The slog of this authoritarian shitshow is grinding us all down. My inspiration has gone into hiding with Melania. Knock yourselves out! (Trump cont.)

[boatyardblues]

Does what it says on the tin. 🤷‍♂️

Here’s the last thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3258057-I-Spy-with-My-Little-Eye-Something-Beginning-with-T-Traitorous-Treasonweasels-in-Trumptown-Trump-contd

Josh Marshall
@joshtpm
In light of IG's failure to look at leaking/anti-Clinton bias among agents in NYC field office, this seems quite relevant. Nunes says "good FBI agents" told him about Weiner laptop in late September 2016.
mobile.twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1007720437692891137

Nunes is not known for truthiness.

Hayes covering this on 'All In' this evening:
@chrislhayes
We're trying to make sense of some exclusive documents we've obtained about family separation, but there appear to be some really shocking details contained in the statistics. More later...
mobile.twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1007730247444434944

And:

One thing these internal documents show very clearly is that of course this is a new policy intentionally undertaken by the Trump admin.
It's actually called the "prosecution initiative."
mobile.twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1007733813064228866

Jim Acosta
@Acosta
This is Orwellian stuff. WH claiming in this email that family separations are policy of congressional Democrats. It’s a Trump policy announced by the administration and carried out by the administration. Not to mention GOP controls Congress.
mobile.twitter.com/Acosta/status/1007709981209255936

Actually, made me think of this (not for the first time, either):
“It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.”
― Joseph Goebbels

Choices.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/15/samantha-bee-robert-de-niro-trump-language?CMP=share_btn_tw

www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/opinion/trump-midterms-robert-de-niro-samantha-bee.html

He was just the coffee boy or something. This is actually a known lie - it was actually 144 days. And Manafort lived/lives in Trump Tower.

Fox News @FoxNews
9h9 hours ago
More
.@POTUS: "Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time... He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something?"

I noticed yesterday that the media are now consistently calling out his lies and calling them lies. He's also lying more. Like all the time.

But as in the campaign, the media is one step behind and it's too late. Lies are normalised, expected, and they are getting bigger and more dangerous.

First establish the idea that the media is fake. Then lie, lie, lie.

And this appears in my Twitter feed:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/how-to-report-trump-media-manipulation-language?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Trump knows the press has a strong instinct to repeat his most outrageous claims, and this allows him put the press to work as a marketing agency for his ideas. His lies reach millions of people through constant repetition in the press and social media. This poses an existential threat to democracy.

That is unutterably depressing, Gumpendorf. Yet there are so many people on Twitter and elsewhere in the media refuting his lies and calling him out on them. How has it got to this state? (Rhetorical question.)

AP withdrew a tweet which did not add 'context' (Trump said it but lied). There is a shift of sorts but the lying is embedded now.

The Associated Press
‏
Verified account

@AP
14h14 hours ago

'We’ve deleted a tweet from earlier today that did not meet AP standards. It imprecisely quoted President Donald Trump’s remarks on the Justice Department inspector general’s report, and failed to put those comments into clear context.'

www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/extinguishing-the-beacon-of-america/562880/

'Separated children are often in shock. But there are also internal changes, ones that are less visible but no less distressing. “Physiologically, we are damaging the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems,” Shapiro said. “All these things with prolonged stress without a buffer lead to long-term chronic diseases: cancer, depression, obesity, worsening asthma.”

And then there is the impact on mental development. “We are putting children in a constant fight-or-flight mode,” Shapiro said. “It shuts down their memory centers and is potentially affecting their long-term learning and development. I almost have never seen this.”'

Colbert goes serious on Father's day and separating children.

