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

Here's Trump hugging the flag for some reason

We know why he does it.

Him feeling the need to constantly bask in flag humping is so visually appalling.

rubs up on it

Grab 'em by the poll!

just digesting trump's latest encyclical

- immigrants are criminals who are a danger to the countries they travel to
- in fact they are like insects
- democrats are encouraging these criminal insects to cross the border and infest America because they will end up voting democrat in elections and democrats know this
- i.e. democrats are actively encouraging crime and immigrant infestation for their own political gain

just want to make sure I've got that straight

Immigrants AND Canadians!

Well Trump has never been tat strong on history but that does sound like quite a good description of his family history doesn't it?

he's one step away from calling democrats "kuffirs"

btw i always knew this display name would have legs, but i will admit being a little disappointed by how right i was

Tracer, you're an immigrant. What country are you infesting again? I am infesting one in SA.

- immigrants are criminals who are a danger to the countries they travel to
- in fact they are like insects
- democrats are encouraging these criminal insects to cross the border and infest America because they will end up voting democrat in elections and democrats know this
- i.e. democrats are actively encouraging crime and immigrant infestation for their own political gain

Dang, Mexico better get to work on that wall toot sweet. What's the holdup? Probably some BS permitting thing.

the uk but I'm white and middle class I'll be ok even if things are a LITTLE WEIRD HERE FOR PEOPLE WHOSE IMMIGRATION STATUS IS BASED ON THEIR EU CONNECTIONS

xpost

can someone explain where these numbers are coming from cuz I'm seeing people read this as "5 out of 6 kids were being sent by human traffickers"

We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally. Of the 12,000 children, 10,000 are being sent by their parents on a very dangerous trip, and only 2000 are with their parents, many of whom have tried to enter our Country illegally on numerous occasions.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2018

Truly convincing.

Just spent 1-on-1 time with Manuel Padilla, chief of Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector — the epicenter of separations.

He told me conditions in that processing center with cages are “not that bad,” he sees kids there smiling and he’s spoken with them about the World Cup.

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 19, 2018

i can virtually guarantee that all of those numbers are completely fabricated

xp

this is a total goat rodeo

it really is

brb, going to go chat with incarcerated people about sports and see if that makes them feel less like they're in FUCKING JAIL

also going to contemplate whether the "process" implied by "processing center" is or is not akin to the same root when used in the term "food processor"

how much of this is a misapprehension of how this would play out in the court of public opinion and how much is calculated hostage-taking?

yes

or, more likely, is it just an opportunity to double-down, get approx half the voting public and major media players to carry their water, thereby creating a 'new normal'

yea looks like "they're doing this to stop human trafficking" is starting to become the official right wing line, if Dilbert is to be trusted

You took the pro-child-trafficking side over the temporary cages side. There were only two options on the table. https://t.co/53zTFaOwug

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) June 19, 2018

i can say from personal experience that the rio grande CBP are among the most unpleasant and stupid people on the planet.

would be a real gd shame if their everyday lives were made into a living hell

human ingenuity for self-justification is one of the most powerful forces the universe has ever known

will: The administration's communication strategy is not either/or but both/and. The aptest metaphor is the throwing up of rhetorical chaff.

They don't give much of a shit about the predictable reactions of bleeding-heart lib softies (who already think Trump is the embodiment of evil - what's the incentive to try to win over the pantywaists?). Just shake in a soupcon of "but the Democrats!" to obfuscate the picture just enough for low-info voters.

The real effort is to dogwhistle to racists while maintaining a fig leaf deniability by not actually tweeting this shit in the original German.

christ “but human trafficking!!” is their go to line for everything huh. never mind trump’s longstanding palling around with jeff epstein of course

...or Trump being in the hotel industry, which has knowingly and unknowingly profited of Trafficking since forever.

