First Draft

Adrastos, Fog Of Scandal, Guns, Music, Political Crack, The Darnold

Under My Thumbs Up

We all know that the Insult Comedian was raised by wolves. He whines endlessly about his own suffering but is incapable of even synthetic empathy. He had a helluva time at the hospital in El Paso bragging about the size of his rally 6 months ago. Then there’s this:

Anger is brewing over a photo in which Trump is giving a thumbs up as Melania holds a baby orphaned by the El Paso shooter. #EPShooting https://t.co/mL8A9q4hBx

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 9, 2019

None of the adult victims of the Trump-inspired terrorist attack would meet with him so an orphaned baby was brought back to the hospital to pose with Trumpberius and his Slovenian Julia the Elder. Missing from the scene are his Caligula (Don Jr.) and Nero (Jared). Life once again imitates I, Claudius. The Trumps are certainly fiddling while America burns.

It’s all smiles and thumbs up from the Trumps. Worst photo-op ever.

The last word goes to the Who:

Surprised you, didn’t I? The Who covered Under My Thumb in protest when the Rolling Stones were busted in 1967.

Aug 09 2019

5 Comments

Adrastos, Bigotry, Fog Of History, Language, Political Crack, The Darnold

Trumpism Is Hatriotism

The hatriot-in-chief hugs a flag.

You may have noticed that I love language, nicknames, and slang. I agree with Samuel G. Freedman that it’s high time to revive a venerable word that he stumbled into whilst researching right-wing populist demagogue Gerald LK Smith:

In an episode that anticipated Trump’s recent rhetoric treating representatives Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley as disloyal foreigners and telling them to “go back home” – even though all are American citizens and all but Omar were born here – Smith told a whooping crowd, “If the Jews don’t like our country, they can go back where they came from!”

As I slogged through such muck, I found a 1945 article from the New York Herald Tribune. It recounted Smith and similarly minded demagogues trying to crash a United Nations conference in San Francisco. Describing Smith’s crew, both the headline and the story used the word “hatriots”.

That term, a pithy conflation of “hate” and “patriots”, struck me as perfectly suited to our current moment. Read in the context of Smith’s divisive career, the word clearly referred to people who wrap toxic intolerance in the perfumed cloak of patriotism.

Freedman goes on a hatriotic journey to find the origin of the word and traces it to a 1941 editorial in a small-town Hoosier newspaper. It was fairly common journalistic parlance used to describe figures with Nazistic tendencies until some time in the 1950’s.

Another compound word that came up in Freedman’s piece is Ratzis. It was coined by the voice of The Untouchables, Walter Winchell. Ratzis: I like it so much that I’ll use it in a sentence, Trumper hatriots are Ratzis. That felt good.

I plan to work hatriotism and its hatriotic derivations into my writing as much as possible. Let’s make it a hat trick and use hatriot to describe individuals who worship the Insult Comedian and his invective.

Repeat after me: Hatriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Trumpism is Hatriotism.

Aug 07 2019

Adrastos, Bigotry, Gret Stet Politics, Political Crack, So Called Liberal Media, The Darnold

What Do You Say, Dean Baquet?

The tweet below is the first thing I saw this morning. It was shared by Picvocate columnist Stephanie Grace and she found the whole thing as baffling as I did:

This line speaks volumes about the Times’ approach to covering Trump. https://t.co/adXcB2qDQe pic.twitter.com/jL9Rsh8n4Z

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) August 6, 2019

Here’s the deal: Edwin Edwards was a corrupt pol whose greed brought him down. But his “inflammatory comments” were nothing like those of the Insult Comedian. The one above is self-deprecating: does anyone recall Donald Trump ever mocking himself? That’s because the joke is *always* at the expense of someone he’s out to attack and smear. And he usually kicks down, not up.

One of the harshest things Edwin Edwards ever said about an opponent was in 1983: “Dave Treen is so slow that it takes him an hour and a half to watch Sixty Minutes.”

That’s a far cry from calling people crooked, traitors, and the other stuff that comes out of Trump’s big fat bazoo and pops up on his twitter feed. That’s why I call him the Insult Comedian.

Edwin Edwards was the first Gret Stet Governor to treat black folks as full citizens. They were his electoral base, not red-hatted racists. In fact, Trump is more like the man Edwards defeated in 1991: David Duke.

Perhaps Dean Baquet has been away from Louisiana so long that he “misremembered” the nature of Fast Eddie’s outrageousness. I suggest that he read John Maginnis’ brilliant account of the Edwards-Duke race from hell: Cross To Bear. Hell, Baquet should talk to fellow Gret Stet native and Timesman Charles Blow. He gets it.

Donald Trump is a boorish crooked racist. Edwin Edwards is a charming crook but not a racist.

Dean Baquet should be ashamed of this lame excuse for his paper’s disgusting headline about Trump’s perfunctory white supremacy speech. Baquet can and should do better.

Aug 07 2019

Adrastos, Bigotry, Language, Political Crack, Television, The Darnold

Deadbeat Asshole In El Paso

The Insult Comedian loves being an uninvited guest in places where he’s not wanted. What’s reality teevee without conflict? Boring, that’s what. The people of El Paso will be extras on Trump’s whirlwind “message I care” tour. He does not: he’s all hat and no cattle.

