Last Friday, the breaking political news about freshman congresswoman Rashida Tlaib telling a crowd of progressive voters that we will “impeach that motherf–ker.” The reaction was…telling. We’re more than two years past Hillary Clinton’s electoral college loss in the presidential election. Did we learn anything in those two years? Why are we still tone-policing and nitpicking female politicians to a degree we never do with male politicians? Of course, most of the negative reaction to Rep. Tlaib came from the right-wing media and politicians, who got to perform their outrage that a woman – a Palestinian-American woman, no less – would dare to say anything so vulgar! Donald Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women in vulgar terms AND HE WAS STILL ELECTED PRESIDENT.
New York Magazine did a thoughtful piece – as did other media outlets – about why Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are being targeted by so much vitriol from the right, and so much tone-policing and pearl-clutching from the left, and from the media as a whole. Ocasio-Cortez’s “controversy” was… daring to make a factual statement in her 60 Minutes interview, which is that Donald Trump is racist. Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez… two younger women of color, two politically progressive women, two women who “don’t know their place,” at least according to the white patriarchy.
That all of these conversations about when women of color are allowed to, you know, SPEAK and be political and be full citizens are all happening against the backdrop of a government shutdown that is still happening. The president is an unindicted co-conspirator in an assortment of federal crimes, and he, his people and his family are being targeted by a dogged special prosecutor. Trump is literally parroting Kremlin talking points whenever he makes any kind of public statement, and it just feels like… we’re talking about the wrong things.
Also: all networks will be carrying Trump’s address about the Border Wall tonight. Because no one learned anything.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Answer: because they use foul language that Emperor Zero and his followers clutch pearls at due to them being hypocrite snowflakes.
For those networks choosing to air a live broadcast of EZ’s border rally tonight, you will reap what you sow. Enough is enough.
I just say “it’s locker room talk, dontcha know?” and see what they respond.
I’m apparently far more cynical than most. The Right-Wing doesn’t focuses on these two women simply out of their own biases. They do it because they know the chances are high White and/or Conservative Americans are less likely to give them the benefit of the doubt for any mistake or controversy they’ll inevitably make. It’s all ridiculous and hypocritical now, but it just takes one genuine misstep from either of these ladies and they’ll be destroyed because of the groundwork already being laid down.
It is disgusting that even now, no one has the balls to refuse to air his crap.
We are screwed in 2020. Nothing has changed.
My guess is they are airing it because they know he’s a mess and they all want to have their cameras rolling when he does his normal bat-shit crazy babbling.
Boycott that chat. No ratings and the networks won’t air his crap again.
bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha love it.
keep it coming.
AOC 2028!
Answer: Because America is racist and sexist AF.
And white liberals can be some of the worst about it because their progressivism allows them a sense of plausible deniability. At least the right isn’t pretending otherwise anymore.
Anderson Cooper was so condescending to AOC. I thought she was a lot more polite than she needed to be about his antagonistic questions. And as for acting shocked when she stated the obvious, that Trump is a racist, how many times has Cooper called Trump’s comments racist? If someone’s comments are racist then they are a racist. Pretty simple.
Also, Cooper should read the IPCC report on climate change. A green new deal is no longer optional, it’s essential to the survival of the planet.
+1,000,000
The establishment cannot stand that young women of colour have educated opinions, strong voices, and don’t give a f*ck what the establishment thinks. Keep at it ladies!!
Not to mention she can articulate populist messages in a way people who aren’t policy wonks can relate to. The comment about increasing the tax rate for every dollar earned over $10 million made so much sense it triggered every republican in America.
Exactly. The system hates that these women of color aren’t desperately seeking approval from the powers that be. And I think too many liberals (including in the media) still want the approval of the right wing. That’s why you’ll see the media bend over backwards to make false equivalencies about liberals and conservatives, even though there is no actual comparison for Trump and the right wing. They are uniquely and terrifyingly horrific.
This all reminds me of when my conservative grandma always told me “such ugly words out of such a pretty face”. I didn’t use anything worse “what the hell” at the time. But if a man did it no big deal. Fuck that.
I saw a tweet that said what Rep. Tlaib said was “just lady locker room talk” and it spoke to my soul.
+1. But being more concerned, put off, or even outraged by the lack of ‘class’ ‘decorum’ ‘civility’ or ‘propriety’ (often things defined by white patriarchy’s standards of respectability on this side of the world) in the way women and girls respond to the inequality and oppression they see, than the suffering and injustice being reacted to is textbook conservatism.
That’s my go-to response now. It usually shuts them up. If it doesn’t, I point out that they were perfectly okay excusing it when EZ D said it, so why complain now.
