Monday Open Thread

Posted on January 23, 2017 by rikyrah

ICYMI

This entry was posted in Current Events, Media, News, Open Thread, Politics, Protests and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

113 Responses to Monday Open Thread

  3. eliihass says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    And just like clockwork, the commissioned hit pieces against the unelected historic First Lady whose husband’s presidency has just ended, begins…

    If she didn’t mattter, why are they so afraid of her …? Why are they going all out with vicious and dehumanizing lies to discredit and destroy her…

    Why the heightened attacks on her …

    “…And so it was that placards brandishing a few of the newly minted US president’s regrettably infamous utterances were defiantly on display as protesters took to the streets for the Women’s March on Washington over the weekend.

    But where were the signs critiquing the other key figure who symbolises why America was not ready to elect its first female commander in chief? Why, amid an outpouring of post-inauguration anger at Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton at the polls last November, was there not a single placard to be seen holding Michelle Obama to account? Where were the chants denouncing the submissive and regressive female role model she represented that helped facilitate Clinton’s defeat and usher in the Trump era?

    Here is a woman who embodies the same qualities as Trump — a studiously self-styled “anti-politician” who prides herself on her ignorance of the most basic aspects of the political system while preferring to focus instead on charming talk-show hosts — and yet not so much as one lonely sign dared to observe the former First Lady’s culpability in Trump’s triumph.

    Which is why a benign and unthreatening figure such as Michelle Obama will always be more celebrated than her female peers who refuse to settle for a “Mrs” claim to power.

    Unlike the intelligent yet cautiously bland ex-First Lady, the likes of Clinton and Berejiklian dare to pursue political office in their own right. Not for them the carefully inoffensive refusal to comment on anything of serious substance or submit to the unspoken edict that a woman’s greatest asset is her ability to rock a sleeveless dress and dance on TV.

    The audacity of such women to refuse to play it safe, and be satisfied with Plus One professional status, naturally infuriates those who believe women and politics don’t mix. So far, so predictable.

    But that the antiquated concept of women and power as embodied by Michelle “Mom in Chief” Obama fails to be condemned — and is in fact celebrated — by the very same who profess to be devastated by Clinton’s defeat is a bitter irony that goes unacknowledged.

    Her defenders will argue that cultivating the facade of a housewife bored by politics is her right. Isn’t it her business if she chooses to aspire to matters no more intellectually taxing than planting vegetables in the White House garden, they will ask.

    While at a purely personal level that might be true, the personal is political — as has been declared at many of the inauguration protests. And Obama is certainly astute enough to have known that the more closely she resembled a Stepford Wife these past eight years — well-dressed and elegant yet never challenging or controversial — then the higher her popularity would soar.

    Only in the final days of her husband’s presidency did the former First Lady summon the courage to speak out in favour of Clinton and denounce her opponent in the strongest of terms — but it was too little, too late.

    Then came the revelation last month that she is so disinterested in politics she couldn’t even be bothered to stay awake to watch the result on election night.

    “I went to bed,” Obama told People magazine. “I don’t like to watch the political discourse; I never have.”

    It was a staggering admission that would have seen Melania Trump universally ridiculed as a shallow bimbo had she said such a ridiculous thing. But, coming from the adored Obama, it was met only with sympathetic chuckles.

    So while Mrs Obama’s anti-politics, anti-Washington, celebrity-driven persona — a persona that is more than a little reminiscent of Trump’s appeal — might have made her a popular figure, it ultimately did Hillary Clinton no favours…”

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/who-is-to-blame-for-donald-trump-michelle-obama/news-story/0cf6f79945343b78c9c5561a78444828

    I don’t even know where to start to pick apart this completely erroneous, misleading, disingenuous, deliberately malicious and hate-inspired tripe…

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      January 23, 2017 at 8:37 pm

      This is the Australian Becky who wrote this hit piece on our FLOTUS..

      http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201506/r1438681_20817318.jpg

      Sarrah Le Marquand
      Armed with an honours degree and a federal parliamentary internship (not to mention hundreds of hours constructively spent watching The Bold and the Beautiful), Sarrah Le Marquand left the University of Sydney determined to pursue a career in political journalism.

      But an early detour on a magazine devoted to the surprisingly intricate world of daytime soap operas redirected her career.

      Having worked as an entertainment journalist in several magazines and on television, she joined The Daily Telegraph in 2005 as the television writer, and went on to assume various incarnations as film editor, columnist and features chief of staff. In 2008 she was appointed features editor.

      After returning from maternity leave after the birth of her first child in 2009 she began writing a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph which covers everything from politics to pop culture to parenthood.

