Against my better judgement I am watching his address.
*** Update ***
I lied. I can’t watch this fucking shit. I’m going to play a video game. I tried and just wanted to puke when I watched his cabinet and smiling Jeff Sessions walk in.
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece
Against my better judgement I am watching his address.
*** Update ***
I lied. I can’t watch this fucking shit. I’m going to play a video game. I tried and just wanted to puke when I watched his cabinet and smiling Jeff Sessions walk in.
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
Hundreds of Trump supporters rallied across the country to defend a president who they say has been treated unfairly https://t.co/GrHyUkYa8u
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 27, 2017
Almost too pathetic to inspire schadenfreude. Almost.
…[T]he modest crowds that showed up for the noontime rallies from New Jersey to Georgia to Colorado offered a reminder of what liberal groups learned eight years ago in the face of Tea Party anger at President Barack Obama: Stoking grass-roots energy is often easier for the outraged resistance than for the party pulling the levers in Washington.
Continue reading the main story“I’m getting a lot of comments from the leftists about, ‘Your crowd’s not going to be as big as our crowd,’” said Betty Blanco, a retired teacher from La Junta, Colo., on the state’s conservative eastern plains, who organized a rally on the steps of the gold-domed State Capitol. “I didn’t know it was a contest.”
About 150 Trump supporters turned out for Monday’s rally in Denver, held just across the street from a park that had swelled with tens of thousands of protesters as part of the Women’s March on Jan. 21…
It’s one thing to plan for a big excursion to an arena show by your favorite teevee celebrity; it’s a much less enticing task to waste a lunch hour in the company of a handful of fellow fanatics, out in the weather, with at best a stringer from the local news assigned to see if a fistfight breaks out in case there’s no more photogenic car crashes or fires before prime time.
Monday pro-Trump rallies a massive flop as event photos show tiny crowds https://t.co/WFNCSM3iUI pic.twitter.com/JhFPYRtjq3
— Raw Story (@RawStory) February 28, 2017
Breitbart said today's pro-Trump rallies would be "MASSIVE." The photos I've seen so far: pic.twitter.com/3gnSaAayiz
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 27, 2017
I won't put up pictures of the Women's March because that would just be cruel. pic.twitter.com/r0P9lGQHJC
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 27, 2017
the pro trump rally in Atlanta had literally tens of people pic.twitter.com/tGT1pAuokD
— Craft Beer Dude (@SockinDingers) February 27, 2017
The big Trump rally happening now in Bellingham, WA. The energy is electric. People are coming out en masse to make America laugh again. pic.twitter.com/c3cwnhHmGf
— Erica Melzer (@ladylovescode) February 27, 2017
2. The "rally" consisted of 12 people https://t.co/OMhe6DfpGI pic.twitter.com/tTQYojfAUT
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 27, 2017
by John Cole| 57 Comments
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Post-racial America
Because when everyone hates you and your policies, the only thing you can do is keep them from voting you out of office:
For the last six years, the Justice Department has sided with the citizens and civil rights groups fighting Texas’ voter ID law, which a federal judge at one point found to be intentionally discriminatory against black and Latino voters. But its position changed Monday when the department decided to drop its claim that Republican state lawmakers enacted the law to make it harder for minorities to vote.
“This signals to voters that they will not be protected under this administration,” said Danielle Lang, the deputy director of voting rights at the Campaign Legal Center, which is challenging Texas’ law in court.
The reversal, on the eve of a key hearing in the case, is a clear sign of the DOJ’s direction under Attorney General Jeff Sessions—a longtime advocate of voter ID laws and other voting restrictions. The department signaled its intentions last week when it joined with the state of Texas to ask the court to hold off on judging the constitutionality of the law until Republican lawmakers can modify it. The court rejected this request.
Lang told TPM that the DOJ reached out Monday morning to her and the other voting rights groups fighting the law to notify them of their new position.
On Tuesday, DOJ lawyers will appear before U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos and inform her that the federal government is dismissing its claim that the voter ID law was crafted with a discriminatory intent.
“There have been six years of litigation and no change in the facts,” Lang told TPM. “We have already had a nine-day trial and presented thousands of pages of documents demonstrating that the picking and choosing of what IDs count was entirely discriminatory and would fall more harshly on minority voters. So for the DOJ to come in and drop those claims just because of a change of administration is outrageous.”
Kinda white happens when you have a white supremacist running the DOJ.