'human ingenuity for self-justification is one of the most powerful forces the universe has ever known' - la rochefoucauld

I thought that was Bob Marley but what do I know

You get the impression that when Coulter dies her body won't be found for a few weeks.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) June 19, 2018

bullshit, ann coulter’s been an ambulatory corpse for decades

this is all going to be a complete mess

WASHINGTON — Republican senators moved on Tuesday to defuse a political crisis by seeking passage of legislation that would swiftly bring an end to President Trump’s practice of separating children from their parents when families cross into the United States illegally.

i'm assuming it's Breaking News on NYT because they mean they're willing to bring the child separation to an end as a separate piece of legislation from the hypothetical Immigration bill that would fund the stupid fucking wall, reduce visas, and generally ratchet up border enforcement? did they somehow solve the problem of house tea party assholes torpedoing any bill that isn't cruel enough to migrant people? or the trump administration using the separated children as a hostages for said comprehensive legislation?

on top of that, there's this:

But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, immediately shot down the Republican approach, saying that Mr. Trump could — and should — use his executive authority, not legislation, to quickly end the family separations.

“There are so many obstacles to legislation, and when the president can do it with his own pen, it makes no sense,” Mr. Schumer said.

fund the stupid fucking wall

But this is easy, we just send the bill to Mexico. Right?

More likely he’ll pull some tariff bullshit with Mexico that results in a couple billion dollars for his friends, which he’ll cite as proof of “Mexico paying for it” at the expense of everyone else

i can say from personal experience that the rio grande CBP are among the most unpleasant and stupid people on the planet.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, June 19, 2018 7:53 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seconded

Pleasant smart people in not signing up for those jobs SHOCKA

- democrats are encouraging these criminal insects to cross the border and infest America because they will end up voting democrat in elections and democrats know this

this is absolute nonsense, I'm not able to vote here

There are a lot of ignorant people in the US who take whatever Txxxx says at face value; when such a huge portion of his words are blatant lies, it doesn't change anything for his minions.

Well don't worry there's still one adult in the roo-

Over the past 24 hours I've heard from several sources that Defense Secretary Mattis has been iced out by POTUS and has increasingly become isolated.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 19, 2018

xxxp

i don't know the economic situation in the rio grande valley as well (they've got spacex now though lol), but over in west texas the big bend CBP is literally the only big employer south of the 10, so i think at least in part it's a case of no other options and CBP making people worse, rather than preexisting cruelty/stupidity.

Mattis should do the right thing and cut Trump's throat tbh. Then Miller's.

We need news -- we just got it.. Un-fucking-believable.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson on Monday ruled a Kansas law that requires new voters to prove citizenship is unconstitutional and ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to return to school as punishment for repeated violations of court rules.

Her 118-page ruling sides with the American Civil Liberties Union in a two-year legal battle over the law’s burden and effect on elections. She provided a damning assessment of Kobach’s witnesses, calling their evidence flawed, invalid, biased, irrelevant, unreliable and untrustworthy.

Robinson also takes aim at Kobach for “repeated and flagrant violations” of court procedures during the March trial. His repeated last-minute efforts to introduce new evidence showed a pattern of “flaunting disclosure and discovery rules that are designed to prevent prejudice and surprise at trial,” she said.

As a sanction, Kobach must take six hours of continuing law education in addition to any hours required for his law license.

From yesterday but yeah, that's both great and hilarious.

Trump: "When you are prosecute the parents for coming in illegally — which should happen — you have to take the children away." pic.twitter.com/uv5oF2eeJd

— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) June 19, 2018

Video of quote embedded in tweet ^^^^

Such politics

STATE OF PLAY—Variety of GOP ideas, no clear consensus for fixing family separation. Trump supports some (overturning Flores), not others (more judges). Democrats believe Trump broke this, can fix it, don’t see a viable legislative path. POTUS gets briefed soon on House GOP plan.

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 19, 2018

"POTUS gets briefed soon on House GOP plan."

of which he said, earlier today:

“We have a House that’s getting ready to finalize an immigration package that they are going to brief me on later, and I’m going to make changes,” Mr. Trump vowed, without providing details about what he plans to change.

FYI the Medium post of ICE workers from LinekdIn was taken down.