Stephen Miller: "All these demonstrators that you've seen out here in recent days, all these elderly white hippies, they're not part of the city and never have been … we're gonna ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they're all over 90 years old."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 20, 2025 at 12:57 PM
These are terrible people, every one of whom deserves to stand trial in the Hague. And yet, their every publicity stunt has a level of shrill incompetence that would shame the average high school drama club. It’s like watching a 1970s B movie on an 18″ television from a too-distant over-the-air station.
I see poor people.
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 3:06 PM
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This is nazi logic. The Nazis would redistribute the confiscated property of Jews to the German populace as an incentive to support their mass deportation to concentration camps.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) August 20, 2025 at 9:53 PM
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Burgum touts that restaurant reservations in DC are "up 30 percent" (in fact restaurant dining in DC has plunged since Trump's takeover: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/dc-restaurant-dining-plunges-trumps-crime-crackdown-continues)
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 20, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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BREAKING: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for ICE to use funds to buy, own and operate its own fleet of airplanes to deport immigrants, two sources familiar with the discussions tell NBC News.
— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) August 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
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Millions for souped up cars, next to nothing for hungry kids. Make it make sense.
— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 10:38 PM
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The tone of this video is completely wild. It's filmed like a high school media class project. It looks like it too; the presentation and graphics are amateurish. And yet it's chilling, because she's a real government spokesperson dismissing reports of abuses in detention with finger quotes.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 10:38 PM
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When you actually pay attention to the content, it's genuinely just "trust us, we have standards, and the people who are accusing us of abuse? They're all crooks. Dangerous crooks."
This administration is just… wild to watch. Wild.— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 10:48 PM
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Yep. Their "fact-check" of the specific claims about treatment in Florida is, in the order they come:
– The claims are false.
– The man has conviction for drug trafficking, homicide and battery
– He's a lying convicted murder.
– The facility meets standards.
– The claims are false.
That's it!— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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For all the people responding that this is AI, it’s not, Lauren Bis is a real person. She worked at the Heritage Foundation for years, then with the Trump Media org, then got hired at DHS at some point this year. www.dhs.gov/medialibrary…
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) August 20, 2025 at 11:54 PM
prostratedragon
“Experiment in Terror”
Westyny
The worst people. . . .
bjacques
@prostratedragon: Lee Remick apparently lives in Twin Peaks…
The 1990s Finnish band Laika And The Cosmonauts did an excellent cover of that theme. They were a neo-surf guitar group loosely allied with a funky art scene that also gave us Bonk Industries:
https://www.bonkbusinessinc.com
Baud
They real want a BLM protest redux because that was GOLD for them in frightening the knickers off their white racist base.
Baud
Pimp My ICE
Elizabelle
Lauren Bis looks like a dollar store Nancy Mace. And she’s got Michelle Bachmann eyes. (Remember her?)
Also: “hippie?” When is the last time you saw that word?
WRT Michelle Bachmann: she is currently Dean of the School of Government at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. Former Atty General John “Let the Eagle Soar” Ashcroft is Distinguished Professor of Law and Government there. Weird that she does not have a post in TrumpLand.
sab
I am in Ohio not Florida, so I express no opinion about Florida other than appalled that they are building stuff in the Everglades. Wasn’t this supposed to be a huge unique amazing wildlife preserve? Sold me on that for fifty years.
Immigrants in my Ohio city have been a God-send. Improved the schools. Revitalized dying neighborhoods. Just a win all around for us.
I can’t even…about JD Vance. Send him and his enabling wife back to India and let him learn to cope there as an immigrant.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I thought he was dead.
sab
Redit trickwd me into double posting.
JoyceH
@Elizabelle: I knooow re “hippies”. I remember when there were actual hippies, but dang, I’m in my seventies. Miller is forty. But he’s not alone, the right has always been bitching about hippies that were a thing before they were even born. How come they don’t recognize the real issue? Beatniks! And even worse, the flappers!
