Trump, June 2017: From [Covfefe] with Love

You see this shift in public attitude after every attack. Anti-Islam/immigrant comments show up on new york times articles with hundreds of upvotes etc.

If and when there is another Isis attack in the US, Trump is going to blame the courts for preventing him from doing what he thought needed to be done.

i've pointlessly worried and whined about this for months, but if there is a big ISIS (or whoever else) attack in the US, i think it will trigger an even more violent and gross overreaction than 9/11 did, militarily, culturally, legislatively. blaming the courts for not allowing the travel ban would be just the tip of the iceberg

Screw that, the only thing it helps is the health of the GOP. Because given the GOP has been batshit rightwing for years, and treated Obama with nonstop disrespect at best, what do these "reasonable" people stand for, given there is virtually nothing reasonable in GOP platform/policy/practice?

This is just gonna be a place where we differ; some people think "Trump is what the GOP has been for 20 years but in louder clothes" and some people, including me, think Trump represents a qualitatively different level of awfulness and that it would be a damn good thing for both the GOP and the country for Republicans to reject it.

Yeah, they need to kick that regressive bigotry back in the closet where it belongs.

The biggest qualitative difference between 'the GOP-at-large' and 'Trump's GOP' is the willingness of the latter group to just say what they're thinking instead of couching it in more socially-acceptable finery.

some people think "Trump is what the GOP has been for 20 years but in louder clothes" and some people, including me, think Trump represents a qualitatively different level of awfulness and that it would be a damn good thing for both the GOP and the country for Republicans to reject it.

why can't it be "Trump is the culmination of thirty-seven years of GOP awfulness"? Don't regard him as an outlier.

I can't get over that Conway tweet.

Kellyanne Conway's husband.

I do regard him as an outlier, but "reasonable people may differ" as they say in liberal wimp school

he is def not an outlier, just a more openly ghoulish embodiment of the same reprehensible shit as always (including the more evil motherfuckers across the aisle)

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3f/2e/f8/3f2ef840c648d84efb7e05d6e22cd224.jpg

As others have notes, he's just a continuation, but he says the loud parts quiet and the quiet parts loud.

he's a comment section troll come to life. it's kind of awesome how perfectly he behaves and communicates like your standard discus 'conservative' dickhead, or it would be, if it weren't so absolutely horrifying

He's also, personally, a very deranged and fucked up individual who seems to thrive on spreading fear and chaos.

I wonder if the plan to privatize air traffic control and get away from ground based radar was run by the Pentagon or DHS. I know the answer but still.

he is genuinely one of the dumbest people around, every time i've ever seen him try to convey anything resembling gravity he comes off like someone who's bad at telling a ghost story and is trying to amp it up by talking more slowly. or something. i really do think the most damaging thing about his presidency will ultimately be the fact that the rest of the world now thinks we're not only assholes, but stupid assholes.

https://psmag.com/social-justice/what-will-liberals-do-if-trump-isnt-impeached

Compared to the erratic bully-in-chief, a portion of Americans (and an alarming number of reporters) would like nothing more than a tall no-nonsense rule-lover with a gun. These folks need to snap out of it. The FBI is one of the most regressive institutions in America, though it is little worse than three of Comey's other former employers: bomb-maker Lockheed Martin, Connecticut hedge fund behemoth Bridgewater, and the George W. Bush Department of Justice. When liberals and other centrists start salivating for a guy with that kind of resume, we are very far misled as a polity.

Trump must go, but we can't pluck a petal and expect the plant to wither. Whether impeachment or the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, (natural) death or bureaucratic coup, none of the options suggested or implied so far addresses the deep corruption and absurd dysfunction that now characterize the federal government. We are ruled by the worst among us, as is abundantly clear from any video of our leaders interacting with their constituents. The security services are no solution, but that's where liberal fantasies about the system fixing itself have come to rest. If, however, Trump proves resilient, and nothing in their book works, are the proceduralists prepared to pull the real emergency switch? Our Constitutional tradition has one restart button, and it doesn't belong to any branch of the government.

xpost "The call is totally, totally coming from inside the house. It's true. Sad!"

the fact that there are many liberals who respect Comey (or any FBI head) is completely disgusting

iberals and other centrists start salivating for a guy

Bullshit. Who are the liberals salivating over the long arms and droopy mien of James Comey? Names. Lumping libs with "centrists" is a tired trick.

xp: TBF, the 30% Trump budget cuts to the IC are win/win for the ideological Left, regardless of weather they're done or not, or they result in successful terrorist attacks or not.

Meantime, problems problems

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-05/kushners-hunting-hard-for-a-loan-to-pay-back-chinese-investors

i really do think the most damaging thing about his presidency will ultimately be the fact that the rest of the world now thinks we're not only assholes, but stupid assholes.

I'm saying nothing.

"now"

how quickly we forget the Iraq War.

