A pastor interrupted Trump's speech to tell him not to give a "political speech" in Flint https://t.co/wFiWa2dxD7 pic.twitter.com/4Gm6PfiNaK
— Kristin Salaky (@KristinSalaky) September 14, 2016
Per the Washington Post:
Donald Trump was cut off, chastised and then heckled after he attacked rival Hillary Clinton during what was supposed to be a speech on helping where the government had failed the people of Flint, Michigan.
“Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done in Flint, not give a political speech,” said the Rev. Faith Green Timmons, the pastor of the Bethel United Methodist Church.
The Republican nominee quickly stopped, then said “Ok, that’s good, Then I’m going to go back to Flint” and its water crisis that had sickened its citizens.
But the interruption seemed to embolden those in the sparse crowd. One woman shouted that Trump had used discriminatory housing practices in his buildings, causing the celebrity businessman to respond, “Never, you’re wrong. Never would.”
Trump abruptly ended his speech, which had lasted six minutes. More heckling followed him out…
Trump visited the traditionally African American church in the impoverished city to pay tribute to the city’s resiliency. But then, he attacked Clinton, saying “everything she touched didn’t work out.” Timmons then stepped up and interrupted him…
***********
Apart from calling out the liars, what’s on the agenda for the day?
i mean, a church visit can't really go much worse for a candidate than having the pastor interrupt mid-speech and reprimand you
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) September 15, 2016
Flint mayor Karen Weaver responds to reports Trump will tour Flint water plant today, calls it a "photo-op": pic.twitter.com/Any3qqfCJb
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 14, 2016
Trump after 15-min tour of now dormant Flint water plant that caused lead crisis thanks "very very good executives." pic.twitter.com/CSFxClcnm2
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 14, 2016
I'm not even sure if Trump saw any Flint water. The city water plant is bone dry and currently not in operation. https://t.co/mFAb037Xe8
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) September 14, 2016
Note that @AP_Politics doesn't bother to mention that Trump wants to abolish the EPA. https://t.co/buyfPIkwwQ
— Barbara Morrill (@BarbinMD) September 14, 2016
Patricia Kayden
This is what you get from a Presidential Candidate with not a lick of shame. Glad someone in that crowd challenged him about his anti-Black housing discrimination. Of course he lied about it.
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
Tokyokie
@Patricia Kayden: Lying is what he and his evil spawn do. It’s their birthright, and he wants to codify that birthright. And working-class people who buy his spiel are about as farsighted as chickens thanking Harlan Sanders for saving them from the fox.
hueyplong
When someone else lies, I half expect Trump to sue him for intellectual property infringement.
Kay
Cosmopolitan magazine conducts the most aggressive Trump interview of the campaign. Ivanka never expected to encounter real questions:
Then Trump got off the call. Too many “negative” questions.
This is someone who has gotten a pass for crappy work her whole life. She expected to be praised for offering anything at all.
Maybe the Cosmo reporter could moderate a debate. Why not? Let’s conduct this search based on merit rather than perceived prestige.
Keith G
So, Kay. About Ohio’s changing numbers is there any in-state reporting being done on this?….Is there a voting group that has shifted? New voters and Trump got em all? More accurate polling? A statistical burb?
Dan
That Cosmo interview is a must read. For journalists.
geg6
@Dan:
The NYT could sure use a reporter like her, right?
Keith G
@geg6: But then, we’d never get to see her work, ;)
weaselone
Hmmm… I suspect that Trump being cut off by Reverend Timmons might have more of an impact on his support than the Newsweek article on his foreign entanglements.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I saw that interview thanks to a tweet from TBogg. The sense of entitlement is breathtaking. She really thought she could just waltz in there with a half-baked plan and everyone would bow down and kiss her ass.
Immanentize
Hello, All. I like how in the picture of Trump at the closed water plant, everyone is white, except for the one guy on the right with the body language telling me he hates Trump. I am very good with body language!
Hal
The pastor cut Trump off at the point in his speech when he was blaming the bad economy on Hillary Clinton. Was she mayor of Flint or governor of Michigan when no one was looking? He also said Flint’s water crisis would not have happened if he had been president. But he wants to do away with the EPA.
Kay
@Keith G:
I don’t know. I was never as confident as some were – I always thought it would be 3-5 points either way. People thought I was “concern trolling” but that wasn’t it- no one would be happier than me if I believed she had it locked up. It’s just a sense I had that it seemed fluid.
I’m going to a larger organizing event (multi-county that includes an urban area) Sunday so I’ll let you know if Democrats are horribly dispirited.
My son’s orthodontist asked me last night, with horror, if Trump would win. He’s a Korean immigrant with 2 small children. He’s just appalled by this whole thing. I wish I could reassure him but I don’t know.
Right now I’m going with the “composition of the electorate” theory because that’s the most optimistic. That just means “turn out”.
magurakurin
50 more dollars to Clinton this evening. Waiting for my Oregon mail in ballot. Should be here soon. Let’s do this.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: The incident in Flint just reaffirms my belief that the African-American community doesn’t give a damn about e-mails, pneumonia, “body doubles” or whatever and is going to do The Right Thing in November.
Nelle
Once again, women, particularly women of color, have to clean up the crap.
NorthLeft12
When you watch the video of Deadbeat Donald’s speech in Flint, the pastor was firm, direct, and yet respectful. She gave the media a simple lesson on how to handle Trump.
I was surprised that Deadbeat Donald did not snap back more aggressively at the heckler and the pastor when he was interrupted the second time. Not such a tough guy when he is out of his element……which is a TV studio or stage in a room full of white folks.
Tokyokie
@The Thin Black Duke: @Nelle: This country is going to need people of color, especially women, to save them from themselves. And they won’t be remotely grateful.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
National media are like a parody at this point. Here’s today’s NYTimes on Clinton/Trump health disclosures. They equate the 2 for the 1st 7 paragraphs before grudgingly admitting Clinton revealed more. The rest of the piece is an exhaustive run-down of every health problem Hillary Clinton has ever had. They can’t cover every health problem Trump has ever had for one simple reason- they don’t know. They’re screwing her because they have more information.
Their coverage has become a defense of their coverage. This is ABOUT that newspaper. It’s no longer about this campaign. It’s about defending how the NYTimes has covered the campaign. I always know I’m in trouble at work when I’m charging ahead and have kind of forgotten what I’m supposed to be doing- making it about something else. I feel like they are at that point.
Kay
@NorthLeft12:
I love his face. He’s shocked she corrected him. Makes you want to cheer. Someone told big mouth what the rules are.
