From the reporter who broke the story originally:
Seriously. The Trump campaign said it would release video that would exonerate staffers if people kept reporting that they had berated and shoved an Arlington National Cemetery official who sought to prevent what she said were violations of the law.
It still hasn’t. https://t.co/Pz9IpLRaCu
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) August 30, 2024
U.S. Army statement confirms NPR @QuilLawrence report of a physical altercation at Arlington: employee “who attempted” to get the Trump campaign to follow the cemetery rules “was abruptly pushed aside.”
The “employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.” pic.twitter.com/f1iIcTUhXp
— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) August 29, 2024
Media was fine letting Trump use Arlington Cemetery as a photo op until NPR, to its credit, worked sources to get the story. Trump's team lied about *every relevant fact* of what happened and now the Army's involved. Trump is who he is but the media failures are glaring https://t.co/cXOr7x4t56
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) August 29, 2024
And, of course, TFG’s loyal GOP “legislators” were in on the grift all along. Mr. Pierce, at Esquire:
I hate to keep dwelling on the former president*’s tasteless fiasco at Arlington National Cemetery, but… oh hell, who am I kidding? I’m wallowing in the sumbitch and intend to do so as long as others perseverated on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s server practices. Or as long as there are New Developments. And, yes, there are New Developments, including Speaker Moses’ alleged involvement in greasing the skids for the whole business. From, god help us, The Daily Caller:
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul explained to the Caller that he was contacted by Gold Star parents Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, the parents of SSGT Taylor Hoover. Hoover and Barnett told him that Arlington Cemetery was giving the Gold Star parents of the U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate a hard time about coordinating a ceremony with Trump on the anniversary of their deaths. McCaul immediately reached out to Johnson to ask for his assistance with the matter and the Caller is told he continued to track it until it was fixed.
Ask yourself why Trump didn’t visit Arlington on the first or second anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Answer: because he merely wanted to use the cemetery for a political stunt during his presidential campaign
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 30, 2024
🔥@broadcastmike puts to bed any comparison of what Trump did to what others have done in Arlington:
"Trump's campaign went in there specifically to capture imagery of him at graveside in a partisan political act…We're comparing apples and dump trucks here."#TrumpDishonorsUS pic.twitter.com/lOafELkvZS
— VoteVets (@votevets) August 30, 2024
Danielx
You have to wonder about Team Trump’s grasp on this whole politics thing. They don’t seem to be very good at it.
opiejeanne
This just keeps going and going, with new revelations every day. They are idiots, and they are weird.
WV Blonde
For almost 10 years – ever since that stupid, fateful ride down the escalator – how many thousands of times has someone somewhere written that their father/uncle/cousin/grandfather who fought in WWII was spinning in their grave at the thought of this Nazi wannabe as president?
I think their ghosts are fighting back.
Ruckus
One has to wonder if any plain old citizen of this country can be such an ass to humans who died in war for this country.
Oh wait, we’ve got one that seems to attempt this most every day, because he thinks his shit doesn’t stink.
Well it doesn’t. It reeks to as high as it can be measured. This pompous jackass djt thinks he’s the best human to walk the earth. But he’s at absolute minimum, a lot of million places below pure shithead. Of all the citizens who have served, men and women, and the ones that died for their country, this is one that had some made up bullshit medical non issue and who lied about it to keep from serving his country. And he thinks he deserves accolades for his total assholyness. He deserves a cell, on a mostly deserted island to lay on the dirt floor of, till his last day.
Just one veteran’s opinion.
eclare
@WV Blonde:
I’m betting that the men and women who beat the Nazis the first time will do it again.
The Thin Black Duke
@Danielx: They’re not. Their modus operandi is to lie, cheat and steal. Republicans are useless when its a level playing field.
But, as smarter BJers have observed before, they never had to be competent because the GOP could always count on the MSM as backup.
I think what makes this situation different is no matter how hard Trump’s spin doctors are trying to make this debacle go away, it’s impossible to dump that obscene photograph of Donnie giving a thumbs up at the graveside in the memory hole.
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
djt thinks he’s the greatest human being that has ever lived, and can do no wrong. And as usual he’s 10,000% wrong on all counts, as he always is.
Dangerman
Bandini Mountain* on that fuckers grave.
*Might be an LA thing.
Scout211
Rolling Stone (web archive version)
There you have it. He really doesn’t know anything about it. Really. He doesn’t know what happened, what the rules are, who is to blame or why he was even there in the first place.
Donald Trump only knows about Donald Trump. That’s all he knows about and all he cares about. Anything else is someone else’s responsibility and someone else’s blame.
I cannot believe that so many voters still plan to vote for him.
TBone
What atrocity awaits as Donold tries to “top” his latest stunt attempt at dominance? He and his sniveling henchmen will keep trying to wrest this matter from the headlines, as they tried with the Florida abortion amendment circus tricks. You can set your watch to it.
I’m really looking forward to Sentencing Day in NYC, as well as the headlines and attention focusing on J6 that must surely be coming in light of Jack Smith’s new speaking indictment.
In the meantime, continuing to rub his nose in this shitty diaper is good strategy.
The Thin Black Duke
What I can’t believe is the people who Trump just threw under the bus will still vote for him.
