Here is the youtube link.
I cannot wait to hear this man bring honesty, compassion and solutions to this wounded nation.
by TaMara| 236 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Open Threads, Politics, Come back Shane
Here is the youtube link.
I cannot wait to hear this man bring honesty, compassion and solutions to this wounded nation.
Comments are closed.
TaMara (HFG)
Also MSNBC is covering it live. I don’t know about CNN
Patricia Kayden
Auntie Anne
@TaMara (HFG): Thank you!
Elizabelle
Nothing going on??
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: Just starting now.
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG): Good for MSNBC.
Adam L Silverman
@Patricia Kayden: The Bushes also issued a very good statement as well.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: It ain’t on yet.
Elizabelle
@raven: Link working now on youtube.
hueyplong
Not sure I’m prepared for an onslaught of polysyllabic words.
WaterGirl
who is this guy?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WaterGirl:
I caught he was a graduate from The Ohio State University
Elizabelle
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Actually a soon to be freshman there. Playon Paver(??)
Elizabelle
Obama up. Figurine of Bo or Sunny on the bookshelf behind him.
Feathers
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He just graduated high school and will be attending Ohio State to major in criminal justice.
dmsilev
@WaterGirl: The guy talking now? Someone from Kenya, I think.
(sorry)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
@Feathers:
Oh, well good for him. OSU is a good university so I’ve heard
TaMara (HFG)
@dmsilev: Do. Not. Make. Me. Pull. This. Blog. Over. ;-)
Feathers
Someone will write a dissertation on the rearranging of the bookcases for Obama’s online talks during these “unsettling times.”
Adam L Silverman
@raven: I am not in charge of past-presidential scheduling.
TaMara (HFG)
CNN covering it live, too. Anyone want to go check over at FOX? I have it blocked.
cain
The antifa is young people
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman:
MomSense
I keep crying today. Seeing our great president and feeling like that old song – you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
dmsilev
“Looking at some birds in a park”
Obama just lost the Karen demographic.
cain
Love my forever POTUS and FLOTUS! ♥♥♥♥♥♥
germy
Wait. I thought McConnell told Obama to shut his mouth?
How is this happening?
Jo Jo las Orejas
@Elizabelle:
Estoy en todo el cuerpo meneo. Amo a Sunny y Bo. Mamá está bebiendo una cerveza. Hacía calor hoy.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: A group of Karens is called a privilege. Like a pride of lions or a parliament of rooks.
cain
Data driven solutions – ♥ Unlike the Tangelo Tyrant
No point asking him what he thought of Obama’s speech because there are just way too much higher level english for him to understand.
Feathers
@dmsilev: As someone fully in the Karen demographic, she is wildly unpopular. Hell, Karen probably hates other Karens for being so obvious and tacky.
germy
@dmsilev:
The “I’m going to walk my dog off-leash even though the rules say otherwise” demographic* is not happy with Obama’s speech.
*Also known as the folks on my bike path.
Elizabelle
@Jo Jo las Orejas: Muy bien, JoJo. Rock on.
Elizabelle
The thick book with the red spine to his left — that cover reminds me that I’ve seen it … Does anyone recognize it?
(The reason I do better listening rather than watching speeches…)
Elizabelle
@MomSense: I’m just burned out. Seeing the Fox watching assholes schooling us that “it wasn’t tear gas, libtards!” just took it out of me.
cain
MIchael’ Smith’s bookshelf looks like it’s all going to fall down at any moment.
Elizabelle
I want their book jackets to be searchable. Always curious what ppl have in their homes… these aren’t the big art and design books always foisted on us with interior design photos.
wvng
A President speaking in complete sentences, rallying actual facts to make a coherent argument, is nearly disorienting at this point.
Elizabelle
White shelves matter.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Let them demonstrate what a nothing pepper spray or smoke booms are, just like ManCow showed waterboarding to be a nothing.
Frankensteinbeck
Nothing is more Barack Obama than to use the advertising power of a speech by himself to lure people into watching a video of experts discussing how to actually fix an issue.
Elizabelle
@wvng: And doggone it, nobody got gassed so we could see him.
germy
Errol, you’d better run that past your president first. He might not be comfortable going that far with you…
Calouste
@Elizabelle:
Red spine? Either Das Kapital or Mao’s Little Red Book. /s
Elizabelle
@debbie: Yep. Those rubber bullets (mind you, not used in Lafayette Park) — can take out an eye and do a lot of damage. We don’t seem to be talking about those …
Elizabelle
Attorney General Holder!
The smart universe arrives.
JPL
@germy: not linking to it so was it written while the President was speaking?