Team Trump has stuck the citizens of El Paso with a bill of over $500K for security costs associated with one of his hate fest rallies a mere six months ago. The president* should have had the decency to pay up but his entire life is a string of unpaid bills and broken promises. Why should he do the decent thing now? He’s never done it before. He’s all hat and no cattle.

Teleprompter Trump’s muted critique of racism and white supremacy endured almost a whole day but, predictably, Twitter Trump is back in the saddle. The MSM bought into his “moderate” rhetoric because they’re desperate for him to be normal so they can resume covering politics as a horse race. He’s not normal. He’s already back to sowing the seeds of division and grievance like a one-man Festivus:

It’s scary that Donald Trump makes Frank Costanza look like a nice guy.

It’s folly for the MSM to expect the Insult Comedian to be the consoler-in-chief when he’s really the despoiler-in-chief.

Repeat after me: Donald Trump is all hat and no cattle.

Aug 03 2019

3 Comments

Adrastos, Books, Diary, Film, Fog Of Scandal, Music, New Orleans, Odds & Sods, Political Crack, Sports, Television, The Darnold, Twitter

Saturday Odds & Sods: Washable Ink

Salome With The Head Of John The Baptist by Aubrey Beardsley.

My first day of jury duty was uneventful. We waited to be called for voir dire but the call never came and we were out of there by 11 AM. They’re trying fewer cases at Criminal District Court since the DA’s office stopped prosecuting possession of small amounts of weed. An odd but effective move by our old school tough-on-crime DA. Ironies abound.

This week’s theme song was written by a very young John Hiatt for his 1979 album Slug Line. It was so long ago that he had a full head of hair as well as a unibrow.

We have two versions of Washable Ink for your listening pleasure: the Hiatt original and a cover by the Neville Brothers.

Let’s check if this spilled ink is really washable. Color me skeptical: black, red, or blue.

Do they still call newspaper reporters ink-stained wretches? Probably not but it was swell slang.

Time to ink up and jump to the break. I’m not sure what ink up means in this context, but I’m always talking shit. Y’all should know that by now.

Jul 29 2019

Adrastos, Bigotry, Political Crack, Race, The Darnold

Quote Of The Day: Baltimore Sun Edition

Donald Trump is trying to transform Charm City into Verminville. The Baltimore Sun isn’t having it. They wrote a scathing editorial, Better To Have A Few Rats Than To Be One:

Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever made an editorial excerpt the QOTD but there’s a first time for everything. We’ve never had an Insult Comedian with a dead nutria pelt atop his head as president* before either.

This latest racist incident has really gotten to me. I have fond memories of the time I’ve spent in Baltimore. I have friends there and friends who are from there. It’s a great American city with a proud history and a thriving local culture. Mmm, crabcakes, hon.

Baltimore is the city of H.L. Mencken, Thurgood Marshall, Babe Ruth, Cab Calloway, Cal Ripken, Anne Tyler, Brooks Robinson, Donna Edwards, Barry Levinson, Johnny Unitas, Duff Goldman, David Simon, John Waters, W.E.B. DuBois, Boog Powell, Chick Webb, Barbara Mikulski, and Billie Holiday to name but a few.

It’s also Speaker Pelosi’s hometown and is ably represented by Elijah Cummings, not Alan Cumming although he’s pretty damn cool in his own right.

On the darker side, I nicknamed the president’s* son-in-law Slumlord Jared because of his literally vermin-infested properties in Mr. Cummings’ district. Fuck you, Jared and Donald.

Speaking of rats, Republicans are scrambling to defend the latest indefensible comments from their dear leader. Proving once again that he’s a journalist, not a FOX news hack, Chris Wallace nailed Mick Mulvaney to the wall about Trump’s racist and charmless attack on Charm City:

"I'm not reading between the lines, I'm reading the lines." pic.twitter.com/mVXsuxw9HO

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 28, 2019

It’s time to follow-up on Athenae’s post yesterday with a personal note. My neighborhood was majority black when we moved here in 2000. It had some sketchy areas but I never felt unsafe or uncomfortable. In fact, I frequently lament the changes in the hood since Katrina and the Federal Flood. I find myself saying, “Where did all the unfriendly white people come from?”

Many of our African-American neighbors have been priced out by gentrifiers and house-flippers. It’s a pity. I miss our more diverse pre-K neighborhood. Does that make me pro-vermin? According to the Insult Comedian it does.

The language used by Trump and his allies is despicable. The word “infested” was used by Nazis and Stalinists to justify their attacks on “unwanted” populations. I believe in judging political movements by the company they keep. That’s some bad company, y’all.

The last word goes to the Jayhawks who aren’t from Baltimore but recorded this song in 1989:

Jul 29 2019

2 Comments

Campaign Notes, Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Seal Of Disapproval edition

Well, folks – pigs have flown, Hell has frozen over, and the twelfth of Never has come.

I agree with the Freeperati on something.

Unless you stopped breathing early last week or live in a cave you already know about this :

How did Trump end up in front of a presidential seal doctored to include a Russian symbol?
Washington Post via MSN ^ | 7/25/19 | Michael Brice-Saddler, Reis Thebault

Posted on 7/25/2019, 5:24:31 AM by DoodleDawg

At first glance, there was nothing unusual about President Trump’s introduction Tuesday at Turning Point USA’s student summit. In many ways, it mirrored the production style that has become synonymous with Trump’s campaign rallies.