Johannes
Not to go all paranoid, but am I the only person appalled by the NYT’s finally deigning to cover the Trump-Bondi pay to play story by trying to rebut it by pointing out that the date of Trump’s check is prior to the first newspaper story about Bondi investigating? Because buried in the story, it confirms that Bondi asked Trump for the donation. So there’s how he might have known her office had complaints. But the media must always assume innocence…if it’s Trump.
Tokyokie
@NorthLeft12: He’s a loudmouth bully, and loudmouth bullies are never the tough guys they pretend to be. They’re always performing for an audience of sycophants, but they can’t take a punch. It’s the quiet ones who are the real tough guys. This has been my almost invariable experience throughout life. That Trump’s supporters can’t figure that out just tells you how stupid they are. You might even say “deplorable.”
NorthLeft12
@The Thin Black Duke: As a foreign observer, I wish the white community would follow the AA example.
I just don’t effing get it. There is something seriously wrong when a bigoted, ignorant, loathsome, con man like Deadbeat Donald is in this position.
BTW, I wonder if the Roberts court has figured out that they were a bit premature in proclaiming the end of racism [institutional and personal] in the US.
The Thin Black Duke
@Tokyokie: Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Sounds like ass-covering to me too. Front-paged at WaPo right now:
Despite gestures, Trump is the least transparent presidential nominee in modern U.S. history
They get it, which is why I still subscribe to that paper. I dumped the NYT a couple of days ago and told them why.
Matt McIrvin
@Keith G: Sam Wang’s map has actually had Ohio light red for a little while now. I think the Bloomberg poll is also an outlier–if you look at recent polling, there was one there that had Clinton +7 whose survey period ended the day before the Bloomberg one began. I suspect that is an outlier too.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
My son is making canvassing calls in Chicago and he says the Clinton campaign office is run by AA women. They gave him a desk with a number, “you’re #7” – which made him laugh because it reminds him of school teachers :)
JMG
Media outlets HATE to follow up on stories broken by other outlets. It’s a blow to pride. As the most stuck on itself media outlet there is, the Times is very unlikely to follow up on the Trump stories that it got beaten on.
This is becoming a potentially serious business problem for them. Their readers are the elites Trump says he hates. If they alienate enough liberal readers, who rightly or wrongly are gonna give the paper a lot of blame for a Trump victory, they could lose ’em. Once lost, readers tend to stay lost. The Times is not thriving financially. It can’t afford to lose its paper of record brand. It already lost it with right wingers. Now it might break the other wing.
NorthLeft12
@Tokyokie:
In fact, you can probably bank on this being added to the list of grievances that the butthurt racists are keeping and sharing.
“We got deprived of all the wonderful things that Deadbeat Donald was going to do for us,…. by those people!”
NOTE: This complaint will be just above the one about getting stuck with President Obama for four years. Which is just above the one about getting stuck with President Obama for four years.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: I’m sure you’re very proud of your son. Working in the trenches is how elections are won.
sherparick
@Kay: Well, that reporter certainly won’t be able to work at the NY Times now. Creates the appearance of applying her own “moral and ideological” judgement to the story by just not accepting Trump’s answers without challenge. The NY TImes is certainly hewing to that standard today. In the story on Trump’s visit to Flint its mostly theater criticism of Trump being nonplussed by the pastor’s interruption. There is a quick mention that Trump wants to repeal the EPA’s new rule increasing its regulatory authority over local water supply quality, or that he wants to abolish the EPA altogether. There is another story about despite improving economic conditions, Trumps “message” resonates with voters feeling left behind, in other words more “theater” criticism and no mention how Trump’s tax and spending plans would shift more money to the upper 1% and away from places like Flint and Appalachia. Finally, the big story Times is a headline stating that the Trump donation to Pam Bondi in 2011 is really a big nothing burger since the date on the check “is 4 days before” the Orlando Sentinel story on consumer complaints against Trump U. and the Florida AG’s office. Somehow, they never seem to run such exculpatory headlines on Clinton Foundation and Clinton E-mail stories.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s just weird and self-indulgent. I know they have some decades-long bug up their ass about Clinton but “professional” means put that aside and do your job. 3/4’s of that article is a implied defense of the coverage of Clinton’s health issues. You’re right- it’s ass-covering.
I’m actually wondering about the flip side. Trump is a NYC person, fundamentally. That’s where he rose to fame. It’s just interesting to me that the NY paper is the easiest on him.
bemused
Interesting but not a bit surprising that the fundy Voters Values folks are softening their “morals” to support Trump. Abortion, the supposedly uncrossable line, seems to be studiously ignored. Oh Bachman, you hypocritical lunatic but we knew that.
There is no way that a Dem or any liberal presidential candidate would get away with what Trump has with Republican voters, refusing to release tax and health records, his lifestyle, his foreign connections and so much more. Everything that Trump supporters love about Trump they would hate about an equivalent Dem candidate. They scream about debt and deficits when there is a Dem president or Dem running for the WH but not a word about Rep candidates’ projected costs of their economic plans.
Nothing Trump says or does dampens their support. I think what they really want is for Trump to reduce out country to smoking, smoldering rubble.
debbie
@Kay:
I didn’t realize until this thread that he cut the speech short. All I’d heard was that she cut him off. Thanks, media, for downplaying yet another Trump tantrum.
Patricia Kayden
@NorthLeft12: Maybe many in the White community are perfectly okay with a Bigot as President. That’s the message that will be sent if Trump wins. If he wins, his bigoted supporters will cheer him on as he destroys communities of color and disfavored minorities (LGBT, Muslims). It will be fun for them.
I’m just hoping that Trump will mess up really badly at the upcoming debates and continue to make stupid comments showing how dangerous he would be as President. The AA community can’t always save America from itself — as evidenced by what happened in 2000.
NorthLeft12
@Johannes: Hey, this is The Grey Lady we are talking about here. They will not be pressured by any Dirty F…ing Hippies to do anything. They are doubling down to try and prove that they were correct in ignoring this nothingburger.
I am still trying to process that beaut of a response by the Public[HA!] Editor regarding their coverage of the candidates. I actually used to subscribe to their on line edition for a couple of years. That was a while ago, now I don’t even bookmark them.
OzarkHillbilly
@NorthLeft12:
What are you talking about? They proclaimed it over just in time to sway one more election to the southern strategizing GOP
bemused
@NorthLeft12:
Me too! So out of character for Trump to be that meek. My husband and I speculated that the group he was speaking to was overwhelming black and he was too scared to be “himself”.
