"This Is Me"

Just to remind us that there's something besides Trump and his smallness and meanness:

Four of Queer Eye‘s Fab 5 helped three high school students achieve the dream of performing for an audience and the process took center stage in a new chills-inducing video for “This Is Me” from the remix album The Greatest Showman: Reimagined.

Rolling Stone reports: ‘The Jared Hogan-directed clip centers around three kids, Tim, Olivia and J’Shawn, each with a different passion — to rap, to sing and dance, respectively. The “This Is Me” remix — which features singer Keala Settle alongside Kesha and Missy Elliott — serves as the perfect montage music as Queer Eye‘s Antoni, Tan, Bobby and Jonathan work with the kids as they perfect their craft. The clip fittingly closes with a special performance in which Tim spits alongside Missy Elliott’s verse, Olivia belts with Settle and J’Shawn performs a spirited dance to the song.’

Today's Must-Read: Putting His Money Where His Mouth Is

Except he's not making a lot of noise about it. Interesting and detailed article on Colin Kaepernick's charitable giving:

Kevin Livingston was driving home with his daughter when he received a random call one Saturday morning last April: Colin Kaepernick has something for you. How far away are you?

Livingston runs a charity, 100 Suits for 100 Men, that provides business attire for job seekers who have recently been released from jail or suffered hardship, and after he dropped off his daughter, he raced to the Queens parole office, where he keeps a desk. Kaepernick was waiting for him in his SUV, where he’d been sitting for almost an hour. The QB stepped out wearing lime-green sneakers and a black T-shirt emblazoned with a panther, lugging two overstuffed cardboard boxes toward a glass door marked STAFF ONLY. He opened a box, pulled out a gray, custom-made three-piece suit, draped a striped tie over the jacket and posed for a few cellphone pics, flashing a smile. One of those photos became an Instagram post, and that post went viral. . . .

That’s how Kaepernick, 30, speaks these days: through this kind of work, and then through those he touches. He’s the most prominent athlete activist in decades and is close to fulfilling his pledge to donate $1 million to dozens of charities. Much has been made about his choice not to comment on the legions of NFL players protesting during the national anthem—a movement he began last year, kneeling to draw attention to issues like police brutality and racial inequality—or to challenge President Donald Trump’s portrayal of his kneeling as unpatriotic. Instead he stays up late, on his laptop, Googling charitable organizations.

Anyone with half a brain knows that Kaepernick's protest was not about the flag or the military -- it was about America not living up to its promise -- specifically, the murders of black people by "officers of the law" who never should have been given guns and badges to begin with.

And since then, Kaepernick has been very quietly going about the business of finding those organizations and programs that are going to be able to use the money to most effect and giving them what they need.

How rare is that?

With thanks to commenter HarveyRabbit at Joe.My.God., in the comments at a post on how effective the Nike boycott has been. (Not.)

Today in Right-Wing Civility

Fromo "Pastor" Rick Wiles, one of the leading lights of the unhinged "Christian" right:

We’re in for the fight of our lives. If these people get power in this country again, you and I are toast, we’re done. Do you understand that? If they regain power, you and I are history. They’re coming after us. They will exterminate all opposition. Take my word for it. These people are ruthless. They’re murderers, they’re perverts, they’re pedophiles, they’re the worst scum that’s ever crawled on this planet and they’re dangerous. They will do anything to hold on to power, including exterminating their domestic opponents because they’re driven with madness, total madness. When you reject God, you’re opening your mind to madness. And these people have rejected God, they rejected God decades ago and madness has taken over.”

And of course, he has a TV show -- and, one assumes, an audience.

Via Joe.My.God.

Antidote: Parker Curry

You may have seen a news story on Parker Curry, the little girl whose mom took her to the National Portrait Gallery to see Michelle Obama's official portrait.

Hey @MichelleObama! Parker, the little girl who loves your portrait, has an important message for you and we promised her we'd deliver it! 👸🏾 pic.twitter.com/m60f6zhLkc

— AM to DM by BuzzFeed News (@AM2DM) March 5, 2018

Michelle got the message and responded as one might expect:

Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) March 6, 2018

Via Balloon Juice.

Compare and Contrast

Via Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice, a nice example of what we've got versus what we had.

Now:

2. President Trump made a lot of upsetting remarks this week including this one. “Where are you from?” is a question that many Asian Americans dread. https://t.co/D7ue8db1Vb pic.twitter.com/rwgrx7OQrb

— Gary Lee (@whoisgarylee) January 13, 2018

Then:

4. On my last day, I went into the Oval Office and POTUS greeted me by saying, "안녕하세요". Hello, in Korean. I’m lucky bc @PeteSouza captured that exact moment. pic.twitter.com/sKl5ie0DLM

— Gary Lee (@whoisgarylee) January 13, 2018

We traded an actual human being for a puffed-up moron. (There's more at the link that's worth checking out.)

