During a zoom fundraiser, Obama expressed outrage at Trump's use of "kung flu".
"I don't want a country in which the president of the U.S. is actively trying to promote anti-Asian sentiment and thinks it's funny … That still shocks and pisses me off." https://t.co/HPaUF5GQLi
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 28, 2020
Allowing for the inevitable NYTimes animus towards Democrats, especially successful Democrats:
… As America’s first black president, now its first black ex-president, Mr. Obama sees the current social and racial awakening as an opportunity to elevate a 2020 election dictated by Mr. Trump’s mud-wrestling style into something more meaningful — to channel a new, youthful movement toward a political aim, as he did in 2008.
He is doing so very carefully, characteristically intent on keeping his cool, his reputation, his political capital and his dreams of a cosseted retirement intact.
“I don’t think he is hesitant. I think he is strategic,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a top adviser for over a decade. “He has always been strategic about using his voice; it’s his most valuable commodity.”…
“Obama has now been out of office for three and a half years, and he is still facing this kind of scrutiny — no one is pressuring white ex-presidents like George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter the same way,” said Monique Judge, news editor of the online magazine The Root and author of a 2018 article arguing that Mr. Obama no longer owed the country a thing.
Mr. Obama’s head appears to be somewhere in the middle. He is not planning to scrap his summer Vineyard vacation and is still anguishing over the publication date of his long-awaited memoir. But last week he stepped up his nominally indirect criticism of Mr. Trump’s administration — decrying a “shambolic, disorganized, meanspirited approach to governance” during an online Biden fund-raiser. And he made a pledge of sorts, telling Mr. Biden’s supporters: “Whatever you’ve done so far is not enough. And I hold myself and Michelle and our kids to that same standard.”…
On June 4, an hour or so before Mr. Floyd’s memorial service in Minneapolis, the former president called his brother, Philonise Floyd — a reprise of the calls he made to grieving families over his eight years in office.
“I want you to have hope. I want you to know you are not alone. I want you to know that Michelle and I will do anything you want me to do,” Mr. Obama said during the emotional 25-minute conversation, according to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was on the call. Two other people with knowledge of the call confirmed its contents.
“That was the first time, I think, that the Floyd family really experienced solace since he died,” Mr. Sharpton said in an interview.
“Trump is starting to get deeper into underdog territory. There are really three things that make his path harder than it was four years ago,” @NateSilver538 says on latest national polls. https://t.co/67UyfTssH3 pic.twitter.com/I4MZHK2uHv
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 28, 2020
Trump hasn't held a lead in a single live interview national poll this entire year. He's the first prez incumbent for who that is true in any election in the polling era. Other incumbents who were trailing at this point (Truman, Ford, Carter) led in polls earlier in the year.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) June 27, 2020
Not making any predictions, but people are underrating the chances of a massive 1932 style landslide. https://t.co/ygX7KCkCJZ
— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) June 28, 2020
Omnes Omnibus
For Fucking Fucks’ Sake.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: They have well placed sources that help them break stories, but they are still garbage.
dopey-o
@Omnes Omnibus: source? link? context? pull-eeze!
Omnes Omnibus
@dopey-o: The fucking OP.
mrmoshpotato
Why isn’t Mags screaming about Hillary’s emails? Is she broken?
randy khan
The new nickname is a definite sign of flailing. Also, Sleepy Joe was better (if still stupid).
debbie
Lincoln Project, are you there? Please run an ad listing the dollar amounts Trump has cost us: his golfing trips, funds diverted to his properties, etc., etc. Slam Trump where it hurts his base most: In their wallets.
debbie
@randy khan:
It took, what, a nanosecond to come up with? Talk about lazy!
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Honestly, the condescension in this sentence is far worse:
bbleh
@Omnes Omnibus: @debbie: Now now, as all proper readers of The New York Times know, cosseted retirements and Vineyard vacations are reserved for successful members of the New York and Boston financial and legal communities, and their failsons. And when one of these jumped-up non-legacy admits somehow manages to finagle one, well, that’s news of course!
laura
@Omnes Omnibus: “Cosseted.” That disdainful tone – could it be Peter Baker or bedbug Stephens? Describing a strategy by the trump campaign to pull Obama in off the sidelines that does not and could not exist while simultaneously taking a steaming crap on President Obama, the Biden campaign and every democrat voter makes me feel very stabby this morning. It’s a shame that the author of this specific hit piece in the service of trump couldn’t be arsed enough to cover the only story that should be covered today – the abdication of leadership as commander in chief and the subservience to Putin. Well, I was wrong – take a victory lap Glen Thrush you low quality hire.
The Golden State Killer is expected to plead guilty to 13 murders, over 50 rapes and a slew of other charges just up the street at the state college ballroom in less than an hour. A much cheerier subject for this gal to focus on.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Oh, fuck them!!!!!
Dorothy A. Winsor
“Dreams of a cosseted retirement”? For the love of god.
debbie
Jesus, Trump learned nothing from the weekend’s retweeting episode. He’s retweeted this:
The wife’s water pistol is a sweet touch. //
trollhattan
It’s insight like this that keeps NYT on the pinnacle. A new nickname, good stuff, Mags.
“Nancy Pelosi, who I call Nancy.” You just can’t fight wit like that.
Marcopolo
Hey folks, it end of quarter fundraising time. There are two days left. If you want to participate in trying to flip the Senate blue here is a link for the most comprehensive ActBlue group fundraising page for senate races.
You can donate to the group or click through for individual contests. The following candidate/races are included:
D inc holds
Doug Jones AL
Gary Peters MI
D flip opportunity candidates
Steve Bullock MT
Jon Ossoff GA
Theresa Greenfield IA
Cal Cunningham NC
Jaime Harrison SC
D flip opportunity nominee funds for
KS
TX
AK
GA Special Election
It does not include (and I’d argue that the folks in these races either are already well funded (Kelly, McGrath (KY) & Gideon (ME) or less in need of it Hickenlooper (CO).
Kelly AZ
CO D nominee fund
KY D nominee fund
ME D nominee fund
For those who are interested the Biden campaign seems to be fundraising at a good pace:
stinger
“Anguishing”? “Dreams of a cosseted retirement”? Where exactly did Obama say any of that? Or is half this article pure projection?
I can see why you who subscribe say FTFNYT; what I don’t understand is why you subscribe. This is not journalism, and it isn’t even news, much less “news that’s fit to print”.
ETA: I see several others got there before me.
Gin & Tonic
“Cosseted” seems to me like it should be “cossetted.” Not a word I use often, though. Me, I merely dream of a comfortable retirement, in case a NYT reporter asks any of you.
laura
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I take it that you’ve not included that bloated passive phrase in your big writer’s tool bag? Probably not going to get you a sinecure at the ftfnyt- but you’re better than that sorry lot.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
The hardest part of not having a dead-tree paper is not being able to throw it at the wall. Laptops are not cheap! 😏
jonas
Out of office three and half years and he’s *still* taking snooty vacations? The monster.
trollhattan
@laura:
A half-century reign of terror and murder comes to a close. He touched a lot of lives and I hope victims and families get some satisfaction from his plea.
IIUC they’re still connecting him to other possible crimes but we’ll never have a complete list (Ted Bundy says “Hi”). The plea deal could have stipulations re. his disclosing more but IDK.
MattF
A new nickname for Biden will fix everything, obvsly.
Just think about that for a moment.
