Sarah Huckabee Sanders, A Virginia Restaurant, And The Politicization Of Everyday Life

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia last night, and the incident raises questions of how far we should let politics infiltrate everyday life.

It’s a slow news day relatively speaking so one story getting a lot of media attention today is the report that White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was denied service at a restaurant in western Virginia last night because the restaurant owner objected to the fact that someone who worked for the President was in his establishment:

WASHINGTON — Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said she was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant Friday night because of her work in the Trump administration, becoming the latest official to be singled out for her support of the president’s policies.

After the owner of the restaurant, the Red Hen in Lexington, suggested she leave, Ms. Sanders tweeted on Saturday, she complied.

The woman’s actions “say far more about her than about me,” Ms. Sanders said. “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.” A person who identified as a waiter at the restaurant said in a Facebook post that Ms. Sanders had been accompanied by seven other guests.

The restaurant did not respond to phone calls, and its website appeared to have crashed Saturday morning as reports of the episode began circulating.

Here’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ tweet about the incident, which was sent after the reports about the incident had become public:

As did her father former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee:

This isn’t the first incident that members of the Trump Administration have encountered this week in apparent response to the ongoing controversy over the Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and the subsequent separation of parents and children which the President purported to end via Executive Order earlier this week after saying repeatedly he couldn’t do that. On Tuesday night, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was heckled and yelled at while eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C. Before this on Sunday, Stephen Miller, who is widely seen as the President’s top adviser on immigration issues inside the West Wing was denounced as a fascist by a protester on Sunday while dining at a Mexican restaurant, according to The New York Post. While it’s unclear that the incident involving Sanders, which occurred in Lexington, Virginia a small city in western Virginia that lies roughly three hours southwest of Washington, D.C.  was related to the current situation at the border, all three of them are indicative of the extent to which disdain for the Trump Administration is impacting the people who work for him. In a similar vein, Politico ran an article yesterday detailing the disdain that younger White House staffers are facing as they try to socialize in Washington, D.C. during the Trump Era, including the fact that they are apparently, well, striking out in the dating area.

Inevitably, perhaps, the reaction to this report on social media at least seems to depend on which side of the ideological divide you stand on. For the anti-Trump crowd, there’s been no small degree of schadenfreude and joking about what happened to Sanders. On the right, people are citing this, along with the reports about what happened to Nielsen and Miller earlier this week, as examples of how “the left” was trying to silence people and to punish them merely because they happen to work for the President.

Additionally, both sides seem to be trying to tie these situations into some kind of analogy to the situation in the recently decided Masterpiece Cakeshop case in which the Supreme Court decided in favor of a Colorado baker who had refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding reception, although in that case the Court based its decision on evidence of bias against the baker from the tribunal that had ruled against him below rather than making a broader statement on the line between religious liberty and the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. Whichever side of the debate you fall on, though, the analogy with Masterpiece Baker fails because we are not dealing with a situation where the restaurants or the protesters may have violated an existing anti-discrimination law. In the case of Nielsen and Miller, while heckling people trying to eat dinner is rude, it’s not a situation in which the Constitution or any existing law I’m aware of would apply to. Additionally, with respect to the restaurant, Virginia is not among the handful of jurisdictions that have a law barring discrimination in public accommodations based on political beliefs. While I understand the desire to analogize these cases to Masterpiece Cakeshop, the situations are simply too different for the analogy to mean anything.

On a broader level, what happened to Sanders on Friday night strikes me as yet another example of how partisanship has taken over even the most mundane areas of our lives and is, slowly but surely, finding its way into areas where politics has been before. One of the best examples of that, of course, has been the ongoing controversy over N.F.L. players kneeling during the National Anthem, an issue that, of course, has been stoked by the President of the United States and which he apparently intends on raising during the upcoming midterm elections. Reports like this are just another indication that this politicization is carrying over into everyday life, which is usually where people go when they want to get away from politics. I suppose it’s inevitable that we’ve reached this point given the extent to which hyperpartisanship, the refusal to listen to each other, and the apparent inability of people on both sides of the political aisle to differentiate between fact and opinion.

Even if it’s inevitable, though, it’s not healthy, and it still seems like we’re at a point where we can pull ourselves back from the brink before we reach the point where literally everything has become political. If we want to, that is. I’m not saying that restaurant owners should be forced to serve everyone as long as they are complying with existing anti-discrimination laws, nor am I saying that people don’t have the First Amendment right to speak out against government officials they disagree with, I suppose I am arguing that, at least when it comes to political differences, there ought to be some line drawn between acceptable political opposition and behavior that is, at the very least, culturally unacceptable even if it is legal. Where that line gets drawn is a question is something we’re going to have to figure out, because if we don’t then everything will become political, and that won’t be a pleasant world for any of us.

 

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. teve tory says:

    many (most?) restaurants have a kitchen staff that in anthony bourdain’s words, “resembles more a mexican prison gang”. If I were Huckabee I’d prepare all my meals at home.

    Anyway, did she order a wedding cake?

    25
  2. teve tory says:

    someone else tweeted “The Red Hen should hold a press conference and steadfastly deny any of this ever happened.”

    29
  3. Timothy Watson says:

    Why should we accept people like SHS or any of her lot into polite society? Doing so condones their behavior.

    I treat anyone that I know voted for Trump with disgust, and voting for Trump is an acceptable litmus test for that in my book. I have no desire to speak or even be in the same room with someone I find that disgusting.

    23
  4. An Interested Party says:

    I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully…

    Well hell, there’s a lie right there but that’s not surprising considering who she works for…

    33
  5. Mikey says:

    Here’s an excellent tweet thread on this. It begins thusly:

    Angus Johnston
    ‏Verified account @studentactivism

    Angus Johnston Retweeted Sarah Sanders

    “I always do my best to treat people I disagree with respectfully, so here’s the name and location of some people who wronged me. You know what to do.”

    Angus Johnston added,
    Sarah Sanders
    Verified account @PressSec
    Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so
    8:40 AM – 23 Jun 2018

    https://twitter.com/studentactivism/status/1010548072521392130

    6
  6. Modulo Myself says:

    Anyone who explains they ‘always treat people with respect’ is a total scumbag who does nothing of the sort.

    12
  7. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    Sarah needs to be glad that she’s white so that such behavior is the exception rather than the rule.

    9
  8. Michael Reynolds says:

    Would I let Josef Goebbels eat in my restaurant? Hell no. Sanders is the minister for propaganda in a corrupt, white supremacist and treasonous gang. If you want to be tolerated in polite society don’t put brown babies in cages.

