A 15-year-old Corgi named Pepper went viral after getting lost in a storm. The owner of popular dog Twitter "We Rate Dogs" just happened to find Pepper, and fate helped bring the lost pup home. https://t.co/DtoC1Yj2bD pic.twitter.com/vdAKONONNd
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 19, 2018
As the owner of a 16-year-old rescue dog who still bolts for freedom every chance he gets, I cannot tell you how happy this story made me. But maybe you can guess!
***********
Olivia Nuzzi is a hero — or at least a media ninja — in her own right:
An image from the Trump Hotel in DC tonight, courtesy of Sean Spicer: pic.twitter.com/cZaWVK8PA1
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 20, 2018
At Trump Hotel, @POTUS attending dinner for @AmericaFirstPAC, a Super Pac that supports candidates who embrace the Trump Agenda. Donors contributing up to $250,000 each. No press coverage. Former Press Secy @seanspicer now works for America First.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 19, 2018
This administration is all smiles helping Trump profit off the presidency as it’s in the middle of a humanitarian crisis pic.twitter.com/YaartXhD6U
— Adam Smith (@asmith83) June 19, 2018
***********
You too can be a hero…
Less than 24 hours in, 200+ June 30th #FamiliesBelongTogether events, 145,000 signups across country. People self-organizing buses. RSVP's and events still pouring in every hour. Come to DC if you can. If you can't, find local event (or help organize one): https://t.co/OTIACcHUKL
— Anna Galland (@annagalland) June 19, 2018
Now more than 150. Register yours today and we'll all help recruit. https://t.co/VfGqG8Bb8l
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) June 19, 2018
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Sleep was sort of difficult last night.
Just need to find my bearings this morning.
MomSense
Couldn’t sleep.
raven
As soon as I post this the automatic morning thread will pop. We should be able to pick up Lil Bit this afternoon and this “tie-back” surgery is going to present great challenges in relation to food. One side of her larynx is “tied-back” and this allows her to breathe. The problem is that the function of the larynx is to prevent food and liquid from getting into the lungs so she’ll be susceptible to aspiration pneumonia. She love her food and treats so well have to see how this all works.
rikyrah
Shut up about Lucretia, you stenographers ?
https://twitter.com/JJohnsonLaw/status/1009228905595723777
p.a.
How it’s done: Kristen xxx was heckled out of a DC restaurant yesterday because of the zero tolerance policy. Make them pay a toll too.
rikyrah
This seems to be important news
https://twitter.com/mcimaps/status/1009239965501476865
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: @MomSense: Same here.
@raven: I got aspirated pneumonia after my last surgery. It hit’s hard, it hits fast. If we lived another 5 miles from town I’m not sure I would have made it.
Anne Laurie
@raven:
Holding LilBit & you in my thoughts.
The advice we were given when one of our dogs had a related issue (tracheal spasms / collapse): Hand-feed her, preferably while she’s standing up. Elevate the water bowl (if you haven’t already) so she’s not bending over to drink. Praise her for taking it slow & eating calmly (if she’s not snapping at your hand out of aggravation, which was Flicker’s go-to response). But I’m sure the vets told you all this already!
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, it was the only chance she had so I just have to take responsibility and be prepared to let her go if it doesn’t work out.
raven
@Anne Laurie: Thanks
OzarkHillbilly
I have found treump’s perfect attaché to the EU on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs.
One little problem with all that:
And what is more…
He oughta fit right in.
JPL
@MomSense: It’s only Wednesday.
bystander
Morning! Watching Moanin’ Joe, and just heard Steve Schmidt has officially quit the repub party. The panel is trying to blame twitler for the whole mess while reporting about all the cheers and backslapping he got from party members yesterday on the Hill.
So in the middle of this mess, I find myself looking back to the happy events of Alito’s death, Manafort in the slammer, and Stone, Cohen and twitler all in Mueller’s crosshairs.
MomSense
The child snatchers have a lovely White House Bible Study group. The leader of this group is a former basketball player with a degree in geography. Lying NAZI bitch Nielsen is a faithful member.
American Taliban
JPL
@raven: Thinking of you.
satby
@raven: glad you’re getting your little lady back and that she’s come through ok.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: That time comes for all of us. I have been increasing the Woofmeister’s meds a lot sooner than I was hoping to.
Phylllis
@bystander: Phyllis Schlafly remains dead as well.
satby
George Takei wrote an article worth reading.
MomSense
@raven:
Hoping for the best for sweet lil bit.
akryan
Those smiling faces are so disgusting
Bruce K
@bystander: Wait, Alito’s what?! As in Justice Alito? As in the Supreme Court?
Frankensteinbeck
They’re good dog owners, Brent.
MomSense
@JPL:
Time is all messed up. When was the dicktator meeting in Singapore? Was that just last week?
Mai naem mobile
@bystander: you mean Scalia’s death. I realize Trumpov wouldn’t appoint anybody better than Alito on juriprudence but Trumpov would appoint a freaking 30 year old or even Judge Drunk Foxy Teevee Host.