Johannes
@sherparick: And how exculpatory is it, anyway? Bondi could have communicated it to Trump in their call, the Trump organization might have found out from another source. But Trump must be helped, Clinton taken down. It’s surreal.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Objectively true. I don’t know why they didn’t start the general with that frame. I’m not getting how they missed that fundamental starting point. Oh, well. Every other fucking institution failed to get us to this point- just add “media” to the pile.
I keep thinking about what an Obama volunteer said in ’12 when we were reassuring ourselves that we were talking to people so could bypass media. She said “I don’t know- it’s a big country- we probably can’t hit every door” :)
Johannes
@NorthLeft12: True. Vomitatious, but true.
SectionH
They didn’t make him drink the water?
Fuck it then.
Matt McIrvin
@bemused: Trump has promised to appoint their kind of Supreme Court justices, which, for them, is enough. It’s actually rational, given their goals.
bemused
@Matt McIrvin:
True, they would hold their noses for that.
Angela Y Crane
@Nelle: That’s the truth. The most consistent pushback I’ve seen on TV is JoyAnn Reid and Tamron Hall. And this black preacher was not having it.
Hal
I only care that Hillary wins. If it’s by 1 point, so be it. If Ohio goes Trump, so be it. They have a popular Republican governor with a decent economy. And fuck New Hampshire.
I get people are worried but reading some replies here you would think Trump has already won. Hillary is not losing. She isn’t running away with the election, and yes, things can change, but there are still the debates and weeks to go.
Iowa Old Lady
@Hal: To me, the margin matters only as it affects downballot races. I’m still confident she’ll win, but my horror at the opposition grows.
Kay
I’m wondering if we’re going to get any kind of analysis on the fact that Colin Powell said Benghazi was a “stupid witch hunt” and Rice agreed.
They promoted what two insiders called a “stupid witch hunt” for 2 years. Do they owe the public an explanation for why they chose to present the talking points of the GOP as if they were fact?
Jake Tapper was the stupid witch hunt leader. Will he rebut Powell and Rice? Why did they all take part in a stupid witch hunt? I mean, Christ. This is worse than “bias”. This is corruption. They’re captured.
NorthLeft12
@Patricia Kayden:
This^^^, unfortunately. I would have fixed it for you by striking through the Maybe, but I don’t have the mad computer skillz for that.
Matt McIrvin
@Hal:
No. Clinton is still ahead in NH (the fuss is about a poll where her lead was small) and there’s a decent possibility that its 4 electoral votes will be critical. Electoral-vote.com actually has Clinton at 274 electoral votes; if she gets that map and loses Maine district 2, New Hampshire is standing between us and President Trump. (That requires believing in the weird recent polls in Colorado and New Mexico, though, which I do not.)
Tokyokie
@SectionH: Like we’d notice any further brain damage in Trump.
Kay
This is John Harwood. He’s a reporter:
Will there be any evaluation/analysis of Benghazi coverage.now that the public has discovered 2 highly-placed GOP insiders dismissed it as a “stupid with hunt”?
They pushed Benghazi/Clinton for years. Was it all bullshit and did they know it was bullshit when they pushed it? How are these people at all credible? It’s like some kind of game.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Keep on bringing it Kay.
Bring it.
rikyrah
@Keith G:
They used 2004 demographics for the poll.
Wilson Heath
It really is entirely projection, isn’t it? Corruption, failure, ineffectiveness, racism–all these things he accuses Hillary of, it cannot just be coincidence.
Hal
@Matt McIrvin: In that case, I love New Hampshire! I don’t know why I thought Hillary was behind there, and I’ll be shocked if she loses main. Maybe Lepage will help her win there by being so terrible and embarrassing.
Bobby Thomson
@Kay:
Ordinarily I’d say follow the money, but it’s unclear Trump really has any. But if Trump Foundation money went to certain members of the fourth estate that would go a long way toward explaining why they won’t touch it.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
The coverage of “rural areas” not benefiting from the uptick in the economy is bullshit. We’re at 4% unemployment here. I’m as connected as a person could be to “the local economy”. It doesn’t get any better than this. There are billboards looking for factory workers. McDonalds is reduced to holding “open interviews” every Tuesday. They will hire any warm body who walks in the door. They’re desperate. It’s better than the Bush economy EVER was.
JMG
@rikyrah: That’s not strictly accurate. The polling organization said its likely voter screen produced a result resembling 2004’s actual turnout. Likely voter screens are the black boxes of election polling. Every poll has one, and each one is both secret and just a bit different.
PPCLI
@Johannes: DId they also mention the $35,000 cheque to then-AG, now governor Abbott in Texas after dropping the Trump U investigation? [True, three years later, but this is still something that needs investigation,] And that Abbott’s own investigator had recommended that the Texas AG investigate and was so troubled by Abbott’s dropping the case that he has send the press the text of his recommendation? And that Abbott sought a cease-and-desist order to shut him up? Did Trump donate to any other Texas politicians at that time or since? It’s not just Bondi.
Kay
@Bobby Thomson:
I don’t know. Maybe more of a home field advantage? Maybe embarrassment that such a diverse, sophisticated place produced this fucking cretin that one would expect to come out of some backwater county commissioner race? It’s like they’re cleaning him up.
Betty Cracker
@Hal: Agreed. The thing that worries me is if Trump can somehow expand the white redneck vote to counter his losses with educated whites and women. I don’t think he can, and his lack of ground game should hurt him here, but it’s at least possible.
I’ve also read some analysis suggesting that if Trump can get through the remaining 50-something days without another giant bigot outburst, he could get back some of the college-educated whites who normally vote Republican but were put off by Trump’s earlier behavior. Trump being Trump, that seems unlikely too, but again, it’s possible.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Every article I read about Benghazi was about how Republicans in Congress were pursuing it. That’s news. Not sure how the press could have ignored it.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: And yet those who benefit from his policies will not give President Obama any credit for turning around the country’s economy from losing 800,000 jobs per month to creating jobs for years on end. You would think that they would gladly support the Presidential Candidate who will expand on the current President’s legacy but no, they’re going to turn this country over to an inexperienced, loud mouth Bigot. Sigh.
Johannes
@PPCLI: The check and the aborted inquiry, yes. In passing. Passing at high speed. Both sides do it!
Taylor
@Kay: I would imagine that the Trumps and the Suelzbergers hob-knob in the same social circles (fundraisers for Metropolitan Museum of Art and the like).
JMG
@Kay: It’s funny how US media only wants to focus on issues of class when it allows them to ignore issues of race. It is my belief that Trump support is one part plain bigotry, one part social anxiety (the world is changing and my place in it will be lost) and one part psychological (midlife and older regret of lost opportunities).
