February 10, 2019 Open Thread
Lake Forest High School students hospitalized after school bus crash (link)
Colonial School District gears up for referendum (link)
New in Newark: Movies, late-night munchies & more (link)
Del.’s longest-serving Supreme Court justice to retire (link)
The Delaware Shakespeare Festival is drumming up romance with a pair of performances in Kent and Sussex Counties. (link)
Traffic alert issued for funeral procession of Lt. Floyd (link)
BREAKING NEWS FROM UD:
Wondering if anybody noticed the subtle good cop, bad cop routine that Trump and SCOTUS nominee Gorsuch played, concerning Trumps tweets attacking federal judges, and the reply by Gorsuch that it was “demoralizing and disheartening”….Did it work? Does anybody like Gorsuch more than they used to?
Also ,does the Federal appeals panel’s refusal to reinstate Trump’s travel ban actually help Trump politically?…Who now is perceived to have the onus of protecting the country from an attack? Who will get the blame if something happens involving those countries?…Kind of takes a little pressure off of Trump maybe…..Yes,no?
does the panel’s refusal to reinstate Trump’s travel ban actually help Trump? Only among people who already like him.
(is trump) perceived to be protecting the country from an attack? Only among dummies who get all their news from Fox and Breitbart.
Who will get the blame if something happens now? Trump.
Kind of takes a little pressure off of Trump maybe…..Yes,no? No.
Dampnut needs an attack at this point. He wants one. He wants to see Americans die and he wants brown people to do the killing. How else can he and president Bannon justify their push for “making us safe”.
I agree. They are desperate for a bomb to go off somewhere, and will grow more desperate by the day. So desperate in fact, that they might have to take matters into their own hands at some point.
UD back to normal.
I think FBH is right that this is the play involved. Team Trump’s incompetence makes a terrorist attack more likely. This way he can try to blame the courts. But it will only work if the attackers come from one of the seven countries.
How to guarantee that’s the case? Stage it themselves.
It’s pretty clear to me that the Berkeley “violent protesters” were actually right-wingers staging a false-flag attack. Why do I think that? Because every single right-wing blog post about the protests points to that lone example of violence. They need violence to occur so they can condemn it. If left-wingers won’t provide it, they’ll stage it to look like we did.
“But it will only work if the attackers come from one of the seven countries.”
That’s pre-alt-fact thinking.
The Atlanta…. er um… Orlando shooter was a pro-cop, homophobic, pro-gun American, born in this country…. it was STILL used to justify the ban. If there is ANY illegal action at all taken by anyone, this nazi regime will spin it into “because the ban wasnt enforced”
Spent some good times in Gilbert F c. 1992. Seminal, really.
I think FBH has a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. Probably see a doctor about that. Nip it in the bud, bud.
I just don’t understand why the Europeans ever settled somewhere this cold.
It’s mild compared to Gothenburg, Sweden.
I’ve been in coastal DE for 30 years and cry every winter. At least we have sushi, coffee and the culinary coast now. It was desolate here for a long time. Can’t imagine living anywhere colder than this.
“Can’t imagine living anywhere colder than this.”
I can, because I have long noticed the connection between warm weather and a high population of resident dipshitism. You see it even in Delaware. Sussex is the warmest county and its full right to the brim with dimwitted racist dipshits.
Even Markos has wised up to our pathetic Democratic “leadership,” with this reaction to Schumer’s call for bipartisanship on banning Muslims:
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/10/1632217/-Why-does-Democrat-Chuck-Schumer-insist-on-finding-common-ground-with-f-n-Trump
Alby –
Pelosi is just as terrible. We need to clean house. No quarter can be given to any Dem that doesn’t oppose and resist this lawless regime. This “bipartisanship at all costs” plays to who exactly? People in the DC cocktail party circuit? The geriatric Editorial boards of Gannet’s dwindling newspaper empire? I don’t get it. We need Dems willing to fight.
There’s no evidence that what happened at Berkeley was a “false flag” operation–merely that the Right has pushed so hard with Milo to make this kind of push-back inevitable. (I know the organization involved and it didn’t need infiltration to stage something like this.)
That said, a Reichstag Fire is not out of the question, but people are not thinking big enough here. In 1932 the target was literally the German equivalent of Congress. What the administration needs is not a night club shooting but at the very least an Oklahoma City level bombing with hundreds of casualties. The chilling part is that it doesn’t have to be a “false flag” operation. They merely have to locate such a terrorist act being planned and stay the hell out of its way.
The actors do not have to be from the seven banned countries, because that was only ever STEP ONE. Once that was in place they would have moved to (a) make it permanent; (b) claimed victory for our safety; and (c) extended new sanctions to other immigration. Steve Bannon is on record as saying the US should halt LEGAL immigration for at least a decade.
Glad to see people finally coming around on the shitgibbon dem “leadership”. Pelosi should have been tossed after the 2010 losses. Warren should be sen minority leader, screw seniority, and Ellison should lead in the house.
@Steve: Sorry, dude. In a post-factual environment that was a false-flag attack, and I’m not moving from that position. Prove that it wasn’t.
Republicans are in charge. These are their rules. I’m just playing by them.
I promise you this is the best thing you’ll read today:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/sunday/what-were-fighting-for.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
And I would say that even in a pre-post-factual environment.
“I can, because I have long noticed the connection between warm weather and a high population of resident dipshitism.”
One of the things I notice when I drive up to Wilmington in the summer, is how much hotter it is there, than here at the beach.