Mai naem mobile
@raven: I looked up the tie back surgery when you mentioned it the other day and they talked about aspiration. I don’t know if human stuff is similar to dogs but I know in humans you have to be more careful with liquids when there’s risk of aspiration pneumonia. Anyhow, best of luck with the surgery.
Jeffro
@p.a.: Next time she can borrow Scott Pruitt’s security detail, or Betsy DeVos’…let them all live in well-earned fear for the rest of their time in power.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: yea, bohdi is slowing down quite a bit in this heat
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Storms all night here. Stirred up Poco. I’m overwhelmed with the news. Have started my last 4 mornings crying. Went to bed last night crying.
OzarkHillbilly
@akryan: Those smiling faces are so punchable. Fixed that for you, you’ll get my bill in the mail.
@Jeffro: Let them all live in well-earned fear for the rest of their lives. The fear will never go away for their victims, why should it for them?
sukabi
@bystander: Steve Schmidt quits GOP
Quinerly
@raven: Been following your posts and thinking about you. Sending positive thoughts.
debbie
@MomSense:
That’s not the Bible they’re reading.
Betty Cracker
@raven: I hope she’ll be okay.
debbie
@raven:
Glad she’s coming home. Anne’s advice matches up with what friends of mine learned with their pets in similar situations.
FlipYrWhig
Contemporary Republicans are such a smarmy, heinous bunch. And from all appearances proud of it. I’m starting to think that there are going to be increasing incidents of violence against them.
Betty Cracker
I knew a Trump presidency would be unimaginably awful. But I’ll admit I didn’t see baby jails coming, nor did I anticipate reading ghoulish, racist defenses of jailing babies from fellow Americans. I hate these people with the white hot heat of 10,000 suns and hope they all contract a terminal case of crotch rot.
sukabi
Babies as young as 3 months old are being snatched from their mothers at the border.
Platonailedit
Peak wingnut has been achieved?
Chyron HR
@sukabi:
“I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda. I, like all right-thinking Americans, live in terror of access to affordable health care and civil rights for oppressed minority groups, but…”
debbie
@sukabi:
Just heard on NPR that the for-profit companies “taking care” of the children have set themselves up as REITs and so are free from having to pay federal taxes. What a scam this all is.
sdhays
@sukabi: Who is Steve Schmidt again? Isn’t he McCain’s former campaign manager who convinced him to nominate Sarah Palin?
Mai naem mobile
I have a friend who thinks the Dems are falling for GOP strategy if they keep going on and on about the illegal immigration/splitting families issue. He thinks they’re grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory because the GOP is going to paint the Dems as caring mote about furriners than regular Americans. He’s a liberal,not some concern troll. He is very worried about Trumpov who he thinks is following a Hitler playbook.
Nicole
Did he say if he was registering Democrat or is he going Independent? Doesn’t count unless he registers as a Democrat. If he’s an Independent he’s still a Republican; he just doesn’t want to be given sh*t about it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t WANT him in my party, but switching to Independent is a coward’s move.
Nicole
@Mai naem mobile: Does your friend also bring up Obama’s use of drone bombings and how Hillary was the worst candidate ever because she was a war monger and beholden to Goldman Sachs? I know plenty of liberals who fall for propaganda (on the left) as effortlessly as those on the Right do.
ARoomWithAMoose
@debbie: @debbie: They always mention that the organization set up to run the detention facilities are non-profits, it is clear it is an inhumane grift. That non-profit leases the property, buy “supplies”, and hires contract labor from for-profit entities. Someone just needs to look at the incorporating documentation for board members/legal rep for the non-profit to figure out which companies are the vehicles for shoveling money into private hands, those board members will have a separate stake in the for-profit entities.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mai naem mobile: I try not to insult the friends of friends but sometimes it is harder than others.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Mai naem mobile: This is an issue of pure evil and already a stain on all of us that will last a generation. There is no little nuance of political calculation here. It must end. It must. We can’t bear it as a country.
Plus, the numbers are on our side anyway. There is no evidence whatsoever to support your friend’s fears.
Dorothy Winsor
I went to be early last night, so I just read about the baby jails. I’m hyperventilating and my heart is racing. I look at those grinning, expensively groomed people giving money to support this. I lack the imagination to think of anything bad enough to happen to them.
JMG
@Mai naem mobile: Liberals fret. It’s what they do. They’d make a good Geico commercial, in fact. All available evidence indicates this “issue,” by which I mean “crime against humanity” is anything but a political winner for Trump. And even if it was, we’d still have to fight it with all available resources and energy.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ? ?
Hug them tight
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Best of luck.
zhena gogolia
@bystander:
Alito died?
Amir Khalid
@sukabi:
The rot in the Republican party is not recent. It began before Steve Schmidt was born, with the Southern Strategy. (He is still under 50.) Throughout his political life Schmidt has supported a party that panders to bigots and fascists for votes, a party that has willingly become what it is now. He can’t really claim to be surprised at what has just been revealed.
satby
@Nicole: he didn’t day he was registering as a Democrat, but he did say (repeating from above) this: “The first step to a season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities,” he added. “I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda. I say it as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency.”
