best pic.twitter.com/goIhpBwAwz
— laura olin (@lauraolin) March 11, 2016
I think I’m old and staid enough to get away with saying that the Obama sisters are growing up into lovely young ladies, and their parents can be very proud.
But not so staid that I can’t enjoy the President’s Rhymes-with-Bucket Tour in progress, per Politico:
Speaking at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Austin, Texas, on Friday evening, President Barack Obama lit into Donald Trump, by turns mocking him for “selling steaks” and ripping his rhetoric— while urging the GOP to take responsibility for creating him.
“So here’s the truth,” Obama began as he defended his economic record against Trump’s criticism. “Look it up. America is pretty darn great right now.”…
Then the president launched into a lengthy series of taunts of his own, blistering the Republican establishment for being “shocked that somebody is fanning anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-Muslim sentiment.”
“How can you be shocked?” he asked. “This is the guy, remember, who was sure that I was born in Kenya. Who just wouldn’t let it go. And all this same Republican establishment, they weren’t saying nothing. As long as it was directed at me, they were fine with it. They thought it was a hoot. Wanted to get his endorsement. And then now, suddenly, we’re shocked that there’s gambling going on in this establishment.”
“What is happening in this primary is just a distillation of what’s been happening inside their party for more than a decade,” Obama said, accusing Republicans of denying “evidence of science” and viewing Democrats as “destroying the country, or treasonous.”…
***********
Apart from enjoying the vision of Media Village Idiots groping for their individual custom-crafted hand-finished fainting couches, what’s on the agenda for the day?
8 short years… what a beautiful family! Thank you @POTUS & @FLOTUS pic.twitter.com/oFKVoQlgUT
— diane (@SaysSheToday) March 12, 2016
Keith G
A link did not work so I am trashing this entry.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
New cast of Batman and Robin announced (photo)
Baud
If Obama weren’t corrupt, he’d have delivered that takedown to the people for free at his last State of the Union.
Amir Khalid
I look forward to Obama spending the next eight months needling the Donald. Maybe he’s waiting for the right moment to make Donald go nuclear.
ETA: Test edit
ETA: And today I do have permission from FYWP to edit my own comments. Hmm.
amk
It’s funny to see how the so called gop establishment folded so cheaply and so quickly against a carnival barker charlatan.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Canada is abuzz (photo)
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
See, now that’s classy.
Trump doesn’t know classy.
Zinsky
It’s too bad it took Obama this long to call out the right-wing for the knuckle-dragging buffoons that they are. I think mockery is the best way to attack these losers. Obama is funny. Trump will never be funny. EVER. Have you ever heard anything truly funny come out of that shitbag’s mouth? Mean is not funny. Mock them to death!!
WereBear
Trump could strip naked, paint himself blue, and moon the next crowd, and our media will call it a bold outreach to Celtic voters.
Marc
After all the poo which has been flung at him by the GOP, you have to admit that Obama has more class in a toenail clipping than the whole (R) establishment. The first family has been the focus of so much hostility and racism that it is a wonder he has been able to keep his fire to light jokes and provable facts. I just wonder at how the nation will be after this election – the incivility which is being stoked on the (R) side and between certain factions of the (D) side just seems to make any rapprochement all the more difficult. I’m not sure anyone will be able to keep their cool like he has…
OzarkHillbilly
The total lack of self awareness leaves me…. speechless.
WereBear
I do love the way the President is being so outrageous merely by stating the obvious.
Marc
@WereBear: Facts (and reality) have a liberal bias…
BillinGlendaleCA
I’m thinking of taking the kid on a tour of my alma mater(UCLA), since she’s thinking in a couple of years of pursuing her Master’s in Nursing(she’ll get her BSN in June). Back when I was in undergrad, I spent alot of time in the Engineering building since my major was a mishmash of Econ and Engineering. On one of the upper floors they had a large room that had a domed ceiling and in the center was this refrigerator sized electrical box that I learned about 20 years later was the first internet router. So I was wondering if it was still there. Turns out for the 40th anniversary of the internet, they figured out which room that they originally used to login to the internet(they sent a l and a o to Stanford before it crashed) and it now on public display with that old and very large internet router.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: That’s pretty cool.
geg6
Those girls are stunningly beautiful. Brings tears to my eyes, how those little girls have grown into such poised and elegant women.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: A picture of the IMP(router).
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: I think that’s the same model Balloon Juice still uses.
bystander
I love the fact that Hillary can mistakenly pay a compliment to someone who didn’t deserve any compliments and it’s BENGHAZZZIII! time again. Somewhere I read somebody posting some supposed story about Nancy not helping Rock get a therapy. A therapy that was non-existent btw. The complete refusal to lift a finger in the face of the greatest plague in the late 20th century was nothing compared to a fictional social snub? The Firebaggers this time. Sheesh.
Baud
@bystander: But I like how she started the conflict at the Trump rally last night to draw attention away from her gaffe. Quick thinking, and quick implementation. Stellar all the way around.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Except for the UCLA one, not sure what happened to the rest of them. The Smithsonian wanted the UCLA one, but they refused to let it go.