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Foreign Affairs, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel
2. In Dec, I reported Kuwait – under political pressure – moved their annual party from 4 Seasons to the Trump Hotel https://t.co/EgSBgvoafn
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 26, 2017
“Trump can’t be bought!” said the Trumplodytes. Yeah, but he can be rented — and for a surprising reasonable fee, given the (previous) value of the office he’s currently befouling…
4. And tonight, by TOTAL COINCIDENCE, Trump is dropping by the Trump Hotel. He's there right now https://t.co/Fefksx6n3L pic.twitter.com/wWXb1NrALB
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 26, 2017
8. From the White House press pool: "The pool is holding in vans and not being allowed inside the [Trump] hotel."
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 26, 2017
CAN’T THANK YOU GUYS ENOUGH, REPUBLICANS!
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Clap Louder!, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom
No joke, someone has been handing out Russian flags that say #Trump on them. And people are waving them.#CPAC2017 pic.twitter.com/CDZS5oEqyL
— Maya Shwayder (@MayaErgas) February 24, 2017
TPM explains:
… Two young, progressive activists from DC, Jason Charter and Ryan Clayton with the group Americans Take Action, purchased tickets to the conference, and handed out nearly 1,000 flags to attendees as a prank. After they were thrown out of the conference, they told TPM they wanted to “shed light on an important issue”—namely, the drip of revelations of backchannel communications between the Russian government and the Trump campaign—and allow people to “get a laugh out of their day.”
Charter, 22, told TPM by phone that he and Clayton organized the prank in order to “honor Trump’s relationship with Putin.” He said almost no one at CPAC seemed to realize the flag he handed them bore the horizontal red, white, and blue stripes of the Russian Federation underneath Trump’s name…
Apart from cheering on the pranksters, what’s on the agenda as we prepare to start the weekend?
BREAKING: Fifty-three percent of Americans want congressional probe of Trump, Russia, new NBC News/WSJ poll shows https://t.co/9ktMsuGZ0z pic.twitter.com/fUaNSgRwnF
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 24, 2017
If I were a GOP member of congress, I'd take note of the fact that, by a > 3 to 1 margin, Independents want a Russia/Trump investigation. pic.twitter.com/2FHoqrnmjp
— Tom Bonier (@tbonier) February 24, 2017
The President-Asterisk is on it!!!!…
The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security "leakers" that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2017
find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2017
Why doesn’t he ask the Russians to hack the FBI? https://t.co/kUMVDJXpoK
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 24, 2017
You know you're the president, right? You could take charge here, get a group to plug the leaks. Call them Plumbers!https://t.co/SpV087ly7v
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 24, 2017
"Senior Trump officials said they didn't do anything wrong because they never discussed the investigation, only news reports about it."
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) February 24, 2017
One reason this WH will keep leaking more than Obama's is leaks are weapons in internal disputes. Far more conflicts in this administration
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 24, 2017
Friday Evening Open Thread: Put Out More (Russian) Flags!Post + Comments (80)
This post is in: Glibertarianism, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Assholes, Clap Louder!, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
Pence: "Because of President Trump, life is winning again."
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 24, 2017
Yes, the American Conservative Union’s combination trade show and meat market is cheesy and ludicrous when it’s not revolting, but on the other hand, the President-Asterisk and the people actually running his administration are in attendance…
Please tell me somebody else saw Priebus' reaction to Bannon trying to touch him. #CPAC2017 pic.twitter.com/oNXGEvgNhv
— Kyle Alvarado (@KJAlvarado124) February 23, 2017
“We’re so sick of politics and politicians,” says THE FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE RNC, who is now WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) February 23, 2017
Jennifer Jacobs, at Bloomberg, “Bannon Rallies Conservatives for ‘Economic Nationalist Agenda’“:
President Donald Trump’s top advisers girded conservative activists for battle with the nation’s political and media establishments to deliver his campaign agenda of trade protection, immigration limits and a shrinking of government regulation.
“Every day is going to be a fight,” Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, said. “We want you to have our back.” He warned that “the corporatist, globalist media” are “adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has.”…
Vice President Mike Pence reinforced Bannon’s us-against-them rhetoric when he took the stage Thursday evening.
“The media, the elites, the insiders, everybody else who profits off of preserving the status quo, they dismissed our president every step of the way,” Pence said. “And in dismissing him, they also dismissed millions of the hard-working, forgotten men and women who make this country great. And worse yet, they’re still trying to dismiss him. They’re still trying to dismiss all of us.”
