I needed to hibernate from the political headlines for a while after Justice Kennedy’s sudden resignation from the Supreme Court. I needed time to get my head together and I doubt I’m alone. It’s a really rough time to be an American. So here’s are some of the apocalyptic headlines we should keep our eye on today and throughout the week:
The Denaturalization Task Force. You know all of the immigrants who have come to this country, played by the rules, been extensively vetted by federal agencies, taken long-form citizenship tests and pledged allegiance to America? Well, Trump has launched a task force to strip some (many?) of those naturalized citizens of their citizenship. For real. A task force is now investigating thousands of American citizens and will potentially strip them of their citizenship. Let me guess: only the brown and black people are being investigated by the task force.
Trump is meeting his handler. New York Magazine has a new piece about how to interpret Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin this week, and whether we should just acknowledge that Trump has been severely compromised by how much sh-t Putin has on him. Yes. We should acknowledge it. You can read the piece here.
Russia keeps killing people in Britain. The stories about Russian-made nerve agents being used in Britain are freaking me out. A British woman is now dead after she was exposed to Novichok. It’s awful.
Trump will be announcing his SCOTUS pick today. He wants it to be like another episode of The Bachelor, where he’s giving a rose to some wingnut. After making some noise about wanting to choose a woman, he’s SHOCKINGLY probably just going to pick some white dude with a gun rack and a Confederate flag. Let me guess, the dude will hate women too.
Trump’s Nazi rally last week. I found it too depressing to cover last week, but people are still talking about how Trump, a man who once bragged about sexually assaulting women because he’s famous, was making some jokes about the #MeToo movement. Why wouldn’t he? Congrats, Deplorables. This is what you voted for.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid.
Ummmm there are a lot of women (my mother included) who roll their eyes at the MeToo movement, so no, I don’t think he’s gonna lose voters talking like that. He only makes them angrier and more riled up. It’s really scary how deep some people’s loyalty for that assclown goes.
And it’s scary how deep some people’s racism and hatred of women and ‘outsiders’ goes. That’s what makes them loyal to him: He validates.
For someone who dallied with teens with Jeffery Epstein, trafficked models through his agency, and disrespects women constantly, do we expect any different!?! Just wait until all the really gross laundry comes out about dirty Trump!
“Congrats, Deplorables. This is what you voted for.”
Most know that’s exactly what they voted for – and they have no shame. They delight in this shit – he’s doing exactly what they’d hoped.
I have a married white woman friend who voted for the fart and I’m going to guess she’s pretty typical. If it wasn’t featured on Fox (which her husband tunes into faithfully every evening), she claims to be “not interested in politics.” I swear that’s how people who I know to be overall good people who have a garden variety level of racism are justifying their vote: this is politics as usual, both sides, Hillary was worse, and generally IGNORING REALITY.
When we retake America, we need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine or something similar.
Deplorable ones do not read Celebitchy dear. They read Ann Coulter’s weekly column and her tweets. If they had an open mind they would be here learning something other than hatred and lies from white supremacists.
Of course they do. And some even held their noses, yet STILL voted for him because he promised to deliver a SCOTUS. And sadly, he’ll do it. Jim Acosta reported that Dump’s only criteria for SCOTUS: “Would you indict a sitting Pres.?”. I just can’t anymore. I am depleted.
Those investigations into citizenship is another step closer to genocide. It’s like the stars in Germany. It won’t be long before the international bodies put the US on watch lists. Calling immigrants animals, blaming domestic problems on immigrants, calling them South Americans gang members, taking children,the anti- Muslim bill, and the demonization of some media and the use of state media (Fox) to spread his message of hate – these are all indicators of what’s to come.
Fascist Matteo Salvini (interior ministry) wants to officially count the number Sinti and Roma living in Italy to deport the ones who do not have Italian citizenship.
This is how it begins.
I had to stay off Twitter and bury myself in HGTV shows. I hardly go on Facebook because that can be worse. I’ve been so depressed lately as well. The whole world is in the sunken place.
And on top of that you got people calling the cops on black people like the cops are customer service.
Me too BlueSky, me too.