BillinGlendaleCA
In other news, my modified NX300 camera is on it’s way back to California. It now seems to be in New Hampshire.
Baud
Trump canceled his rally in Cincy today. This is really going to be a thing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Maybe he’s thinking he can get more publicity from not having rallies.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. Less work, and his supporters are stirred up and motivated to vote.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: But how is he going to defeat ISIS if he’s so weak a few anti Trump protesters can shut down his campaign?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: The same way Bush defeated al Qaeda. He won’t, because a fearful population is a conservative population.
delk
On my way out the door in about 15 minutes. Headed to the Racine Blue Line stop (nearest L stop to last night’s Trump rally). Wondering how trashed the area is.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Hmmmm… I always thought a fearful population was a chickenshit population. Doh! wait a minute, same thing. My bad.
Baud
The spread of Trumpism. (WaPo)
Mai.naem.mobile
I read some stuff on twitter criticizing PBO for not attending Nancy Reagans funeral. Their princeling Dubby didn’t attend Ladybird Johnson’s funeral.in ’07,neither did Daddy Bush. It could be argued that Dubbya and his daddy had more of an obligation to have been there since the Johnsons had the Texas connection.
Baud
AP has the real headline
bystander
@Baud: Nobody knows how to get rid of the brassknuckles faster than Hillary.
Mai.naem.mobile
@Baud: I think Trump is tired and using this as an excuse to take time off the trail. Campaigning for POTUS is physically gruelliing and Trumpster looks old and unhealthy.
Baud
@Mai.naem.mobile: It is grueling. I’m secretly hoping for my supporters to cause some unrest.
Nemo_N
Trump tweeted calling protesters “thugs”.
bemused
Insomnia woke me up early but my grumpies were cured by watching CNN INT playing several times the clip of Obama laughing at GOP now SHOCKED by Trump. I laughed every time hearing Obama say Republicans didn’t say a word, thought it was a hoot when Trump directed his schtick at him (born in Kenya) and now the shoe is on the other foot.
This is the Obama that I adore. I hope he feels free to do a lot more of this when he is no longer in the WH.
satby
Shit is escalating. Whether it was part of a deliberate plan to whip supporters into a ragegasm or not, the ugliness being unleashed is going to be hard to tamp down after a horrible election season.
Gimlet
@satby:
How long, nasty and widespread will the reaction be from the other side if Hillary or Trump wins?
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: ,em>Whatever happened to freedom of speech?
Poor guy. His freedom of speech was so suppressed he had to talk about it during interviews on MSNBC, CNN and Fox.
Iowa Old Lady
@WereBear: The MSM is never going to be bold, but the reporters covering Trump sound pretty unhappy about the way he pens them in and then points to them and invites the crowd to boo. I’m guessing they weren’t thrilled about that Breitbart reporter being assaulted either. As I recall, a Washington Post reporter backed up the assault claim. They have to know that could have been them. We’ll have to see if it makes any difference.
ETA: Also I forgot to say those girls are gorgeous.
Baud
@Gimlet: If Trump wins, we’ll be too busy packing our bags to be nasty.
WereBear
I did too! And they certainly are.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: They’re also probably not so happy about their employers promoting Trump for ratings.
Gin & Tonic
@Iowa Old Lady: And, purely coincidentally, with the cancelled rally and attendant pushing and shoving among Trumpistas and protesters, the Lewandowski story has been relegated to the dustbin of history, even though criminal charges were filed yesterday.
OzarkHillbilly
Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane, all the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
There’s danger on the edge of town
Ride the King’s highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake is long, seven miles
Ride the snake, he’s old, and his skin is cold
The west is the best, the west is the best
Get here, and we’ll do the rest
The blue bus is callin’ us, the blue bus is callin’ us
Driver, where you taken us
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@bystander:
As someone of my Facebook acquaintance reminded me, Rock Hudson was happy to be served by a thoroughly prostituted out University of Kentucky football team (a team that my own uncle quit rather than participate in the scandal) back in ’59-’61 or thereabouts. And scandal it was – the thing was pay-for-play and involved significant peer pressure within the organization upon the unwilling, that pressure fomented by Rock’s friends who wanted a ready supply of young men for playtime.
Rock had a whisper reputation as a sleaze. I’m no fan of Nancy Reagan and think that her husband was a loathesome creature, but have to say that she may well have declined to help in reaction to that.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: Huh. Now I know why Trump wants to build that wall: to keep the sentient American populace from fleeing to Mexico after his (G-d forbid) election. Kind of like the Berlin Wall’s function, back in the day. More to keep the East Germans in than the “bad guys”out.
Raven
The Blues Brothers and Illinois Nazi’s!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=z75DN5r_6H4
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
I hope Obama is negotiating a secret asylum treaty with Trudeau.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: For all of us!
ETA: Baud! 2016! for neighborly negotiations! So we’ll always have Canada (or Mexico, for the frost-averse).
satby
@Gimlet: I have no idea. I think Trump is egging on some real hate that feeds into the whole disaffected militia crowd.
satby
@Raven: Marquette Park lagoon! Where some of the real Nazis used to play.
