Figured it made sense to bookend my blogging day with President Obama’s speech on behalf of Ralph Northam from earlier this evening. The video is all teed up for President Obama’s remarks.
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 120 Comments
This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2017, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security
Figured it made sense to bookend my blogging day with President Obama’s speech on behalf of Ralph Northam from earlier this evening. The video is all teed up for President Obama’s remarks.
Open thread!
Comments are closed.
Adam L Silverman
Apparently there was a bit of a line…
lamh36
lamh36
I def recommend folks check out the entire rally speech. It was classic Obama
Elizabelle
Thank you tremendously. I didn’t get tickets, but so excited to have PBO in the house.
CNN/Anderson Cooper with clip of RVA speech just a moment ago. Segues into W’s speech.
Good on both former presidents speaking up. The one we have now is a shit show’s shit show.
Elizabelle
@lamh36: Yeah. The Jefferson Davis quote is the headline in the Richmond Times Disgrace at the moment.
Take that, confederates.
WaterGirl
President Obama looks younger and more energetic again.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Sleek as a seal. He looked great. Slim, trim, ready.
efgoldman
@Elizabelle:
Call them by their correct title: traitors in the service of chattel slavery.
Trentrunner
Funny, I know many here can’t (and don’t) watch Trump. Just too painful.
That’s how I feel about watching Obama. Just can’t. Too painful.
Corner Stone
@Elizabelle: Ummm, I uhh hate to break this to you. But if you challenged me to name a “slim, trim” animal…Seal would not be in the top 10.
SiubhanDuinne
Haven’t watched this yet (saving it for “dessert,” as it were) but am totally pumped about seeing POTUS44 again.
efgoldman
@Trentrunner:
I find it soothing, especially in contrast to Mango Malignancy
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Just the clips and quotes y’all have been posting make me KNOW I am gonna love POTUS44’s speech!
#Ogodimisshimsofuckingmuch
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Otter?
msdc
Oh yeah… that’s what it felt like to have a president I was proud of.
Jeffro
Great speech – wish there had been the shout-outs to Herring as well as Fairfax and Northam, but still…
I am almost willing to go back in a time loop from 2008 to 2016, and never emerge, just because having a highly competent progressive president who worked for all of us was such a blessing.
Almost
lamh36
@Trentrunner: I totally understand, but as I said it the last thread…it’s puts my feels in a great place to hear “Signed Sealed Delivered” played after a campaign rally again!
Corner Stone
Damn, Julia Ioffe. Shut up for one fucking minute.
Another example of Hayes getting rolled.
amygdala
“Strains credulity…” Oh, how I’ve missed real words.
lamh36
@Trentrunner: Also too, it was great to see PBO dinging Trump without EVER saying his name. And knowing that Trump can’t manage to NOT bring up and say Obama’s name DIRECTLY…even when what’s he’s supposed to be talking about has NOTHING to do with Obama
I’m sure he’ll be choking on his twitter rage once he’s told what Obama said and about Obama’s crowd comparison
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Otter wise what?
mai naem mobile
@Adam L Silverman: quick, somebody send that to Dolt45 so he can stroke out. Did I tell you today how disgusting I find that POS?
efgoldman
As a Certified Old Fart (COF) I don’t know how I feel about the Beatles’ Come Together as trailer music.
Patricia Kayden
@WaterGirl: He should run again. He’d win in a landslide. /s
efgoldman
@lamh36:
Yet, deep down, Obama must be seething that Amber Asshole is governing (so to speak) by spite, undoing anything he can with Obama’s name associated with it.
mai naem mobile
@Elizabelle: it’s a pity they can’t play a day surreptitiously starting with Carter,followed by HW,WJC,Dubbya and Obama all taking different level digs at Douchebag Dolt45. Preferably on Dolt’s birthday or something similar .
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I really needed to hear a lot of what he had to say. He’s not giving up, and neither should we.
Duane
@efgoldman: Exactly. They’ve hid behind their momma’s skirt way too long. Call them what are. Traitors.
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: I love Obama so much. He helps me be a better person. He always appeals to our better angels.
This is how we win our country back. Candidate by candidate. Race by race.. By fuciking voting and helping others to vote.
edited.
