin is right, we all need a break. Too much exposure to this crook and his craven enablers can lead to exhaustion and depression from the emotional injury. It’s getting to us all; even old Claire McCaskill was pretty agitated this morning after witnessing the Stalinist theater last night, railing at the utter debasement of any kind of norms of behavior by people who, if anyone, should be bound by those norms. Of course, Obama wore a tan suit, turnabout is fair play.
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
Honestly, I think it’s just because Trump is in charge and demands a spectacle of hate*. He is a malignant white supremacist, and that’s the message he believes in.
*Also a spectacle of worshiping him.
Ken
@snoey: It’s not necessarily people planning to flee the country. If you want to take a domestic flight, you need either a passport or a REALID card. So would you rather drop off your paperwork at the library for the passport, or spend two hours at the DMV to get a star on your license?
gene108
@Ken:
The Jews I know do not take the Christian End Times beliefs very seriously. They place no faith in the second coming of Jesus, since they have no faith in the first coming of Jesus.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I read that as “DICTATOR of a small suburban library”, which brought a smile to my face as I thought, “yeah, don’t mess with the librarians.”
Ken
@gene108: Well of course. It’s a bizarre relationship where each side is exploiting the other, and part of that is never saying “your beliefs are nuts”. I think most of them even know that, and know that the other side knows they know it, and so on for several iterations.
Elizabelle
Cruising through the WaPost reader comments on Jen Rubin’s column.
One reader is following the Panda Cam instead. That’s great advice! [They’re napping right now. But baby is vocalizing. Baby is held near Mom’s mouth, hidden by her paws.]
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore:
Given all the vagaries of video production, these things are hard to gauge.
Remember 1988? The Democratic Convention’s set design modified the red, white and blue of the flag, for use in set decoration, to slightly off colors that were said to look better on TV, and somebody made the terrible mistake of publicly mentioning this. They got murdered for it over a few news cycles. Adulterated Democrat colors! The RNC used genuine red, white and blue, by God!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
The passport numbers are actually better than I thought, and increasing. Even before Real ID.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/01/11/the-share-of-americans-holding-a-passport-has-increased-dramatically-in-recent-years-infographic/#3bbf502b3c16
4% of Americans has passports in 1990.
10% in 1997
27% in 2007
42% as of the writing of that article.
One big change was the requirement of a passport to travel to Canada, Mexica, and Central and South America.
BTW, am I the only one who is bothered by the idea of showing a passport for travel within my own country? Feels vaguely Soviet.
catclub
I think that about is doing too much work. from may to now Biden has surged relative to trump. yes, you and I agree it should have fallen to zero, what is the matter with you people? but that is not our US.
Jeffro
@Kay: I think it is funny and sad that my dad’s two favorite things to do were go to casinos and go on cruises… Whoops!…And yet, the subject most on his mind these days is who will be pulling Biden’s puppet strings come January.
Kay
@gene108:
It’s a real double standard. One of the political professionals opining on the GOP convention said it- “can you imagine if a big applause line for Democrats was ‘Mississippi doesn’t deserve our help!”
The whole punditry would collapse in shock. Elected Democrats never, ever do it. They bend over backward to appear as if they’re helping red states.
It was one of the main Obama themes. ONE country. To the extent that liberals got pissed at him.
Elizabelle
You know, I wonder if the networks regret broadcasting the RNC. They are all about the eyeballs. A lot of us find that shitshow to be anathema.
Hadn’t someone said Fox News was not broadcasting the RNC? LOL. Moar Hannity and Carlson for those fools.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Ohio Mom:
Speaking of speakers, hadn’t Falwell been replaced in the lineup by a pinch hitter?
And I wonder if he’s watching.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: I haven’t been watching it live, either. The morning news articles infuriate me enough.
Plus I have been crushing it catching up on episodes of “Better Call Saul” ?
catclub
Have you listened to Welcome to Nightvale?
snoey
@Ken: That’s some of it (though for many around here Ireland almost counts as domestic).
Newly naturalized citizens often really want a passport too.
Kay
Scary to watch them fall in line. I understand careers and financial obligations and I’m as ambitious as anyone else, but if this ever ends we have to talk about how weak these people were.
In attempting to keep their jobs they have made it so I don’t trust them to do their jobs. I don’t know why I WOULD keep them. It’s a tough break that they got this douchebag but part of the job is not capitulating to him.
They can’t save “the institution” by allowing it to be captured. They’ll lose it anyway. The reputation is the whole thing. If they piss that away they’ll find it all but impossible to get it back.
