Won’t anyone think of the white kids?

Eighty-eight degrees out there at the moment. I just walked the dog and didn’t die. Sweating, but still ambulatory. I must be getting older, my decaying body craving heat like the dying husk it is, like an old man craves young women. Soon I’ll start setting my thermostat to 85 and wearing a cardigan sweater with an old tissue shoved up one sleeve.

Which is to say: It wasn’t the greatest Tuesday, but it wasn’t terrible, either. There’s a piece of salmon in the fridge and I’m thinking it’s going to be dinner. Which will help a lot.

But I have a case of the mid-weeks, which means I have a story due at the end of it, my notes are kind of a mess and I have to un-mess them and I’d rather make some of that salmon and open a bottle of white.

What are today’s outrages? What drinks can I put up on the bar to get today’s party started?

SAVE WHITEY! Jefferson Beauregard Sessions shows his worth at the Justice Department, sticking up for poor, poor, discriminated-against white kids. When I was a Fellow, one of U-M’s lawyers did a seminar for us, talking about the SCOTUS argument they made, that diversity was an essential part of the education a student should expect at a university. He convinced me, but Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was not in attendance that evening.

The secretary of defense and new chief of staff had an ad hoc adult daycare going there for a while.

I don’t know if this will be available to all, but a good WSJ story on the chaos of the Indian court system. You lawyers might appreciate this.

And a moment of grim levity from the WashPost: An oral history of last week:

At 4:58 p.m., Ryan Lizza publishes a story on NewYorker.com that recounts his curse-laden conversation with Scaramucci the previous night. By the 6 o’clock hour, chyrons on CNN were including Scaramucci quotations like “F—–G PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC,” in reference to Priebus, and “I’M NOT TRYING TO S**K MY OWN [EXPLETIVE],” a reference to Scaramucci’s putdown of Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

Tommy Vietor, former Obama spokesperson: [Former Obama speechwriter] Jon Favreau and I had recently finished recording our Thursday podcast when the story with Ryan Lizza and the Mooch popped up. . . . This was just the latest example of huge breaking news happening every time we finish a show.

I click through and am just flabbergasted. . . . We grabbed [fellow Obama alum Jon] Lovett and read him some choice lines. He couldn’t believe it was real. How can this be real?

And that’s only three paragraphs! There’s much, much more.

Finally, just to leave you with a midweek glance into the void, Jared Kushner on the Middle East, surreptitiously recorded by a White House intern:

Later in the clip, Kushner expresses frustration at others’ attempts to teach him about the delicate situation he’s been inserted into, saying, “Everyone finds an issue, that ‘You have to understand what they did then’ and ‘You have to understand that they did this.’ But how does that help us get peace? Let’s not focus on that. We don’t want a history lesson. We’ve read enough books. Let’s focus on, How do you come up with a conclusion to the situation?” He then goes on to lament the press’s treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a family friend who he’s known since childhood.

Kushner’s dismissal of the nuances of the conflict has already been an issue. Last month, when Kushner met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian official told Haaretz that Kushner “sounded like Netanyahu’s advisers and not like fair arbiters” and that they were “greatly disappointed” after the meeting. Abbas himself was “reportedly furious.”

Finally, Kushner closed with the following statement of reassurance: “So, what do we offer that’s unique? I don’t know … I’m sure everyone that’s tried this has been unique in some ways, but again we’re trying to follow very logically. We’re thinking about what the right end state is, and we’re trying to work with the parties very quietly to see if there’s a solution. And there may be no solution, but it’s one of the problem sets that the president asked us to focus on. So we’re going to focus on it and try to come to the right conclusion in the near future.”

It’s moments like this that I feel us trembling, teetering on the edge of something terrible. Back on Friday, when the weekend will be in view. Let’s party then.

Posted at 12:02 am in Current events |
 

63 responses to “Won’t anyone think of the white kids?”

  1. Crazycatlady said on August 2, 2017 at 3:14 am

    One ‘White Russian’ Please. A Toast to Trump and his White Russian Partners.