I am seriously so depressed, I’m concerned about myself and the effect it may have on my work performance at my job. I’ve been someone who always “gets it done: nose to the grind stone, etc.” and I can’t seem to focus on anything anymore and have no energy or desire to do anything. Steady decline since the election. When does situational become chronic, anyway?
Same. Honestly I have never been a huge fan of sleeping or sleeping more than 6-7 hrs. Now when I am awake I count the hours until I can go into dreamland and forget that 40% of the population is pure evil. My boyfriend told me its a sign of depression but really I never felt this way until the past year. I hate living here right now.
Yall’s president truly is an unrepetent piece of trash. Sen. Warren is probably going to face (even more) threats because of Bankrupcy Batista, just like Auntie Maxine. Honest to God, I cannot stand him. Good job to the 53% by the way.
The northern border is still open..run.
I know jokes about the northern border are meant as stress relief, but the anti-immigrant policies of the Republican Party (led by Trump) are causing increasing headaches for Canada, and right-wing politicians such as the new Ontario premier, Doug Ford, are tapping into that to divide people.
The Canadian border isn’t ‘open’ but we’re just trying to figure out
how to handle the growing number of frightened asylum-seekers coming up from the USA in a more humane and less targeted way. Canada also is rejecting a lot of visa-seekers from certain countries. We haven’t pulled out of the Safe Third Country Agreement. And our immigration policy selects for money and education, whereas the USA when it is in a welcoming mood is more open to and integrating of ‘the huddled masses’ – which was always a plus in my view.
For now. There have been a couple of stories lately of people getting stopped or detained at the US/Canada border. There was the French jogger who accidentally crossed the border out west and got put in a detention centre for 2 weeks even though her mom brought all of her documents down the same day. There have also been Canadian fishermen being stopped by US border patrol in either shared waters or on the Canadian side and questioned about their citizenship.
Can’t wait until the Deplorables get smacked in the face and wallet when Emperor Zero’s “trade war” bites them in the arse.
What was that, pig farmer? You’ll be voting blue in November?
And telling OPEC to lower oil prices never worked…enjoy sky-rocketing gas prices.
I’ve read an article in the Des Moines Register talking about soybeans. They said the tariffs and the threats of tariffs have made the price of soy drop drastically. If the price doesn’t go up by harvest season (September/October), then Trump voters said they would have to face the reality about Trump. They “hope” his hard bargaining pays off, but they sounded like they were starting to realize that this gamble could cost them their farms.
Calling people Nazis will not win an election. Once the Democrats figure this out we may have a chance. The deplorable vote will be huge in November, why can’t the Democrats see this?
Don’t act like Nazis if you don’t want to be called one. It’s really that simple.
I am not disagreeing at all. I am saying that there has been no attempt to bring in voters that are appalled by Trump. There is only name calling. I just don’t think it is going to work.
I am not saying that it isn’t true.
@klc, I don’t understand. By “voters that are appalled by Trump”, do you mean those who voted for him in 2016 and might not agree with him now or other voters? Because the first category is rather empty and focusing on them would be a huge waste of time and energy IMO.
Why won’t they be civil about the GOP acting like Nazis!? It’s unconscionable! We should be able to whiten America to historically imagined levels! Why should women expect equal rights!?
FTR, the “civility” bullcrap is being pushed hard by Russian bots and trolls. Think of that.
To win the country back, we need to show up at the polls in overwhelming numbers and protect voting rights and evidence of voting preference in every way possible.
People willing to give the benefit of the doubt to Trump and other Republicans will find a way to do it again. It’s not our job to “save” them. That’s not how democracy works.
It’s our job to make sure members of minority groups who were let down by the Supreme Court’s overturning key provisions of the Voting Rights Act can vote and do vote. It’s our job to fund the legal efforts to get rid of gerrymandered districts. It’s our job to make sure everyone we know is registered to vote, can vote that day or in early voting, and votes in every single election from now until their death. Drive them to the polls. Feed them and water them and make sure they can stay there. Make sure you employer gives people adequate time off to vote. People who voted for Trump will have to sort themselves out.
Sorry they are Nazis and they can’t be saved. I have had it with them. Yes they will continue to vote bc they want their Nazi policies and lack of humanity to continue. I am not going to sugarcoat their shit in case one out of 100 somehow grows a heart before November.