    34
  9. Gustopher says:

    Do the poor widdle Trumpists need a safe space? There’s a article in WaPo about how the junior Trumpist staffers in Washington DC can’t get dates. It’s all very sad for them.

    I hope that they are treated with the same respect and dignity as a woman entering a planned parenthood clinic.

    25
  10. EddieInCA says:

    I have nothing but contempt for SHS and Sean Spicer before her. They are no better, at this point, than Baghdad Bob.

    So I hope the public never lets up on them. They’re no longer press spokespersons. Once they reach this level of lying, they should be shamed and excoriated for their lies.

    19
  11. teve tory says:

    There’s a article in WaPo about how the junior Trumpist staffers in Washington DC can’t get dates. It’s all very sad for them.

    They should spend $200 on a weekend flight to West Virginia, where 68.7% voted for Trump. Their dates would be impressed they arrived in one-a-them fancy air-o-planes.

    11
  12. Timothy Watson says:

    @teve tory: They just better hope they don’t get the pitchforks and fire treatment for being one of ’em coastal elites.

    7
  13. Tyrell says:

    @Timothy Watson: Do you have relatives and friends who voted for Trump? How do you treat them?
    Most of my relatives, friends, and neighbors voted for Trump. They are not treated with arrogant disrespect or rudeness. This incident is part and parcel to the age that we are in. I grew up in a time when people respected one another. This restaurant reached the depths of juvenile behavior. Where I am at people still respect and are cordial to everyone. Just part of the “genteel” way here.

    10
  14. teve tory says:
  15. Andre Kenji de Sousa says:

    But SHS is not a normal Trump voter. She is a public servant. Specially in a Democracy they are not entitled for reverence. If someone like MBunge had been denied service in a restaurant I would understand the anger. But a Public Official?

    C’mon.

    14
  16. Kathy says:

    Additionally, with respect to the restaurant, Virginia is not among the handful of jurisdictions that have a law barring discrimination in public accommodations based on political beliefs.

    We could hit the Trumpidians with one of their canards: Oh, it’s not against the law to throw Sanders out.

    But I agree dividing a country along political lines is seriously fucked up. Besides, there are better alternatives, like saying “Enjoy your meal. I assure you there’s nothing wrong with it.”

    10
  17. HarvardLaw92 says:

    So poor Sarah was a victim of the hyperpartisanship her own party has been relentlessly pushing as a political tool for decades now?

    I’m underwhelmed …

    37
  18. Stormy Dragon says:

    As a staunch defender of religous free association, I’m sure SHS is glad she could assist that restaurant owner in the exercise of his deeply held religious belief that she should not eat there.

    15
  19. teve tory says:

    space force snipy

    @snipy
    Follow Follow @snipy

    Conservatives went all the way to SCOTUS for the right to not serve the gays a cake, but they’re outraged anyone would decide not to serve their racist fascist asses.

    8:53 AM – 23 Jun 2018

    17
  20. Stormy Dragon says:

    @Tyrell:

    Yes, the question of how to treat my Trump voting relatives is a difficult one that requires balancing multiple conflicting moral principles.

    Fortunately, SHS is not my relative, so the question of how to treat her involves no similar dilemma.

    16
  21. teve tory says:

    It is funny, though, that Mike Huckabee called the restaurant Bigots literally hours after retweeting a pic of hispanic gang members from Richard Spencer’s Nazi think-tank and calling it Nancy Pelosi’s Campaign Committee.

    Stupid Yadda Yadda Values.

    24
  22. Rick Zhang says:

    You know, this situation reminds me of Northern Ireland, where depending on your religion, you will associate with different people, live in different areas, worship in different churches, support different sports teams, and eat in different pubs. We’re rapidly reaching the same level of self-assortment.

    Is there a way back from the brink? It doesn’t look so good. We already consume different media sources, which serves to fan the flames of differences and feed each side different sets of “facts”. Plus without the ability to meet and socialize with those of a different political persuasion, there’s no chance for local community bonding. It used to be that no matter our disagreements, we’re all in this (local area) together, so we’ve got to get alone. Now we don’t have to.

    9
  23. george says:

    While I can understand the restaurant, there is zero chance of this not going both ways. Lets face it, as disgusting as many of us find Trump and some of his supporters, those same people are going to find us just as disgusting.

    Politeness is a way of allowing interaction between groups that find each other mutually disgusting. I wonder if in the end they’ll put political belief as a protected class simply to keep society functioning smoothly – to avoid, as Rick Zhang says, the situation that existed in Northern Ireland.

    5
  24. Mister Bluster says:

    @Tyrell:..I grew up in a time when people respected one another.

    I don’t know how old you were in 1964, I was 16. It was known as Freedom Summer*.
    Read here how 54 years ago this week, the “genteel” denizens of The Magnolia State murdered three American Citizens for the crime of registering Black American Citizens to vote.

    Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner
    Price eventually caught the CORE station wagon heading west toward Union, Mississippi, on state highway 492. Soon he stopped them and escorted the three civil right workers north on Highway 19, back in the direction of Philadelphia. The caravan turned west on County Road 515 (also known as Rock Cut Road), and stopped at the secluded intersection of County Road 515 and County Road 284 (32°39′40.45″N 89°2′4.13″W). They were shot by Jordan and Roberts. Chaney (the only Black man of the three) was also beaten before his death.

    The white American Citizens who perpetrated this vile act with the active participation of local law enforcement were all members of the Ku Klux Klan. The same KKK that today venerates Donald Trump and supports his term in office.

    *Google it. Not providing link so I don’t get sent to moderation.

    26
  25. Thomm says:

    Some backstory might be involved too. The person who took the Charlottesville video of the car smashing into the crowd is from Lexington and his family received threats and other fun from the deranged right. This is a small college town where everyone knows each other and has close ties to Charlottesville in general. I went to high school with the videographer and know some of what the after effects were after it was disseminated.

    18
  26. CSK says:

    @teve tory:

    Well, now I understand why Hope Hicks had affairs with reptiles such as Corey Lewandowski and Rob Porter.

    No one else would go out with her.

    9
  27. teve tory says:

    @Mister Bluster:Yep.

    I live 20 miles from Live Oak, Florida. The last lynching of a black man in Live Oak was in 1970. Not that long ago. The Brady Bunch was on the air.