And advocating for Democratic majorities is a decent first step. He’s a conservative, but right now he’s an ally.
zhena gogolia
I am consumed by hatred.
Amir Khalid
@Nicole:
Raw Story wasn’t clear on Schmidt’s current party affiliation, but it did quote him saying this:
rikyrah
Tell it, Ted Lieu
https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1009207427491942400
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
Come sit by me ?
What what?
@Mai naem mobile: Did your friend mention an action plan for Dems to follow up his fears? I wonder what he’d advise.
satby
@Amir Khalid: I think for a lot of them, it was a game of winning without longer term consideration of what evil they were midwives to. Not excusing that at all, and I really have no patience with conservatives or libertarians; but joining the opposition late is better than never, and he’s a high profile (former) Republican raising a very powerful objection.
Allies are allies, we need them right now.
rikyrah
Colbert last night
https://youtu.be/K9EQ2-bUMKU
bystander
@zhena gogolia: Dammit! No. That’s from my wish list. Scalia was who I meant to mock.
Elijah Cummings is on MJ. They love to show the part of his speech yesterday when he became emotional about torturing children. They leave out the earlier part when he destroys the continuing repub assault on HRC.
Platonailedit
Just caught a clip of the traitorous thug taking questions from the so called ‘press’. The thug wags his fingers and says quiet and every boneless media mofo immediately pipes down. The same minions showboated when Obama was president. Pathetic.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
What gnaws at me, what is keeping me up at night, is the question of Where are the girls? Every day that passes while they refuse to answer that question is filling me with raw fear. Just how bad is the answer to that question? I’m not going to give voice to the growing certainty in my gut, but I think the other Juicers are having the same fears.
WE MUST HAVE AN ANSWER. MY GOD, THIS CAN NOT CONTINUE.
debit
Has anyone checked in with Susan Sarandon for comments about how Hillary would have had baby internment camps too?
Lapassionara
@JMG: This! This policy is evil, and we must do all we can to get it changed. End of discussion.
satby
@zhena gogolia: @rikyrah: I am too, and am barely able to be civil to the people surrounding me in this redneck state.
sukabi
@Amir Khalid: I know, but baby snatching does go a bit beyond their previous lows. I’ll give him credit for at least having a line he won’t cross, which is more than can be said about Drumpf followers.
Who knows, he may be having a Cole-esque come to Jesus moment and will repudiate the entire Republican philosophy of the last 60 years.
Kay
Ivanka is worried about her brand.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Sounds like serious surgery. Hope LB recovers well and you’ll have some good news for us soon.
JPL
@Dorothy Winsor: I’m thinking of going to a gun range to learn how to shoot. If we are at the point where separating babies and toddlers from parents is okay, what’s next. If Trump’s believers think this is acceptable, what will come next.
The candidate that I support in the 6th district is an immigrant from South Africa. He came to our country when he was fourteen and had a successful career at Anderson before opening his own consulting company. Now he and wife work with refugees and Hands on Atlanta. I’m sure that Handel is looking through his immigration papers to see if everything is in order.
JPL
@Kay: She’s a feckless c.unt.
rikyrah
Thread about the companies involved
https://twitter.com/dabeard/status/1009296292240084993
rikyrah
@Kay:
That Haberman is the one who posted that shyt.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay: I think Ivanka is one of those sociopaths who recognizes that human emotion and empathy exist, even if she doesn’t know what they feel like, and know how to mimic and manipulate them.
Her dad is some kind of more extreme sociopath, probably doesn’t even recognize the concept of “other people” at all, let alone “feelings.”
Dorothy Winsor
Remember before the first Iraq War, how a Kuwaiti (I think) woman testified to Congress that Iraqi soldiers had taken babies from incubators and thrown them on the floor? Later that turned out to be a lie. We have fallen so far.
zhena gogolia
@bystander:
Alito better hold on for a little while.
sukabi
@JPL: funny how that rolls off the tongue, isn’t it? Pretty sure Samatha Bee hit a chord with people, I’ve seen “feckless” followed by a “c” descriptor in several articles describing people in drumpf’s orbit over the last week or so.
It’s only a matter of time before one of the news folks spurts it out on live TV.
Patricia Kayden
@debit: Arghhhhh!! I saw in her recent twitter feed that she was being dragged for tweeting about how she enjoyed a theatrical performance. Commenters were going after her for her attacks on Secretary Clinton and blaming her for Trump. I was all for it.
lamh36
these are the same type of people who watched Black kids get hosed by cops during the civil rights protests and said they exact same things!
jacy
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: narcissistic parents create narcissistic children. Not always, but often. Trump’s first three children, at least, seem to be monsters.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: Indeed. Congrats to Steve for saying what we all know, but jeeeze… :-/
‘Morning everyone.
