Here’s the Minnesota congresswoman’s statement:
Listening and learning, but standing strong ?? pic.twitter.com/7TSroSf8h1
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 11, 2019
Hypocritical cockwaffles like Rep. Kevin McCarthy (and both creatures named “Donald Trump”) won’t drop the issue.
1. Saying that Jews are buying political support is an anti-Semitic trope and people should stop
2. @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy has ZERO moral authority on this issue because he's advanced THE SAME ANTI-SEMITIC TROPE pic.twitter.com/QqfTqlwZT0
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 11, 2019
But hopefully this will defang some of the Democratic infighting. (Haha! As if!) I like Omar’s emphasis on listening and learning — paired with a refusal to be intimidated into shutting up. That’s not easy.
Neither is being a member of the only one of two national parties that is ever held accountable for anything, ever. But such is our lot, fellow libturds. Open thread!
Kent
You gotta learn how to play on the big stage. It is a lot different from say the friendly confines of a college forum or something. There are well funded professional troll farms out there who’s sole reason to exist is to find and amplify pseudo-scandals.
It looks like she is learning. One feature of our current media environment is that these stories last all of 20 minutes. I was astonished as hell with how fast the Virginia blackface scandals got blown off the front pages by the Jeff Bezos dick pick National Enquirer thing. This is the age of Trump and tomorrow the media will be chasing the next shiny object.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kent: So I wonder what has lasting impact? Is it an accumulation of these fleeting stories? Or maybe something finally sticks? HRC’s emails seemed to stick. Made me crazy, but it did.
On another topic, I blogged about the best advice I ever got. It happened to be about some scholarly stuff I was writing, but I find it work pretty much everywhere.
Jeffro
Her message is totally spot-on and I for one love it. Also love how (c’mon Dems, time to lean in and fire back here) it totally exposes McCarthy’s shameless hypocrisy. I wanna see that McCarthy tweet referenced for AT LEAST a news cycle, you hear me ‘BothSides’ media?
piratedan
well, this is what I like about the new Frosh, able to stand in an actually apologize and take input when there’s actual perceived harm and injury. learn from it, move on from it…
and it cost her actually what?
Isn’t that what most of us do who are actually open to being better people?
This is another essential difference between the two parties…. has anyone ever seen Trump apologize for being completely wrong about the influx of people showing up at the Southern borders? Congressional Reps, Governors, academics, pundits have all tried and it all just flows off his back and never makes an impact, he “knows what he knows” and no amount of testimonials, charts, graphs, lectures are going to convince him otherwise…. and its this kind of intransigence that many of his followers adore, they don’t WANT to learn, they don’t want to continue to grow, they believe that they’re all their very own little tribe of Conservative Mary Poppinses, practically perfect in nearly every way.
trollhattan
Some messy shit she’s dug into; hopefully she’s genuinely remorseful, understands why the pushback, and gets herself back on the rails. We need all hands on deck the next two years.
In weather and water news, another atmospheric river is headed to California, a big one. In an average to dry year these are welcome but we’re kind of soaked already with a very hefty 129% snowpack. Park itself in the wrong river drainage and wet hell could break loose. We shall see.
SiubhanDuinne
That’s an excellent and mature apology. Good for her. And good for Nancy — I imagine the gavel was there during their conversation, but swathed in several layers of velvet.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@piratedan:
Good point. She doesn’t lose a single vote by her statement.
Kent
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
She handled the whole thing incredibly poorly. It was all one long defensive crouch. She should have just gone on Leno, pulled out the ridiculous official secure Blackberry or whatever the State Dept wanted her to use, shown everyone, and said “Look, this is the ridiculous clunky cell phone the government expects us to use. I just wanted to do my email on my own phone like everyone else. Just mock the whole thing and show how silly it was and have a good laugh. Even the classified stuff was ridiculous and she should have said so. Nothing she ever emailed on her server was classified at the time. The stuff that later got classified after the fact was all conservations about FUCKING NEW YORK TIMES news stories about the drone program.
