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

Kinda figured this was obvious. Also, interesting story to have surface about now.

Publicly Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein stands by his role in Comey firing. In private it’s been a different story. W/@adamgoldmanNYT https://t.co/jt0amRcgWK

— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) June 29, 2018

If Nude Gingrich Is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Nude Gingrich

― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain),

speaking of, what would Don 'n' Ghost of Glenn say about these times?

gee I wonder how our new SC overlords will overturn this one

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/29/kentuckys-first-in-the-nation-requirement-that-medicaid-recipients-must-work-is-blocked/?utm_term=.2830a5fc3a56

For anyone that believes Robert Mueller knows all, I just saw it reported that the feds were tipped off to the existence of Manafort's storage locker by a journalist.

sort of - AP journos were asking Feds if they knew about Manafort's storage locker, which turned out to be the first time the Feds had heard of it.

first day of testimony in Manafort's trial, bound to be tons of stuff like this coming out

I think that was pre-Mueller, too?

yeah, April 2017, about a month before Mueller's appointment

Mueller's investigators work within a different set of rules than investigative journalists, so it's not surprising a journo could hear things they haven't heard. I'm happy to hear the journo shared notes with them.

that's not exactly what happened (as noted) but the real reason this is significant is because the House GOP has been accusing the FBI of leaking news of the locker (among other things) to AP - when it turns out something closer to the reverse happened.

SCOOP: As Trump fights w/ Merkel on defense spending, Pentagon staffers ordered to analyze the costs of a large-scale withdrawal of American troops from Germany. Word of the move is causing a nervous scramble at European embassies in DC https://t.co/FAjLdW1bLc

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) June 29, 2018

@PhilipRucker
Trump was taken aback to learn there were 35,000 U.S. troops in Germany and expressed interest to aides in removing them

Yeah, can't Russia put some troops there instead?

Maybe we just put some troops in one half of Germany and Russia can put some in the other half. Teamwork!

i'm curious about how he finally learned this information

why are we removing troops from germany and south korea but also increasing the defense budget by 150b

to give money to Trump's buddies

to nuke Iran

=|

Cuz we make weapons and sell them?

there are so many things that trump doesn't know about yet. it's gonna be a wild ride

there are so many things that trump doesn't know

― Karl Malone, Friday, June 29, 2018 6:05 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ftfy

sadly, so true. oof.

is there ever a point where congress, republicans, or congress republicans will lift a finger against him? at this point i really do think he could just unilaterally pull the US from NATO while russia simultaneously moved forces in and they would do nothing. maybe when he announces our new military alliance with russia and declares that france and germany are now enemies of the united states? 50/50 odds that they'd do something in that scenario

nah

they will never turn on him. they owe him for taking back the entire federal gov't, the tax cut, and now the supreme court - a debt he will never let them forget. they are supine and toothless.

"supine and toothless" = lesser-known Talking Heads b-side)

I was wondering earlier how it would have felt in 1913 or 1938 in a country outside of the main combatants of the next years. If the tensions of imminent explosion were visible from the sidelines.
THough doesn't really seem to be a neutral point at the moment does there.
JUst going to be glad that the repeal of the 8th amendment in Ireland happened before abortion in the US became any more in question.
& the UK seems to be in the middle of a meltdown. I know not seems.
& the BBC are still using Nigel Farrage as a go to guy for opinion on this mess. Though maybe that was Northern Irish BBC I was hearing yesterday and did seem to recognise his very blinkered view of things..

from allegra, who has some good talking points for when you get into it with your uncle or w/e:

"Even though at Santa Fe Dreamers Project we constantly bear witness to reprehensible ICE actions, I used to think the concept of #abolishICE was too radical. I think that even I, an immigration lawyer fighting detention and deportation, had internalized the criminalization of immigrants so deeply that I believed this agency, at least in part, should be funded and functioning. After thinking and reading a lot about it, I no longer think #abolishICE is radical. I think it is rational. Why on earth do we have a massive, out-of-control law enforcement agency policing something that is not a crime? That immigration isn't a crime is not my philosophy, it's the law. These are mostly civil/administrative violations ICE is policing, literally like violations of OSHA or the tax code. (Sometimes I fantasize if it wouldn't be easier if immigration were a crime and you could have free lawyers, due process, speedy trials, and consequences for fourth amendment violations-- you know, rights). So why do we just accept that we have the largest law enforcement force in the country policing civil violation and doling out insanely disproportionate penalties? Can you imagine if you were picked up at your home and ripped from your family and detained for months for an OSHA or minor tax violation? But our country truly believes that immigrants are so dangerous, by living and working here, that we need to pay this huge army of reckless officers to terrorize our communities and detain our neighbors. Look, I am all for law enforcement. But if anyone, including an immigrant, in my community commits a dangerous crime, we have criminal codes and state/local law enforcement to deal with it. In fact, from where I stand these days, it is ICE who is making my town and my state scarier and more dangerous and far more un-american than any of my immigrant neighbors. So I guess this is all too suggest, if #abolishICE seems too radical for you, I think it is worth taking some time and learning about it (ICE has only existed for 15 years, ICE doesn't really police the border but Customs and Border Protection (CBP) does, immigrant communities have a far lower crime rate than citizen communities, immigrants make our economy stronger, etc) and examining what assumptions you might be carrying around that make it seem radical. And if you let go of these assumptions, doesn't abolishing ICE seem like a rational and practical step to ending the abject suffering our government is inflicting on our neighbors?"