Peale
@Patricia Kayden: and by doing so, turn the entire federal government over to republicans who will undo all of those policies as soon as they are seated. there isn’t a single positive trend that they won’t undo.
Patricia Kayden
@Tokyokie: The working class people buying his spiel are probably not concerned about what he does as President as long as it hurts “those people”. This is a way to destroy President Obama’s legacy for them.
Patricia Kayden
@Peale: And all those military people supporting Trump better get ready to go overseas to enact his policy of stealing oil from Middle Eastern countries.
PPCLI
@Wilson Heath: Especially because the Flint poisoning was a Republican operation from top to bottom.
a) Republican governor Snyder. (There are emails among his staff complaining about the water situation for an awfully long time before something was done. Including an email from an official saying more or less “My mother lives in Flint and she could be drinking poison right now. What the hell are we going to do about this?” and of course nothing was done for months and months until it hit the press)
b) Legislature in hard-core wingnut Republican control, both houses (even though more votes were cast for Democrats than Republicans in the last state election. Gerrymandering is a wonderful thing.)
c) Flint was run by an emergency manager appointed by the governor; none of the democratically elected people or bodies had anything more than advisory roles, and they were ignored.
d) The emergency manager law was forced through by the Republicans, signed by Snyder. It was overturned in a statewide referendum, and they passed essentially the same bill again, with an irrelevant, minor budget rider. This budget rider trick has become standard for the Michigan Republicans, since any bill that involves appropriations in that way can’t be overturned by referendum. Sleazy, to be sure, but par for the course.
e) The Department of Environmental Quality was supposed to be checking Flint’s water. This was a board created by Republicans — originally the Department of Public Health was in charge of water quality, but Governor Engler (R) in 1995 created this new agency, and charged them with ensuring that regulations would be enforced in a way that would not interfere with business initiatives. They were also hostile to climate change investigation, etc.
e1) When Granholm (D) came in, she took water quality investigation away from DEQ, gave it instead to the Department of Natural Resources, and folded the DEQ into the DNR. Water quality was more aggressively investigated.
e2) One of Snyder’s first acts was to re-establish the business-friendly DEQ, separate them from the DNR, and give them (inter alia) water investigation authority, to make sure that things like water quality regulation didn’t get in the way of business profits.
I could go on…. This was not a series of individual screwups and negligence, as the Republicans have been scrambling to portray it. It was an inevitable result of conscious policy decisions favoring business interests over environmental protection, and intentional neglect and contempt for residents of inner cities.
This is part 1 of the answer to “what do you have to lose?” Well, Donald, under the Democrats we weren’t drinking poison from our water taps.
Iowa Old Lady
@Wilson Heath: Bizarre, isn’t it? Once you notice the omnipresence of projection, it’s a great tool to use to examine what Trump says.
Kay
How funny is it that the GOP base are supporting a huge new entitlement program that trumps state law AND pulls funding from unemployment, which is state-run.
If Michelle Obama had proposed what Ivanka Trump proposed, the entire wingnut welfare circuit would be screeching.
Silence. Nothing. Not a word on “state’s rights” or “welfare” or single mothers- nothing. We knew they were completely full of shit on budgets, but it turns out they have NO basic philosophy other than “we don’t like Democrats” and “we don’t like minorities”.
JMG
The dangers of a Trump administration would feed upon themselves in an escalating spiral. His supporters who tell themselves they’re voting for him for economic reasons (racism is so often subconscious) will be the first betrayed when Trump’s first budget is passed. No GOP Congress is ever going to keep big business from operating in China as it sees fit. Social Security and Medicare WILL be cut. To keep them on the reservation, he will have to actually implement his social policies. He’ll have to start to build the wall. initiate mass detentions of suspected undocumented aliens, prevention of Muslim travel to the US, etc. This in turn will lead to confrontations with foreign countries who’ll have every reason to tell a belligerent and erratic US president to go fuck himself. That’ll go well.
FlipYrWhig
@JMG:
You could probably put the first group into one basket and the latter two groups in another.
Kay
He comes in to her place, a guest, she politely challenges him, so he insults her.
He’s really just a lousy person. He was raised poorly and over-indulged as an adult. That other adults continue to indulge him is a shame and a poor reflection on the whole country.
Is she the first person who has insisted Trump follow the rules like everyone else? Must be tough to get to 70 with that kind of coddling and leave the cocoon.
PPCLI
@Johannes: Sigh. For an organization that is so smug about their journalism, the NYT people sure seem to have a hard time asking the most obvious questions.
Peale
@Patricia Kayden: on my good days, I think the military brass will be too busy falling over itself to proOve that it is the new Patton to concern itself with planning. Also, they’ll find themselves short of recruits since they’ll be competing with the 500,000 strong paramilitary deportation task force for recruits.
Emma
@Taylor: Yes and no. But the Trumps are considered not comme il faut in the highest New York social circles. Those people are all about big charity spending and the Trump cheapskate ways horrifies them.
OzarkHillbilly
‘You don’t fit the image’: Hillary Clinton’s decades-long push against a sexist press
Peale
@Kay: to be fair, Steve King said he’d support it if it could be written in a way that gay couples would never be eligible for the credit and it only applied to natural families. Which I think excludes the single mothers. Although it might just be limited to gays.
PPCLI
@Kay: I wish that Obama could do something (on a bit of a smaller scale) like what Truman did before the 1948 election. The Republicans had decided that Truman was so unpopular that they should just avoid controversy and “pivot to the centre” by proposing a bunch of policies identical to the Democrats (“me-too-ism” it was derogatorily called). So Truman recalled Congress from recess and said “Hey, if you are in favour of these policies, and I am too, let’s just pass them all right now! And of course nothing was done. Truman ran against the “Do Nothing Republican Congress” and we know how that worked out.
Since it is inconceivable that any Republican Congress would ever pass anything like Trump’s plan, I wish Obama would announce something like “Hey, this is great – we’ve been trying to get something done about family leave for my whole administration. Why wait, let’s pass this thing now! It’s not perfect, but we can work on the details, like paternity leave as well as maternity leave, etc. Let’s just do this now! Why wait, if we’re all on the same side on this!” And keep hammering away.
Kay
Because merit doesn’t matter and it’s all a big fucking joke to Trump’s pals. They’re all qualified to do anything, with no work or preparation.