Elizabelle
@amygdala: I know. Heard that in real time, and relished it.
Compare and contrast. “strains credulity” vs. sending your rent-a-general out because you’ve dug yourself a hole.
And then said general proceeds to dig deeper.
There is no bottom with this administration, is there?
Elizabelle
@Duane:
@efgoldman:
Agree with both of you. Confederates. Traitors. “States’ rights” because they needed the right to protect and promote slavery.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Otters aren’t wise. You are thinking of owls, perhaps.
Feebog
If you had told me Bush 43 and Obama would be bashing DOLT45 on the same day…
amygdala
@Elizabelle: I’m afraid not. I would have thought they’d be nearing the earth’s core by now.
I’m at least a little amused that he and W were slagging the vulgar yam without saying his name. I’d fall off my chair laughing if it were ever proven they, er, colluded with their speeches today.
WaterGirl
I want to know what kind of a person you have to be in order to disagree with anything Barack Obama said in his speech tonight.
I truly cannot imagine any decent person disagreeing. I guess I’ll see by the reactions tomorrow.
I wish they had this speech available on the C-SPAN tv channel. I’d like to be able to record it on Tivo and go back and watch it. Barack is so real and brilliant and passionate. And then he’s followed by this piece of shit. We need to wake up now and take some action. I just don’t know how we do it.
mike in dc
Maddow is reporting and suggesting that the addition of Chad to the travel ban may have indirectly led to the deaths of American troops in Niger. Chad withdrew its troops from Niger shortly before the troops were ambushed and killed.
Elizabelle
In honor of PBO’s speech in Richmond tonight, a prescient blog post from before 11/9, a hinge in history.
Not a Tea Party, A Confederate Party
and, from the endnotes:
History is never past, until we make it past.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: No bottom. No bottom. Maybe the earth can just swallow them whole.
And on that chipper note, I am going to put the computer away.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: Read something good, and have a nice glass of wine.
Or out into the garden in moonlight, with the marvelous fox.
raven
@mike in dc: Interesting, no?
Elizabelle
@Feebog:
And that Trump manages to knock them both off the front page by sending his general out to be “emotional.”
But the rubes in the press corpse didn’t fall for it as hard, this time.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Owl be the judge of that!
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Great idea! ‘Night all.
Jacel
@mike in dc: That was an amazing report from Rachel tonight. I look forward to hearing what Adam and other experienced Juicers have to say about this.
debbie
@efgoldman:
I understand it would be unpresidential to say something, but I wish Obama would slap Trump but good.
Ruckus
@amygdala:
They would be at the earth’s core by now if it weren’t for the incompetence. drumpf can’t do anything right. Even digging himself a hole to fall into. Given a normal person, digging that much they would have reached the core but drumpf’s problem is he has to keep digging new holes. He gets others to dig the old ones deeper. Maybe he thinks he’s building a new golf course.
raven
@Elizabelle: So you think his description of how a dead military person comes home and what it was like when he was informed of the death of his son is just made up to prop up Trump?
Baud
@mike in dc: Why am I not surprised?
Baud
@raven: He didn’t stop there.
Bobby Thomson
@lamh36: I’m old enough to remember when that was an arrogant display that cost him the NH primary.
When you’re #2, you reach harder.
raven
@Baud: Fuck it, ya’ll have it all figured out. Carry on.
Elizabelle
@raven: No. Not in the least. That part rang true.
But Kelly did a lot of punching down too. I tuned in expecting to see a more dignified and intelligent press conference than I saw. Had never watched Kelly on TV before, so it was an education.
I do not doubt that Kelly loves and misses his son, every day of his life.
Adam L Silverman
@mike in dc: @raven: @Jacel: Haven’t gotten that far yet. I’ve got her on the DVR. I was watching the Cubs-Dodgers game, but got disgusted. I’m about 3/4 through Melber.
The Chad thing just stinks. Apparently they may have been placed on the banned list because they ran out of official passport paper:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/18/trump-travel-ban-chad-passport-paper
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Otters are cute.
debbie
These men deserve a better commander than Trump. (Via Twitter)
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
This stinks of Stephen Miller.
amygdala
@Ruckus: Oh, God, you’re right… of course he’s incapable of digging a damn hole.