Martin
@cain: Antifa is most of us. We just show up on a different schedule. The young people jumped right out in front of this, but as we’re seeing in DC, more and more people show up as the threat grows.
Those of us who remember presidents before Obama know there’s always a little undercurrent of fascism at the federal level in this country, so we’re a little slower to jump.
germy
@JPL: Two hours ago.
Elizabelle
Elegant and noncommittal living area behind Holder. No bookshelves. Kind of soothing, like a high end hotel lobby.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
I knew. I knew every single minute.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: “I’m not as stupid as you evidently think I am, so fuck off!” Is my catch-all comeback to shit like that.
Elizabelle
I love being around smart people talking. We see it so little these days WRT the tragic administration now.
mad citizen
@Elizabelle: I’m trying to leave this event but seeing the different scenes is keeping me here. Your shelves comment was hilarious.
Getting a lot of beige from Holder’s house, and he’s blending in. Maybe we all start to look like our houses over time…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
What were they basing this shit on? The claims of the Park Police? Why should they automatically be believed? These assholes should be asked this to their faces: why should the Park Police be taken at their word when we saw with our own eyes tear gas being used?
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Me too. And I was relieved Obama and his family made it through alive.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They have some very longstanding civil rights problems in their sports and sports-adjacent programs that are steadily getting better. Academically, they’re excellent.
Elizabelle
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You saw with your own eyes?
Hey, libtard. That’s not the White House/Fox News official line. There’s a memo out. Learn up.
They’re saying it was smoke bombs and pepper balls. And then, that is ALL that they say. (Speaking of the wingnuts in my personal orbit. Which are limited, I am delighted to say.)
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
Harris posted a scene from a demonstration. All the protesters were lying on their stomachs while a woman read Mr. Floyd’s last words. Momma help me. Momma I hurt. Everything hurts. It breaks me thinking about the kind of suffering that brings a man to call for mom in pain and distress.
Elizabelle
Base policy on reality rather than stereotypes. That would be … refreshing.
debbie
@germy:
Some of the responses to Webber’s tweets are pretty sharp.
raven
@Martin: And that dickhead that was the wrestling coach.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: Breaks our hearts.
Martin
@mad citizen: My sense with seeing a lot of people in their homes recently via Zoom that I’ve known for decades, is that interesting people have interesting homes and uninteresting people, well, don’t.
germy
They really can’t get their story straight:
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: @Calouste: This one.
mad citizen
Having to do hundreds on work webinars now all remotely and seeing the rise of the Chat function, I wonder if Obama has a direct route into speaking, or is he just another dude having to type something into the chat box?
Elizabelle
I am liking this cool young guy. More level-headed and humane peeps like him, please. He’s the best speaker of the young, so far.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: Gym Jordan (R-Showers).
Elizabelle
@Martin: There is a lack of housepets in this program.
To whom may I speak about that?
germy
@debbie: Yes, my favorite is “This gives new meaning to ‘Orange is the new Black'”
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: That’s really rather good artwork.
Would be a hoot to put that in the background somewhere. Make people wonder.
dmsilev
@mad citizen: I’m sure the meeting host has him on mute just in case he blurts out something inappropriate….
mad citizen
@Martin: If by interesting you mean a lot of books and crap, that would be me–but it’s out of control. So when I have be on video I move so the view behind me is spartan house view, or sometimes a blank wall (which I agree is the worst). Just saying us hoarders can’t let people see our stuff, it’s too much. I’m working on it…
Elizabelle
“Not just a liberal city but an equitable city.” Now that’s an interesting concept to discuss.
Feathers
@Elizabelle: I was hoping for Bo to show up, but I know Obama doesn’t pander that way. Might for one of the children’s book readings, but not here.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Should of been on my Zoom meeting earlier. Ruby was the only thing holding that video-teleconference together. But don’t look directly at her – the cuteness, it burns!
Elizabelle
@Feathers: I prefer to think that he or Sunny were under the desk. Behaving themselves.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Ruby??
mad citizen
@Elizabelle: Wow, yes, this Minneapolis council young man is really impressive.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: It had better be as I’m pretty sure the image was taken from either a People’s Republic of China or North Korean propaganda poster from the 1950s or 1960s. The book in that image is Mao’s Little Red Book.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle:
You’re BJ’s Room Rater! My skype and zoom calls look like hostage videos.
Elizabelle
Backwards planning. Cool. Has a different meaning than with our misadministration today.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I am always looking for the dildo atop the fridge.
cain
@Frankensteinbeck:
Even smarter saying that he will be hanging around the panel – so that people will continue to watch even after he is no longer visible.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: The younger of my two lab mixes.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
HE called out for his dead mother. Of it all….