Ivanka can run domestic policy while shilling her shoe line out of the White House and Thiel can sit on the SupremeCourt, because the hubris and ego of these people knows no bounds and everyone is too scared to challenge them.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: And here we go. So we can expect a Sarah Palin as Secretary of Education also too, you betcha!
For the sake of the Supreme Court alone, I hope those who cannot stand Secretary Clinton will suck it up and vote for her.
Kay
@Peale:
She’s a dope, Ivanka. I know we’re not allowed to say that, but it’s important that children who are watching this not get the impression they can rise like she did. The special rules won’t apply to them. They’ll have to work.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Eric Trump will be sec of ed. He’s all but announced his latest unearned promotion. He cares. Deeply. Never mind he’s spent his entire adult life running his father’s scams. Education is his passion.
JMG
Wonder how John Roberts feels when he sees that story? The eight remaining justices have all devoted their lives to the law, no matter how horrible four of them may seem to us. Now the next justice might be this crackpot? It’s a message from Trump that he will demean them, too, because he has to demean anyone who might possibly get in his way.
Dadadadadadada
@Kay: SHE was a “nervous mess”? @Wilson Heath: and @Iowa Old Lady: were absolutely correct, then. 100% projection by a man who’s never had to face black people as equals before, didn’t know what to do when one challenged him, and promptly fled for his life.
All this projection indicates to me that Trump has a profound and far-reaching shame complex. There is something about himself that he (and we, of course, but at least we’re honest about it) just cannot stand.
Edited to correct the names of the people I was replying to.
Kay
I have to work but if you want to indulge your rage,follow Armondo from Daily kos on twitter. He’s great. Pure informed, well-reasoned anger, every 4 minutes.
I had a big fight with him in the BJ comments over Medicaid once, so i’m unbiased :)
Botsplainer
@Peale:
No competition will occur as to the deportation force – it’ll consist of volunteers. Every 350 pound militia guy in camo (some in rascal scooters) and a bunch of 60+ RWNJ guys (some of whom had service time in nice CONUS billets between war periods) will sign up to personally get special deputy badges and to round up suspected illegals.
Matt McIrvin
@Hal: It was “poll within the margin of error” hoopla, I think.
Clinton isn’t losing Maine but she might lose one electoral vote there. Two of their four are assigned by congressional district, and district 2 is Trumpier than district 1.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker:
Considering her upbringing, Betty, think about how…how jarring it must be, to be questioned and then asked…a follow-up…
PPCLI
@Dadadadadadada: Worse, he dismissed her with the remark “Everyone plays their games”, and said that as she approached, he knew “Something was up”.
She graciously invites him to their church (a decision that was likely extremely unpopular with her congregation), and gives him a forum, with one condition. He blithely violates that condition, and she reminds him of it. And Trump portrays her as sneaky and “playing games”.
rikyrah
Very Smart Brothas has a post up on Colin Powell.
As usual, while the post is funny, the comedy GOLD is in the comments. ??
D58826
@Kay:
All the while complaining about her lack of transparency and secretiveness. It’s like the CF. How do we know so much about what it does and where the money goes and who the donors are? Because it’s all out on the public record. But the Newsweek article on Trump’s foreign entanglements – crickets.
If she wins the CF has announced plans to spin off it’s largest component. If ‘old little hands’ wins Ivanka assures us that the family will run the business in a patriotic way and not put national security at risk. How will we know? Trust her.
Matt McIrvin
I suspect what was going on with the recent Colorado and New Mexico polls is that these are states where Gary Johnson gets a lot of support, perhaps disproportionately from Republicans, and the Ipsos/Reuters poll was a two-candidate poll that did not ask about him. Need more polls.
J.
@Kay: Wow. Thank you for posting this. Go Prachi Gupta!
Jeffro
@rikyrah: The comments were great, but these two things from the post (things that a 79-year-old black grandfather is here for)…I’m still crying laughing here…
Nice!
Helen
Speaking of stupid, vacant Ivanka, Josh Barro just pointed out something from the Cosmo interview that went right over my head even though I had read it. I guess I was too stunned by the “only mommies, not daddies” part.
Anyway, stupid, vacant Ivanka said that the benefit will be for moms who have “legal married status.”
Holy shit. Single moms need not apply.
rikyrah
@Tokyokie:
They never are, Dear.
rikyrah
@Kay:
yep yep yep
SenyorDave
@Kay: He’s really just a lousy person
This. All the hypothesizing about psychological problems can’t change the fact that he is a bad person. Thomas Friedman said it best in an op-ed in the NYT a few weeks ago. “Donald Trump is a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him.” Probably the best thing anyone in this election cycle has written about Trump.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
You are not lying.
Rev. Barber from North Carolina has a wonderful speech called the Third Reconstruction.
That’s why, I believe, you have so many Black people speaking up.
Those that want Ferret Head ‘ to make America great’- don’t understand. NOBODY is going back. They can try that bullshyt if they want. NOBODY is going back.
I think that’s a good description from Rev. Barber. Except, for the first time in this country’s history, we actually have the tools to prevent it.
G-O-T-V
sherparick
Since this is an open thread, and fact Donald Trump may have the full authority of the Presidency behind him in a few months to enhance his business model and influence has made scared shitless, i think, as Charlie Pierce says its always a good day for dinosaur news, Here is a terrific story at the Guardian:
“https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/14/scientists-reveal-most-accurate-depiction-of-a-dinosaur-ever-created”
Wapiti
@bemused: Yes, this. I think he’s actually afraid of blacks. Not just uncomfortable, actually fearful.
JMG
There are two ways a Trump presidency could go. One is that he’d be an active manager, at least at first, and actually do wacky shit like nominating Freil to the court. There’d be total chaos within the Republican party and in the nation. The other is that Trump would let the Congress set all domestic policy while he goes around presidentin’, making more speeches to adoring crowds and making faces at Mexico and China. The latter being easier, it’s far more likely.
shomi
“Yea but something something…Al Gore….so I’m scared”
–idiot commenters on Ball Juice.
D58826
@JMG: Either way he will probably sign anything that Ryan/McConnell put on his desk. Back to the 128th century.
Weaselone
@JMG:
Option 2 is the most likely. He’ll rubber stamp whatever the Republicans put in front of him. Most of his early Presidency will be spent traveling the country/making TV appearances where he’ll claim Obama’s successes as his own. Once Republican policies and the natural business cycle trash the economy and piss off enough people, he’ll just blame Congress.
Chyron HR
@shomi:
“I unquestioningly believe that Anthony Weiner never sent photos of his dick to women.”