I’m sorry about your coworker. Much too young.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: The sweet smell of stale cigarette smoke, axe body spray, and flop sweat.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: I don’t think you otter.
rikyrah
THREAD
https://twitter.com/laurasessions10/status/921111532662075392
Laura Sessions @laurasessions10
THREAD 1. What happened in Niger.
1:31 PM – 19 Oct 2017
2/ While everyone is so busy talking about the president’s handling of his call to the widow of the soldier killed in Niger….
3.you ‘re all missing the important part of that story…the part about what happened that night in Niger.
4. The story that is emerging is so much worse than anything that happened in Benghazi
5. but the same GOP Congress that investigated Benghazi with a fury seems to have little or no interest in this story.
6. Here’s what we know so far… .These soldiers went to a meeting in an area near the border with Mali a well known hot spot for ISIS
7 Our soldiers were not backed up by US Military air support- backed up by the French, who were not authorized to intervene or even fire
8 Our soldiers did not have armored vehicles. They traveled in pickup trucks. . Our soldiers were given faulty intel… that said
9 “it was unlikely that they would meet any hostile forces.” Of course, they walked into an ISIS ambush-chaotic and they took three lives
10 It took the French 30 minutes to arrive. When they did they were not authorized to help.
11. So, a dozen of our Green Berets fought a battle with more than 50 Isis fighters, without help, for 30 minutes.
12 Finally, a rescue helicopter arrived, but it was not a US military helicopter.
13 No, we apparently outsourced that job to “private contractors.”
14 So, these contractors landed and loaded the remaining troops, the injured and the dead. . Here’s where this gets really bad…
15 Because they were not military, they never did a head count. That is how Sgt. La David Johnson was left behind.
16 That’s right…they left him behind.
17According to the Pentagon, his locator beacon was activated on battlefield, which indicates that he was alive when they left him there
18 They recovered his body 48 hours later but are refusing to say where.
19 According to his widow, she could not have an open casket. This means that he was mutilated after being left behind on the battlefield.
20 This is what led to the nonsense we’re obsessing over. This is the real story.
21 As usual, you’re allowing it to be about Trump’s distraction, but this is Benghazi on steroids.
22 The Trump Pentagon gave these men bad intel, no support, outsourced rescue people and then,,,
23 tried for more than a week to pretend it never happened. In that time, Trump spoke on many occasions and never mentioned it.
24 He tweeted attacks on many but never mentioned this Only after pressure from the media did he acknowledge these men and their service..
schrodingers_cat
@raven: It was his boss that made that story public not the media or “that woman”. The object of his ire is misplaced, even if the grief is genuine. YMMV.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@WaterGirl: Being a racist is the obvious first step.
Duane
@Corner Stone: You’ve sealed the deal.That otter do it, owl say. Whale of a job.
NotMax
FYI.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Is this true?
According to the Pentagon, his locator beacon was activated on battlefield, which indicates that he was alive when they left him there comment 60
I’m sick
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman:
Which is something that could be worked out between the countries, but having a key ally abandon the fight against Boko Haram because Trump is a fucking moron is unfortunate.
Corner Stone
@Duane: I think so too, but beaver way I will be dammed if I stop now.
Elizabelle
@raven: Very honestly:
I had Law & Order SVU on in background; getting ready to go out to do some stuff; Corner Stone mentioned on a thread that Kelly was giving a press conference.
I tuned in to CNN, which I so rarely watch, and i’ve probably not watched 1 minute of Kelly previously. I was surprised and alarmed by what I saw from Kelly. Mind you, I had missed his remarks about soldiers being returned “on ice” and mortuary services. Probably came in at the half way point.
But Kelly said a lot of stuff that appalled me. I felt he was using status in the military to divide us; and when he talked about “the one percent” — I am tired of all these sub-groups. Knock it the fuck off.
We are Americans. The handsome and too soon dead La David Johnson is an American, who died serving us.
He is not “the one percent” and a tool to be used for outrage. He just wanted to do his job, come home, and welcome his new baby — they’re expecting a girl — and see his family again.