THAT broke me.
I just had to cry and cry and???
Cacti
The funniest thing today by far was Trump going all George Costanza during the fire, and saying he was just inspecting the bunker to make sure it was safe. LoL
He was not cowering in it, so stop saying that!!!1!
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: You know what you must do. Later. Photo evidence, or ….
Adam L Silverman
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Make sure to remember to hold today’s paper with the date clearly visible so it can be seen on the camera.
Elizabelle
Great point. Being called “soft on crime” because discussing a comprehensive solution.
I don’t know what jackal suggested police should recruit from the social worker ranks (or from folks drawn to that aspect of the work), but it’s a great idea, IMHO.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Nope. There are no pictures of me on the Internet. There’s a video the Army posted, but I can’t control that. There are no images of my dog, my parents, etc, etc. Nothing that could be used for facial recognition. No social media footprint. Nothing.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Got to confess, I have never watched any footage of the killing. I guess I should.
I would love it if cable or network TV just ran 8+ minutes of silence. That was a long damn time.
The calling out for his mother …. mm mmm mmm.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Gym Jordan was in charge of their wrestling program wasn’t he? I imagine quite a few college sports programs have systemic problems, sadly
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s “it’s not a clip, it’s a magazine” logic.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Pretty much for me, too. I have a dog as my FB avatar. Don’t put up personal photos. Want to be under the radar, online. Privacy, such as it is, is another privilege.
cain
@rikyrah:
I started tearing up just reading it here :(:( :( To reach out to your mom while your life ebbs away.. I just can’t..
Martin
@raven: Oh, not just wrestling. Marching band, other sports. Of course it varies across the university, but despite what we think of undergraduate behavior, I can assure you that kind of systemic sexual harassment doesn’t come out of nowhere. It grew in the organization, and spread from activity to activity. Individual students just aren’t there long enough to build that kind of legacy – it gets passive approval from administrators, played down because the activity is deemed too important to the organization to sully by revealing it needs to be cleaned up. Leadership knows about it, makes passive demands that it get fixed, while making active demands that it not be disturbed too much to jeopardize the revenue stream.
Disclaimer: I know the head of OSU pretty well, and it’s not a coincidence that this stuff started to get addressed and news coverage when he arrived. I don’t mean that to suggest he’s an extraordinary individual, just that he was an outsider that hadn’t priced in that behavior to the institution, so he was far better able to take steps that other administrators struggled to do. His administrative background didn’t involve big Div 1 sports universities, but much more academically oriented institutions where sports were very much a non-critical or even non-existent part of the institution. I think it’s fair to say he was pretty horrified with what he found, and quickly learned that for sports-dominated campuses, not that unusual.
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: Exactly. I hate dealing with those asshats. Short answer: you cannot. Cut your losses and move along.
Elizabelle
@cain: It made me think of some of the accounts you hear from war, and injured and dying soldiers.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
What a load of shit. Apparently, pepper balls are unpleasant too and have more or less the same effects as tear gas
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Adam L Silverman:
I wonder what the digital equivalent of that is. Fewer dead papers are lying around these days.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: We will find you by tracking down Valhrona purchases.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Yeah, the interesting folks keep it in the fridge.
Elizabelle
I love that Brittany is a former teacher. It is great training for so many fields.
Maybe we should recruit cops from teachers, too. It happens.
Don’t let the ammosexuals overwhelm the ranks of police candidates. Retrain: it’s smarter to NOT have to use your weapon. What can you do to achieve that? What skills? What qualities?
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Photoshopping yourself into todays meme.
Elizabelle
@Martin: TMI! I figured it was just a drying rack kind of place. Maybe no counter space. LOL.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I was thinking over the last few days how incredible it is that Black Lives Matter has been apparently mainstreamed now. The contrast between now and 2014 or 2016 is amazing. The MSM, for the moment, is pushing back against the CW pushed by the law enforcement and conservatives.
People who have said “All Lives Matter” BS have been criticized and public figures have lost their jobs for it.
It’s an interesting question what caused this to happen specifically. The stress of the pandemic? Trump making the situation worse? Increased cultural awareness? Progress made since 2014, such as pro-CIvil Rights DAs being elected? Hell, NASCAR issued a condemnation a few days ago of the Floyd killing. I can’t imagine this happening 10 years ago
Elizabelle
Obama giving Eric Holder his props. Rebuilt the Civil Rights Division within the Justice Department.
Maybe Holder can return as an emeritus in 2017. Cannot even imagine all the rebuilding, and the looting/destruction/neglect that will turn up.