– Shomi
OGLiberal
I know I will get yelled at for saying this but, sorry, the recent polling this late into the race with nothing but the debates (which will be scored heavily on a curve) or some scandal (Trump has plenty already but nobody cares – well, not white people or the media) has me scared poopless. The only way Hillary wins this at this point is by winning WI, MN, MI, PA, NH, and VA. She has decent leads in all but much less than they were two weeks ago – if the pace continues there’s a risk of losing a couple of them and PA would be a deal breaker. (I actually worry about it more than VA – too many old white people) I think Ohio is gone and NC is more likely to go for Hillary than FL but both will probably go Trump. NV worries me but if she wins the ones above, that’s all she needs. And it appears that Iowa is going the way of the rest of the Midwest with the wingnuts taking over. How the eff did we get to the point where a best case scenario has Hillary between 272 and 278?
Keith P.
@Kay: It must be his sweet body language reading (not the Braille version he practices on his daughter)
magurakurin
@Wapiti: I’m sure he is afraid of black people. That’s part of the racism that is driven into us. And by “us” I mean white people born in America, especially the older among us. We are taught by our parents, society, television to fear black people. And to trust white men in suits. The reality of course is completely backwards. It’s the white men is suits that we should fear…..and I do.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That picture is worth a couple of thousand words.
The Reverend Ms Timmons pretty much pantsed him in public. We have not heard the last of this. He’s found a new Khan family-like target.
JMG
@OGLiberal: You know, your anxiety would feel better if you volunteered/donated to Clinton, or do more of it if you already have. Win or lose, you will be happier knowing you left it all on the field.
OGLiberal
@rikyrah: The one segment of Democratic voters that I have no concerns about turning out – in this or any race in the not-so-recent past – is African Americans. It’s all the other segments that I worry about and an AA turnout of 90% still doesn’t win you the election if other Dems take a pass this year. GOP turnout will be above normal because the bigots see their chance to stick it to the browns and tree huggers and Muslims and gays and college graduates all the other folks they hate.
OzarkHillbilly
@sherparick: just finished reading that. Dinosaurs, gotta love them.
danielx
Once again revealing himself as a wanker of biblical proportions.
magurakurin
@OGLiberal: so, donate. phone bank. gotv. Panic is pointless. Don’t get afraid, get angry. fight.
OGLiberal
@JMG: I’ve donated and will do so again. GOTV is not something I can help with much as I live in NJ (where it won’t matter) and nobody from Ohio wants to hear what I think about the election. I’m not knocking Ohio – that’s just the way it is….concerns are local and I’m not local. (plus there is some truth to the notion that we New Jerseyeans – and I’m a lifer – are obnoxious a-holes…who wants to hear from us?)
Weaselone
@OGLiberal:
How exactly do you consider that the “Best Case” scenario?
The best case is Hillary crushes the debates, the media starts doing it’s damn job and we add Georgia and Arizona as well as all the battle ground states to the tally.
Bobby Thomson
@OGLiberal: hey, concern troll/chicken little who just showed up from nowhere – your shtick isn’t working. By the way, Trump won’t win Pennsylvania.
Hoodie
@JMG: The more likely scenario is Trump wants to bring about is putting the machinery of government to work enriching him and that collection of weirdness he calls a family, ultimately setting up his plasticine daughter and/or his oily sons to succeed him. He’ll pay off elements of his voting base (white supremacists, bible thumpers, etc.) with social welfare that is directed solely at them (e.g., fundie schools) so that he has a reliable voting bloc. He’d appoint hacks to cabinet positions, with their only qualification being loyalty to Trump and his family. A large number of GOPers will gladly join the crime syndicate because it will pay off for them. He’d heap resources on cops, who will become correspondingly corrupt. His model is Hugo Chavez, except he’ll have a massive security apparatus at his disposal instead of a lake of oil. World’s greatest warlord. Not saying he’ll be able to pull that off, but the risk is out there.
rachel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist Why, it’s like you know him, or something
magurakurin
@OGLiberal: cool. We’re gonna win this. I understand your worry, but we can beat this asshole. Stay strong, stay positive. This was a bad week, but Hillary Clinton is a fighter and she will come back strong from today. The media is in the bag for the Shitgibbon, but we’ll do this without them. Just remember who did and didn’t help. Time enough to deal with all the little quislings after November.
randy khan
@rikyrah:
I’ll be grateful! I promise!
JMG
Where are we now? I am not Nate Silver or Sam Wang. Calculating earned run average is about all I can do in math. But it seems to me that this election campaign so far has followed a pattern since May when it became clear Clinton and Trump would be the nominees. Each one has had surges in the polls based on events, and each surge has faded with a new event. Trump was first to clinch his nomination, and the race was very close. Clinton won California and opened up a lead. Comey gave his press conference and the race became close again. The conventions happened and Clinton’s lead came back.
Since then, two things have happened. Clinton has called out white racism, which has lost her votes despite being the right thing to do, and she got sick in a very visible way. So the race is close again.
We have no idea what events will make the numbers move again. But I’m pretty sure they will, and more than once, too.
Bobby Thomson
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: apparently Trump made a visit to the jerk store and is already trashing her on the morning shows now that he’s somewhere people won’t shout down his bullshit. What a fucking pussy.
magurakurin
@Bobby Thomson: a bit heavy. I think he just has the shakes. It happens to the best of us. I had to fight them off about an hour ago…made the mistake of looking at NYT headlines.
OGLiberal
@Bobby Thomson: Hey Bobby…eff off…been here for years and I’m not a freaking troll. Eat a bag of d**ks.
PaulWartenberg2016
Trump is now attacking the church pastor.
His shamelessness is disgusting.
magurakurin
@JMG: the video of her fainting was brutal. People fainting is brutal. There is a video of Bill Weld fainting at the podium of the gradution at Bentley College. It looks like he died. But Clinton isn’t seriously ill at all. She will come back strong and it will show. You are right, the polls are going to move again and more than once.
Major Major Major Major
@JMG: Look at the poll averages at HuffPo/Pollster or TPM. Clinton is about at her average, Trump is about at his ceiling. The race hasn’t changed fundamentally since people started doing head-to-heads in February. The natural state is Clinton +3. Trump came within striking distance right before the RNC and even then he was getting creamed in the electoral college.
@Bobby Thomson: If Trump wins Pennsylvania then the race will have gone so fucking ass-over-teakettle that it won’t matter.
bystander
@Kay: You seem to forget that the program, in addition to primarily benefiting the wealthiest, will only be available to “normal families”.
So thanks to Steve King, the program won’t become an entitlement for the wrong kind of family.