There are more registered voters for Democrats than Republicans. The focus needs to be getting out a message that will bring voters into the polls, not rehabilitating Deplorables. These people are getting exactly what they want. They embrace this evil. We need to stop pretending they aren’t exactly what they appear to be.
We also need to stop waiting for a pure candidate on the Dems side. We need to band together to oust the GOP, and in 2020 oust trump. We can’t do that if a portion of the Democrats refuse to vote or throw it away on a candidate that can’t win.
That’s how the GOP beat us.
Why shouldn’t they be called Nazi’s when they are doing the exact same thing that the Nazis did? For all those people arguing that it’s unfair to call the Dotard and his administration Nazis, please take a moment to read the stories of Holocaust survivors and books about concentration camps. History is repeating itself. We have republicans who are standing by doing nothing as the Dotard and Stephen Miller destroy families. We have Democrats like Pelosi and Schumer throwing under Democrats under the bus because they are afraid that any resistance will mobilize the Dotard’s base, which consists primarily of bots. When the Dotard meets with Putin, it’s to go over their plan for hijacking the midterms, special elections, and 2020 election.
It’s interesting that they are more offended by being called Nazis than they are being complicit with Nazis.
There are 5 actual self-identified Nazis/White Supremacists on ballots in November, all running as candidates for the GOP. Should we not call these people what they call themselves?
This is what the deplorables voted for and they LOVE IT. Literally nothing is going to sway then from that worship short of him having a total personality transplant which resulted in him reversing everything he’s done since he’s been in office and then admitting he was a terrible choice and putting HRC in office in his place.
The eat up every sexist, racist morsel that comes out of his mouth because that is who they are and who they will always be. They don’t care if he tanks the economy, kills the planet or starts a war with someone. These people live in some John Wayne/Chuck Norris-Murrica-The South Shall Rise Again fantasy and they believe he can deliver it to them in real life. And he’s really working on it.
That’s why I’m over the idea that we have to try and understand these folks – I do. For all the bible thumping and flag waving, America First BS, the thing they admire the most about him is that he operates completely void of morals or rules. And that’s what they want – every last one of them would close a thousand average Joe businesses and stab their fellow blue collar worker buddies in the back if they thought it would bring them a tenth of the lifestyle that 45 is living.
Totally agree, grabby. We should not focus on swaying any of these people, they are a complete lost cause, AND THEY ARE THE MINORITY of the voting population! Don’t forget that he lost the popular vote!
Yes, I also agree. His voters love his performative cruelty.
Someone at the WPost said they enjoy the look of horror on our faces as they pound the nails into their heads.
1. This man making inflammatory and horrible comments has deadened me. I have no outrage left to give him. I can think no less of him than I already do.
2. His policies are a different matter and this is truly horrifying. Is there no statute of limitations for lying on a federal form? Does anyone in the administration understand due process?
3. My phone autocorrected my misspelled “Donald” to “Don’t bald”. Take your smiles as you find them, gang. This world is bleak.
Focus on the other Republican politicians, the senators and congressional representatives, the governors and any local people you can find to influence and protest as need be. If you’re in a ‘blue’ area, thank them for working for democracy and send money to key races in swing states. We all have to do something to keep up our energy and morale.
This is going to end badly…really badly.
I’m grimly afraid you are right, but Trump needs to survive to see the damage he has caused. I need him to see his family imprisoned, I need him to see lawyers quitting his impoverished ass, and I need his treasonous mouth cutoff from all communication other than a court-appointed lawyer. It’s good he’s familiar with cages:)
Just the fact that his meeting with his campaign manager putin will include NO other americans who actually know what they’re doing ..that it is all secret..should prove to even the most ignorant trump groupie who is really controlling this freak show..bizarro world..
But his base loves it. Had a one sided conversation on FB about transparency and Trump. One of the mantra’s this guy says is “He’s president, he can do anything he wants the he!! to do”. This guy believes he’s right and anything you say (especially being a woman) is wrong. I stop the conversation when the third time through he is still repeating the same old cr@p.
Oh my goodness, that fella has no idea about how the system’s supposed to work. All you can do is point out that he supports dictatorship.