Elizabelle
Damn. Listen to Obama. These fools are not just going to go with their gut. //
mad citizen
Just noticed how Obama is using the “rule of thirds” by placing himself off center in the frame. Wonder if he thought of that or had someone suggest it. Also the two shelves behind his head are empty, the better for him to show up
Oooops–he just used the MLK quote that was actually another person decades before. Read about that a few weeks ago. Arc of the moral universe…
Patricia Kayden
Martin
@Elizabelle: No counter space? Who the fuck parks their dildos on the kitchen counter like a stand mixer? Do people that don’t cook just repurpose the spice rack spot for dildo organization?
Elizabelle
Jim Harbaugh, coach of Michigan football, marching. Today.
Cool.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Reminder that Obama’s first choice to replace Holder was Kamala Harris. Harris turned him down. She wants a bigger say. Biden knows this.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Looks like a book about Ike.
MomSense
@rikyrah: it broke me. That was the thing that got me when I first saw the video and then to see it re-enacted today and to hear the pain in the woman’s voice as she cried out in Floyd’s words just destroyed me again. There is something so down to the core of life and death about crying out for your mom. And then I think of that fucking murderer cop with his hands in his damn pockets – so nonchalant about his evil.
Elizabelle
@mad citizen: Except for the waterdog figurine, Obama’s background looks real generic. Cannot believe there would be that much shelf space without books on it …
It’s almost too clean. Impersonal. But the guy who is speaking is just right.
Martin
@MomSense: Remember, the cop knew Floyd. They both worked as bouncers at the same restaurant/club. No fucking way he didn’t know exactly who was under his knee.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Ike. Yes! Under the football. And some kind of “American Library” whatever volume of a classic work to its far left.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
I think it was intentional. All of that empty space provides good contrast
Elizabelle
“You don’t need to hear from more old head stuff.”
Dry wit.
mad citizen
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think we’re sussing it out–those two shelves are probably full of books that were cleared out for this.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Hard to catch him on the live feed. Hopefully, they’ll archive this soon on youtube.
MomSense
@Martin:
If we find out that Chauvin was part of a counterfeit operation and that’s why he responded the way he did – I’m going to wish we could go back to stoning people to death.
Kay
I listened in on a Zoom with Sherrod Brown and Ohio county chairs. Number one concern of the Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) chair from her Democrats is voting process, they’re worried about Trump and suppression or cheating. Sherrod said the focus will be early vote, early vote, early vote and he will work to “protect” vote by mail from Trump and the GOP. He wants them to set a goal to have at least 50% of their vote banked during the 3 and a half weeks prior to the election. He said they have 1500 Biden volunteers in Ohio right now and he wanted to emphasize that in his opinion Biden is the best we could get at the top of the ticket for Ohio, in terms of downballot. He said he has a role in the Biden campaign on messaging in Ohio- what they should focus on- because he knows the state and wins here running as a progressive.
There were then the usual complaints- not enough focus on rural counties, yard signs. Always with the yard signs :)
oldgold
General Mattis:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Welp, as someone who’s been mocking his silence…
Baud
@mad citizen:
Elizabelleified.
mad citizen
@Kay: My wife and me love the early voting. The thing about mail voting to me is the uncertainty if my vote arrived and was counted, even though I know the chance of it not is super small. I wish there could be a voting receipt email that shows you that your vote was counted and how you voted for each office–not just for mail voting, but in person voting as well.
mad citizen
@Baud: Hey Now!
cain
Urrgh.. damn police unions.
Elizabelle
re Making a case to the FOP: Police officers are going to be safer. They will be able to do their jobs better … less distracted by things that don’t require an armed response.
He’s right. You are going to have the police rank and file (or at least leadership) into any reforms and change.
Changing culture is hard. Sometimes the dynamics within the unions themselves are different …
Elizabelle
@Baud: Shhhhhhh. Less authentic. But also less distracting.
debbie
@Kay:
“Dr. Amy Action Fan Club” yard signs are outnumbering Biden yard signs by 3 to 1, and it’s a pretty blue neighborhood. There’s one Trump/Pence sign, but it’s on the inside of the house. Pussy MAGAt.
Kay
@mad citizen:
I love early voting too. I’m in love with the idea of banking votes. I don’t know why people leave it to the last minute! You could get hit by a bus.
Sherrod’s nice on voting talk because he was a Sec of State so he speaks in very practical and specific terms.
jonas
…and for two of those years, I went along and enabled the treasonous bastard, and for more than a year after that stayed silent while the crimes mounted. FTFY, General.
MomSense
@mad citizen:
My hero Theodore Parker! He was a bad ass abolitionist preacher and organizer. Keep top eye open!