      She is particularly passionate about issues effecting women and also writes a weekly column for Sunday Style magazine.

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      January 23, 2017 at 8:40 pm

      I have so much to say in response to this ridiculous tripe …so much..

      Reply
  4. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    Maddow talking about how #44 sent B-2 bombers to take out ISIS in Libya-on LAST WEDNESDAY

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    found this at another blog about the MSM covering for Spicer on his ‘ do over’:

    aleth

    I have said it before, the instinct of whiteness to prop up its mediocre male extends to the Press. Their families voted and like cheeto. It is their interest to prop it up.

    The insecurity of these men will kill this nations future. They cannot bare that any one who is not straight white male could be smarter than they are. It extends to the left characters as well. Each individual will have to work to save some part of themselves because depending on these stooges will go nowhere.

    POC get it. [I”ll say majority get it] but whiteness – nope. This is the audience they are playing too. Putin gets it and unfortunately he will win.

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    DA PHUQ?

    GOP senators pitch plan that would let some states keep Obamacare
    Jan 23, 2017

    Republicans are under pressure to explain how they will prevent more than 20 million people from losing insurance if they repeal the signature health-care law from the Obama administration.

    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    Tim Hanlon‏@TimfromDa70s

    FOX NEWS:
    Leader of “Bikers For Trump” described being “assaulted” by a Woman at the March.
    “She screamed in my face & threw glitter on me”

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    This is REAL????
    THE EVER LIVING PHUCK!!!

    Trump names his Inauguration Day a ‘National Day of Patriotic Devotion’
    January 23 at 5:13 PM 

    President Trump has officially declared the day of his inauguration a national day of patriotism.

    Trump’s inaugural address on Friday frequently referred to patriotism as the salve that would heal the country’s divisions. “When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice,” Trump said from the steps of the Capitol after being sworn in as president.

    Later that day, Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, said that naming a national day of patriotism was among the executive actions that Trump took in his first few hours as president.

    On Monday, the paperwork was filed with the federal government declaring officially that Jan. 20, 2017 — the day of Trump’s inauguration — would officially be known as the “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.”

    “Now, therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Jan. 20, 2017, as National Day of Patriotic Devotion, in order to strengthen our bonds to each other and to our country — and to renew the duties of government to the people,” the order says.

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Charles P. Pierce ‏@CharlesPPierce

    Can’t wait to see what, say, Sam Brownback will do with his block-grant Medicaid money.

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    Jamil Smith ‏@JamilSmith

    You could argue block granting to states in lieu of Medicaid should be re-termed “medical rationing.” It is lazy and cruel governance.

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:07 pm

    When You Brag That The Women’s Marches Were Nonviolent
    When you brag that your protests had no arrests, I wonder what you think that says about you.

    “When someone asks me about violence… I just find it incredible. Because what it means is that the person asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through — what black people have experienced in this country — since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.” — Angela Davis

    ……………………

    When you say that your protests were nonviolent, I wonder, how do you define violence?

    Is it a brick?

    Is it a rock?

    Is it a baton?

    Is it pepper spray?

    Is it a firehose?

    Is it a police dog?

    Or is it poisoned water?

    Is it a school suspension?

    Is it mass incarceration?

    Is it grinding poverty?

    Is it that “random” airport security check?

    Is it yet another traffic stop?

    Is it the toy gun in that kid’s hand?

    Is it that stop and frisk?

    Or is it the thought that you could march a million white women down the street without fear — and high five the same cops who wouldn’t hesitate to pepper spray black and brown faces begging for nothing less than their lives — and then call it progress?

    Reply
  39. eliihass says:
    January 23, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    Hey fam,

    If anyone can, please, please find video of today’s Morning Joe..

    Apparently Mika tried to come for our historic FLOTUS…Called her ‘impolite’…accused her of being ‘rude’ and ‘mishandling’ the buffoon’s 3rd wife’s gift – treating it as if it were a bomb…said that they could have been talking about that and ‘great’ Melania, on their show thus morning, but because the buffoon stepped all over that with his audience size obsession, and his disrespect of the CIA memorial, they were now forced to discuss the buffoon instead ..

    I need to see this video…my friend just called me about it…

    Told you fam, they don’t intend on letting up – They intend to continue to not only chip away at, but completely discredit and destroy our historic black First Lady…can’t have her put on a pedestal as ultimate role model – or touted as presidential material or the best hope for the Democrats…can’t have that…nope..