Archon
A 1932-style landslide would be the ONLY rational voter response to what has happened the last 3 and 1/2 years.
schrodingers_cat
NYT and the Journo bros show that racism is not just a RWNJ problem. Racism, xenophobia and misogyny are alive and well among the self identified lefties and or liberals.
montanareddog
@laura:
Glenn “drunken sexpest” Thrush, apparently
Baud
@jonas: At least he’s not going to exotic places like Hawaii.
hells littlest angel
@Omnes Omnibus:
@debbie:
Forget it, Jake, it’s Glen Fucking Thrush.
debbie
@jonas:
As long as Dersch is still looking in from the outside, I couldn’t be more pleased.
trollhattan
@jonas:
At least he’s not going to that tropical furrin’ place called Hawaii. Wow, was that over-the-top when he’d go there.
Does Biden golf? I’m hoping for zero presidential golfin’, one of the reasons I was a Warren guy. She could perhaps play Frisbee golf with Bailey. We need a dog in the WH. If Biden doesn’t have one already, somebody get him one, stat.
Baud
@Archon:
In 2020, the rationale response would be the dissolution of the Republican Party.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Googling around tells me neither is incorrect. 🤷🏻♀️
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: Is your DIL affected by the latest immigration EO? If she is Canadian I think she won’t be affected.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@laura:
Every word of that phrase is offensive. I have to include the “of” and the “the” because they contribute.
Baud
@trollhattan:
TaMara (HFG)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I ran out of can’t evens long ago, and slamming my head against the desk is counter-productive, all I’m left with are invectives.
Fuck them all.
L85NJGT
Mitch McConnell is fronting a NRSC ad. Taxes were the focus, so I bet their donor class has checked out.
Trying to de-couple from Trump, but still nationalizing the Senate races doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Craigie
Maybe, but it ain’t over until the entire Trump family, and most of this administration, is in prison.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Don’t forget the punctuation.
In fairness, I do appreciate it when the NYT vindicates my point of view about them.
Cermet
@Marcopolo: Thanks for the link and reminder
Patricia Kayden
Benw
@schrodingers_cat: yup. Everything about this crap screams that at the NYT Obama is black first, and President and everything else a distant second.
Patricia Kayden
@Craigie: And thankfully Biden has promised not to pardon Trump after he’s ejected from the White House in November.
Patricia Kayden
L85NJGT
@Baud:
“Major” – IIRC that was Beau’s rank.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t think the latest one affects her, thanks for asking. They are still in limbo on the GC application; since they are out of the US, that’s a problem. Prior to all this she had a TN (she’s Mexican) but that ended when she left the US.
The latest one is primarily about H1B’s AFAICT.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: To be completely pedantic about this, it’s “disc golf” since “Frisbee” is a registered trademark of a plastic disc that is not used for that. And dogs make very bad partners.
hedgehog mobile
@Omnes Omnibus: This. Cosseted retirement?????
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Obama has a cosseted retirement while GWBush has a well earned retirement that he has dedicated to self improvement through painting.
White privilege is real.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
What Obama’s got on his plate right now sounds like anything but retirement.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
https://www.salon.com/2019/02/13/collins-on-kavanaughs-abortion-vote-there-is-a-deliberate-misreading-of-what-he-actually-wrote/
hedgehog mobile
@Dorothy A. Winsor: On a happier note, your Big Idea post on Scalzi’s blog is up!
/off to purchase The Wysman/
FYFNYT
sdhays
Carter is a million years old, just underwent treatment for cancer, again, and spent his entire life post-Presidency redefining what we should expect from an ex-President. He doesn’t owe this country any-fucking-thing, and yet he still does what he can.
I noticed that Bill Clinton was conspicuously left out of that sentence.
But George Fucking W. Bush… That fucker owes us a lot. It’s a fucking crime that he’s not being “pressured”. It’s disgusting how little is expected of Republicans.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
So what’s he calling Biden now?
VOR
Unlike Donald Trump, Man of the People, who takes his vacation at a New Jersey golf resort.
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Today it’s “Corrupt Joe Biden & Obama.”
Ooh, Obama added for extra scare value. Not that Trump knows anything about corruption. “In every accusation, a confession.”
Brachiator
@Benw:
And this stance is perverse coming from a paper with Dean Baquet as executive editor. But then again, Baquet likes to insist that he is “Creole,” not black.
TheOBP
Thought experiment: if President Obama were to don a hair shirt and walk around the country barefoot begging for alms, would that be okay, or would there be a NYT piece discussing his narcissistic pretensions to sanctity?
Calouste
@VOR:
The golf resort that he owns*, and who of the working class doesn’t own a golf resort, right?
*) It’s got his name on it. Who actually has financial ownership might be a different matter.
MattF
@trollhattan: Ah. Obamagate.
Jeffro
@MattF: in fairness, working on new insulting nicknames is about all that he is capable of working on at this point.
Resign and run for it, Donnie! Your humiliation is getting closer and bigger by the day
Leto
@Amir Khalid: public servants never really retire. We simply find other ways to serve.
Jeffro
@L85NJGT: it does, a little bit. The really big Republican donors see ownership of a majority of the senate as a national project – they don’t care where they get their 51 votes from.
it will be interesting to see which red states get carpet bombed with ads in an effort to protect that GOP senate majority. I kind of feel sorry for Iowa and North Carolina already.
MattF
@Jeffro: Yeah, limited behavioral repertoire, and all that.
Baud
If one of those three things isn’t the fact that Joe is a white dude, the analysis is bunk.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
That dog looks like one who could eat your entire couch in anguish before your car actually exits the driveway.
Patricia Kayden
PST
@Gin & Tonic: Cosset was in the Times Sunday crossword (clued with “mollycoddle”). Maybe alert puzzlers can predict odd upcoming vocabulary choices by Times writers.
sdhays
@Baud: Indeed.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Oh, that’s so cute!
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
I can still throw mine around the house, but I don’t read it any more, I just do the crossword puzzle and the obits. I only see quotations from the political reporting here on BJ.
zhena gogolia
@montanareddog:
OH, TRIPLE FUCK HIM!!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Fixt for moar accuracy.
Aleta
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: or could try to eat your car before it exits the driveway.
zhena gogolia
@TheOBP:
I think you’ve answered your own question.
kindness
There is a reason I don’t give the NY Times any money any more. That reason is the NY Times screwed up coverage of Democrats and of Republicans. Hell with them.
Aleta
Thrush and the NYT will be fine with T’s dreams of becoming a cosseted TV figure with the protection to rant about whatever he is paid to target.
danielx
@TheOBP:
Yes.
Hoodie
Some folks have suggested acting like Biden is 30 points behind. I don’t know about the chances of a Biden landslide, but I’d rather think he’s up by 10 and we want to bury Trump by 30. Now that we know Roberts is listening, time to reinforce the message.
WaterGirl
Booman has a post up called “What if Trump Decides Not To Seek a Second Term?” which I won’t link to because the very idea nearly sends me into a panic because I think Rs who are wobbly or planning to vote Biden would snap back to R in a heartbeat.
But he did say this, which I heartily agree with:
That is exactly what I think is going to happen. Illinois is doing (relatively) well at the moment, but I think we risk it all if we open the schools in the fall. Which really means August, which is right around the corner.
Patricia Kayden
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Meghan McCain (who is John McCain’s daughter!) was meeping about the “elitist” criticism of the gun-waving couple this morning. I had assumed from the video that the building they were “defending” against unarmed, peaceful protesters passing by on a public sidewalk was a museum or something, but as someone pointed out to McCain, it’s only the couple’s restored Gilded Age mansion. Apparently both are attorneys, in which case they should be aware that it’s illegal to threaten people with guns for walking by on a public sidewalk. Hope they get disbarred.
MisterForkbeard
@trollhattan: I saw this over the weekend. “Corrupt Joe Biden” is such weak tea.
It sounds stupid and IS stupid. Joe was (IIRC) the least wealthy Senator in congress for a long time. He was also still less than a millionaire right before he left office as VP. I don’t know how this is supposed to work, but if Joe is corrupt he must be really fucking bad at it.