Thank you for this, Kaiser. So tired of people on the left who don’t have AOC’s back. Absolutely LOVED what Tlaib said and I literally LOL when anyone on the right starts whining about it. I mean, it’s just so comical to me how they believe that they can still assert moral high ground after all the times that they’ve turned their head and shrugged their shoulders in the face of the GOP’s disgusting, immoral behavior.
I’m so pissed that all the news stations are showing this clown show tonight. I guess when baby has a tantrum, you just give in to whatever he wants.
Pelosi and Schumer asked for equal time after his speech. I hope they have a question and answer period afterwards so that he can be called out on all the lies he will be spouting. I won’t watch it (can’t stand his voice for more than 30 seconds) but will wait for the fireworks to start tomorrow. I really expect him to declare a national emergency. What I hope to hear is that he is resigning (won’t hold my breath though).
I expect that he’ll declare a state of emergency, too. And I expect (hope) that multiple attorney generals and congress will immediately file suits and orders to show cause for temporary injunctions and tie the whole thing up.
We have a system of checks and balances in this country. It’s time we start using it.
Yeah I can’t imagine that they’ll let him get away with that. Not that his brazenly unconstitutional actions hasn’t been blindly tolerated for almost two years now.
I didn’t know that about Pelosi and Schumer, Swack. I hope they make the most of it.
A state of emergency is the only way he can get out of this without losing face. The courts will reject it and he will blame Democrats. Obama, Hillary, and judges for not getting his border wall.
I’ve been worried about a “Reichstag Fire” for a while now, and I’m wondering if this is how it will happen. We can’t let him assert the financial powers of the US, which is delegated to congress. If he tries to wrestle control of funds and the military by declaring an “emergency”, I’m really worried of how he could expand that concept.
I’m hoping this is just a band-aid for him to get out of the shut down while proclaiming a victory, only to have it overturned by courts after the shutdown has ended. I hope it isn’t the first step to something worse.
He’s doing it to make himself look like a hero to his base. They are lying about people going without paychecks. My hometown Patch page asked if anyone was being affected by the Shutdown and the comments were awful. There were so many that said Build The Wall, or I’m unfollowing you for getting political Patch, or that no one is going without pay since the departments are fully funded, and a total d-bag I went to school with went on and on about how $5 was a drop in the bucket for our budget, we need the wall and this is the Schumer shutdown. They will do any mental gymnastics they have to in order to support him. So even though it’s evident he’s doing this so it gets tied up in the courts and he looks like the hero to reps, they will follow him through whatever. In all honesty, I’m terrified of him winning again. He has so many die hard, shoot themselves in the foot supporters (who are obsessed with AOC in a deranged way) and it disgusts me.
Trump gets away with it because:
a) his supporters don’t mind. A lot of them are not that educated and they are simply fed up with politically correct speak. They are fed up about being told by academics how to speak and what to say and what you must not say.
They were simply left behind by a lot of academics and by deficitary educational policies.
b) his supporters are fed up with being overlooked and being treated as “deplorables” (H.Clinton).
c) the US elite (aka filthy rich) have an arrangement with Trump.
To those in an uproar about Tlaib, I point out that she said it during a meeting with supporters, not in any official capacity, not as part of her job but Dick Cheney used the same word to Harry Reid on the floor of the US Senate as part of his job. Why is one wrong but the other, the more official, fine?
Well, in fairness, most people thought Cheney’s behavior was inappropriate at the time, but you’re right that the outrage is nowhere near equivalent to the milder comments being made by these women.
Exactly, LP. The hypocrisy is just infuriating.
@Kitten, they asked but I don’t believe they were granted their request. Have been looking to see if they had and haven’t found anything on it.
Edit – apparently they are getting to rebut Trump, Incredulous has it down below.
Because Women of Color are supposed to work…pay into the system…be abused…and keep our mouths shut…THAT is the system the power infrastructure setup for us…and far too little about that horrific system has changed over the hundreds of years…
It doesn’t matter HOW a WOC describes a racist inhuman like Trump…the fact that she is given a platform to speak and have the unmitigated gall to speak that truth…AT ALL…will always rankle the power structure…
So I say to ALL WOC or anyone who is tired of this WHOLE THING…
Speak truth to power…speak it as loudly and as crudely as you want to…
It’s what “they” deserve…
Amen.
AOC also triggers right wingers because she is young, beautiful, smart, and can land a solid punch when they come for her. She is blowing their minds because their attacks make her stronger.
:: applause ::
When he was VP (!), Dick Cheney told a Democratic senator to go f*ck himself…where was Mitt Romney’s pearl clutching then?! The hypocrisy is sickening.