    A friend of mine bought a house there about 3 years ago. There is a rider in the deed which states that no coloreds are permitted to buy the property, or even live on the property, unless they are servants to the caucasian owners. I was shocked. I made him scan and email it to me. I have a PDF copy on my hard drive. It’s right there in plain English.

    Ah, the Good Ol Days, when people were Genteel.

    20
  28. teve tory says:

    OK this one wins the day:

    Rodger Hanlon

    @lifeofpeo
    Follow Follow @lifeofpeo

    This has happened to #SarahSanders before after 7 hours at a Golden Corral.
    #RedHen

    12:54 PM – 23 Jun 2018

    2
  29. teve tory says:

    Jess Dweck

    Verified account

    @TheDweck
    Follow Follow @TheDweck

    This should continue until WH officials can only eat in the alley behind a Hardee’s

    9:19 AM – 23 Jun 2018

    9
  30. Andy says:

    This comment thread is the latest example of why I genuinely worry about a second Civil War.

    7
  31. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @Andy:

    Same phenomenon as WW2. We had the second one because we incorrectly resolved the first one.

    In other words, we fought a war to keep the South when we should have just let them leave.

    We are, and have been for a long time, two grossly incompatible countries locked together within the framework of a failing union predicated on the pretense of nationhood. It’s like a couple who hate each other, but stay together “for the sake of the kids”. Everybody loses. everybody …

    Better to recognize that, face facts and come to the table this time prepared not to save that which can not be saved, but to rationally part ways.

    13
  32. Andy says:

    @HarvardLaw92:

    Well, then it would be interesting to hear how you think it could actually happen since, unlike the last Civil War, this one won’t have any clear geographic lines along with the requisite political communities and structures necessary to “rationally part ways.”

    6
  33. Jim Brown 32 says:

    @Rick Zhang: Ive said it for years…Politics is the new religion.

    2
  34. Jim Brown 32 says:

    @Andy: This country is too old and frankly to lazy to fight amongst itself kinetically. War is driven by old men but waged by young men with grievance and a thirst for adventure. Today’s American youth aren’t interested in that type of party.

    7
  35. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @Andy:

    Put it up to a vote in each state if you have to. That having been said, you don’t have to have a property settlement already planned and worked out to recognize that a marriage has failed.

    Step one is everybody involved having the courage and self-awareness to admit that it has indeed failed.

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but this marriage has failed. We either figure out how to part ways amicably or eventually we’ll be killing each other (again).

    7
  36. Liberal Capitalist says:

    I see no problem with this. “We reserve the right to serve…” etc.

    It’s not because she’s a woman, or heterosexual, or of a certain age, or race, or income group. It’s because she is a dick and she revels in it on a daily basis.

    And seriously, I don’t doubt that she and others of the regime rarely get “clean” food.

    “Remember this. The people you’re trying to step on, we’re everyone you depend on. We’re the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you’re asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life.

    We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we’ll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re just learning this fact. So don’t fuc# with us.”

    BTW… I highly recommend the clam chowder, Sarah.

    13
  37. CSK says:

    @HarvardLaw92:

    How are we going to do that? Yes, during the Civil War, there were northerners who sympathized with the south. But now? I live in Massachusetts, the bluest state in the union. During the primary in 2016, 48.99% of the Republican vote went to Trump. Kasich and Rubio got slightly less than 18%, and everyone else, including Jeb Bush, was in the single digits. Of course, HRC walked away with the state during the general election, but even so…how do we make this division? Do we ask or tell everyone who voted for Trump in the general (32.81%) to leave?

    I ask as someone who believes that there really isn’t any hope for us to continue as the United States.

    7
  38. rachel says:

    The Trump Administration has brought shunning back into vogue as part of the public dialog.
    Yay?

    ETA: and now Jennifer Rubin has a new column up: Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the lost art of shunning

    It depends on how you view the child-separation policy. If you think the decision to separate children from parents as a means of deterring other asylum seekers is simply one more policy choice, like tax cuts or negotiations with North Korea, then, yes, screaming at political opponents is inappropriate. Such conduct is contrary to the democratic notion that we do not personally destroy our political opponents but, rather, respect differences and learn to fight and perhaps compromise on another day. If, however, you think the child-separation policy is in a different class — a human rights crime, an inhumane policy for which the public was primed by efforts to dehumanize a group of people (“animals,” “infest,” etc.) — then it is both natural and appropriate for decent human beings to shame and shun the practitioners of such a policy.

    15
  39. dazedandconfused says:

    The problem with saying it’s a breakdown in civil discourse is…discourse is a debate. I cite Newt’s Observation: “You can’t debate with someone who lies all the time.” An example would be a kid steals another kid’s lunch bag and when the kid says “You took my lunch bag!” replies, while holding it, “No I didn’t.”
    If the kid replied with violence could he be cited for causing a “a breakdown in civil discourse”? Shameless lying is incompatible with civil discourse, if not civilization,

    The Trumps were separating kids from their parents and irrefutably lied about their reasons for doing so, and Sarah had to know it was a lie. Frankly, refusing service at a restaurant is the least of possible natural escalations for the situation.

    16
  40. Laura Koerber says:

    Trump just made a speech wherein he asserted that he wanted to protect America but other people wanted open borders so that millions of illegals including M13 could come flooding in.

    That deliberate misstating both of his position and of the position of other people is standard Republican rhetoric and it is disrespectful. Huckabee Sanders is a spokeperson for the party that has used that kind of deliberately dishonest demonizing marginalizing rhetoric for decades. So no, she does not speak respectfully to people with different views than hers. No Republican politician does. They all use that deliberately divisive “We are good, everyone else bad” rhetoric.

    Fuck them all. What kind of people consistently behave badly? Bad people.

    That said, I would not have kicked her out of the restaurant. I would have used the opportunity to tell her my views, speaking calmly and politely. At length. At long length. Until she left on her own.

    19
  41. Timothy Watson says:

    @Mister Bluster: We all know Tyrell doesn’t include those people in his definition of “people”.

    7
  42. Blue Galangal says:

    @rachel: We’ve seen ample evidence that outright lying, demagoguery, racism, criminal behaviour, support of white supremacy, scamming, and grifting has only rewarded the GOP with control of all three branches of government. I’m not quite sure why it’s “uncivil” of us to not to want to associate with the liars/scammers/demagogues/racists/criminals. We haven’t harshed the national dialogue: the GOP has, and it’s been doing so for 30 years, in the face of many people warning that it was happening (e.g., when David Frum warned that the conservative entertainment complex tail was wagging the dog; it’s only gotten worse since then). These warnings were brushed off and even laughed at. I think it’s time the decent people laugh back. And point. And mock. And, yes, refuse to serve the collaborators when they enter a public place.