TBone
@TBone: first attempt by sniveling henchman:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/man-attempts-to-storm-press-pen-at-trump-rally-before-being-taken-down-by-police/ar-AA1pK3SX
TBone
Ginger Rogers delivering some of her best, badass work in ‘Storm Warning’ on TCM right now. She takes no shit from toxic males in this movie.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Warning_(1950_film)
Mousebumples
I love the inclusion of VoteVets here. I haven’t served, and while my grandfathers did, I feel uncomfortable telling others how they should feel about a military issue, even (especially?) a “controversial” one like this one.
But sharing VoteVets images and statements is something I can do!
artem1s
The media aren’t the only ones. The US military and DoD has a long history of allowing GOP politicians to use them as campaign props. Once again, the problem is now they have no control of the beast they helped create. Ask the parents of Pat Tillman how they feel about him being used as a prop to fuel Darth Cheney’s hard-on to start a war with Iraq (and bomb, bomb, bomb Iran). Mission accomplished I guess.
Jay
Update, T has a couple more tests to go,
On the bright side, she has the top surgeon for the op, is flying in from Toronto, that in theory is non intrusive*, if the tests go well.
*butt ,feeding in a probe
“Mercan’s” diss Canadian Healthcare.
Parts of it suck, but when it works, it works well and is free,
So far, we are out $180, for “doctors notes” required by the employer, (morons).
TBone
@Jay: hoping for the best for T and you, glad to hear the words “top surgeon.” Hang tough!
TBone
Update😊
https://abcnews.go.com/US/jack-smith-asks-judge-jan-6-case-address/story?id=113267689
Jay
@TBone:
Thank you.
Tony Jay
@Jay:
I admire the attitude you and T are approaching this situation with, Jay. It’s shit, but the only way is through. Look after yourself, mate.
TBone
@Jay: we’re all glad you’re here, I feel very confident in speaking for the crowd on that
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: This “Mercan” has some experience with Canadian Heathcare and so will never “diss” it.
Like T-bone, I’m hoping for the best and glad to see “top surgeon” in your post.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Good morning. For you, I have this.
DJT Makeup Tips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5M_eA17c8
Enjoy
eclare
@artem1s:
Pat’s brother’s speech at Pat’s funeral was brutal. As it should have been.
eclare
@Jay:
Oh that is wonderful!
And this Murcan has experience with the NHS, back in 1996 before the Tories ruined it, and was very impressed.
I was only asked the following in the ER: name, address, religion. I guess so they’d know what rites to give, in case.
piratedan
@Danielx: well you have to take into consideration that they KNOW that the majority of the MSM is going to cover for them. It wasn’t until NPR (which usually isn’t seen as a news breaking source) started getting traffic with it and THEN the Army piled on and went public, that then it kinda sorta had to be covered. Naturally they pushed the Trump camp version until people started shooting holes in that. Then they tried to run with “the video will exonerate me” bullshit and that has yet to surface, but strangely his TikTok ad got loaded…. and is out there. Now with the fact that McCaul and Johnson pressured the Arlington staff to let him, assuring them that DJT would follow the rules, well, now that’s fallen to shit as well since its obvious that DJT had no intention of following them and thot that this would shore up his patriotic street cred.
Now the Vets are pissed, no exculpatory video is to be seen and it turns out that people in general don’t like having their dead relatives exploited for a campaign video, regardless if they were a sucker or a loser.
Not sure what new depths can be plumbed, but damn if he doesn’t keep finding them. It’s getting to be 50/50 if he shows up to the debate that he calls her a slut, a bitch or a n*****. He could also try and cop a feel, he’s that confident that the rules simply do NOT apply to him.
Tony Jay
Denying he knows anything about this ‘organised Gold Star Event’, distancing himself from his own campaign’s defences and claims, throwing the families who have tried to shield him under the bus.
People often mention Stench’s feral ability to scent vulnerabilities in a grift and either exploit or avoid particular angles of fuckery. If their master is backing away from this fight, expect the Party of Hench and their media allies to redouble their efforts to reinvent history and turn this into a problem for Democrats.
satby
VoteVets is not going to let this go. YouTube link to their latest ad.
satby
@Jay: Best of luck to T and you.
Sure Lurkalot
@The Thin Black Duke:
Looks like the same thumbs up, grinning idiot in this 4-year old photo after a mass shooting in El Paso that got memory holed. There is no bottom to his depravity, each heinous act burying the one before and a media that treats his sociopathy as fodder for clicks.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/trump-photo-melania-el-paso-orphan-baby-photo.html
eclare
@satby:
That’s good.
Jay
@satby:
Thank you.
Jay
@eclare:
Thank you.
Jay
@MagdaInBlack:
Thank you.
eclare
@Sure Lurkalot:
That photo did not go down my memory hole. The lack of any humanity is stunning. And scary.
Jay
@Tony Jay:
Thank you.
Jeffg166
Harris dominated the headlines for two weeks he had to do something to get the focus back on him. He succeeded yet again.
sab
@piratedan: I love NPR except for Morning Edition, which offers the programming that gives the rest of NPR a bad name. If Trump’s crew has lost Steve Inskeep then they have really messed up.
raven
sab
@Jay: My dad was a doctor (pathology) who admired the Canadian health system. He tried to move us to Canada in the 1960s but Mom said no (too much winter.)
Baud
@Jeffg166:
Trump is unstoppable.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: Great way to get that “less publicity” he says he would like would be to STFU and go away.