@Hoodie:
I’m giving thought to Roberts just buttering us up for a truly awful ACA ruling. “Look, I’m not an ideologue – see all these narrow almost-reasonable rulings I made that were the minimal possible sane response?”
MisterForkbeard
@Patricia Kayden: I don’t think anyone is buying this particular story.
The consensus I’m seeing is that it was in the PDB and Trump either didn’t care or didn’t understand it. And when retaliatory actions were discussed with him he just blew them off.
Patricia Kayden
Patricia Kayden
@MisterForkbeard: Or as Putin’s Puppet, Trump has no desire to do anything about these revelations. Even now, I’ve yet to hear any outrage from him that Putin but a bounty on the head of our military men and women. That’s quite revealing.
Walker
Roberts legacy is forever tainted by Shelby. I do not see how it comes back from that. That is what history books will teach about him.
Gin & Tonic
@Patricia Kayden: One can only hope.
danielx
“Cosseted retirement “….is the National Inquirer aware that a writer of this quality is almost within its grasp?
Hoodie
@MisterForkbeard: That would likely hand the Senate to the Dems. I think there’s a chance even Gorsuch will punt on that one, the argument is pure crap. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them tank that on standing.
Betty Cracker
@MisterForkbeard: Maybe, but unless that ruling comes after the election, yanking healthcare coverage / preexisting condition protections / the ability to keep adult kids on policies, etc., in the middle of a pandemic would almost certainly cause or add to a walloping defeat for Republicans. Roberts seems more strategic than that, and his long-term strategy is to protect Republican power.
Patricia Kayden
Sigh
MomSense
@debbie:
LOL!!
MattF
@Patricia Kayden: Notable that the LP takes a hard line on Trump’s enablers. And, if Collins loses, that enhances their reputation. R Senators are getting cornered.
david
Where’s that gif of the boyfriend looking over his shoulder at another girl while HIS
girlfriend is standing right next to him, aghast?
Label that with “precedent”, “John Roberts”, and “conservatism”.
debbie
@Hoodie:
He needs to keep doing what he’s done because he’s working. I just heard Biden described as “measured.” There’s no reason this should be seen as a bad thing. Frankly, I think it makes Trump look like a bigger baby than he already is.
debbie
@MomSense:
IKR?!?
How’s your recovery coming along?
laura
@trollhattan: I doubt that he will ever volunteer any information that is currently unknown. I expect that you also have friends and neighbors who’s lives have been directly touched by this particular monster. I grew up in Santa Rosa and in addition to the Zodiac killer, there was another killer of teenage girls including a classmate and also the sister of a friend. They went missing from the ice arena and the bowling alley -places we frequented on Friday nights, their bodies were found strewn around the outskirts of town. Another classmate who went missing in 1976 had her case reopened when a photo was discovered recently by her mother that included a man that may possibly be connected to her disappearance. We grew up with a deeply disturbed kid who became a serial killer Wayne Ford – and he’s in prison after his brother got him to turn himself into the sheriff’s-along with a body part in a zip lock bag.
MisterForkbeard
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. It doesn’t help that the argument for striking it down is utterly ridiculous nonsense, not that it’s stopped Roberts and the Republican Court before.
I do think that if they could punt until shortly after the election they’d do so, and then strike it down. Either you hand Biden a MASSIVE day-one problem that’s going to absorb all his political capital, or Trump gets what he wants and gets a re-energized base going into his final term.
Hoodie
@Betty Cracker: I’d say his long term-term strategy is to protect John Roberts and his power on the Court. Part of that is keeping his mostly business Republican social circle happy, but another part of that is preserving his image as humble caller of balls and strikes and the center of attention at the Court. He’s not an Alito or Thomas, basically misanthropes who yell at the TV. If he becomes the next permanent swinger, he gets to be the main character in all that breathless commentary whenever a big case is up. Kennedy reveled in that shit. If he acts the complete winger like Thomas or Alito, no one will give a crap about him, especially after the Dems pack the Court.
Elizabelle
@laura: Thinking of Patton Oswalt today, and how we all wish Michelle McNamara could be alive to see this.
WRT the killer: that dull voice. I worry that he will balk at something and throw the hearing into tumult.
Kropacetic
All these supposed corrupt actions he took, per the TCNJs, were while he was Vice President. To the best of my understanding, the greatest official power the VP has is as Senate tie-breaker.
MattF
@MisterForkbeard: IMO, Roberts wants to preserve a shred of credibility for SCOTUS in a Biden administration. Unlike vulnerable R Senators, he has an opportunity to do that.
Hoodie
@Kropacetic: Yeah, the bucket of warm spit isn’t too useful.
RandomMonster
@laura: I grew up in Cotati. There was also the Trailside Killer back in the day.
WereBear
@Baud: I can’t stop smiling.
MisterForkbeard
@Kropacetic: To be fair, there are lots of unofficial powers a VP can abuse. Look at Cheney’s actions – one of the first things he did was to secretly let energy lobbyists try and rewrite the various energy policies, etc.
But there’s nothing there for Biden! The best example they’ve got is Biden… promoting the publicly stated policy of the US and EU in Ukraine, and there are numerous examples of Republicans praising him for it at the time. The next they’ve got is Gym Jordan’s recycled list of “Obama scandals” that he put out over the weekend that’s completely ridiculous and no one remembers any of them.
I get that this is a “attack them where you’re weak” strategy, but it doesn’t even minimally make sense.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@montanareddog:
That explains a lot. He and Haberman are besties.
Hoodie
@MisterForkbeard: I doubt it. If Biden wins and Roberts does that, it will just add fuel to the fire for packing the Court, especially because of the egregiously stupid grounds this case was forwarded on. He might try some of his patented hair-splitting, but more likely he’ll reject the case on a technical flaw. That leaves him open to screw with the ACA later on.
Kropacetic
@Hoodie: I wonder how Biden convinced Congress and Obama and the international community to have a poor, saintly Ukrainian prosecutor removed as supposedly corrupt. And all this to make his son modestly wealthy.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: I read that and did a double-take at all the people close to Biden in that picture. And then: 2018? Ah.
Jeffro
J-Rubs has a good quick piece up on the WaPo site, tying it all together: “trumpov is out of excuses”
As in, he’s not doing anything about fighting the pandemic, trying to genuinely improve race relations/decrease police violence, nor even bother to look into the Putin bounty-paying scheme.
He’s not really there to be president*, in other words. Which is of course completely true – he’s just there to be the voice of racist rage and billionaires’ priorities.
God I hope Biden & Co hit the ground running in January!
Kropacetic
But even this amounts to nothing unless someone with official authority takes their recommendations. I mean they did, but…
Aleta
@laura: a violent attack on a 6th grade friend (who survived) affected me so strongly for decades that it changed how I lived
Baud
Trump wants to Hillary-ize Biden. The only reason it looks foolish is that it’s failing badly. It was just as foolish in 2016, but it worked because more people wanted to participate in the foolishness when the country was in good shape and the culture made it seem like a fun thing to do.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I hope that voters are getting the message. It certainly looks as though Trump’s approval is beginning to drop among his most devoted followers. This is half the battle.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Doesn’t the Court go into recess in late June or early July? I think we will hear from them on ACA. It looks like everything hinges on Roberts.
laura
@RandomMonster: So many killers. Carpenter’s childhood sounds as awful as that of Wayne Ford.
Baud
@Brachiator:
ACA won’t be heard until the fall. The decision will be after the election.
Baud
bluefish
Time for La Marseillaise at top volume.
Frankensteinbeck
Question! Was this *the* Roe vs Wade challenge that we were waiting for results on? Do I get to stop freaking out about it until November?
Kay
.