This actually impinges on Trump's perceived racism. I ran across a story that Martin Luther King's nephew, after the event honoring MLK day, noted something to the effect that Trump is not "racist" as we normally think of it -- i.e., not David Duke or Jeff Sessions racist -- but rather that, as in every other area of life (except self-promotion) he is just preternaturally ignorant. (If I can find that story again I'll include a link.)

On the other hand, there's this:

In the nineteen-eighties, when Trump owned casinos in Atlantic City, some of his managers got the strong impression that he didn’t like black employees. In a 2015 story about the faded resort town, my colleague Nick Paumgarten quoted a former busboy at the Trump Castle, who said, “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor.”

He's also not very bright and appallingly incurious.

Via Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Antidote: The Grinch Better Watch Out

This kid knows how to deal with the Grinch:

TyLon Pittman was not about to let the Grinch steal Christmas – so he did exactly what kids are supposed to do for emergencies: call 911.

A dispatcher for the Byram Police Department was pleasantly surprised to pick up the phone on Saturday night and hear a 5-year-old boy expressing concern that the Grinch was going to ruin Christmas because "he steals everybody's Christmas."

When Officer Lauren Develle heard about the youngster's worry, she couldn't resist stopping by his house to reassure him.

Read the whole story -- there's video at the link.

Antidote: Easters Past

For sheer, everyday incompetence, nothing can beat the Trump regime. (I refuse to call it an "admimistration.") From Digby:

Trump's well oiled machine is supposed to make the government run like a business.

And they can't even get the easter egg roll together:

The only thing more ridiculous than the White House Easter Egg Roll is the inability to plan a White House Easter Egg Roll. But as with health care, nobody in the Trump administration knew it could be so complicated to plan this festive spring event that has been going off relatively hitch-free since the Hayes administration. For someone who promised to never allow the blasphemous tidings “happy holidays” to emerge from our irreligious lips again, President Trump is remarkably lax about this Christian-lite rite.

Makes you yearn for the good old days -- like, last year:

Can you imagine Trump doing something like that?

And as for the First Lady:

There's just no comparison. I'm reminded of a poem by Constantine Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians" -- except that the barbarians are here and have taken over.

Point, Counterpoint

Remember Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim soldier who lit into Trump at the Democratic convention? Well, Trump responded, in typical Trump fashion:

Of course Donald Trump was going to go after Khizr Khan, the bereaved father who spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night. He had to, because Khan stands for everything anti-Trump. Patriotism, sacrifice, and integrity. Oh, and Khan is Muslim.

Trump did not disappoint, telling ABC News Saturday that he had "made a lot of sacrifices" by employing "thousands and thousands of people," and having "tremendous success."

Somehow, having tremendous success defrauding thousands of people doesn't strike me as much of a sacrifice. But he didn't stop there:

“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” he rambled.

What a stupid thing to say. In their interview with Lawrence O'Donnell Friday, Mrs Khan explained that she can't even bear to go into the room where his picture is because the loss is still so utterly fresh for her. She didn't trust herself to maintain her composure so she let her husband speak. He, in turn, said that without her at his side he wouldn't have made it through the speech.

The Khans had more to say:

Khizr Khan continued: "Running for president is not an entitlement to disrespect Gold Star families and [a] Gold Star mother not realizing her pain. Shame on him! Shame on his family! He is not worthy of our comments. He has no decency. He is void of decency, he has a dark heart."

Ghazala Khan said: "Sacrifice -- I don't think he knows the meaning of sacrifice, the meaning of the word. Because when I was standing there, all America felt my pain. Without saying a single word. Everybody felt that pain."

Let's face it -- Trump is a clod. A loud, obnoxious clod.

Josh Marshall has an observation that I think is, unfortunately, very much on the mark:

I confess I struggle with the emerging back and forth between Trump and the Khans. It's good for the country because it shows what Khizr Khan aptly labels Trump's "dark heart." But I have no doubt that notwithstanding the well-wishes of so may the Khans will now be vilified, scrutinized and smeared by Trump's supporters.

We've already had one example of that, from a woman who has no right to comment.

I wish the Khans strength -- which they already seem to have in good measure, along with grace and courage. Pity the Republicans can't seem to entertain those qualities.

Footnote: Compare and contrast: Hillary Clinton's statement on the Khans:

Clinton issued a statement on Saturday that said, “I was very moved to see Ghazala Khan stand bravely and with dignity in support of her son on Thursday night. And I was very moved to hear her speak last night, bravely and with dignity, about her son’s life and the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country.”

She continued, “This is a time for all Americans to stand with the Khans, and with all the families whose children have died in service to our country. And this is a time to honor the sacrifice of Captain Khan and all the fallen. Captain Khan and his family represent the best of America, and we salute them.”

Michelle Obama at DNC

If you haven't watched this, do it now.

Who managed to rip Donald Trump to shreds without ever mentioning his name.