Prickly City by Scott Stantis for June 27, 2020

Join the club!

Not to worry, Stantis. You’ve probably still got Moscow Mitch, Gym Jordan, and most importantly,

THE REPUBLICAN SUPREME COURT!

Feel better now?

And, if Trump IS reelected, he has laid out his priceless priorities:

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“Well, one of the things that will be really great — you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience, I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meaning. I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington, I think, 17 times, all of a sudden, I’m president of the United States. You know the story, I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our first lady and I say, this is great. But I didn’t know very many people in Washington. It wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now, I know everybody and I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes like, you know, an idiot like Bolton. All he wanted to do was drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people.”

I thought I read somewhere that this strip leaned conservative. Maybe it’s because I’m looking through liberal lenses, but I’m not seeing it…

March 2020 – tRump briefed that Russia was paying the Taliban bounties to kill US soldiers in Afghanastan. No response by the administration.

May 2020 – tRump wants Russia invited to G7 summit.

Trump is a symptom…

The GOP is the disease…

~

After reading former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s tell-all book, it becomes exceedingly clear that President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is terrible — but Bolton’s is much, much worse.

Anyone who reads the 500-plus-page book will find their suspicions were correct: Trump’s approach to the world truly is that shambolic and dangerous.

But there’s a twist: The author inadvertently offers readers hope that there’s been a major improvement — because the author himself is no longer in the White House.

By his own recounting, Bolton urged Trump to shy away from diplomacy and seek hardline positions against adversarial countries, namely in North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.

In one particularly disturbing passage, Bolton says it was “irrational” for Trump not to conduct an attack on Iran that could have led to tens to hundreds of civilian casualties, after it downed an unmanned American surveillance drone.

Had Trump taken Bolton’s advice more often, then, the US would be engaged in multiple conflicts across the globe.

“It’s not clear to me that something equivalent to two more Iraq Wars would be better for the country,” Joshua Shifrinson, a US foreign policy expert at Boston University, said.

“Here’s a man that makes Trump’s bellicose foreign policy look good,” he added of Bolton.

Trump, the book makes clear, was the reason Bolton’s most aggressive plans were foiled.

As scenes inside the West Wing show, it was because Trump had created a chaotic national security process in which little to nothing could get done.

“What happened on one day on a particular issue often had little resemblance to what happened the next day, or the day after,” Bolton wrote. “Few seemed to realize it, care about it, or have any interest in fixing it.”

~

https://www.vox.com/2020/6/24/21300291/john-bolton-book-trump-review

Trump wouldn’t be ‘Trump’ if it weren’t for his enablers…

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The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday to expand the authority of the Justice Department inspector general over opposition from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The committee voted 21-1 on the legislation, which would give the DOJ watchdog the authority to investigate attorneys within the department.

Graham was the only senator to vote against the measure.

The vote sends it to the full Senate, where supporters acknowledge they don’t know if it will get taken up for a vote in the face of opposition from Graham, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Attorney General William Barr.

Graham tried to change the legislation to require the attorney general to sign off on investigations into potential DOJ attorney misconduct.

“I’m not going to support legislation that allows an IG to investigate discretionary decisions at the Department of Justice.

If there’s a dispute about misconduct between the IG and the attorney general, the last word will be the attorney general who is politically accountable," Graham said of his proposed change.

Graham noted that he had spoken with Barr about the legislation three times. He said the attorney general did not support his proposal either but DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz did.

“I don’t think he’s ever going to get to yes on any process that allows the IG to look at DOJ lawyers and people under their charge,” Graham said of Barr.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/504532-senate-panel-votes-21-1-to-back-justice-ig-measure-over-graham-objections

Those saddened by a trump victory will be depressed because they failed to defeat Amarica. Those sad that Trump wins will be unhappy they could not further empower the political class to ignore and oppress freedom in America. Those who seek to defeat Trump in 2020 essentially hate America.

Trump is our best chance for keeping America great. Any other outcome is turning over our country to oligarchs, socialists, tyrants, mobs, and violent radicals.

Work hard for a Trump victory if you value your freedom and the American Constitution.

Erick Erickson, the RedState founder and conservative talk show host, speaks a difficult truth to fellow conservative Christians.

But I have to say something to my evangelical friends — Donald Trump will not save you.

He cannot save you.

In the rhetoric, tone, tenor, and levels of support for President Trump, I am struck by how many people still view him as some defense against the left.

True, he is to an extent. But Christians are dealing with spiritual problems, not political problems.

They are dealing with the things unseen, not the things seen. Donald Trump is, like the forces they are fighting, of the world. The world cannot protect you from the world.

✁

Besides, fair or not, conservative Christianity will be associated with Trump for the next few years, and no doubt beyond.

If conservative church leaders aren’t extraordinarily careful in how they manage their public relationship to the Trump phenomenon, anti-Trump blowback will do severe damage to the church’s reputation.

Trump’s election solves some problems for the church, but given the man’s character, it creates others. Political power is not a moral disinfectant.

And this brings us to the more subtle but potentially more devastating effects of this unexpected GOP election victory.

There is first the temptation to worship power, and to compromise one’s soul to maintain access to it.

There are many ways to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar, and some prominent pro-Trump Christians arguably crossed that line during the campaign season.

Again, political victory does not vitiate the vice of hypocrisy.

~

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/coming-christian-reckoning-trump-catholic-evangelical/

Things currently look good for a return to rationality in America. Currently. It’s very early. The right will try anything to retain power. We can’t let our guard down. If this regime remains after November 3, the world will never be the same.

Well, I am hopeful that Biden wins in November and am cautiously optimistic that we will have vaccines available by late 2020/early 2021. And things will get better. What we need to do now is continue to protect ourselves and our loved ones until vaccines are available and start focusing on what unites rather than divides us. We are Americans, and we sink or swim together.

I used to worry George W and his Rasputin, Cheney, would remain far longer based on conservative media, the politics of fear and the dumb things W was capable of. Of course, with Trump, there’s that dialed to 11.

If Trump is reelected and proceeds as he has so far, you may see CA, OR, WA petitioning to join Canada.

IF “he” is reelected, whether things get better or not will depend on whether his reelection ushers in another 4 years of unbridled, virulent, hate from his opponents.

Lying on the ground is a sure way to keep him from being re-elected. It’s why one of his party’s chief strategies has been to encourage hopelessness and apathy among those who might vote against him. (Or, if you’re an animal or adorable child, find another way to work for someone better.)

Oh, you know. Orange Man Bad. Like Reagan was a dunce. Clinton was a great president. Obama was "like a god’. Same old same old.

Guess we’ll see what the Russian bounty on our troops does…

Exactly the way I feel Scott!

‘His’ re-election is the best hope for our future.

So Carmen is officially a member of the Lincoln Project?