With Corey Stewart atop the ticket, Virginia Republicans are in turmoil

Corey Stewart’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Virginia has prompted an identity crisis within the state GOP, with some donors and activists saying they are so turned off that they are willing to vote for his Democratic opponent, Sen. Tim Kaine.

Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, catapulted to the U.S. Senate nomination — and nearly won the gubernatorial primary last year — by celebrating guns and Confederate statues, lambasting illegal immigrants, and associating with white nationalist Jason Kessler and Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin candidate barred from Twitter because of anti-Semitic and racist posts.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/with-corey-stewart-atop-the-ticket-virginia-republicans-are-in-turmoil/2018/06/30/d30423da-73fe-11e8-9780-b1dd6a09b549_story.html?utm_term=.cbb33e020121

His perch on top of the ticket has roiled Republican circles inside the state. On Saturday, the head of the Virginia Republican Party resigned his post. John Whitbeck was vague about his reasons. “Other political opportunities have arisen for me that I am thinking about pursuing,” he told members of the party’s governing board at a meeting in Richmond.

Two other party leaders have resigned, but neither will say why. Kevin Gentry, the vice president for special projects and development at Koch Cos., left his position on the executive committee of the party’s governing board, and Davis C. Rennolds stepped down as chair of the Richmond GOP.


The Washington Post talked to more than 50 Virginia Republicans about the Senate race and found Stewart’s Trumpian antics thrill supporters but turn off traditional donors and outside groups.

"The head of U.S. Steel called me the other day, and he said, 'We're opening up six major facilities and expanding facilities that have never been expanded.' They haven't been opened in many, many years."- President Donald Trump, roundtable with American workers, Duluth, Minnesota, June 20, 2018

"U.S. Steel just announced they're expanding or building six new facilities."- Trump, remarks at the White House, June 26

"I've been hearing that from steel companies, and in particular from U.S. Steel, where I was with the president, as I said. And he - they're just talking about opening plants now, and so many things have changed."- Trump, roundtable on tax reform, Cleveland, May 5

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Here's a puzzler: Why is the president of the United States announcing the opening of new factories that a major U.S. company has not announced?


U.S. Steel is a publicly traded company, so it is supposed to disclose materially important information. The opening of six major facilities and the expansion of even more would be huge news.

Yet all U.S. Steel has announced is that it will restart two blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities at the company's Granite City Works integrated plant in Illinois - one in March and the other in October. The reopening of the first blast furnace was announced in March, resulting in 500 jobs, and the second was announced in June, adding 300. The plant had been closed since 2015.

The Facts

President Trump has a tendency to cite conversations that did not occur quite the way he describes them - if they took place at all. So we were a bit suspicious when he mentioned a phone conversation with Dave Burritt, chief executive of U.S. Stee






https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/President-Trump-announces-a-major-US-Steel-13033881.php

Read the full article here. It pretty much sums up the situation:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/supreme-court-is-now-trumps-and-so-we-grieve-for-america.html

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The result is that Trump, a man who has repeatedly said that he only responds to consequences, has faced none. His lies meet with no institutional resistance. Quite the contrary. His decision to say outrageous, incorrect, inflammatory things has paid off handsomely: His supporters believe them, and those in power will not acknowledge that he has said anything at all. The combined effect has rendered him immune to every standard we, as a country, once shared.

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The country we thought we shared is changing faster than anyone expected. I wrote last week about the cognitive mismatch I felt at the relative normalcy outside my window as our government punished parents by taking their children away—in many cases, permanently. One week later, I cannot unsee how much even my window has changed and will change. The party ruling our country has demonstrated there is no principle it will respect, no norm it will endure. My rights as a woman are in danger. Civil rights are in danger. And the republic is in danger.

I am sad, above all, because the damage being done now no longer feels like it can be stemmed—let alone reversed—with a single election. This will last decades. The downturns my generation has already weathered—the 2008 crisis that hinged on obscure derivatives traded by a privileged few, robbing wealth from millions—were only the beginning. Education is now a luxury. Pensions barely exist. Health care is under threat. Retirement is, to those my age, a cruel joke. We’ve been waiting. For recovery, for relief, for some semblance of an American dream we can access.

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Meanwhile, those in power will celebrate how much they deserve their wealth and how little anyone else deserves. And they will grab for more. You’d think they’d be happy: America now has the highest income inequality in the industrialized world. But even that is not enough. The greed is insatiable. And it is a greed not just for wealth but for domination—for permanent entitlement. What they want is to be served. At restaurants. On golf courses. In corporate offices. There is no form of protest they will respect: loud or silent, formal or spontaneous, civil or rude. Written petitions or marches on the streets. They don’t care. Those in power have been very clear about what they do care about. “We have more money and more brains and better houses and apartments and nicer boats,” Trump said Wednesday in a speech to his supporters, because he cannot help but say what he really means. “We are the elite.”

