Macy's joins the ranks of companies cutting the cordOoh, this isn't quite what The Donald said originally, is it?by KenThere are mysteries that, even as they begin to fade from view, actually become more rather than less mysterious.As you may have noticed, a number of companies that have had business ties with Donald Trump have taken steps to extricate themselves from the unholy grasp since his bizarre, grotesque, repellent performance announcing his 2016 presidential candidacy. Bizarre or grotesque or repellent Corporate America can live with. Possibly even any two out of the three. But put all three together, and Media Central, we've got a problem.Now our Noah made some interesting points about that bizarre, grotesque, repellent performance. It was crafted, he suggested, to appeal to a particular audience -- the famous Republican "base," the apparent calculation being that there are sizable swaths of the American public that like the right kind of bizarre, grotesque, and repellent, that in fact are waiting to stand up and cheer for it. On June 17 he wrote, in "Political Groundhog Day: This Time Trump Actually Officially Declares He's Running":
I expect The Donald to do well in these here upcoming Clown Car Debates that everyone is talking about. He is, if nothing else, a crowd-pleasing entertainer. His jingoism, simplistic quarter-baked answers to complex multi-layered problems, and his extensive bigotries play well to the brainwashed pitchfork-and-torch crowd that drives the Republican Party. His substance-lacking one-liners will get cheers and ratings from the single-digit-IQ GOP yahoo base. . . .Trump says what most republicans think. He speaks for them, and he spoke for them loud and ugly in his announcement. The republican mind comes from Bizarro World, and Trump is a perfect manifestation of its bizarro code. The Trump campaign will be a farce, and let's hope the joke doesn't end up being on all of us.
(Noah went on to wonder whether this would be any worse a joke than those represented by, you know, the other GOP presidential wannabes.)And so while civilized, sane people have properly recoiled in horror at the spectacle of this sleazy, fraudulent media whore yammering about building "a great, great wall" between us and Mexico to keep the rapists, drug dealers, and criminals out, the apparent calculation is that there are people out there festering for a champion to tickle their ear canals with talk like this.Nevertheless, if you're, say, NBC, however accustomed you may be to lying down with dogs, there comes a point when the flea count when you get up is just too high, when whatever upside there may have been to consorting with such a creature can't being to outweigh the public embarrassment he has turned himself into. And apologies like the apparent one in the Tweet atop this post only call attention to the embarrassment, because anyone who has any recollection of the anti-Mexican rants he delivered knows that "unfair trade deals that the US so stupidly makes with them" bears no resemblance whatsoever to the psychotic filth that spewed forth from his demonic maw that day.Again, the Republican "base" probably won't care that The Donald lies every time he opens his mouth -- hell, every time he draws a breath. Their, er, "reality" depends on lies -- the real world just the way they wish it was, just the way St. Ronnie of Reagan promised them it could be. Reality, he told them, is what you want it to be, if that's what you want reality to be. And the "base" very badly needs reality to be what they want it to be, because they can't begin to cope with, you know, the real thing.And so, as Ashley Curtin reports for "Nation of Change":
You’re fired! After Donald Trump recently revealed his rhetoric plans to control illegal immigration, NBC “dumped” Trump’s beauty pageants and confirmed he will no longer be part of the show, “The Apprentice.”The network, which came under pressure after Trump’s controversial illegal immigration statements, called his statements demeaning.“Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump,” the network said in a statement. “To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC. In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in ‘The Apprentice’ on NBC.”
And that's not all.
[R]ight after Trump’s speech, Univision announced it would not air Trump’s “Miss USA” pageant in Spanish on July 12 saying that “respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.” The leading Spanish-language network, which serves millions of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the USA, went on to say that Trump’s statements on illegal immigration were “insulting and offensive,” according to USA Today.
And now there's Macy's. ThinkProgress's Esther Yu-Hsi Lee reports (links onsite):
The retail clothing giant Macy’s became the latest company to cut ties with 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, following his campaign launch speech in which he claimed that some Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers.In its announcement on Wednesday, Macy’s made a strong statement in support of immigrants — saying that “respect for the dignity of all people is a cornerstone of our culture” and that Trump’s remarks “are inconsistent with Macy’s values” and that his “disparaging characterizations” aren’t an accurate portrayal of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Latinos.“Macy’s is a company that stands for diversity and inclusion,” a statement released to CNN reads. “We have no tolerance for discrimination in any form. We welcome customers, and respect for the dignity of all people is a cornerstone of our culture. We are disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico. We do not believe the disparaging characterizations portray an accurate picture of the many Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Latinos who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation.”“In light of statements made by Donald Trump, which are inconsistent with Macy’s values, we have decided to discontinue our business relationship with Mr. Trump and will phase-out the Trump menswear collection, which has been sold at Macy’s since 2004,” the company concluded.There was already momentum for Macy’s to end its business relationship with Trump. Over 700,000 people have signed a longstanding moveon.org petition for the company to cut ties with Trump, a petition that gained steam after his nativist remarks. The petition was initially created in the wake of Trump’s involvement in questioning the president’s birth certificate and his stance on climate change, KTLA reported.Macy’s move to sever its decade-long tie with Trump comes after Univision and NBC canceled their business partnerships with Trump, saying the NBC reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” will no longer support him as host. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slims’ Ora TV has also ended a project with the real estate mogul. And in the fallout of Trump’s statement, Miss Mexico has declined to be in the Miss Universe pageant.In response to the upheaval, Trump stated on Wednesday that “clearly NBC and Macy’s support illegal immigration, which is totally detrimental to the fabric of our once great country.”
As we've already noted, The Donald is now pretending that he didn't say what he went to such pains to say, apparently under the misimpression that there's no limit to what you can get away with saying publicly as long as it's steeped in far-right-wing looniness and hatred. If he had read the fine print, he would have discovered that that guarantee isn't "ironclad" either -- properly stated, it says that "there's almost no limit to what you can get away with saying" (boldface emphasis added).So The Donald yammers about suing, which sounds to me like more bluster, because if he feels the need now to lie about what he said, doesn't it occur to him that in a courtroom not only will everyone be under oath, but there is abundant video of him in action. So let him sue. Mostly it will show that whoever said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity" similarly overstated, meaning perhaps the more fudgeable "There's almost no such thing as bad publicity" (again, boldface emphasis added).BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT MYSTERY?Oh yes, I started by speaking of a mystery that grows more mysterious even as the subject of the mystery begins to recede from view. The mystery I refer to is: Why the hell was anyone paying any attention to this useless buttwipe to begin with? How did it happen that there were people across this great land who settled in front of their TVs and thought, "What I'd really like to watch now is some of that feller 'The Donald' Trump." Do I really have to explain what's wrong with this picture?Celebrity Apprentice, for goodness' sake? Except perhaps for shut-ins who had literally nothing else to do, and who couldn't bear not to have the TV on, and either weren't able to change the channel or only got the one channel -- except for them, can anyone think of any reason why anyone, anyone at all, would have watched more than maybe two minutes of Celebrity Apprentice?It's easy to say now, "You're fired, The Donald!" But --Oh wait, just because it's easy to say doesn't mean we shouldn't say it. You're fired, The Donald. Now please, please just go away.Just because it's so easy to say doesn't meanwe shouldn't say, "You're fired, The Donald."#