Stevolende:

I know that I shall meet my fate,
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love

Re tax cuts as the thing that republicans will campaign on this year:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/29/not-what-we-expected-trumps-tax-bill-is-losing-popularity/

That leaves immigration

"maybe when he announces our new military alliance with russia and declares that france and germany are now enemies of the united states?"

I'm pretty slow but I'm coming around to thinking that this might really happen? not sure how that plays out wrt Iran, which is why I haven't fully come around on this happening yet

gbx that is booming. i love the comparison to OSHA

More “argument about ice with your centrist uncle” material

THREAD: Amid all of the calls to #abolishICE, I found myself asking, where did it come from? Why did we do it? Maybe we made a mistake. I was there and remember it thematically, but I wanted to remind myself. Maybe it will help others. 1/

— Moira Whelan (@moira) June 30, 2018

Hamilton Nolan gets phone calls from righties

https://splinternews.com/we-get-voicemails-1827231694

Here in San Francisco -- and apparently across the bay in Alameda as well -- today's march was notably light on millenials. I wonder if this was broadly true.

Didn't check IDs, but lots of young people here.

It was a good march, good to be around so many like-minded people, even if it was fucking hot. Got a sandwich at a Vietnamese place after. The woman saw my shirt and asked if I was marching. We talked a bit and she told me she came here as a refugee in 1976 (I think) because it was the greatest country in the world. Then she told me she was sponsoring the asylum claims of two people, one from Cuba, the other from Venezuela, and that it's hard work and time consuming but still worth fighting for. She thanked me for my support, and I've got to admit, it felt good.

At the Baltimore rally, I feel like the median age was hovering somewhere between 35-40.

lotta young folks in Eugene OR but yeah the median was probably closer to what Raymond saw, tons of pissed of elders with signs

felt a tiny bit younger than that here. Maybe somewhere 25 to 35? 25-45?

https://splinternews.com/at-families-belong-together-marches-this-is-what-dem-1827262000

It was fucking fantastic. Hot as heck, but the vibe was positive, lots of socializing and commiserating and hope.

Shout out to chill Antifa crew hoisting a huge banner and supplying free bottled water in an ice chest

Went to the Queens March but was late due to baby nap. Hit it at the end where a small crowd was gathered in a park in Corona. Got to hear Ocasio-Cortez speak so at least I’ll be able to tell that to my grandchildren.

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration, U.S. officials told NBC News.

The intelligence assessment, which has not previously been reported, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic June 12 summit with Kim that "there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."

this is unsurprising and still foreboding

jesus

Enh

Color me skeptical when it comes to US intelligence services and reporting on other countries' movements

It’s in line with what pretty much every NK and arms proliferation expert predicted.

What a nutter. 1) Open-source information corroborates IC claims. 2) In 2017, the IC repeatedly leaked administration plans to launch preventive strikes on NK in order to prevent them--hardly a "war-hawk bureaucracy" move. 3) NK has not agreed to give up nukes https://t.co/tlKqyQJE2O

— Van Jackson (@WonkVJ) June 30, 2018

The claims the intel community is making are reasonable, predictable--because the Kim summit was a rhetorical show, not a deal for denuclearization, and because North Korea has no theory of security without nukes. Of course North Korea's going do what it can to retain nukes

— Van Jackson (@WonkVJ) June 30, 2018

Beware the claims of anyone who spends their time trying to discredit the work of Trump's enemies--you know, mainstream journalism and public servants

— Van Jackson (@WonkVJ) June 30, 2018

Simon, there's a fundamental difference compared to Iraq in that it goes against what the government is saying. Pet peeve but blaming the WMD lies on intelligence really lets Rumsfeld and Cheney etc off the hook.

Also, fuck Glenn Greenwald.

Still I’m in the weird place of rooting for Trump to just ignore it (and John Bolton and Lindsey Graham) completely instead of lashing out and acting betrayed.

yeah, otm

1 in 120 is displaced or asylum seeking. Christ