Mary G
I love all the new women in Congress, and Kevin McCarthy’s criticizing her is just rank hypocrisy. I tweeted at him after he said she should be taken off the foreign affairs committee that as soon as she had been in Congress as long as Steve King has, we might talk, but for now glass houses, stones, etc.
I am still kind of high on the women in white at the SOTU last week. Such a clear differential.
chris
Our friend Jacy has posted an update to her GoFundMe page. She’s close!
different-church-lady
I’m so old I can remember when all the established fossils were supposed to just lie down on an ice flow while the rookies took over leadership.
MattF
I think Pelosi exercised her ‘iron gavel in a velvet glove’ for a good cause. There is simply no excuse for dividing the Dem caucus over stereotypes. And, Omar appears to gotten with the program. What she really believes… we shall see…
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m relieved to see this. I hope she IS learning, because we need her voice and the voices of the people she represents (and we sure as hell don’t need any more anti-Semitic tropes from Dems; the other side supplies plenty). I do wish she had issued the second paragraph as a separate message, because “I’m sorry, but also [thing I’m not sorry about]” is half-assed. And the self-congratulory “learning but standing strong” bullshit is bullshit. The more she qualifies the message, the more it trends from just being stylistically crappy to being a dog-whistle that she doesn’t really mean any of it.
All that said, the Israeli government’s policies toward Palestinians are evil and destructive and self-destructive. There are ways to say that, and to push back, that aren’t anti-Jew. Ditto for lobbying generally and its pernicious influence. I hope Omar can find non-shitty ways to lead that conversation.
(((Colette)))
Jeffro
Media takes are noting that this is several times now where, one way or another, the Dem party at least tries to enforce standards of conduct/disavow bad behavior/put it however you want.
It kinda puts the GOP in a bad spot. I have no doubt Nancy Smash is pointing out the need to maintain the contrast if we’re ever going to overcome the ‘Both Sides’ media.
guachi
Soft bigotry of low expectations. You can criticize lobbyists for their corrosive influence of money, you just can’t criticize Jewish lobbyists.
CarolDuhart2
@Jeffro: Also that the newbies are willing to learn from their mistakes and be team players.
The Moar You Know
@MattF: I actually don’t give a fuck what she really believes. By her tweets, probably the same thing I do: the state of Israel fucks with the American political process, primarily by using money, to an alarming extent and has for at least forty years.
But I don’t EVER say that shit in public and neither should she. It encourages Nazis, for starters, and the only thing I want to encourage Nazis to do is to drink bleach.
“Bleach: It Makes You Whiter”
cain
@guachi:
I think we should ask the ADL if they plan on also defending other Semites like the Palestinians. That would be an interesting debate.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
Nancy is just excellent on so many levels. She has a spine of tempered steel. She has a clear and unambiguous sense of ethics, values, and morality. But she’s also a pragmatist, and understands that it’s sometimes smart to compromise as long as you don’t betray those principles. She is brilliant at herding cats and counting votes; she knows when it’s necessary to get her caucus aligned and when it makes sense to let the kids blow off steam and learn their own lessons. She is smart and funny and hella stylish. We are incredibly lucky to have this strong woman on our side.
Betty Cracker
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Her statement didn’t land that way with me at all, but I see your point.
FlipYrWhig
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I agree that the tone is a little… off. And then I’m wondering if there’s a way this is supposed to _also_ be a reaction to Northam and Herring, a way to model how to bounce back from an insensitive act, which is why it’s sort of a muddle while attempting to be a well-meant muddle. But I’m in Virginia and so that’s perhaps closer to the front of my mind than it would be to hers and Pelosi’s.
BobS
Sadly, my 2 Democratic senators (Stabenow & Peters) felt that defending apartheid, murder, and land theft in a foreign country was more important than the First Amendment rights of American citizens.
different-church-lady
@SiubhanDuinne:
Sometimes it’s not even compromising: instead it a willingness to do the hard work of threading very difficult needles instead of taking the easy way out or just ignoring things.
Dan B
@trollhattan: Bad weather news. Seattle has had 14 inches of snow in a week. Here on a hill we’ve had 20. It’s coming down like crazy right now. None of the side streets have been plowed. There are not enough plows (35) for the main roads. The city is using road graders to clear streets.
