One doesn’t “bide one’s time” while in the MAJORITY! What they are doing is AGREEING WITH TRUMP! This has always been the Republican party under it’s filthy hood.
Imagine the meeting. It will open with a prayer of Thanksgiving (supposedly to Gd, but you know…). Then the Pledge of Allegiance (it doesn’t count if you don’t bellow the words "under Gd), standing at attention and mouthing the words of the national anthem (don’t want to make clear that Dotus doesn’t know the words), praise for “Our Leader”, and on to meeting. New business: how can we continue this practice
while pretending that it is the other fault of the victims and the minority party? Old business: how can we use this as an excuse to cut entitlements to people who didn’t vote for us while continuing them to those who did? Then establishing talking points (remember: deviation is death). The talking points must be patently false, rhetorically transparent, and grammatically inept. There must be no changes whatsoever, at least until the polling shows that they don’t work. No changes! no synonyms, no paraphrases, now qualification of terms…nothing.
I’m guessing Paul Ryan will have been just too gosh darn busy to have heard much about this situation. Still he may offer, based on what the interviewer is telling him, that it does sound pretty troubling and concerning.
Paul Ryan should stick to washing already clean pots and pans for the cameras, you know, something meaningful to a Republican!
After talking to a lot of people on both sides of the aisle this weekend it is pretty obvious to me no one likes Trump’s policy. Conservative religious leaders are still religious leaders subject to pressure from the folks in the pews. Those people might support Trump abstractly but this policy puts them to an impossible test. It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and support the family separation policy. If Trump continues with this policy Bannon’s fears are going to be moot. Trump won’t have much of a base.
This could be the policy that breaks Trump. It is a totally unforced error.
The rethugs have always been fascists with a thin veneer of civility cloaking it. Nixon destroyed the Rockefeller veneer. Reagan ripped off the country club veneer.
Trump has just removed the final coat, and yes, there underneath is Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, the Birch Society, the KKK and the American Nazi Party.
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Don’t worry the old veneer rethugs will fall in line at election time.
I wish that were the case but I am unconvinced. Part of the base may not like it but they won’t desert him over it. The great work he is doing on behalf of white nationalism is just too important to be abandoned simply because of a few child concentration camps.
My cynical prediction is that we see the same pattern we’ve seen going back to the election campaign after each Trumpian horror: a brief dip in approval ratings but then return to the exact same level after a few weeks. I hope I’m wrong.
Senator Susan Collins “expressed deep concerns about the child separation policy”
Every Republican is practiced in the art of expressing “deep concern” for people they don’t even give two shits about, but Susan Collins could teach a master class in “deep concern”. She is the Lee Strasberg of “deep concern”.
And if you think I’m being sexist for calling Susan Collins a phony POS after she’s pulled this kind of crap relentlessly during her entire Senate career, I really don’t give a flying fuck.
Are you fucking kidding? Trump could barbecue the kids on a Weber kettle live on FoxNews and his base would send him cases of Sweet Baby Ray’s Raspberry Chipotle Sauce and McCormick’s Mesquite Seasoning.
Collins puts the con in concern and the derp in deep (even if it’s not there in the first place).
“Atlas Scrubbed”!
Rob Rogers - political cartoonist who was recently fired from some PA paper has such pithy cartoons:
I remember seeing these signs on the freeway when I drove through the Camp Pendelton area by Oceanside, CA - minus donald’s image of course.
ETA google Rob Rogers cartoons if you are not familiar with his work, it’s excellent.
Beat me to it. Susan Collins has expressed concern. Next thing you know she will have ‘serious reservations’ about it too.
Another one could be, “Who needs Comet pizza’s basement when you have Border Patrol detention centers!”
Steve Bannon argued that effort risked alienating Trump’s political base and contributing to election losses in November, when Republicans hope to preserve their congressional majorities.
This is all Republicans need to justify human rights abuses.
Part of this GOP own goal is that it again drags the Honduran regime back into the spotlight. Last December’s election of Juan Hernandez to a second term was, well, sketchy, and almost immediately led to a new rash of deaths. Honduras’ gini is between 50 and 60, meaning incredibly uneven distribution of wealth and income. Basically, the government is doing crowd control all the time.
Maybe powerless isn’t the correct word, but the tea party has a grip on what goes on in the Republican Party. Trump cruised to the nomination by crushing the establishment (Deep State?) candidates with tea party rhetoric. If that is not powerless, then it is pretty close.
Yes, they are racist at heart, that almost goes without saying. Of course they agree with what he is saying and wishes he would say it more tactfully. You are correct, they are loathe to take a short term hit in order to achieve a long term goal.
But it’s not like they have any choice in the matter, they will pick their battles when they know they will win. This was classic republican wet work. Clueless Melania makes an ill advised (from the republican perspective, completely normal by any other) comment. This open the door for Laura B. to step in and slip the shiv.
These people don’t play around.
Do not dismiss the idea that Trump welcomes the “splinter” -
counter to conventional logic? - yes … but it works for him …
the Republicans that are dismayed will hold their nose … stand a few yards further away … will make snippy remarks … but they will not vote with the Democrats - they will not stand up to Trump’s administrative steamrolling or long standing policies & human rights - they will sort of stand there and hold their breath until they turn blue … and stamp their feet - - effectively removing themselves from Trump’s general work space … so he hears less in the way of voices of opposition.
and the ugly downside is that putting these voices on “mute” - - increases the % of crazy that Trump hears … the % of time that Trump will hear recommendations for even more ugly actions -
Susan Collins has all the usefulness of a styrofoam hammer.