To his face on the floor of the US Senate as part of his official job, unlike Tlaib using it casually in a setting with supporters.
Had a discussion with someone (a Trumpster, but must say was pretty civil in the discussion) about if it was alright to say that about Trump (because you know we must worship Trump and not question Trump or say anything negative about Trump because he has done SO much for this country). He commented that if he said that about his boss he would be fired. I commented that Trump was not her boss and that the people that who elected her were her boss. Got no response to that. Then after discussing other things he asked if I thought it was wrong for her to say that. I asked him if it was okay if she had said that about Putin, Macron, Trudeau, Kelly or Mattis or if she had used the word a$$ho!e. Again no answer to my question but he took my answer as a no, it wasn’t wrong (he got that right). And my last comment to him was that while it would not have been my way of doing it, I would defend the right of her (or anyone) to say it. Got out of the conversation because the usual a$$holes that get in the conversation began to comment and unless your 100% for Trump you’re in the wrong and it doesn’t matter how much you back up your statements with facts, you’re still wrong. Plus, for them, I’m a woman and my opinion doesn’t count.
He didn’t say anything because you got him and deep down, he knew you were right. But he will continue to defend his orange savior and this abomination of an administration anyway. That’s what is so f*cking infuriating.
Today, the one commenter on FB that I try not to get into it with, was arguing (with my brother) that women don’t get paid less than men in any job. Of course my brother says they do. This idiot asked for proof and I gave an article from CNBC that listed the top 10 jobs with the biggest pay difference and the top 10 jobs with the lowest pay difference (charts and all). This idiot said that I was not giving him what he wanted. He always has a but . . . when shown the facts that don’t go along with him. It’s so frustrating because one of the reasons he doesn’t accept my answers and research is because I am a woman (I know this because others – men – have said the same thing and he doesn’t argue with them).
Yup! That’s the Trump-Supporter Playbook: Demand facts that can easily be found from a 2 second Google search then when you decide that you don’t like the facts that were provided, pivot to another subject. They really learned well from Trump and the GOP.
I hope the Dems can give a live rebuttal to his BS.
@Toot, sadly I don’t even think it matters. His supporters wouldn’t watch. Everyone is so entrenched in their beliefs and won’t budge at this point no matter what the facts are. It’s scary.
because only men are allowed to be angry and show leadership
SO discouraging about the networks airing the Big Baby’s Tantrum. Is there ANY chance they will simultaneously fact check? Oh who am I kidding.
Does anyone else find AOC problematic? Her back story – “Trump isn’t ready for a girl from the Bronx” – is a fabrication. Her parents did everything they could to get OUT of the Bronx by the time she was 2. She grew up in Yorktown Heights, NY (I used to live 10 miles from there) where she had tremendous advantages.
Also, she stated firmly that members of Congress should not accept their paychecks if the government shut down – but now she refuses to say she personally followed through on that idea. I hope she did, because otherwise she would be a hypocrite.
Even Whoopi Goldberg recommended that she refrain from criticizing others until she has gotten something accomplished herself. I like her ideas, but I’m also afraid she is just handing ammunition to her opponents.
It’s a watershed time. The old norms of decorum and civility have been taken out back and beaten to death by people wielding pool cues and socks with pool balls in them. Rather than clutching their pearls and wailing, distraught, before fainting onto a handy divan, AOC and Rashida Tlaib are just wading straight in with their knees and elbows of knowledge and utter indifference to the insults of people who are going to insult them anyway.
Their detractors are using out-moded technology and paradigms, and are sticking with what they know even when it does not work. Let them waste their time and never let them rewrite history.
P.S. The Democrats are getting equal time to rebut Trump’s logorrhoea which is funny because:
A)The Trump Lateness Power Move ™ will not work in his favour at all.
B)They’ll be on right after him so Babby gonna throw a strop right away because Muh Attention Seeking.
Good to hear they are getting time to rebut Trump. Could not find that anywhere.
When I read this my first thought was ‘he’s going to declare a national emergency live on TV’ – I still think that’s a possibility. The walls are closing in and he is desperate to save his fat orange ass from the clinker, I have always believed he’d try and dissolve gov and the constitution and the border with Mexico has always been his trigger for his braindead followers.
I can’t even imagine what the unhinged baby will say tonight. As for the border with Mexico, someone pointed out that he threw out the idea of a wall in the midst of a campaign frenzy and surprising it resonated with his base so he ran with it. It’s not like he even really cares about immigration.
I heard on Chris Hayes’s show that The Wall was actually just a pneumonic device the Trump campaign created for Candidate Trump to remind him to talk about immigration.
Sigh.
Oh geez, not surprising. He’s just so terrible, I have no words anymore. What a f%^&ing nightmare.