@WATP – I do every time and it gets frustrating. This time he was rude and pretty much called me stupid. He’s a FB friend of my brother and my brother LOVES baiting him. The problem is when you point out things and have proof for them he still doesn’t get it. He said at one point that Obama was overheard telling Putin that when the 2012 election was over thing would be more flexibility. I asked him to give his sources (which I ask for all the time) and he just tells me to go look it up. I did this time, found out that Obama did say there would be more flexibility but did not say it to Putin directly. When he pointed that out, said it didn’t matter. It’s pointless to argue with him because he refuses to admit he’s wrong.
I used to always say, “How could someone be so stupid?” for a variety of things, like criminals in the news, crazy drivers, etc. I no longer say it because I always remember half the country voted for this piece of radioactive flotsam. There are women who would kiss his feet if they had the chance.
As President, this man is responsible for appointing the chair of the EEOC and enforcing the EEOA. The EEOA is what gives people the right to sue their employers for sexual harassment in the workplace. The President is mocking the very laws he is supposed to enforce to protect us.
He was also calling on his minions to throw things at and assault my Senator Elizabeth Warren. He did this in the same week the official White House twitter account, which by law must remain non-partisan, spewed political attacks on Warren and Kamala Harris.
It is interesting how much of Trump’s bizarre and hateful emotional pathology is based around his obvious overwhelming fear of women. It would almost be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and frightening! It will be women who will make him fall in the next presidential election.
I’d like to think that either via midterms, Mueller, or McDonalds, this man won’t make it to 2020.
Not that that routs the main problem – which is a rotten GOP – but at least we wouldn’t have to look at anus mouth.
If you stop and think about all the people he mocks: women, minorities, Kim Jong Un, reporters, gold star families, John McCain, etc etc., it’s all people that scare him. He only mocks people that strike fear in his heart. He’s a bully, and like all bullies, a massive coward.
He’s a coward, but I don’t think these groups scare him – I think he knows it works politically to mock them because it makes him look like a Big Tough Man.
Bullies have been shown not to be insecure, but instead to have large egos. They’re just bad. Trump does genuinely think very highly of himself. He’s wrong, but his self-regard is genuine.
Hope he dies!
Me too sister. Me too.
You know how we say, “I wouldn’t wish XYZ on my worst enemy”?
Screw that.
With Trump, all civility just goes out the window. I know you shouldn’t fight fire with fire, but there is no kindness in me for him.
A daily prayer to the universe from this atheist!
By any means necessary.
My mom never actively wished for someone’s death until Trump came along. 🙁
The partner of the woman who died in the UK is also not expected to pull through. It’s heartbreaking.
Charles Blow had an excellent oped in the NYT about the fact that yes, babyfists has told us time and again he is Putin’s puppet.
drump is a Putin’s puppet. We need to stop scratching our heads, accept this fact and deal with this fact.
Kaiser, I also was so depressed these past two weeks. Laurence Tribe had a few words that were slightly encouraging, but I think I will avoid all news for the next week ( except the London protests).
The New York Times has an article entitled US Opposition to Breast Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials. It basically states that the world got together to push a ‘breast is best’ program, until the States stepped in and said nope, we’re here for the infant formula lobby instead.
“American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding” and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.
When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.
The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.”
Believe it or not, the article actually gets worse from there.
I read that. There really is not bottom for this administration.
I’ve been the devils advocate when it comes to discussions on Trump, but he can go f*ck himself. He’s part of the reason the me too movement exists.
Canada can not and will not save us. Getting into Canada will soon become almost impossible for those of us that want to escape this nightmare. And the wall at the southern border? Joke’s on us. It will become an iron curtain if it ever gets built, keeping people in instead of out. Welcome to East Berlin, y’all.
Canada has to take care of itself and manage an increasingly dangerous situation with its heavily armed neighbour to the south. We have no other allies on our flanks. The immigration process is slow and long, though if you’re young and can provide needed skills in everything from health care to computer programming to resource work, come on up! We need you! But best to secure a job with a Canadian firm before you get here; it’s harder to look as an outsider. Just know that you will have to get in line for citizenship, and maybe PERMANENT residency, too.