Sally
@JoyceH: And all the white wing dudebros look exactly like our hippies used to look. Just different drugs.
sab
@Baud: Yikes. Don’t politicians ever have a sell by date? They aren’t pasteurized like proper milk.
NotMax
Brr. Brisk 59 degrees and rainy in NY.
Matt McIrvin
What is this “not part of the city” garbage? Stephen Miller is from Santa Monica. I was a suburban teenager at the time and I’m more part of that city than he is.
p.a.
Pathetic coding for an audience of nursing-home (assumed) supporters to distract from their Medicare/Medicaid worries, and others in the reich-wing cultural bubble for whom “hippie” is an insult. Maybe a swipe at Presley and his hips soon🙄
Betty Cracker
Eric Adams advisor tries to bribe reporter with an envelope of cash stuffed into a potato chip bag. (Sour cream and onion!)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
That’s shocking. Adams was a big crypto booster. Surprised by the old school tactic.
Matt McIrvin
@sab: I think Gator Gulag is being built on the site of the giant Everglades airstrip that was supposed to accommodate the American supersonic transport they were trying to build in the 60s. An ignominious end to a strange and ambitious project.
Anne Laurie
@Betty Cracker: James Palmer (BeijingPalmer) had a short thread about this — apparently the Adams aide in question is a Chinese national, and claims this kind of ‘token of appreciation’ is standard politeness in China. Which doesn’t mean Adams should have known better than to keep her on his staff!
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker: I was like…
Come on!!😠😠
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
West of the Rockies
Miller is a goblin. Noem is a gnome. Trump has a court filled with freaks and soulless zombies. I hope their castle crumbles like Cersei’s Red Keep.
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Explains why Trump keeps postponing tariffs on China.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
As I wrote in an earlier thread, Miller is mad that the protesters were so multi-cultural.
They want them to be all Black, so that they can open fire on them.😒😒
rikyrah
@sab:
Vance is disgusting😠
prostratedragon
@bjacques:
The series has many little games one can play with the material, such as find the trail. There’s a definite Lee Remick trail.
ETA Taking Acme Industries to the next level!
Geminid
The Times of Israel published a good intervirw with World Central Kitchen chief Josè Andrès. He visited the Gaza Strip and Israel a few days ago. The title is:
It’s an unusually long article for TOI. For those interested, this link might work:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-seeing-misery-up-close-the-man-feeding-gaza-says-theres-no-doubt-strip-is-starving
*Ed. Deir Al-Balah is a neighborhood in Gaza where WWC’s headquarters is located. It supports 25 kitchen operstions. COGAT is the IDF branch which coordinates humanitarian aid.
prostratedragon
@Geminid: Worked for me. What a story.
p.a
@Geminid: Like Mr Rogers said, look for the helpers.
Baud
@Geminid:
brendancalling
That Bis person has heavy smoker skin. I’ll bet she stinks like an ashtray.
Or maybe that’s because her soul is charred.
Baud
@brendancalling:
Probably the brimstone.
Geminid
@Geminid: This article in New Lines Magazine is even longer, described as a 13-minute read. The author, university student Hassan Herzallah, is a “Gaza-based translator, writer, and storyteller.”
The title is:
I’m batting 1.000 on links today! Let’s see if this one is a pop-up, or a stand-up double:
https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/life-of-a-student-in-gaza
…standing at second base, making small talk with the second baseman as Redis calls for the relief pitcher…
Booger
@sab: Hey, but you’ve got Miami in common, amirite?
Suzanne
Hey, that’s my mom you’re talking about.
(She’s still in her 70’s, but still.)
ETA: Some of y’all would like my mom and some of you would hate her. She voted for Bernie in 2016, Biden in 2020, and sees no contradiction in those things. She doesn’t follow the Xhitter/online wars! LOL!
Shalimar
@Baud: Stephen Miller is basically Charles Manson trying to start a race war, except our version is among the 5 most powerful people in the government.
chrome agnomen
@p.a.: yeah. Stitch to Highway in Heartbreak Ridge:
‘hippies? ain’t no more hippies. you been freeze dried, or doing hard time?’