It’s just so funny how they’re pushing this. Trump can’t fail- his loss can only be attributed to “not wanting” a second term.
They really and truly see him as all-powerful.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes.
Kropacetic
No one can be this stupid. It has to be deliberate.
ETA: Before you ask whether I’m referring to Trump or to Maga Haberman, the answer is yes.
germy
Some of those journalists rally don’t like Obama or HRC, do they?
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: No Nepotism MAGA Haberman sees herself in the Orange King. So many of them have these media perches because of their parents.
JPL
@Kay: Someone from Fox Business suggested that he might step down. I think they are concerned about losing the Senate and think trump will take everyone with him.
Baud
@germy:
The bigger problem is that they feel comfortable expressing their dislike in public and in their professional capacity as journalists.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Good for them.
What the Orange Reign of Error revealed is just how deep bigotry runs even among those feign pretensions to being above it all. After 2016 I found out.
JPL
The local ABC station has shown the trump/pence ad against Biden several times. It rehashes the 1994 crime bill and states We Remember. It is targeted to reduce black turnout in GA, but I’m not sure it helps.
What does everyone think?
Kropacetic
This would probably be more effective if the current President* weren’t actively encouraging abuse by the police. Here. Today.
JPL
@Kropacetic: I know and that’s what I thought.
Cermet
@MisterForkbeard: I’m not so sure; I believe Robert’s is now scared of what tRump will cause to the court system – like a major constitutional crisis that will lead to extreme turmoil. I think this is a shot across the bow saying he won’t allow the tRump any major victories – he changed his previous vote so this measure would fail – thus denneying the rump a critical victory that would not have really ended Roe. As such, I feel that this means he will not undo the ACA. Also, what such an act would do to tens of millions of people in the middle of a Pandemic would be the defining issue for ‘his’ court in the history books. I think ACA is safe for now.
dmsilev
@Baud: ‘Too toxic for Reddit’ is a truly impressive bar to clear.
joel hanes
@Patricia Kayden:
While I love the sentiment, lack of funds is not going to be Sara Gideon’s problem. As of sometime last year, Ady Barkan’s “Be A Hero” fund had accumulated well over $4 million to be given to whichever Democrat opposes Collins (and Collins is quite bitter about it). And that’s not Gideon’s only source of funding. Collins is toast.
IMHO, better to to give to Theresa Greenfield, or Jamie Harrison, or whichever of McGrath/Booker is taking on Ol’ Yertle in Kentucky.
Uncle Cosmo
@Patricia Kayden: Zuck Fuckerberg. With a chusty rainsaw.
Elizabelle
@JPL: WRT Trump stepping down: It would be the sensible and generous thing to do, which makes it somewhat less likely.
Trump is staring at years of legal bills and indictment and maybe even prison. He may go for broke (it’s his business style, as we know) in the hope of another black swan event in 2020.
I don’t really know how people could persuade him to not run again. Dog only knows what they would have to promise him. The state courts are not beholden to Trump.
Maybe flight to Russia or a non-extraditing country. Who knows?
Less likely for him, because he cannot really travel abroad much with coronavirus. One wonders if he might throw himself at a foreign embassy.
Anyway, sucks to be Trump, and sucks for us to have him sitting in Hillary’s office.
Kay
@JPL:
Utter bullshit. The Trumps don’t care if they “lose the senate”. This is the best grift they have ever stumbled into in a lifetime of grifting and we are going to need a crowbar to dislodge them. Even then, Ivanaka and Kushner and The Boys are with us for life.
He wants a second term, desperately. “Can’t” is not the same as “won’t”. He can’t decide to be a decent person. It’s not in him.
Another Scott
January 20, 2021 cannot come soon enough. :-(
In other news, AlJazeera:
(Emphasis added.)
Nobody could have predicted…
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott: I would trade Trump to Iran if they agree to give up their nuclear program.
I would also trade Trump to Iran if they didn’t agree to do that.
Elizabelle
@Baud:
And Chapo Trap House gets the Reddit boot too! LOL. Fuckers.
trollhattan
@laura:
Yikes, that’s ghoulish.
Learned through a mutual friend that someone we know was one of his Stockton rape victims, and now decades later I’m friends with his initial lead public defender. It’s like a twisted version of the Kevin Bacon game, but only one degree is required. Lots of company in the group.
DA Schubert is a big fan of the death penalty and I presume they exacted some kind of deal from him in exchange for pleading guilty to get LWOP. Although they were also motivated to avoid a ginormous, complicated, lengthy trial. Hell’s own jury duty.
Brachiator
@Baud:
So Trump is pushing it as a campaign issue.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
The rule, or perhaps guideline, from my education decades ago is that it depends on whether the word is accented on the first or second syllable. So cosseted but combatted. Not willing to research it at this point.
debbie
@Kay:
They see him as the brilliant genius he’s been pimping himself as since the late 1970s.
trollhattan
@Uncle Cosmo:
Will admit it was glorious to see the continued stream of advertisers opting out continue over the weekend. Coca-Cola? Starbucks? Those must hurt.
JPL
@Kay: Yup. Grifters gotta grift.
The Hill has an article about Gasparino’s tweets.
debbie
@JPL:
I think GA voters will more easily remember all the crap from Trump and Pence.
Kay
@JPL:
Recall how Donald Trump entered the presidential race. He launched a deranged racist attack on Obama. If things were so super in Trumpworld what the fuck was he on about, bothering us with this crap? They’re miserable people who have always been miserable. This is a person who was so personally fulfilled he launched a drive to execute some teenagers. Nasty, mean spirited people who have never, ever contributed anything positive. The Trumps are not happy, well balanced people. They’re miserable.
I expect Mary will lay it all out for us.
JPL
@Elizabelle: trump won’t resign. Pence is the one supposedly handling the virus, so I don’t see a course to victory for him either.
Betty Cracker
@Kropacetic: I’ve heard the theory that Trump will get away with targeting different groups with opposite messages, but I don’t buy it. He’s the fucking president. Word gets around. ;-)
Brachiator
@JPL:
Do political ads matter anymore? Who watches them?
I don’t watch traditional TV anymore or listen to much terrestrial radio. And this is even more the case with younger voters.
But to answer your question. Black voters are motivated to dump Trump. Ads will not affect turnout.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Agree. The only Hail Mary that sounds remotely plausible to me is that Trump blames Pence for the massive pandemic failure and replaces him on the ticket with a wingnut fave like Nikki Haley. And that seems super-unlikely too because it would entail admitting that his admin failed to control the spread of the virus. Of course, it DID fail spectacularly, but Trump will go to his grave denying it.
Just Chuck
I still say if he resigns, he’ll do it by tweet.
Kropacetic
I’d like to think you’re right but the people most apt to vote for him don’t seem too put off by his aggressive self-contradiction.
Brachiator
@Just Chuck:
Okay by me.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve been wondering about Nikki Haley. She got good marks from the media in how she handled Dylan Roof and the Confederate Flag issue in S.C. But the recent protests have moved the country well past that, and she’s been quiet AFAICT. I don’t think she’ll be Trump’s Veep because I’m not sure that Trump trusts her enough, but she is expected to run in 2024. It’ll be interesting to see how she defines herself at that time.
burnspbesq
@laura:
Speaking of stabby, does anyone have a towel that Justice Roberts can use to wipe Trump’s blood off his shiv?
patrick II
@Baud:
I’d trade a half or Trump to Iran and half to N Korea if they gave up their nuclear programs
Martin
@Hoodie: I agree. Roberts isn’t going to go down protecting an incompetent administration or a deranged GOP. At this point I’d put him in the never-Trumper party, whatever that happens to be. I know they dream of reasserting control of the GOP but I think thats a ways off. It certainly doesn’t make Roberts an ally, but maybe he will at least protect us from the worst of the GOP offenses.