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  2. Suzanne said on August 2, 2017 at 6:10 am

    Crazycatlady, thanks for starting my morning of with a chuckle!

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  3. Suzanne said on August 2, 2017 at 6:10 am

    That is off with a chuckle

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  4. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 7:52 am

    In the Republican mind, honorary whites like Poles, the Irish and Italians are enough of a melting pot, and true whites, i.e. rich wasps and other rich people are honoring them more by respecting their prejudices.

    The people who built this country, meanwhile, are seeing the red lines go up again, because being here from the dawn of colonization isn’t enough. It’s not even enough if you were already here and your ancestors were dicked out of their land, or had it stolen by the US at the behest of the Southern political hegemony in the Mexican American War.

    Republicans believe in race science, as their ideological forbears did. This is what fuels the new Operation Reinhard. They’ll be adding torture and other methods of public coercion soon enough. The president has already endorsed it, and no matter what the motherfuckers say, it’s been the Republican plan all along. You could even say it’s their only plan, because the little shits are too dim to grasp more than one “idea” at once. Governance by goober militancy is always hideous.

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  5. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 8:02 am

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/892710441515921408

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  6. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 8:27 am

    White people will unhesitatingly believe any racist shit they’re spoonfed. They’re a fucking danger to themselves and others:
    https://twitter.com/iSmashFizzle/status/892557827675480064

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  7. Charlotte said on August 2, 2017 at 8:37 am

    On another note — looks like I’m going back to teaching. I quit Cisco a year ago when I paid off my house (and when I could see my fate going back under a managerial structure I’d already been dicked over by once). In the meantime I drafted out a novel which I’m madly revising before the semester starts (fingers crossed, my old editor said he’d look at it), and I’ve run out of savings. Serendipitously Montana State had a tech writing instructor quit at the last minute — I dusted off my CV and PhD, and lucked out when the director of their writing program also got his PhD at Utah (also helps I volunteered to take the 9am class). So here I am, looking at going back to the classroom for the first time in 18 years — teaching 3 sections a week, in a program they’re looking to build out. I’m really excited. I loved teaching, but was miserably bad at academic politics — and never wanted to move to someplace I don’t want to live. And I particularly like teaching undergrads — classrooms full of engineering students who are reluctant writers is right up my alley.
    So I came home and ordered a new pair of school shoes …

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  8. Peter said on August 2, 2017 at 9:02 am

    Wow Charlotte, good luck with that! I hope your students will appreciate your talent and experience and will try to stay awake during class.

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  9. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 9:07 am

    No wonder Trump thinks the White House is a dump. His communications people are jizzing all over the furniture. They’ll have to hose that sumbitch down with Lysol if we ever manage to get that white trash out.
    https://twitter.com/onlxn/status/892575209609351168

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  10. alex said on August 2, 2017 at 9:09 am

    Yay, Charlotte. I don’t know what it is about engineers and writing. My own brother is a case in point. He’s one of the most articulate, intelligent people I know but terrified of expressing himself in writing. It was absolute hell for him to do his master’s thesis, and he still finds himself totally stressed out any time his work involves writing. Of course, I always sucked at math, so I empathize sort of, although these days I do a lot of math work in my job and find that I’m really not so bad at it. I just found it tedious as a school subject, but rather enjoy it when there are real-world problems to solve.

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  11. Charlotte said on August 2, 2017 at 9:30 am

    I was so terrible at math all through school and come from a family of serious dyslexics, so I really like working with people who do not want to write. And that we’re working on practical documents — presentations, applications, some light instructional text — should be kind of fun. My last few years at Utah I taught business writing, which I really liked. No wrangling over ideology. No tedious creative writing workshop (one reason I never pursued teaching fiction — I HATE creative writing workshops).
    Interesting fun fact — the two largest populations of foreign students at Montana State are Saudis and Turks, followed by Chinese.