Following a 12-minute video illustrating Trump’s rise to the presidency, music blared as the president’s name flashed across a giant screen in a bold shade of red. Trump took the stage and soaked in the raucous cheers from hundreds of young supporters packed inside the Marriott Marquis in Washington.

Charlie Kirk, Turning Point’s outspoken founder and executive director, was on his left. But the image on the screen to Trump’s right — captured in dozens of photos and videos from the event — is less familiar.

The image almost resembles the official seal of the president; but a closer examination reveals alterations that seem to poke fun at the president’s golfing penchant and accusations that he has ties to Russia. Neither the White House nor Turning Point know how it got there or who created it.

1 posted on 7/25/2019, 5:24:31 AM by DoodleDawg

Usually, the Freeperati react to this kind of thing (mockery) with threats to kill the mocker.

Right?

To: DoodleDawg

Someone went through some effort, can’t believe that it’s not easy to find out who as that’s the kind of thing that’s usually shared on social media.

The Russian double headed eagle and holding golf clubs in one talon. I assume that the president’s advance team has learned a lesson that should have been learned about 3 years ago – control all the digital displays while POTUS is in the room.

As far as pranks go, pretty harmless. Yuck it up and move on.

4 posted on 7/25/2019, 5:49:13 AM by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)

To: Albion Wilde

Gotta admit it … that’s pretty clever and well executed.

6 posted on 7/25/2019, 5:49:49 AM by al_c (Democrats: Party over Common Sense)

To: yesthatjallen

Have to admit – the golf clubs were pretty funny.

7 posted on 7/25/2019, 3:09:37 PM by TomServo

To: yesthatjallen

I really have to give props to whoever thought of that and pulled it off. Grudging admiration.

Kind of like the Chinese signs behind Nixon that Dick Tuck pulled off.

Worth stealing.

16 posted on 7/25/2019, 3:25:58 PM by RedStateRocker (We had entirely enough government in 1789.)

To: winner3000

And we’d be laughing our butts off here if a similar thing had been done to a Democrat(sic) President.

42 posted on 7/25/2019, 4:06:37 PM by RedStateRocker (We had entirely enough government in 1789.)

To: Innovative

I thought it was well done … and funny.

50 posted on 7/25/2019, 4:20:19 PM by sparklite2 (Don’t mind me. I’m just a contrarian.)

One helpful suggestion :

To: I want the USA back

It was clearly deliberate.The people at Turning Point USA were infiltrated.

It seems people at TPUSA let their guard down and this creep had free reign and no oversight.

On a side note, I’d consider changing the name. While TP stands for Turning Point it’s also an abbreviation for toilet paper.

12 posted on 7/25/2019, 3:18:28 PM by yesthatjallen

And your point is ?

More below, yo ho!

Tagged Clown shoes, Free Republic, Freeperati, Freepers, Freeperville, Right-wing nutcases, The Darnold, the stupid it burns, Tommy T, Wingnuts

Jul 25 2019

2 Comments

Adrastos, Congress, Fog Of Scandal, Law/Justice, Political Crack, So Called Liberal Media, The Darnold

Final Thoughts About Muellerpalooza

I decided to write a followup to yesterday’s instant analysis post in order to flesh out my thoughts about Muellerpalooza. When I say instant analysis, I mean it. I wrote the post in under 35 minutes with as little reference as possible to what others are saying and thinking. Shorter Adrastos: I try to avoid punditry pollution at all costs. Hence what amounts to a sequel. I’m uncertain if there’s method in my madness or madness in my method. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

On a human level, I feel badly for Bob Mueller this morning. The expectations for both the investigation and the man himself were impossibly high. People hoped he would somehow save us from Trump. That was not his job: he’s a professional prosecutor not a resistance messiah. It was preposterous, indeed delusional, to expect a nearly 75 year old man to be something or someone that he is not. He did what he said he would do.

Upon diving into the pundit pool, I was struck by the age-ism of much of the commentary. Yes, Mueller looked old, tired, and querelous but his performance was hindered by the restrictions placed on him by the DOJ and the format of the hearings. He was repeatedly roasted by Republicans for his inability to answer certain questions when their attorney general is the one who tied his hands. Bill Barr is good at cover-ups in a way that Tricky Dick was not.

Other than Chairman Nadler, Judiciary Committee Democrats were there to be on teevee, not to get at the truth. I had hoped that professional staff would ask most of the questions. They asked none.

The Intelligence Committee hearing was better because members knew the facts and Mueller was both more alert and responsive to their inquiries. Committee Democrats did much less grandstanding and asked fewer questions that they knew would not be answered. They kept it snappy, which was why the second act was better.

Much of the criticism of Mueller involved the dread word optics. Many pundits were upset that Mueller was button-downed and reserved as opposed to flashy. It’s who he is. Many of the same pundits decry politicians for their lack of authenticity. Bob Mueller is a work horse, not a show horse. Anyone who expected impassioned speeches or a Perry Mason moment was kidding themselves.

