Thursday Open Thread | Trump’s Celebration of America was filled with RNC Staffers

Posted on June 7, 2018 by SouthernGirl2

As it turned out, there weren’t many of them on the South Lawn, either. Many of the people on the lawn were men in their 20s and 30s, and they wore navy blue suits and ties, or navy blue blazers and khakis, and most of them had short haircuts and appeared to have just showered, and all of them held American flags. I’ve seen Eagles fans. Generally, they don’t look like that. “We’re all staffers,” one of them said. Jenna Webster, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is interning at the Republican National Committee, said that she had received a mass email from the White House earlier in the day, inviting her to attend the event. She was not visibly bothered that the Eagles had abandoned her.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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84 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | Trump’s Celebration of America was filled with RNC Staffers

  8. eliihass says:
    June 7, 2018 at 9:41 pm

    The children and grandchildren of the ‘economically anxious’ mob in this photo, remain the scourge ..

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De2F2iiVMAEJod1?format=jpg

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      June 7, 2018 at 10:13 pm

      We now live in an entirely upside down world..

      But whenever despair creeps in, stop, think of Roger Ailes… And know that this too shall pass..

      I know it doesn’t feel like it… And even when you expect it, nothing happens – and in the end, they seem to stay at it, and there seems to be no end in sighted the madness..

      But I say, if nothing else works, think Roger Ailes…

      Remember when he terrorized the world and inspired fear even in our leaders… Everyone kowtowing to him.. making pilgrimages to him to batter favors so he wouldn’t terroririze them and their loved ones… plead that at a minimum, their wife and family be left alone in his effectively weaponized attacks and gaslighting …

      But suddenly it was all over, and by the the time he died last year, he was a pariah… stripped of everything… And he died like a chicken… nary a whimper..barely mourned, barely remembered..

      It’s a given ..they all get carried away…Believe themselves invincible.. Ask Maddoff.. one minute he’s on top of the world, next he’s in jail for life.. his two sons dead.. one at his own hand, the other of cancer ..stress.. And Maddoff’s wife midway to her twilight years is now a pariah too …cutting coupons and occasionally indulged with pity by the rare rich former friend ..

      Who would’ve imagined just 10 years ago, the fate so many previously invincible, all face today..

      Just like Roger Ailes, Maddoff, etc. there’s a day of reckoning, and they never see it coming..

      Trust that they will all get theirs.. Trust that Karma is only just getting warmed up..

      The treasonous buffoon and all his complicit enablers, sycophantic cohort, puppetteers etc, they’ll all get theirs.. And just like Roger Ailes, Maddoff etc., it’s not even on their radar, and they can’t even begin to fathom or contemplate their fate, and what is soon to become of them and their once cushy and previously entitled and protected evil existence.. or the how and when of their very public humiliation and inevitable downfall.. they won’t see it coming, but it’s round the corner already..

      Not yet known is the how or the when, but their downfall is imminent… And it’ll be the thing they and those of us looking on, couldn’t have ever predicted..

      Trust.. Trust.. Trust..

      Believe.. Believe.. Believe..

      That inevitable reckoning will happen and it will be televised..

      And just as we’ve been endlessly bombarded with ‘breaking news’ every freaking day for the past 2+ years, the rest of us will wake up to the inevitable end of this nightmare courtesy of the downfall of the treasonous buffoon and co., on our television sets one seemingly ordinary morning …soon ..

      My only wish is that a bunch of the media and ‘analysts’ and ‘strategists’ and the GOP and others who enabled and profited from this nightmare, are all swept up and out – and permanently too, with it..

      Reply
  20. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    Cry Me a River of White Tears, White South African Colonizers

    Angela Helm
    2/26/18 3:05pm

    Recently, Lauren Southern, Tomi Lahren’s Canadian sister in the white supremacist struggle, highlighted the perilous plight of white South Africans, who—gasp—are being discriminated against … this, in the very country known throughout the world for its racial tolerance!

    In a seven-minute documentary, this tone-deaf “alt-right” propagandist ruminates on the travails of white South Africans who are “going through an intense crisis” (complete with sad music in the background) in the very same country where their people colonized native South Africans into a brutal racial caste system beginning in the 1940s. Southern says that these whites are allegedly being displaced (all 60 of them, in this case) and have to live in “white settlement camps” on the outskirts of town because the nasty African National Congress-led government won’t help them.