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  12. Julie Robinson said on August 2, 2017 at 9:47 am

    Good for you, Charlotte, and what a grand adventure. My favorite non-writer/writer insisted on doing everything in Excel, and yes that included documents with only text. And by favorite I mean “favorite”. She was utterly stumped by the necessity of producing a thank you letter. So, you’re up against that.

    I was also terrible at math, and yet I ended up working in finance, where I did learn to appreciate the beauty of a well-constructed spreadsheet. Turns out that finance is more about reading, interpreting, and communicating than math. At least my jobs were.

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  13. 4dbirds said on August 2, 2017 at 9:50 am

    Congrats Charlotte. Nancy, I joined the old lady sweater team several years ago. It has to be hot af before I turn on the AC.

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  14. alex said on August 2, 2017 at 9:59 am

    Lots of dyslexia in my family too, Charlotte, on my mom’s side. I suspect I was spared by amblyopia. I can read with my right eye when the left is covered but not vice versa, and rely on the right predominantly when using both eyes. Letters tend to jumble and change form when I look at the charts in the eye doctor’s office with the left eye, just as I’ve heard dyslexia described. After they recently upped the power on the left, I started typing dyslexically — scrambling words.

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  15. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 10:13 am

    https://twitter.com/common/status/892746235811053568

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  16. Jeff Borden said on August 2, 2017 at 10:25 am

    I’ve had it with all the bullshit about how “economically anxious” voters were key to the elevation of the Orange King. His appeal was and is blatantly racist and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, while failing to protect the empty husk in the Oval Office from the Russian probe, is perfectly capable of returning us to our even more racist past. If he’s not ramping up a war on pot to put huge numbers of black and brown Americans into for-profit prisons, if he’s not working to separate immigrant families whose largest mistake was trying to offer their kids a better life by gambling on illegal immigrant, he is standing up for the rights of mediocre white students everywhere lest “those people” take their places.

    Aside from the immorality of all this, it’s just fucking economically stupid, too. The NYT has a front page story today on how Mexico, Canada and China are vacuuming up top intellectual talent from around the world because our glorious leader has made America seem like a very bad place for immigrants… particularly those of color. The very people who might help ignite our economy, discover new formulas and processes, maybe even invent entire categories will now be fueling the economic growth of other countries.

    I’m so fucking ashamed these days. Sorry. Rant over.

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  17. Suzanne said on August 2, 2017 at 11:01 am

    Rant away, Jeff. If making ‘Merica a goober haven is what is meant by MAGA, they we are on our way. My daughter has several friends who are not citizens but have had green cards for years and she is afraid for them.
    Funny, isn’t it, that the people who claim to love the USA because it’s a meritocracy don’t want those from somewhere else to climb to the top on their merits. Heck, they don’t even want them in the game.

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  18. basset said on August 2, 2017 at 11:21 am

    I was a writing tutor at our local community college for awhile… and just about everyone I worked with was either a laser-focused and intense immigrant or a kid from the hood who needed their paper corrected right now because it’s due next period.

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  19. Sherri said on August 2, 2017 at 11:22 am

    Great news, Charlotte! My husband, who manages software engineers, spends a lot of time trying to teach them how to express themselves more clearly and make presentations that actually convey meaning rather than just regurgitate a bunch of stuff. It’s necessary for them to move up.

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  20. Snarkworth said on August 2, 2017 at 11:31 am

    Wow, Charlotte! Best of luck with the teaching and the novel.

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  21. Judybusy said on August 2, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    Warmest congratulations, Charlotte! It’s wonderful to see you so excited about this. I hope you see your novel published, which of course we’ll all promptly read. I was always a natural reader and writer, and I had a good education in this area. However, my key board skills are crap. Thankfully, my employer pays for Dragon dictation software, and I use it for everything, even longer posts here. I just spent a quality 90 minutes with IT getting it installed on my new Windows 10. But I have it!

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  22. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 12:22 pm

    The Vulgarities.

    Which of us is least the morning
    And which most the hour of dread?
    Who has pulled a caul of misery
    Over his own fucking head?

