US Politics, June 2018: This is a total goat rodeo.

I actually did that once! Attempt to ignite a pile of wet leaves with gasoline. Only used a little! Thought it'd be like super lighter fluid. Caused 3 explosions! Not major, but enough to get people running out of the house to see what happened. (This was during a Thanksgiving weekend in upstate New York, when it was still legal to burn leaves.) Nobody got hurt, but we was dumb.

Ha ha I keep piling a bunch of debris between the neighbor yard and mine but it’s because they always let their dog out and it comes through a clear path between trees into our yard and poops.

Ah, Virginia.

neo-Confederate Corey Stewart just won the GOP primary in the Virginia Senate race, so I'm re-upping my reporting on him calling white nationalist Paul Nehlen his "personal hero" and naming a neo-Nazi his campaign's "volunteer of the week" https://t.co/zvlx5Pe01J https://t.co/RsqFAn8hCs

— Caleb Ecarma (@calebecarma) June 13, 2018

Yeah, I heard there were Democrats who voted for Stewart in an attempt at selecting the crazier (therefore weaker) general election opponent. If true, gah. Guys have you heard of a fellow called Trump? Immanentizing the eschaton is not sound strategery anymore (if it ever was).

Yeah, there's no percentage in betting against the most outrageously awful option these days. People might just decide that 'outrageously awful' is the kind of change we could use.

People might just decide that 'outrageously awful' is the kind of change we could use.

― Not with a bang but a MAGA (Old Lunch)

not sure how giving an outrageously awful racist political power counts as "change" in 2018, but ok

Make America Even Worse!

I mean, I'm sure there are people who are disappointed that big softie Trump hasn't instituted concentration camps and roving death squads yet.

have you all seen this? trump played this for kim jong-un. the fact that this is real and that happened is one of the most intensely strange things i've ever heard of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYsaC2CADs0

it is a fake trailer. he played him a fake trailer

i always thought hyperreality, simulacra, mapping simulation onto reality, etc were all kinds of metaphors - i am starting to think a blending of metaverses is actually happening

It always seemed purely theoretical in a way that suggested a big toke was in order after laying it all out but we're definitely right in the middle of it. Even separated from the rest of the madness, a reality show star won the ultimate prize: the power to create a show out of reality itself.

definitely. the reality show angle is strong. it's also kind of like one of those custom recruitment videos that some college teams make for high school kids, subbing in the kid's name and face in, having the narrator describe them making the winning shot in the championship game. also, it's another narrow reference but there's heavy fallout (videogame series) vibes, the exuberant, unbridled propaganda / jingoistic nature of it, all very surreal and "late-stage" whatever you want

if we have to be stuck in an alternate reality why does it have to be an alternate reality from one of the less compelling episodes of "sliders"?

it is a fake trailer. he played him a fake trailer

And afterwards they read each other's fan fiction and then made plans for the impending extradition & execution of Seth Rogan and James Franco.

Does it strike anyone else, that that weird trailer really reeks of those weird $cientology propoganda films? I mean *really* reek of it?

J. Don Trummppard

sanford lost

smh

oh lol

Also I’m 100% down with any Virginia Democrats who voted Stewart in the primary. Bring it on

it makes sense as the only way to draw obvious contrast with the blob of nothing that is Tim Kaine

Does it strike anyone else, that that weird trailer really reeks of those weird $cientology propoganda films? I mean *really* reek of it?

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, June 13, 2018 12:06 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's mimicking North Korean propaganda I believe

there's a theory that South Korea made it (today's NYT)

They got the Moonies to make it.

good mourning!

Funny you should say that.

BREAKING: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York as his attorneys leave case, sources tell @ABC News. https://t.co/AHPYOLGt1Q pic.twitter.com/R0DjCZf2Tn

— ABC News (@ABC) June 13, 2018

B-but I'm sure Trump extracted a loyalty pledge from him! What is this world coming to when the living embodiment of chaos can no longer trust his underlings.

can a legal expert tell me if it's good or not when all your lawyers abandon the case

I think it's a good thing when they realize how watertight a case you have and they pass because they're so sick of winning.

btw when we're discussing "alternate realities", here's a good one

https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/melania-trumps-disappearance-is-right-out-of-hitchcock.html

Proposed by Senators Tim Kaine and Bob Corker, its radicalism approaches that of a constitutional amendment. Their new AUMF would subvert an article at the core of the Constitution, gutting a vital protection against tyranny devised by the Framers. It would authorize multiple existing wars without even debating them individually. It would empower Trump and his successors to unilaterally wage war in new countries, expand their ability to indefinitely detain prisoners without charges, and empower them to unilaterally kill individuals even inside the United States.

In opposition, the ACLU has declared, “It would be hard to overstate the depth and breadth of the dangers to the Constitution, civil liberties, and human rights that the Corker-Kaine AUMF would cause … The Corker-Kaine AUMF would cause colossal harm to the Constitution’s checks and balances, would jeopardize civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad, would lead to a broad expansion of war without meaningful oversight, and would represent a sharp break from adherence to international law, including the United Nations Charter.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/congress-may-declare-the-forever-war/562175/?utm_source=atlfb

this would make Kaine a better veep for trump than Pence

perpetual war is as bipartisan as shit

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/robert-mueller-files-request-for-150-blank-subpoenas-in-paul-manafort-case

I was surprised Sanford had hung on this long tbh, after that whole stupid Argentina thing

TIP: Two Republican insiders just told me that GOP Rep Nunes, GOP Rep Rohrabacher and Sean Hannity are currently under criminal investigation by the Federal Gov’t.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) June 13, 2018

xposts i'm no legal pro, but cohen agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors seems likes a pretttttty big deal

p obvious what Nunes and Rohrabacher have been engaged in, not so sure about Hannity. must be related to the Cohen thing.

Meh. Cohen accomplished exactly nothing for most of his clients; in that regard one could be forgiven for thinking he won't be of much help to the prosecutors either.

though I guess you might wanna take that with a grain of salt

Meh. Cohen accomplished exactly nothing for most of his clients; in that regard one could be forgiven for thinking he won't be of much help to the prosecutors either.

of course, his clients couldn't threaten him with prison time for doing a bad job, so he might try a little harder for the prosecutors

Could you get Hannity on obstruction if he calls on witnesses to destroy their phones?

I don't think so

should i poll the AUMF story just to make sure "shrug" wins?

sadly, the only people in congress who seem to care about AUMFs are the people trying to destroy them

I would so have loved a Kaine primary fight.

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/12/17455922/wisconsin-special-elections-results-june

Pimp wins GOP primary: https://www.yahoo.com/news/legal-pimp-defeats-nevada-lawmaker-070355548.html

Corker-Kaine needs to die a death ... here's Paul Ryan, Bernie Sanders, a FOX commentator, an ACLU guy, and several others all coming down on the same side of the AUMF question:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?446614-1/constitutional-experts-testify-war-powers-hearing

by Paul Ryan I assume you mean Rand Paul lol

Meantime

NEW: Per @KatyTurNBC, Michael Cohen has received word from federal prosecutors that they are preparing paperwork to arrest him.

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) June 13, 2018