    The memes from the selective stills and mashed up footage from the ‘inauguration’, and the narratives of ‘poor, sweet, scared, “classy”, “beautiful”, “sexy”, hostage-held, neglected victim and damsel in distress Melania’…and ‘mean, bad attitude, ungrateful, gloomy, angry, drab, “black so unsexy and undesirable” Michelle’…

    The negative stereotypes that were pushed by those seemingly harmless memes, are being used by many to push as fact, some of the most damaging assumptions…

    Notice how even Trevor Noah employs a softer, feminine voice as he mimics the buffoon’s 3rd wife …and more importantly, notice how she’s not only never blamed for anything her husband does…she’s actually cast as even a helpless and unwitting victim of his too…and needing to be saved and protected…and even with damning evidence, she’s still automatically given the benefit of the doubt…

    Meanwhile, our historic black FLOTUS is attacked and blamed for just about everything… accused of every random negative – including blatant falsehoods and stuff made-up by others to further demean, diminish, discredit and destroy her…somehow even managing to automatically blame her for every perceived misstep of her husband’s…because you know, it had to be the fault of the stereotypically ‘inferior’ and ‘angry’ black woman …had to be her who made her ‘nice’ husband with the ‘superior’ ancestry of white mom and grandparents, do it…We’ve witnessed 8 years and counting of where our black FLOTUS has been treated as if she were not deserving of the chivalry and protection extended to other women …and even her husband, the President …a man..

    Something is terribly wrong, and if we do not address it head-on and push-back really hard, the mindset and ‘social mores’ that drive and uphold these conventions will only opressively harden… In the past couple of days a photograph of our accomplished, gorgeous, double Ivy League educated historic FLOTUS in a maid’s uniform serving the buffoon’s 3rd rate ‘model’, former Soviet bloc-born 3rd wife was being circulated by a young black man…he said he thought it was funny, and he didn’t see anything wrong with it…they’re also now pushing a doctored photograph of the historic President with his hand on the buffoon’s wife’s non-existent b*tt…with all these memes about him being ‘excited’ to finally be around a ‘real woman’…We all know what this is about…

    My friend says that in just the last 48 hours, she’s had to push back at Krissah Thompson – that embarrassingly mediocre black ‘reporter’ that works for the Washington Post…on a few things regarding our historic FLOTUS and the buffoon’s 3rd wife…

    As an aside, we desperately need infinitely better quality, more incisive, insightful, thoughtful, black female journalists of depth…and with an eye on history…

    Krissah Thompson, Yamiche Alcindor, Helena Andrews, etc. simply don’t cut it…

    And when we’re stuck with no options other than these mediocre types – in place simply because they are precisely the not so terribly smart diversity tokens who are sure to be beholden and non-threatening to the white establishment that calls the shots…and are grateful and willing to do their bidding to stay employed…

    Or the smarter ones like Joy Ann Reid who only fully came into her own from being elevated as reward for stanning for Hillary…and who has only recently come around to appreciating the Obamas…

    Or the confused, silly, mixed-up poseurs like Mellissa Harris-Perry who can’t decide if she’s about black woman empowerment and upliftment, or mind-boggingly and maliciously disrespecting the historic black FLOTUS …

    There’s something to be said about the most thoughtful, insightful, in-depth and useful observations, write-ups and historic documentation of and about our historic black FLOTUS – the proud and brilliant and accomplished direct descendant of slaves …being by a white male Jewish newspaper editor and journalism professor…and a young brilliant female African author – an immigrant in America…

    While all we get from black American ‘writers’ is tripe about her familiarity with flat-irons, cocoa butter and ‘epic side-eyes’ …and demeaning crap about how she’s only narrowly attractive from the urban perspective of ‘familiar black girl’…

    And folks wonder how the random hollow, shallow, lying, gold-digging Eastern European 3rd wife of a buffoon is being elevated and celebrated over – and touted as superior to the brilliant, upstanding, outstanding, gorgeous, all around amazing, Princeton and Harvard educated historic black FLOTUS …

    I’ll keep saying it…black folks are their own worst enemies…and black folks will continue to be their own undoing…

    Reply
  41. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 5:41 pm

    Count the lies, folks! Rikyrah, maybe we should get a page up like you did with Newt?

    https://twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/823670548848930818

    Reply
  42. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 5:17 pm

    This is only the 3rd day. How can we make it through 4 years of this?

    https://twitter.com/Variety/status/823668399377031170

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      January 23, 2017 at 5:27 pm

      Hillary took the public beating of a lifetime. Maybe she can recover, psychologically, and try to engineer some kind of comeback so she doesn’t have to go out a loser. But it’s not all up to her or Bill. The Democrats can’t keep doing what they are doing and win elections, they have to change, and they have to attract young voters who just do not seem to be that enthusiastic about the Clintons.