My dad and his brothers were all cops during the filming and extras in some of the big cop scenes.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
The irony is that if I were president, we wouldn’t have the incentive to move.
satby
@Baud: this is the kind of stuff I mean. It’s hard to put the open hate back into the bottle after it’s allowed out.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: The best insurance is the kind you never have to use.
ETA: Baud! 2016! So we can stay home. After having voted, of course.
Gimlet
@satby:
I hope someone is piecing together a documentary about the 2016 election that will capture the different facets of history at this moment in time.
Kay
Maybe there will be a real “anti-Trump” vote. This is a Sanders rally in Toledo:
Matt McIrvin
@Gimlet: Trump’s supporters are the type who will actually be nastier if he wins.
Gimlet
@Baud: if I were president, we wouldn’t have the incentive to move.
The very definition of “stunned”.
satby
So, I’m in the second day of a FB argument with my friend the journalist, and he’s all bent out of shape that Clinton won’t release her speech transcripts from her paid speaking tour. Is that a real issue right now? He suggests that it would show whether she made promises to Wall Street that would compromise her as President. I suggest that it’s going to show the kind if Tony Robbins boilerplate drivel that most corporate speeches are and that a blockbuster statement would have already been leaked.
Which side is pumping transcript releases now, Republicans or Sanders?
Betty Cracker
My daughter and Malia Obama are almost the exact same age (born in the same month). They were kids in 2008 and are young women now, which is amazing, heartbreaking and joyous all at the same time.
Baud
@Kay:
Chances are, if you’re attending a Sanders or Clinton event, you were always going to be anti-Trump.
Ultraviolet Thunder
The worst thing about Trump supporters is how many of them there are. Primed to receive racist, protectionist and xenophobic messages. Now that it’s been out in the open it will come back again and again. Who will be the next Trump who taps into all that anger? You know there will be one. Once a source of power is discovered it never just lies there.
Baud
@satby: Agree. Hate has become a treasured privilege for a segment of the population.
satby
Oh, and another FB meme out there is some Wall Street guy (Asher Edleman) saying Bernie will be better for the economy. Which is circulating right now in the Muslim community.
That one feels like pure ratfuck.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: I agree. They will feel both vindicated and empowered.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: I remember that feeling when my boys seemingly overnight turned into young men. Proud, happy, and dazed.* Both you and the Obamas and all who survive parenthood deserve congratulations.
*Note proper use of Oxford, or serial, comma, which was drilled into me at a tender age.
Baud
@satby:
I don’t use social media, but I get the sense that it is essentially a decentralized Fox News in terms of accuracy.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know, I think anti-Trump is a little different. I read yesterday they have (anecdotal) reports of Democtats voting for Kasich in the primary to stop Trump. I wish they wouldn’t do that. It’s too fragmented and disorganized to be effective anyway and I don’t want Kasich as President either. The way to stop Trump is to beat him in a general election.
Baud
NYT. More hate.
Baud
@Kay: Voting to manipulate the other side has never been my thing. Especially not when the Dems have a real race on the balllot.
satby
@Baud: It’s how people share news with each other now, and so I end up in a daily debunking just to try to keep some facts out there. Otherwise the lies stand.
Tom
@Gimlet: IF it’s Hillary or Bernie? Eight years, of course, just like with President Obama.
Baud
@satby: Good for you.
Matt McIrvin
@satby:
How? That sounds to me like pretty ordinary primary-campaign stuff. Some Muslims seem to be going for Bernie because of his relative foreign-policy dovishness. Or are you thinking it’s a coded anti-Sanders smear?
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
Most of the idiocy I see in my FB feed is shared posts from conservative sites. When they pop up I use the ‘hide all from (the original source)’ to get rid of them. This teaches FB that the source is originating undesirable material. Eventually that gets suppressed if enough people vote not to see it.
I don’t use Twitter.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Iowa Old Lady:
I will be surprised if the press turns against the Dumpster. Their owners won’t like it – their owners won’t be physically assaulted so its an easy choice for them & dangerous on two fronts (job and body) for the reporters.
I think last night was a huge win for the Dumpster campaign and the media will portray it is a way that it becomes legend – Poor Donny was not able to hold a rally because THOSE PEOPLE attacked people simply coming to hear him speak. I also expect problems at Clinton and Sanders events as people try to “get even”.
As for the girls, I am an old man & not a hansom one so to avoid being labeled a creepy old man I never notice young girls. I’ll take everyones word for it that they are lovely
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
If he’s talking like this now, what great things will Obama say after he leaves office? I cannot wait.
Gimlet
With the level of violence at this stage of the process, I wonder if it will escalate to assassination before the polls in November.
debbie
@geg6:
Remember how not so long ago, some female RWNJ called them out for dressing like trash? Wonder what she’s thinking now?
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: The problem is we put it in a bottle and then pretended it wasn’t there. We can’t ignore it any longer, time to put a pillow over it’s face and not let up until it stops kicking.
Kay
@Baud:
I saw an anti- Kasich ad from Trump yesterday. It hits him on Lehman Brothers.
“Wall Street predator”. From the likely GOP nominee.