    Which of us will least be bitten
    by the inwit agen loomering
    at the crack of aftertime
    knotted in his rancid bloomering

    Who’s the glowering elder monkey
    Swinging low above the grave
    A persistent shrill demand
    His soul is worth the pain to save.

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  23. Heather said on August 2, 2017 at 12:51 pm

    Sounds great, Charlotte. After I get my master’s I might try my hand at teaching a class or two if I can swing it, to see if I like it. My frustration at work is that too many people think that if words are on a page and they make some sort of sense, that’s sufficient. So I catch some horrifying errors from people who are supposed to be professional writers. You’re doing God’s work!

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  24. Scout said on August 2, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    At dinner with the parental units last night, my Dad directed me to this chin stroker… http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-predicted-ingersoll-lockwood-adventures-barron-melania-last-644284?amp=1
    …and my Mother to this one: http://www.newsweek.com/total-solar-eclipse-trump-astrology-prediction-643776

    Things that make you go hmmmmm.

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  25. Jeff Borden said on August 2, 2017 at 1:11 pm

    Honkypalooza Day! The Department of Justice goes after affirmative action. Immigration rates are cut in half and priority is given to English speakers. The Alt Right must be overjoyed.

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  26. Heather said on August 2, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    Has anyone else watched Chris Cuomo’s interview with Ed Butowsky, the billionaire Trump supporter who is in the middle of the whole Seth Rich fake conspiracy? As a commenter on nymag.com put it, “After hearing him speak, I wouldn’t let him within 5 feet of my Nana’s Bingo purse, never mind let him handle anyone’s finances.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTWZ9IkPa1E

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  27. Sherri said on August 2, 2017 at 2:11 pm

    Rather than post a long trip report here, I wrote it up on my blog: https://sherrivotes.org/2017/08/02/oregon-shakespeare-festival/

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  28. St Bitch said on August 2, 2017 at 2:26 pm

    Charlotte – your enthusiasm is infectious. Congratulations on the drafting of your novel before plunging back into income-earning mode.

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  29. coozledad said on August 2, 2017 at 2:26 pm

    Heading for that magic 27% approval six months into his term.
    https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2476

    He’ll be down to the sisterbangers and sheepchasers soon.

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  30. Charlotte said on August 2, 2017 at 4:15 pm

    Thanks everyone for this well wishes. I’m going to try to bring a more practical approach to a writing syllabus that was clearly written by professional Comp & Rhetoric types, while still maintaining some academic cred. Spring term, that is. For Fall, which begins in 3 weeks, I’m going to just teach the syllabus they’ve been using … and fingers crossed on the book. I proved to myself that I could draft 80,000 words in about 6 months (if you count losing Jan/early Feb to political bullshit), and now I’m reworking it. SInce my lovely editor has had a full career in the 20 years since my last book, he’s kind of a hotshot, so I need it to be in really good shape, especially as I’d like it to be the first of a series. Part of the reason I’m so stoked about this job is that it’s part time enough that I can still write, but full time enough to pay my bills. Which novels certainly won’t do. And it looks like I get health insurance, which is a huge relief in light of our current administration.

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  31. St Bitch said on August 2, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    Joe K – After saying I prefer to not pay you any attention, in that mean cheap shot I took at you a few threads back, it seems I’ve been able to pay you nothing but attention in my thoughts since then. Although I’m not sure why I found bitter satisfaction in such a gratuitous attack, I do realize it diminished me, not you…and that my level of maturity is not where I’d like to think it is.