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This sort of thing is just what Trump wants , go the anguished wails. He’ll use it to fire up his supporters and inspire them to turn out in November.

Well, of course he will. Trump was inevitably going to seize — or concoct — some pretext to try to inflame the “Make America Great Again” crowd. He has sky-high approval among Republicans, but polls have consistently shown that Democrats have more enthusiasm for voting in the midterms — and Trump’s approval among Democrats and independents is historically low. Stirring up passion that brings out the base in big numbers is the president’s only play. And that’s something he happens to be good at.

A political strategy based on the idea that being unfailingly polite will somehow lull Trump supporters into a non-voting stupor is ridiculous. Trump is already out there holding rallies, whipping crowds into a frenzy of victimhood. Two years later, he’s still railing against Hillary Clinton and calling for her to be locked up. Two years later, true believers still chant and cheer.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/being-polite-wont-help-democrats-win-elections/2018/06/28/1a6f6de2-7afd-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html?utm_term=.5fcc66c00ad4

GOp is the third party now, behind independents in CA.

33 million people, 10% of the country. Dark blue here.

Will it help to be living in CA?

When Shelly Froehlich learned a cancer patient hoped to send six Rottweiler puppies and their mother to her animal rescue in Arizona, she says she quickly agreed and, assuming financial hardship, waived a $600 surrender fee. It was a move she quickly came to regret after getting familiar with the purebred dogs—some of whom were injured, all of whom were sick—and their billionaire owners, Joe and Sylvia Shoen. As she'd told Froehlich by phone, Sylvia Shoen was indeed a cancer patient. But she'd failed to mention that her husband was the son of U-Haul's founder, with an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion, and that her dogs were inbred, had hip dysplasia, weren't up to date on shots, and tested positive for parasites a week before their April arrival at the rescue. Some had suffered roundworm and mange, or been hit by a car, per the Arizona Republic.

Froehlich of Rotten Rottie Rescue in Gilbert says she tried pressuring Sylvia into footing the medical bills, which included surgeries, vaccinations, and getting the mom spayed. "Don't force me to put them out of their misery when you can give them a good life," she wrote in one text. "You probably have a hand bag that costs more than what [surgeries] will cost." When that didn't work, "I used social media to shame them into doing the right thing," Froehlich says. Her Facebook post about the situation was shared hundreds of times, and ultimately Joe Shoen paid $1,300 in vet bills plus $15,310 to cover surgeries for two of the dogs. The U-Haul president isn't happy about it, though. "This woman encouraged people to act in a vile manner," he tells the Republic, which mentions users' promises of boycotts and bad reviews of U-Haul. "I've apologized to her several times," Shoen adds, claiming his dogs were well cared for and did not have worms.
http://www.newser.com/story/261174/she-took-in-7-sick-dogs-then-learned-of-billionaire-owner.html


Shelly Froehlich's phone rang before she was awake.

The woman on the voicemail, Sylvia Shoen, said she had cancer and couldn't care for seven of her 10 dogs. Could Froehlich help?

The Gilbert resident was used to calls from people at odd hours wanting to surrender their rottweilers to her pet-adoption charity, Rotten Rottie Rescue. Froehlich had placed more than 750 of her favorite breed into new homes.

Feeling bad for the cancer patient, Froehlich waived the entire $600 surrender fee.

But it was tough to take in six puppies and their mother, Coco, at once. And Froehlich soon found out worse news: The dogs were sick and two were injured, requiring expensive medical treatment.

Then the rescue operator discovered who Sylvia Shoen actually was.

What followed over the next few weeks was a social-media showdown between Froehlich and her brigade of animal lovers and one of Arizona's richest couples, Joe and Sylvia Shoen of the U-Haul fortune.


The conflict was aggravated by profanity-laced insults, accusations of animal neglect and a demand for thousands of dollars in veterinary care.

http://www.newser.com/story/261174/she-took-in-7-sick-dogs-then-learned-of-billionaire-owner.html

He knows Dems will be energized to vote. He's gotta keep his base very motivated and not have moderate repub women focus off reproduction rights they will soon lose. So immigrants... get ready to be scapegoated like never before.

He also mentioned Maxine Waters - said she's the leader of the dem party. mentioned NFL also. It will be a one two punch of racial politics for the next four months.
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Trump says ICE is "being liberated"

President Trump discussing ICE and immigration said the agency is "being liberated" under his presidency.

Trump added, while speaking at a rally in Fargo, that communities would be overrun if ICE was removed.

The President also admonished "radical democrat protestors," who have released the identities and addresses of ICE agents.

Trump also spoke about MS-13, in line with previous comments, saying, "The Democrats complain we're treating them too rough. We're getting them out, as I said, by the thousands."

Trump added that he will "protect our law enforcement, like they protect us."

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-rallies-south-carolina-north-dakota-june-2018/index.html