MattF
It’s so fucking awful, as ever. But what really made me blink this time is that the plan was use the event as a hit against Biden— so the TFG campaign could then claim Biden was at the beach while the Golden One was honoring the military. There are just a dizzying number of lies, libels and insults packed into that idea.
Baud
Via reddit, more Trump being Trump.
motopilot
So is Trump attempting to prove that if you give your life for our country you are a sucker?
In his mind, he thinks… “I can dance on their grave and hardly anyone recognizes that. It’s just good press.”
It’s like him hugging and kissing the flag. It’s like him being on The Apprentice. It’s all for show.
Geoduck
One additional fun tidbit- the governor of Utah was dumb enough to get involved in the Arlington fiasco. Evidently he was one of the people in one of the “grin and thumbs up” shots; I’ve read he’s been a non-Shiatgibbon fan in the past, and decided he needed to get on the bandwagon. And now he’s taking heat for it back home.
eclare
@Baud:
I read that yesterday and knew exactly what was unsaid.
Frankensteinbeck
As much as Trump craves publicity, he does not like bad publicity and throws fits when his actions are not portrayed on the media as perfect. Screaming Truth Social tantrums, generally.
eclare
@motopilot:
Either that or as he told the widow of one of the soldiers killed in Mali, “he knew what he signed up for.”
Nelle
@piratedan: Our HOA is pretty hands off, but we like to stay in the guidelines, one of which is no political signs until six weeks before the election. So my husband was holding his Vote Vets sign until then. But after the Arlington transgression, he put it out. Veterans for Kamala. He did 10 years in the Navy, three tours in Viet Nam. I doubt anyone will complain.
Geminid
@Mousebumples: VoteVets and its national network of supporters have played an important role in the Virginia 7th Congressional District race. Last November they staged a “shock and awe” campaign launch for Eugene Vindman that raised a million dollars the first day and bigfooted the other hopefuls. Vindman cruised to victory in the June primary and enjoys a substantial fundraising edge over his Republican opponent, Derek Anderson.
Both men are Army veterans in their 40s. Eugene Vindman and his twin brother Alexander completed the ROTC program at SUNY-Binghamton, while Anderson enlisted and was a Special Forces noncom most of his career. After retiring Anderson graduated from law school at Georgetown University. Vindman earned a law degree while in the Army.
Redistricting has shifted the 7th District’s center of gravity from the northern Richmond suburbs to the I-95 corridor, from Woodbridge south to Fredericksburg. The old 7th had been Republican for decades until Abigail Spanberger flipped it in 2018. She won the redrawn 7th by over 4 points in 2022, and I think this year’s contest is rated as “Lead D.”
VoteVets could have a significant impact in this district. The 7th is largely suburban/exurban, running from the lower Potomac to the Blue Ridge. It’s chock full of military veterans, many of them in their second careers like Vindman and Anderson.
rikyrah
@Jay:
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
rikyrah
@Nelle: ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
raven
@Geoduck:
Under Cox’s signature, the email said, “If you would like to further support our campaign please consider the following options:” and included buttons to display a yard sign or donate.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday morning, Cox wrote, “This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign. It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent.”
Baud
VoteVets deserves all the kudos.
Baud
@Geoduck:
Much is made of Mormon disgust of Trump, and that may help on Arizona, but Utah will remain solidly red.
eclare
@Baud:
That is what is so weird. I googled Cox, he said he did not vote for TCFG in 2016, 2020, and would not in 2024. Until he was shot, then Cox changed his mind.
Did he really think that there would be some groundswell of support for TCFG because he was shot? Cox is going to win UT regardless, why switch?
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: 😆 thank you and good morning!
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: it’s good to know vindman Has a likely lead, and pretty good funds. I get his fundraising ads often in YouTube, and I’m rooting for him!
Baud
@eclare:
Trump’s poll numbers not improving after getting shot is the only good polling news this whole cycle so far.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: May it continue to go in a positive direction.
(Not very articulate at this time of night)
TBone
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/08/jack-white-says-hes-suing-trump-over-using
Gloria DryGarden
Is that coming up soon? Oh please, I need something to celebrate.
(I stopped tracking it when it got postponed after I’d waited it so eagerly. Maxed on the disappointments and incredulity)
Baud
@TBone:
I appreciate Trump for his work in helping to identify which musicians are righteous.
Geo Wilcox
@Scout211: Tump reminds me of a malevolent Dickens character from Bleakhouse. The slimy guy who uses a shady lawyer to bilk the small fortune of one of the wards in the Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce. He’s the one who always blames others and excuses his errors and alleged ignorance being due to his “childlike” demeanor.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: Jack gives me the creeps, but I share his sentiment on this.
Ain’t mincing any words, is he?
The Thin Black Duke
@Geo Wilcox: Since you mentioned Dickens, I think of Vance as being Uriah Heep.
eclare
@TBone:
In the list of artists telling TCFG to stop using their music they left off the estate of Isaac Hayes.
eclare
@Gloria DryGarden:
So far still set for Sept 18.
eclare
@The Thin Black Duke:
I think of JV as Dr. Faustus, selling his soul to the demon.
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne:
They are also fascists, and they are also traitors.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Exactly right.
matt
The thing is, they can’t release the video that exonerates them, because the video implicates them.