TONYG
@Elizabelle: The last time that I remember the word “hippie” being used non-ironically was probably around 1968, when I was twelve years old. These people really live in a time warp.
Jeffg166
Took the trash out in the dark. Walked through an hourglass spider web. I should have worn a hat to protect my face. I didn’t. It was covered by the web. Fortunately no spider was at the center. Nothing has crawled on me so far.
Geminid
@Baud: That sure is a weird looking medallion! It looks like came out of a Cracker Jacks box.
In other diplomatic news, Egyptian President al-Sisi is flying to Riyadh today to confer with Saudi officials about the ceasefire agreement that Hamas assented to Monday at Al Alamein, Egypt.
The Egyptians are taking these negotiations in hand and as Israeli expert Gershom Baskin put it, “strong-armed” Hamas into accepting the limited, 60-day ceasefire deal.
Now, al-Sisi is working with the Saudis to make this ceasefire happen before the Israelis go all-in on the offensive against Gaza City their cabinet ordered two weeks ago. Saudi Arabia has more influence with the Donald Trump than does Egypt, and Trump is the only person who can strong-arm Israel.
,s
Ksmiami
@West of the Rockies: I just want them tried, convicted and hung. That’s where this is headed.
Deputinize America
@Geminid:
Trump has zero ability (much less the inclination) to strongarm Israel. I’m nearly 100% certain that that shitty government is also in possession of whatever kompromat the Russians developed on him, and have made it clear that they won’t hesitate to deploy it.
When it comes to evils, there’s no low too low for a Likud government to stoop to.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: I like her!
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
This war will only end when Russia finally decides the cost of continuing it is too great. Anyone with a clue knows that.
It wouldn’t even end with Russian victory over Ukraine, because Russia would just move on to the next potential conquest.
IOW, Witkoff is both amoral and a fucking idiot. The scary thing is, he’s the brightest bulb on the Administration’s foreign policy team.
Baud
@Suzanne:
All old people look alike.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
“Why, that’s nothing but a two-bit medal from a Crackerback jox!” – regnaD kciN
I didn’t see an image of the medal, though. The only pic I saw at the link, other than the usual deluge of ads, was of Witkoff in a chair below the podiums in Anchorage.
Professor Bigfoot
@Ksmiami: Hanged.
You don’t want to make them “well-endowed.” ;)
Geminid
@Deputinize America: I have seen nothing but rumor to support this assertion. The fact is, Israel is dependent upon US diplomatic and military support, and Netanyahu is dependent upon Trump’s good graces. Trump knows how weak Netanyahu’s postion is at home, and that he could bring the PM’s government down if he wanted to.
As for the notion that the Israelis are blackmailing Trump, that is one of those ideas that gets repeated so often some people believe it’s true, whether it is or not.
I don’t believe it is, and neither do much more experienced observers of Israeli and Middle East politics. They assume Trump is a free agent in this matter, and they’ve seen the blackmail rumors too I expect.
SFAW
Every day that I read stuff like this, I wish they would all just STFU and disappear in a puff of smoke. Or maybe lightning bolts from a Just and Vengeful God.
p.a.
@Geminid: I have seen nothing but rumor to support this assertion.
Given US actions in the face of current events, this is “Shrödinger’s Influence” territory. We both do and do not have influence there, and it’s quite likely that box will never be opened to find out, which results in a “no influence” reality.
Uncle Cosmo
@Shalimar: Stephen Miller is Reinhard Heydrich‘s Mini-Me. (Don’t believe me? Observe.)
(Actually he’s more like RH’s hydrocephalic Micro-Me, RH2M2 for short, but who’s counting…)
Geminid
@p.a.: When Steve Witkoff visited Israel in January, it was on a Saturday. Witkoff asked to meet with Netanyahu and was told, it’s the Sabbath and the PM will see you after sunset. Witkoff told the Prime Minister’s office no, I’ll see him now and Netanyahu complied.
