RAGEOCRACY: GOVERNMENT BY THE ANGRY GUY AT THE END OF THE BAR

This is what happens when the people running your government get most of their ideas from right-wing comment threads:

White House officials have tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release detainees onto the streets of “sanctuary cities” to retaliate against President Trump’s political adversaries, according to Department of Homeland Security officials and email messages reviewed by The Washington Post.

Trump administration officials have proposed transporting detained immigrants to sanctuary cities at least twice in the past six months — once in November, as a migrant caravan approached the U.S. southern border, and again in February, amid a standoff with Democrats over funding for Trump’s border wall.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco was among those the White House wanted to target, according to DHS officials. The administration also considered releasing detainees in other Democratic strongholds.

The main driver of the idea was lifelong consumer of right-wing rage media Stephen Miller, of course:

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller urged senior DHS officials to make the plan a reality, the source said. The plan finally died after Miller and other White House officials pushed it in February, according to the source.

Miller was angered that DHS lawyers refused to produce legal guidance that would make the plan viable, saying the proposal would likely be illegal.

DHS officials believe that the legal standoff is one reason why Miller has pushed for the firing of John Mitnick, the general counsel for DHS, who is still with the department.

I mentioned right-wing comment threads above, and now here's a response to this idea at Free Republic:

Hmmm. I’ve seen that exact strategy proposed here numerous times.

Do it, Mr. Trump, DO IT!

Other comments:

I’ve been advocating this for months. Bus them all to Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties, Chicago, K Street in DC, Austin TX, and just for grins Martha’s Vineyard. (Yes I know you have to take a ferry to MV.)

Let’s see how they like these poor huddle masses living in their neighborhoods.

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Duh. Everyone has been saying this.

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You forgot Chappaqua!

What would this have accomplished? Any crime or chaos that resulted would have been the fault of the administration. But it would have felt good. It would have felt vengeful. (The Washington Post says that the cities targeted included San Francisco, New York ... and Chicago, of course, since the vast majority of right-wing rage at Democratic cities is irrationally focused on Chicago, because Obama.)

There's been a lot of angry-drunk, angry-commenter GOP behavior in the news this week. There was this yesterday:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of President Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, on Wednesday introduced a bill to remove Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The Florida Republican introduced the Preventing Extreme Negligence with Classified Information Licenses Act, or PENCIL Act, a nod to Trump’s insults calling the California lawmaker “little pencil neck Adam Schiff.”

And there was the exchange between John Kerry and Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie in a House hearing, after Massie brought up Kerry's objections to a proposed White House panel on climate change:

REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Let me read your statement back to you: "Instead of convening a kangaroo court, the president might want to talk with the educated adults he once trusted to fill his top national security positions."

It sounds like you're questioning the credentials of the president's advisors? But i don't think we should question your credentials today. Isn't it true you have a science degree from Yale?

JOHN KERRY: Bachelor of Arts degree.

MASSIE: Is it a political science degree?

KERRY: Yes, political science. My regret.

MASSIE: How do you get a bachelor of arts in a science?

KERRY: Well, it’s liberal arts education and degree -- it’s a bachelor.

MASSIE: OK, so it’s not really science. So, I think it’s somewhat appropriate that somebody with a pseudoscience degree is here pushing pseudoscience in front of our committee today.

Get it? Get it??? Kerry -- even though he had nothing to do with the fact that his field was named "politcal science" years before he attended college -- claims a science degree, only it's not a science degree! Kerry says climate change deniers are pseudo-scientists, but he's the pseudo-scientist! YA BURNT, FRENCHIE!!!!1!1!!!!

This is all Republicans have. They have no ideas for solving America's problems. Instead of policy, they have trolling. But it's enough to give them near-majority support from America's voters, and majority support from America's white voters. That may be enough to keep them in control of most of the government for years to come.