    “Whites in South Africa are being denied jobs and will soon have their land taken away without compensation,” writes Becky Boer Southern. “As a result, more and more people are finding themselves living on handouts in white squatter camps because they are routinely denied help from anywhere else.”

    She then “exposes” these terrible conditions—whites living in one-room “shacks” with no electricity or water—none of which South Africa has ever, ever seen. Oh, except in the infamous shantytowns where tens of thousands of black South Africans were forced to live in conditions that would make that “shack” look like the fucking Ritz.

    But the pièce de résistance comes when Southern interviews a white South African woman who says she can’t walk around her neighborhood at night because the blacks will “rape you, beat you up.” She says her children are being teased by black children “in their own language,” which she tearfully cannot understand. So much so that she actually wants to leave the country. “We are human beings just like them, just the color and the language is different.”

    You don’t say.

    Reply
  21. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 2:20 pm

    Stacey Abrams’ Campaign Was the Hogwarts School for Black Girl Magic
    Jason Johnson
    5/24/18 5:52pm

    There was an idea, hatched back in 2017, of bringing together a group of remarkable people to see if they could be something more; to see if they could work together when we needed them; to fight the battles we never could. … They were the Stacey Abrams campaign for governor of Georgia ….

    Forgive me for pulling a Melania on Nick Fury’s Avengers speech, but essentially, the Stacey Abrams campaign was the most impressive collection of black female political power assembled in decades; black women as consultants, activists and elected officials all descended on Georgia to help. It was like the black women’s Avengers and sistergirl Voltron all signed up for the Hogwarts School of Black Girl Magic, and it worked.

    Abrams, a single, 44-year-old black woman and former Democratic Caucus leader, beat the brakes off her opponent, Stacey Evans, a 39-year-old married white woman and former state legislator. With over half-a-million votes cast in Tuesday’s primary, Abrams won, 76 percent to 24 percent. Abrams beat Evans so bad, “Karen” called the cops.

    Now the Democrats are left with a question: Will they repeat the success of Abrams’ campaign during the 2018 midterms, or is political Hogwarts for Black Girl Magic closed for the season?

    Forty-eight hours before the election, I was at a dinner reception put on by the New Georgia Project at Twisted Soul, a fantastic, modern soul food restaurant in Atlanta’s West Midtown area. Owners Deborah VanTrece and her wife and business partner, Lorraine Lane, mingled around the room serving drinks as other black women from California, Wisconsin, Missouri, Texas and all around the nation trickled in to share strategy, stories and enthusiasm for the Stacey Abrams primary campaign.

    “This is the most empowering experience I’ve had in a long time,” Tishaura Jones, the city treasurer of St. Louis, who came for the weekend to volunteer, told The Root.

    About 25 black women who were organizers and officials were there, and the vibe was like nothing I’d ever felt before in any campaign environment. For all of the “Trust black women,” “Listen to black women” rhetoric that has come out of progressive circles since the #Resistance started, the room was actually filled with black women who were making decisions in and around the campaign, not just showing up as window dressing.

    ………………………………..

    “When black women vote, they don’t vote alone,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, who helped Doug Jones win his U.S. Senate seat in Alabama. “They bring their husbands, their kids, grandmas, aunties, everybody.”

    …………………………………………

    Consider the unique messaging the Abrams campaign developed around the revelation that she was more than $200,000 in credit card and tax debt. She wrote an op-ed in Forbes (ironically) that spilled all her financial tea in a way that would only work for a black woman:

    I’d love to say that was the end of my financial troubles, but life had other plans. In 2006, my youngest brother and his girlfriend had a child they could not care for due to their drug addictions. Instead, my parents took custody when my niece was 5 days old. Underpaid, raising an infant, and battling their own illnesses, my parents’ bills piled up. I took on much of the financial responsibility to support them, and even today, remain their main source of financial support.

    The Stacey Evans campaign thought this would be a home run attack against Abrams; instead, it backfired. It actually humanized Abrams to many voting women in Georgia. How many women, let alone black women, know the struggle of being the eldest daughter and the only one with a stable job? (That was literally a running theme through five seasons of Being Mary Jane!)

    Reply
  22. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    I.JUST.CAN’T.
    DA ENTIRE PHUQ?????