It’s something none of us have mentioned, but he was such a handsome and appealing young man. All that promise. Gone.
WaPost: The private life of Sgt. La David Johnson, the slain soldier ensnared in a Trump controversy
John Kelly used his press conference to attack the veracity of the congresswoman and friend of the family who was riding with Sgt. Johnson’s survivors. Kelly demeaned himself. He cried “politicization” — aiming it at Cong. Wilson — but it is his own ridiculous shambling POTUS who opened that can of worms.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: I do not know. This is the first I’ve seen that. I clicked through to the actual twitter thread and she doesn’t provide a link or source.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@rikyrah: The FBI is now investigating this.
Corner Stone
Looks like LO’D has both barrels ready to go after Kelly on this BS today.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks. It’s apparent that congress won’t investigate, but maybe the truth will come out. I’m just not going down the twitter path yet.
Crashman
@rikyrah: This situation is utterly horrific and awful, but where did this person get her source. A browsed her thread and saw her cite a “Facebook post.” That doesn’t really sound credible to me.
Immanentize
Some have suggested that the Exxon/Chad controversies had something to do with Chad being less than enthusiastic about carrying our water.
billcoop4
@Elizabelle:
People who sell their souls do not deserve such sympathy; when offered, it is an act of grace. It’s an offer I cannot give him because of his subservience to his Power Top.
WMC
JPL
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: That is not unusual. I know that they have investigated several events like this.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Chad is all over the news nowadays.
dogwood
@schrodingers_cat:
Kelly’s grief is genuine. So is his disregard for the grief and insult that the people who were in Mrs. Johnson’s car experienced. As a white fancy pants general, he is the arbiter of how his inferiors must behave. His self-regard is as immense as Trump’s.
zhena gogolia
@Trentrunner:
Same here. Won’t click.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: The DOD will do a full scrub. How much of that will be made public, however, is a good question. I know that when similar high profile type of things have happened in the CENTCOM AOR that they post the after action reviews and the reports of the outside investigations on their outward facing portal. I don’t know what will happen given the current administration.
But this all comes back to what I wrote about last week: we have a policy regarding our military and its use that cannot be supported with the resources at our disposal. The problem was not that we had Green Berets doing Foreign Internal Defense in Niger. Ultimately it isn’t that someone at either 3rd SF Group or Special Operations Command Africa or AFRICOM or JSOC got the intel wrong – though that is certainly a problem. Rather it is we didn’t have the resources in theater in proximity to our personnel to be able to provide combat support and casualty evac when necessary.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
He used that description to bash a pregnant war widow as well as the Khans. He implied that his grief was bigger and more important than their grief.
That’s what makes him a piece of shit — he used his dead son as a weapon against other grieving families just because they’re not servicemembers themselves.
Corner Stone
@billcoop4: I can’t keep up. Is it BC or is it WMC ?
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Wow. I did not know that. He falls even lower in my already low estimation of him.
ETA: And their grief is lesser than his because?
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne:
He used it in the service of defending the Dignity Wraith.
Immanentize
@Baud: somehow that made me remember Rosanne Rosanna Danna.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s a common theme with these Trump apologists — just when you think they can’t sink any lower, they do.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman:
Yup; and if that Twitter stream noted above is true, we outsourced it.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Minor correction.
Roseannadanna. One word. Playing off the name and brash ‘Noo Yawk’ delivery style of local NYC news person Roseanne Scamardella.
Corner Stone
Yikes. Lawrence just spent 20 minutes wiping the floor with whatever might be left of John Kelly’s reputation.
eemom
@Trentrunner: @zhena gogolia:
Tearfully thirded.
It would be like having a good dream in a nightmare reality, and then having to wake up.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: What concerns me is that there seems to be a fast track to approve risky missions. I hope that I’m wrong.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@lamh36:
Well, not unless you establish an authoritarian state capable of both terrorizing and indoctrinating the majority of the population.
Immanentize
@Mnemosyne: on another topic, friend. Did you see Bernie is pulling out of the Women’s Conference? Your voice (and those of hundreds/thousands of others) was heard.
Baud
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
AKA the Baud! 2020! platform.