    14
  43. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @CSK:

    As I said above, we begin by admitting – as a nation – that we need to.

    3
  44. Andre Kenji de Sousa says:

    @CSK: Voting for Trump has more to do with age, education and race than with being part of the former Confederacy. These three things are better predictors of voting for Trump than geography.

    5
  45. reid says:

    @teve tory: the hypocrisy burns. And, of course, it isn’t at all bigotry; it’s treating one single hateful, lying, vile woman exactly how she deserves.

    7
  46. Timothy Watson says:

    @Andy: Yes, while liberals debate the finer points of denying service to a modern-day Joseph Goebbels, the wingnut “news” website “The Federalist” posts articles about murdering as many liberals as possible before they can put conservatives into reservations.

    10
  47. MarkedMan says:

    There’s the public side of this and the private. On the former the restaurant is a public accommodation and should serve all guests as long as they act and dress appropriately for the venue. On the private side – what the h*ll is any well known member of the Trump administration doing in a restaurant? The odds of a brown person being in the supply route from kitchen to table is very high, and given the hate and bile the Trump administration has spewed at brown people the odds of getting a big loogie in your food is a near certainty.

    Sarah Sanders represents a government that literally just took thousands of brown kids away from their parents with no plan to return them and then deported the parents so they would return and tell others there that if you flee to the US they not only won’t take you in but they will take your children away and give them to strangers to raise and when they are eighteen they will deport them to a country where they literally don’t know a soul and don’t speak the language. That was the plan. You have to be an idiot of the highest order to then walk into a restaurant and order food.

    17
  48. Warren Weber says:

    The Huckabees acted entirely consistently in the context of the cake case. They didn’t run to court or threaten to sue; they respected Red Hen’s right to refuse her business, then used their own rights to speak out and publicize the incident. (Which, by the way, had already been publicized by Red Hen; SHS just confirmed it.)

    To Mr. Reynolds and those who agree with him, I offer this observation: when you declare war on people, be ready for them to wage war on you in return. And by “be ready,” I don’t mean get ready to whine and complain when they start acting like what you accuse them of being.

    Civility is not a sign of weakness; it’s a way for people to disagree without trying to kill each other. And it wasn’t a right-winger who attempted to mass-assassinate a large number of members of Congress, it was a Bernie Bro. Just like the people who are dressing in black, putting on masks, and assaulting those they disagree with aren’t conservatives, they’re the fascists who call themselves AntiFa.

    2
  49. gVOR08 says:

    while heckling people trying to eat dinner is rude

    Not if they’ve done everything possible to deserve it.

    @Warren Weber:

    To Mr. Reynolds and those who agree with him, I offer this observation: when you declare war on people, be ready for them to wage war on you in return.

    This is like class war, they’re already making war on us, on the normal, decent world. Are we to ignore it?

    18
  50. Warren Weber says:

    @gVOR08: If the rules of civilization don’t bind you, then they don’t protect you, either.

    There was no attempt of retaliation from the right after the Bernie Bro tried to massacre a bunch of Republican members of Congress. Considering how many guns they own and how gun owners are generally perceived around here, that’s almost inconceivable.

    Sooner or later, that will change. There will be pushback. Especially if the left keeps pushing.

    2
  51. Mister Bluster says:

    Civility..

    Apparently the Family Values Republican definition of civility includes grabbing women by the pussy and committing adultry screwing porn stars as practiced by the Supreme Leader of The United States and Chairman of the Republican Sex Workers Party Kim Jong Trump.

    16
  52. reid says:

    @Lava Land: Some people actually do things that warrant being hated. Constantly lying and supporting a nasty, divisive administration qualify, in my mind. If she doesn’t want to be hated, she should be a better person.

    16
  53. Guarneri says:

    I was musing about the best way to summarize this thread. Infantile? Mean spirited? A neurotic echo chamber? Shallow? Vapid? Banal?

    All apply. Perhaps just “pathetic.”

    2
  54. michilines says:

    @MarkedMan:

    On the private side – what the h*ll is any well known member of the Trump administration doing in a restaurant? The odds of a brown person being in the supply route from kitchen to table is very high, and given the hate and bile the Trump administration has spewed at brown people the odds of getting a big loogie in your food is a near certainty.,

    While not the case with Sanders, with Miller and that other person so vile I won’t even look up her name, they had the gall to dine in a Mexican restaurant.

    @Warren Weber:

    The Huckabees acted entirely consistently in the context of the cake case. They didn’t run to court or threaten to sue

    You mean they haven’t yet.

    Civility is not a sign of weakness; it’s a way for people to disagree without trying to kill each other.

    Are you kidding me? A little d*ckhead in Texas (an elected state rep — not just some yahoo) went to the Democrats’ state convention and flashed a gun to someone who asked him a damn question. That’s civil?

    As many others have pointed out, the Republicans and their followers and to some extent Libertarians have enjoyed their ability to say and do anything they please without any real consequences. I think that the flip side of boycotting businesses because they do something wrong is that businesses say no more and are rewarded for doing so. I support the owner of this business and would go to her restaurant were I in the area. I see no problem with any of this. If people ‘vote with their money,’ then perhaps this would be a better world.

    More of this and not less will make businesses pay attention these days. Back when I was a girl, my family never bought table grapes or Nestle chocolate for a reason. This sort of activism isn’t new; it’s just moved forward into out new century.

    17
  55. Andy says:

    @Timothy Watson:

    Yes, while liberals debate the finer points of denying service to a modern-day Joseph Goebbels, the wingnut “news” website “The Federalist” posts articles about murdering as many liberals as possible before they can put conservatives into reservations.

    Well, that makes it all OK then. Better get your guns, there’s a Civil War a-brewin’!

    4
  56. Gustopher says:

    @Lava Land:

    Girl just wants to feed her family!

    While working as the spokesvermin for an administration that is deliberately trying to destroy other families.

    She can go hungry for the 20 minutes it takes to go to another restaurant.

    15
  57. Mister Bluster says:

    Ever since White Power Goon Dylan Roof murded nine innocent unarmed Black American Citizens in cold blood there has been no retaliation from the Black Panther Party. Considering how many guns they own and how Black American Citizens are generally perceived everywhere in the United States, that’s almost inconceivable.
    Beyond that I will not make threats to kill other citizens.

