Donald Trump is many things - a tantrum-throwing man-child and a wannabe strongman pining for his very own banana republic among them - but perhaps most of all he is a giant, melon-colored distraction from what is happening to our country under his watch.

Joy Reid

Categorized in : Things Own Donald Trump Country

This is now a facility under the control of the Department of Justice, and this Department of Justice does not exactly inspire justice, lets just be blunt. ... William Barrs Department of Justice is not one that you can readily simply rely upon and feel confident in.

opinion

There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. today I’m sincerely apologizing again.

latest-headlines

That was a very telling part of the apology, i ’m not surprised, this is the kind of humor that Roseanne Barr does.

entertainment

I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things. by Joy Reid

I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things.

entertainment

I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things, lies, li... by Joy Reid

I genuinely do not believe I wrote those hateful things, lies, lies and more lies.

entertainment

Ailes built a Kingdom of Yes. That was his genius. He understood the id of many white conservatives - their sense of constant persecution and victimization; and their existential fears of an America whose racial makeup, sexual mores and gender roles were careening in the opposite direction of the country of their childhood.

gender makeup childhood white

Even at its most outrageous early moments, the Tea Party movement was treated to sober and at times breathless media coverage, to the point of being invited to co-host a presidential debate.

debate media moments tea

The criminal justice system in the United States is designed to do two things really well: to railroad black and brown bodies into prison, and to keep police officers out of it.

police black prison justice

I always want to be doing something - going somewhere, doing a project, teaching a class, writing an article. I try to use up my day. You have a limited time on this planet - try to use as much of it as you can for productive purposes.

day you writing time

The evidence of our divided racial self was all over the Obama presidency from the beginning: from the shouts of 'you lie' from the well of Congress as he spoke to a joint session, to the unprecedented spectacle of American conservatives rooting against their own country being awarded the Olympic Games.

lie beginning you self

Trump built Trump Tower using mob concrete, not Bethlehem steel. by Joy Reid

Trump built Trump Tower using mob concrete, not Bethlehem steel.

mob tower concrete steel

Authoritarianism doesn't fall on a nation like a book falling from a shelf and striking you in the head. It rolls in like a slow tide.

nation you book fall

In many ways, Trump is both a boon and a bane to Republicans. His insanity and moral decrepitude keep the country focused on things other than the horrible public policies the GOP is attempting to ram through. But because he has no loyalty to anything other than himself, he's much more useful to them as a shiny object than as an ally.

focused moral loyalty country

If you are a certain kind of white conservative, especially a white male conservative, then Roger Ailes was a hero. He constructed a world in which your core beliefs and your gut instincts were, and still are, constantly validated.

you hero white world

If you are Black or Brown, or a liberal or immigrant or Democrat, or a woman unwilling to quietly submit, then Ailes was the ultimate villain. You were the object of mockery and scorn - sometimes overt, often subtle. You were the thing to be gawked at, pawed at, jeered at, propositioned or feared.

woman you black sometimes

As a media consultant to Republican presidents, Ailes proved a deft manipulator of racial fear. But it was in building Fox News that he found his calling.

news building media fear

When I was 15 years old, my sister and I went on a trip to Europe. We went on scholarship because my mother didn't have the money to pay the full fare for the two of us, which ran into the thousands of dollars.

old sister money mother

To be white in America is to assume, with total self-confidence and little afterthought, the personal ownership of public spaces.

self-confidence little white america

To be white in America is to have the confidence to say, without a second thought: this space, this neighborhood, this city, this county, this country is mine.

city confidence space white

The work of anti-racism can only take place inside each individual soul, where we all try to grow into better people. There is no national tonic or instant cure.

grow soul work people