    May I offer belated but sincere congratulations on your new job, new plane to fly, and enhanced skill set with which to fly it? Your enthusiasm is also infectious, if I allow myself to be open to it. For a while, in my hitch-hiking youth, I’d plant myself next to fuel pumps at small-craft airports and beg rides from anyone going in the right direction. ‘Plant’ is the operative word…it seemed to take forever to snag a willing pilot while I had road fever and just wanted to be on the move. My last foray into air-hitching was with an old WWII pilot (in his little Piper), who flew me into SeaTag; then invited me on a joy ride when I expressed interest in learning how to fly. I think he meant to scare me when he performed a loop-de-loop maneuver (I think he called it an Emblem?) that had us swooping in figure-8s, upside-down and sideways…but I was simply thrilled. I remember him emphasizing that a pilot must learn to fly without instruments that are always fallible, and not to be entirely relied upon in a clutch. Some years later, I actually took flying lessons while living in Brownsville, Texas. However, after completing ground school, I only logged 1 hour in the air. It was simply too expensive for my slender finances when I had no practical return on my investment, like the other rancher/crop-dusting wannabe pilots in my class. Regardless, the return on my investment is that brief, sweet, ineffable taste of exhilaration I can still recall.

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  32. Bitter Scribe said on August 2, 2017 at 4:29 pm

    Has there ever been a racist anywhere in the U.S.—anywhere in the world—who hasn’t said, “So-and-so only became a doctor/judge/president/whatever because he’s black”?

    You may find this Twitter feed amusing (or it may make you want to scream). It’s by a woman who, as the only African-American counselor at a summer camp, was surrounded by white counselors who really, earnestly believed that all black people in America get to go to college for free. (Also check out the whitesplaining jerk who was the first to reply.)

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  33. St Bitch said on August 2, 2017 at 4:43 pm

    Cooze posted the same Twitter feed @6, Bitter Scribe…it bears a second glance. The ignorance is infuriating…the ‘whitesplaining’ is chilling.

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  34. alex said on August 2, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    My partner and I get the same kind of questioning from dumbfucks.

    “So which one of you plays the woman?”

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  35. Bitter Scribe said on August 2, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    Oops. Sorry, Cooze.

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  36. basset said on August 2, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    So what do you say, Alex? Sounds like an opportunity to emlighten the ignorant.

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  37. basset said on August 2, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    Enlighten.

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  38. Joe K said on August 2, 2017 at 6:44 pm

    St Bitch@31
    Thanks, it wasn’t given to me by any means. I paid for it myself, a lot of hot nights on State str in Fort Wayne at Dana Corp before I could do what I’m doing now, in highschool they told me I couldn’t be a pilot not enough math, I never knew you could go to college at Purdue or Western Mich and go to flight school there, it might be the reason I have trouble showing sympathy for some (not all) that have education far beyond mine yet can’t find or hold a job, In my experience nothing was given to me I had to earn it.
    What you did is called a Immelmann turn, it was used in ww-1 to turn around, climb straight up go over the top and roll wings level.
    Pilot Joe

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  39. Deborah said on August 2, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    I wrote a long comment earlier today and immediately lost it because I’m in Abiquiu. Oh well, let me just say good luck to Charlotte and congrats on getting healthcare out of your new employment, that’s huge.

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  40. Jolene said on August 3, 2017 at 1:06 am

    Have been away today, so am just catching up with the news. Congrats from me, too, Charlotte. I taught classes similar to those you’ve described for 15 years. I’m amazed that there’s even a possibility of health insurance. Usually not the case for adjuncts/instructors. Hope it works out.

    My achievements for the day: Two MD appointments that I’ve been procrastinating about and the purchase of a new computer, a Microsoft Surface Laptop. Haven’t got it yet, as it has to be ordered, but the prospect of a new toy is exciting. It’s blue.

    https://news.microsoft.com/mssurface_mkt_01_teal_v2_rgb/

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  41. Suzanne said on August 3, 2017 at 6:58 am

    I know a number of people who suffer from this:
    http://www.nydailynews.com/amp/opinion/trump-derangement-syndrome-self-check-up-article-1.3378494

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  42. basset said on August 3, 2017 at 8:19 am

    Just forwarded that to one low-information Trump voter and two good liberals… already know what they’re gonna say.

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  43. alex said on August 3, 2017 at 8:38 am

    Well, Basset, I’m generally too decorous to tell it like it is, even to dumbfucks who would never dare to ask fellow heteros intrusive questions about their sex lives but think it’s acceptable to interrogate gay people about theirs. Our pat response is that we’re not into women, duh.