Jeffro
@The Moar You Know: I just looked it up and it appears that a much higher percentage of Americans traveledabroad recently – the data I saw was for 2018
granted, that probably includes people on cruises, Mexican trips, Bahamas, etc. – not everyone is doing a two-week grand tour in Europe. But it’s definitely more than 5% of us
Kay
Here’s what they’re presenting me with: “I can’t do my job because I’ll be fired if I stand up to Trump but it’s essential I keep the job, so I can’t stand up to Trump”
How does that benefit me? I’m seeing the employee benefit and the Trump benefit but where’s the public benefit in that?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@gene108:
In all this “Jesus coming again” talk, Is Jesus the bull or is He the guy in the corner?
Matt McIrvin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I let my passport lapse after we had a child–for years we weren’t going to do much international travel. Finally got one again a few years ago once she was big enough that she was easy to take along.
It’s weird to think that JUST before the world locked down we were flying to the other side of the globe and back. And then everything just contracted.
Kay
“I’m a lawyer in the DOJ but I can’t call out illegality or Barr will ruin my career”
What career? You’re not doing an essential part of your job. The thing is a contradiction.
Patricia Kayden
Arghhh
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: he has been signaling for a long time that he is all in on protecting white America from all threats real and imagined – mostly imagine, of course – and he is willing to shatter any norms to do it. There is a good Edsall piece up in the times right now that explains how this strengthens his worshipers’ attachment to him.
Biden and Co are right to show that trumpov cares only about himself, while Biden has great empathy for everyone. But in the end, they would do well to just hammer the shit out of trumpov’s pandemic non-response for the next 70 days
“ 180,000 American lives lost. Over 100,000 Americans small businesses lost. And Donnie doesn’t give a shit.“
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
In the soi-disant future, we’ll be given new CDC guidance that advises licking public bathroom sinks and sharing unwashed utensils in diners.
Ksmiami
@Baud: yes. I have decided the moral benefits of Covid Wiping Republicans Off the face of the earth is worth the risk…
Darkrose
@mrmoshpotato: Gio NoNo!
Jeffro
@gene108: Chris is still paying for that hug he got from Obama, and all I can say is, good!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Matt McIrvin:
I’ve got something like 30 countries under my belt, most in the past 6 years. Weirdly, I feel trapped.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
The hard part of standing up for your principles is when they’re violated. That would be…when you have to do it. Or not! But if you don’t you’re no longer a “standing up for principles” person.
If they get a President who doesn’t break the law they’ll go back to theoretically calling it out?
How do we trust them after this?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
We don’t. Literally everybody who swallowed their tongue needs to go.
That includes anonymous policy leakers. If it is important enough to leak, it is important enough to put your name to unless you’re in physical danger.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
My husband also really suffered with covid restrictions, like you. Just miserable. Take everything he enjoys and throw it out. Extroverts really did suffer. My youngest son too, so I had two moping around.
He was okay with cancelling a trip to Denmark in March but we just cancelled a trip to Canada for October and he was just really deflated.
I feel like less extroverted or outwardly directed people diminished how hard it was for some. Bleak. Also, honestly he was driving me crazy. Turns out a big part of why we’ve been happily married so long is he’s always moving. In motion. I sort of knew it.
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: I am crossing my fingers that Norwegian Air survives the COVID shutout.
They’re sending emails reminding us to book in 2021. So that might be good. Very few routes up; JFK and BOS.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Better Call Saul. Excellent!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
I’m actually seeing a therapist over it – she does in person, live sessions with mask removed, which I appreciate more than anyone can imagine. Maskless is important to see for the purpose of a hope of normality at some point, and frankly, I’ve had some dive injuries over the ears that impact my hearing, and I tend to read lips a lot more than I thought I did.
I have been managing. Diminished alcohol content a lot. I occasionally take a Xanax to sleep and ward off the ever-present 4 am anxiety, and youngest child supplied some cannabutter for cookies (which are actually super helpful to both me and the wife). I’ve resisted Wellbutrin so far – don’t like that family of psychoactives – but am still struggling with it all a bit.
Tell him he’s not the only one.
mrmoshpotato
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Punched in the crotch, thrown out on their ass – literally.
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
No, but we’re not there.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I recognized it early in my youngest so was looking for it. It manifests in an intensity of attention to petty things, things they would usually fly by. They’re simply not suited to all this down time. Ruminating rather than reflecting.
Just One More Canuck
@Roger Moore: I assume you mean the picture with Melania – it looks like the red bled into the white -making it look pinkish. Probably one of Trump’s known associates was sitting on a bunch of cut rate flags that bounced off the back of a truck
Yutsano
@Just One More Canuck: They do have a lot of flags at the White House to bring out for various reasons. I didn’t think I would see the entire inventory dragged out at one time. It makes me wonder what they were trying to hide.
Yutsano
Every single one of them is a liar. That’s it. That’s the post.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Some pundit was observing that this convention seems like Trump is trying to shore up his base. Maybe, Trump is such an idiot.