Princess
@Scout211: The fact Trump is in retreat on this and has thrown all his aides and the Gold Star families under the bus is perfect.
sixthdoctor
Nebraska may be getting marijuana legalization on the ballot this year. Just on general principles I’d think that’s a good development.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medical-marijuana-nebraska-ballot_n_66d22578e4b013957161d0f3
mrmoshpotato
@artem1s:
Thank you for the reminder that John McCain should be burning in Hell.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Just saw a Blue Sky post in which someone referred to Henry VIII as “God’s own Brexiteer.” Made me laugh. Let’s see if I can link it.
Geminid
@Geminid: Eugene Vindman is one of two Democrats running for open seats in northern Virginia this year. The other is state Senator Suhas Subramanyam who running in the 10th CD. The current Representative is Jennifer Wexton, who sadly must retire for health reasons.
Wexton endorsed Subramanyam in the primary, with good reason I think. A 37 year-old attorney and volunteer firefighter/EMT, Subramanyam worked in the Obama White House on a tech-policy task force, and has been a state legislator for several years now.
Subramanyam grew up in the Houston area, and earned a law degree at Northwestern University after undergraduate studies at Tulane. He’s lived in the district about 15 years, which could be the median for this rapidly growing area.
Senator Subramanyam also has an older connection to the 10th CD. Dulles Airport lies at its northern end, and that was his parents’ Port of Entry when they immigrated to the US. They were on their way from Bangalore to Houston, where they took up medical careers.
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack:
Go away into the Sun?
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: That’ll do.
AM in NC
@piratedan: Everything in your comment is true, but something in it really struck me: how deeply deeply misogyny is embedded in our culture. It has become anathema to write/say racist terms, and we have a workaround (N-word) when trying to describe racist language used by others. But disparaging words applied to women? No problem. We don’t even notice it, it is so accepted and embraced.
Please understand that I’m not saying that YOU are a misogynist, just noting how language reveals culture, and we are soaking in misogyny.
I had the same thought when the Dixie Chicks changed their name to be culturally sensitive. “Dixie” was a problem, but referring to themselves as women as fluffy, baby farm animals was not seen as any kind of issue.
BethanyAnne
@Jay: I hope everything goes great for you
Baud
@AM in NC:
FWIW, I feel like I hear the “B word” generally and as applied to women a lot less now than when I was younger.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: Eugene Vindman looks like a good candidate. He’s new to electoral politics but he shows decent retail campaign skills. Vindman’s biggest advantage is that his opponent is running with Trump.
p.a
It took Tail Gunner Joe stupidly going after the Army to take him down. Now this, 🤞same result.
By any means necessary. But it’s disturbing that has to get to that point, as if smearing average citizens or other institutions is BAU (business as usual), “nothing to see here, move along.”
geg6
@MagdaInBlack:
He creeps you out?!?!?! Jack White is awesome! The guy who has Johnny Cash as one of his icons? The guy who was in It Might Get Loud with Jimmy Page and the Edge? The guy who looks kinda like Johnny Depp before Depp did too many drugs and drank too much alcohol? I love Jack White!
Raven
@p.a: Don’t count on it.
Raven
@Baud: It’s used widely as a snarky term.
MagdaInBlack
@geg6: LoL , I get the Johnny Depp similarity, but there’s just something uncanny ( to me) about him. I’m fine with (most) of his music.
Suzanne
@Danielx:
I don’t know about that. They have a chokehold on a wide swath of voters. Every time we get spun up about something like this, a bunch more of his diehards gets even more dug in.
I mean, they’re terrible people.
Baud
Jack White and Jack Black should do a movie together.
Mousebumples
That’s reasonable. There are Trump signs out (also some for the August primary), but I put out a Baldwin sign and one for my local (long odds) State Assembly race.
Hoping to get a Harris/Walz sign, Lyerly sign… And I might pick up one that says, “I Stand With Planned Parenthood” at the farmer’s market today. Given out by some ministers, I think, who also have free condoms, among other things.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Nominated.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Trump’s campaign has to reach beyond the Republican base though. They have to carry the Independent/Unaffiliated vote to win states like Arizona and Georgia, and those voters are the kind this Arlington story alienates.
brendancalling
I stopped listening to NPR a few months back due to the constant negative reporting on Biden. Sometimes I tune in just to see the train wreck. Folkenflik and Inskeep are two of the worst offenders. Honestly surprised they’re not making a false equivalence or a both-sides here. I’m sure they’ll figure out someway to minimize it. They always do…
Baud
@Geminid:
I think it’s difficult for us to predict what will alientates whom. There have been so many things he has done that should have alienated people but haven’t. We just have to keep pushing and hope something clicks before November.
SFAW
@Jay:
TBone’s thoughts and wishes reflect my own. Best wishes to T, and keeping my fingers crossed for excellent results.
Baud
@brendancalling:
I’m not sure if there’s yet been a media drumbeat for Trump to release the video like we saw with demanding that Kamala sit down for an interview.
Princess
FYFNYT but this is more plausible than any other account I have read. It was the senators who pushed Biden out. They did it around July 12. Not, as it happens, Pelosi. “Give me another week,” Biden told them.