In other news a semi carrying chickens crashed on I-5 in Olympia, 90 miles south of Seattle. The chickens were on the freeway but got herded into one lane.
An acquaintance from Seattle electric car owners flew to New Zealand today. We think / hope. Big brush fires there.
And our solar panel inverter is being recalled….
Waaaaa!
eemom
I just posted something on the next thread which is in moderation, and I don’t see why.
Kent
@SiubhanDuinne: She is without a doubt the best politician of our generation. In 20 years people will be talking about the Pelosi era like it was a golden age.
The Moar You Know
@BobS:
What legislation have they introduced that will allow the government to curtail the rights of Americans to speak freely? I’ve been Googling everything and can’t find it. Can you give me a link?
Representative Omar is no more immune from the consequences of saying stupid shit than I am. She’s a smart young lady, I think she’ll figure this out.
FlipYrWhig
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Actually I think I was reacting to a different part than you were. The part I didn’t especially care for was “We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity.” The parallel seems askew. Who’s hearing who? Whose identity is being attacked? It’s like she’s being attacked in both cases, rather than that she was (misunderstood to be) attacking someone else. Shouldn’t it be something like “When I call out people who slur my identity, even if they never intended to, I expect them to listen, and hence I stand ready to be called out myself, and to step back and think through these criticisms”?
(((FlipYrWhig
^Half
MattF
@Dan B: I recall the first time I visited Seattle, I was surprised by all the hills. Steep hills. Don’t want to even ponder the combination of hills + snow.
different-church-lady
@eemom: FYWP doesn’t give a shit. FYWP just takes what it wants.
different-church-lady
@MattF:
TOBOGGANING!
WaterGirl
@chris: She’s close, but not that close. :-) She still needs 2,700, and I haven’t seen the needle move very much at all in the past week or so.
The pet portraits of Badger and Bixby and her boyfriend’s dog are just amazing, so if you’ve ever thought about having that done, now might be a perfect time.
FlipYrWhig
@The Moar You Know: Anti-BDS bill.
chopper
@Dan B:
god, i am sick of shoveling all this crap. i moved here to get away from this shit.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
I think the money is actually less important than many people think. Israel has deep ties to a lot of groups within the US. They obviously have a big hook for American Jews, but they’ve also managed to do a good job of cultivating Evangelical Christians’ end-time fantasies and security hawks’ interest in having a reliable, democratic state on our side in the region. And very importantly, the Palestinians just don’t have anything that comes close to matching Israel’s pull, so there isn’t much of a counter-narrative.
geg6
Since this is an open thread, I just have to crow with happiness for my niece, who just accepted her offer of admission at the college of her choice about ten days ago. She just got a letter from them that she’s been offered a scholarship for students with certain qualification that will pay for her to travel outside the US, usually to conferences/seminars, for 2 weeks every summer while in school and to do a semester overseas, which will be in Rome. I’m so excited for her to have this opportunity. It’s through a fund endowed by the late Ambassador Dan Rooney, who was also the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I know I would have killed for such an opportunity, so I’m thrilled for her.
West of the Rockies
She has gracefully navigated the storm. Governor Ralph seems bent on staying put, but if he, too, can absorb a hard lesson, maybe he can accomplish great good still. Lemonade from lemons…
jacy
I always hate to feel like I’m spamming comments — but I’m in the last push of my fundraising and I want to offer the Jackaletariat a coupon for art through my Etsy store. I set up a coupon for 20% off any purchase (large or small) through the 22nd. So if you thought you might want to order some art, the coupon code is Jackal20. (And I just set it up today so if anybody tries it and it doesn’t work for any reason, be sure to let me know.) And I had someone who wanted t-shirts, and it was super-easy to get them made and shipped, so if anybody wanted a t-shirt or a coffee mug with any of the designs, you can let me know with a special request and I can put those items up individually.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSpectralObelisk
CarolDuhart2
@FlipYrWhig: She has been attacked for being Muslim, and Palestinian and proudly Palestinian. Part of it is that her very presence refutes the Islamophobic memes that certain people have used to demean Palestinians, Muslims, or both. She also has been trying to get a delegation to go to the Gaza Strip as well.