OTOH, Trump’s ads are bad. They’re weirdly old-fashioned. He has a “positive” ad up that shows that weird dictator set-up he uses, where he’s alone on stage and there’s a huge crowd of angry people below him. He’s the only candidate who places himself alone on stage like that. The rest of them group supporters behind them, obviously deliberately- “we” not “me”.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Then open question is whether the country has the resolve to do that.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I know some people who usually vote Democratic who crossed over in the Massachusetts primary to vote for anybody against Trump. I don’t think they made much effort to coordinate their votes.
But… these people weren’t strong liberals playing eleven-dimensional chess; they were attitudinal centrists who did it in part because they liked neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders but were strongly anti-Trump. They might well vote for John Kasich in the general if he got the nomination, though they would vote for Clinton if it was Clinton vs. Trump.
I suspect a lot of these anecdotes are actually about people like that. I also hear rumors of liberals crossing over Operation Chaos-style to vote FOR Trump just to sabotage the Republicans, but while some people here have said they were planning to do that, I suspect that kind of behavior is much more rare; it’s more stone-cold chessplaying than more than a few people are willing to do.
And then, of course, there are all the stories of thousands of Democrats changing their party registration to joyously jump on the Trumpwagon. Who are probably people who haven’t voted for a Democratic President in decades.
Peale
@Baud: remember how in the last debate people mentioned he was looking sedate? I think he’s ill and lying about it.
OzarkHillbilly
The Worlds Most Idiotic Armed Robber
Jumped into a cab, in front of a cop car, and pulled a gun on the driver. Too funny.
Kay
@Gimlet:
Chicago wasn’t even the only violent event he held yesterday. They arrested 30 people at his rally in St Louis.
Baud
@Kay:
And won, twice!
:-\
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: We do. Might take a while, but we’ll get there.
debbie
@Baud:
I wish people would stop saying this. He ran virtually unopposed. Not even the state Dem party supported the Dem candidate.
(ETA: I’m not referring to you specifically. The Ohio GOP overuses this misconception.)
Betty Cracker
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’m a serial comma killer since I do most of my paid writing and editing in AP style. But I agree with the copy editor (from The New Yorker, maybe?) who advised writers to pick a style, be consistent and refrain from framing comma usage as a moral issue.
Baud
@debbie: When you’re explaining, you’re losing.
And polls indicate he would carry Ohio in a general election.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I just had that “not my problem anymore” feeling of relief.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@efgoldman:
He can present himself as the bulwark against the rising tide of violence in America, the strong leader who will whip the mobs into line. That for sure gets him the GOP nomination. The general election might be fought on different ground but he will always, always, have that segment willing to waltz through fire to get to the polls.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Kay:
This is where I think we’re on the razor’s edge of something awful – Hitler didn’t start out by saying “we’ll set up camps for the extermination of Jews, gypsies, gays and communists”. He didn’t start out by saying “we’ll go on an aggressive crusade of conquest across Europe and North Africa”.
He started off with white resentment of financial elites and racial minorities, and the terror state evolved from there with the aid of jacked up militant supporters.
debbie
@Baud:
I think the polls are wrong, like they were in Michigan. I think Kasich’s support is very soft and more an anti-Trump thing. He may have the Republican vote, but he won’t get the conservative Democrats who will never, ever forget Kasich’s SB5 betrayal.
Joel
@Baud: Fuck CM and their child molesting coaches.
[/NNHS grad]
MomSense
One of my friends who is not really political was telling me yesterday that she doesn’t know what to do his election. She can’t stand any of the candidates. She likes what Clinton has to say but she’s worried she may be dishonest because of the emails. So I explained the email issue but she doesn’t think the media would discuss it so much if there wasn’t more to it.
And this is how our media work.
debbie
@MomSense:
Jorge Ramos being a perfect example of that. What was the point of asking her if she’d drop out? Just idiotic.
jonas
@Mai.naem.mobile: Of course if they do attend, then all the headlines are about how the presidential security detail inconveniences the locals and why didn’t POTUS think about the little people when he decided his ego and motorcade should attend some memorial service.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
Yesterday:
Ohio is supposed to be the center of the Donald Trump “white working class” phenom. One would think that would start showing up in polling soon. If he’s the nominee 5 points will tighten, because the non-Trump Republicans will fall in line but Obama only won Ohio by a couple of points in 2012 so the Democrat doesn’t need to be way ahead. So far it looks like the usual – one Party is 5 points ahead of the other.
Trump lies constantly about his poll numbers in the general. If they were great he wouldn’t have to do that.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: But it doesn’t answer the people who share it. I doubt I make anyone see the light, but I like to pierce the bubble and remind them that not everyone thinks that way or agrees with that stuff.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Polls indicate Kasich would carry the country in a general election, but they also said that about Marco Rubio a couple of weeks ago. I think these guys still present to most general-election voters right now as “generic Republican who is not Donald Trump or Ted Cruz”, and that sounds okay. There’s not much sense yet of who they actually are: people are starting to learn that about Rubio and he’s falling behind Clinton.
Still, Hillary Clinton is widely disliked enough that Kasich might be able to beat her just on the grounds of not being her and not being manifestly gross.