    Depressed Debbie Calls Police on Black Neighbors Because They Were Happy and She Was Sad

    Michael Harriot
    Yesterday 10:48am

    One day, hopefully soon, my dream of colleges and universities across America instituting doctorate-level programs on the study of white people will become a reality. When that day comes, certain elements will be required in the course curriculum to achieve a Ph.D. in wypipology, including:

    *the autobiography of Rachel Dolezal
    *a laboratory with unseasoned-chicken taste tests
    *an audio recording of the Starbucks 911 call
    *today’s video of an Oklahoma woman who called the police on black poolgoers because they wouldn’t talk to her when she was depressed

    This latest viral video in the ongoing series of white people calling the police on black people features a white woman who is either drunk, high, suffering a bout of mental illness or just white, making a 911 call while lounging poolside at an Oklahoma City apartment complex.

    When the first video posted to Facebook begins, the woman is already on the phone with the authorities. When Poolside Patty hangs up, a woman identified as Ja’Maya Burleson asks the woman why she called the police.

    “You know what?” the disgruntled white woman replies. “I nicely asked you if you would talk to me because I’m depressed.”

    …………………….

    And then, holding back tears, Pat the Crestfallen Pool Girl explains to the officer how much it hurt her to see the other black people laughing and taking pictures. Then she alleges that one of the black women threatened her (which the witnesses deny).

    ………………………………
    The officer interrupts the white woman and informs her that he has patrolled that apartment complex for three years and didn’t even know the pool existed until another man flagged him down and told him that “a short little blond lady” was at the pool causing a scene because she was “drunk or on something.”

    Reply
  23. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    Uh huh

    White Family Beats Down 2 Police Officers. Miraculously, No One Gets Shot
    Monique Judge

    This is one of those stories where, if I were writing it about a black family, it would have an entirely different headline and an entirely different outcome, because that’s how these things work in our society right now.

    A husband, wife, their son and an unidentified juvenile relative were all arrested in Middle River, Md., when a family gathering got out of control. WBAL-TV reports that police were summoned to respond to a domestic disturbance, and when they got there, all hell broke loose.

    When officers arrived on the scene, they encountered Beverly Davis—whom they described as being confrontational and aggressive. When her husband, Gary Davis, tried to intervene, she turned and began attacking him.

    When an officer tried to stop Beverly from assaulting Gary, Gary reportedly turned on the officer and held him in a choke hold until he fell unconscious.

    So of course the other officer pulled out her gun and started laying people down, right? Wrong.

    When the second officer tried to get her partner out of the choke hold that Gary was holding him in, the couple’s adult son, Scott Davis, reportedly attacked her.

    So now you have two police officers getting their asses whipped by three people. Police said that a third officer also tried to pull Gary off the officer he had in the choke hold, only to be jumped by Beverly and Scott.

    Somehow, some way, these officers obviously never feared for their lives even though they were getting the shit kicked out of them by the Beverly Hillbillies—so no one was shot multiple times as they charged at the officers and kicked their asses.

    Reply
  24. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    It’s been revealed that daily stressors are putting African-Americans at greater risk of heart disease and stroke. What realistic steps can be taken to eliminate these stressors? https://t.co/rlJEOzkiQ9

    — We Are BWHI (@blkwomenshealth) June 7, 2018

    Reply
  25. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 1:37 pm

    Sure, Hitler was a genocidal maniac, but the poor loved him!

    So, this is what passes for contrarian discourse on the Bernie left.

    Hitler merely “played upon” already-existing anti-semitism.

    No, Walker: Hitler didn’t play upon it. It was the entire raison d’etre of his political movement. His appeal wasn’t economic; it was cultural and xenophobic.

    ………………………………………..

    What the extreme left and right share is a disdain for the politics of compromise. Compromise produces tainted initiatives. Political life is a zero-sum game: both sides can’t win, there has to be a loser. This maximalist position has long been rampant among the right. What we’ve now seen is it taking hold among the extreme left. (Which really shouldn’t be surprising; Soviet Russia is a model, not a warning.)

    These people are not “allies”. They have no sympathy for the concerns of the Democratic base. To them, the Democratic Party is even more of a threat than the Republicans. Republicans they can understand, as they share the same dictatorial impulse. Democrats, with their insistence on democratic norms, are weak and beyond repair.

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 12:11 pm

    h-t: BJ

    This should make you smile.

    Bravo, Sista!
    Serve your constituents :)

    PHOTOS: Mariah Parker takes Oath of office
    June 5, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    Mariah Parker takes her oath of office for County Commissioner District 2 with her hand on the autobiography of Malcolm X and her mother Mattie Parker by her side on the steps of City Hall in downtown Athens, Ga. Tuesday, June 5, 2018. Parker filled the county commissioner seat vacated by Harry Sims who left his seat to run for mayor. She won the election for District 2 by 13 votes. [Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald]

    http://www.onlineathens.com/photogallery/GA/20180605/NEWS/605009994/PH/1

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 11:49 am

    This year in collaboration with the “Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture” exhibition, we are launching our women’s initiative as a summit meeting.

