US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

the administration has made it a point for two years to make love to Andrew Jackson's corpse. I'm sure Trail of Tears was on a Powerpoint slide prepared by Jared in June 2017.

i think gummy is right tbh, if only because i cannot imagine trump remembering that the Trail of Tears was even a thing, versus having seen movies with native peoples following "trails" or "Indian Trail Road" being in the names of real estate developments for which he was shown colorful large-format illustrations

hell, he might have been glancing at jackson as he tweeted

https://i.imgur.com/oPFaLq8.jpg

I'm sure he knows about the Trail of Tears.

Trump is staunch admirer of Andrew Jackson, the president who signed the Indian Removal Act that instigated the forced westward march of the Trail of Tears. A portrait of Jackson hangs in Trump's Oval Office, and Steve Bannon once gave the president a reading list full of biographies of his fellow populist leader.

i think he knows the phrase "trail of tears" and was thinking about it, honestly, even if he doesn't know exactly what it was. as with so much with this guy though, i end up feeling like

https://media0.giphy.com/media/it8307a0XxlVS/giphy.gif

Last night I read that Trump Jr. called out the racism in the TRAIL tweet by retweeting a critic. Hopefully that really happened.

i understand the inclination to assume that his actions are motivated by him being incredibly dumb and ignorant, but i think after watching him for a few years we can safely assume that he is driven even more by his racism

i would like him to no longer be part of my life

steven miller who prob composes half of trump’s tweets and is also reified hate def know what trail means in the context of warren

Donald Trump Jr. expressed delighted at his father’s latest racist tweet. He posted a photo of it to Instagram, and, seemingly determined to one-up his dad's bigotry, captioned it with a slur against Native peoples. "Savage!!!!" wrote Trump Jr. "Love my President.”

no love for don but i don't think he means it that way

Last night I read that Trump Jr. called out the racism in the TRAIL tweet by retweeting a critic. Hopefully that really happened.

― ٩༼ º෴º ༽۶ (FlopsyDuck)

wherever you read that, you should make a note to ever trust them again with anything

don jr also quoted noted small hand haver and new york media darling turned conservative douche michael malice

speaking of quoting media ppl

Fox News’ @PeteHegseth admits, unprompted, that he hasn’t washed his hands in 10 years.

“Germs are not a real thing,” Pete says. “I can’t see them, therefore they’re not real.” pic.twitter.com/9hsAb9YA9j

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 10, 2019

Cf jesus, morality, common sense

Shame that is presumably something trump won't pick up on from Fox, might just be rid of him that much faster. I assume that being a germophobe is as much of a heartfelt belief as he has about anything. Or is this going to morph into a tweeted comment later on.

sometimes I forget that the President is a literal rapist

The Democrats are so self righteous and ANGRY! Loosen up and have some fun. The Country is doing well!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2019

good morning!!

Trump 2020: Loosen Up!

I'm never sure how to respond when a backed-up font of seething rage insists that I loosen up and enjoy myself.

love trumps hate

#resist

(35% of americans) love trump's hate
#medialiteracycrisis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/11/its-all-about-benjamins-baby-ilhan-omar-again-accused-anti-semitism-over-tweets/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d176c92c934f

This is really dumb.

It's dumb to treat it as in any way comparable to Steve King or other movement racists in positions of power, but yes, it's true, Omar is using language whose force is derived from an old robust anti-Semitic tradition, and it's good for her to know that. She can (and should) go after Netanyahu and his fans in Congress without shading into the "follow the money" stuff. I think Hemd Amry has this right

No, criticism of Israel isn’t anti-semitism, just like criticism of a Muslim majority state isn’t islamophobia, by default. However racist or bigoted tropes can be intentionally or unintentionally triggered in making those critiques and yes that matters-it always matters.

— hend amry (@LibyaLiberty) February 11, 2019

seems fair

AIPAC spent $3.5 million dollars in 2018 alone on lobbying costs--and 3.2 in 2017 and so on (see here: https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000046963&year=2017). Commenting on this doesn't seem out of place?

The AIPAC remark was completely accurate, people are objecting to her particular framing and language which I think is fair. What's not fair is the assumption of bad faith and the lumping in of anti-Zionism / BDS / political criticism of Israel more generally with anti-Semitism, which tbh is what I see the majority of commentators doing

xp

Michael Bloomberg spent twenty times that much on Democrats in the 2018 election cycle (and George Soros another $13m) and yes there is something creepy when Kevin McCarthy talks about them trying to "buy the election."

I guess I'm just not seeing it in those two tweets that are quoted. "Follow the money" has like 1000 stronger associations than anti-semitism unless you're trying to discredit anyone who doesn't support Israel's settler colonialism?

In other news: Erick Erickson is on board!

no platfrorm for lester freamon

lobbying =/= election cycle money. Apples and oranges.

I guess I'm just not seeing it in those two tweets that are quoted.

That's cool, I don't think Omar saw it either, I truly don't think it's her intent to use this stuff, but trust me, it's there.

whoa who could've thought Erick Erickson had no principles

trust me, it's there.

I really don't think it is

I mean otherwise I don't get what the non-anti-semitic way would be to insinuate that campaign donations and lobbying money are part of the reason for widespread support for Israel among politicians, which they obviously are. She didn't tweet a picture of a fanged octopus with "AIPAC" on it, she just said "It's all about the benjamins."

The good way would be to use the word "part" where you used it, the bad way is to use the word "all" where she used it. This is not a minor distinction.

pretty simple: even when it's true you just uh have to be deliberate and careful and not glib when you're arguing that Jewish groups are using money to manipulate politicians?

yep. it sucks that ppl who are already out on a pretty lonely limb with this sentiment also have to be exceptionally careful about it but them's the breaks

unfortunately I think this is also correct

Open challenge for any of the "Omar should have criticized AIPAC in a way that cannot be spun as anti-Semitic" people to do it.

If this site should have taught us anything by now, it's that cynics and reactionaries can always twist your words to mean any damn thing they want.

— Carl Beijer (@CarlBeijer) February 11, 2019

(if those seem contradictory, I'll boil it down to: she could and should definitely have chosen her words more carefully but also she can't win with many of these ppl)

Careful who you call “these people” boyo

STFU

sincerely, one of "these people"

obv the aipac lobby is powerful, but it's also disingenuous to say that there aren't plenty of ideological and political reasons for moderate dems and republicans to support israel.

That's a more fair point imo.

xp

I don't think she could have criticized AIPAC in a way that opportunistic GOP hacks couldn't spin as anti-Semitic, I'm just saying she could have criticized AIPAC in a way *I* wouldn't perceive as anti-Semitic.

Sorry, I said that badly. I don't even perceive what she said as anti-Semitic, it's more that I perceive it drawing power from ambient anti-Semitism.

Worst afx record

Careful who you call “these people” boyo

I felt like I was pretty clearly referring to Israel's vocal public supporters, many of whom are not Jewish, but go off