ThresherK
@Kay: Is he standing on a balcony making a speech in his ads?
I’m getting a real Evita / Hitler vibe about them and I havne’t seen one.
(Yes, I said Hitler. I don’t think it’s possible to Go Godwin on Trump wrongly any longer. Please correct me if otherwise.)
Matt McIrvin
…That said, the national general-election head-to-head polls are behaving really suspiciously for all the R candidates who are not Trump: there’s a bigger split between Internet and landline phone polls that I’ve ever seen in any prior election, they’re starkly saying different things about who’s way ahead, and it makes me think we just can’t trust these any more.
satby
@MomSense: in another FB exchange I had 3 people tell me “when there’s smoke there’s fire” in reference to Clinton. No matter how many times it’s pointed out that nothing has ever been revealed to be illegal or particularly nefarious. The talk is out there, so it must be true.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Trump complained that the police were forced to be “politically correct” in their arrest of them, meaning they didn’t beat them up. The STL Post Disgrace didn’t say anything about violence in the protests, just that they were able to stop his rally for about 30 minutes by protesting sequentially (one or 2 at a time) instead of all at once. My son drove by the Peabody before the event and said it was a circus out in the street with both pro and anti shouting at each other.
satby
So no one’s heard who is pushing the “Clinton must release the transcripts” meme?
Edited to add: never mind, it came from Sanders. Thanks a lot, bro.
WaterGirl
Well, this is depressing: I googled “UIC trump rally” and every single headline that shows up with a link says it was cancelled for safety concerns because of the protest.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I agree. Kasich has also completely changed his personality for the national election, just as a side note :)
I think it was Paul Begala’s outfit who ran effective anti-Romney ads in Ohio in 2012. They just destroyed Romney early and he never polled ahead of Obama. They didn’t really have to “win” Ohio, they just had to keep the slight edge Obama started with. Since Democrats have that same edge now I wish they would do that again against Trump.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
WAIT!, you mean Hitler or Trump?
The Hitler thing has been over used again and again but it really does fit to well in Drump’s case. Hitler used the violent reaction to his party to escalate violence while portraying himself as the victim and also the only hope for the nation to stem them violence. He never won the majority of votes in a free election but did manipulate events to his own end.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense:
Ask her why the media cover the Trumpster so much when there is absolutely nothing there. Answer? Because it’s all about the Big Show.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: He was never concerned about the safety of protesters before, I think it is safe to say he wasn’t this time either. Maybe he just finally realized that getting people beat up has consequences.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
My take on it is I’m not personally insulted and threatened by Donald Trump, but there are people who are (AA, Muslims, Latino) and I just defer to them on how they need/want to express that.
That bullshit he’s doing with black protesters, “these people are bad for our country” and “get a job” is blatantly racist. I feel like they have a right to a strong response, a stronger response than one would use for a purely political opponent. Trump is not fighting on policy disagreements. He’s riling up his overwhelming white supporters based on a whole set of stereotypes. They are countering in kind because the attack is different than a purely political frame. I think that’s absolutely fair game. He set this up this way. He hit them first and he didn’t hit them on “policy”- he hit them on what they are. Trump is saying protesters have to play by a more civil set of rules than the candidate himself does. He wants to hit them and not get hit back, like every bully everywhere.
Let the chips fall where they may and may the better side win, is my take.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes. I remember a “free at last” moment when I dropped my youngest off at college his freshman year. And I remain awed by what fine young men they’ve become.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s a good suggestion. One morning I heard Joe talking about how it’s a problem that people think Hillary is untrustworthy. Hmmm I wonder why people think she is untrustworthy. Is it because media keep saying people think she’s untrustworthy?
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
I’ve given up most of responding to GOP nonsense on FB. Most people who share posts that they’re in sympathy with aren’t all that invested in it or they would originate something of their own. It’s not worth the trouble to refute things that are just shared around because they don’t have much effect. I will respond to a FB friend’s original post because presumably they care enough to type it out on their own. In that case it might be worth the effort to reply.
But there’s so much misinformation on social media you have to pick your battles.
Matt McIrvin
@satby:
I find it amazing that anyone ever uses that saying in any context; it’s as if they don’t know what a smear campaign is.
MomSense
@ThresherK:
No correction from me.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: Oh, I agree. I just found the recent thread on the serial comma topic amusing. One of the many splendored delights of BJ.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Matt McIrvin:
Well certainly the media would let us know if there was nothing there, right? I mean they wouldn’t just mindlessly permit people to keep repeating the same BS over and over after it has been disproved multiple times. RIGHT?
Ergo the smoke indicates a fire – QED
Baud
@satby:
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s offensive. Like a candidate they care about would never be smeared. And if it happens, I bet they aren’t as understanding as you’re supposed to be.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
I’m at work this morning, but it’s all good.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I agree. Not sure how I would react if it were directed at me, but it would certainly be more than putting BLM on my truck.
