Good King Trump

[Ari]

One thing that we've learned from the Dictator meeting is that Trump can't tell the difference between fake, forced praise and real praise. He seems to really think the North Korean people love their dictator better because of all the cool military parades they do, and that he can't think beyond the next time he gets fawned over. If we don't go head first into Pardongedon (Where Trump attempts to pardon everyone accused of collusion while tweeting #nocollusion) I'm certain his NK trip has re-excited his military parade idea, just watch!

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

G-7 meeting went well.

show spoiler

How quickly could Canada build an atomic bomb? - Ottawa Citizen

[erimir]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

I'm reminded of growing up in North Carolina, when Jesse Helms was in office.

Ah, Jesse Helms.

Fortunately, this song isn't necessary anymore

MC Hawking - Jesse Helms - YouTube

He did take his time though, instead of hurrying up like it says.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Well past the point of "First they came for":

Rounding up legal residents. https://t.co/WMDStpu0Kg

— Dr. Aphra Behn (@Shaker_aphra) June 13, 2018

Taking away citizenship. https://t.co/Ci8u9Tl8yL

— Dr. Aphra Behn (@Shaker_aphra) June 13, 2018

That's just the first two in the thread.

[erimir]

The way the recent news is going, I feel the need to express, once again, a hearty fuck you to anyone proclaiming to be on the left that spread the perfidious notion that Trump's racism was just an act and wouldn't have real consequences long after it should've been clear on both counts.

People like Walker Bragman
A liberal case for Donald Trump: The lesser of two evils is not at all clear in 2016

Originally Posted by Walker Bragman

Ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.? Not a chance.
[...]
Basically, we will not have immigration reform, but we will not have people rounded up in the streets and deported.

Or others who suggested that because Trump said he would be "neutral" between Palestine and Israel (a meaningless claim absent any specifics) that he would be less pro-Israel than his predecessors, acting like his rampant anti-Muslim bigotry was no different from other politicians.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

f7697107ae.png

This paragraph. https://t.co/QmVv1XFhMC @NPR pic.twitter.com/M3vwGDTWl3

— Ann Marie Lipinski (@AMLwhere) June 16, 2018

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Why did Trump delete his tweet about Robert DeNiro? https://t.co/e77oGJneO0

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) June 16, 2018

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Hey The Man, you were working on some universal theory of all things toxic? Here's a thing.

Fuck Trump.

— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) June 15, 2018

Thrad.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

This should be as pig a topic as those internment camps:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Turns On Mueller

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Remember when people didn’t vote bc they said there was no difference between Hillary and Trump, and now there are child concentration camps

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) June 16, 2018

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Trump greenlights new $110 million immigration detention center in Texas | The Texas Tribune <--2017



¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Guiliani/FBI stuff:

Thread by @SethAbramson: "(THREAD) Today's news on Rudy Giuliani being interviewed by the FBI is a *bombshell*. It reveals that Giuliani has been *lying* about the […]" #OctoberConspiracy

The stuff Seth Abramson was writing about in 2016 is suddenly breaking news today.

[erimir]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

The stuff Seth Abramson was writing about in 2016 is suddenly breaking news today.

Oh shit, so Bernie has been declared the 2016 Democratic nominee?!

(Sorry, I can't take him seriously after his idiotic "experimental journalism" bullshit during the primaries based around writing bunches of articles claiming that "ackchually Bernie is totally winning")

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by erimir

(Sorry, I can't take him seriously after his idiotic "experimental journalism" bullshit during the primaries based around writing bunches of articles claiming that "ackchually Bernie is totally winning")

Seth's fault too:

U.S. Quits UN Human Rights Council, Saying It's Anti-Israel

[erimir]

Not sure why you're saying "Seth's fault also". That is not implied by what I said, and is not something I would say.

I was merely saying that I don't consider Abramson a trustworthy source. He burned his credibility with me, most prominently due to the bullshit he published in the first half of 2016.

Someone who published some bad shit in 2016 and apologized for it and/or explained how they made the mistakes they did, I could see viewing as potentially trustworthy again although I might still be suspicious if they seem like they're repeating the same mistakes again. Abramson, in so many words, admitted that he knew that the idea that Bernie was "actually winning" was a specious narrative and he was publishing that bullshit as "an experiment". Claiming that he was using the same evidence (but actually, distorting the evidence and misreading primary rules, pushing statistically illiterate interpretations of polls, etc.) to further an alternate narrative. He wasn't a sincere believer who made a mistake - he knew he was being deceptive. And he doesn't view it as something he should apologize for. Why should I assume he's not doing the same thing again? Why would I think he wouldn't go beyond the actual evidence?

I don't trust him as a source because I know he's knowingly published articles in the past with untrue/deceptive/distorted claims, and has exaggerated his credentials. So Abramson switching to a narrative that is more in line with my own views on some things doesn't make me consider him trustworthy.

