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Our media is shocked, shocked! at the Mango Moron’s latest disgusting attacks on the four female JDs who are women of color. Fainting couches all over the country are groaning under the weight of all the privileged doyens and doyennes of the press who have not previously been able to admit that he is a dyed-in-the-wool, white-hood-wearing, white supremacist-loving, LEGAL immigrant-hating RACIST.
It’s no longer something they can avoid. Saith the Charlotte Observer:
“Go back where you came from” is among the worst of racist tropes. It divides us by ethnicity and skin color. It says that even if someone is a citizen or legal immigrant, they are not part of the rest of us. That runs contrary to who we should be as Americans, and if Donald Trump didn’t know it when he typed the words, he surely did later when people responded with appropriate outrage. But the same president who referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” and said African visitors would never “go back to their huts” once again doubled down on his racism.
It’s dangerous, destructive behavior, and at the least every Republican lawmaker in Congress should declare as much about their president’s outburst…
(snip)
….the Republican Party is firmly Donald Trump’s party now. It’s the party where insults and other ugliness are just being “rough around the edges.” It’s the party where locking legal migrants in crowded, unhealthy cages is acceptable immigration policy. It’s the party where it’s OK to say racist things so long as the next jobs report is encouraging.
Many people have written about Drumpf’s long, long, LONG history of racism, and I won’t go over the obvious here…but I will say, it’s encouraging to see at least some of the media using the correct words to describe him. And the snowball will keep rolling down the hill after the Democrats censure him, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
The text of the resolution, which is sponsored by freshman Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), obtained by The Hill “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should ‘go back’ to other countries.”
In my opinion, Drumpf has gone too far now. Back in the days before he began squatting in the Oval Office like a feces-throwing orangutan, he, and his enablers in the media, could still pretend his oh, so very white voters were motivated by “economic anxiety.”
But not any more. Not after ripping children from their parents at the border; not after putting human beings in conditions that would make the Nazis proud; not after trying to ban legal entry to this country by Muslims and to end legal asylum protections for Central Americans; not after declaring immigration a national emergency while ignoring climate change and the real national security threats posed by Russia, Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
No, if you are voting Republican now, you’re voting racist. There’s no way of avoiding that realization and that condemnation.
It’s too bad they didn’t listen to Hillary now, isn’t it?
This is an open thread.
And so are his friends.
On Saturday, billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was arrested for the alleged sex trafficking of dozens of minors in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. In a criminal indictment unsealed Monday, federal prosecutors claimed that Epstein lured underage girls, some as young as 14, to his luxurious homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach under the guise of paying them cash for massages. He then molested them and encouraged them to recruit other young girls to return with them. The victims who returned with new victims were paid a finder’s fee.
“In this way, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit, often on a daily basis,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Lest we forget, this is what Drumpf said about Epstein in 2002:
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Can you not hear the sleaze dripping from his voice as he says this? The nasty, pedophiliac drool? Oh yes. He knew exactly what that overprivileged piece of shit was doing to children.
That brave woman, E. Jean Carroll, told her story and was basically ignored by the media; not because they didn’t believe her, but because they did. We all know that gob of orange goo in the White House is a sexual predator. That is one of the many, many, MANY reasons we were all so devastated after Election Day in 2016; the knowledge that tens of millions of Americans actually voted for a known sexual predator instead of the most qualified candidate for President in the history of our country, because they hate women and all people of color. White people all across this country made that decision with eyes wide open. And now we are reaping the whirlwind as more and more of the pResident’s men are starting to get caught committing horrible sexual crimes.
People like Jeffrey Epstein are Donald Trump’s friends. People like Alex Acosta are his enablers. Trump’s Attorney General William Barr has recused himself from the Epstein case (for a reason that doesn’t pass the smell test). These are just the most recent “best people” Republicans are fine with keeping in power, but there are oh, so many more.
I just have to ask: what moral compass is being used here? If you’re a Republican, do you think raping children is better or worse than separating them from their parents and putting them in concentration camps? Is raping children better or worse than letting them be killed in school shootings nearly every day? Is raping children better or worse than taking clean air, food and water away from them?
This terrible travesty of an administration has caused us to ask these horrifying questions, to compare and weigh the many cruelties visited on children and to wonder, how can anyone be okay with this? Even more dreadful, it has caused us to answer that question thus: that Republicans will put up with anything to stay in power. It doesn’t matter who gets raped, as long as it isn’t them.
Here’s to truly draining the swamp in 2020. May we make it so that all the slimy sexual predators, like Jeffrey Epstein, William Barr, Alex Acosta and so many others, are sent to prison, along with their Cheeto-hued chief.
And may we make America, finally, a safe place for our women and children.
This is an open thread.
Lazy Weekend: Summer Time!
Posted on: June 23, 2019
- In: Music | Open Thread | Videos | Weather
- 54 Comments
Let’s take a mini-break from the horrors of the news and celebrate the official coming of beach weather! I think we can take a bit of consolation from the fact that Drumpf’s threatened ICE raids this weekend melted in the summer sun.
