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

lot of interesting stuff in here, including actual pushback from conservatives/evangelicals on the separating families thing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/06/15/daily-202-trump-is-losing-the-debate-over-splitting-up-immigrant-families/5b2305ab30fb046c468e6ee4/?utm_term=.bc604ac3a6da

― Οὖτις, Friday, June 15, 2018 12:10 PM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea between this and making buddies with KJU I do feel like we're seeing a bit more "man even I can't defend this anymore" this week

guessing having a campaign manager go to jail is pretty significant too. I mean my god, imagine the bloodlust if Clinton won and Robby Mook got locked up for life

I think the economic blowback from the trade war is going to be more detrimental than KJU photo op tbh

trade war blowback will be strongly evident by 2020 election and the business community will be very resentful about it. but then, about half of Trump's cabinet or senior staff has been reported calling him a moron or a fucking idiot behind the scenes. these two things are not unrelated.

The photo op/summit polled very well I thought. Beforehand for sure it was something majority wanted him to do. The unnecessary lines of praise toward KJU afterwards might hurt somewhat and who knows whatever disconcerting consequences come from his repeatedly lying about what the North Koreans agreed to.

well I won't pretend to be able to game out 2020 w any confidence at this point because who knows wtf is going to happen on this directionless rollercoaster. But if markets start to tank ahead of the Nov 2018 elections... I dunno how likely that is, economic consequences can take awhile.

xp

this tweet rules in every way

Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns. Didn’t know Manafort was the head of the Mob. What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2018

I doubt any Americans knew a G7 meeting even took place.

https://apnews.com/3361a7d5fa714ea4b028f0a29db1cabc

fuck all the GOP to fucking hell ASAP

this is a fukcing disgrace, I really dont think i can be more disgusted with this whole fucking thing. Just waiting for the stores of abuse and neglect that will eventually come to light in this damn concentration camps .

Ben Garrison agrees

#RobertMueller tears apart a family!! So cruel & Heartless to seperate Paul Manafort from his family! #EndTheWitchHuntNow #FamiliesBelongTogether https://t.co/E1fVWR3SeG

— Ben Garrison Cartoons at GrrrGraphics.com (@GrrrGraphics) June 15, 2018

feel like it's gonna be a very Trumpy day today

― frogbs, Friday, June 15, 2018 7:51 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

xposts Yes, I feel all kinds of anger and frustration over the injustices that adults visit upon other adults, but there is a special white hot rage that wells up inside me over children being mistreated. I do not have words for how furious stories like this make me.

not to mention it's literally the Eric Andre meme

"Why would Democrats do this??"

it's going to be a heart-swelling victory when Dems take back power and settle for deporting adults in record numbers instead

hmmm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/06/15/scott-pruitt-is-going-to-be-fired-very-soon/?utm_term=.d538c35dd056

at this point my only question is will his tenure be longer than Gorsuch's mom's

I doubt any Americans knew a G7 meeting even took place.

They do, but it's only because of the Trudeau feud.

dissension in the ranks!
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/392507-gop-lawmaker-house-republicans-considering-removing-paul-ryan

Very useful thread re Manafort's current bind from a former US attorney.

Thread:

Some thoughts on the immediate practical effects of Paul Manafort having bail revoked.

1. He will spend tonight in jail.

2. He will stay in jail until either (a) an appeals court overturns the bail ruling or (b) his trial. /1

— Mitchell Epner (@MitchellEpner) June 15, 2018

I predict Manafort doesn't flip and bets everything on getting a pardon

which tbh looks like a very safe bet

he has been treated so very unfairly iirc

"considering" is a word doing a lot of work there; I'm "considering" selling all my possessions and moving to the woods like justin timberlake

what do mob rules say? that's what he'll do.

lol
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-i-certainly-wouldnt-sign-house-gop-immigration-compromise/2018/06/15/731ffedc-70a0-11e8-9ab5-d31a80fd1a05_story.html?utm_term=.7286a418a974

mob never had a don in the WH

“The president supports both the moderate and the more conservative House immigration bill,” one of the two White House officials said Friday. The other official said Trump misunderstood the question that was posed on “Fox and Friends,” which prompted the president to say that he “certainly wouldn’t sign the more moderate one.”