Captain C
@Gin & Tonic: “Frisbee” used to be a brand used as a generic name for all such objects, like Kleenex. If they hadn’t objected to their name being used, Ultimate (Ultimate Disc) would still be called Ultimate Frisbee and they’d get tons of free advertising. Now, Frisbees aren’t even used in Ultimate, or Disc Golf…
JPL
@Baud: If she signed on as his VP, she could lose any chance she has to run for president
trump could ask Sen. Cotton to join him.
joel hanes
@Walker:
Roberts legacy is forever tainted by Shelby. I do not see how it comes back from that. That is what history books will teach about him.
For the rest of my life, I will do what I can to ensure that is the case (not that I can do very much. But.)
But let us not be forgetting Citizens United, or Rucho.
mad citizen
@Just Chuck: It’s not a bad prediction. I am in the camp that he will resign this summer–next 60 days. First I thought it would be because he won’t be able to face a huge loss; lately I’ve joined the “trump has dementia” camp (see Tom Joseph twitter). So I think the combination of both will see him off. I don’t see him doing a live or televised address–he’ll just slink off to Florida. OK, maybe more a hope than a well-evidenced prediction.
Kay’s last two posts are awesome–the trumps are awful. Wonder if Mary Trump uses the name.
Martin
@JPL: Inside Trumps bubble, he’s still winning. Stepping down is just a different form of GOP magical thinking.
joel hanes
@Patricia Kayden:
The Army I was in during 1972-1975 was one hell of a lot more successfully integrated and a hell of a lot less racially discriminatory than the fucking Wall Street Journal has ever been or ever will be.
Martin
@Baud: Haley is smart enough to not jump on a ship that has already sunk. She’s got 2024 circled on her calendar.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
This bit made me angry:
Of course the police will cover for these fucks. They “feared for their lives”. Oh bullshit, they didn’t have to leave their house with their guns.
Captain C
@Betty Cracker: That’s an awful big house they’ve got for not being “elitist.” Also, their practice of gun safety is execrable.
CaseyL
@patrick II: Which one gets the horse’s ass?
Kropacetic
My buddy thinks Trump will win huge, putting states in play that haven’t been for a long time. He thinks Massachusetts will be close. For a little context for the accuracy of his predictions, he thought Trump would win the popular vote but Hillary would win the electoral college.
Baud
@Kropacetic: Is your buddy Donald Trump?
Kropacetic
@Baud: Eww, no.
Cacti
Three foreign NATO officials confirm to Business Insider that they were briefed by US intelligence on the Russian cash bounty scheme with the Taliban.
In which case, the depths of Dotard’s perfidy are even greater than previously believed.
Baud
@Kropacetic: David Dennison?
joel hanes
@Captain C:
Neither of them even knows how to hold the firearm they’re brandishing. They use them as magic totems, the way Trump held up a Bible.
debbie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Yeah, the wife’s tiny pistol says it all. //
burnspbesq
@Brachiator:
Logistically impossible. The case isn’t fully briefed, and there are no more days of oral argument until October.
Kropacetic
@Baud: No, but he is steeped in internet insanity. And, like “David Dennison,” has alliterative initials.
Baud
@Cacti: Fake
NewsNATO!Captain C
@Another Scott: The reply should be: “We’ll send you Trump if, and only if, you send us each and every Republican Guard member (and associate) involved in any attack outside of Iran’s borders, ever. Otherwise, we’ll also send you his oldest 3 kids.”
Captain C
@Another Scott: Plus, I imagine discovery in such a case would be lit for both sides.
Captain C
@Betty Cracker: Just don’t expect the FTFNYT to notice. Or if they do, they’ll talk about what a brilliant strategy it is, while openly admitting that if Obama or any Democrat did it they’d be loudly denouncing it on the front page.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Wow, fuck her sideways. I can’t wait to see her get slammed with this
Martin
@Kropacetic: The problem is that Trump is in a manner of speaking, delusional. And people here are predicting rational actions out of a guy who isn’t rational. His whole life has been committed to the cause of proving to himself that he’s not the loser his dad told him he was. The guy is the fucking President of the United States and he still needs to do that. Let that sink in for a moment.
He’s not going to quit. That’s why he’s pushed so many bankruptcies – because he doesn’t know how to bail out until he’s forced to. Deep down he’s a loser, and he knows he’s a loser, but the narcissism forces him into the role of a winner despite all evidence. That’s why he blames the media, blames antifa, blames Dems cheating, blames his own hires – he’s a winner but forces larger than him are conspired to make him look like a loser. When he loses in Nov, he’ll just continue that – he was robbed. Maybe it was cheating. Maybe it was John Bolton. Maybe it was Brad Parscale. But he won’t give up, he’ll just spin ever larger conspiracies. That’s all he’s ever done – in his business failings, in his marital failings.
One part of Trump’s mind believes that he’s a loser, and another part is constantly fighting that inventing rationales for why he’s really a winner – that’s the Trump we see every day, and it will not change.
Haroldo
@Marcopolo:
Thanks for the reminder. Just contributed some more.
Captain C
@joel hanes: I really hope those guns aren’t loaded.
Captain C
His dad was right.
Gin & Tonic
Almost unalloyed good news on a subject I was asked about downthread – my DIL was just notified by Dept of State’s NVC (visa processing) that CIS has passed along her application for a GC and her next step is the interview. The only unknown is when that will be. The fly in the ointment is that the interview will be in Juarez, which isn’t a place a lot of folks go voluntarily these days.
But only 10 months or so after the application, she gets to the next step.
debbie
Huh. FB is telling me the WH is holding a briefing on Afghanistan, but only Republicans are invited. It must be horrible, horrible news.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Good news! One step is nothing to sniff at, given this administration.
Baud
@debbie: Or standard operating procedure.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
It makes you wonder if Trump would’ve turned out differently if he had been taken away from his parents at a young age and raised by better, well adjusted people instead
Cacti
@debbie:
Summary: “Yes, we knew about it and did nothing.”
James E Powell
@Baud:
With Hillary Clinton, Trump had the full cooperation of the press/media, led by the NYT, and 20 years of smearing her with bullshit claims. Joe’s been a press/media favorite for years.
Emma from FL
@Captain C: His dad created him. Fred always had to be the biggest man in the room. He slammed his children into mental and emotional brick walls until they broke his way.
debbie
@Baud:
Oh, definitely that. But if it was something to be proud of, he’d be all over Twitter, Fox, etc. shrieking it to the heavens.
Baud
@James E Powell: Agreed. They primed the pump with Hillary but good.
Martin
@Captain C: No, it’s Trump’s reaction that ensured that. If Trump could have gotten past that through therapy, he could have gone onto a life that didn’t involve a constant stream of unforced errors, usually coming at a time when he was doing well, but not well enough. Granted, that’s not an uncommon problem.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Interesting, apparently now the death watch on Trump’s resignation has started among the Republicans. Kind of fitting, Trump is dumb Nixon so he had to find out the hard way why Nixon resigned like he did.
J R in WV
@debbie:
That’s a concealed carry pistol for her purse, NOT a squirt gun. Too chrome metallic for a water pistol. Could kill in a second!!
They are both maniac crazed fools~!!~ And look at their mansion? OMG what a piece of Trumpian trash.
geg6
Oh good lord, I just caught a segment on MSNBC about my county and the torn GOPer Trumpistas having buyers remorse because they have a black grandchild. I feel sorry for that kid but fuck those idiot grandparents.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Far or unfair, charming people and getting allies in the press is part of being a politician. Though what ever Hillary’s limitations as a politician one would think the fact that Trump wears clown make up would be argument enough to vote for her.