      Reply
      • eliihass says:
        January 23, 2017 at 6:59 pm

        I fear that Democrats are even more splintered than anyone wants to admit Liza…

        There’s already all these insidious and aggressive and covert and overt power plays even on the grassroots level – and by random people looking to position their favorite person/potential Democratic presidential nominee and perceived ‘best answer’ to what ails the party…

        For instance, some of those talking-up and touting Tulsi Gabbard as somehow the future of the party, just happen to be some of the very same folks who despise President Obama …and hate and malign his wife, our First Lady even more…especially as she, despite her categorical assertions, is seen as the Democrats hope…

        Those who talk up and tout respectively, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gilibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Cuomo, the Castro brothers, etc. also do so while bashing and trolling and maligning others..

        My thought is that someone who isn’t a professional politician is going to emerge in the next few years…

        But in the interim, there are far too many hardened hearts and hardened opinions and stances..

        Mine and others included..

        Reply
      • Liza says:
        January 23, 2017 at 7:18 pm

        “My thought is that someone who isn’t a professional politician is going to emerge in the next few years…”

        Yeah, we need to pray for this. But politics is so ugly you have to wonder how many of our best people are driven away and we never even know them.

        I agree that no one on the horizon out there is looking all that good. And I’m afraid that if we’re waiting for our next Barack Obama it will be a long wait.

        Reply
    • Ametia says:
      January 23, 2017 at 6:09 pm

      UGH! Just go away, Clintons.

      GO.THEE.HELL.AWAY!

      Reply
      • eliihass says:
        January 23, 2017 at 7:11 pm

        Sad to say Ametia, they have so much riding on being and remaining relevant..

        Their legacy…their bank accounts…

        Their control over others…for far too long they’ve had this reliable army of beholden, bought and paid for loyalists… cultivated entirely on the Clintons’ perfected pay to play set-up…they play, the Clintons reward them…

        These folks have fed off their connections and access to the Clintons for years…and if the well starts to run dry, chances are these folks will not only completely jump ship, they’ll even sell out in ways that may damage the Clintons…

        The Clintons have seen how few of them have been willing to stick their head out or how none have spoken up since November 8th, and how they suddenly don’t rank on any lists…even after then candidate Obama won over them, they still wielded obscene power…

        After you’ve tasted that sort of power, reach and relevance, few want to be relegated or dismissed to the sidelines…especially when it’s not of their own volition…

        The Clintons will regroup …and they will in their own way exact revenge on every single perceived enemy…

        Reply
      • Liza says:
        January 23, 2017 at 7:24 pm

        I read that Hillary was very cold to Bernie Sanders at the inauguration when he waited to greet her, at least from what people observed.

        Not surprising, of course. He is most definitely on her list of those who are RESPONSIBLE for her humiliating loss to Donald Trump. She will never admit that she lost this one all by herself along with her tone deaf campaign.

        Reply
  47. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    January 23, 2017 at 2:50 pm

    Looks as we are going to see the signing of many Executive Orders. In order to save taxpayers’ money perhaps he should use these:
    https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81qQ4pdAzoL._SY355_.jpg

    Reply
  49. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 2:11 pm

    Birther Melania, y’all

    Reply
  50. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 2:05 pm

    Sen. Tom Cotton’s Double Standards on Nominees
    by Martin Longman
    January 23, 2017 2:02 PM

    On inauguration day, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas released an intemperate statement to the press:

    “Hundreds of thousands of Americans are in Washington this weekend at a designated special national-security event, yet the Democrats are obstructing the nomination of Mike Pompeo as CIA Director for no good reason. For Senator [Ron] Wyden’s [of Oregon] sake, I hope the jihadists take the weekend off from trying to kill Americans.”

    I’d like to focus on that “no good reason” part of his complaint. As Charles Pierce pointed out last June and Frank Bruni reported in the New York Times, Senator Cotton once blocked President Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to the Bahamas for a very bad reason, which seems to me to be worse than no reason at all.

    There’s a larger backstory to this that I could rehash but it’s not necessary here. This is the meat of it.

    The Senate held a hearing [for Cassandra Butts’s] nomination in May 2014, and then … nothing. Summer came and went. So did fall. A new year arrived. Then another new year after that.

    When I met her last month, she’d been waiting more than 820 days to be confirmed. She died suddenly two weeks later, still waiting. She was 50 years old.

    The delay had nothing to do with her qualifications, which were impeccable. It had everything to do with Washington. She was a pawn in its power games and partisanship.