Bannon, Priebus and Pence assured the thousands of activists that Trump wouldn’t back down from his campaign promises. Pence said, “We’re in the promise-keeping business these days.” Bannon said he’s proud that Trump has refused to moderate his message or to give any ground on delivering on his campaign commitments…
Although Trump was ridiculed at last year’s CPAC conference by rival presidential candidates and skipped the gathering to campaign elsewhere, prominent members of his administration this year dominate program…
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway also talked to the group Thursday. Other Trump administration officials scheduled to speak include Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency; deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka; and Andrew Bremberg, director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council. Trump is set to address the gathering on Friday…
I guess it's kind of fun to see the Reince-Bannon buddy comedy live on stage, but I'm not entirely clear on what this… is.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 23, 2017
Rosie Gray, at the Atlantic, on “The Bannon-Priebus Buddy Act“:
… While a suit-clad Priebus offered standard fare about taxes and regulation, Bannon, in khakis and no tie, went in a different direction. His appearance was a reminder of how unusual it is that Bannon, whose career in politics thus far had consisted of aggressive opposition not just to the left but to establishment Republicans in Priebus’s mold, has ascended in such a short period of time to the highest levels of power in the White House.
Bannon began by calling attention to his outsider status, thanking American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, who was moderating the conversation, for “finally inviting me to CPAC.” (Bannon and Breitbart had in the past held an event called “The Uninvited” outside CPAC, featuring speakers who were not included in CPAC’s program, like anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney.)
He listed the administration’s top three priorities as national security and sovereignty, “economic nationalism,” and the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”…
Both Bannon and Priebus stayed on message when it came to another top priority of this White House: discrediting the media.
Asked what the biggest misconception had been about the administration so far, Priebus said “in regards to us two, I think the biggest misconception is everything that you’re reading.” He lamented the media’s coverage of Trump during the campaign, referring dismissively to media speculation about “what controversy in the primary is going to take down President Trump.” (As Republican National Committee chairman, Priebus reportedly encouraged Trump to drop out of the race after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump was recorded boasting about groping women.)…
Bannon, as is his wont, went further, repeatedly calling the media the “opposition party,” a term he started using in an interview with The New York Times last month. He denounced the “corporatist, globalist media adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has.”
“If you think they are giving you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken,” Bannon said.
He complained that the press isn’t offering an accurate picture of Trump’s efforts. “If you look at the opposition party and how they portray the campaign, how they portrayed the transition, and how they are portraying the administration, it’s always wrong,” Bannon said…
Hatred of the news media is one thing libertarians, social conservatives, tea partiers and Trumpian populists all agree on.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 24, 2017
(Not much) credit where due, CPAC’s organizers did eject the “face of the alt-right”, now that the lamestream media is actually paying attention…
… Spencer, who purchased his own tickets to CPAC, was ejected after a CPAC staffer spotted him and revoked his credentials. Defiant, Spencer flashed his empty lanyard to reporters as he left the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center just outside D.C., where the conservative confab is taking place over the next few days.
“They threw me out, it’s pathetic,” he said on his way out, saying that he wanted to have conversations inside on identity politics.
“I guess that they just discovered who I was, because the truth is that people want to talk to me, not to other conservatives.”
A CPAC spokesperson told NBC that the group ejected Spencer because it finds his views “repugnant.”…
Richard Spencer being escorted out by security at CPAC pic.twitter.com/nShgyWLUUc
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) February 23, 2017
Richard Spencer is on a mission to make even the most principled opponent of Nazi-punching abandon his beliefs. https://t.co/PE6Kjv2FJg
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) February 24, 2017
ACU's Dan Schneider now onstage denouncing the alt-right as a "hateful left-wing fascist group." #CPAC2017
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 23, 2017
Pretty tepid response from the crowd to Dan Schneider's scathing critique of the alt-right just now #CPAC2017
— Tom Kludt (@TomKludt) February 23, 2017
Probably because it made no sense? https://t.co/WeD0kwScT0
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) February 23, 2017
Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Look, See CPAC 2017 — See CPAC Run!Post + Comments (84)
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece
We are now a month into the Trump presidency, so that means you have now spent 30 days waking up every morning saying to yourself as you open your browser “Oh god what has he down now?” Is it possible that we are all going to have PTSD after his term?
Meanwhile, in Canada:
At Jarry metro today with @JustinTrudeau – a broken escalator makes it hard for some to get to their metro #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/J0OSXbpTZb
— Adam Scotti (@AdamScotti) April 16, 2014
I want Obama back.