    10
  58. Gustopher says:

    @teve tory:

    This has happened to #SarahSanders before after 7 hours at a Golden Corral.
    #RedHen

    Dude, not cool. She’s no fatter than about a quarter of people her age. Well within the bounds of normalcy.

    What’s ugly about Sarah Huckabee Sanders is on the inside.

    10
  59. Andy says:

    @Lava Land:

    Girl just wants to feed her family!

    I think most people are like that and IMO that’s a good attitude.

    I’ve spent the last year living as a nomad and traveling around the country. It’s caused me to change my opinion on a few things, but perhaps the biggest is that the divisiveness and mean-spiritedness that’s on display here isn’t really all that common among ordinary Americans. I doubt most people even know, much less care, about one woman denied service at a restaurant much less use some of the rhetoric that’s on display here (not that I take much of it seriously).

    5
  60. Mister Bluster says:

    Pathetic

    You got that right Goonie. It is pathetic when you brother Warren Weber has to resort to making threats to kill Citizens to make his point.
    This is a threat to kill Citizens and he knows it.

    Warren Weber states:
    Sooner or later, that will change. There will be pushback. Especially if the left keeps pushing.

    8
  61. Timothy Watson says:

    @Andy: Yes, because those two things I mentioned are exactly the same and you’re not totally comparing apples and oranges.

    Chronic “both-siderism” is part of the reason scum like Trump manage to get elected.

    “Trump, a racist demagogue, uses racist lies to motivate his base. But Obama once overstated the benefits of the ACA, so he’s just as bad.”

    20
  62. reid says:

    @Andy: Mean-spirited? Maybe we’re just tired of having a lying, vicious, ignorant president and spokesperson. I would hope that there would be more outrage among ordinary Americans about it, but I suspect that they mostly just don’t know or care. Whatever the reason, I don’t take it as something virtuous.

    8
  63. Stormy Dragon says:

    For an extra dose of schadenfreude:

    There’s a Trump supporter with the Twitter handle @The_Red_Hen who is apparently getting inundated with hate mail from other Trump supporters who think she’s the restaurant.

    10
  64. An Interested Party says:

    Anyone who supports this vile administration, including posters on this thread, has no right to whine and complain about what was done to Sanders…get back to us when her children are forcibly separated from her and housed in cages…I mean, talk about a lack of civility, talk about horrible haters, miserable hate fests, and over the top, talk about infantile, mean spirited, neurotic, shallow, vapid, banal, and pathetic…it doesn’t get much worse than what this evil administration has been doing to many people who have been trying to escape horrible conditions that we bear some responsibility for…

    9
  65. Jim Brown 32 says:

    @Lava Land: Then she should get her fat azz in the kitchen where good conservatives believe women should be anyway. Can I get an amen?

    8
  66. HankP says:

    Freedom of association cuts both ways. Another policy Republicans didn’t think all the way through…

    11
  67. Andy says:

    @Timothy Watson:

    Maybe I’m not being fair – or actually, maybe I’m projecting.

    Because, if it was me, and I thought someone in the White House was actually and practically the same as Goebbels, then probably the last thing I would do is make my feelings known on a public website using (presumably) my real name and actual picture. Speaking as a retired intel guy, that isn’t very good tradecraft.

    Instead what I would do is stay silent and get my family out of the country, come back and start to plan and execute some killing to rid my country of Nazis who have taken control.

    But that’s just me. (And for any Secret Service agents who may be reading, that was a hypothetical – I don’t think the Trump administration are Nazis or analogous to Nazis. But if they were….)

    I’ve heard countless Nazi comparisons since the night Trump won the election. A couple of regulars here appeared serious enough to declare they were leaving the country (pretty sure one hasn’t, not sure about the other). For the most part, however, all the Nazi comparisons are just words given the lack of serious action that one would expect if people actually believed what they were saying/writing.

    So I have a hard time taking all the Nazi and other rhetoric very seriously. But I don’t know you, so maybe you’re using an alias and are training a militia or have some kind of four-dimensional strategy going on to rid the US of the Nazi menace.

    As for me, there are a lot of members of my family who voted for Trump and I love every one of them, even if I don’t agree with their vote and support. Maybe it’s a fault of mine, but I seem to lack the self-righteous capacity to treat them with disgust. On the other hand, I’m not alone since the Trumpers and liberals in my family are somehow able to get along just fine while only weaponizing sarcasm and wit.

    4
  68. Warren Weber says:

    @michilines: As many others have pointed out, the Republicans and their followers and to some extent Libertarians have enjoyed their ability to say and do anything they please without any real consequences.

    Would those be people like Steve Scalise and the employees of the Family Research Council? I know your side has worked overtime to make Floyd Corkins and James Hodgkinson Unpersons and their actions UnHistory, but you still own them.

    (Former) Professor Eric Clanton, too. He’s another one of yours you would rather everyone else forget about, too.

    @Guarneri: For a summary, how about the classic “Everyone I don’t like is LITERALLY HITLER.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ToEvz-7trY

  69. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Warren Weber: Click…

    5
  70. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @Jim Brown 32: Amen! (If it had been any other woman, maybe not, but for Sarah, I’ll do it.)

    4
  71. wr says:

    @Warren Weber: Oooh, Baby J@nos is both a victim AND an avenger! Let’s all tremble in awe of his manliness just in case he decides ever to get off his couch!

    10
  72. Barry says:

    @Warren Weber: “There was no attempt of retaliation from the right after the Bernie Bro tried to massacre a bunch of Republican members of Congress. Considering how many guns they own and how gun owners are generally perceived around here, that’s almost inconceivable.”

    What’s the current rate of white right-wing terrorism?

    12
  73. Tyrell says:

    Maybe they can do some of that Starbucks “sensitivitizing training”

  74. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Warren Weber:

    Civility is not a sign of weakness;

    Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Do not ever talk about civility while you support the most vulgar, contemptuous, openly racist, pussy-grabbin piece of human garbage ever to slime the White House.

    Your party takes babies from their mothers. STFU and never, ever pen your idiot mouth about civility. Like listening to a Nazi talk about kindness.

    21
  75. teve tory says:

    @Michael Reynolds: It was just a week ago that a Trumper here tried to chastise other people about Intellectual Honesty. 😛

    Lord, what fools these Trumpers be!