Interesting tidbit is that MLK considered converting to Universalism when he was in the doctoral program at BU, but he decided that culturally the Baptist Church was the better platform for organizing in the South.
I paid my respects at Parker’s grave in Florence, Italy many years ago. Part of the inscription reads that he freed us from slavery and superstition.
Timurid
Look who just came out of the weeds…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@mad citizen:
I know in Ohio, there’s a website maintained that has public voting records. You can look up where your absentee application/ballot is and whether it’s been received or not
Kay
@debbie:
I know people love them so give the people what they want but they don’t matter. They really don’t. Unless it’s to make people happy and that’s reason enough, I suppose. They just don’t make a bit of difference as far as votes.
Elizabelle
@Kay: re early voting
I know. I always talk to people about being called out of town for a family emergency, or a job, or someone’s sick or injured. The vote is precious.
They’re not driving to Election Day in their Oldsmobile anymore. Those days be gone.
Being able to just breeze in and out of a polling place is probably a big sign of privilege. BUT: if there’s early satellite voting locations — you can just breeze in and out.
I also tell them: once you vote, the campaigns get a record of whose votes are in. They stop calling you. That’s huge, especially for anyone who still has a landline.
We really just need to study what the asshole legislature in North Carolina was trying to do away with, and that’s the road map.
JPL
So is no one writing about Mattis’ statement? It took a long time but he nailed trump
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/
Edith
@mad citizen:
That’s my councilman! So proud right now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If he would’ve apologized for his own role in the administration, it would’ve gone a long way
Edith
@mad citizen:
That’s my councilman! So proud right now.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Plus we’re surrounded by thieves. Put it IN THE BANK.
cain
@mad citizen:
Right? I thought so as well.
Elizabelle
@Kay: That’s great. Just about a bumpersticker. At least a poster.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Everyone knows that dildos belong on the Christmas Tree, that’s where Hillary put them.
Elizabelle
@Edith: Please tell us: what is his full name?
Great guy. Got a lot of exposure today. Someone to watch.
Patricia Kayden
@Adam L Silverman: That’s great to hear. Never thought I’d come around to liking President Bush but here we are.
dmsilev
@JPL:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Speaking of voter fraud, Trump tried to register in Floriduh using a non-Floriduh address.
Elizabelle
Whoa. Events are moving in Richmond. WaPost top of the website:
Northam to announce plans to remove Richmond’s iconic statue of Robert E. Lee
Personally, I would trash Jefferson Davis’s first. But good to go.
There is going to be whining in the hot town tonight. Wish I could be a fly on the wall at my rebel yell brother in law’s house.
There are strengths to a governor not being allowed to immediately succeed himself.
Making everybody wear masks in indoor spaces. Even you patriots from the red counties. And now: taking down Master Robert.
Martin
@JPL: You know, that feedback would have been much more useful 3 years ago. There were plenty of contrite Nazis in late 1945. Not so many in 1943.
Put in less inflammatory terms: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Mattis spent a lot of time doing nothing. I don’t see why he deserves particular credit now that his name is forever tied to this shitshow – which he could have prevented.
db11
@Elizabelle: Phillipe Cunningham
JPL
@Martin: This is his letter.. Axios link
Patricia Kayden
Kay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I saw that. Not kidding that’s actual voter fraud.
Elizabelle
Dang. There’s a reason Jeff Davis might be safe for now.
Of the series of statues along Monument [Avenue], the iconic statue of Lee is the only one under state control. Northam has said since the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 that he favors removal, but had not acted.
This year the General Assembly passed a bill, signed into law by Northam, that gives localities the authority to decide the fates of war memorials on their own property.
News of the pending announcement was greeted with roaring cheers among demonstrators gathered Wednesday at the foot of the statue.
I would have guessed Lee might be the last to depart from that side of Monument. Whoa. Northam proposes putting it in “storage.”
Wonder if armed yahoos will be out now, protesting their heritage.
MattF
@JPL: Good for him.
PsiFighter37
@jonas: I made the same point elsewhere, but TBH, we take the allies we can get now. I do hope he apologizes more fully when Trump is out of the White House, but it might not happen. From what I read, he’s not really on our side, policy-wise, to begin with. There’s a reason Obama basically sidelined him.
JPL
James Mattis
FelonyGovt
@Elizabelle: I voted by mail (actually, dropped my ballot off early at the library) for the first time this year in the primary, and I will never go back. I used to really enjoy the feeling of going in to vote on Election Day, but I’m now sold on getting my vote in early.
Elizabelle
@db11: Thank you. Phillipe Cunningham. Somehow, easy to remember.
Spanky
In Mattis’ defense, things got a lot worse after he left. In a lot of cases I think he took Trump’s orders as suggestions, and sort of forgot them.