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  44. Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2017 at 8:49 am

    I’m fine with being unenlightened. As far as I’m concerned, what happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom, no matter what your sexuality.

    Jolene, congrats on getting the doctor visits accomplished, and may you love your Surface half as much as our daughter does. She’s on number three now, mostly because she’s a bit casual about putting it in a case as she carries it around. She works wherever she finds herself so she always has it with her.

    Sherri, I’d love to get to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival some day, hopefully not when they’re having freakishly hot weather. We saw Beauty and the Beast here this weekend, and though there was plenty of froth for the little ones, the theme of otherness was also layered over the production. The director noted that Howard Ashman was dying of AIDS when he wrote the lyrics, and didn’t live to see the awards it would win. It helped me think about the story on a much different level. Fear of those not like us? Still relevant today.

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  45. Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2017 at 11:49 am

    This story illustrates the profound stupidity and craven cowardice of our Dear Leader. . .particularly the conversation with the leader of Mexico.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/you-cannot-say-that-to-the-press-trump-urged-mexican-president-to-end-his-public-defiance-on-border-wall-transcript-reveals/2017/08/03/0c2c0a4e-7610-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html

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  46. Peter said on August 3, 2017 at 11:55 am

    Jeff, I was just going to post it. Oh. My. Freaking. God. That should put to rest all of the comments about him losing it – he lost it on day 1!

    I’m stunned, just stunned, that nobody on the other end of the line didn’t just start laughing hysterically.

    As they would say on Looney Tunes – what a maroon.

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  47. Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    Peter, It is terrifying. Even if this fool leaves office before his term, the damage he has done to our nation will still be incalculable.

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  48. Suzanne said on August 3, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    I only read bits and pieces of the Trump phone transcripts but it points out how far over his head he is and I figured he was pretty far over his head. He’s used to bullying to get his way, but these are heads of state, not some local contractor who doesn’t have the resources to fight back and they will push back. I’ve no doubt he thought Putin would have his back, too, because he’s such an asset to Russia and “Vlad loves me!”
    All goes back to his daddy issues, doesn’t it? If you aren’t on the top and crushing others, you are a loser. He’s cornered now and probably very dangerous.

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  49. Sherri said on August 3, 2017 at 12:55 pm

    What’s truly astounding about the transcripts is that they were leaked! Can you imagine this happening in any other administration?

    Of course trump is a maroon. Despite the fervent wishes of so many, he has not been playing a character he can pivot away from, this is who he is. What’s amazing is that so many people in this administration are either so brave or craven, I can’t decide which, as to leak the most incredible secrets! Are they doing it to save the country or their own ass? Who knows? If they really want to save the country, though, they need to start finding leverage on the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver and his compatriots in Congress, and Senator Fucking Piece of Shit.

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  50. Jakash said on August 3, 2017 at 1:01 pm

    “The funding ‘will work out in the formula somehow,’ Trump said, adding later that ‘it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.'”

    “…a structure that is projected to cost as much as $21 billion.”

    I realize that ole Rumpy’s a rich guy, but that is one hell of a load of laundry.

    As for the derangement piece Suzanne posted @ 41, it refers to a cult in the ’50s:

    “…members had quit their jobs, left their families and given away all their money and possessions to await rescue by a flying saucer…”

    Gotta admit, that sounds pretty tempting these days. ; )

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  51. coozledad said on August 3, 2017 at 1:05 pm

    The press is still assiduously hunting for that “Trump became presidential today” moment. It can be a terrorist act he sabotaged our preparedness for, it can be an international incident arranged by his Russian enablers, or he can get the Republicans to pass a massive tax cut. And in any of those cases, the DC press will jizz itself into a fucking coma.

    And this time, the Republicans, who are in deep electoral shit, will play a more dangerous authoritarian buttlicking game than they did after 9/11. They’ve already suspended habeas corpus, they’ve got a secret paramilitary that isn’t beholden to the law, and they’re in the process of securing a national propaganda network staffed by the Trump family and bankrolled by white nationalist donors. If you squeak, they’re going to come for you, and once the American people realize this, you’ll see very clearly how this country was designed for the rule of cowardice, and the ascent of its shittiest Quisling creeps.