let's guess which one of these officials is about to be fired

"deception, detection, and eliciting responses training", huh

enhanced euphemization

trump tweet

'The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda. Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!'

this is a hostagetaker

it's sick

yup

monstrous. I don't think this gambit will play well with the general public tbh (or the Democrats)

fucking "catch & release"

anything and everything to dehumanize immigrants

yeah, it's part of their official lexicon, even: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/need-know-catch-release/
at least where i grew up, "catch & release" was always - every single time - a term about animals, fishing, hunting

well well
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/392505-cook-political-report-moves-gop-chairmans-race-to-toss-up-inbox-x

what the fuck are these people (from the hill)

http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/menuimage/rising-web-header-navigation_405x75-fixed.png

Both names sound like porn star names.

well I won't pretend to be able to game out 2020 w any confidence at this point because who knows wtf is going to happen on this directionless rollercoaster. But if markets start to tank ahead of the Nov 2018 elections... I dunno how likely that is, economic consequences can take awhile.

― Οὖτις

am predicting the markets will tank right _after_ the 2018 elections and everybody will blame the democrats, because markets are dumb.

-

what do mob rules say? that's what he'll do.

― Hunt3r

"you're all fools" iirc

Suck Bexton.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/theres-no-stopping-him-trump-insists-on-a-russia-summit

Russia may soon to turn out to be yet another test. Washington’s Russia hands are already steeling themselves for the possibility of a lavish, televised lovefest between the President and Putin. The President appears to have no agenda for his desired summit beyond the wish that it take place, leading many experts to fear that the meeting could turn out to be little more than a “bonding session with another brutal dictator,” as Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia during George W. Bush’s Presidency, put it. Many Russia experts, however, worry that Putin is intent upon securing major concessions from Trump, such as relief from the tough economic sanctions that the U.S. and its allies have imposed on Russia since its 2014 Crimea invasion and 2016 election meddling. And Trump, they fear, might want to give it to him (though a veto-proof majority in Congress stood by the sanctions just last year).

Suck Bexton.

― kelp, clam and carrion (sic), Saturday, June 16, 2018 1:49 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i approve of this post

That piece quoting Sessions upthread is pretty frightening: “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.” Unambiguously claims divine authority for whatever laws can be passed. Church and State, separated for too long by nasty godless liberals!

And this from a bunch of goons who are constantly all “govt is evil; get government off our backs!!”

If they meant one word of that shit about obeying the law, there wouldn't be any complaints about having to bake cakes for and shoot wedding photos of same sex couples.

Paul Ryan gettin ratio'd HARD here

My life changed the day I became a father. Liza, Charlie, and Sam are my highest priority. Wishing all of the dads out there a happy early #FathersDay pic.twitter.com/w3UsSkR4Lf

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) June 16, 2018

You know Ryan puts his family first. He's not running for reelection just so he can spend more time with them. I hope he never works again and becomes a house daddy, happily raising his children to be better people than he is. Much better people.

This seems somewhat important: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/southern-baptists-call-off-the-culture-war/563000/

If the generational shift the author is describing has already happened in the SBC, then it was a shift that made no difference to U.S. politics in 2016. It's hard to believe that whatever is happening with Southern Baptists is anything but a gradual, almost imperceptible, change in terms of voting patterns.

The worst outcome for the Republicans would be an erosion of their control over the political organizing power the churches represent. Churches are the nuclei of community in the rural south, at least as potent as the local high school football team.

Classy leadership.

"A lawsuit filed against Pressler alleging decades of sexual molestation, beginning while the plaintiff was just 14, included two additional affidavits from individuals alleging that Pressler had committed sexual misconduct against them while they were young men. And Patterson has drawn criticism for encouraging abused women to submit to their violent husbands. He was dismissed from his post as president of Southwestern Seminary after being accused of failing to properly report at least two allegations of rape. More than 3,000 Southern Baptist women signed a petition calling for his resignation."