    Follow our Instagram Stories & Snapchat (@nmaahc) for BTS moments! #E3Summit #WatchingOprah pic.twitter.com/7CHwsl0EPd

    — Smithsonian NMAAHC (@NMAAHC) June 7, 2018

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 10:29 am

    Democrats in good shape for 2018 after California primaries

    Steve Kornacki talks wit Rachel Maddow about the outcome of important California primary races and how the Democrats are set up to flip some seats in the 2018 midterms.

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 10:22 am

    Two EPA staffers leave as Scott Pruitt scandal worsens

    Rachel Maddow reports on two EPA staffers leaving the agency as the scandal of Scott Pruitt trying to use the influence of his public office to get his wife a Chick-fil-A franchise reaches a new level of corruption even for Pruitt.

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 9:59 am

    In today’s edition of…if you wrote this in a screenplay, it would be scratched out for being ‘ too farfetched”

    Fotiadis is an elite Internaional architect with Ukrainian billionaires and Eurasian oligarchs for clients, and offices in New York, Kiev & Tbilisi.

    But on April 11, Fotiadis announced he would join a small firm in NJ that designs storage units.

    No one will explain why. https://t.co/LvQGidN2wm

    — Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) June 7, 2018

    Just so that you’re clear what happened:

    Fotiadis did not respond to a call or an email. But eight hours later, he announced on Twitter that he was closing his firm, John Fotiadis Architect, or JFA, after 10 years in business. A few days later, Fotiadis closed the Twitter account he had used to announce he was closing down his firm.

    By the end of the week, all the content from Fotiadis’ professional website, including his portfolio, had been removed, leaving only a note saying he planned to join a New Jersey-based engineering company.

    Gone was Fotiadis’ impressive portfolio of 30 projects (some of which are pictured below), including villas, schools and office buildings he has designed for clients around the world. Also gone was any reference to the two overseas branches of JFA that he had opened — in Tbilisi and Kiev, Ukraine.

    The closure of JFA appears to mark an abrupt end to the solo career of an architect who counted some of the richest men in the world among his clients. Fotiadis has not answered repeated calls, emails and text messages from CNBC with questions about his work in Eurasia or why he shuttered his company. He also declined to comment on whether he had been contacted by anyone from Mueller’s office. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, also declined to comment.

    A half-dozen of Fotiadis’ former colleagues and associates in the U.S. and Ukraine have likewise not responded to inquiries about the architect. Nor have his former clients.

    Fotiadis was not always so press shy. Archived versions of his website on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, as well as news reports and real estate industry records, reveal that until this spring, Fotidias was frequently in the spotlight.

    Reply
  40. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 9:53 am

    New Cambridge Analytica revelations connect Trump Russia dots

    Rachel Maddow reports on how new revelations about an executive from Cambridge Analytica, the data firm hired by the Donald Trump campaign, meeting with Julian Assange, and the firm’s use of data from a Russia-sponsored academic.

    Reply
  41. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 9:46 am

    This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be-kindergartener’s classroom. pic.twitter.com/mWiJVdddpH

    — Georgy Cohen (@radiofreegeorgy) June 6, 2018

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 9:40 am

    PHUCK THE UNITY COMMISSION.
    And, if you get rid of Superdelegates, then let’s get rid of Caucuses. Period.

    House Dems seethe over superdelegates plan

    The Democratic National Committee is set to meet this week to decide on a reform plan that would rein in superdelegates.

    By JOHN BRESNAHAN and HEATHER CAYGLE 06/06/2018 09:13 PM EDT Updated 06/07/2018 08:24 AM EDT

    The controversial issue of “superdelegates” and their future in the Democratic Party led to an angry confrontation on Tuesday night between Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and House Democrats, according to several lawmakers.

    But the members’ angst may not help them since it appears that the DNC is ready to rein in the status of superdelegates, also known as “unpledged” delegates, no matter what lawmakers say or do.

    Superdelegates include members of Congress, governors, party elders such as former presidents and vice presidents, DNC members and other assorted “distinguished party leaders.” They made up roughly 15 percent of the delegates during the 2016 convention. Unlike other delegates, they are free to vote for any candidate they want.