Since I would feel the need to independently verify his claims from more trustworthy sources, I figure it's best not to waste my time reading him at all.

Which isn't to say I think what he's saying is false! He might be right. But I'm not taking his word for it.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by erimir

Not sure why you're saying "Seth's fault also". That is not implied by what I said, and is not something I would say.

One part levity, one part mockery, neither part mean spirited.

Originally Posted by erimir

The meat of the matter.

Now I follow, and will prod some sources.

[Kevlar]

The last few days, I've been spending a lot of time on Twitter. I've created an account and I only follow the Trumpsters. One of my first Tweets was on Don Jr.'s thread, and it got picked up by a Twitter pundit, and it got a little attention. That hooked me right in.

One high-level take-away I have, is that this Trumpster movement, at it's very core, seems to me to be about exceptionalism. I know this is really being wrapped up as "American Exceptionalism" but the stark reality is that is good-old-fashion "Wealthy Exceptionalism". This attitude they all have, being like: "there is a rule and it applies to me??? I'm a victim!!! Why didn't the rule apply to Hillary???", doesn't sound like an ethos to me, it sounds like the corruption of entitlement. It sounds to me like the same old tired whining that comes from people who have way more than what they will ever need, can't seem to get enough of money and power, and feel that God blessed them with their over-blown, gauche narcissism. Oh, and the wanna-bees are rife!

[Kyuss Apollo]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Remember when people didn’t vote bc they said there was no difference between Hillary and Trump, and now there are child concentration camps

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) June 16, 2018

¯_(ツ)_/¯

The only alternative to this cruelty and chaos was to elect a person who used a personal email account for work, so you can see why it was a tough call for so many people.

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 19, 2018

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Seems a good summer to do a few political marches/rallies if you're a 'Mericun.

Scuse me, I have a pointed letter to write to my Member of Parliament. And hand deliver.

[The Lone Ranger]

From Matt Bors:





For added shock and horror, there's this:

Originally Posted by Jackson Proskow

NEW: I just spoke with the former head of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) – He tells me that he expects hundreds of separated children will never be reunited with their parents. They will be lost in the system. Orphaned by the US Govt'.

[The Man]

At this point, I’m reasonably certain I will vote for, donate to, and volunteer for whichever Democratic presidential candidate pledges to abolish ICE, fire every last one of its employees, enforce a moratorium preventing any of them from ever holding another law enforcement position, and prosecute them for human rights violations to the fullest possible extent of the law. If more than one candidate makes this pledge, I will almost certainly support the first one to do it. This is literal, not figurative, ethnic cleansing. There can’t be any forgiveness for it or any looking past it.

(The only reason for the qualifiers is if it’s someone like Cuomo, whom I doubt I’d trust to adhere to the pledge. But if, say, Gillibrand and Harris are both running, and one of them makes the aforementioned pledge first, I’m supporting her.)

There is absolutely no question that many of these children are now permanently separated from their parents, even if the parents are still living. It is reasonable to call these concentration camps. I’d compare it to the Japanese internment camps during WWII, but honestly, this is worse – as far as I know, FDR’s policy didn’t separate families from each other. And with the president* using openly eliminationist rhetoric (cf. “vermin” remarks), there really isn’t any hyperbole in comparing his administration to 1930s-era Nazis. They might not have committed an overt genocide yet, but neither had the Nazis in the ’30s. At this point, if the president* and his toadies aren’t stopped, I’m afraid that they will.

[Sock Puppet]

At least some of those kids won’t be mere orphans for long.

A nonzero number of them will be pimped out by human traffickers.

Bitter sarcasm intended, but not, however, what I’d call a joke.

I may have more to say about it after I’m finished vomiting.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

For added shock and horror, there's this:

Wait.

Suddenly I suspect that the announcement that Trump's going to end the family separations policy isn't anything to do with seeing sense or feeling pressure from people with any humanity left.

It's just that it's achieved its objective.

[Ari]

“I think it’s an insult to the brave men and women of the border patrol and ICE to call law enforcement officers Nazis. They are simply enforcing laws enacted by Congress,” -Adolf Homan SS Officer and director of ICE

https://www.metro.us/news/the-big-st...pared-to-nazis

Yes with no sense of irony whatsoever the director if ICE used a Nazi defense to explain how they aren't Nazis.

[erimir]

The Trump EO is also full of caveats which can be used to continue to separate children from parents and even if viewed charitably intends to replace this policy with indefinite detention of families instead.

And what's often not clear in the media coverage is that a large number of these people aren't just undocumented immigrants, but people who came to the US to apply for asylum. It used to be that you would not be thrown in jail for the crime of fleeing violence.