Captain C
@J R in WV: And once again, her damn finger was on the damn trigger. It’s a miracle she hasn’t killed someone already.
From Google:
Don’t know about 1), but either she’s violating 2 through 4 or she’s ready to kill some marchers.
Cacti
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hillary’s lack of charisma didn’t help, but lady never got a fair shake from the librul media.
The daggers were out for her from the start, starting with her being the first FLOTUS that had a career of her own. How dare she?
CaseyL
@Gin & Tonic: That is great news! Hope the interview goes well, too!
Another Scott
@Archon: Yup.
“Everything would be great if he’d just resign and let Pence take over…”
– Ignoring the Presidential Records Act.
– Not getting Advise and Consent in official appointments.
– Fanning racism.
– Babies in cages.
– Illegally diverting funds to a wall that Congress has specifically forbidden.
– Impeachment.
– Covering up Putin’s bounties on US and NATO forces.
– 125,000+ needless deaths from COVID-19 (that we know of).
– Blowing up the US economy in a way that rivals the Great Depression.
Yeah, if only Donnie weren’t on the ticket, then everything would be fine.
NOPE!!
Yup, it should not even be close. But we have to fight for every seat as if it is.
Cheers,
Scott.
dopey-o
@Omnes Omnibus:
Per the New York Times article listed above:
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker:
Martin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Biden’s reputation within the media almost doesn’t matter given how broad and sustained Trumps attacks on the media have been.
J R in WV
@patrick II:
Top/bottom… or left/right..?? Doesn’t really matter to me, just askin’~!~
Jeffro
Yup.
He knows that state prosecutors are coming, that his taxes are probably going to be released, and – most importantly – that he’ll be the laughingstock of the world if he’s thrown out of office this November.
I don’t think he cares about being the most despised person in the world – he kind of thrives on that. But laughingstock? Oh yeah.
trollhattan
@James E Powell:
And yet we’re only another Tara Reade away from the press curb-stomping him from sea to shiny sea. It’s in their DNA and since Trump is so obviously BAD they really don’t need to waste any energy in pointing that out, now do they?
Emma from FL
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The smears were not on her political life. They went after her on her personal life and invented a whole Grand Guignol universe that didn’t exist. A LOT of people still use those lies as their “reasons” why they didn’t vote for her. A lot of them know damn well they’re lies but they’re good enough excuses.
(added) like a number of people in this blog, I will NEVER forgive them. Ever. They are untrustworthy.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): His parents sent him off to military school, they tried.
Punchy
Cant read all the comments, so almost certainly late to the game…..
But this…..damn. This would be……something.
trollhattan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Barefoot on the lawn, waving their Precious Guns around. Or as it’s called, Sunday.
Jeffro
It’s kind of amazing that those of us who saw trumpov as absolutely, completely unfit for the presidency – utterly corrupt, wholly unstable – are STILL waiting for our apologies.
Also amazing that while I agree with Martin and others about the likelihood of trumpov simply falling back into his usual ‘poor me’ blame-game post-presidency (after a huge round of pre-emptive pardons and behind the scenes looting)…we cannot rule out a last-minute flight to exile by a criminal ex-president.
I almost hope the NY AG and others let word slip about all the charges that are awaiting this family of goons the minute after Biden is sworn in. I’d say I hope they arrest trumpov right there at the Capitol, but he won’t be there – he’ll either be off golfing, or on a flight to Saudi Arabia or something.
catclub
@Baud: Finally, someone mentioned the important fact about the case. No ruling till after the election – probably march or so. Not by accident,
Roberts trying to save the GOP from itself.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Black people are not stupid. I’m not worried that the ad would sway anyone who who has been paying attention to Biden all these years.
edit: I didn’t mean to imply that you thought they are. My intention was to express my faith that they would not be swayed.
J R in WV
@Captain C:
I’m going with she isn’t really sure how to use the slide to load a round into the chamber.Or doesn’t have the hand strength to do so.
Doesn’t look like they spend much time at a range. Crazed, obviously! Wonder which one thought up “Let’s go outside with our guns!”?
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Emma from FL: Remember Hillary decorating the White House Christmas tree with condoms? Yeah, never happened but…
trollhattan
@Punchy:
If it’s good for Sarah, it’s good for Donny.
I’m not putting any energy into hoping, because we can’t have nice things.
OTOH if Donny doesn’t get his convention and–critical to him, his debates with Biden where he presumes he’ll win because Trump is a Winner and Biden is a Loser–he might consider that to be the riggedy rigged portal of doom.
Patricia Kayden
Yes, of course he knew.
JPL
@trollhattan: Then they will point out that he has run a poor campaign.
germy
Life in these here Trump united states.
catclub
I think they get the judicial ‘no sense in hurrying’ treatment, that the releases have gotten so far. There will be nothing released before the election.
His cases to STOP release get judicial expediting.
J R in WV
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Military school for kids is always the wrong answer, unless each kid gets a therapist assigned.
A real one, a good one, also willing to work at a military school… just nope!
Redshift
@debbie:
The news is already horrible. I bet the only purpose of the briefing is for them to coordinate their lies.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: That is their strategy, and I read an article about how they were able to micro-target tons of people in the House for very little money, and are micro-targeting voters with distinct messages. It did work for them before, and it might work for them again with individual people. If we exclude cheating and stealing votes from the picture, I think Trump is toast.
Patricia Kayden
Finally
debbie
@J R in WV:
I knew it was real; it just looked goofy in her ham hand.
catclub
OT: Pretty sure blogmaster was not there.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Redshift:
Yup.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
According to one senior White House official, Trump favors apologizing publicly to Putin, but other senior officials have expressed concern that a public apology could be used by Vice President Biden to gain the upper hand in a close election contest.
Matt McIrvin
A thing that continues to give me reservations about Biden’s chances of a massive win is just all the disruptions associated with COVID–the worrying drop in voter registrations, the messed-up primaries with few in-person voting regulations (for legit reasons or no), the campaign against vote-by-mail just when it’s become necessary, etc. It just provides all kinds of openings for the vote to be massively suppressed, or for votes to be dropped on the floor in a dozen different ways.
The chance of the results nationwide just being massively different from what all polling indicates, with dark indications of gigantic hinkiness but no way to fix it, is uncomfortably high.
Redshift
@J R in WV:
You don’t understand! There were Black people on their street! Tucker Carlson has been warning them that these so-called “protesters” will be coming for you! Their only hope was to show their Second Amendment and hope they’d take the neighbors instead!
debbie
@germy:
Nope, Entrepreneurship American Style! This would have happened before Trump bumbled along.
catclub
@Patricia Kayden: IN the chess world, a guy who has put up 1800 or so chess videos bot banned during a podcast. It was pretty clearly an automated, not very smart bot.
Because in chess videos, you get things like: ” In the Berlin Defense, after Nf6, white is always better.”
Stupid bots don’t know chess.
JPL
@WaterGirl: I had on the local network for less than an hour today, but at different times ,and it aired 3 times. Polling show Biden leading in GA from two to four points. Within the margin of error, but still good news.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Patricia Kayden:
At the moment, they’re too busy working on their response to bad publicity to have time to respond to Russia putting out a hit on US soldiers.
catclub
An interesting fact from the 2008 election, if Obama wins 18% of the white electorate of mystery state Y, rather than the 13% of white voters he got, he wins Mississippi.
JPL
@Baud: ha trump is crazy enough to do that. One thing not mentioned is he talked to Putin six times starting March 30th through June.
JPL
@catclub: Lucy McBath flipped the 6th so anything is possible. I don’t think it will be that easy this time, but we’ll see.
trollhattan
@JPL:
Right?
“Why did Biden not campaign in Michigan?”