Too much of the discourse over the Mueller Report has dwelled in cloud cuckoo land. There are villains aplenty but federal prosecutors are not comic book super heroes. Team Mueller’s job was to produce a report within the onerous constraints placed on them by the Justice Department. They did their job to the best of their ability and produced a report that many of their critics have not and will never read. Bob Mueller was never going to go rogue. It’s not who he is.

The discussion of impeachment has been equally fantastic in the original meaning of the word. I am firmly on the record as favoring impeachment but I understand the political calculations of House Democratic leaders, which have little to do with gumption or guts. In 2010, Speaker Pelosi decided that the ACA was worth losing the majority over. In 2019, she does not think that impeachment is worth losing the majority over. I disagree but her calculation is based on cold-blooded logic, not a lack of intestinal fortitude. Repeat after me: real life is NOT like a comic book movie.

Finally, Democrats should never have expected Robert Mueller to save us. That was not his job. He came out of semi-retirement at the age of 73 to serve his country again. We have to save ourselves.

The last word goes to the Beach Boys:

Repeat after me: real life is NOT like a comic book movie.

Jul 22 2019

Adrastos, Bigotry, Fog Of History, Language, Law/Justice, Political Crack, Supreme Court, The Darnold, Twitter

Trumper Incitement Speech

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any uglier, the Insult Comedian doubled down on his egregious bigotry. He briefly stepped back from the brink after Republican blowback over his remarks about “The Squad,” but he cannot help himself and was soon back to inciting the red-hatted hordes. It’s just the latest offensive language offensive by the party of Trump.

Trump’s latest racist comments led me to me ponder two legendary Supreme Court cases. In the first case, Schenck v. United State, Oliver Wendell Holmes (surely the best name in SCOTUS history) enunciated the “clear and present danger test.” 50 years later the Supremes limited that test in the case of a Klansman named Clarence Brandenburg, not to be confused with Clarence the goofball angel in It’s A Wonderful Life. In Brandenbeurg v. Ohio case, the Court held:

… that speech advocating illegal conduct is protected under the First Amendment unless the speech is likely to incite “imminent lawless action.”

When it comes to the First Amendment, I’m down with the late Justice Hugo Black who was a free speech absolutist. BUT just because incitement speech can be legal does not make it socially or politically acceptable. We cannot ban it unless it directly provokes violence BUT we can attack it at its source: the Trump regime and the GOP.

We’re seeing the effects of the Current Occupant’s vicious and racist attacks spring to life among his supporters. Rhetorical bombs are being tossed across the country.

Across the Big Muddy from Adrastos World HQ, a veteran Gretna police officer showed classic internet courage by first posting, then removing a Facebook thingamabob about Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez:

The Times-Picayune reported this weekend that police officer Charlie Rispoli had posted a threatening message about Ocasio-Cortez, who used to work as a bartender, on his Facebook page.

“This vile idiot needs a round…and I don’t mean the kind she used to serve,” Rispoli wrote in a caption above a fake article headlined with “Ocasio-Cortez On the Budget: ‘We Pay Soldiers Too Much’”

The cop seemed livid about the article, even though the site Taters Gonna Tate describes itself as a “satire” website and Ocasio-Cortez has never said that soldiers get paid “too much.”

A Trumper falling for a “fake news” article? Imagine that. Of course, anyone who has fallen for the Insult Comedian’s shtick is a fool and/or a poltroon.

Meanwhile, this happened in the Land of Lincoln:

This is on the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s Association’s Facebook site: pic.twitter.com/0qzKsiRzzq

— Rick Pearson (@rap30) July 21, 2019

Internet courage was also displayed by this group: they removed this offensive image as well as its even more offensive caption, “Political jihad is their game. If you don’t agree with their socialist ideology, you’re racist.”

That is, of course, Geoffrey Hughes’ character, Onslow, from Keeping Up Appearances, not one of the Illinois GOP honchos. But now that I think of it, all you have to do is add a Bears or Cubs hat and Bob’s your uncle. Your uncle, not mine.

They justified the racist image with this gobble-de-gook:

State Republican Chairman Tim Schneider responded to what he called the “bigoted rhetoric” in a statement, according to the Tribune.

“My intense disagreement with the socialist policies and anti-Semitic language of these four congresswoman has absolutely nothing to do with their race or religion,” he said. “I urge everyone who opposes them to keep the rhetoric focused on policy and ideology.”

Instead of gobble-de-gook, one might call this an Illini lie. Schneider is a German-sounding name, perhaps he should go back to Germany. Of course, German law takes a dim view of incitement speech for obvious reasons. Been there, done that.

The current political environment is ugly and getting uglier by the nano-second. Trump and his supporters will stop at nothing to keep him in office. I am genuinely concerned that this will result in even more politically inspired violence than we’ve already seen.

Like Pontius Pilate, Trump will wash his hands of any responsibility the next time someone gets hurt, especially if it’s one of The Squad. I have no sympathy for that devil, y’all.

And I was ’round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Trump and his followers are stirring the pot with their incitement speech. At the risk of sounding like an entry in the dictionary of political cliches, they will eventually reap the whirlwind and pay for their actions in the fall of 2020. But it will take hard work and persistence. And Boris Badenov and ilk may help Team Trump just as they did in 2016:

Repeat after me: Republicans lost the popular vote in the mid-terms by 9 points. Their only hope for victory is to depress Democratic turnout by hook or crook and pray for protection from the electoral college. Never forget: massive turnout by the people Trump is trying to otherize is the cure to what ails the country.