Betty Cracker
@Weaselone: Thank you for saying that! The Phlegmghazi panic will subside. Trump will still be a no-nothing asshole.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
For everybody panicking about polls….
Not advocating for complacency, just perspective
ETA: all polls, good and bad, likely and registered, whatever the sample size, the weighting for party ID…. they call come down to turn out. Trump wins with off year turn out, Clinton wins with typical presidential year turn out.
magurakurin
@OGLiberal: everybody is touchy these days. Coming down to crunch time and folks are getting tired of looking over their shoulders. It’s like my friend told me last month, “it’s like the secret police, you never know who is listening and what side they are on.”
stronger together
CONGRATULATIONS!
Best working journalists – people actually reporting – are in fashion and sports.
Damn, we have fallen hard.
Gin & Tonic
@PaulWartenberg2016: Bad-mouthing a black female pastor, who clearly spoke to him politely. That’s some high-level strategery right there.
D58826
Well finally a Trump telling the truth – according to ‘old little hands jr.’ releasing the tax returns would raise to many questions. Truer words have never been spoken. Does that qualify as a gaffe.?
Not that it makes any difference. Trump could kill children on live TV in Time square and his numbers would go up and the NYT would talk about how much Hillary spends on getting her hair done.
rikyrah
@Peale:
And, will NEVER take responsibility for voting for those who would do that.
NEVER do they take responsibility. It’s always someone else to blame.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ha! Thanks.
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
Unfortunately the majority of white people throughout the history of this country have stood by as people of color have been abused, discriminated against, and even systemically murdered. The Civil War is the one glaring exception to it. But even that was a fight over the division of power. Where was the white majority when the Native Americans were on the trail of tears? Look at all those lynch mobs, look at the faces of the people in the crowd, the Rosewood massacre, Greenwood is a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma,. Jim Crow went on for over a hundred years while most white people simply pretended it wasn’t real, it took television bringing it into people homes every night for most white people to finally believe in the cause of civil rights. BLM has only become a legitimate cause because we can see the videos, and yet polls still show the majority of white people still don’t think it’s all that bad for black people. They seem to believe we like to make shit up, in order to get “advantages”, for every advance we have ever gained towards equality, there has been a backlash to almost render the advance meaningless, almost. We are currently in the midst of the biggest one so far, a black man had the audacity to get himself elected President of the United States of America, so now we have to pay. Unfortunately for them, the punishment they seek to inflict on us for this sin, will not be confined to just us, everyone would be hurt by this, irreparably.
Amir Khalid
@PaulWartenberg2016:
And worse, he’s obviously doing it out of fear. Attacking a church pastor, the least likely person in the world to do him any harm, in retaliation for a very mild rebuke. And this coward would pretend that he is the one to lead America and the free world?
Ruckus
@Kay:
and we hate minorities with the heat of a thousand novas.
Fixed it for you.
PPCLI
@bystander: True, this is anti-gay, which is deplorable, and that should be stressed. But it is also anti-single mother, anti-adoptive family, anti-father. Maternal mortality in Texas doubled between 2010 and 2014*. That suggests there will be some single fathers facing not just heartbreak but a crisis parenting situation. This bill treats them as non-persons. It’s documented that abusive marriages often become worse when wives become pregnant. Message to women: leave your abuser in that situation, and Trump’s plan will write you off.
(*Apparently all those “protecting women’s health” measures like defunding Planned Parenthood made things worse! Who could have seen that coming?)
Doug R
@Kay: Are they oversampling Republicans again?
Ruckus
@JMG:
Not with the Donnie crowd. I only know one Trump supporter who I work with. There is nothing subtle, hidden or unknown about his racism.
The lack of subtlety about his racism is what draws them to him. Some of his supporters may try to act like they aren’t racist, but everyone around them knows they are. This is what a lot of our citizens are, racists. If they weren’t he wouldn’t have the traction he has because this is his one ideal, racism. Everything else is easy to spot bullshit, used to lightly varnish his racism.
FlipYrWhig
Why is Democrats’ and liberals’ natural, comfortable state this sort of fretfulness to the point of panic so many of y’all are going through? Hay-Zeus, people.
Trentrunner
@hovercraft: So much truth in so few words.
FlipYrWhig
@Ruckus: If they could vote for “Fuck You,” they would. Trump is “Fuck You” in just barely humanoid form.
hovercraft
@Kay:
Yes
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: a paunchy Fuck You in an ill-fitting suit, with tinted eyebrows, and a dead marmoset atop his head.
He’s seventy years old, counts standing at a podium and yelling as exercise, has a well documented fondness for candy and junk food, and weighs 267 pounds. Can you say “Type II diabetes”?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
no less than the Evil One himself already told you..
“Deficits don’t matter.”
Unless a Democrat is President.
Trentrunner
@JMG: Stop making sense.
Dadadadadadada
@PPCLI: Again, it’s projection. He was playing games, always is and has been playing games, so the assumption that everyone is always playing games is just part of the wallpaper of his mind. He probably doesn’t even notice he’s doing it.
Tenar Darell
@OzarkHillbilly: At the beginning of this cycle just based on how rocky her relationship with press always seemed & how many different ways there are now to reach people, I told my brother “why should she talk with the press?” I really didn’t even imagine the microagressions of years but I almost wish I’d said something like “why should she trust the press to report anything she does without sexist filters?”
Dadadadadadada
@Helen: Well, at least they can’t lock lesbian moms out anymore. Baby steps, people.
D58826
@rikyrah: And most of members of the party of patriotism stand silent as this unqualified fool makes a mockery of our democracy. Colin Powell being the latest. He calls Trump a monster but won’t endorse Hillary. Oh all of those Good Germans who remained silent because they weren’t part of the ‘other’!
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
There was a story a few years ago about in town in Indiana that is the RV capital of the world, they were devastated by the ’08 crash and voted for Obama, he visited and promised to bring back jobs there. When the cameras went back four years later, business was booming and they did acknowledge that Obama had kept his promise, but they all said they were voting for RMoney because he was a business man and would be best for the economy. What the hell do you do with that?
Dadadadadadada
@OGLiberal: HFA is running weekly bus trips to Pennsylvania. They keep bothering me about it in NYC, so there must be some way you can get in on it from NJ. There are phone banks all over the place.
I did a GOTV thing for her in Manhattan the other week, and I was amazed at how many people I talked to had friends or relatives in swing states. No place on Earth is less swingy than Manhattan, and yet even there people have roots and branches to places like PA.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This seems like an odd thing to say for an old fart like me, but Jamelle Bouie is very good at twitter
Jamelle Bouie jbouie 11h11 hours ago Washington, DC
Major Major Major Major
@Dadadadadadada: even the bigots can see the writing on the wall: the armies of lesbian farmers cometh.