@Kitten, have you read “Fear” by Woodard. It talks about what Trump has changed in himself to be a candidate and what the plan was for his campaign. I can only read a little at a time. It’s frightening. I’m just in Chapter 2 and not sure I can make it through the entire book without losing it.
@ Swack-I haven’t read it yet but my mom got it for me for Christmas 🙂
I was excited to read it but now you’re scaring me LOL. UGH and SIGH.
I am concerned some unhinged supporter of his might cause some “incident” in order that 45 has a good reason to declare a “ national emergency “
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in his administration paid off an undocumented (“your family will be provided for”) to do it.
Bigly Best Brains needs something more than just declaring a state of emergency. As it stands it will not fly in court, not even remotely and I guarantee that SCOTUS will not want to touch the poop at all. Mitch McTurtle needs to decide if he wants to throw the GOP or Trump under the bus and that decision-making time is fast approaching.
I’m pretty sure that’s what he will do. During his campaign, right wing pundits said things like he obviously doesn’t mean a real wall it’s a figure of speech and now they’ve done a 180 to say he’s always meant he was going to build an actual wall at the border.
This is his moment, when he tries to seize all power and start a totalitarian regime, like his boyfriend Putin. He is so freaked out about the House and he knows Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler can take everything apart with one televised hearing. So he’s going to try to appropriate funding for the Army to build a little fence, I mean the wall. Rouse up his “base” with some fear and loathing. Impeach.
Last night, Kellyanne Conway had the audacity to go on Laura Ingraham’s show and say that not only did Rashida Tlaib make such crude comments, but she said them to her son. In other words, not only is the newly-elected, powerful woman crude, but she is also a crap mother. Nice, very nice.
These Repubs need to read “Good and Mad” by Rebecca Traister and they will begin to understand why they lost the election. There is an entire chapter on swearing, why swearing is important, and the power of swearing and controlling the narrative.
I’m dying to read that book. I absolutely LOVE Traister.
I still find it so weird that the media/people in general have automatic reactions like this, like they never learn from past mistakes. I guess I don’t understand deep rooted misogyny and racism because I wasn’t conditioned to be either and I learned how to think critically? Or maybe the apocalypse already happened and over half the population turned into zombies. *shrugs*
I’m so proud that both of these women are representing citizens of the United States. They’re amazing.
Same. They give me hope during hopeless times.
FYI “Impeach the m…f… already” aka #itmfa is a phrase first coined by Dan Savage, whose fabulous podcast and advice column I highly recommend. The ITMFA merch has raised $250K (!!) which has gone to support Planned Parenthood, ACLU and Int’l Refugee Project
https://www.savagelovecast.com/
http://www.impeachthemotherfuckeralready.com/?fbclid=IwAR3ebtpSHiR4pEiQAvTTtmfA1F0Nj9OdlLiBI4uJgT95oKH4tQdfWG5vaKQ
I for one will not be listening tonight to hear the lies. I cannot stand to see him on tv 📺 spouting his lies. I cannot understand his people listening to the lies everyday and still supports him. I will listen to Rachael M or CNN after his s#$t talk. I will listen to Nancy and Churck to hear what they have to say at least I believe they are more truthful. I also hope they will not give an inch to Don the Con to waste $B of our money so he can have a big beautiful wall with his name on it. We can use that money 💰 to help so many people who are in real need of help.
Why did the news stations agree to air his speech? Because they worship ratings more than the truth, bottom line.
This really makes me mad at the liberal media more than anything. Celebrate this honesty as much as the right does. People speak this way but somehow only the right gets to benefit from it? Start standing for and with your representatives instead of participating in the right’s hypocritical shame fest. If celebrating honesty like this is what amounts to taking the low road start driving because it’s winning for the right and the left continues being left in the dust.
Yes, yes and YES.
When I start a new job I put my head down and listen and learn. I don’t making major sweeping statements about what I am going to do not having all the facts at my disposal over what is actually possible. I also don’t use profanity in statements to the public. I did not like it when Trump did it and did not think it was appropriate when she did it. To me, it is pretty simple and I get why people have negative reactions.
She was in a room celebrating with supporters, I believe she thought she was talking to friends and did not believe her language would get out in public. However, I’ll give her a pass because all The despicable things the liar in Chief has said and his people never complained. I remember his wife said it was “locker room talk.” Don the Con sets a very low bar for others to follow.
She said what we’re all thinking.
Yeah the networks only care about ratings. It’s total bullshit that they are covering what’s basically going to be a rally. $20 bucks says he announces his re-election campaign. He’s pimping out a false and dangerous narrative and the fourth estate is putting ratings above truth.