    For Tom Cotton, who put a hold on her nomination and refused to lift it, his reasons were personal and he was apparently quite honest about them, including with Ms. Butts.

    She told me that she once went to see him about it, and he explained that he knew that she was a close friend of Obama’s — the two first encountered each other on a line for financial-aid forms at Harvard Law School, where they were classmates — and that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president.

    Cotton’s spokeswoman did not dispute Butts’s characterization of that meeting, and stressed, in separate emails, that Cotton had enormous respect for her and her career.

    So, let’s weigh that performance against the performance of Democrats who refused to allow Pompeo to be confirmed without a thorough vetting by Trump’s inauguration day. Pompeo’s nomination was announced on November 18th, but the new Senate that needs to review his qualifications wasn’t seated until January 3rd. At the time that Cotton made his complaint it had been seventeen, not 820, days since Pompeo’s nomination had been received.

    Reply
  55. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    The Republicans need to get the message from the majority of Americans that we value and need the benefits of Obamacare. Here’s how we do that.

    On January 23rd [TODAY] everyone who feels that way (our numbers are legion) sends a note to Donald Trump with a simple message:

    “Don’t make America sick again. Improve Obamacare. Don’t repeal it.”

    One envelope for every ACA supporter in your household…even if they are under 18 years old.
    Just that simple message. Put it in an envelope, and put a stamp on it.

    On January 23rd, mail it to:
    Pres. Donald Trump
    1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,
    Washington, DC 20500

    Can you imagine the picture of 53 MILLION letters arriving at the White House by January 26th? It will be a mountain. That image might help deter the Republicans from killing the most substantial improvement to American healthcare since the discovery of Penicillin.

    Do it today! Drop it into a mailbox near you on Monday, January 23rd.

    Please send this email to 20 (or more) of your friends, neighbors and fellow Americans. Ask them to do the same.

    Reply
  56. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Will y’all look at this?

    Melania Trump: Fulfilling the first lady’s role her way

    melania-trump-pink

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/melania-trump-fulfilling-the-first-lady%e2%80%99s-role-her-way/ar-AAm8ogh?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U348DHP

    Melania Trump tweeted from her official @flotus Twitter account for the first time over the weekend. She said she was “deeply honored to serve this wonderful country as first lady.”

    The first lady was next to her husband when he assumed the presidency on Friday. But she will not be constantly at his side in Washington, at least for now, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.

    The first lady of the United States is an unofficial ambassador, a voice of the American people. It’s an unpaid position that comes with a sizable implied responsibility.

    As Melania Trump starts the week with her son, Barron, in New York City and not with President Trump in D.C., it’s clear she will do the role her way.

    She has not made her first official statement as first lady yet, but on Inauguration Day, Melania Trump’s ensemble seemed to speak for her. Her powder-blue outfit, designed by American Ralph Lauren, looked like a throwback to one of her predecessors, Jacqueline Kennedy.

    Mrs. Trump is only the second foreign-born first lady in U.S. history (John Quincy Adams’ wife, Louisa, had been born in England).

    According to Ambassador Paolo Zampolli, who introduced President and Mrs. Trump nearly two decades ago, Melania is also one of the only first ladies that has ever spoken five languages.

    “The class, the beauty, the intelligence, the caring for family, the values that she gives to the family, to her child, she would really bring it to the White House and make it something unique,” Zampolli told CBS News.

    Through much of the presidential campaign, Melania remained on the sidelines. But thrust into the spotlight at the Republican National Convention, she became the target of social media roasting, after her speech included several passages mirroring Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC address.

    Mrs. Trump later pledged to fight online bullying as first lady. “We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other,” she said.

    Just days before the election, Melania made it clear her first priority is still her son, 10-year old Barron Trump. “I am a fulltime mother to our son, Barron, an incredible boy,” she said.

    She has chosen to live with Barron in New York until at least the end of this school year.

    Anita McBride, former chief of staff for first lady Laura Bush, says Michelle Obama grappled with the same dilemma.

    “As the president’s spouse, one of the most important things that they really have to do is be able to create a family life,” McBride told Crawford. “A sanctuary around the president that keeps family life as stable as possible, because this is an enormous amount of pressure on a family, and particularly when there are young children.”

    Another critical role for the first lady: first advisor. Melania recently told “60 minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl she readily shares her opinions with Mr. Trump, even when it comes to her husband’s tweets. “Well, sometimes it got him in trouble,” Melania said. “But it helped a lot as well. He had unbelievable following.”

    Reply
    • Liza says:
      January 23, 2017 at 5:31 pm

      She’s not on my radar. I have no interest in her whatsoever.