    4
  76. KM says:

    All those complaining about how uncivil shunning is *really* need to go back to finishing school – it IS the socially appropriate and civil method for dealing with things like this. In polite society, you don’t shout or point or protest or post rants on social media. The whole point is not making a scene. You calmly and kindly ask them to depart and make sure they are aware there is no future invitation. Shunning is the time honored way polite society lets members know they screwed up big – it has it’s own conventions, rules and manners because it’s been used as a mechanism for social correction for millennia. Being cast aside is a big deal and not done lightly. It’s intended to be a shock to get you to understand why you are in error.

    It’s traditional and genteel, conservative even. If you’re not fit for polite society, you are not currently welcome in it. That welcome is re-extended when the negative behavior ceases. Shunning to a social species like ours is particularity galling and we’re quick to want it to stop.
    The fact that it’s now being applied to people like Sanders doesn’t lessen any of that. It just means conservatives are irony-impaired. So long as it’s legal, moral and done appropriately, I see no reason why this custom shouldn’t be applied to those it would traditionally apply to.

    Tl;dr: as the youth say, don’t start none don’t get none. You get shunned because you act in a way that calls for it.

    12
  77. MBunge says:

    I don’t understand this post. Mataconis has written incessantly about the Mueller investigation, the entire point of which is finding out if Donald Trump collaborated with a foreign power to corrupt the electoral process and wrongfully put him in the White House. That would make Donald Trump a traitor, certainly morally if not exactly legally. Those posts, and including Mataconis’ virtual refusal to comment about ANY of the negative revelations about Mueller’s investigation, leave the unmistakable impression that Mataconis thinks Trump is a traitor…or at least it’s far more likely he is than not.

    Now add in the additional fact that Mataconis seems agreeable with allusions and outright accusations that Trump is a money-laundering criminal, a sexual assaulter of women, an idiot who might start a nuclear war, and a flat out Nazi, among a multitude of others.

    If that stuff is true, ostracizing the people who work for Trump is least anyone should be doing.

    So, what gives? Is this some sudden burst of self-awareness? Did he realize that all the folks who now praise him for preaching the anti-Trump gospel will turn on him the instant Trump is gone and treat him with the same venom? Nah. That can’t be it.

    Has he rediscovered the common sense to see the anti-Trump rhetoric building a logical foundation for anti-Trump violence and wants to head that off at the pass? Nah. That can’t be it.

    Wait, I’ve got it. Mataconis lives inside a cognitive bubble where the only problem is Trump. There’s literally NOTHING else wrong with the country, the economy, or the culture. It was just some unexplainable phenomenon that put Trump in the White House and if we just get rid of him, everything will go back to normal. Inside that bubble, there’s no need to shun someone like Sanders because she has nothing to do with the problem. It’s just Trump, only Trump, and nothing but Trump.

    Mike

    2
  78. MBunge says:

    @KM: I see no reason why this custom shouldn’t be applied to those it would traditionally apply to.

    You mean gays, blacks, Latinos, Jews, union organizers, socialists, communists, unmarried women, atheists, the poor, people who go to the wrong church, people who don’t dress the way everybody else does, and people who use the wrong fork at dinner? Because…you know…THOSE are the sorts of people who “traditionally” get shunned.

    Talk about irony-impaired.

    Mike

    3
  79. Michael Reynolds says:

    @MBunge:
    You support tearing babies from the arms of their mothers. So take your irony and shove it. You are a pathological liar, utterly devoid of even the most minimal intellectual integrity, a racist, a misogynist, a white supremacist and a coward. You deserve no respect.

    15
  80. teve tory says:

    I bet you wouldn’t have to go through too many old back-issues of National Review to find articles extolling the value of shame for correcting wayward behaviors in society. Remember how head-over-heels these guys fall for creative judges who sentence shoplifters to stand outside a store wearing a sandwich board confessing their crime? Moralizers just hate it when the shoe is on the other foot. Tough titty.

    11
  81. Michael Reynolds says:

    @MBunge:
    I’ll tell you something else little cultie, you’re going to want to conceal your Trump-love in future job interviews. It’s going to be like being on the sex-offenders registry. Cult leader fcked up and did something so blatantly cruel that even many Trump voters turned up their noses. I’m telling you: ten years from now I won’t be able to find anyone who’ll admit to supporting Trump. It’ll be like finding a Nazi in post-war Germany.

    You’ve lost @Bung. You bet on the wrong horse. ETTD and you’ve been touched.

    13
  82. MBunge says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    It’s like Trump is syphilis and you’re a sailor who forgot his condom on leave. Oh, and admitting your were wrong would be like a shot of penicillin.

    And I’m certainly not a perfect person but I’m fairly sure if any clinical psychologist analyzed our posts, he or she would conclude one of us was pathological. It wouldn’t be me, though.

    Again, do you remember how you felt on November 9, 2016? Do you want to feel that way again on November 7, 2018? How about November 4, 2020? Is there some point when wallowing in the butt hurt over not being as smart and savvy as you thought you were will become too much to stand? Or did Donald Trump’s ascension so shatter your illusion of self-importance that you’d rather the world just burn?

    Mike

    3
  83. wr says:

    @Michael Reynolds: J@nos’ idea of civility is a white man murdering a black teen for the crime of carrying Skittles through his neighborhood.

    13
  84. MBunge says:

    @Michael Reynolds: I’m telling you: ten years from now I won’t be able to find anyone who’ll admit to supporting Trump.

    Have you been right about ONE THING so far in the Trump era? Seriously. His chances of winning the nomination? His chances of winning the Presidency? The economy? North Korea? Trump’s approval numbers? How about that money laundering fantasy of yours?

    Oh, and thanks for confirming that you’re just full of crap. If Trump and his supporters were actually as bad as you constantly claim…wouldn’t YOU be the one worried about YOUR public comments on this blog? You’re not a young man any more and I’m pretty sure you’re not rich enough to buy your own island or have a security team follow you around 24/7 for the rest of your life.

    Mike

    3
  85. Michael Reynolds says:

    @MBunge:

    Have you been right about ONE THING so far in the Trump era?

    Dude, in my entire life I have never been as right about any political phenomenon as I have been about Trump. I’ve been so right it’s unnerving – I don’t expect to be right all the time, and yet with Trump, I am.

    1) I predicted the broader culture would reject Trumpism. It has.
    2) I said he lacked the mental capacity to engage on complex issues. In spades.
    3) I said he couldn’t read at an adult level, that he suffered from dyslexia and ADD, and…bingo.
    4) I said he would run a chaotic adminisitration. He has.
    5) I said he was incapable of empathy. He’s shown that 100 times over.
    6) I said he’d give away the store to Kim. He did.
    7) I said he’d see the whole thing as a money-making opportunity, though OMG I didn’t think he’d be as crude about it.