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  52. Catherine said on August 3, 2017 at 1:07 pm

    Part of me hopes that General Kelly brings some discipline to the WH, and the President and his administration stop being the laughingstock of the world… and another part of me hopes that the leakers keep right on leaking…

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  53. coozledad said on August 3, 2017 at 1:24 pm

    We have to actively work to dismantle the party that created the conditions for this affront to justice, and beat down their doors, take their shit, and throw them in the sea.
    https://wonkette.com/621125/wrongly-held-in-ice-jail-for-three-years-citizen-zero-dollars-for-you

    Time is running out to fuck these people up.

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  54. Peter said on August 3, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    A couple of comments at the Slate article made my day:

    “And this is the guy who says that he’ll be able to make great deals – WITH THE RUSSIANS?”

    “”Boy, is this guy stupid or what?” – Sarah Palin”

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  55. Deborah said on August 3, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    The sad part of the outing of the transcripts is that his base will love it, that he talked tough to other world leaders and that he got the president of Mexico to agree to something, even if it was only just to keep quiet about who’s going to pay for the wall. His cult members eat that up. I wonder if his own self wanted it leaked. He loves it too.

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  56. Scout said on August 3, 2017 at 2:40 pm

    I think he comes off looking completely inept and in over his head in both conversations. All the bragging about being the ‘best negotiator’ makes him look even more ridiculous in these conversations. At this point I couldn’t care less what his idiot, non salvageable fan base thinks. I do wish the media would stop asking them what they think. By now, we get it, they’re cultists; so let’s just move on and talk to people who actually comprise the majority.

    I agree 100% with Sherri: ” If they really want to save the country, though, they need to start finding leverage on the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver and his compatriots in Congress, and Senator Fucking Piece of Shit.”

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  57. coozledad said on August 3, 2017 at 4:14 pm

    What they’ve got on Ryan, McConnell and every member of the Republican party is they knew he was filthy with debt to Russia. They knew he was completely compromised, and they were willing to perjure themselves for him. In Sessions’ case, we have his perjury on tape. Devin Nunes will likely be a target of the expanded Russia Grand Jury investigation.

    If I played the market, I’d be investing heavily in bulk document shredders and
    hard drive incinerators.

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  58. Peter said on August 3, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    I was just going to say that even though it’s only Thursday, and even though it’s been a bad week, I think that finally, Trump is having a better week than the last one.

    But now word comes out via WSJ that Mueller has started grand jury proceedings.

    DOH!!

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  59. Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/special-counsel-mueller-impanels-washington-grand-jury-in-russia-probe-1501788287

    This won’t show the entire article, which requires a subscription, but it has the first few sentences of the story Peter references.

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  60. David C. said on August 3, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    It sure looks like it’s closing in fast on tRump. I can see him gathering up Javanka and their kids in the middle of the night and flying off to exile in Moscow tweeting all the way how unfair it is.

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  61. alex said on August 3, 2017 at 7:49 pm

    Those people who think blacks go to college for free are gonna shit a brick when Sean Hannity jumps on this story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40812196

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  62. Deborah said on August 3, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    So they estimate approximately $20 billion for Trump’s wall. I’m sorry but that is a ridiculously low estimate. The wall will have to be 2,000 miles long from stem to stern, and they were talking at one time that it would be 30′ high. Peter can probably weigh in on this but a typical stadium built these days is in the half billion to three quarter billion range. The Phoenix convention center (which my husband designed) had a budget of $750,000 and that was just an addition. The wall if it ever happens which is doubtful would have to be three times what they’re estimating. I mean much of it would be on remote and rugged terrain. Who are they kidding?

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  63. Minnie said on August 3, 2017 at 11:27 pm

    Is this only Thursday? I can’t stand much more of this week.

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