Best of luck to all the oldster pups (and kittens) out there.
Congratulations to the sensible people of Miami-Dade as well!
139 days to go. We have to keep pushing for the maximum possible wave.
Cheers,
Scott.
Platonailedit
EU is about to launch trade war on Friday. It will be fun to watch the stock markets next week.
Kay
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I do too- I was thinking that last week but I couldn’t put it into words. It’s been one of the most disturbing parts about this to me- how they really don’t get it. Some of them are concerned about how it looks but they really did not and do not see it as wrong or cruel. I think that’s disturbing because it indicates they’re really capable of anything. I think they’re getting worse, the Trump Administration. They’re worse than they were at the beginning of this- they’re emboldened now and some of the worst elements have gained power in the White House. Just a couple months ago Nielsen was unpopular in the Trump Administration because she was less extreme and racist than the rest of them. Now she’s carrying the flag for this policy, setting up tents to incarcerate 4000 children. People get worse the longer they work for Trump. They’ve all gotten worse. Meaner, bolder, more aggressive.
sukabi
@rikyrah: link to the Yahoo article in the tweet
A lot of info about the companies involved in the article.
Amir Khalid
@Platonailedit:
You in America have nothing to worry about. After all, didn’t your president say that trade wars are easy to win? //
Peale
@Mai naem mobile: I actually share your friend’s concerns. Horrendous as this is, if this is the number one issue for the Fall, I am concerned that it plays out better for the GOP than Democrats with the types of voters who vote in Off year elections. It can’t be ignored, sure, but saving these children isn’t the slam dunk mobilizer even if it’s unpopular. Unfortunately, it is likely to swamp all the other issues.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kay
@lamh36:
No one is trying to make them feel teary eyed. No one even tries to reach them anymore. There isn’t a single political person I know who says “let’s persuade the Trump base”. That’s over. Everyone knows it’s a waste of time.
So they can relax. We know they’ll support anything he does. We’re talking to people who aren’t cult members. What they really mean is “stop talking about things that make me uncomfortable” – so, no. The answer is no. They don’t limit the terms of the debate to subjects that reflect favorably on them and Dear Leader.
JPL
@jacy: How are you doing?
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It is good.
4000 kids in a facility is way too many. Even if they wanted to run humane and decent housing they couldn’t do it with that many. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. The thinking on housing kids has evolved since 1910. We don’t warehouse thousands of them together anymore.
I guess this is what happens when you outsource child care to Miller, Sessions and Kelly. They put racist psychos in charge of brown children, and those children will suffer in their care.
lamh36
I woke up this morning with “toddlers being detained” on my mind and with the realization that we still haven’t heard #WhereAreTheGirls from this evil administration
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I’m glad you and Lil Bit will be reunited today. Have been thinking about all of you (including The Bohdi, who probably misses his little friend).
Maybe the vets can give you some techniques for feeding LB to avoid the aspiration problem. Good luck!
Kay
@lamh36:
In fact, we can stipulate this right now. No one is trying to reach Trump’s base. No one tried to persuade birthers to back Obama. It’s equally a waste of time to try to persuade people who back detention centers for babies.
They don’t have to tell us they will support anything he does. We know. We’re talking to the 75, not the 25.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ohio Mom
Just checked the list of Families Belong Together Marches. When I first looked yesterday, there was one in Ohio, in Columbus — now there are five, one in each big city.
Selfishly, I’m happy I have one nearby, but more importantly, it’s heartening to see the momentum.
I’ll be calling those swarmy interns at Portman’s offices in a bit. It’s not much but I can’t live with myself not doing anything at all, no matter how small and symbolic.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’m in a dark place this morning. My default state is usually humor and optimism. I can’t seem to reach there right now, just outrage.
I think it was first hearing about the baby concentration camps, followed by seeing clips of Rachel breaking down trying to read about them.
Outrage, but not despair. The widespread anger I’m seeing which is even penetrating evangelical circles and making people like Ivanka go “maybe this looks bad” gives me hope. It’s making me believe that there is a level of fear Republicans can get to which will lead them to throw Tr*** [*] under the bus.
Especially (crossing my fingers) if his ratings crater on this one. Remember, worry-warts, it takes a couple of days to do a poll and publish the results, and approval ratings are generally running averages over several days so it takes a couple more days for a shift to truly take place.
I guess that’s my default optimism beginning to peek through.
[Eeyore voice]But I’m probably wrong.[/Eeyore]
[*] My silly-ass personal protest. I’m no longer going to type or say his name.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay:
They mean “the media,” which they think of as a bunch of liberals.
lamh36
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mai naem mobile: If the Left didn’t protest Trump would label the Left as pro-Immigrant and anti American anyway. This way we draw blood on Trump too. It’s really clear this is hurting Trump.
JPL
The picture that Merkel released at the G-7 was right before Trump had a “Starburst Outburst” CBS This Morning said that Trump took starbursts out of his pocket and tossed them on the table, and he said here Angela don’t say I never gave you anything. Also at the G-7 when Macron was speaking Trump would remove his ear piece.