Also, remember the Romanian orphans?

www.bbc.com/news/health-39055704
www.pri.org/stories/2015-12-28/half-million-kids-survived-romanias-slaughterhouses-souls-now-they-want-justice

Apart from the apalling living conditions, they were largely isolated and had no stimulation. That affected them the most.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/15/shameless-president-trump-comey-emails-clinton-charity

www.newsweek.com/obama-coming-back-democrats-cry-help-beating-trump-because-theres-fg-no-one-978509?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_medium=Social

www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvnmnv/corey-stewart-proves-the-republican-party-is-racist?utm_campaign=sharebutton

Great headline.

www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/scott-pruitt-did-something-corrupt-and-embarrassing-vol-837321

It is a good poing that the Democratic Party is doing fuck all. And Trump by claiming they're not "helping" shines a light on that innactivity. Where are the proposals to make separating children illegal?
Where are the Democratic proposals in general?
Are they hoping that Republicans and Trump will dig their own graves? Or are they digging tunnels that will undermine the surface of Democracy in one blow?

Yes, Lweji, I stupidly keep hoping for the Democratic Party to come riding up on a white charger to rescue the United States (and the rest of us) from this extremely distressing situation. But that seems to be the stuff of which fairy-tales are made.

To elaborate on something mentioned earlier, there is quite a lot of comment on Twitter along these lines:

Jackie Calmes
‏ @jackiekcalmes
14h14 hours ago

"Why are you lying about it, sir?"
That's what WH transcript of Trump's remarks today TWICE records reporters asking:
1-to his repeated claim IG report "exonerated" him (it had no'g to do w/Russia probe)
2-to his blaming splitting families at border to Dems & a nonexistent law
77 replies 798 retweets 2,084 likes

He's shaped the immigration message so it seems it's all the Dems fault, when what he's really saying is the Dems are stopping me getting my own way. If the Dems challenge that narrative cleanly, they will alienate voters in the more conservative states. Clare McCaskill in Missouri, for instance, is in a very tight Senate race. Trump is already aiming at her.

What plays in Dem states like California and East Coast doesn't play well elsewhere.

I think I heard that the Dems are focusing on getting the vote registered and out in targeted seats with candidates who will represent voters issues in that state, rather than showing a big increase in support nationally.

Religious leaders seem to be doing a better job. And Sessions quoting that bit of the Bible didn't help their cause at all.

Surely it can't damage Democrats much to claim they want to limit immigration, but that there are certain boundaries they won't cross.

As Trump claims that Democrats are blocking him from helping these people, where are their initiatives? Propose them. Stand up for decency.
These are not rapists or drug dealers.

This is the sort of thing the microtargetted Facebook ads exploited.

They pushed a "Clinton favours black people" message to a certain sort of white voter, while pushing a "Clinton hates black people" message to African American voters.

Delivering such personalised advertising privately to individuals dramatically reduces the ability of national media to present the candidate as a whole — because they just don't see important chunks of the message so can't report on it or interview the candidate on it.

Sen Dianne Feinstein
‏
Verified account

@SenFeinstein

UPDATE: 40 senators now support our bill to bar children from being taken from their parents at the border. We’re continuing to ask Republican senators to join our bill. If you’re represented by a Republican senator, please ask them to cosponsor S.3036. #FamiliesBelongTogether

Senator Jeff Merkley
‏
Verified account

@SenJeffMerkley
Jun 14

'Spoke to Sessions today. Not encouraging. Now I’m headed back to the border… and this time I’m bringing friends.'

That seems more encouraging, but is it reaching national news?

There's news, Lweji, but it gets overshadowed by Manafort and Cohen developments and Scrotus' latest shit show.

It's his fav tactic. The Dems will propose or point out something in a reasonable way. Scrotus launches into mad tweets or rhetoric filled statements to the press, and the press turns away and focuses on him. Not so much squeaky wheel getting the grease, but the screaming child getting the attention over the child standing quietly by waiting their turn.

I've seen a few posts asking why the Dems aren't doing anything about this horrible child separation situation. TBH, there's not much they can do except draw attention (they are) and propose legislation (they have). The Repugs have the majority in both houses and if the Dems can't get some of them onside any legislation they propose is dead in the water. And since it's an election year and some of the Repug races are very 'iffy', the Repugs aren't going to do anything to upset their racist constituency. This is why many Dem committees are focusing on voter registration and education. The key to it all is to flip Congress. And to flip Congress they need every Dem vote they can get in November.