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      January 23, 2017 at 7:18 pm

      “The class, the beauty, the intelligence, the caring for family, the values that she gives to the family, to her child, she would really bring it to the White House and make it something unique,” Zampolli told CBS News.

      LOL..

      And please, can they all stop with this, ‘President Obama also did it…and Mrs Obama also grappled with the same’…fake attempts to elevate and normalize the buffoon and his 3rd wife…

      Reply
  57. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    ‪@carolynlochhead ‬White House closes public switchboard, replacing with recordings ‪directing to post comments on line or on Facebook. 202-456-1414

    Reply
  58. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 1:22 pm

    Hey, everyone

    We’ve added a new page on our header “Tracking Trump Policies”. Take a look, make a comment and just in case I miss something, help me out as we go along. Lets keep track of the destruction.

    https://3chicspolitico.com/tracking-trump-policies/

    Reply
  59. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 11:28 am

    Trump’s Biggest Inaugural Lie
    by Gilad Edelman
    January 21, 2017

    Donald Trump’s inaugural speech was filled, bizarrely and predictably, with dystopian falsehoods. His reference to “American carnage,” a reprise of his oft-repeated and utterly backwards claim that the country faces a violent crime epidemic, was an instant classic in authoritarian fear-mongering.

    But that was not the most important moment in Trump’s inaugural. Singling out the most outrageous lie from any string of Donald Trump utterances is, of course, a bit like trying to pick the best Beatles album. But for my money, the heart of yesterday’s speech was Trump’s theory about why regular Americans aren’t prospering: because Washington politicians and foreign governments are stealing all their money. Here’s the key section:

    For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished—but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered—but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

    A few moments later, he added:

    The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.

    This is a master class in scapegoating and misdirection, an astonishing example of chutzpah even by Trump’s historically awesome standards. There really is a group of people that has been sucking up the economic gains that should be going to the middle class, and the Trump Administration is basically its all-star team. Of the executive branch nominees picks so far announced, five are billionaires (as Trump claims to be himself, of course). At least a dozen more are multimillionaires. Andy Puzder, the fast-food magnate and Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, has talked openly about his plan to replace restaurant workers with robots. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary nominee, is a former Goldman Sachs partner who has already run into trouble for hiding $100 million in assets from the Senate Finance Committee. If middle and working class Americans watching Trump’s speech wanted to know who has been getting rich while they struggle to get by, they should have simply watched on mute. It’s the guy with his name on buildings.

    Reply
  62. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 10:37 am

    Taking out market rules would effectively end end pre-existing condition coverage.

    Leaving it an open question will take out health plans. https://t.co/EDY0MdsRZK

    — Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) January 23, 2017

    Reply
  63. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 10:36 am

    Trump As An Agent of Chaos
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    January 23, 2017 9:59 AM

    For years now Republicans have gotten a lot of mileage from their base by railing against the media – or as Sarah Palin says, “the lamestream media.” Throughout his campaign and transition, Donald Trump jumped right into that fray. More recently, during his remarks at the CIA this weekend, Trump talked about being at war with the media.

    After Sean Spicer’s bizarre statement to the press on Saturday afternoon in which he lied about the size of the crowd at the inauguration, most of the reporting has been framed as part of that “war.” There is a way in which that frame is accurate. But it deserves some examination if, for no other reason, than because it is the frame Trump wants us to adopt.

    The truth is that Trump loves media attention. Those who have watched him over the years point out that he revels in it – especially when it is rooted in conflict. His entire presidential campaign was able to forego spending much money because he soaked up all the media attention with inflammatory rhetoric. That is Trump’s lifeblood.

    In a way, Kellyanne Conway’s remarks to Chuck Todd yesterday demonstrate that this is more than a war with the media. She labelled Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts.” In case you missed it, even the folks at Merriam Webster weighed in on that.

    Reply
  64. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 10:33 am

    God help us. The country can’t take four years of this.

    https://twitter.com/JoelAchenbach/status/823556539294289920

    Reply
  65. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 10:12 am

    Found at BJ

    Here’s something we all can do. 877-959-6082 connects you with the stop Sessions campaign. They will ask for your zip code and then connect you to your Senator. The vote in Sessions will likely be tomorrow so we have to call today.

    Reply
  66. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 10:01 am

    @ametia @rikyrah

    Shade Gif

    shade-27

    Reply
  67. SouthernGirl2 says:
    January 23, 2017 at 9:37 am

    Alright now, someone is going to complain to Twitter about you. National Parks Service.

    https://twitter.com/DeptofDefense/status/823515639302262784

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      January 23, 2017 at 7:28 pm

      Oh please. They are all racists…trying to rationalize and deflect does not erase the racist underpinnings that actually drove most of those voters…including the idiotic black ones among them…who voted out of self-hate and greed…and because they’ve been successfully brainwashed and pitted against ‘illegals’ and ‘Muslims – who are most likely terrorists’..