Toddler in Chief
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
I signed up for Toledo and my youngest is coming with. This will be his second rally. The gun control march was the first. He hung back at that, just observed, but he wants to go to this one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: I don’t know British law– or Irish, or Canadian– but I really hope there’s some movement to closely examine trump’s properties in those countries, maybe their financing… As others have said, he cares more about that than the US
FlipYrWhig
@lamh36: BTW they still think that the people crossing the border are Mexicans and that they’re sneaking in. They don’t understand what refugees are or what asylum is. They just think sneaky brown people are worming their way into the country. They are not going to stop thinking this because they are hateful and despicable and there are millions of them. Overwhelm them with votes, then point and laugh and make them even more miserable. It’s what I look forward to.
Mai naem mobile
@Nicole: I know how he sounds but seriously the guy is absolutely not a Bernie Bros. He is origin ally from Mass. He is a huge Obama suppporter. Voted for Clinton/ Gore/Kerry/Obama/Clinton. My reaction to him was if the Dems can’t win this November ,no matter what, we might as well close shop.
FlipYrWhig
@JPL:
Da fuck?
sukabi
@lamh36: maybe when she finds out it’s 12,000 and counting she’ll rescind the invite.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Likely she is a normal person that way, but her peer group is rich douche bags like her father so she’s been taught to repress her normal sense of morality as “weakness”
FlipYrWhig
@Mai naem mobile: He’s trying too hard to see things from the side of a Trumped up crazypants. Yes, there are people who will continue to rail against brown intruders. You can’t appease them. They’re just fucking hideous. Look past them. Plus the Republicans just rolled out their budget, which would steeply cut services for everyone. It’s all of a piece: they are black-hearted, malevolent people TO EVERYONE.
JPL
@FlipYrWhig: Starburst Outburst
lamh36
Pope Francis
sukabi
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: and sometimes evil comes in “pretty” packages.
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
She actually has zero influence on her father, which is really the bottom line. All of this stuff about what she does or doesn’t oppose ignores the fact that he ignores her opinions. They put her in policy areas conservatives don’t care about- indeed- policy areas conservatives don’t even believe should exist- like public education and subsidized child care.
Ivanka has no real power and no real job. She’d know that if she had ever had a job her father didn’t give her.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Un-fucking-believable. Fucking hypocrites.
Speaking of which, yesterday my sister texted me a bunch of photos last night of her daughter’s new house. I replied with something nice – it really is beautiful with a lovely view of the mountains – and then I texted that I was pretty out of it torn up aout the kids who are being ripped from their families. I talked about the little girl in red pants who is in a lot of the photos – she looks just like my niece’s youngest daughter.
This is the sister who is an evangelical christian and votes always on abortion, though how that got her to vote Trump is beyond me. I had not received a reply and was assuming the worst, but I looked just now and that text was marked undelivered. I just re-sent it. Hoping that on this issue, at least, she will side with the children. but she believes all the right-wing crap they get vial email, but who knows? If not, I just don’t see how i can look at her the same way again. I am already struggling with her Trump vote.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Here is something that will make you feel better
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/isolated-and-paranoid-trump-the-bushies-are-out-to-get-me
So, there is king nothing, even his own fellow travelers can’t stand him.
OzarkHillbilly
This is too rich. That restaurant Nielsen got chased from by protesters? It’s a Mexican restaurant.
FlipYrWhig
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I remember feeling lonely and mistrustful and that nobody liked me. It was called “high school.” Maybe Trump can process his feelings by slamming the door to his room, doing something funny to his hair, and listening to music his parents hate. At least two of those we know he’s done many times before.
Mai naem mobile
@What what?: infrastructure, healthcare and reining in Trumpov. During the primaries he was most worried about Cruz because he thought Cruz was the smartest and most dangerous. He wasn’t worried about Trumpov. Trumpov has him so freaked out he says if it was a choice between Cruz and Trumpov being POTUS he would pick Cruz.
Kay
@Mai naem mobile:
Tell your friend if this was good politics Republicans in Congress wouldn’t be running away from it as fast as they can:
Portman is a weathervane. He believes in nothing other than more goodies for rich people. If he’s taking a stand literally anyone, even the most mealy-mouthed, can safely stand there.
Trump and the Trump Administration are actually the only people boasting about this- the psycho and the nutjobs the psycho hires. Jeff Sessions is not the Democratic base’s North Star.
WaterGirl
@satby: That was a good article. I thought of him yesterday, wondering what his response would be. Thanks for posting the link.
schrodingers_cat
Fear is a mind killer. T wants us to be afraid. Wants us to be cowed down. Don’t give them what they want. Do the right thing the best you can. That’s all one can do really.