We actually want people here, as long as they are skilled, healthy and ready to contribute — as most immigrants are.
Trump and Guiliani are going to put off an interview with Meuller and eventually outright refuse. When that happens the issue will go to the courts for decision. What a coincidence that Kennedy just happened to decide to retire so suddenly…. Trump has somehow bought/bribed/blackmailed Kennedy and forced him to retire so that he can pick a judge that he knows will vote in his favor…on his newly VERY conservative supreme court. I think this has been the plan all along–to make the issue go to the Supreme Court where it will be decided in his favor and possibly altogether dismissed somehow. This is literally a coup. And I am the furthest thing from a conspiracy theorist, but there is a lot of evidence for this. We have been seeing this happen in drips and drabs, so slowly that we are not seeing the full picture and how it is all connected and intentional.
Hillary Clinton was right about the vast right-wing conspiracy, she was right about Donald Trump, and she’ll be right in whatever assessments she chooses to share from today going forward.
Dump’s only question to SCOTUS nominees (according to Jim Acosta today) is: Can you indict a sitting pres.? Makes me want to vomit.
This morning on morning Joe, joe said this administration is the most corrupt administration in the history of this country. I bet joe has info that is not yet public knowledge. We are in for a HOT summer, 😆.
I’m hoping that my family is reflective of the attitude of most Americans. My older niece and I voted for Hillary. The remainder voted for Trump. None will vote him in for a second term. My younger niece (and staunch Republican) is a legislative analyst and was offered a position in the Trump administration. She had some misgivings and ultimately turned it down. At this point she is soooooo glad that she did—-because she has major problems with Trump, because she’s heard that the work environment is nightmarish and finally because it undoubtedly would have a negative effect on future job prospects.
HannahF – genuinely curious about what he has done in particular that has turned your family away. I mean he really is doing everything he threatened to. Did they not think he was serious when he said he wanted to ban Muslims, or build a wall to keep out immigrants, or nominate conservative ant-choice judges. He has never shown he had any real grasp of the economy or policy. What is it that changed their minds?
Not to speak for HannahF (I’m eager to hear her response), but I think a lot of moderates took a chance on him hoping that as a “business man” and an “outsider” that he could help the economy and make changes that others would miss.
Hillary did call *some* Trump voters “deplorables”, but she also referenced the non-deplorable other people who might be inclined to vote for Trump. I think, factually, she was right even though her phrasing cost her terribly.
“but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they’re in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”
I was just in Munich and visited the Dachau concentration camp. It was a horrific but important experience. I don’t think I’ve ever been more ashamed or afraid in my life than when I heard our tour guide say, “I’m not here to talk about modern politics, but I need you to understand the connections between what happened here and what is happening in your country right now.”
Wow. Thank you for telling us about this, and thank you for visiting Dachau.
That is what is so scary about what’s happening now, the potential that it could happen again. It’s like history is repeating itself. When I read books about the Holocaust and concentration camps, I ask, how could this happen. With the Dotard as president, I see how it happens. What saddens me the most is that we have people in power who could put an end to all of this and yet they do nothing because of greed or fear of the Dotard’s bot base. They let the Dotard say racist things about Warren and call Maxine names, and then cry civility when people oppose them in public. They aren’t afraid of how history will remember them because just like in 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, they will rewrite it.
Hypothetically, if dems were able to regain the house *and* the senate, and articles of impeachment or criminal charges were brought to SCOTUS, and SCOTUS refused to prosecute a sitting president- what then? Could any action be taken? Or are we at the mercy of a hard right Supreme Court?
Guys, I had a thoughtful comment to place here, but I just gave a gentlemen a ride up a hill to where we both work, and because of his accent and my skin color, he felt the need to assure me he was American. And guys, I’m just…I was so in shock, I couldn’t respond. I feel so angry for him that he has to fear my whiteness, that my kindness could be misconstrued as a front. I feel embarrassed to be American most of the time. Today, I honestly and truly feel ashamed.
Hugs. Thanks for caring. It’s the people that don’t feel shame at all that really scare me.
Congratulations to the majority of white wines who voted this asshat in super great ladies really thanks soo much 🖕🏾