    I could go on and on and on. In the entire history of political punditry no one has been as right about anything as I have been about Trump. Again: no one is more surprised than me. I’m happy with a 60% rate, I never imagined I’d hit 100%. I’m having a perfect season.

    As to this:

    How about that money laundering fantasy of yours?

    Trump’s campaign manager is in jail for money-laundering, you moron.

    I know you’re in the cult and have lost any capacity for independent thought, but you don’t have to think, just wait. Reality is coming for you, Mike, and ten years from now you’ll be Peter denying your Christ. It’s a good thing you conceal your identity, you can simply disappear your @Bung persona and lie. Shall I predict the exact nature of your lie? Here’s the line you’ll take: “I voted for Trump, sure, but when I saw he was breaking families out of spite, well, that was it for me.” You’ll try to play both sides, pass yourself off as a chastened Trumpaloon who voted out of hope, only to have those hopes cruelly dashed.

    You bet on racism, you bet on misogyny, you bet on gay-bashing, you bet on fascism, you bet on nativism and xenophobia and guess what? You’ve already lost.

    18
  86. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @MBunge: As if you care about the shunning of anyone not named Mike Bunge. Still in all, your example almost stumbles over (and quite by accident at that) the reason we decided to pass public accommodation laws–there were people who were victims of shunning types of actions based on who they were (or more importantly, weren’t) rather than because of actions beyond the pale of civil society. It’s basically why the cake guy got in trouble with an overzealous civil rights commission that overstated their stand (and was subsequently shunned by the court for it).

    At this point in time, the Supremes have ruled that there’s no problem with refusing accommodation because of deeply held beliefs, and Sarah is certainly a candidate for such refusal, so laissez le bon temps rouler!

    8
  87. Andy says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    In the entire history of political punditry no one has been as right about anything as I have been about Trump.

    !!!

    1
  88. Mikey says:

    The reaction of the Trumpists to Sanders being asked to leave the restaurant is the clearest example yet of the truth of this aphorism:

    To the privileged, equal treatment feels like discrimination.

    This wasn’t about tit-for-tat or bigotry or any of that. This was flipping the book on privilege, and treating a privileged person the way she, and the administration whose lies she dutifully repeats, have fought tooth-and-nail to treat gays and minorities.

    These are people who went all the way to the Supreme Court to ensure “sincerely held beliefs” are sufficient reason to refuse to serve someone. Forgive me if their cries of foul treatment fail to move me.

    12
  89. rachel says:

    @Michael Reynolds: Ten years? You think it’ll take that long?

    1
  90. Michael Reynolds says:

    @Andy:
    I know!!! I’m either terribly clever or terribly lucky.

    Actually the secret is neither brilliance nor simple luck, but the fact that it is much easier to analyze a single character than it is to analyze a system. Trump makes everything about his character. Most pundits look at system, and that’s usually the better approach – unless you’re dealing with a malignant narcissist in which case character is the most important variable, and that puts it squarely in my wheelhouse.

    People almost universally said Trump would grow in office – because that’s what normal people do, it’s what the system demands and it is supported by long precedent. I said he’d never grow because: character. Trump is not a complicated character, he’s a stick figure, so it’s not a challenge predicting his behavior. It’s not algebra, it’s 2 + 2. It’s less my (undoubted) brilliance and more the fact that most people were looking in the wrong direction.

    He’s a stupid psychopath. He will always take the path expected of a stupid psychopath.

    7
  91. Jim Brown 32 says:

    @MBunge: Thanks for the latest talking points from Scott Adam’s blogs. Spend more time there…and less here.

    11
  92. teve tory says:
  93. teve tory says:


    Trumpists Are Suffering the Free Market Consequences Of Being Deplorable

    It turns out that when you come to a multicultural cosmopolitan city with an open agenda of white supremacy, patriarchy and anti-urbanism, the native population tends not to like you.

    9
  94. MBunge says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    Dude, listing your own opinions as facts doesn’t help you win the “I’m not pathological” contest.

    And Trump’s campaign manager is being prosecuted for things that have nothing to do with Trump’s campaign.

    And, as I’ve stated before, I didn’t vote for Trump.

    I never would have guessed that your ego was so fragile that being wrong about Trump would turn you into this pitiful creature you’ve become. I’ve still got to hope you can come back to reality, so here’s another signpost to guide you on your way.

    https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/06/24/siren-new-poll-numbers-after-family-separation-crisis-are-a-warning-for-dems/?utm_campaign=twitchywidget

    Mike

    2
  95. HankP says:

    @MBunge:

    accusations that Trump is a money-laundering criminal

    He is a money laundering criminal, he’s been caught laundering money for the Russian mob twice.

    https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-fines-trump-taj-mahal-casino-resort-10-million-significant-and-long

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/17/trump-ocean-club-panama-money-laundering-reports

    13
  96. Michael Reynolds says:

    @MBunge:

    And, as I’ve stated before, I didn’t vote for Trump.

    There you go, you’re on your way little Trumpaloon. Before the cock crows, Bung.

    Your opinion of me is irrelevant. Reality is coming for you. All I have to do is wait.

    8
  97. MBunge says:

    @Just nutha ignint cracker: At this point in time, the Supremes have ruled that there’s no problem with refusing accommodation because of deeply held beliefs

    So, you got up this morning and decided to demonstrate to the whole world just how stupid and self-centered you are?

    In 2016, Donald Trump won 30 states and collected nearly 63,000,000 votes. His current average approval rating stands somewhere around 43%. Yes, Hillary got more of the popular vote but the point which you miss is that a world where people are shunned for their deeply held beliefs is a world where people like YOU are also going to be shunned all the time. I don’t know what sort of blue state cocoon you’re living in but other people exist. Democrats. Liberals. Feminists. And they will suffer from this re-embrace of public shunning as surely as any Trump supporter will.

    Now, if you don’t care about those people just like you who are going to get hurt, I can’t really argue with that. But I just want to be sure you understand what we’re actually discussing here because you CLEARLY haven’t thought it through.

    Mike

    2
  98. MBunge says:

    @Michael Reynolds:

    Dude, I’ve never said I voted for Trump and I believe I admitted I didn’t vote for him a long, long, long time ago on this blog. How does you being WRONG about me voting for Trump validate your rantings?