Separating children from their parents is evil and we (anyone who isn’t a T party member) should do everything to stop it.
sukabi
Children taken to shelter in NYC in the dead of night
Yeah, that’s not sketchy at all//
lamh36
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Not sure about that, she seems to be a sort of surrogate wife to Spanky. Trump really seems to need constant approval – Talking Point Memo is claiming most of this crap like the detentions is basically a tantrum from Trump to punish people for not embracing him as president. Also, they say Trump goes by what the last person who talked to him said and his family has the most access.
At the same time, she is Trump’s daughter so I am sure she has Trump’s lack of values.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Thanks. They want us to be afraid of our own shadows. That’s what abusers do.
rikyrah
Girls being moved in NY
https://twitter.com/NY1/status/1009380587856191488
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@FlipYrWhig: or assaulting the other children….
WaterGirl
@raven: You give them every chance there is and hope that each one takes. But it’s so hard when you’re on the last one and you know what’s at stake. My dogs inhale their food, so I would have to hand feed them kibble, one piece at a time. I wold probably have to move to a bigger kibble to make sure they would actually chew it and not just swallow each piece whole. Hopefully Lil Bit is more civilized than my guys!
She has had 9 lives for sure, I am hopeful that she will come through this just fine. I was heartened to read the comment last week from someone whose dog came through this and did very well.
Kay
@sukabi:
I don’t understand why happy pictures of kids handed out to media by Trump officials is not an invasion of privacy but news photographs that are not posed are an invasion of privacy. They were giving them photos of kids in facilities taken in 2016 before the Trump policy went in. Those kids don’t get privacy protections? They have to make up their minds.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I don’t want to read another single, solitary word about these muthaphuckas. Don’t give a nanosecond of phucks about what they think, let alone what they feel.
WaterGirl
@Raven: @OzarkHillbilly: This heat is hell on older dogs. Older people also, I’m sure. Our heat wave just broke, hopefully you guys will get the same break we just did.
EZSmirkzz
Deep Thought: I’m so old I can remember Americans telling me the Golden Rule.
Recommended book for troubled times: :The Book of Joy – The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
If only American politicians spent as much time fixing the problems instead of fixing the blame I could be doing something entirely different now.
Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Commenting will continue until morality improves – y’all.
benused
@JMG:
Some are all fret and make me want to throttle them.
rikyrah
@Ohio Mom:
Did you see on Maddow last night, the 4 mothers that just showed up to Portman’s office in Columbus, and wound up getting arrested.
lamh36
rikyrah
Many of these mothers are devout Christians. Here is a letter written yesterday by my client Alma, who is in custody, to her 12 yr old boy Mario, who was taken from her. She has no idea where he is. At one pt, she was threatened he would be killed. This is not America. #Basta pic.twitter.com/aryuTQJ0zr
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) June 20, 2018
rikyrah
Trump is desperate to build his vanity wall not because of any campaign promise but because the wall is an eternal self-congratulating symbol of his racism & bigotry. It’s also a grand opportunity to award fat contacts to friends and a perfect vehicle for more money laundering.
— meta (@metaquest) June 20, 2018
rikyrah
URGENT: As thousands of innocent children are separated from their parents, We The Action has several projects that need volunteer lawyers. Many can be done remotely, w/any bar license. https://t.co/i9kbQbhQwX #FamiliesBelongTogether
— We The Action (@WeTheAction) June 19, 2018
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I think the whole “Ivanka is his advisor” theme was another attempt to humanize him. He ignores her on anything that is important to him. He doesn’t give a shit about “technical education” so she gets that. He’s only dimly aware of child care as a concept so she gets that too.
This is their fucked up family dynamic, where they pretend he gives a shit what she thinks. We don’t have to buy it. There’s not a shred of evidence that it’s true. She “works” for him only to the extent that it benefits him, and no further. Any ordinary non-nepotism based manager would have figured that out and left long ago. She has no power and no influence.
rikyrah
The WH had started using the word unaccompanied to confuse debate. Now it’s an administrative classification for those torn apart. And proof that they not only don’t have a reunification plan but that they don’t seem interested in getting one. Why else claim the child is alone? https://t.co/jN8tfSAmYL
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) June 20, 2018
rikyrah
SCOOP: In 1995, Russian and American social conservatives plotted out what would, during the 2016 election, become the main link between U.S. Christian fundamentalists and those in Moscow.
We obtained the notes from that very first meeting: https://t.co/z9cIvZ8Wb3 pic.twitter.com/KK77roiK6P
— Casey Michel (@cjcmichel) June 19, 2018
germy
lamh36
Ain’t this some shit
MomSense
@sukabi:
Yeah let’s move young girls in the middle of the night so no one sees what is happening. And then they put hoods over them and put them in an unmarked car – IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.
I think we all know, we all feel the dread that comes from knowing that bad things are going to happen to so many of these children.
TS (the original)
@sukabi:
She doesn’t need to rescind it – I doubt he’ll go – the protests are going to be the largest the UK has seen for a very long time if he sets foot in the country.
sukabi
@Kay: yes you do understand Kay. They don’t have any “good, positive” pictures of their kiddie gulags because like everything these assholes have touched this is a dumpster fire of epic proportions. Garbage people that are incompetent are responsible for providing care and shelter for the kids they are kidnapping. Positive photos? There’s not going to be any.