Since bomb throwing is the metaphor of the day, the last word goes to 10cc:

UPDATE: The Gretna, Louisiana cop mentioned above was fired.

Jul 22 2019

Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Chant Trix edition

Well, folks – this week’s “Obsession” pretty much wrote itself.

First, you had this :

Trump rally crowd chants ‘Send her back’ about Ilhan Omar
The Hill ^ | 07/17/19 | Brett Samuels

Posted on 7/17/2019, 7:18:02 PM by yesthatjallen

Supporters at President Trump’s campaign rally on Wednesday chanted “send her back” about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) after the president launched into a diatribe against the first-term lawmaker and Somali refugee.

Trump tore into Omar early on in his rally in Greenville, North Carolina, a continuation of his days-long attacks against her and three other progressive congresswomen. The crowd raucously booed Omar at the first mention of her name.

The president went on to accuse Omar of demeaning U.S. servicemembers and minimizing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“She looks down with contempt on the hard-working Americans saying that ignorance is pervasive in many parts of this country,” Trump said.

The crowd then broke into a chant of “Send her back” in reference to Omar, who came to the U.S. as a Somalian refugee as a teenager.

The president has in recent days targeted Omar and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), claiming the lawmakers “hate our country” and suggested they should leave rather than complain about the government.

He sparked an uproar on Sunday morning when he tweeted that progressive congresswomen “who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

1 posted on 7/17/2019, 7:18:02 PM by yesthatjallen

Places, everyone….

And we’re OFF!

To: yesthatjallen

Let them all pick the socialist shithole of their choice, send them there.

4 posted on 7/17/2019, 7:23:06 PM by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; — FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)

Denmark? Finland? West Virginia?

To: yesthatjallen

How’d this freaking Skinny

Apparently, “skinny” is the new “nigger”.

get in the wire, anyway. I hear our President brought up her marriage . . . to another Skinny, – her brother 😂This President ~~kicks~~ licks ass. 😂

8 posted on 7/17/2019, 7:24:52 PM by atc23

FIFY.

To: yesthatjallen

@rising_serpent
Such is the power of Trump’s ability to change the narrative, he single-handedly made the MSM give the toxic quadruplets more airtime than the entire Democrat presidential clown car combined.
Right now Democrats are ~~wringing their hands in impotent despair~~ celebrating, at knowing ~~they~~ Trump just torpedoed the GOP and lost 2020.

14 posted on 7/17/2019, 7:38:40 PM by numberonepal (WWG1WGA)

You dumb fucks are lucky I’m not charging you by the word for copyreading.

A couple of Freepers glance outside their bubble:

To: yesthatjallen

I found that cringe worthy. Not helpful.

30 posted on 7/17/2019, 8:27:46 PM by americas.best.days… ( Donald John Trump has pulled the sword from the stone.)

To: yesthatjallen

Will be spun as inciting racism, could lead to genocide.

15 posted on 7/17/2019, 7:38:55 PM by BusterDog

Thou thinkest?

To: RoseofTexas

chithole = slit trench

39 posted on 7/17/2019, 9:59:30 PM by 353FMG

Classy.

And THEN –

Trump disavows ‘send her back’ chant from his rally
Politico ^ | 07/18/2019 | Quint Forgey
Posted on 7/18/2019, 2:48:07 PM by SeekAndFind

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday he “was not happy” with the crowd at his campaign rally for chanting “send her back,” after he had goaded the North Carolina audience with a fiery attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But again, I didn’t say that. They did. But I disagree with it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that he “started speaking very quickly” in an attempt to silence the rally attendees.

Prior to the audience at Greenville’s East Carolina University breaking into their chant Wednesday night, the president tore into Omar, mischaracterizing past controversial statements by the Minnesota Democrat related to the 9/11 terror attacks and Al Qaeda that conservatives have seized upon in recent months.

Just before the incendiary refrain broke out, Trump accused Omar of having “a history of launching vicious, anti-Semitic screeds,” and then silently gazed out over the crowd for roughly 15 seconds until the cheers of “send her back” abated.

“It was quite a chant, and I felt a little bit badly about it,” Trump said on Thursday, later hailing the number of supporters inside the “packed arena” and boasting of the “tremendous support” and “great energy” enjoyed by the Republican Party.

“I say there is far more energy on the right than there is on the left,” he said, adding, “I think we have far more support than they do and I think we have far more energy than they do. And we’re going to have a very interesting election. But I was not happy when I heard that chant.”

1 posted on 7/18/2019, 2:48:07 PM by SeekAndFind

Uh oh.

To: SeekAndFind

Truly a stupid and VERY bad move, Mr. President!

5 posted on 7/18/2019, 2:53:54 PM by nopardons

More Freeper reactions below the fold ….