Calouste
@JPL: I don’t think it’s an accident that the two four stars that have made extensive statements against the shitgibbon and his “handling” of current events in the last few days have been the last former Chief of Staff appointed by a Republican, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the last former Secretary of Defense appointed by a Republican, General James Mattis.
raven
@Martin: Prevented how?
MattF
Lincoln Project on recent events.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
I just subscribed to the Atlantic
It’s an excellent statement. I’m not going to carp about it. He’s saying what needs to be said and not mincing words.
Elizabelle
@MattF: That’s the best one yet. Thwack.
Also for the yahoos watching Fox who tell us “it wasn’t tear gas.”
Ad just went with “gas.” And photos of police with dogs from the 1960s.
Very strong ad. Trump is a coward, and so are his supporters.
Feathers
@Martin: Makes sense. In my white collar crime sociology class, we learned that if you are putting together a shady white collar outfit you recruit from fraternities, scholarship athletes, and, to a lesser extent, military. The reason is that they have experience with organizations where you have to keep your mouth shut when a “brother” is doing wrong. You not only want to recruit people without a moral compass who are in it for the cash, it is just as important to weed out anyone uncomfortable with moral compromise. You can drop hints, all deniable, and people who don’t want in will remove themselves from contention.
Kay
@Martin:
Arguably the timing is good, though, if we want to get rid of them and we do. We want one or two high profile denouncements a week until November. Think of them as anti-endorsements. There’s a momentum to these things.
Jinchi
@jonas: I wonder what Anonymous is up to these days…
Feathers
@MattF: They need a whole one on driving the priests away from the church with tear gas so Trump could speak in front of it. My guess is that this is why we are seeing Evangelical pushback from Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen at the protests.
That moment is a clear sign that Trump has no respect for religion or the church. I don’t think they thought he did, but they saw where they could end up if they waited for him to build more power.
Or they are chickenshits who see which way the winds are blowing.
cain
@Elizabelle:
Trump’s gonna ask for it so he can replace Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial with Robert E. Lee.
Yutsano
@MattF: I was just coming to post that. These really need a wider market than social media.
Elizabelle
The NY Times’ take on the Obama presentation we just watched.
Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on every mayor in the United States to review use-of-force policies and make progress on police reforms during his first on-camera remarks since a wave of protests and violence after the killing of George Floyd convulsed the country and upended the 2020 election.
Mr. Obama, adopting a notably more measured and less confrontational tone than President Trump, said that the crisis was “unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime” and that it offered an opportunity to curb police violence that would prompt a political “awakening” to unite the country around racial justice and police reform.
The former president — who is taking pains to address the crisis without upstaging Joseph R. Biden Jr., his friend and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee — was appearing at a round-table event with his former attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., from Washington as part of a video town hall series sponsored by the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit group Mr. Obama founded.
Mr. Obama echoed two online essays he posted over the last week in which he implored young protesters to channel their rage into political action turning out for Mr. Biden in November and to embrace local reforms to hold police officers accountable for abuses of power.
“This is something that’s got to change,” Mr. Obama said, arguing the challenges of the last few weeks were the result of structural problems in the country. “They’re the result of a long history of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining and institutionalized racism that too often have been the plague of this original sin of our society.”
He was also fielding a series of prescreened questions mediated by Mr. Holder. In recent appearances, Mr. Obama has become more forceful in his criticism of the White House, hammering President Trump’s actions without invoking his successor’s name. Mr. Obama rebuked the current administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as “chaotic” and questioned Mr. Trump’s commitment to the “rule of law” in a call with former members of his White House team last month.
Mr. Obama’s passions are running high, and the disciplined former president is finding it harder to stay on script, friends said. Over the last few days, he has been working the phones with close associates, including Mr. Holder, venting his disgust at the White House’s response to the protests and strategizing about the best way to address the issues without inflaming the crisis or squaring off into a one-on-one fight with Mr. Trump, people close to him said.
======
Stay on script? What?? And this gem: “adopting a notably more measured and less confrontational tone.” Say what? That is ObamaStyle.
cain
@Elizabelle:
Melt it down, and turn it into a commemorative coin celebrating the victory of the Union over the Confederacy.
James E Powell
@Elizabelle:
Reminds me of the passionate clip v magazine debates that follow every mass shooting.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Since I am a subscriber I get the crossword puzzle half off. Once that charge goes through in a few weeks, I’m done with the print access.
Patricia Kayden
Brachiator
@Feathers:
Some evangelicals make the Bible a fetish object. The photo of Trump holding the Bible up is all the church and religion they need to go into a swoon. .
