Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I suppose it would be wrong to tape this up on my wall, but I am sorely tempted.
I loved John Harwood’s tweet that Trump can, indeed, be beaten by someone who is 80 yeas old.
If I could look that good, and that happy, at 80, I’d take it! She is one tough cookie.
Open thread.
Be Best. https://t.co/uiPoZgjQzm
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 26, 2024
Biden needs to retweet this.
Better yet, te campaign needs to tweet a picture of Biden, where you can clearly see his hands, holding a phone or iPad looking at this tweet. https://t.co/R4Yz2J7NBZ
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 27, 2024
Saturday Morning Open Thread: We Cherish Our WinsPost + Comments (279)
He's always said whatever comes into his head and, as he gets more confused, the message gets weirder. His supporters clearly are either not listening, or just don't care. Donald Trump is very confused https://t.co/j4RTzDqbRA
— Prof. Peter Doherty (@ProfPCDoherty) January 24, 2024
An excellent essay, which deserves wider circulation, from Dana Milbank at the Washington Post — “Donald Trump is very confused”: [gift link]
… New Hampshire showed us, beyond all doubt, that Donald Trump is very, very confused…
I went to Trump’s rally on Saturday night in Manchester, where he didn’t address the Haley-Pelosi mix-up but assured his supporters that he “took a cognitive test” and “I aced it.” He has previously boasted of his ability to identify an image of a “whale” on said assessment, but, as The Post’s Ashley Parker and Dan Diamond pointed out, there is no such marine mammal on any version of the test. (Maybe he was being “sarcastic” about the whale, too.)
But I listened carefully to Trump that night — no easy feat because he went on for 100 minutes — and noticed that, even though his text was fed to him through a teleprompter, he told many of the same stories over and over again, repeating some lines almost word for word in the same speech, with no apparent awareness that he had done so…
In fairness, the Trump of four and eight years ago was also plenty erratic. But a closer look at his public performances — his courtroom outbursts and on the stump — suggests the very stable genius is off his game. He’s propped up by a very professional campaign, which he didn’t have before, and more insulated from questions and spontaneous exchanges. Yet he’s still saying and doing the sort of things that, had Biden done them, Republicans would cry: dementia!
“Each drug dealer kills on average 500 people during his or her lifetime,” he informed his audience early in his speech.
“Each dealer is responsible for the deaths during their lives of over 500 people or more,” he informed them late in his speech…
Trump similarly told and retold a tale about Biden’s competence. “He’s a threat to democracy,” Trump said, for “a couple of reasons. But, you know, the first reason why, he’s grossly incompetent.”
“He’s a threat to democracy,” Trump repeated later.
And again, still later: “Joe Biden is a threat to democracy for a number of reasons,” primarily because “he’s grossly incompetent.”
Sounds as though somebody needs a nap.
And it wasn’t just one off night. At a rally the next night, Trump mispronounced the name of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), his devoted ally who had just come to campaign for him in New Hampshire. He mentioned the name of a pollster — his pollster — Tony Fabrizio, with an Italian accent, then asked, “Is he a relation to Al Capone?” The following night, he served up this puzzler: “We are an institute and a powerful death penalty. We will put this on.”
Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: <em>‘Donald Trump is very confused’</em>Post + Comments (120)
These little stories are from an article about people who are making a difference, and I thought little pieces of it might make good late night posts. A little bit of inspiration, perhaps, at the start of an open thread.
But talk about whatever you want!
In a year that made many of us want to give up, these unsung activists found a way to help others.
h/t hazmat
🌼
The Unofficial Czar of the Migrant Crisis
It would be difficult to find a single person who has done more to meet the immediate needs of migrants than Ruth Messinger, the former Manhattan borough president and 1997 mayoral candidate, who is now 83. Her involvement took hold at the beginning, when she greeted the first wave of migrants arriving on buses from Texas to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in the summer of 2022.
“It was an easy thing for me to do,” she said.From there, she leveraged her many connections to mobilize a network of dedicated volunteers, faith leaders, nonprofits, institutions and private philanthropists to feed, clothe and shelter the migrants. She is constantly pushing the mayor and state and federal governments to do more to meet the enormous challenges that attend the influx.
And she is no less nimble as a fixer on the ground. When a school in Harlem offered to store clothes for the many migrants who needed them, they soon realized that they needed more shelving. Ms. Messinger quickly found the money to pay for it.
“She is the superhero that guides us, connects us and inspires us,’’ said Judy Bass, co-chair of the Synagogue Coalition on the Refugee and Immigration Crisis.
From Six New Yorkers Who Made the City a Better, Cooler, Fairer Place in 2023. Written by Ginia Bellafante, who writes the Big City column, a weekly commentary on the politics, culture and life of New York City.
In a year that made many of us want to give up, these unsung activists found a way to help others.
h/t hazmat
Open thread!
Another busy day with work and doing things around the house, and there wasn’t much dinner prep because we enjoyed the fajitas so much last night we did it again tonight.
Big day tomorrow because we are going to tear the living room apart, clean, and put it back together, and then we are going out to one of her favorite places with live music.
It’s been a long week and last night was a long update, so tonight will – hopefully – be on the brief side.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 702: A Brief Friday Night UpdatePost + Comments (15)
Oklahoma’s culture war-obsessed superintendent has appointed professional harasser Chaya Raichik — of the account Libs of TikTok — to the state’s Department of Education Library Media Advisory Committee.
Story: https://t.co/1Hx1aceM8p pic.twitter.com/WUiuC1NkGb
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) January 23, 2024
Ron Charles, at the Washington Post – “Things Just Got Weird in Oklahoma”:
… Superintendent Ryan Walters has appointed professional bigot Chaya Raichik to the state’s Department of Education Library Media Advisory Committee. The volunteer group is a Frankenstein version of Anthony Comstock reanimated to chase “pornographic or sexualized content from public schools.”
Raichik’s qualifications for advising the state’s teachers and librarians include having worked as a Brooklyn real estate agent and running an incendiary social media account called Libs of TikTok. To the delight of right-wing trolls, her posts misrepresent and mock people who support crazy “woke” ideas like equality and respect for LGBTQ+ people. She directs particular derision at anyone supporting transgender children. So vast is Raichik’s toxic influence that schools and hospitals have reportedly received bomb threats inspired by her sneering vilifications.
Now she’ll be advising Oklahoma public schools about books…
Friday Evening Open Thread: Oklahoma, *Not* OkayPost + Comments (37)