Tagged Clown shoes, Free Republic, Freeperati, Freepers, Freeperville, Right-wing nutcases, The Darnold, the stupid it burns, Tommy T, Wingnuts

Jul 17 2019

2 Comments

Adrastos, Bigotry, Political Crack, Race, The Darnold, Your President Speaks

Donald Trump Is A Racist

I realize that I’m both preaching to the choir and stating the obvious with this post title. I think it’s important to be direct when writing about the depths of the Insult Comedian’s bigotry and the damage it has done to the country.

Vox’s German Lopez has assembled an impressive timeline of Trumpian public racism that stretches back to 1973. It’s an ugly but must-read piece. Anyone with a lick of sense has known from the beginning that Donald Trump is not only a criminal, he’s a racist.

What else was birtherism but a demand that Barack Obama show his “papers” to prove his citizenship? It didn’t need to be true or even partially true to have a malicious effect on the body politic. Hell, Trump wasn’t even the original birther but he was the most persistent.

I realize that Trump’s “go back” attack on the Squad was an attempt to divert attention from all the Trump scandals. It was imperative, however, to call him on his egregious racism. I wish he would “go back” to Trump Tower and leave the rest of us alone.

There were only 4 Republican House members plus Justin Amash who voted for the resolution condemning Trump’s latest racist tweet. I was surprised that there were any so this kinda, sorta counts as progress.

The GOP response was typified by Mitch McConnell, Steve Scalise, and Kevin McCarthy all of whom claimed Trump is not a racist and that they were nice to then President Obama. It’s all so typical and tiresome. Give it a rest, y’all. You own this guy and his overt racism.

The worst effect of having a racist, white nationalist president* is that it’s now socially acceptable in some quarters to make overtly racist comments in broad daylight. They’re following the president’s* bad example. I wish they would crawl back under the rock they oozed out from under BUT at least we know where we stand. The dog whistle has been replaced with a bullhorn.

Team Trump’s 2020 strategy has been obvious for months: defame, slander, and lie about their opponents to depress Democratic turnout. It’s their only hope of winning since they’ve been shrinking their base since the infamous “American carnage” inaugural rant. The good news is that Trump’s racist, xenophobic mid-term campaign did not work. The bad news is that we’re stuck with this asshole until January, 2021.

One good effect of Trump’s face-off with the Squad is that the MSM is starting to call a racist a racist. Trump’s reaction has been typically overstated:

Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show “weakness” and fall into their trap. This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2019

That’s the Insult Comedian’s version of “some of my best friends are black.” Given his record of sexual assault, there may be one bone in his body that isn’t racist, if you catch my drift.

I may be preaching to the choir but repeat after me: Donald Trump is a racist.

The last word goes to Rodney Crowell:

Jul 17 2019

Adrastos, Film, Language, Political Crack, The Darnold

To Sir, With Self-Love

Barack Obama is frequently compared to Sidney Poitier. They’re both dignified, self-possessed pioneers. I never expected to spin a Poitier movie title in a post about Donald Trump’s mendacity but I just did. The world works in mysterious ways, sir. Believe me.

Daniel Dale has been chronicling the Insult Comedian’s lies since he descended on that Trump Tower escalator and ripped into Mexican “rapists.” The lies, half-truths, and exaggerations have, if anything, escalated since that moment. Daniel Dale has been there for all of it; first at the Toronto Star and now at CNN, sir.

Dale’s systematic study of Trumpian mendacity turned up a word that is almost invariably a tell that the president* is lying. You guessed it; the word is SIR.

I’ve fact-checked every word Trump has uttered since his inauguration. I can tell you that if this President relays an anecdote in which he has someone referring to him as “sir,” then some major component of the anecdote is very likely to be wrong.

Lots of people do call Trump “sir,” of course. But the word seems to pop into his head more frequently when he is inventing or exaggerating a conversation than when he is faithfully relaying one. A “sir” is a flashing red light that he is speaking from his imagination rather than his memory.

In poker parlance, it’s a tell.

Yes sir, Mr. Dale, sir.

This is the most disturbing sir story by far, sir, because the stakes were so high, sir:

President Donald Trump told a dramatic story on Twitter last month.

Explaining how he decided to cancel a possible attack on Iran, he wrote, “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it…”

This was all so Hollywood that I would have been skeptical regardless of Trump’s choice of words. Because he included one particular word, though, I was almost certain the story was inaccurate in some way.

<SNIP>

My “sir” suspicions didn’t betray me on Trump’s Iran tweet last month. Later in the day he posted it, CNN reported that a White House official said Trump was given a casualty estimate much earlier than “10 minutes before the strike.” reported that an administration official said the “150 people” figure was given to Trump by White House lawyers, not in a cinematic exchange with a general.

Yes sir, Mr. Dale, sir. That’s a Lulu of a whopper, sir. Lulu, of course, sang the theme song for the 1967 Sidney Poitier movie To Sir, With Love. Hence the post title: To Sir, With Self-Love.

Another major Trump tell is when he ends a sentence with “believe me.” It’s an indicator that what preceded it is untrue. Believe me, sir. Uh oh, I just shot my credibility to hell.

The last word goes to Lulu:

Jul 15 2019

Adrastos, Bigotry, Political Crack, The Darnold, Twitter

Tweet Of The Day: John Kerry Edition

Before entering electoral politics, Ayanna Pressley was a senior aide to then Senator John Kerry. Big John rose to Pressley’s defense after the president* told her and three of her colleagues to “go back” to their shithole districts. I’m the one who said shithole this time, but he’s said it before and will say it again. Believe me.