The article doesn’t say, but I bet he told Harris then and the two worked together to create a seamless transition and handover. Under the cover of the RNC, Harris could get her ducks in a row, plan her message, her music, her look, with Biden’s blessing, using his team which is now her team and be ready to go on July 21.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/us/politics/senate-democrats-biden-drop-out.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HE4.QktT.-o34ykjo7zpB&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb&ngrp=ctr
Sorry — probably not a gift link because it’s a gift sent to me but you can look it up.
Geminid
@Baud: My observation is that a lot of Independents who might otherwise vote Republican object to Trump on grounds of character. So do some Republicans, and I think the Arlington story will reinforce those doubts.
Raven
@Princess: Who cares?
Ramalama
@Jay: Fingers crossed!
Also as a ‘Merican living in Quebec, I still rate Canadian healthcare +2 to +10 over USA (depending). My parents had the gold standard in medical insurance (in Chicagoland) and still had to HIRE MY BROTHER part-time to get help, while they were ill, to battle with doctors and the insurance company. A nightmare.
I’m of the mind that healthcare is baked into the Canadian system, and is paid for by citizens paying their taxes, right? It’s free in that it doesn’t cost extra-extra as it does in the US.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: He and Lenona Helmsley seem to be two peas in a pod.
There seems to be something toxic about people in big-time NYC real estate – and of course they all hate each other.
It’s good that NPR and others are not letting this ANC story just fade away.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Ramalama:
All free health care systems are paid for by taxes.
eclare
@geg6:
Ooh, Jimmy Page is prob my favorite electric guitarist, I’ll have to check that out!
Booger
@Geminid: Is Anderson the one with the nonsensical/nonsequitur slogan “From Combat to Congress?” Like, lolwut??
Booger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Blessed are the cheesemakers!
Suzanne
@Geminid: But does it actually alienate anyone? Like, that’s what I’m really struggling with.
Nothing he has ever done has moved that needle in any significant way. Like, if you were ever a person who would have been deeply offended by this incident — and I include myself in that — weren’t you already offended? He’s done so much that’s terrible already.
I think any election with Trump in it is really about how much Americans hate other Americans and want to make them suffer. And that loathing is wide and deep, and supersedes almost everything else.
SFAW
@Baud:
Among the most frustrating/maddening things about the US electorate.
Ramalama
@Baud: It took me a full minute to understand the photo of the XRay of Byron Donalds.
sixthdoctor
@brendancalling: I killed my Slate subscription for the same reason. And they still seem pretty negative on Harris; there was just an article on how she isn’t being sufficiently pro-Palestine enough.
Geminid
@Booger: I did not catch that. I know that when I sampled Vindman’s and Andersons social media acounts a month ago, Vindman was talking about defending Social Security and lowering prescription drug costs while Anderson was warning about the threat posed by Iran. Vindman also posted a pic of a well-attended campaign rally with a big “VoteVets” banner on display.
p.a
Brain glitch: every time I see ANC my first thought is African National Congress.
Ramalama
@Baud: Seems like a concert should be in the works of all righteously aggrieved artists (those still alive) whose music Trump used – to benefit the Harris/Walz campaign.
SFAW
@Suzanne:
Your comment made me think of this SNL sketch from 2012. I expect you’ve seen it before.
catclub
@p.a: Every time I see the abbreviation of Community Supported Agriculture
RL
@The Thin Black Duke: Uriah Heep libel! /s
https://youtu.be/lumulauzCU0?si=ZsPJvNY9jLhd6-r2
Ramalama
Oath Keeper Stuart Rhodes, the eye patch who got 18 years for his part in Jan 6 insurrection, has a son who has turned progressive Democrat and is running for office in Montana.
DAKOTA ADAMS:
brendancalling
@piratedan: I’m betting on “you fucking bitch” slipping out if/when she shreds him during the debate. Problem is his mic will be muted, so we probably won’t hear it (and the NYT will cover for him anyway).
Suzanne
@SFAW: Yeah, I’ve seen that one, but it’s evergreen.
Suzanne
@Ramalama:
Oh, absolutely yes. Never forget that they really want to kill us.
There’s also a lot of comments in right-wing places about how the rural conservatives in the cities have lots of guns and grow all the food and will kill all the liberals in the cities when the war breaks out. I guess they think liberals don’t have any guns. Except in Chicago or something? I don’t know. It’s not really coherent.
pluky
@Baud: Which is a more efficient way of payment than private market premiums (2%-3% administrative load relative to 15%-20%).
Geminid
@Suzanne: Well, we are talking here of predictions of voting behavior that can only be proved in the event.
I am working off of anecdotal reporting in general, by disaffected Republicans and Republican leaning Independents, and I do think they are affected by matters like the Arlington Cemetary incident. This is not a large group relative to the entire electorate, but these are otherwise reliable Republican voters and I don’t think Trump can afford to lose them this time.
cmorenc
@Danielx:
A main collateral goal of Trump & campaign with the Arlington Cemetary incident was to demonstrate that Trump is a strongman who is above being bound to any rules imposed by others. And that he can use that superpower of being unbound or immune to fix all the stuff his followers believe are broken (or “woken”) about this country…because the ordinary institutions enforcing accountability are corrupt and broken, and his blatant defiance and getting away with stuff is proof to his MAGA followers of his power to uproot and change them to de-corrupt the system.
Whereas what we see is a brazenly corrupt narcissistic sociopath who doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself and is a wanna-be American Putin who deserves a long jail sentence.
