8 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Trump is going to send the military to get things under control in Minneapolis, which is, like, totally legal. He also tweeted, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," which has as rather ugly racist history.

   Gonna be a long day, y'all.

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   1. Harlem

      By Langston Hughes

      What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?
      Or fester like a sore—
      And then run?
      Does it stink like rotten meat?
      Or crust and sugar over—
      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?

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2. WOTD from Josh Marshall at TPM: "The Gang Leader as President"

   In 2016 Will Saletan made an observation I’ve returned to again and again. ‘The GOP is a failed state and Donald Trump is its warlord.’ What was and is true of the GOP is now, in a sense, true of America. A warlord never rules let alone governs a party or country. He dominates a chunk of it by force and violence and overawes the rest of it by that example. He pillages the whole and rewards supporters with the pickings to maintain his hold on the political rump that sustains his power. It is the fundamental brokenness or fragmentation of the larger unit that makes this feat possible.

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   1. Also from TPM: "Trump Quotes ’60s Police Chief’s Bloody Phrase"

      The phrase itself comes from a December 1967 press conference held by then-Miami police chief Walter Headley, in which he declared a “get tough” policy — a “war” on crime in black neighborhoods in Miami. Or as Headley was quoted in news reports at the time, “young hoodlums, from 15 to 21, who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign.”

      “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality,” Headley said. “They haven’t seen anything yet. Community relations and all that sort of thing have failed. We have done everything we could, sending speakers out and meeting with Negro leaders. But it has amounted to nothing.”

      The chief added that Miami hadn’t had a “serious problem with civil uprising and looting because I’ve let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

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      1. Next thing we know, Trump will be channeling the late "Bull" Connor.

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         1. What… actual German shepherds, fire hoses and lynchings?

            Cause he is Bull Connor.2020 already

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         2. Already old news …

            “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” the president wrote in another post, which was flagged by Twitter. “Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

            In saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” Mr. Trump echoed a phrase coined by a Miami police chief in the 1960s about crackdowns on black neighborhoods during times of unrest. Walter Headley, the Miami police chief in 1967, warned that young black men who he called “hoodlums” had “taken advantage of the civil rights campaign,” and added, “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality.”

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         3. well, except Trump doesn't like dogs.  He had a hard time finding real things to say when trying to praise a military dog involved in a raid on a terrorist leader and seems to have been confused by its gender. 

            I doubt Bull ever had those problems.

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