Chris
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
I agree, but the “razor’s edge of something awful” moment for me was 2008/2009 with the rise of the teabaggers. Those guys sent my “those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” detector into overdrive, especially since they were quite obviously very ready to commit atrocities. Really, all you need to do is spend any time in a right wing blog’s comments section to realize that there are large numbers of people out there for whom “fascist” is the only reasonable description. Trump is just the first Fuhrer figure in the movement. Unfortunately, I doubt if he’s the last.
rikyrah
I think the First Daughters have grown into beautiful young ladies.
rikyrah
@Kay:
These is absolutely NOTHING in the annals of AMERICAN HISTORY with regards to Black people, that would make me think that I shouldn’t take Trump seriously.
I simply do not have that luxury.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: It’s a big feedback loop.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Gimlet: The butthurt will be yoooge.
ThresherK
I heard that Frank Luntz’s Dem focus groups are normal and his GOP ones presaged last night’s Chicago contretemps.
What is a focus group and why is only Frank Luntz allowed to hold them? Does he have a patent or something?
Betty Cracker
@O. Felix Culpa: Did you see this? Exceprt from The Onion:
Heh!
OzarkHillbilly
Keith Emerson- RIP
Pictures at an Exhibition
NotMax
Dems adopted a jackass as mascot.
Reps recruit jackasses as members.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m so sick of everyone pretending they don’t know what Trump is saying. “These people are bad for the country”
I mean, for God’s sake. He says that and then follows it “with get them out of here”. It isn’t subtle.
I so hope he crashes and burns because he’s an amateur in this arena. This isn’t the same as his fake business that he inherited where everyone smiles along and kisses his ass. It isn’t, actually, easy, either running for President or being President. It’s hard. How can Donald Trump handle running the country when he can’t run his own rallies is a real question. He can’t cancel appearances when he’s President and call into cable news and whine. If he thinks this is bad wait until he starts deporting 9 million people, or starts a trade war with China.
Mr. Twister
Here’s Rachel Flowers playing some of Keith Emerson’s gear. ELP Trilogy.
Chris
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I finally ended a longstanding tradition of “don’t delete other people’s posts” a couple weeks ago on Facebook. Wasn’t even that offensive. I had reposted a political cartoon with an FBI agent decrying a quote about civil liberties as “pointy-headed liberal” before finding out it came from Justice Scalia. Then got a comment on it from a cranky relative calling the cartoonist an “ill informed clown” for not realizing that “it’s not conservatives who’re threatening our constitutional liberties.” There are several possible explanations for what he meant to say and about twenty possible directions the conversation could’ve gone… but I’m past the point where I’m willing to humor these people by pretending that they have anything worthwhile to say. So I just hit “delete.” Hopefully, the hint was taken.
Germy
@Chris: They would do the same to you, in a heartbeat.
gene108
@MomSense:
Her e-mails are public record. Our blog host posted a link to them a few days ago.
Found this on the State Department website.
smintheus
Problem with Obama making this argument now is that it was all obvious back in 2008 as well, when he wanted us to believe that he could work with Republicans in Congress. We need a candidate this year who won’t pull punches in criticizing the GOP top to bottom.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I think things are getting to the point where any sentient being can’t pretend anymore. I really do think this is the last gasp of racism’s use as a political tool. I have faith that the country that put a black man with a funny sounding name into the White House, not once but twice, will reject Trump’s racist demagoguery.
It’s gonna be ugly, and painful, but think of the revulsion after Charleston SC, and the horror of the shooting of Tamir Rice. People are finally waking up and the racial troglodytes are coming to the realization that acceptance of them is fading fast.
smintheus
@Kay: Fortunately for us, Trump has the thinnest of skins and is pathetically easy to wind up. And when wound up, he lashes out clownishly. I’d expect the Dem general election campaign would consist of non-stop trolling of Trump, and exploiting his tantrums.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t mean this as a joke, but without having seen the ads, what you’re describing makes me think of Trump’s ideas of class and elegance, frozen in another time (I’m not sure which one, late 50s? early 70s?)
@satby: Chuck Todd brought it up in Dem debate and I almost fell out of my chair, even considering the source. The Clinton standard is always “prove you didn’t do anything wrong”. Harping on the speaking fees and the transcripts are what pushed me from disagreement into “Bernie is an asshole”
OzarkHillbilly
@smintheus:
He had no choice but to try and try again and again and again and again…. Why? Because he’s a black man and every black man has to be 3 times better than any white man ever has to be just to be considered equal. It is his bottomless patience in the face of such relentless intransigence that has convinced me he is a far better man than I ever dreamed of being.
gene108
@rikyrah:
I’d hate to be a boy trying to pick one of them up for a date.
Run the gauntlet of White House security, and then it’s Mr. Obama answering the door, who politely reminds you, “have my daughter home by ten. And just remember, I tracked Osama down and had him killed. Don’t make me call SEAL Team six on your ass, young man. I hope I have made myself clear.”
Nate Dawg
Saw Air Force One from my balcony and living room last night.
The flight path into Love field is about 200 yards directly east of me, and it was enormous at about 200 feet elevation.
I hadn’t seen a 747 land there from this vantage (and I see planes land ALL day long).
Was just beautiful. Felt like Chris Matthews and had a chill run up my leg.
Probably the last time I’ll have a sense of awe and personal respect for the President for quite a while.