Gloria DryGarden
@Suzanne:
that’s one of the weirdest things of all. The level of hate, the inability to take note of evidence, the hateful rhetoric I’ve seen when I lurk around on Facebook, and the above discussed idea that some want to even kill the centrists and liberals.
If any of ’em profess to be Christian, I do wish they’d post their 10 commandments in their kitchens: I’m thinking if the one that says thou shalt not kill.
Well, hmm
Another Scott
@brendancalling: I don’t hear Morning Edition much any more, but it seems to me that Franco Ordoñez and maybe to a lesser-extent Domenico Montanaro are worse than Inskeep and Folkenflik. They’re just relentless in slanting things to be terrible (or just as bad) for Biden and Democrats, and “oh well, here’s what Trump said but nobody cares”-ing TCFFG’s latest atrocity.
It might be my interpretation, but that’s the way it strikes me. YMMV.
Still, I think NPR and public radio especially, are important – we need to keep after them to do better. (When I’m benevolent despot I will work to make sure that NPR is strongly encouraged to be more balanced and less afraid that Congress will cut their funding if they don’t lick GQP boots…)
Grr…,
Scott.
Suzanne
@Geminid: I hope that bears out. Let’s hope those voters at the margins do the right thing, or at least stay the hell home.
I think the almost overwhelming tragedy of the last almost-decade has been, just….. realizing how many terrible people there are out there.
Another Scott
@Suzanne: People like to be on the winning team and vote for winners. If the vibes are increasingly that TCFFG is a whin[g]ey looooser, then it will encourage lightly-attached voters to vote against him (or refuse to vote for him).
Fair-weather fans are a real thing!
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@cmorenc:
Except he’s been pleading ignorance and underbussing the Gold Star family (“it was a set-up”) for the last couple of days. That seems a little different, but not sure about that.
But I gotta say: Steven Cheung is as vile a motherfucker as any TCFFG spokesman, past or present, that I can recall. [For example, saying the ANC staffer had a “mental health issue.”] And that’s saying a lot.
Ken
And every day this big guy, a campaign staffer, comes up to Trump with tears in his eyes, and says, “Sir, sir, you’re not running against Biden now, you’re running against Harris…”
SFAW
@Gloria DryGarden:
And yet Newtie Gingrich — in my opinion, the one who first weaponized anti-Dem feeling, turning it into irrational hatred — is free to walk among humans.
artem1s
@Ramalama:
Wow, this is a great interview and subject.
If government is going to justify itself existing, it has to give the people who pay into it a return on that investment. And gouging the state budget to draw in more billionaires who will never speak to anybody outside of the country club that they share with the governor, that’s a really fucking poor investment in the future of Montana.
If this son of a J6 insurrectionist can understand how the GOP method of governing has failed their communities, then there is hope for even the reddest of states to turn back the extremist tide of garbage and deplorables that has flooded their statehouses. I haven’t read the whole article. He may be too far down the 2nd amendment hole to completely recover from MAGAtism. And given his shift to wanting government to work for people instead of trying to destroy it may mean he will never be able to hold office in his state. But you never know.
Ken
@Baud: As I saw on Bluesky: There’s a kind of justice in it; the guy who said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and no one would care, gets shot and no one cares.
Also, you have to actually get shot, not just fall over and end up with a magically-healing ear.
Gloria DryGarden
@Ramalama: way cool. He looks very young, but his stance seems viable for Montana. Wish he’d comb his hair and get a stylist for a moment. I don’t mind his looks, but I’m not sure this look will sell in his district.
Rooting for dems everywhere. It’s telling that he started to see through the toxic stuff and switched.
stinger
@brendancalling: I got into my car a couple of days ago, and turning on the radio I heard Steve Inskeep say, “Welcome, Mr. Author with a New Book Out. So, you identify as a conservative. Please explain for us what liberals think on the issues.”
Ken
@Suzanne: I feel that “Ha-ha, cities, we have all the food” might be countered by “Ha-ha, we have all the mortgages on your farms”.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: It’s more coherent than you might think, just racist. They think of white liberals (including Jews–a lot of this is thinly disguised antisemitism) as weak and effete but conniving puppetmasters, and black people and brown people as scary and violent footsoldiers. The latter are the ones they imagine coming to kill them in the civil war. So they’ll fight back by exterminating the pushover leaders.
Kind of like the vision the Illinois Nazi character was shouting through his bullhorn in the movie “The Blues Brothers”. But bog-standard Republicans often have something like it, a less extreme version, in the back of their heads. The idea that they’re the put-upon salt of the earth stuck in the middle between contemptuous liberal elites and a terrifying, violent underclass that they’re coddling.
TBone
@Ramalama: that guy knows how (where) to punch Nazis!
Jeffg166
@Baud:
He knows how to give the legacy media all the click bait they need. The focus is shifting from Harris back to Don Old where he wants it. Nothing is too outrageous to say to get the public’s attention. Once again he is being discussed on this site. He doesn’t care what is said about him as long as people are talking about him. It all free PR.
K-Mo
This whole thing put me in mind of Trump’s visit to the CIA when he first became President. The contrast between his malignant narcissism and the sacrifices of our fallen is breathtaking.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna710366
lowtechcyclist
@p.a:
Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
cmorenc
@MagdaInBlack:
Even such a hard-core traditional country/bluegrass icon as Ricky Skaggs is happy to play music with White. Obviously White does not creep Skaggs out, Skaggs doesn’t do music with creepy musicians.