Ayanna's life story is more American than this president and his warped worldview could ever imagine. The only person who should "go back" anywhere is @realDonaldTrump: to Trump Tower where he cooked up birtherism and debased politics. (2/2)

— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) July 15, 2019

The MSM called Trump’s original tweet, “racially charged.” Those of us in the reality based community called it racist. It was a successful attempt to distract attention from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. It’s the only thing the Insult Comedian does well.

A quick note to my fellow Democrats; STFU and stop attacking one another. We’re the big tent party and we need a coalition to win elections. Moderates and Lefties need one another to take on the real enemy: THE PARTY OF TRUMP.

Jul 15 2019

6 Comments

Free Republic, Immigration, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – My citizenship is sinking edition

Morning, all! Only one thing on the Obsession agenda this week – LOSING!!!

Trump drops executive action on U.S. Census, will seek citizenship survey by other means
R ^ | 7/11/19 UPDATED AN HOUR AGO | Jeff Mason, David Shepardson

Posted on 7/11/2019, 3:20:54 PM by conservative98

A government official confirmed that Trump is expected to announce he will drop the legal battle to include the question on the census survey and instead direct the Commerce Department to obtain answers on citizenship through other means, but it was not clear how that would occur or how it would be funded.

The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department. The U.S. Constitution specifically assigns the job of overseeing the census to Congress, limiting the authority of the president over it, which complicates adding the question to the decennial survey via presidential missive.

Trump’s decision not to proceed with an executive order on adding the citizenship question to the census was first reported by ABC News.

1 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:20:54 PM by conservative98

Uh oh.

To: conservative98

So he didn’t announce it yet?

Speculation……

3 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:22:43 PM by Trump.Deplorable

Just keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.

To: Trump.Deplorable

have confirmation apparently

12 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:24:46 PM by conservative98

Oops.

To: conservative98

Damn. The Census determines representation, not meaningless surveys. Tired of caving to the Left.

5 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:23:08 PM by pgyanke (Republicans get in trouble when not living up to their principles. Democrats… when they do.)

Poor baby.

To: conservative98

LOSING

6 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:23:10 PM by morphing libertarian ( Use Comey’s Report, Indict Hillary now; build Kate’s wall. — Proud Smelly Walmart Deplorable)

SO much losing!

To: conservative98

Looks like the immigration enforcement vehicle Trump uses only has three gears, all operating in reverse.

8 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:23:59 PM by odawg

They’re not even bothering with the dog whistles any more, are they?

Apparently, the national census is an “immigration enforcement vehicle”.

Hoocouldanode?

To: conservative98

Hey Trump???? WTH is this about???

15 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:25:39 PM by devane617 (Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.~ George Orwell, 1984)

Offhand, I’d say it’s about a little thing called The Constitution.

You may have heard of it.

To: morphing libertarian

Damn it! Another surrender. Absolute disgust is what I feel. Great surrender 15 to 20 house seats and who knows how many EC Votes

21 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:28:38 PM by gibsonguy

How many? I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?

To: over3Owithabrain

I don’t need any more evidence that President Trump has very little control of the executive branch.

24 posted on 7/11/2019, 3:29:42 PM by lodi90

Executive branch?

I doubt that drooling kumtwat even has control of his bladder.

More caterwauling after the thingy.

Tagged Clown shoes, Free Republic, Freeperati, Freepers, Freeperville, immigration, Right-wing nutcases, The Darnold, the stupid it burns, Tommy T, Wingnuts

Jul 08 2019

Part of Reagan’s speech was an ode to immigration:

Adrastos, Fog Of History, Immigration, Political Crack, The Darnold

Quote Of The Day: Immigration Edition

The Insult Comedian is messing about on twitter again. He retweeted a genuine picture of himself with then President Ronald Reagan that included a phony quote about the awesomeness of the Donald. Anyone surprised?

I have immigration on my mind because of the migrant detention/concentration camps on our border with Mexico. Additionally, Independence Day has evolved into a holiday on which we celebrate new citizens who have taken a test that the Current Occupant would surely fail. Every year at federal buildings across the country, the latest crop of new citizens is sworn in on the last business day before the Fourth of July. They take an oath to the constitution, not to the dear leader much as the Kaiser of Chaos might like that.

That brings me to the quote of the day. It comes from a man I never voted for but who looks better all the time thanks to the antics of the Current Occupant and his band of rogues and poltroons. That’s right, I’m about to quote the 40th president, Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was emphatically conservative BUT he was a business Republican from a border state, not a nativist like Trump. These remarks come from a ceremony on Reagan’s last day as Oval One at which he awarded the medal of freedom to former Senate Democratic leader and Ambassador to Japan, Mike Mansfield, and Republican Secretary of State, Treasury, and Labor, George Schultz.

And since this is the last speech that I will give as President, I think it’s fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors. It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world. For it’s the great life force of each generation of new Americans that guarantees that America’s triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond. Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on Earth comes close.

This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. While other countries cling to the stale past, here in America we breathe life into dreams. We create the future, and the world follows us into tomorrow. Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.