    And while you certainly don’t care about me any more than I care about you, it undeniably chaps your behind that I’ve got your number on this Trump stuff.

    Mike

    1
  99. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @MBunge: twitchy.com??? Really???

    7
  100. Just nutha ignint cracker says:

    @MBunge:

    Democrats. Liberals. Feminists. And they will suffer from this re-embrace of public shunning as surely as any Trump supporter will.

    Can’t stop that; it was what you were going for to begin with. I do like hearing the complaints about it happening to you, though.

    Maybe not stupid and self-centered (but maybe so), but definitely sociopathic and I can also say that endorsing such was a mistake because Trump isn’t the only one of us and we’re not all Red Stater cocoonists.

    Now, I need to stop feeding the troll and go back to my happy place.

    5
  101. wr says:

    @MBunge: ” a world where people are shunned for their deeply held beliefs is a world where people like YOU are also going to be shunned all the time.”

    SHS wasn’t shunned for her beliefs. She was shunned for her actions. Astonishing that a supposedly fully grown human being can’t understand the difference.

    16
  102. steve says:

    While this worries me and I think it was a stupid thing to do in many ways, I have sympathy inasmuch as it is one of the few ways that ordinary people are able to speak truth to power. Truth be told I think there are probably a lot of politicians who should not get service. Maybe they would start to get the message.

    Steve

    9
  103. teve tory says:

    @wr:

    SHS wasn’t shunned for her beliefs. She was shunned for her actions. Astonishing that a supposedly fully grown human being can’t understand the difference.

    Yep. The restaurant owner specifically said it was about honesty. SHS goes on TV every day and tells bald-faced lies in service to human rights crimes.

    14
  104. An Interested Party says:

    It wouldn’t be me, though.

    On the contrary…your daily endless sycophantic worshipping of an evil, racist, misogynistic, ignorant scumbag tells us everything we need to know about you…

    And, as I’ve stated before, I didn’t vote for Trump.

    Maybe, but you certainly polish his knob on a regular basis…

    And they will suffer from this re-embrace of public shunning as surely as any Trump supporter will.

    Oh please…you act as if minorities aren’t already mistreated because of who they are…apparently gay people can get married but can be denied public accommodations because of their sexual orientation…black men are still getting shot for the crime of being black…but we’re supposed to be upset that a serial liar working for a serial liar was asked to leave a restaurant? Somebody pass the smelling salts…

    8
  105. teve tory says:

    wr says:
    Sunday, June 24, 2018 at 15:05
    @MBunge: ” a world where people are shunned for their deeply held beliefs is a world where people like YOU are also going to be shunned all the time.”

    False Premise and a false conclusion. Nazis were shunned without me being “shunned all the time”. So are the NAMBLA nuts who sincerely believe grown men should be able to have sex with ten years olds. People whose sincerely held beliefs prevent them from giving their diabetic kid insulin (I have an uncle who did this) are shunned after the kid dies. It seems like society can handle who to shun and who not to shun.

    7
  106. An Interested Party says:

    what like Maxine or Nancy or Peter Fonda or Robert De Niro or that scum Kathy Griffin or the likes of those upstanding citizens?

    Do any of them constantly and consistently lie for a liar? Do any of them work for a racist demagogue? What’s really SAD is that you support this disgrace…

    how mature

    About as mature as all of this

    When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems.…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.

    Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK? I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So I don’t know.

    Trump defended his posting on Twitter of a six-pointed star, a pile of cash and an image of Hillary Clinton with the caption, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” Widespread denunciations of the tweet as anti-Semitic led an aide to delete it, but Trump said it should have stayed up.

    “Just leave it up and say, no, that’s not a star of David, that’s just a star,” he said. It “could have been a sheriff’s star,” he said.

    Our inner cities, African Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.

    Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS” and Nigerian immigrants will never “go back to their huts” in Africa.

    I think there is blame on both sides.…You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.…Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.

    Such an illustrious statesman! Such a noble leader…

    6
  107. michilines says:

    I’m not going to go the MBunge route and cry about what Doug or James haven’t written about. However, I have very little sympathy for Doug’s argument here because people have been politicizing everyday life of much more consequential matters than when or where Sanders and her family can eat. How civil is it to not fill a legit prescription from a doctor? I’m pretty sure that there are any number of people who decided to go to pharmacy school based on their morals.

    Getting worked up about people in restuarants seems to be missing the point.

    4
  108. Jim Brown 32 says:

    @MBunge: No, being shunned is “white peepo problems” . Discrimination and fascism affects minorities livelihood and physical safety.

    I would be happy to treat SHS like minorities are treated far too often….name a time and place

    5
  109. Jim Brown 32 says:

    @Lava Land: Ah yes…. “drain the swamp” a tidy Trump euphemism for being felleciated to a happy ending by his supporters.

    5
  110. teve tory says:

    yeah buddy scott pruitt is sure helping him drain that swamp. 😛 😛 😛

    3
  111. David K. says:

    She is an active member of the most corrupt, inhumane, and unjust administration since Andrew Jackson. This isn’t a sign of “hyperpartisanship” its a sign that America is waking up to how far the “right” has gone and how broken our system is that it let that happen. It’s not “merely because they happen to work for the President.” It’s that they work for a monster and are complicit in spreading his lies and lying for him on a daily basis. This is so far beyond normal political differences and continuing to act like there are two sides that have equally valid views is exactly the kind of irrational thinking that allowed us to get to this messed up place to begin with. Conservatives done fucked up. You can fix it by owning up to it and voting against the GOP until they get their heads out of their ass or a new rational conservative party forms OR you can continue to grasp at straws and pretend its “both sides” being wrong in order to assuage your egos. Won’t change that conservatives allowed this to happen, it will delay how long it takes to fix it, if thats even possible.

    10
  112. michilines says:

    And while the predominantly white male Washington Post Editorial Board tsk-tsks about ‘leave Sarah alone!’ white people out in California won’t let a black firefighter do his damn job without accosting him or calling the police on him.

    From the report: “Bryan (white fellow firefighter), in the meantime, said that she is worried about Moore’s (black firefighter) safety, given what has been going on in the country, and plans to team up with him doing inspections so that she can do the walk-throughs while he takes notes. Bryan said it should not be Moore’s job or the job of any other black person, to work people through their biases.

    “It’s our work to do with other white people, to check our implicit biases and racism,” she said. “It’s not fair to him, and it’s actually not safe for him to be going into these backyards due to the sociopolitical climate.”

    2