He's not exactly the first stupid US president - he's probably the 4th in my lifetime.

xp: TBF, the 30% Trump budget cuts to the IC are win/win for the ideological Left, regardless of weather they're done or not, or they result in successful terrorist attacks or not.

right, because giving more money to the IC is definitely a good counter-terrorism strategy

oh and I'm late to this but the meme that got reposted earlier is dumb and bad and patronizing as hell. for many/most leftists, Sanders *is* a compromise candidate.

One could argue Reagan and W were savants of sorts, with Alzheimer's and dyslexia impairments. With DJT, we're dealing with 70 yr of little exertion + frontotemporal dementia + malignant narcissism + a nihilist Chief Strategist.

Billy Blythe was smart, and how much good did it do us?

George Conway sure is having fun this morning

Very good analysis. https://t.co/7GJxPrfnLS

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 5, 2017

not to get all 5D chess but maybe they figure "attacking judges for striking down the ban" is better politics than actually doing the ban
10:37 AM - 5 Jun 2017

this is feeling more and more like the case, though this seems like a bannon move, not trump

Re said strategy:

1/My speculation 4 months ago on possible logic behind Trump's otherwise obviously self-defeating tweets re courts. https://t.co/KVrkVPlltH pic.twitter.com/pM684SlZUi

— Jack Goldsmith (@jacklgoldsmith) June 5, 2017

"now"

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 5, 2017 6:06 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how quickly we forget the Iraq War.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 5, 2017 6:06 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well true, but i feel like this is a new level of craven self destructive stupidity that is stupid even by the american standard of stupid.

“We shouldn’t start down the road of psychoanalyzing what people meant on the campaign trail,” acting solicitor general Jeffrey B. Wall told judges at a recent court hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

So, instead of "psychoanalyzing" Trump, how about the court just reads his statements for what they plainly and directly say and mean? That's plenty good enough for me.

Legal wonkery Twitter thread from same Lawfare guy, worth a read

1/ Trump’s actions since January, & especially in last month, take us so far beyond normal that it’s hard to have any faith in Exec branch.

— Jack Goldsmith (@jacklgoldsmith) June 5, 2017

Cosigning Lord Alfred, and going a bit further, I think neither liberals NOR centrists are really salivating over Comey.

It's more like "any weapon available." No one cares about his majestic height, or about the hardness of his weapon.

I just want the Orange Person thwarted and harmed; personally I don't give a shit whether the means is Comey or Clooney; Russia or Rhode Island.

the hardness of his weapon.

well, except Mrs. Comey

I follow that logic for sure, I guess my skepticism comes with the idea that liberals are going to keep fighting injustice once/when Trump is out, like I didn't see word one about drone strikes or the Saudis or the criminalizing of dissent on my FB timeline during the Obama years because he didn't bring Shame To The Office or whatever. Like by all means get Trump out but for the love of god don't stop anywhere near there. xp

ILX too peniscentric today.

the hardness of his weapon. like I didn't see word one about drone strikes or the Saudis or the criminalizing of dissent on my FB timeline during the Obama years because he didn't bring Shame To The Office or whatever

Again, to each his own. My wall consists of liberals, all of whom mentioned and bemoaned this repeatedly.

Conway, per screenshot, basically now calling out others for not being good counselors to the king

George Conway notes that a true friend criticizes you when you're harming yourself. pic.twitter.com/0O3pmefr3o

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) June 5, 2017

But per Haberman (series of posts worth reading):

This incredible @sbg1 scoop gets at key point of this WH - plenty of ppl tell Trump "no." He often doesn't listen https://t.co/FVoqPOK8E6

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 5, 2017

OK, but there's still absolutely no comparing the culture of dissent of now vs then. xp

So, instead of "psychoanalyzing" Trump, how about the court just reads his statements for what they plainly and directly say and mean? That's plenty good enough for me.

― A is for (Aimless), Monday, June 5, 2017 12:29 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, that's hardly fair, as it's been well-established that we aren't meant to take the words he says literally, either. Look into his heart.

* insert obvious comment here *

there's absolutely no comparing the culture of now vs then either.

huh?

evol, you might wanna tell that to Teen Vogue

http://www.teenvogue.com/story/obamas-drone-warfare-is-something-we-need-to-talk-about

Again, to each his own. My wall consists of liberals, all of whom mentioned and bemoaned this repeatedly.

I'm with Alfred here, only with the caveat that there were a significant number of black progressives who were posting opinions along the lines of "I hate drones but it is INCREDIBLY suspect the way many of y'all are criticizing their use here" followed up by non-black progressives saying "Awesome, we agree we hate drones!"

Didn't Obama ramp up their use significantly vs. 43? Why would it be suspect to criticize the president over it?

it's entirely valid to criticize him over it. I just hope purity tests and circular firing squads don't give us another four years of DJT in 2020. at this point I'm thinking it's more likely he dies before 2024 than someone actually defeats him in an election.