3439

“Be willing to submit to dropping your middle name, like I did, to please Dear Leader.”

3440

image

3441

“The idea of some allegiance not to the Constitution, but to the president, was not what I signed up for,” Sanford said.

In the era of Trump, that has become the only loyalty that matters

I haven’t been following this thread, but it seems there’s a bit of a shift happening from Trump’s support being a bane to a boon.

3442
3443

Fucking lckspittle liar

3444

Certainly among the core GOP voters.

But this is largely because the GOP is hemoraging voters. Folks like me, who were members of the GOP their whole lives, are no longer registered Republicans and no longer vote in the primaries.

The GOP members left are Trump sycophants.

3445

That makes a lot of sense. Has there been a significant shift in numbers of those registered as republicans or are they just staying home when time to vote? I read what you said, but just clarifying.

3446

I imagine there are still quite a lot of Republicans that just vote Republican because that’s how they grew up. They try to avoid the awful news lately and figure that voting for someone else would be even worse. So they’ll keep showing up, voting to support the President and his people as much as they can.

3447

I honestly don’t have hard data, just the anecdotes of myself and a bunch of other middle-aged and young former republicans who changed affiliation in 2016.

3448

Cool, just trying to satisfy my own curiosity/understanding.

3449

3450

Sorry, I’m all out of passes in the “He’s new at this” or “He’s joking” or “That’s just Trump being Trump” categories his enablers have gotten away with using for far too long. After the last week, Trump is clearly a man who puts the dick in dictator. He’s a fanboy of Putin, Kim, Duterte, and a dog’s breakfast of the worst examples of oppression, thuggery, and anti-Western values the globe has to offer.

Why is today’s statement so much more outrageous, so much more egregious than any of a host of other Trumpian excesses, deviations from American values, shit-talking lunacy, and post-truth verbal dysentery? Because this week, Trump’s love of authoritarians, dictatorships and his actions and words came together. Donald Trump first went to the G-7 to wreck the proceedings with a combination of insult-comic schtick, diplomatic demolition derby, Putin cheerleading, and giant-toddler petulance.

He followed that with the Singapore Shitshow. It was a monstrous reality TV event, as was intended. But it left our putative allies wondering at the new Axis of Assholes Trump has joined—the CRANK: China, Russia, America and North Korea. By the end, it didn’t feel like he was after denuclearization but management tips from the portly little thug Kim.

For the American president to normalize, excuse, and ally himself with the worst of the world’s bad actors while insulting, degrading, and destroying our allies and alliances would be appalling in any circumstance.

We are told to take Trump seriously, but not literally. I’m not sure we can afford to do that any longer.

The President of the United States of America is an office which imposes a vast, consequential responsibility on the person who holds it to represent America’s values to the world. If those values are liberty, equality, freedom, the rule of law, and the Constitution, Trump is failing on every front. If they are the values of the thug, the tyrant, the bully, the circus freak third-world tinpot?

Then he’ll get his pledge pin any day now.

3451

Self-identified Republicans now have a marginally more favorable view of Kim Jong Un than they do for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), according to a new Ipsos poll done exclusively for The Daily Beast.

The poll of roughly 1,000 adults aged 18 and over was conducted June 14-15, shortly after President Trump’s historic summit with the North Korea dictator. According to the results, 19 percent of Republicans indicated they had a favorable view of Kim with 68 percent saying they had an unfavorable view (12 percent of voters overall had a favorable view of Kim, compared to 75 percent who viewed him unfavorably). That compared slightly better than the perception of Pelosi, who had a 17 percent favorable, 72 percent unfavorable rating among self-identified Republicans.

3452

Sounds like Nancy Pelosi just needs to get herself some nukes!

3453
3454

I dunno, that tattooed sentiment does have a certain ring to it.

3455
3456

I know I shouldn’t say this, but I think I’m burnt out on the reporting of how the public is burnt out on the constant scandals. Each horrific, scandalous, corrupt thing the Trump administration does, there’s this same litany. And yet it goes on and on. And nothing changes. This isn’t the optimism thread, is it? Oh, I hope not, shouldn’t be posting like this, then.

Oh, good, it’s not. It’s about the moral bankruptcy of the GOP. Perfectly on topic. Thank goodness.

3457

I hear you, but man it’s so real. Seriously, a financial scandal? I don’t know how much more ire I can muster. I haven’t even had the energy to click on the link yet.

And yes, intellectually I fully realize how incredibly fucked up that is. I don’t know what to do about it, other than vote vote vote (because as a “liberal”, it’s my job to vote multiple times!).

3458

The commerce secretary thing is hard core illegal. That’s a major case of insider trading.