Peale
@rikyrah: it doesn’t really matter that they are Christians in good standing and have been as such for several centuries. Although I know the right wingers are convinced Isis and al Quaeda have strongholds in Brazil and Mexico, for a lot of white Christians, race makes one a better Christian. Whites are just closer to Jesus. Since these other races are all liars who steal things from white people, I’m not going to be surprised to find that non-white Christians aren’t supposed to get any benefit of the doubt when talking about the depths of their faith.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: We’re getting a break over these next few days with temps in the low to mid 80s for highs. Should get plenty of rain too.
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: @JPL: so is Karen Handel!
TS (the original)
@WaterGirl:
I will never be able to cope with this – they love the children until they are born – after that they are happy to lock them in cages.
Nicole
@Mai naem mobile: I believe you, and anyone who voted for HRC is fine by me. But I fear he’s falling into the thinking the right-wingers can be reasoned with. Anyone susceptible to thinking that caring about refugee children = ignoring real Amurricans is never going to vote Democratic anyway, so why bother trying to reach them? Better to reach the folks who don’t usually vote.
JPL
@TS (the original): but he wants to go to Scotland and play golf.
rikyrah
The Cold Political Calculus of Taking Away the Children of Migrants
Peale
@lamh36: but just the wealthy refugees. The ones the liberals give us are all poor and claim to have lost everything they own. Merit based refugee screening so we get all the doctors and scientist refugees but none of the chattel.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: He could have got his wall during the last DACA negotiations. He wants to rewrite the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. That’s the endgame and take us to the immigration regime of the 1920s. When they said take our country back, they meant back in time.
ETA: That’s an express goal of Sessions etc. And T talked about it in his 2016 address on immigration. Right now USCIS, ICE and CBP is filled with people from the various Tanton think tanks (Numbers USA, FAIR) who have be demagoging (sp?) this issue for years now.
rikyrah
Parents struggle to find children ripped away by Trump policy
Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer for The New Yorker, talks with Rachel Maddow about how migrant parents are left on their own, sometimes with the help of advocacy groups to find their kids after the Trump administration took them away and put them in separate detention centers.
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The Trumps have been playing the media with this for 3 years. It doesn’t matter what she says. Her father uses her like he uses everyone else. Why on earth would she be exempt? The Trumps have cynically and deliberately created this narrative that there is some adult relationship here and there isn’t a shred of evidence it exists. Over and over and over we’re presented with Ivanka as the “soft” side of the Trump agenda. It’s manipulation and that’s all it is. She has a role, that’s true, like an actor has a role, but she has no influence and no power.
rikyrah
Local groups work where Trump fails to reunite kids with parents
Rachel Maddow points out the failure of the Trump administration to put together a system for reuniting migrant families after Trump immigration officials forcibly take the children from their parents, and notes that small local groups are trying to pick up and do the work where the Trump administration falls short.
Peale
@schrodingers_cat: yep. We might feel that say, Japanese internment and the Chinese Exclusion Act were blots. They believe they were successes.
rikyrah
Lawsuit over family splitting policy has Trump playing word games
Dahlia Lithwick, legal correspondent and senior editor for Slate, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether U.S. courts can stop Donald Trump family separation policy and restore American dignity, and explains how an ACLU case against the Trump administration’s policy explains their legal gymnastics on the issue.
Marcopolo
Hello folks (can’t really type good morning). I also found it difficult to sleep last night. I’ll be on a highway somewhere between Ohio & Penn on Saturday so won’t be able to attend the St Louis protest action but am urging my friends to go.
And perhaps more importantly, When I get back in town I will start working regular shifts at the nearby Claire McCaskill campaign office. I feel good about her chances of holding her seat. Hopefully I’ll drag some friends onboard with that as well. The only way to change what is happening with our politics is to toss the @ssholes out of office in Nov.
Barbara
@Mai naem mobile: I can understand your friend’s fears but the response to anyone on this issue is that it’s possible to process claims for asylum without committing crimes against humanity. I actually assist people in getting humanitarian visas, which includes asylum, so I actually do understand something about this. When people like Ben Sasse sneer about “catch and release” policies, a phrase I find very disturbing, what he doesn’t say is that the system is so underresourced at this point it is taking years to get through even the first stage of the process, which for most people is the determinative stage. When I first began assisting asylum applicants, it took no more than a month to get an interview once an application has been submitted. The wait is now at least two years. In the interim, people have to eat and have a place to live and therefore, after a period of non-action — I think it’s six months — they can provisionally work in the U.S. legally. If they abandon their application they will never get legal status of any kind in the U.S.
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: Yes all these degrading phrases have been mainstreamed from immigrant hating hate groups into our national discourse by the Republicans, especially their President.