[whisper whisper]
“Biden nearly made a critical tactical blunder when he considered not campaigning in Michigan. Would that suspect decisionmaking carry into the White House should he win in November?”
I’m so ready for my Chuck Tawd gig. Give me my Chuck Tawd money!
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
First thing, let’s make sure that Trump is defeated in November.
Anything in the way of celebrations or vindications will have to wait.
James E Powell
@trollhattan:
True. I’m also expecting an avalanche of “Trump not as bad as liberals say he is” stories along with a few “Chastened by crisis, Trump emerges as effective leader” and I’d wager the outlines of such articles are already on laptops at the NYT and WaPo.
In the TV appearance that recently circulated throughout social media, Maggie was furious at the suggestion that Trump’s re-election was doomed. The NYT is not going to let Joe Biden just walk into the White House.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Great news!
After 10 months, a person would have to be wondering if the answer was “never”.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Can that even be legal or legitimate?
p.a.
Any #impeachroberts trending? IANAL; I hear he issued a separate opinion, maybe undermining pro-choice arguments down the line? Don’t trust him.
JPL
@WaterGirl: That is my thinking, and it actually might help him by painting him as a moderate to whites.
Sab
@Amir Khalid: Yes. He is working from home, like everyone else in America that is able to do so.
Sab
@Redshift: If you need an AR-15 to protect yourself in a gated community, then you and the community are doing the gated thing wrong.
Gin & Tonic
@Patricia Kayden: I saw where another three large companies have dropped advertising on FB – Ford, Adidas and somebody else.
That’s the thing about momentum. Once it starts…
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: The 6 calls are the official calls, as Adam has pointed out that doesn’t include any calls made by Trump on his unsecured phone in the Residence.
Leto
@Martin: So he’s the physical manifestation of the old conservatism maxim? “Donald Trumop can’t fail, he can only BE failed!”
evodevo
@Cacti: Yes…I still seethe at that “favorite cookie recipe” crap the press went on and on about back in the Nineties….
Leto
@p.a.: Something pointed out on Twitter was that each of the male justices issued their own opinion on this, trying to explain their rationale. None of the women did.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Coca-Cola, I think I heard.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Have they actually dropped advertising on Zucker’s face, or are they just taking a break until all this blows over? (h/t Shaun of the Dead)
joel hanes
@J R in WV:
Could kill in a second!!
In the still picture that’s the most common capture, her idiot husband, paying no attention to the muzzle, is pointing a combat weapon directly at her, and his finger is very near the trigger. One angry spasm and she’s maimed or dead.
Both of those lawyers are in greater danger from each other’s incompetence than they are from the protestors.
Uncle Cosmo
@catclub: Well before the millennium – hell, before the collapse of Communism!! – Hungarian grandmaster Andras Adorjan published Black is OK! (1989), a book dedicated to the proposition that the player who moves second (White always moves first) can do just fine, köszönöm szépen. He later expanded on this theme with Black Is Still OK! (2004), Black Is OK Forever! (2005), and Black is Back! (2016).
(ETA: Can Black Moves Matter! be far behind?)
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yep, and Starbucks.
I hope the stock tanks and the board kicks Zuck’s ass to the curb. Libertarians tell me that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Leto
@Emma from FL:
There was a segment John Oliver did last week, I think last week, where Trumpov was doing one of his Apprentice style feedbacks with Ivanka and Jr. He was basically calling them losers, saying they still had a long way to go, and they both just sat there and said, “Thank you; may I have another?” It was just so fucking weird. These are your kids and you’re treating them like some entry level applicant? Just so weird.
Martin
@p.a.: It was another sort of procedural decision. He upheld precedent on a case he had recused from and would have opposed and thinks was wrongly decided.
Basically, he wasn’t ready to set the world even more on fire and punted. During a dem administration he’ll happily ban abortion.
If dems win big in November, they need to pass legislation. This balancing act on Roe is unsustainable.
Baud
@Martin: Roberts wasn’t recused in the prior case. He lost.
I agree about legislation.
Calouste
@mrmoshpotato: Unilever dropped advertising on Facebook in the US until the end of the year, some others were originally only going to do it in July, but I don’t know where they are now. Keep in mind that this boycott only started a week ago.
I saw a number yesterday that the brands involved accounted for about 6% of Facebook’s revenue, but that number is probably already out of date. Although some brands have only pulled US advertising and/or for a short period of time.
Still, a big issue for FB. You can’t hire people in the tech space if your stock is flat this year and your competitors for talent post 20+% gains.
oatler.
“Grand Guignol universe”
Splendidly put!
catclub
In this case Roberts makes a principled decision to follow stare decisis
But the principle is: Don’t rile up Democratic voters in an election year.
The other conservatives didn’t give a fuck about ol stare, or riled up democrats.
Martin
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s a few hundred businesses now. Most small, but Levis, Unilever, Coca Cola, Starbucks, Verizon, all big advertisers. Seems to be growing.
Not just facebook but all social media ads. Reddit just banned r/the_donald. Twitch suspended Trumps campaign account. And understand that almost all of these companies jumped on board before Trump’s ‘white power’ retweet. It’ll grow this week.
What most people don’t see is the spread of this broader civil rights movement through other communities. Youtube, gamers, and on and on. Hundreds of prominent people have been banned or dropped out of communities over previous bad behavior. Not many places untouched.
This is spurring some massive cleanups and changes on all social media and content platforms, and not just around race issues. Antitransgender communities are being dismantled, a lot of this is centered on sexual harassment as well. This is WAY bigger than George Floyd and Trump now, and entirely the wrong time for Trump or the GOP to be fighting against it.
GregMulka
@debbie:
The mustard on her shirt was even better.
Ella in New Mexico
@Punchy:
That story reads like planted disinfo for the purpose of being an invitation to the Trump Cult to whip up the “lurve” (they already bemoan how terribly mean everyone is to him, giving him no credit for ALL HE’S DONE FOR US!) and make him feel better as well as a one-two sucker punch to Dems to get complacent.
Plus, does anyone here think the R’s would keep Pence at the head of the ticket anyway? You think given that Golden Opportunity they wouldn’t put a far more electable candidate there and give us a whole new nightmare scenario to contend with?
Seriously agree with statements above that believing we might see him drop out as magical thinking–or worse, could be really bad for all of us.
catclub
Amusing. Zuck owns a big majority of the only stock shares with actual voting rights. It is his company.
He can always personally vote out the board. and he still owns his shares, even is they try to say he is no longer chief mucky muck.
Martin
@Calouste: Hard to hire people in the tech space if your corporate policy puts you on the opposite side of a culture war from the people you need to hire.
Baud
@Martin:
I think large segments of our society have internalized the idea that the Trump experiment is coming to a bad end. That’s why everything seems to be happening at once. Lots of pent up energy is getting released like a volcano.
debbie
@GregMulka:
I had not noticed it, but you’re right.
James E Powell
@Martin:
Throughout 2016, his attacks on the press/media made them all more compliant with him. Not that long ago, Dana Bash was calling him the leader we need right now, in the face of mountains of contrary evidence. The press/media are eager to jump on his re-elect campaign, but he is just not giving them anything they can work with.
Patricia Kayden
Some good news
opiejeanne
@Baud: Ok, now I’m crying and I don’t know why; I’m not even a dog person. Maybe it’s the photo at the end of the article, the knowledge of what we had, what we could have had, and what we’ve lost: decency.
I’m not sure if the dog looks like him, not yet anyway.
catclub
I agree. There have been breathless predictions of Trump dropping out since about February of 2016. I am no longer fooled.
Trump only drops out to wreck whatever remains of the GOP.
catclub
exactly what side of the culture war do you think tech talent is on?
cause I think that talent is all over the culture map.
Does that include contract workers from overseas?