Also noticed Trump is going to stop the Airline layoffs by executive order. Ok Trump. But that’s another sign that Trump is feeling the pressure.
James E Powell
@gene108:
That was the reason his presidential campaign never had a chance. It is a right-wing fact that Christie helped Obama get re-elected.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: My mother-in-law is an extreme extrovert who just wilts if she can’t socialize with people. So she’s constantly trying to figure out ways to do that.
The thing is, she’s a former nurse who has been responsible for infection control, so she’s read all the literature on COVID risk factors, etc., and feels confident that she can do these things in such a way that she’s adequately safe. Maybe she can! In any event, if, in some specific instance, I think she’s engaging in wishful thinking, there’s no frickin’ way I can make an argument from authority against that.
I am a cranky, anxious introvert and my bias, if left to my own devices, has always been to just cocoon in my house to remove any doubt. But I have family and friends who don’t always agree, and sometimes that option becomes difficult to the point of my having to make concessions. And it’s also a constant temptation, because I do like to do things with these people!
MoxieM
@The Moar You Know: So much this. I’ve been travelling outside the US all my life (also inside it!). That’s had some effect: my kid moved overseas after college graduation, and although they don’t want to give up their US citizenship, they’re in Europe to stay. Of course, my ex, the biodad, was born to expat parents and grew up overseas as well. When they visited the US, about once every three years, they usually took ’round the globe flights, since they were cheaper. In those long ago days, ex, as a little boy, was allowed into the cockpit of the aircraft–kind of amazing.
I’ve been astonished to meet people who will happily take grown kids to Disney for the same money they could go to Europe–an English-speaking country, even. But, no passports. It’s a psychological barrier as well as (minor) logistical and financial one.
There are social class, or more accurately SES, issues at play here. Accessible air travel is pretty new–I can remember seeing my cousins off on a boat to France, where they frequently lived, and where my aunt & uncle retired. Not so many Americans feel the same comfort level with overseas travel.
sdhays
@Roger Moore: I haven’t watched it, but I’ve been struck by how the clips I’ve seen have the look of a Fox Snooze broadcast. Fox has a very distinctive color set; I find it puts me on edge how weird it is. It’s dark, bold, garish. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s deliberate – using the colors to subconsciously agitate their viewers.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: 98.3732% of all statistics on the internet without citations are made up.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
Based on NPR’s reporting on “Morning Edition” this morning, where as far as I could tell they didn’t mention it at all, the answer is a big fat “NO”.
Matt McIrvin
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Most of the countries I’ve visited were on the same youthful epic Eurailpass sojourn in 1991. But I’ve been to Canada, Spain and Singapore recently. COVID-19 practically chased me back home from Singapore–their first cases, last I heard, arrived the same day I left.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: I’m so with you BC.
The Moar You Know
Rough crowd.
Another Scott
@Kay: I think we all need to be careful about news reporting on COVID-19 testing. There are a lot of nuances.
E.g. (As I understand it) PCR testing is extremely sensitive at finding SARS-CoV-2 viruses and virus fragments, but it doesn’t say whether someone is infectious to others or not.
If the CDC is saying “dial back PCR testing because it is expensive, slow, and not telling us what we need to know – whether someone is infectious or not – and start cranking up other types of faster, more appropriate testing” then that’s probably a good thing.
(I haven’t read the CNN story.)
Cheers,
Scott.
StringOnAStick
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I hear you on resisting antidepressants, but Wellbutrin saved me for sure. It doesn’t have the weight gain issue that many SSRI’s have but some find it too “speedy”. I’ve tried several times to stop taking it though and the last one devolved into some vertigo (and depression) so I figure we’re partners forever, and that’s the true risk with those drugs, so beware.
catclub
from cnn. hoocoodanode?
Bill Arnold
@gene108:
The “die in a nuclear fire” part is … secular.[1] Various moves supported by “Christians” appear to increase the probability that there will be (is) a regional nuclear arms race, with leadership with inconsistent rationality and short missile flight times.
[1] Technically, one might call it applied eschatology. These are extremely dangerous people, to be euphemistic.
J R in WV
@Roger Moore:
Those are cheap Chinese flags, manufactured by a company that has no more idea about Pantone colors than the man in the moon. They can’t be color adjusted to be correct, either. Changing to get one right will make the other color more wrong.
A friend of mine was on the Pantone Color Committee for years, interesting work, but I suspect you need to be OCD to the max about colors to enjoy it.
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
No, you’re not the only one to reject the idea of needing papers to walk down the street. And it doesn’t feel vaguely Soviet, it is authoritarian, and feels that way because it is that way.
Also: Feels German Nazi, Italian Fascist, Soviet Block Communist, Republican American Fascist. Because it is.