MattF
@Feathers: Trump didn’t speak, in fact. Just stood there brandishing a Bible. I have no idea what goes on in Osteen’s or Robertson’s head, sounds like they were not impressed by Trump’s piety.
Elizabelle
@James E Powell: That is what I said. It was not commented upon.
Made me sad. It’s exactly the same deflecting strategy.
Although: if they won’t work with us, maybe we should just bulldoze them. I am way less sympathetic to the Second Amendment when you have these yahoos showing up at political protests with big guns.
I think a lot of us don’t want to see the camo yahoos taking the legislatures hostage. There are more of us. First a bird refuge, and now the Michigan statehouse. No, no, no.
frosty
@Adam L Silverman:
My brother the investigator would approve.
MattF
@Yutsano: They’re running the ads in swing states.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Guittard or GTFO!
JPL
@MattF: So is Mattis part of the Lincoln Project because the ad goes perfectly with Mattis’ letter.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden:
I suspect a lot of elected Republicans in DC have noticed that. And yet they do … nothing.
A Confederacy of Cowards, too.
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Sounds like fancy cigarettes. Well OK. Never heard of that brand of chocolate, so it will be easy to track. LOL.
TS (the original)
@Elizabelle: The NYTs can be defined as trump trash.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: they can bring their tiki torches…some of us are ready for their schtick this time
Emma from FL
@MattF: Whoa, Nellie. That will sting.
Uncle Cosmo
@Elizabelle: The Harbaughs are good folks. Waaaaay too Catholic for my tastes, but their hearts are in the right place. For the most part Bawlmer football fans appreciate having Jim’s big brother John coaching the flock here.
raven
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I am going to shower and head down there with my iPhone. And a camera too, although I suck at using it.
I’ve been awful and not put together the post for you jackals, but I was there Saturday dusk (everything clean as a whistle) and then Sunday after the … ahem … enhancements to the monuments.
Gonna see if we have some lunkheads walking around with guns. Did see one couple of them on Saturday. But only those two.
ETA: It’s still 90 degrees out there.
Jeffro
@Patricia Kayden: last warning shot…shut up and limp into November, Donnie, or it all comes out.
He won’t shut up, of course, so can I get odds on him even being president* on 11/3? Forced resignation, impeachment and removal, stroke, ‘other’…these are not 0% possibilities.
Also: anyone know where a guy can get some tar and a large supply of feathers?
debbie
@MattF:
Small quibble: Wish they had fit in, “And he did all this right after taking a phone call with Vladimir Putin.”
Jeffro
@Brachiator: I WAVES THE MAGIC BOOK AND THEIR EYES GO ALL GOOGLY!!
trumpov, that most devout of Christians, that deeply spiritual human being…I can see why they fall for it…NOT.
bluehill
The assemblage of DOJ paramilitary forces is a real concern. They aren’t there to keep the peace.
Ella in New Mexico
For those who that think all “Evangelicals” are right-wing grifting kooks who lay hands on the putrid corpse of Donald Trump like he’s the Holy Grail
Loved this from Sojourner’s Jim Wallis
Uncle Cosmo
@Timurid: “Welcome to the party, pal!” – love it!
dmsilev
@cain:
No way Trump would do that. He’d be angling to replace Lincoln’s statue with one of himself.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Considering the way the Linclon memorial is being defended I think Trump’s aids to Trump they already did that.
raven
@Ella in New Mexico: I have a neighbor who is “on the Jesus team” and he is relentless in his pursuit of Trump. He’s also been extremely negative about Biden. . . until yesterday!
Baud
@raven: What happened yesterday? The photo op?
Martin
@JPL: I read it. If he thought the President represented an existential threat to the country, Congress was more than happy to hear from him especially when there was ample evidence he was coordinating with a foreign power to get elected.
Something about enemies foreign and domestic…
Actions are time dependent. Calling the fire department because your house is on fire only to have them respond 2 days later and defend their actions as ‘we showed up, didn’t we?’ simply doesn’t fly. Generals of all people should understand this.
Mike in NC
So Mattis finally speaks up. Where are Tillerson, McMaster, Bolton and all the other bozos who cast in their lot with Fat Bastard?
Baud
@Mike in NC: Bolton is writing a book!
raven
@Baud: I think that was probably the straw.
Martin
@Elizabelle: Need the anger translator, stat.
JPL
Click on nytimes.com and washingtonpost.com and look at the placement of the Mattis news. It’s stunning.
piratedan
something I’ve pondered for a bit here… while many of our political opponents are odious low cunning dirtbags, not all of them are, as we collectively witness the opportunistic response of how quickly certain rogue elements sortied and tried to hijack these local civic protests to try and cast them as reckless looters at each opportunity. It made me wonder/speculate that there some extremely savvy in the shadows string pullers out there… is that evidence of Putin still doing what he can to support his puppet?