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@GregMulka: And so ends the saga of the missing mustard…
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I sometimes think of Ken McElroy of Skidmore, Missouri. Not that I wish any parallels. But this guy was a bully and asshole in his small town for years and years, until one day he went into town for lunch and was shot to death sitting in his truck on Main Street, in the middle of the day, from at least two different firearms.
Funny thing was, nobody saw a thing. No witnesses, no arrests.
When things go south, they can go south quickly.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: If Biden were 30 points behind I’d be giving up and trying to cut losses. 3 points behind is more like it.
Calouste
@Martin: There is that as well, but aren’t there people who consider themselves liberals working at Fox and OANN? And there are more people who are willing to trade their principles for a paycheck than there are people who are willing to trade their paycheck for their principles.
Martin
@Baud: I’m hoping it’s a bit larger than that – that covid has demonstrated to the zoomers that any GOP institution is uninterested in protecting them, and that they need to do it themselves. I think the GOP has turned an entire generation into an enemy.
Martin
@James E Powell: There’s always the temptation to appease. I think they did that, and still got punished. Sure, you’ll still have the NYT, but Trump isn’t getting any benefits from CNN, etc.
The Moar You Know
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No police cover needed. Here’s the key Get Out Of Jail Card for Chad and Karen Rambo; they were on their own property.
Oh sure, if you were a DA who wanted to take on someone with that much obvious money, you could try for a charge of “menacing”, as they were pointing their guns at members of the public when they weren’t pointing them at each other (there was a lot of that in the clip I watched, no muzzle discipline at all) but you’d lose in any venue I can think of.
Tactically, they were inexcusably stupid. You stay in your house, one person covering the entrance and the other doing a set patrol path, staying in constant contact so you don’t shoot each other, but that doesn’t get Meal Team Six top spots on Twitter, TrumpTwitter, and Failbook. They’re now Genuine Republican Heroes!
Martin
@Calouste: The tech community is a bit different because there is so much migration between tech firms. Facebook employees can go up the road to Google or Apple or literally hundreds of other tech firms without uprooting their families and still make good money with good benefits.
Harder in media because media jobs are collapsing, but tech jobs are expanding.
The Moar You Know
Those of y’all hoping Trump will step down: you are so lucky, to have never known a narcissist.
Leto
@Martin:
One of the largest, oldest e-sports team (Method) just imploded over the past week because upper level leadership covered for a sexist/pedophile. The news had been circulating in the community for a while, but this past week it just exploded. All of their major sponsors dropped them, most of their top level talent left them, and a number of the top e-sport commentators did these Twitch/YouTube videos basically stating what happened, but then directly addressing the toxicity within gaming culture. It’s a start but I hope that the pressure can be kept up to make sustained changes within the overall culture because as it stands, it’s just shit.
debbie
@Martin:
COVID may have magnified this, but it started at Parkland.
debbie
@The Moar You Know:
He won’t leave until he’s dragged out kicking and screaming.
Baud
@debbie: Now you’re just trying to turn me on.
Another Scott
@JPL: Yup.
I have no doubt that Donnie put Mikey “in charge” of the COVID-19
dog and pony showfederal response so that he can/will be underbussed when the time comes.Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Brachiator: The T/P ads are to try to keep his base on-board. They’re counting on lack of polling places in poor areas, etc., etc., to keep the opposition vote low.
The GOP knows it cannot win fair elections any more, and that it has to drive down Democratic votes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Calouste
@Martin: I work in tech (FB approached me for an interview last year, I declined), you don’t have to explain that to me. I’m just saying that there are enough people who would be willing to work for FB if they pay enough, even if they don’t agree with Zuckerberg, but a lot less who are willing to take a pay cut just to work there. Or are willing to stay there if their stock options are so far under water they have to look for them with a bathyscaphe.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: “Mike did a heck of a job, just like he did in Indiana. Just great. Best vice president ever. I’m happy that he’s moving on to the very important post of Ambassador to Greenland. Very big, important place, Greenland. Not many people know but I’m very interested in buying Greenland. People are saying what a bigly idea that is. We’ll see what happens….”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Baud:
LOL!!!
catclub
not the kind of kiss you want to get.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I heard some discussion on NPR this afternoon, before I shut it off, about this “he’s going to resign” stuff.
There is no reason to think that this is anything other than another “SQUIRREL!!” to distract from the COVID-19 catastrophe, the horrid unemployment numbers coming soon, the horrid GDP numbers coming soon, his horrid polling numbers, and all the rest.
And it’s barely summer. We’ve got months of this chatter before the elections.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@debbie: Oh, certainly. There’s a million things that led up to it, but when you see just how pervasively the GOP gave up the plot regarding Covid and how their futures are just completely up in the air with school closing and all that, I think it flipped the switch from ‘we’ll wait this out’ to ‘strike first’.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
I’m more concerned about voter suppression efforts than I am with GOP ads. I think that keeping the base on board is good for an ego stroke, but bad strategy if the base is shrinking.
And, hell, I would love to see an ad that just flat out asks the base “why are you willing to get sick or die for Trump?”
But I also think that ads on TV and radio are less effective than they used to be. I don’t do Facebook; do they accept the same ads that run on broadcast tv?
I also suppose that more effort is made on social media campaigns.
Martin
@Leto: Yep. Two the top pro Dota casters are out. Dr Disrespect is out (for reasons nobody really understands). Just everywhere. D&D streamers, creative lead for the next Assassins Creed, folks at Magic the Gathering, you name it.
And, good riddance. Surprised to see ChapoTrapHouse banned on reddit, but not terribly surprised
Bill Arnold
@Calouste:
There are also people who won’t work for a company with an apparently (high function) psychopathic CEO who also controls the company. And there are also people who get disgusted and leave, per that WaPo piece.
artem1s
@The Moar You Know:
there is the thing that NPD’s do when they see the jig is up and they cut an individual off just at the point when they think it will do the most damage. Partially to keep the gaslighting going while they make their get away – partially because they can’t face someone who they know is getting a clue and will rip them to pieces once their patience wears out. I’ve known enough narcissists to be grateful and relieved when they do the cut off thing. It means I will never have to feel guilty or have to protect myself from their gaslighting ever again. I doubt Trump can quit mostly because it’s the best attention high he has ever had and he’s never going to get another that is anything like it as long as he lives. He knows it too. So the quitting thing to avoid humiliation doesn’t have a hope of winning out over the NPD’s need for attention.
Ruckus
@sdhays:
Well they really don’t have anything positive to give – or sell even, so low expectations is all there is.
Ruckus
@artem1s:
Yep.
When dealing with someone with his level of narcissism it really is rare that they walk away when the going would normally get tough, it’s one of the effects, they are so involved with ME that they don’t realize it’s time to turn and run because they always think they will come out on top because it’s them. It’s a vicious circle of ME and it always ends up worse because they can never do the walk away at an opportunistic point, only when everything is burnt down around them, never when it’s burning. And shitforbrains is so far in front of his skis, in shit to his receding ferret line already. He probably even knows it, but he has zero ability to do anything about it. Especially anything in any way positive.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Trump is going to go nuts over his polling numbers, and we should all enjoy his disquiet.
He will also go nuts over the unemployment and GDP numbers, but they are not especially meaningful right now. It will be good if unemployment decreases, even if it is still high. GDP doesn’t matter. Business reporters are used to talking about these numbers, even when they cannot provide context.
Huge areas of the economy are still shut down, and lockdowns are being imposed again. This is true all around the world. The usual measures don’t really apply.
It does matter, of course, that Trump’s reaction will be wrongheaded and insufficient, but that’s nothing new.
Another Scott
@Calouste: https://www.stophateforprofit.org/participating-businesses
A good start. Many, many more companies should be on that list.
Cheers,
Scott.