FlipYrWhig
@hovercraft:
Outvote them and wait for them to die off.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@D58826: She’s a friend he respects, but he hopes he doesn’t have to vote for her, because she’s not transformational. WTF does that even mean? And she’s too ambitious! (as opposed to….?) and her husband dicks bimbos! (which means what?– eta: I know what it means, but what does it mean for her presidency)
Wish I could defend her/them about the greedy thing, but this election would be a lot easier if they had looked at their 401K in 2009 and said, you know what, we’re okay, we’ve got enough.
all that said, as long as John McCain is alive, Colin Powell will only be the second most overrated person in American politics. I’d say third place is a tie between Feinstein and Graham.
Weaselone
@hovercraft:
What can you say. Democrats are apparently only good for cleaning shit up after the “good businessmen” get done being “best for the economy”.
hovercraft
@Taylor:
Actually Trump is looked down on by those people, because part of their scene is charity functions, and Trump developed a reputation for either not donating or promising to, and never actually donating. That’s part of the chip on his shoulder, what should be his circle, sees him as a deadbeat. To the real society people he’s not one of them, he’s new money and doesn’t sanitize it with charitable giving. Bloomberg is new money but generous, so he;s in, and he’s not tacky. Trump socializes with celebrities not with the real ‘society’ people, his type are loud and feel the need to brag and boast about all the money they have.
bemused
I knew Trump wouldn’t be able to refrain from going after the Flint pastor but I burst out laughing when I read that he said of her, “She was a nervous wreck.” Classic projection.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Obama was transformational, but the woman who wants to continue every single one of his policies isn’t. Maybe if she changed one?
hovercraft
@Kay:
Well in their defense, Robert Costa is reporting that they are grumbling, saying that it’s DOA. They are just keeping mum to win, but like the shrubs ‘compassionate conservatism’ nothing would ever come of it even if he won.
SenyorDave
@hovercraft: In fact, Elkhart County voted 62.5% for Romney. The county is about 90% white. I’m sure very few would make the connection that maybe Obama helped to save their collective asses, but most made the connection that he doesn’t look like they do. During this election, I’m almost ashamed to be a white male.
Joel
@Kay: coincidentally, I think good economic times are when voters make risky/stupid or “feel good” decisions. They sense that they can afford the risk.
Tenar Darell
@rikyrah: I had a mini epiphany. Old black grandparents are related to old Jewish grandparents with less a** and more tush & putz (Yiddish). (My grandpas didn’t cook though). ETA redundancy
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Your list is spot on, I’d just add our two more, Rudy and Christie.
catclub
@PPCLI:
Did Trump donate to Bondi when she ran the first time? OTOH: He has Florida residences so he probably is interested in FL politics.
On the other hand: He is a known cheapskate, why donate unless you need a favor.
catclub
@hovercraft:
What you want to do is nuke it from orbit, but that isn’t very nice.
rikyrah
@Helen:
Uh uh uh
catclub
@Kay: The most irritating thing is that NOW the press considers it time to discuss an issue – which Clinton has been addressing the entire campaign. The whole woman card quote could have been a chance to address childcare, but no.
rikyrah
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Hmmph.
Phuck.outta.here.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Looks like I’m going to have to add these guys to my must-read blog list…
FEMA Camp Counselor
@FlipYrWhig: Shot in the dark: it’s a generational thing. I think with a few exceptions, most of the people who comment on these blogs were alive for the rise of the Conservative Movement/Reagan Years and the fact that the Democrats were on the defensive for so long has made people reflexively skittish after every blip.
Miss Bianca
@Dadadadadadada: As long as they’re “legally married”. What do you bet they try to dispute that same-sex parents could be “legally married”, despite its being oh, you know, the law of the land?
01jack
@Miss Bianca: Too lazy to look it up, but I think Tennessee is arguing this very thing: Obergefell means they can marry, but we don’t necessarily have to give them all the benefits.
D58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Have yet to see someone running for president who wasn’t ambitious and didn’t think they were the smartest person in the room. Kinda have to think that way if you want that thankless job.
As far a being greedy, well I guess but since when has it been a crime to make a buck in this country. You know Horatio Alger rags to riches (unless the last name is Clinton).
The latest clutching of pearls is the family had a big to do with friends and supports at at fancy watering hole for Bill’s birthday. I guess they should have celebrated it by dumpster diving outside a Salvation Army food kitchen. Of course then they would have been criticized for taking food away from the hungry (with the loudest critics being the ones who want to cut food stamps).
Miss Bianca
@01jack: “OK, fine, you get to marry, but we get to pretend that marriage doesn’t mean what it means. In *your* case. That’s fair!”
Geeno
@sherparick: When did Psittacosaurus get those tail bristles? I don’t recall those from any illustration I’ve seen before.
chopper
@Kay:
that makes perfect sense. let’s put on the supreme court a guy with one year of legal experience clerking for a judge on the 11th circuit back in 1992.
NorthLeft12
@Dadadadadadada: I agree with you, but also that wonderful pastor must have been somewhat uncomfortable in having to say anything to that cretin. Who wouldn’t have been?
Deadbeat Donald is the epitome of the spoiled child who believes the world revolves around him. Not sure that I completely blame the parents, as this awful behavior has been enabled for decades by the media and virtually everyone around him.
NO.REDEEMING.QUALITIES. None. Nada. Zip.
Ruckus
@hovercraft:
There is nothing you can do with blatant, enjoyed stupidity. Except make the conservatives own it. Teaching doesn’t work, if it did they already would have learned. Bribery doesn’t work, they’ve already seen the economy come back under a dem, a black one at that and, nothing. There are a lot of pet reasons but I’m going to call out the one that I see above all of them, RACISM.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I’m sure this thread is dead, but I wanted to thank you for the link. That was fascinating. I do love me some Rev. Barber. Smart, charismatic, a real presence. We are lucky to have him in these times. I would like to see Barack Obama pair up with Rev. Barber for some events in NC after January. Each of them is amazing in their own way.
Anne Laurie
@Helen:
Ivanka converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married Jared Kushner.
They’re not exactly advertising this fact right now, because of all the neoNazis in Trump’s fan club, but you can be sure that “SHE’S JUST DEEPLY RELIGIOUS HOW CAN YOU QUESTION THAT YOU HEATHEN SINNERS” is queued up at every Wingnut Wurlitzer site.