BobS
@The Moar You Know: They weren’t co-sponsors, but they were both “yea” votes for S.1-Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019. Title IV of that bill is “Combating BDS Act of 2019”.
Immanentize
@geg6:
Congratulations!! Excellent! What school?
We should do a “Thank God they got accepted” post one of these days (in March?)
West of the Rockies
@geg6:
That sounds awesome! My daughter graduates this year and is going to Scotland and London for a theater class. The first year of community college is free here for local graduates, so she’ll take advantage of that. I’d love to see her do a semester overseas; it can be a wonderful and enlightening experience.
SiubhanDuinne
@different-church-lady:
That’s a much better way to put it. Thanks.
jacy
@geg6:
Congratulations! Always exciting to get the acceptance!
The Moar You Know
@BobS: So were 25 other Dems. Including both my Senators, Feinstein and Harris. I guess we’ll have to primary them all.
FlipYrWhig
@CarolDuhart2: Somali, right? But, yes, I get that she’s been attacked and smeared and spoke out against the attackers/smearers. For the parallelism to work, doesn’t she have to admit that this time she did the attacking and the smearing and that the people who spoke out against her were right? But that’s not exactly what she said, AFAICT. I think what she’s trying to say is that she knows what it’s like to feel hurt by thoughtless ethnic stereotyping so she’s extra sorry she came across as having done that. But she’s sort of reasoned herself into saying that what she did is the equivalent of an _attack_ rather than a misunderstanding. But does she really believe that?
I realize I may be overcomplicating things but I’m trying to figure out where in the statement I’m experiencing the sort of sorry-but-not-sorry-but-sorta-sorry-but-not-really sensation that I think Comrade Colette was also picking up on.
BobS
@The Moar You Know: Let me go back and read what I initially wrote…..nope, nothing there about a primary.
But you go for it.
Ladyraxterinok
@Kent: Note about Baylor from earlier thread.
I attended Rice–61 grad. 1 yr while I was there, there were student complaints about the food. And some talk about a food riot. (For reasons I’ve long forgotten there never was 1. There WAS a ‘panty raid’ my freshman yr in which a large ground floor plate glass window was broken. ‘Damages will be assessed among the 4 men’s colleges.’–a recuring phrase all 4 yrs I was there.)
In the food riot discussions, someone talked about a food riot at Baylor. They were v polite, like good SoBaptists.
Supposedly everyone showed up at breakfast and no one showed up at supper.
Note–that was in the era when if you lived in the dorm you were locked into one meal plan. There were no options.
At Rice then, meals were served 3x a day except for Saturday and Sunday supper.
Ladyraxterinok
@Mary G: I head some people on Facebook were saying the white dresses were actually meant to be KKK robes!!
trollhattan
@MattF:
All those Seattle hills explain why when I decamped for flat central California I was a really fast cyclist. ‘Tis a lumpy place.
glory b
@MattF: One word: Pittsburgh.
glory b
Yuck. Just now, on m t p daily, before the break, Katy tur said, “what will be the fall-out from the Democratic divisions?”
jl
@FlipYrWhig: I think you are overcomplicating it. Humans are complicated and there is a lot in their hearts, minds, and souls, that we can never observe directly. What is going on in a person’s head and what that person intended is always under-determined by any piece of speech or writing that they put out to the world. You start looking through and analyzing and reanalyzing each word, and then theorize about the implications of other background info and what the person said, you can always come up with cases for against any number of things.
Hence the KGB saying from the USSR days “you give me the person, and I’ll give you the case’. Go over anything a person did or does, and you work through with a super fine comb and spin enough theories, you can make a case for all sorts of things, good or bad.
Edit: which is one reason why GOP and other bad faith artists are so good at what they do. Work hard enough, you can make a case for all sorts of unfair things about a person. It is an art, not a science, and at some point it is the assumptions you have going in, the artistry of your imaginative arguments, that direct the results of your analysis.