True dat. I’m sure you’ve notice the GA session ends when beach season begins, and that plenty of upstate lawmakers spend plenty of time in Sussex — eastern, that is. When’s the last time you saw an upstate legislator in Laurel?
Here’s a link to the buzzed-about Politico story, about conditions in the Trump White House. It’s a box of strawberries away from being the USS Caine:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/donald-trump-challenges-governing-presidency-234879
Alby – Thanks for that link the NYT piece. You are right, of course, it is the best thing I’ve read in a while. And the first piece of writing that really explains how badly George W Bush screwed up. How he and Cheney trashed the idea of American so so stupidly out of mere vanity.
Not on the culinary coast. And not many people from Sussex County going to NCC and paying 5 K for a weekly rental lol
Secretary DeVos was just blocked from entering a DC public school by a group of protesters. She had to be escorted back to her vehicle and beat a quick retreat.
Resist.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/10/this-video-of-betsy-devos-being-blocked-by-protesters-shows-what-a-powder-keg-our-politics-are/?utm_term=.a7a64088d717
@Steve Newton: I wonder when Bannon/Trump is going to figure out that Pence is the greatest danger to their ability to stay in power, and do something to undermine him.
As long as Pence is next in line of succession, Trump has to fear Congress trying to oust him in favor of Pence. Logical conclusion: Remove the incentive for Congress to remove Trump. You know Bannon has to know this, and must be planning something with this in mind.
Any ideas on how Machiavelli would approach this?
@REV: They’re finding out what an actual grassroots movement looks like, and it ain’t no tea party.
Paul Ryan would prove even more problematic for Bannon.
Lurching left and becoming an actually* racist version of Sanders might be their best hope. embrace free* (nothing is free) college, universal health care and investing a lot in infrastructure would force Dems to support his Reich.
People, with their personal self interests appeased, would be more willing to turn a blind eye when the Christo-fascist death squads come for their brown neighbors.
Hmmm…? How to set up Pence?
How about… Have National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, contact Russia the month before President Trump takes and say that sanctions are going to be eased. Then have Pence swear on TV that those contacts never took place, then act shocked and disappointed about Pence being a liar.
@jason: That assumes Flynn isn’t going under the bus by Monday.
Here’s Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks running away from constituents who showed up at his “cancelled” Town Hall meeting:
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/10/1632190/-Watch-a-GOP-Congressman-and-supporters-scatter-when-constituents-find-him-at-canceled-town-hall
“Constituent Deborah Barros-Smith was filming as she made her way into the meeting, and what was Mo Brooks telling the crowd? All about the “violent left,” referencing the protests at UC Berkeley, and the meanies who were inciting violence by calling people racists. Never mind that millions and millions of U.S. voters have peacefully demonstrated and calmly showed up at their elected representative’s offices day after day, week after week, with no reports of violence. Chickens like Mo Brooks are using this as an excuse to shut down all constituent meetings.”
You’re absolutely certain Berkeley wasn’t a false flag operation? A college Republicans’ organization books a known alt-right troll looking for such a confrontation, and the confrontation magically happens.
What makes you think the entire “leftist” organization these people belong to isn’t an FBI operation? Why would you think they wouldn’t go to such lengths to get what they want? It’s not the Reichstag Fire, but they’re certainly trying to turn up the temperature with plenty of hot air.
@Alby: They don’t want Pence to replace Trump. They want Trump to throw up his hands in disgust, become a purely ceremonial Head of State who lives primarily in NY with his wife and son, and leaves Super-Dick (Pence) Cheney in charge of everything. Then they plan in four years for Trump to declare victory and Cinncinnatus-like return to his businesses after having “Made America Great Again,” take a year-long victory lap and hand it over the Pence.
Nixon didn’t finish his term because there were still Republicans in Congress like Caldwell Butler (my Representative at the time) who were willing to draw a line in the sand for Presidential actions. There aren’t any more.
At least Cincinnatus did real work in his personal life outside politics (farming) and he was renowned for his civic virtue. He wasn’t a marketing huckster and confidence man. But I take the point. 🙂
@Steve: That might be what they want for Christmas, but it’s not remotely in the realm of possibility. Bannon wouldn’t allow it. He knows Trump must stay engaged for his agenda to have a chance.
Even if your scenario is the right one, and it doesn’t make Pence any less Bannon’s enemy.
This administration runs on mob principles. The way mob principles work is everyone’s hands are equally dirty. That’s why you have to kill a guy to make your bones — that way everyone has that hanging over their heads. Pence stands out for having no shit stains on his suit.
If Bannon is smart — and while I don’t think he’s a genius he runs circles around these clowns — he will do whatever he can to drive a wedge between Pence and his supporters. Bannon not only has no love of the conservative establishment, he’s out to destroy it.
Once a real showdown comes, who do you think will blink, the pansies in Congress or Steve Bannon?
Also, I don’t think the Republicans would get rid of Trump out of any kind of honor or love of country. They will do it because they have to. I’d put the odds of this guy lasting four years at below 50-50, because he has health issues in addition to his political ones.
looks like i’ve had a comment banned at bluedelaware because it made pandora feel bad. no surprise. had to do with pandora’s weak reasoning on a political topic. maybe it will show up later and i’ll eat crow.
In answer to a prior poll here, my bet is war on Iran first.
@nathan
Your weren’t banned. Your comments were caught in the spam filter. I just released them. I didn’t see them until I got home today – I was out of town visiting my daughter. Start cooking your crow. 🙂
Mmmmm…crow.
Real men don’t cook them, pandora. They eat their crows raw.
i jumped the gun. i must have been in a bad mood yesterday. i blame trump.
crow tastes just like chicken.