Immanentize
@NotMax: thank you! I did not know that. But now I do!
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
Yes! Lamh36 posted it in another thread, plus I got an email from somebody else,
I’m glad to see that Bernie has more common sense than his cultists do.
rikyrah
Larry O’s opening segment on Kelly tonight is blistering.
Immanentize
@Mnemosyne:
Or maybe that was a graceful retreat negotiated from a disinvitation once the “leaders” of the conference got a clue by four across the head
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You’d think that Trump’s spokesbot could have said something like, “We are so sorry that this has become an issue and once again extend our sincerest condolences to Sgt. Johnson’s widow, family, and friends” AT A FUCKING MINIMUM.
But, no, they had to go to war against a grieving family because nobody was thinking about Trump’s pain.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: If we can’t support our troops, we should not deploy them.
@Corner Stone: Kelly is simply despicable at this point.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: I hope his wife divorces him over this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Again, Kelly basically confirmed Wilson’s account of what trump said, as did the Sargent’s mother
also, too
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Who writes shit like this? It’s like a mash-up of a LaRouchie and an emo teen.
Adam L Silverman
@mike in dc: @raven: @Jacel: Okay I’ve gotten through the Maddow segment. What she’s positing – that the violent extremists planned and carried out the ambush or, at least, took their planning operational when they did because Chad had withdrawn its forces because of inclusion on the travel ban – is plausible. I’m not sure, however, that we have enough information now to make that conclusion. I’m also not sure we ever will. It is almost a counterfactual type of argument.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Which is strange because since midway through Operation Iraqi Freedom there have been standing separation of medical care in theater for military personnel and civil servants who get their care from military sources and contractors who have to arrange their own medical care. For the big companies like KBR this wasn’t a big deal in Iraq. They sent their own medical sheds and personnel. For my small team with five civilian contractors, two who were retirees, it made getting even routine care for say a cold or stomach bug a pain. They basically ignored the rules and treated us at the FOB medical shed.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: I don’t think that’s the case. The SF bubbas have a very detailed, deliberate, and thorough way of doing the planning and decision making processes.
Mike in NC
@Omnes Omnibus: Maybe if you have an elderly shut-in uncle who watches several hours of Fox News every night and forwards you emails with lots of upper case words and exclamation points, then you can appreciate Fat Bastard’s Twitter style.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: No argument from me. I’ve now written about this problem twice. Once over the summer and once last week.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Given the hour most likely the President. Also because there is random capitalization. Otherwise its the caddie. Or Hope Hicks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: I don’t.
@Adam L Silverman: It wasn’t a knock on you. I’ve been out of the active army for over 25 years. I am still appalled that people were sent someplace that we could not get them out of if shit went bad. One can order troops into that if it is necessary, but it must be necessary and you have to tell them about the situation. This was not necessary.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I’ll sleep well tonight.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve seen a lot of whacked planning over the past decade. I’ve seen strange decisions. I’ve never seen an ongoing FID mission with almost a battalion’s worth of personnel and no Apache or Kiowas for close air support or Blackhawks for CASEVAC. We’re talking maybe a dozen rotary wing total across those platforms for support. I just don’t see how you don’t allocate that for this mission. Hell two Apaches and three or four Blackhawks would have been all you needed to first push back the hostiles and then get everyone out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Yes. We aren’t talking WWII Jedburgh teams here.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Maybe if AFRICOM command was based in Africa rather than Germany…
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: That’s just crazy talk!
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: No we are not.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
Mogadishu?
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: Don’t start.//
In this case you’d be using the Blackhawks for casualty evacuation.
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/virtual_disk_library/index.cgi/4931363/FID2617/DATA/operationalmed/Transportation/Aircraft/UH-60A%20Blackhawk.htm
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/US_Navy_071211-N-9623R-006_Seabees_from_Naval_Mobile_Construction_Battalion_%28NMCB%29_17_assist_in_loading_fellow_Seabees_into_a_Blackhawk_medical_evacuation_helicopter_%28MEDAVAC%29_during_a_mass_casualty_drill.jpg
Having a couple of Bradleys or MRAPS or even up armored HUMVEES would have been nice too!