Sloane Ranger
Nice to listen to a US President who can talk on whole sentences and develop a logical argument. I’d almost forgotten they existed. Was that fat book with the red jacket one of the later Harry Potter’s? It reminded me of them.
I confess my eyes were drawn to the vase of flowers on the middle shelf to Obama’s right (our left). It seems an odd place to put them, they look crowded with the flowers brushing the against the shelf above.
Mattis – better late than never. Must see the way the wine’s blowing. CNN seems to think his intervention will have an affect on the troops around the White House making them more likely to question dodgy orders.
Jeffro
People…I get that Mattis is several days late and several dollars short here…I’m not defending him…
…but c’mon, this is unprecedented. And appreciated.
trumpov is not invincible, and every straw that’s placed on the orange ‘camel’s back helps.
geg6
@mad citizen:
First year of no excuse absentee voting here in PA this year. My John and I both got email confirmations when they were received. You can also check on the PA Secretary of State website. Don’t know where you live, but I assumed other states that did mail in voting did the same. Guess not.
Kay
@Mike in NC:
I don’t know but since they waited this long I hope they do one July, one August and one September. Then Mattis can come back in October and release the rest of what he knows.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just did a front page post with commentary.
raven
@JPL: It’s much more prominent on the WAPO site.
Brachiator
@Ella in New Mexico:
Not all. Just most of them. Good to see any exceptions.
Martin
Worth noting that in the GOP heart of Orange County, virtually all Trump 2020 signs have vanished. They were up 2 weeks ago, and they have steadily been coming down.
Not going to attribute that to any change in voting practice, but I’ll put it on the spectrum of ‘don’t want be embarrassed’ to ‘what if black people come to our neighborhood’. They are extremely reliable GOP voters, but they are also of the kind to at least claim to read George Will, not listen to Tucker Carlson. Their privilege largely comes from their relationships, and I can tell you, those relationships are getting strained bigly right now.
Jeffro
@JPL: Just saw the WaPo headline and agree.
Mattis is late, but he’s setting a marker here: use of the military like this is completely unacceptable. It’s what finally got him to speak out. And if trumpov can’t use the military to abuse peaceful protestors and project ‘toughness’…well, then it’s up to him to call up his ‘very fine people’. As dangerous as that is, it will only cost him support (of multiple kinds).
Limp along until November if you want to, Donnie, but you’re done.
Calouste
@Martin: Mattis probably knew that there was no way the Senate was going to impeach (as was shown earlier this year), so whatever he would have said wouldn’t have much effect. It has a lot more effect now.
Jeffro
@Martin: Exactly. He’s completely and utterly stuck to his ‘very fine people’ and nothing else (well, except failure in the face of a pandemic and epic economic collapse, that is).
Five. More. Months, GOP.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: I’m not that old school – just having someone kneel on his neck and choke him to death would be fine with me. Eye for an eye.
Yes, I am feeling bloody-minded these days.
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
I love the smarmy narrators they always use.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
That’s how I feel. Bring it on. Let’s hear from Kelly, et al.
Feathers
@Jeffro: Hey! I’m all for the tar, but easy on the feathers there!
Scott Alloway
@rikyrah: His pleas were so painful, so devastating, so hard to digest. I cannot think of his pain without cringing. The suffering he experienced cannot be put to rest by mere convictions of the guilty. It must be expunged by the removal and shunning of those who fail to rebuke the racism, sexism, class disparities that are tearing society apart.
Scott Alloway
@MomSense:
We knew the day after the last presidential election.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Not all statues or property on which they sit are owned by the state. Probably going after those that the state controls.
kmeyerthelurker
@jonas: I hear you. But now is not the time to be turning away potential allies. I welcome any & all, including late converts, at this point.
Inspectrix
I liked this from Obama’s remarks at the end and excuse any of my transcription errors:
we all have a role to play
we all play a part.
the more specific, practical we are in the short term,
as well as visionary in the long term
the better we are going to be
@ELizabelle: I live in a liberal, but not equitable city so that really resonated with me.
I thought the moderator Brittany Packnett Cunningham was fantastic.
Organizations mentioned:
8cantwait.org and joincampainzero.org
colorofchange.org
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: Trashing the Jefferson Davis statue would be the politically easy choice. Nobody but the most hardcore Confederate apologists likes Jefferson Davis. Going after the one of Lee is far more powerful symbolism because that’s the one that will get the most pushback.