    The logic is that party leaders immersed in the candidates and issues of the day can provide a guardrail against selecting an “unelectable” nominee for the general election. But the party base loathes this elite class of delegates, saying it stacks the primary process against the wishes of regular voters.

    ……………………………………….

    The first proposal — a product of the “Unity Reform Commission” established at the 2016 convention to “revise and reduce” the role of superdelegates — would create three categories of superdelegates. Some superdelegates would be allowed to vote in the first roll-call vote for the presidential nominee, while others would not.

    However, Perez warned members that this proposal wouldn’t win enough backing to be adopted at the August DNC session.

    The second option, which Perez supports and which appears far more likely to be enacted, would allow superdelegates to continue to exist, but they couldn’t vote during the first round of the presidential roll-call vote. They could, however, vote during the second round or any subsequent roll call, and they would still be permitted to support any candidate they wanted.

    Perez believes this approach ensures that “we have an inclusive party, transparent process, democratic principles, and empowers the grassroots,” a DNC official said.

    And that’s what set the House members off, because none of them believe there will be any more than one roll-call vote for the nominee.

    In their view, that means elected Democratic officials — who have been put into office by hundreds of thousands or even millions of constituents — won’t play a role in nominating their party’s presidential candidate.

    “I believe this decision, if they go forward, is going to do terrible damage to party harmony,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who raised his objections with Perez during Tuesday’s dinner. “It disenfranchises the elected leadership of the party. The last time we allowed that to happen was 1972, and we had the worst landslide in our history.”

    “I believe that elected officials across the country — Congress and governors — I believe they provide a ballast for the party that we very much need,” Connolly added. “With all due respect to somebody who thinks we don’t need it, when we haven’t had it, Democrats have had disastrous results.”

    “I think this is absolutely an insult to us,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). “We’re no better than anybody else, but we stand for election. That has to mean something, that has to stand for something. That’s a lot of baloney.”

    Reply
  45. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 9:02 am

    Ivanka eyed by investigators for referring Russian to Cohen

    Rachel Maddow shares a report from Buzzfeed news that Ivanka Trump referred a Russian promising a meeting with Vladimir to Michael Cohen as Cohen pursued plans for a Trump tower in Moscow.
    Jun.06.2018

    Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 8:59 am

    State cites bad example to emphasize U.S., Germany relationship

    Rachel Maddow points out that State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert should maybe not have used D-Day as an example of the strong relationship between the United States and Germany.

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 8:50 am

    Trump Not Consulting Officials Ahead of Summit

    After two months on the job, Trump’s new national security adviser has not called a single top-level National Security Council meeting on North Korea.

    National Security Adviser John Bolton has yet to convene a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korea next week, a striking break from past practice that suggests the Trump White House is largely improvising its approach to the unprecedented nuclear talks.

    For decades, top presidential advisers have used a methodical process to hash out national security issues before offering the president a menu of options for key decisions. On an issue like North Korea, that would mean White House Situation Room gatherings of the secretaries of state and defense along with top intelligence officials, the United Nations ambassador, and even the treasury secretary, who oversees economic sanctions.

    But since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on March 8, the White House’s summit planning has been unstructured, according to a half-dozen administration officials. Trump himself has driven the preparation almost exclusively on his own, consulting little with his national security team outside of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    Reply
  48. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 7, 2018 at 8:31 am

    Predator preying on the weak and vulnerable. Lock him up and toss the key. Got damn savage.

    https://twitter.com/deray/status/1004710712890003456

    Reply
  49. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 7, 2018 at 8:16 am

    Indict Sean Hannity, Robert Mueller. Lock him up!

    https://twitter.com/girlsreallyrule/status/1004696705869254656

    Reply
  59. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 7, 2018 at 7:34 am

    Handcuffing a 10 year old boy? They’re modern day slave patrols with a badge and gun terrorizing black communities

    https://twitter.com/SikhProf/status/1004659177329917952

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      June 7, 2018 at 7:46 am

      This child will be traumatized for decades to come.

      These fake po po are domestic terrorists. I hope the family lawyers up with the best and hopefully they won’t make media tour.

      Reply
  64. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 7:25 am

    The look of the people there was wrong. They didn’t look like Philly fans. Then, the report that they couldn’t tell the reporters who the QB was😠😠😠

    Phony as hell 😒

    Reply
  65. rikyrah says:
    June 7, 2018 at 7:23 am

    Good Morning Everyone 😄 😄😄

    Reply

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