      Reply
  75. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:31 am

    The Enemy One Cannot Negotiate With
    by D.R. Tucker
    January 22, 2017 11:00 AM

    Back in November, I noted that former Secretary of State John Kerry has been promoted as a potential candidate to challenge Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker, and that Setti Warren, a former aide to Kerry who is now the mayor of Newton, Massachusetts, is also contemplating a challenge to Baker. Warren is regarded as having solid progressive credentials, but a recent op-ed about the Democratic Party’s alleged need to reach out to Trump voters displays a critical flaw in Warren’s thinking:

    …………………………………….

    Give me a damn break.

    Warren is sadly mistaken if he thinks the folks who voted for the bigoted billionaire seek common ground with anyone even slightly to the political left, their manners in restaurants notwithstanding. As I read this bizarre piece, I thought back to the compelling ad Warren ran during his aborted challenge to then-Sen. Scott Brown in 2011, an ad mentioning his late sister’s struggle with severe asthma. Frankly, I cannot understand why Warren thinks Democrats can reason with folks who willfully and deliberately voted for a man who seeks to deprive millions of Americans of the health care they need to fight asthma and other life-threatening diseases.

    It’s disturbing that Warren embraces this sort of adolescent reasoning. Harsh as it might sound to some, the folks who voted for Trump–the folks who actually think White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is honest–did so with malice aforethought, specifically intending to use government power to bring suffering to those they regard as members of a lesser order. Warren is fooling himself if he thinks folks who have been propagandized into viewing the Democratic Party as America’s home for welfare dependency, inner-city crime, racial quotas and political correctness will ever give the party a second look. Future Democratic victories can only come from turning out as much of the party’s base as possible on a consistent basis, not by bending over backwards to attract those sympathetic to wingnuts.

    The Trump voters Warren spoke to voted for a man whose nominee for Attorney General, if confirmed, will ignore police brutality committed against those who share Warren’s background. Does Warren seriously believe these voters can be reasoned with? To rework a Biblical phrase, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for someone who embraced Trump to ever again consider a vote for a Democrat.

    Those who voted for Trump are Warren’s enemies, whether he knows it or not. Those who voted for Trump are the enemies of Democrats, whether Democrats know it or not. Trumpism cannot be negotiated with, and it damn sure can’t be reasoned with. It can only be conquered via a massive turnout of Democratic troops on the battlefield of ideas–and if that doesn’t happen, Trumpism will continue to prevail politically.

    Reply
  76. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:28 am

    Is Shawn Spicer Gaslighting the Press?
    by Mike Lofgren
    January 22, 2017 6:04 PM

    In his first official performance as press secretary for a new president barely 24 hours after his inauguration, Sean Spicer delivered a performance that would have made Baghdad Bob look like Diogenes. Looking sour and petulant, Spicer lashed out at the media for supposedly making fraudulent underestimates of the crowds at President Trump’s inauguration compared to those of President Obama’s. He also took vehement issue with the attendance estimates for the Women’s March on Washington that was concluding as he spoke.

    After delivering his angry jeremiad to the White House press corps, Spicer strode away from the lectern without taking questions. To find anything as surreal, one would have to go back to Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, as Watergate unfolded — albeit Ziegler merely looked hapless at having to deliver balderdash with a straight face, rather than ready to bite off the heads of the reporters.

    Given the marvels of aerial photography and cameras placed in tall buildings, estimates of crowds at a given venue, while never exact, are accurate in comparative terms. And since the overwhelming majority of attendees at special events on the Washington Mall arrives by Metro, the local transit authority has an exact count of the number of people who use the system on a given day. In view of those factors, Spicer might just as well have been arguing that two plus two equals five. Beyond that, the sheer pettiness of berating the press over a basically insignificant issue one day into a new administration, when presidencies traditionally seek – and generally find – at least a modicum of good will from the fourth estate, is mystifying. Why did he do it?

    Reply
  77. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:27 am

    His Opposition Was White: How Republican Racism Fueled Their Desire to See Barack Obama Fail

    Trevor LaFauci
    January 22, 2017

    Trailblazers have to meet unrealistic expectations.