ALSO: iPhone camera sucks. Makes everything look way way far away. Good for capturing food on a plate and selfies, but bad for most everything else.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: Hehe! Love it!
On another note, are you in touch with any of your Rumproast colleagues? That was my first political snark site and I still miss it. (Stumbled onto when I returned from Africa and discovered this brave new blog world.) I found BJ through that site. Mrs. Polly’s take on the Ground Zero mosque was one for the ages. Also hope that Strange is doing ok. Glad you’re here!
Chris
@OzarkHillbilly:
For an actual “waking up” to take place, though, would mean acknowledging not only that Trump Is A Big Bad Racist but that he actually represents what’s probably the most powerful strand in modern conservatism, and that that racism needs to be fought. At a minimum, it would mean implicating the Republican Party ever since the rise of the teabaggers almost eight years ago, and not just since the rise of Donald Trump’s poll numbers. I see no evidence that that’s happening. Everyone but the Democrats, and even some Democrats, is still treating Trump like some utterly inexplicable phenomenon that just appeared out of thin air like “poof!” less than a year ago.
satby
@Chris: I agree, and I don’t see that evidence either. The rest of the GOP candidates all stated at the last debate they’ll all back whomever is the nominee. Even Trump. That’s not repudiating the racism, that’s embracing it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@OzarkHillbilly: The other problem with the “If Obama had just said things…” theory is that it assumes that the broad electorate is both more curious and more flexible in their thinking. The reason Mitch McConnell’s obstruction strategy worked isn’t because the public adopts Bothsideisim out of a pretense of high-mindedness a la David Broder, they find politics confusing and it’s easier to throw up your hands and say “Oh those clowns in Washington…”
smintheus
@OzarkHillbilly: I understand the position he felt he was in. But it’s a strategic mistake to paint yourself into the corner of trying to work with a party that has already shown itself to be a hot mess – particularly when bullying and bad faith are their SOP. In 2008 Obama should have made plain that there’d be more than carrots if Republicans continued in past form after the election.
Felonius Monk
@OzarkHillbilly: Well said. He has a much thicker skin than I could ever dream of having. I feel very honored that he chose to be our President.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: “Maybe he just finally realized that getting people beat up has consequences.”
That could be it. Or maybe he just wants to play the victim card lay the groundwork so that if (when) there is violence at his future rallies, he can blame the other side.
Or maybe he’s just a total fucking coward who can’t take the heat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So how do you get the Stimulus passed without Snowe, Collins and Specter? How do you stop people like Claire McCaskill and Evan Bayh from bleating about the need for “bipartisanship”? and there are/were a lot more than those two and their Blue Doggy ilk who believe that bipartisanship is not just a sometimes necessary means, but worthy, even noble, end in itself (Joe Biden, I’m looking at you).
ETA: Max Baucus– who IIRC once supported a bill that included a robust public option– let health care reform molder in committee for months because he didn’t want to damage his friendship with Chuck Grassley, even as Grassley was stumbling around Iowa talking about “pulling the plug on grandma”. What magic words should Obama have spoken to change that?
OzarkHillbilly
@Chris: Funny. I see the evidence that that is happening everywhere. Guess it all depends on how one looks at what is happening.
That’s called ‘Denial’ and is the first of the 5 stages of grief. The 2nd is ‘Anger’…..
So anyway, as a 57 yr old man who has seen some of the worst humans are capable of, I am really fairly optimistic at this point in time. The trick is to not let up. We’ve been here before in the 60s, got a few victories and thought, “Hey, it’s all better now.” and No, it wasn’t.
Again, it won’t be pretty and it will be painful, but so is cancer treatment.
ps: another hopeful sign is the full on freakout by the GOP
Shell
Okay, Im old and out of touch. Who is the guy the Obama sisters are meeting in that picture?
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Hillary did lie about the whole “taking sniper fire” think in 2008, that doesn’t do her any favors on the trust / honesty front.
jharp
Coolest first family ever.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: “…it’s as if they don’t know what a smear campaign is.”
“Do you know what a smear campaign is?” That could cover a lot of bases in responding to people with concerns about Hillary. That doesn’t question what they believe in a personal way; it does question whether they are being told the truth, and no one likes to be lied to.
O. Felix Culpa
@Shell: Actor Ryan Gosling? I’m old and out of touch too, so not sure.
Betty Cracker
@O. Felix Culpa: Sadly, no, aside from the occasional email. I suspect everyone but me just got fed up with blogging and went on indefinite hiatus.
smintheus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trying to work with some moderates in the other party once you’re in power is one thing. Making the case for your election based upon a supposed ability to work with them is quite another. What we needed 8 years ago, and still need, is a candidate who will offer the public a thorough demolition of what the Republican Party has become. Like it or not, the US media will not make the case about the GOP meltdown that has been in front of them these past 20+ years unless a Democrat is willing to enunciate it for them. They might walk through a door that is opened for them, but they won’t open that door first.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: Just keeping up with comments is time-consuming, so I can well imagine that regular blogging can get tiring. I appreciate the work that you and the other FPers do to keep us informed, engaged, and amused. :)
Elizabelle
@Nate Dawg: That is so cool. You won’t forget the image.