TBone
New Stevie Wonder song
https://youtu.be/CEr7dbJ2MKo?si=Gxn_MtjtfG4ch4ET
Baud
@Jeffg166:
Unstoppable.
p.a.
I know I shouldn’t be furious about this, I know it’s just who they are, I know, I know, but MSNBC chyron right now : “Harris Vows To Appoint Republican To Cabinet”. (Emphasis mine) Vows! Vows? She said she’d consider it, right? No pinky swear, no oath, no blood involved, right?
When is that meteor coming…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: I have stopped believing in a “Face in The Crowd” open-mic moment that alienates everyone. His mic is open all the time.
Instead it’s a process of erosion. Arlington cost him some supporters. The anti-Kamala memes cost him a few others. The next one will cost some more. Drip, drip, drip.
This is why we have to have a multi-pronged strategy.
My wife just signed us up with a postcard organization. I forget the name, but it’s the one affiliated with Hopium Chronicles.
trnc
@piratedan:
I won’t deny this possibility, but I think we’ve predicted bad behavior at crucial moments that hasn’t happened. If it does happen, obviously, that’s good for us.
But if we get the same kind of debate performance from him that he had with Biden, I doubt it will make much of a difference. She’ll walk all over him from a content perspective and he’ll be fact checked, but she’ll be fact checked, too, even if it’s both-siderism. IMO, the key will be for her to demonstrate just how much he’s been working to keep things “bad” for his own reasons, like spiking the border bill.
Spanky
@Ken: They have bumper stickers saying Molon Labe. Applies to guns, usually, but gets extended to anything.
trnc
@mrmoshpotato:
He saved Obamacare right before he died, so I think that’s pretty good penance.
Gin & Tonic
This framing really pisses me off: BBC on-line headline “NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and brother killed in car accident.” If you haven’t read about it, a really tragic incident, in which the two brothers were out for a bicycle ride on the eve of their sister’s wedding and were run over and killed by a drunk driver.
THIS WAS NOT A FUCKING “CAR ACCIDENT,” IT WAS MANSLAUGHTER.
People on bicycles, using the road as is their legal right, are mowed down by auto and truck drivers on the regular, and part of the reason there isn’t more attention and outrage paid to this is because these incidents are referred to as “car accidents.” There is nothing accidental about running over someone. It’s like “accidental shooting” – the shooting may have been unintended, but there is nothing accidental about a bullet coming out of a gun when the trigger is pulled.
Great way to start the day. I need to calm down.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
It’s not really coherent.
Pure hate rarely is. A lot of conservative areas have lost a lot of their support over the last 2 or 3 decades because of them losing some of their power and being obnoxious about it. I’d bet that most people do not want to regress because while life may have been simpler decades ago, in an age of less communications, on the whole, life is better for most of us. We get to see the good and bad sides of politicians, of the wealthy, of the haters. This has changed day to day life, showing up people like sfb. That doesn’t mean they won’t have support, it does however make the reasons that they do or don’t have support rather obvious. And that changes a lot.
I believe I’ve written this before – right here on this here website. Humanity changing for the better, the more inclusive, the more open is better. It may not always seem like it but in the long run the difference over the last century has been a lot and has changed life and this country for the better, by pointing out a lot of life that most people never saw and why they never saw it. It’s still life, with all it’s ups and downs, good and bad, wealth and poverty, but it is far more obvious why and how it got there and a possibility that it can get better. Look at our democrat running for president. From this old white man, it’s a pretty damn good change for the better. Progress. It’s slow, often unnoticeable, but it’s here, it’s real and can make this a better world for all.
Denali5
@Jeffg166: Yes. For him, any publicity is good, because he can do no wrong. It is obscene, but the only thing that will make him lose is to make him unattractive to the media. The money he draws in is what fuels them.
Thor Heyerdahl
I keep thinking Anchorage airport.
trnc
@brendancalling: I’m irritated with NPR most of the time, but they did a very good straight up report on air on the nonsense, too. Also a big surprise to me that Spectrum News did the same.
Tony Jay
@p.a.:
Looks like painting Harris and Walz as untrustworthy liars is the Hail Mary they’ve landed on to help out Stench, and setting up fake pledges they can be accused of breaking is part of that.
Give it a few days and we’ll probably start seeing the first opinion pieces laying out The Narrative that a record of persistent lying and over-promising is a troubling drag on the Democratic ticket. This record will, of course, cast worrying ‘clouds and shadows’ over every single statement they make from now until November, and somehow they just won’t be able to shake the ‘perhaps unfair’ impression that nothing they say can be trusted.
Will the corporate media be able to successfully project an entirely fictional version of Harris and Walz to the electorate in such a short period of time? With Stench and the Party of Stench misfiring in the background and Social Media providing an uncensorable version of reality?
I haz me doots. They’ll try it. They have to try something, but they just don’t have the time or the ammunition to make it happen.
Belafon
Is the “June event” meant to be D-Day observance?
Ruckus
@Gloria DryGarden:
The power is being opened. Seen. Made more obvious.