Here are a few summer ditties for you all, please contribute your own in comments!
Open thread, of course.
Apologies for the long absence, Widdershins. I went to NJ to spend time with my besties from college, and to celebrate the graduation of my “niece” (my best friend’s daughter) who is a budding opera singer going to conservatory (NEC) next year. She gave a lovely recital and then my best friend and her hubby gave her a party that was reminiscent of a wedding or a bat mitzvah. 🙂 I have known this wonderful young woman since I held her in my arms at her christening. I am rooting for her to be the next great operatic soprano of the 21st Century…that is, if we survive the next year or so.
I titled this post “Go Around Them.” The “Them” in this case is the Fourth Estate, which in the Age of Trump has become nothing but his puppet and mouthpiece. It is utterly terrifying how most TeeVee and print media has abdicated its duties without a whimper. Truly, if there is one thing I agree with der Drumpfenfuhrer on, it’s that the press mostly publishes “fake news.” Of course, the fake news is coming from his Twitter feed, his lying staff, his lying Congressional cronies, and his spectacularly CrayZee interview with George Stephanopolous.
The press has been unable to rise to the challenge of a President who lies multiple times a day. Instead of calling him out and saying he must resign due to his obstruction and coordination with Russia, both of which Mueller established without any question, TeeVee and print media haplessly report on every dead cat he throws on the table.
There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don’t mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point is that everyone will shout, ‘Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!’ In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.
This is how he controls the narrative, and after four f*cking years, it’s still working for the most part. Every day, in every way, it’s All About Donald. I don’t think there’s much hope of change, since the media wants him to win. So many clicks, so many viewers and readers! The temptation is too great.
Except, there’s Twitter.
Now, Twitter has a lot of problems. It seems clear that whatever they use to block people who are harmful to the discourse (liars, hatemongerers and bots) is, shall we say, rather selective. Somehow, strong black voices appear to be the ones silenced the most often, rather than the Nazis who threaten to kill them. However, the reason I think there’s hope for 2020 is the Democratic candidates who use Twitter to reach out to us directly. After what was done to Hillary in 2016, our new contenders (especially the women) know that there’s no way the media will report on them honestly or give them airtime when those dead cats are stinking up the room. So, they publish their policies on Twitter, and waddyaknow? People care about them and are getting excited. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris do this regularly, and are steadily moving up in the polls.
So I suggest that, with the exception of the Democratic debates (I will be watching, and maybe we’ll do debate threads too!), and people like Maddow and O’Donnell, we go around traditional media and (CAREFULLY!) follow our candidates and trusted reporters on Twitter. I have a feeling we will be a lot calmer as we go into the long marathon that is the 2020 election. Because what we’ll be seeing in the traditional media for the next year and four months is going to be, sadly, fake news.
This is an open thread.
Activist Tuesday: Brace Yourselves…
Posted on: June 4, 2019
- In: Congress | Democrats | Open Thread
- 72 Comments
For Fredster
Happy Tuesday, all, and happy Pride!
It looks like the Democrats in the Judiciary have decided to hold public hearings, starting next week. These are, of course, not impeachment hearings, nudge nudge, wink wink…they just happen to be looking into the findings of the Mueller Report! And it’s just a coinky-dink that they have John Dean as their first witness. What is he the expert in, again?
This hearing is being referred to as “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.” Former White House Counsel John Dean, who served under former President Richard Nixon and later testified against him, is set to testify. Dean has said that the Mueller report is “more damning” than Watergate and shows evidence of “clear obstruction.”
“Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.” Sounds like the Judiciary Committee has already made up its mind that the President is a criminal, doesn’t it? And it’s not just obstruction. It’s conspiracy, corruption, lawlessness and fascism. We have Uncle Junior from the Sopranos as President…except Junior had better hair!
Now to get the American people more informed of Drumpf’s evildoing, and on board with impeachment. I’m sure Dean’s testimony is going to be riveting…and he’s only the first one.
Brace yourself. Justice is coming.
This is an open thread. (No reason for this video except that I like it. Karine Jean-Pierre is FIERCE!)
It looks like you won’t have a problem finding a place to get your feet on the street today…and after today.
#StopTheBans Actions
This Tuesday, May 21st at noon local time at statehouses, town squares, and courthouses across the nation–with other events throughout the week–we will show up to speak out and fight back against this unconstitutional attempt to gut Roe and punish women.
Plan an action or RSVP to one near you now. We’ll send you more information on tips to make the most of your event.
As Our Girl Hillary said at the Women in the World Summit in 2012:
“We need to be as fearless as the women whose stories you have applauded, as committed as the dissidents and the activists you have heard from, as audacious as those who start movements for peace when all seems lost.”
This is an open thread.
Activist Tuesday: Open Thread
Posted on: May 14, 2019
Happy Tuesday, Widdershins!
We can talk about any of these things….
Or we can talk about #DemThrones, this epic takedown of Lady Lindsey, the 2020 election, the disastrous, ridiculous tariffs with China, or cute fluffy animals.
This is an open thread.
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