Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair
From Australian recording artist Sia Kate Isobelle Furler
According to Wikipedia:
Although the singer has not provided an interpretation of the video’s plot, numerous media outlets have perceived it as a tribute to the 49 victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
It is difficult to get to the ending and not feel the same conclusion.
Satire from The Borowitz Report:
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump demanded on Thursday that the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty be revised immediately to exclude nations he considered “shithole countries.”
Speaking to reporters, Trump said that the poem as it currently stands “is basically an open invitation that says, like, if you come from a shithole country, welcome aboard.”
“I don’t know the entire poem, but it’s something like ‘Give us your tired, your poor, your yadda yadda yadda,’ ” he said. “We could keep all that but then put in, right at the end, in big letters, maybe, ‘except if you’re from a shithole country.’ ”
From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:
If nothing else, Republicans over the past few weeks have delivered an important civics lesson to the American people in general–and Democrats in particular. Facing a growing mountain of irrefutable evidence that the incompetent, out-of-his-depth GOP president of the United States has been enmeshed in a network of ties to Russian business and government interests that put American institutions and democracy itself at risk, the GOP rallied not to the nation’s defense, but Donald Trump’s.
The signs of the expanding counterattack are everywhere. For weeks, special counsel Robert Mueller and senior career personnel at the Justice Department and FBI have been under assault from Republicans in both Houses. Calls to investigate Mueller and “purge” the FBI were followed by the specter of GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley referring Russia dossier author Christopher Steele for charges over unspecified lies made to unnamed government investigators. (The transcript of the Fusion GPS Senate testimony released by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein suggests both why Grassley broke his promise to publish it and the smear campaign underway against Steele.) Meanwhile, the Trump White House and its allies are ramping up their attacks on Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of State who left government service in 2013. The Republicans’ misdirection campaign includes the assignment by FBI agents to probe the 2010 Uranium One non-scandal, supposed “pay to play” influence peddling by the Clinton Foundation, and, of course, “her emails.”
The message from the GOP’s best and brightest is unmistakable.
From Brotha Wolf at The Intersection of Madness and Reality:
It’s great not to be alone when dealing with crap. Other people know what you’re talking about and often sympathize.
If you’ve ever been in a forum or thread about racism, you may have seen that one clown that demands of proof of racism. Evidence is presented from articles, excerpts from books or books themselves, videos, charts, data, statistics, graphs, scholarly writings from academia, stone tablets, whatever. You’ve given the doubter everything and anything you can find to make him/her see that you’re not lying.
To the doubter, that’s not enough. Nothing you can give enough. You’re just wrong.
From Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson:
On Thursday, the Republican Party is expected to announce plans to more than double the number of field offices to promote Walker’s re-election and the defeat of Sen. Tammy Baldwin. The party is opening offices in Wausau, La Crosse, Sheboygan, Milwaukee, and Racine. These offices are in addition to the ones in Waukesha, Green Bay, Eau Claire, and Madison.
“Thanks to our tremendous grassroots volunteers, these field offices will serve as hubs for conservatives to organize while we work to re-elect Governor Scott Walker and rally to defeat Senator Tammy Baldwin in 2018,” Party Chairman Brad Courtney said in a statement. “After a highly successful 2016 election, Republicans are building on our best-in-the-nation ground game again for this cycle.”
Republicans were stunned by Tuesday night’s loss in a district Republicans held for 17 years.
Wondering why a few conservative friends fail to be impressed.
From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:
Two men who ordered programs for their September wedding from a popular printing company but instead received a boxful of anti-gay pamphlets warning, “Satan entices your flesh with evil desires,” have filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and emotional pain.
Well, that’s a turd in the punchbowl now, innit?
This isn’t just denying service do to a deeply held religious beliefs, this is an attack. The programs arrived on the day of their wedding, so there was no time for much to correct what happened.
From driftglass:
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Mr. David Brooks of The New York Times refuses the give up on his ridiculous fairy tale that just below the surface of his Republican Party of Bigots and Imbeciles there exists a vast but hidden wellspring of decent, honorable Republican lawmakers.
They are led by Tom Cotton, they are always right on the verge of remaking the Republican Party in David Brooks’ image (David Brooks from November 5, 2014) —
The big Republican accomplishment is that they have detoxified their brand. Four years ago they seemed scary and extreme to a lot of people. They no longer seem that way. The wins in purple states like North Carolina, Iowa and Colorado are clear indications that the party can at least gain a hearing among swing voters. And if the G.O.P. presents a reasonable candidate (and this year’s crop was very good), then Republicans can win anywhere. I think we’ve left the Sarah Palin phase and entered the Tom Cotton phase.
— and their good works are being thwarted by one and only one bad actor named Donald Trump (David Brooks from January 12, 2018)
And there are decent, normal human beings and admirable people like Senator Tom Cotton who wants to sharply cut immigration. And they think they can divide their views on immigration, which are purely policy views, from the white identity, racial undertones that Donald Trump has now permanently — or not permanently — but has taken into this party.
And that is not possible. If you want to restrict immigration, which is a legitimate point of view — I disagree with it, but it is a legitimate point of view — somebody like Tom Cotton has an extra burden to rise up against what Donald Trump said, to show, hey, restricting immigration is not synonymous with bigotry…
Got that?
According to Mr. David Brooks, his Republican Party was doing just fine until Donald Trump took “permanently — or not permanently” white identity, racial “undertones” into it.
From PZ Myers:
And then…boom, a student stood up and spoke out for the young man with anxiety, and the whole class walked out. There’s video of the woman who spoke against the professor’s attitude.
This girl really made Guelph proud today by standing up to our sub prof for degrading and disrespecting a special need student #ugogirl❤️💛 pic.twitter.com/dD9aFkCz2x
— kiara butler (@kiara_butler6) January 16, 2018
Wow. That is exactly the kind of integrity and outspokenness I want for all of my students. I just have to try to avoid deserving the criticisms Hedican got — which actually isn’t too hard. It’s bad news when a fellow professor can’t even clear that low bar.
From Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged:
So, the disgraceful comments that Trump is alleged to have said with respects to calling Haiti and El Salvador and the African countries from which new Americans hope to come, don’t surprise me, and I am mostly disgusted by the idea that there even should be an argument about what he meant based on whether he said “shithole” countries or “shithouse”. The jist is the same. Senators Perdue and Cotton might feel fine temporarily assuming they did not hear what he said, and then pretending they heard no “shithole commentary”. But we can all know very well what the White House immigration policy is, and in the meanwhile, Senator Graham knows what he knows, and the word is Trump even bragged to friends about dropping that nasty “shithole” statement about whole countries of people.
He said this about millions of human beings, all equal in dignity to himself, all endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. He said this. There should not be a mistake in pretending that this is not either anything he would have said or historically proved himself to believe.
The very worst thing he could think to say about his predecessor was that he might be born in Kenya. The people who voted for Trump don’t understand what an international boob his comments make him seem.
But this isn’t new news. Trump is a racist–big whoop. The main argument shouldn’t be “shithole” vs “shithouse” but whether his policies are unconstitutional and also really bad in outcomes and how they represent the US.