1. Chain migration
2. Catch and release
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I wonder sometimes when this is over if we’ll find out that most of the Trump Family Lore came directly from the 3 Trump Whisperer reporters at the NYTimes. That seems to be where it all originates.
I don’t think he listens to his wife either. I haven’t seen any evidence that he does. He sure wasn’t checking with her when he was hiring Stormy Daniels as an escort. Maybe he’s developed an enormous amount of respect for her policy opinions since then.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Nazi Times is still shielding Miller. They have got their priorities straight.
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
Still too many euphemisms. They are stealing these children and making it near impossible for the parents to find them. Who else around the world does this sort of thing?
They are calling them “unaccompanied”.- like babes under a year old crawled to the border.
Peale
@Barbara: yep. The US gets about 30,000 applications for asylum each month. The backlog is about 350,000 at this point. They are arresting people who are following the rules now. And apparently specifically arresting anyone with children. Probably because children means the family is planning to stay. When you look at the final approval rates, a very high percentage of them are granted. But the right is absolutely convinced that these people are lying and should be arrested. There actually is a very long proceeding to determine whether people are lying. That appears to be ignored.
Peale
@schrodingers_cat: the right wing idea that there’s no screening involved in the “diversity lottery” and it’s just a way for unskilled people to get into the country is also rather widespread.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: “Infesting” our country.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Kay I really appreciate that you and others take the time to write what you are thinking and feeling about all this. I get so wound up that I have trouble expressing myself. Last night, for instance, I read some article where the first sentence was something like “The Republicans are meeting to form a response to the POLITICAL crisis of the kids being separated from their families. My blood started boiling. Not a humanitarian crisis, not an existential crisis – nope, this is a POLITICAL crisis for them.
I was so angry I had no words, I just shut the computer screen and walked away. As I said, I totally appreciate those of you who can express yourselves, even in anger and rage and sadness.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wow. That guy really has a way with words. He should make a living doing that.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
I’m going to the rally in Phoenix, alone if I have but I would prefer to have company. Any juicers in the Phoenix area that want to meet up?
WaterGirl
@JPL: I missed that whole thing, do you have a link?
FlipYrWhig
@Peale:
That gives them too much credit. They don’t know the difference. They don’t know what asylum is. They don’t know there’s a process. They don’t know where the migrants are coming from. They think they’re all sneaky Mexicans running amok.
gvg
@Mai naem mobile: Your friend is silly. Look at this thread and others and count how many people say they are waking up or trying to sleep thinking about these children. This issue is unavoidable. It’s not just liberals, it’s everywhere. Democratic politicians are not all powerful, nor Republicans. They don’t have the power to change the subject. This is what is going to be talked about unless Trump and allies do something worse like use a nuclear bomb or the economy really does tank. So the only option is to get in front of this issue and show we will stop it if elected in enough numbers.
I know may things we think should have been the main issue in past elections haven’t worked out because people aren’t as good as they should be, and we all worry. but look at what is actually happening. Reporters are growing a spine. Republicans are backing down. You wait till the first inevitable story about a child dying happens and we may see riots.
I am actually more worried about depression really hurting people here and wondering about everyone else. this is hitting a lot of people very hard.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Reading that tweet took my breath away, and not in a good way. Horrifying.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Reading that I feel like I might throw up.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Tell it, Kay.
Tell it.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Which was done on purpose…you understand this, right? That she deliberately chose that specific restaurant.
Shell
Really hope those waiters spit into that giant bottle of bubbly.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Leaking is the most popular activity after backstabbing in the Trump admin and Trump is the biggest leak of all.
Ivanaka is Trump’s “Wife” is the sense she tells him how much she loves him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: I bet Trump order Nelson to eat there to humiliate her because her press conference wasn’t up to his standards.
Steeplejack
@raven:
Glad Lil Bit came through the operation okay. Here’s hoping she has a good recovery.
MCA1
@FlipYrWhig: Correct. The only thing they “know” is that there’s an “immigration crisis” in America. Of course, that’s untrue, as well. But they’ve been drinking that swill for 25+ years now, and the spigot’s been opened further now so they’re not likely to learn the truth of the matter anytime soon. F ’em.
J R in WV
In that photo posted by Adam Smith, who is that with Possum Queen? The person evidently has never learned how to smile, instead making a horrible grimace of bared teeth. Amazingly ugly expression. Possum Queen can’t smile either, but her faux smile isn’t as grotesque …
Will read comments now, and try to post without urging impossibilities and illegalities upon The Reichsleiters of the dictatorship of the WWC. I’ve been looking that old German word up, but now it comes as easily as fascist, which I had to look up for a week or so back in the good ol’ days.
Steeplejack
LOL! Just heard from Bro’ Man that the waiter on the right in the “Sean Spicer’s giant champagne bottle” picture up top is one of his husband’s friends.
This guy had a front-desk job at the hotel, but after Trump was elected and the place went ballistic he volunteered to move over to the restaurant/bar side. The first weekend he made enough in tips to pay a month’s rent.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy Winsor:
Would you like to borrow mine?