And I hope you are pleasantly surprised this time next year about the new Oval Office occupant.
delk
@O. Felix Culpa: Ryan Reynolds
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Just a week ago today a friend and I got into a discussion about what I call “the murder of all these black people by the police”. My friend was saying that if they were just more polite to the police and stopped when they were told to stop, etc, that all this stuff wouldn’t be happening.
I do not like conflict but that is one subject where I just won’t back down. I said, no, these people are being murdered and it’s not their fault. When you can end up dead because you changed lanes without a signal and smart off to a police officer, that’s not the fault of the person who is now dead. I said I didn’t know I would do if I were black and was stopped – what’s less safe, to stay or to run? When a cop can stop you because he doesn’t like the look on your face as you pedal on by on your bicycle, things are really fucked up. Black people are being murdered by the police and it’s not their fault. And it’s not a few bad apples on the police force.
Toward the end of lunch (after talking about other things for quit awhile) he said he had no idea I was that much of a radical. I’m sorry if he’s changing his opinion of me, but if you can’t stand up and say it’s not right when black people are being murdered by the police, when can you stand up?
Edit:
shorter Watergirl: not everybody is waking up to this, even well-meaning white democrats who generally try to do the right thing.
Gvg
@satby: if she released the transcript it would show what she wanted it to. Actually I am talking about a written version of a speech, notes for her to practice and refer to. There would not be a real transcript because no one bothered to have someone record and transcribe nor take notes. Also each time she gave it she would have changed it to fit on the fly probably. And then someone would say it wasn’t exactly like they remembered it and there would be another little molehill con tremors we’d have to listen to. Ignoring the way speeches work and the fact that people memory isn’t perfect even immediately after let alone years later.
If she did say reassuring stuff to Wall Street it wouldn’t be in this kind of venue anyway and not everything that Wall Street finds reassuring is bad for the rest of us. Look at all the wars the GOP candidates would start. She could have told them I’m not really a warmonger and here’s the evidence etc but it wouldn’t have been in speeches like this.
O. Felix Culpa
@delk: Attack of the pretty Ryans! Thanks for the correction.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: And after all this crap that has been thrown at him and his family for all these years, after all the disrespect for the man and for the office, Barack Obama still believes that people are basically good!
We are truly blessed.
chopper
@satby:
I had that same thing. So I sent em a picture of limbaugh with a cigar in his mouth saying “sometimes it’s just an asshole blowing smoke in your face”.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
To be fair, he hasn’t met me yet.
WaterGirl
@Baud: But I’ve told him all about you!!
WaterGirl
@chopper:
I am WaterGirl, and I approve this message.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
What did you say? “He’s no Obama”?
wenchacha
@debbie: Probably plenty of Prom dress codes that would find Malia’s dress immodest. Sasha’s maybe, if that is see-through lace or whatnot at the upper part of her dress. Somebody will call it too much skin for the First Family.
I think they both daughters are poised, beautiful, and do their family proud.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Two of my kids have been asked recently “what they are”. I especially liked the “what” part. What Trump and our media are enabling is evil.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MomSense: several stories of kids being told that President Trump is going to kick them out, build a wall to keep them out. Two stories, one in Colorado, one in Indiana (Catholic school) of kids at basketball games chanting “Build. The. Wall” at predominantly Latino visiting teams
Props to Cokie Roberts (words I never thought I would type) asking Trump is he was proud of stuff like this. It’s like shooting peas at an elephant, but at least she asked.
SoupCatcher
@MomSense:
My mom is white and my dad is Chicano. We can trace our family back to the 1870s in Southern California. I grew up in a neighborhood of Los Angeles that is less than 15% white. Where I went to undergrad, the population was greater than 85% white. That was an eye-opening experience.
My personal favorite derpitude was:
Where are you from?
Los Angeles.
No, I mean where are you originally from?
I got that all the time.
I’m at the point where I feel people will only change their minds because of their own mixed race grandchildren.
The Lodger
@gene108: Where is the like button when I need it?
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Trump frozen in time? The 50s. For sure the 50s. Faux shows of wealth, open racial comments, rich is the most important element……. Yeah the 50s.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I’m going for C, both of the above.
He is a racist, he just needs more than the stone racists to win so he can’t come right out and say his shit and yes he’s a coward, all bullies are. That’s why they overcompensate.
He’s afraid of being shown up for exactly what he is. A shallow, racist asshole. He’s not all that bright but he’s not stupid either, he knows that a black man won handily, twice and that coming out directly with who he is may get him a portion of the conservative vote, but won’t get him elected. He’s failed at everything else he’s done, this is his last chance to prove who he is. Problem for him is he’s doing exactly that.
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
To which you should have said you had no idea that he was such a clueless, oblivious moron.
Cermet
If only our Dad (President Obama) could get a third term we’d all in the USA would be so much better off. That amendment has to go ASAP so Dad can run again and get his third term … .
pluky
@rikyrah: Preach sister. What’s the line,? “When someone tells you they want to kill you, believe them.” A scene from the movie version of Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” showing Offred and the General walking past a boxcar being stuffed with black people has stuck with me for years.