Edit2 ‘you’ doesn’t mean you personally, I’m using it for the more stilted ‘one’ or ‘a person’.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@geg6: Please share my congratulations with her!
jl
@Ladyraxterinok: Good example of my previous comment. Suffragettes wore white. KKK members wore white at their meetings. In Christianity and Europe white kind of means purity. In Japan, white can mean death and is worn at funerals, and inauspicious in certain situations. Work trucks are white because, I guess, easy to see and spot.
So, what does ‘white’ mean? You can make all sorts of arguments. Fact that the Congresswomen said that they wore white in honor of right to vote and women’s rights should determine it. But…. are those libs and commies to be trusted… hmmmmm….?
Hitler liked dogs, I like dogs… uh oh…. what kind of person am I, really? I like kitty cats too, but maybe I am saying that just as a distraction.
FlipYrWhig
@jl: Sure, but I still think “attack me for my identity” is an odd thing to drop in if your goal is to apologize and learn rather than to be defensive. (I wouldn’t handle this kind of situation well because my instinct is indeed to get defensive.) That doesn’t make it insincere exactly but it seems sort of betwixt and between to me. I won’t ding her for it overmuch but I still think it’s inartfully expressed.
geg6
@Immanentize:
St. Vincent: http://www.stvincent.edu/
Just small enough for her and close enough to home that she can get here in 90 minutes, depending on traffic through the ‘Burgh.
She already has free tuition through the university her mom works for due to tuition exchange. Now this. Really happy for her. She’ll only be paying for room, board and books.
geg6
@glory b:
For real. People have no idea what we navigate in the winter!
Dan B
@MattF: Hills! Hillier than San Francisco. We have friends who live on hillsides, steep hillsides. Streets are plowed 4 blocks away. Our Nissan Leaf bottomed out in the driveway. Fortunately we have enough food for a week. Visibility is fluctuating between half a mile and three blocks.
Dan B
@chopper: My partner has lived in Seattle for all but 6 months of his life. I grew up near Akron, Ohio where sniw was two months without any break.
There was a big snow years ago when my honey lived in hus parents’ 9 bedroom house. They’d had a party and a dozen drag queens post holed in their platform heels. I gave a few rides to the store in my teeny Tercel 4WD wagon. Must have been a sight. Couldn’t stop that car on the most appalling mountain roads, or with drag queens.
jl
@FlipYrWhig: I agree that part could be considered inartful. IMHO, she sincerely attempted to say that she understands where her critics are coming from, because both she and her critics have experienced attacks based on their very identity.
B.B.A.
I’m not gonna lie, I winced a little when I saw Ms. Omar’s tweet last night. I blame my Jewish upbringing.
But I don’t think she has anything to apologize for. Israel’s actions are so utterly vile that antisemites don’t even have to lie, and anyone who dares to tell the truth can be dismissed as an antisemite. I’m not playing that game anymore.
different-church-lady
@jl:
What are your feelings about genocide?
different-church-lady
@Ladyraxterinok:
Ah, there’s the problem.
jl
@different-church-lady: Beats me. I can’t afford a personal consultation with Jonah Goldberg, and his Liberal Fascism doesn’t have a full checklist /snark.
different-church-lady
@jl: Well, you’re probably not Hitler then.
debbie
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
According to Bibi and his minions, there really isn’t a way to say that. They will accept nothing other than utter and absolute devotion.
BobS
@debbie: Those “minions” include a substantial number of American presidents and congresspersons from both parties, as well as most well-known journalists. Those who do stray- Jimmy Carter, James Abourezk, Cynthia McKinney, Helen Thomas- are quickly chastised by the Israel Lobby, getting the others back in line.
Melusine
@jacy:
Your work is beautiful and I found a print that will be a perfect gift. ?
Melusine
As a long-time mostly lurker, much love to a community of snarling, vicious, vitriolic jackals with good hearts and generous spirits. Gives me a bit of hope for humanity some days.
And other days a much needed fuck ’em.
AnotherBruce
There are 650 public stairways in the city of Seattle. That should tell you how lumpy Seattle is.
sam
So much for the truth setting you free