The outcome: Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire that he in no way wanted. The consensus among Israelis was that he had been strong-armed and the major newspapers said as much. So did Turkish journalists like Ragip Soylu. These people follow these stories in a way few Americans do.
Last June, after Trump proclaimed a ceasefire to tend of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Israel launched a 50-plane raid to retaliate for a late Iranian missile strike. Trump told Netanyahu to turn them around and Netanyahu did. Israelis were like, “Whoah! When’s the last time we got strong-armed like that?”
If it had been Joe Biden, Netanyahu would have sent another 20 planes. But Netanyahu’s scared of Trump. And Netanyahu knows he can’t rely on Congressional Republicans to undermine the president like he could in the past, because they’re scared of Trump too.
I think this Schodinger’s Box analogy is way overstated. It’s based on the common fallacy that if somebody hasn’t seen something it probably can’t be seen, and that Middle East news is difficult to follow which is probably true if they rely on American news sites.
But if someone gets beyond American news sites, they’ll find that these stories are extensively reported in depth by regional sites including Israeli, and that evidence of Netanyahu’s fear of Trump is there to see for anyone who pays attention.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Order of the Sucker, 2nd Class
Paul in KY
@TONYG: Was still used unironically in 72.
Paul in KY
@Uncle Cosmo: He’s more like Eichmann, to me. In a higher position though.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@Professor Bigfoot: You had an English teacher like mine: “Pictures are hung; people are HANGED!”
gene108
Interesting reply to the first Blue Sky post:
bsky.app/profile/siyandawrites.bsky.social/post/3lwucxp5g6224
ruckus
Aw the idiotic, destruction of a country. Should be at least somewhat difficult to actually do.
But – and it’s a lot of huge butts, every last one of them deranged, pompous, arrogant jackasses.
Not a fun thing to watch in action. People who can’t understand the difference between destroying a working government to build nothing and dreaming that they will create something far – is it better or worse? Well of course we know it will be worse, but that is not want they think they are doing. It’s fun being destroyed by the morons with the concept of everything of a deranged 1 yr old, in actual bodies old enough to be adults, but with single digit IQs. Playing government but using real people, stupidity and ignorance because that’s all they’ve got. This will end well. I wonder if I’ll make it out of my seventies. Only have a bit over 3 years to go, but can they destroy what has taken centuries to build in less than that?
ruckus
@TONYG:
They do live in a time warp. But even worse it must be rather difficult to actually live with one’s head stuffed that far up their own exit port. Although the view does seem to help them create the idea of nothing but s_ _ _ for the single answer to every possible question.
ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
Yep. It’s only a 1/2 watt bulb. As in not very bright.
ruckus
@Deputinize America:
You could have stopped at zero ability. He’s done. Of course he was only ever capable of just over zero his entire life. As in about point 5.
He’s also such a delightful human that he’s going out in style. Not in any way a good or decent style but still.
ruckus
@Baud:
Naw, some of us have beards.
ruckus
@Geminid:
I believe that you are giving rump too much credit.
Geminid
@ruckus: I dunno. I’m not giving Trump credit for good sense, I’m giving him credit for power. And I also understand how shaky Netanyahu’s governing coalition is. It wouldn’t take much of a push from Trump to topple that government.
So I believe that if Trump tells Netanyahu to sign the ceasefire deal that’s on the table, Netanyahu will. He might even be relieved.
Uncle Cosmo
Agree to disagree. The Oaken Guy was scarily competent in his limited purview but Heydrich by the time of his assassination was up to about #3 in the entire Reich and an allgemeine badass. IMO whoever convinced the rulers of this timeline to swap out his demise for all the attempts on Hitler’s life that should have succeeded might have saved the Allies another decade of warfare – if they’d managed to win at all.
Albatrossity
For right-wingers, no matter what their age, hippie-punching will never go out of style.
Paul in KY
@Uncle Cosmo: See your point. Heydrich was ruthlessly competent. Thank God he was sorta like Julius Caesar when it came to personal security.