And this is a good thing. In my lifetime the change is actually rather large, and makes this nation stronger. This is a nation based upon the notion that humanity is in charge, not money. In the vast majority of human life it has always been those with the most that made the rules. This country is about ALL of US having a say. Not just the wealthy. The olds likely remember that there was a time that a person could be drafted and yet could not vote because you could be drafted to fight for your country at 18 but not vote till 21. It was in my lifetime, it changed when I turned 21. It made this a better country. We need to understand that humanity is everyone, the good, and the not so good, from zero to in the ground. And everyone is affected by the concept of this country, that is by, for and about ALL of us. Not just the wealthy, not just the white, all of us. Life is what this is all about, not money, not power, life.
Belafon
https://www.wionews.com/world/jeff-walz-brother-of-kamala-harris-vp-pick-tim-walz-might-support-trump-754857
Almost everyone has that brother.
trnc
@Gin & Tonic: FWIW, I don’t think the media can call it manslaughter in a straight news piece before that’s actually charged, so I expect another story after that happens.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
It’s the ammunition that is missing. Sure time is important but their story is both bull and shit and obviously so. And their leader is about as much leader as my little toe.
He’s a selfish child in an adult body, who continues to prove that daily.
Gin & Tonic
@trnc:
I agree a news story can’t call it manslaughter until charges are filed, but IT WASN’T A FUCKING CAR ACCIDENT.
Here is the first paragraph of the on-line story, in its entirety:
There’s no need to save space, it’s an on-line story. How about “were run over by an alleged drunk driver.” He failed a field sobriety test and was arrested at the scene, so it’s factually accurate. Again, for the cheap seats, it was not an accident.
Ken
Yes, but the ancient Greeks were just up against the Persian Empire with its (checks 300, the most accurate account) battle rhinos and wizards. The rural rebellion would be facing the banking and financial services system.
pieceofpeace
@Jay: Missed the posting of this; a relief for you that you have obtained a top, competent medical team.
Hoping the best results conclude this journey.
Uncle Cosmo
Careful what you wish for, boychik:
Think I’m joking? Read all about how this went down during the Depression.
Suzanne
@Ken:
I typically think of it as, “Ha ha, we have all your medical care”. But the same basic idea.
Gloria DryGarden
@MagdaInBlack: I just checked out jack white on YouTube. I agree w you, it’s subtle, but there’s just a little something off about him. When I try to read him, I only sense his brain has a section that’s wired differently, as if he’d been on a bad trip, and something shut down. As if a part of him were congealed in jello. So musically he’s fine, but I’m not drawn to him. I don’t want to sit down and have a chat with him.
I first heard the seven nations song, incidentally, in a musical remake of Cinderella w Camilla cabello and a rising singer -actor, Nicholas galitzine. I like Nicholas’s version of the song, his voice is richer than jack’s. but man that guitar riff, the way jack plays it, is so satisfying.
ymmv
kalakal
@Suzanne: I think of it as
“ha ha we’ll just import it, pay for it by halting farm subsidies – probably save money”
MinuteMan
@raven: Governor Cox makes Mitt Romney look like a Politician of Steel. Given that he’s past the primary one wonders why he seems to stoop lower every day: the members of our local peculiar institution will always vote for the candidate bearing the scarlet letter. Cox is a sniveling fool bordering on being a nonentity.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
He does like to project that into the minds of others, yeah.
He, an incumbent POTUS, was separated from the levers of power in 2020, and the GOP lost the Senate after a couple of runoffs. As Mr. Trump boarded the plane to fly to Florida, he said (bold mine): “So just a goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form.”
Our job is to make sure that the form he returns(ed) in does not seize the levers of power.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@Uncle Cosmo: They don’t run the auctions like they used to. It becomes the bank’s property to dispose of as they wish, and they usually just pass it off to a large holding corp or other predetermined buyer – no auction.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: They could be involved in a love triangle with jennifer gray.
Citizen Alan
@Uncle Cosmo: Even if foreclosure is impossible (and a lot has changed on that front since the depression) , the banks won’t refinance loans to allow farms to buy fuel and new equipment needed to get their crops planted and harvested. A farmer who removes himself from the larger economic system is just a guy with a lot of fields that are going to sit fallow.
scav
@Suzanne: There’s also the minor issue of where all the food processing plants are, who controls key aspects of the transportation infrastructure . . . . I mean, sitting on masses of one half dent corn, one half soybeans, with mountains of unground winter wheat sitting a few states over . . . slaughter houses they do have locally, so probably fine for meat. It’s not exactly Ma and Pa raising a little locally produced balanced diet affair they’ve got rocking.
MagdaInBlack
@cmorenc: Sorry my reaction does not match Mr Skaggs. Ymmv.
@Gloria DryGarden: Yes, harmless, but off. To me.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Suzanne:
Spot on observation. And it isn’t just elections with Trump in it either.
Think about the trucks driving around which have been modified to produce the “Rolling Coal” effect. Kills their gas mileage, damages the lifespan of the engine, and accomplishes nothing except to enrage anybody who cares about having clean air to breathe.
A large chunk of the USA exists in a simmering state of hatred, rage and symbolically expressed violence towards other Americans.
brantl
@opiejeanne: I think weird is too tame a word, I think they graduated to bizarre, a looooong time ago.
wjca
If you uses actual horses to power your farm equipment, you can at least keep them going by grazing on your land. But once you go to petroleum power, you are stuck.
Well, unless you have ignored your peer group, put up a ton of solar panels, and use electric farm equipment. But how many have?