    It has been the same throughout history. The first person to do something is always under a large amount of scrutiny. He or she is under the microscope for a number of reasons, primarily because they are viewed as someone who is representative of a larger group of people. As unfair as it might be, it is the burden these trailblazers face and it is a burden they take on, sometimes by chance and sometimes by choice. For those who take on this burden by choice, they are often forced to compromise themselves or their values in order to appear acceptable to those who might be openly rooting for their failure.

    One example that comes to mind is that of Jackie Robinson. In the late 1940s, African-American athletes were in no way seen as equals to their White peers and American sports remained segregated. To sow the seed in the American public’s mind that African-Americans could be seen as equals, Brooklyn Dodgers club president and general manager Branch Rickey interviewed a number of Negro League players who could potentially be that trailblazer. For Rickey, talent was one consideration but another one was the player’s demeanor. He knew that this baseball player would be subjected to unprecedented levels of hatred and racial slurs. Rickey famously said he wanted a player “with guts enough not to fight back” and it was Jackie Robinson who ultimately was deemed to have the combination of talent and character needed to succeed.

    And the rest, as they say, is history.

    Flash forward sixty years to a biracial senator from Illinois. A skinny kid with big ears and a funny name as they say. Barack Hussein Obama was not the first African-American to run for president. He was far from it. So early on, when Obama was down 30 points in the polls ahead of the Iowa caucus in 2008, nobody paid him much attention. But then something funny happened. An African-American man somehow won over the White working-class of America’s heartland and won the Iowa caucus. Not only that but then he continued winning at the expense of Hillary Clinton and the vaunted Clinton machine. At this point, for the first time in our nation’s history, it appeared that there was a chance that for the first time we might have an African-American at the top of the presidential ticket of a major political party.

    So what happened? Why accusations of Barack Obama being an extreme radical of course!

    Reply
  78. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:26 am

    People Will Notice That Trump Can’t Do This Job
    by Martin Longman
    January 23, 2017 9:02 AM

    The New York Times is feeling feisty this morning, going out of their way to point out that the Trump administration’s alternative facts about the inauguration are false in every particular. They also hit the administration with a terrible review of Trump’s own top aides. For good measure, they trashed Sean Spicer, the new press secretary, slapped the president around for not releasing his tax returns, highlighted a new legal challenge that will claim that all foreign payments to Trump-owned companies are violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, and provided more coverage of the massive, global, anti-Trump women’s marches.

    There will be no honeymoon for Trump with the Establishment media and that’s not a bad thing. Early kid’s gloves coverage of new administrations is usually as ritualistic as the inauguration ceremony, more done in politeness and respect for the office than for any genuine news purpose. It’s best to dispense with all the fluff pieces and get down to business, and never more so than with this bumbling insulting mess.

    There’s no need to single out Sean Spicer to blame for this as Margaret Sullivan did in the Washington Post this morning. She said that Spicer’s Saturday evening press statement “should be seen for what it is: Remarks made over the casket at the funeral of access journalism.” But she then observed that Donald Trump “intends to make the American media his foremost enemy” and that he “wants a flat-out war with the nation’s media for one well-calculated reason: Because he believes it will continue to serve his political purposes, as it has for months.”

    Reply
  79. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 8:24 am

    Gov. Rauner’s disingenuous obstinacy and inflexibility

    Is the Tribune Editorial Board getting as tired and bored of writing editorials vilifying and demonizing House Speaker Michael Madigan as I am of reading them? In other subject areas, you have pointed out the futility and lack of effectiveness of simply demonizing opponents relentlessly. But in the case of Madigan, your constant vilification has become a pathological obsession of the editorial board. Your portrayal of the speaker/governor conflict has all the balance and finesse of describing the biblical conflict of the devil vs. the archangel Michael.

    May I point out that in the 34 years, but two, that Madigan has been speaker, Illinois has functioned and passed a budget each of those years under both Democratic and Republican governors. Madigan was able to work with George Ryan, Jim Edgar, and Jim Thompson.

    Suddenly Bruce Rauner comes along and the state grinds to a halt? Simple common sense and wisdom points to the new addition to the mix that is defective. Odd that the Tribune concludes that one of the elements in the machine that has worked for 34 years suddenly and coincidentally went “rogue” after the appearance of Rauner and is entirely to blame.

    Unfortunately, the Tribune only feeds the flames of Rauner’s disingenuous obstinacy and inflexibility. The fact is that we may have to struggle through another two years without a budget, and if we can survive, the state of Illinois will recover once we are rid of Rauner.

    Reply
  80. vitaminlover says:
    January 23, 2017 at 7:22 am

    Good morning, rikyrah.

    Reply
  81. rikyrah says:
    January 23, 2017 at 6:39 am

    Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐

    Reply

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