You know things are bad when I praise Ronald Reagan, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Reagan was president the last time the immigration laws were comprehensively updated. You know, the laws Trump calls a disgrace. The only disgrace is the current president* himself.

Jul 08 2019

Free Republic, The Darnold, Tommy T

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Farce Of July edition

Well, now wasn’t last week fun?

I’m not going to post any of the endless stream of Revolutionary War Airport stories and memes, since you’ve probably seen all of them more than once. (just in case you haven’t…)

Instead, let’s see what the Freepers thought of it – when they finally acknowledged its existence, that is. It took a day or so.

Trump blames ‘airports’ gaffe on teleprompter
BBC News ^ | 5th July 2019 | BBC News

Posted on 7/5/2019, 11:51:58 AM by Ennis85

US President Donald Trump has blamed a teleprompter going “kaput” for a glaring anachronism in his Fourth of July speech.

He told crowds on Independence Day the Continental Army “took over the airports” from the British during the American Revolutionary War in 1775.

Explaining away the slip-up on Friday, Mr Trump also said it was hard to read the teleprompter in the rain.

He hosted a military parade at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday.

During his “Salute to America” speech, he was talking about the year 1775 when he said: “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”

Critics pointed out the revolutionaries could not have seized airports more than a century before the first powered flight – credited to the Wright brothers in 1903 – took off.

Outside the White House on Friday, Mr Trump said: “I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter.

“I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter but the teleprompter did go out and it was actually hard to look at anyway because there was rain all over it.”

The president spoke to reporters as he departed with First Lady Melania Trump for the weekend to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Mr Trump said the military parade he hosted on Thursday was a “fantastic night” and forecast a rise in US military recruitment.

Before winning the White House, Mr Trump used to mock ex-President Barack Obama for relying on an autocue.

Twitter users were quick to poke fun at Mr Trump for the error, with many using the hashtag #RevolutionaryWarAirports.

1 posted on 7/5/2019, 11:51:58 AM by Ennis85

Freepers?

To: Ennis85

We probably would have caught that, but there are times when you read and aren’t totally tuned in to what you are reading. He may have been thinking a bit too much about events coming up.

It was a great speech. The guy is a human dynamo. Mistakes will happen, and some will look glaring. It comes with the territory.

6 posted on 7/5/2019, 11:55:05 AM by DoughtyOne (This space for rent…)

To: Ennis85

If Trump said we took over the airports, then we took over the airports. There were no airplanes yet, but our forward thinking had us take over the airports. Thank you Trump.

9 posted on 7/5/2019, 11:58:41 AM by coon2000 (Give me Liberty or give me death)

To: right way right

The people seated behind him during the speech appeared to be all White.

NoShitSherlock

I thought they would jump all over that, too.

21 posted on 7/5/2019, 12:07:00 PM by hsmomx3

To: Ennis85

The President rewrote a little bit of history – so what?

The Left rewrites history all the time – it’s about time we had a leader who fights fire with fire. Besides, President Trump always turns out to be right.

Oh boy are they going to have egg on their faces when it turns out there WERE airports back then!!

62 posted on 7/5/2019, 6:23:50 PM by enumerated

To: GodAndCountryFirst

“Members of the DEEP STATE are said to be fleeing Washington.”

That’s why the tanks are there. Go get ‘em!

247 posted on 7/4/2019, 6:54:37 PM by Jim Noble (1)

Ah yes – about those tanks…

To: deks

Can someone tell me what happened to the tanks?

321 posted on 7/4/2019, 7:51:53 PM by Vaden (First they came for the Confederates… Next they came for Washington… Then they came…)

To: Vaden

There was one right in front of the stage I believe

327 posted on 7/4/2019, 8:00:00 PM by Jrabbit

To: Jrabbit

I guess I was confused about what this was. I thought it was going to be a parade with the equipment rolling by and so forth. According to sources on the internet, the attendees could not get near the tanks. Many people complained they never saw a tank.

Doesn’t make sense.

334 posted on 7/4/2019, 8:05:36 PM by Vaden (First they came for the Confederates… Next they came for Washington… Then they came…)

Tanks for nothin’.

The Darnold wanted a parade train of hundreds of tanks, Moscow / Beijing / Pyongyang style, and what did he get?

Two tanks, (no, a Bradley is not a fucking tank) parked immobile on concrete pads, so far away you needed binoculars to see them.
TWO!

Biggest dictator fail EVAR!

Tweet Of The Day: Come Fly With Me

I took my own advice yesterday and stayed away from political news. We binge watched the first half of Season 4 of Billions instead. The one in which Axe and Chuck are unlikely allies but I digress.

That’s why I was so tickled when this tweet from a New Orleans writer was the first thing I saw this morning upon glancing at the tweeter tube:

"The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over airports."
– President Donald Trump, 4th of July, 2019. pic.twitter.com/R1CLRMgBJR

— Karen DaltonBeninato (@kbeninato) July 5, 2019

Cornwallis of Yorktown? He was local? Who knew?

Rammed the ramparts? Say what? I didn’t know the Cleveland/Los Angeles/St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams existed then.

Airports? I wonder if George Washington had a private jet or flew himself in a prop plane?

Questions, questions, questions. All I’ve got are questions.

The last word goes to Frank Sinatra:

Jul 03 2019