US Politics November 2017

*stinkeye*

boooooo

no

A mod can change it later. Quite like this though. Already feels calming

Yeah, I think we're in for smooth sailing from here on out.

http://jackcanfield.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/how-to-meditate-jack-canfield.jpg

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/94691972b30f9ad52d65fb0c9814b722551ed0c7/r=x404&c=534x401/http/assets.gannettdigital.com/-mm-/ef315d5df1cd019af6862e995e3c35911ece8caf/c=28-0-479-338/local/-/media/Louisville/2014/01/27/enjoylife.jpg

wtf this dude isn't even american ? we need some extreme vetting for thread starters .

that's very isolationist of u

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20110421-2via800.jpg

GOOD mourning!

wtf this dude isn't even american ? we need some extreme vetting for thread starters

ban lj

LJ otm but ban lj

Thanking u ppl across the pond for MingAGA

lmao wow really powerful statement now this thread totally won't be 100 percent the exact same obsessing about Trump except without a good title

you guys should work for John Oliver

thing is, we deserve Trump threads

lj sorry I love you it pains me to do this but ban lj

oh fer fuck's sake

not using his name = typical lib empty move

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, November 1, 2017 7:36 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

morbz otm

A poll of the Trump Year One thread titles has given me a greater appreciation of minimalism *clinks tankard of terrible beer with imago, pours beer into potplant*

ban andrew farrell

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3PakAiTZWAs/hqdefault.jpg

me rn, blessig u lj

so is Trump really going to try to blame Chuck Schumer directly for this terrorist attack

worked for lee atwater

Schumer did 10/31

where's the tax returns?

it's as if Trump has something he'd like to detract attention from

the Democrats paid the Russians to rig the election so that Hillary would win, right? guess it didn't work! MAGA

Chuck Schumer‏
@SenSchumer 2h2 hours ago
I guess it's not too soon to politicize a tragedy.

I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!

A depressing thing about this is that the bolded section won't actually lose him any votes why because pissing on brown people.

i think NOT IN THE U.S.A.! shd be part of thread title

fuck Schmuck too:

President Trump, where is your leadership? The contrast btwn Pres Bush’s actions after 9-11 & Pres Trump’s this am couldn't be starker.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 1, 2017

has Yam started two wars ALREADY?

i mean he's right in the sense that trump didn't immediately start putting plans into motion to invade afghanistan, but somehow i doubt that's the angle he had in mind xp

Can we add "DO SOMETHING!" to the thread title?

NEW: These are the first two Russian-bought Facebook ads to be released by Congress. pic.twitter.com/1ThgzYNdTf

— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) October 31, 2017

'hillary clinton has a 69 percent disapproval rating'

nice

check the DEMS!

check the record check the record check the DEMS rock record

oops track

a punch in the nose

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-fight-over-attorney-speaking

what about all the bad things Hillary Clinton said about Russia? We demand equal time!

mr. trump's tax returns are going to be a doozy :)

'hillary clinton has a 69 percent disapproval rating'

nice

― proton, neutron, electron and crouton (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 1 November 2017 15:09 (thirty-four minutes ago) Permalink

Trump: I'm going to have an even better approval rating. I'm going to have the best approval rating you've ever seen, a 420 percent approval rating.

morbz otm

ban marcos

lol

Awaiting Trump's coal comeback, miners reject retraining

When Mike Sylvester entered a career training center earlier this year in southwestern Pennsylvania, he found more than one hundred federally funded courses covering everything from computer programming to nursing.

He settled instead on something familiar: a coal mining course.

”I think there is a coal comeback,” said the 33-year-old son of a miner.

Despite broad consensus about coal’s bleak future, a years-long effort to diversify the economy of this hard-hit region away from mining is stumbling, with Obama-era jobs retraining classes undersubscribed and future programs at risk under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget.

Trump has promised to revive coal by rolling back environmental regulations and moved to repeal Obama-era curbs on carbon emissions from power plants.

“I have a lot of faith in President Trump,” Sylvester said.

But hundreds of coal-fired plants have closed in recent years, and cheap natural gas continues to erode domestic demand. The Appalachian region has lost about 33,500 mining jobs since 2011, according to the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Although there have been small gains in coal output and hiring this year, driven by foreign demand, production levels remain near lows hit in 1978.

A White House official did not respond to requests for comment on coal policy and retraining for coal workers.

BRAEKING NEWS SEBASTIAN GORKA PARKS ILLEGALLY ON SIDEWALK

Despite @ArlingtonVA laws prohibiting this behavior, I came across this car that had just been parked on the sidewalk at Gateway Park pic.twitter.com/UYrDwnxWos

— Bilsko (@Bilsko) October 31, 2017

^ Shocking proof that Gorka is not as angelic as we thought he was!

hey miners, i have also have a profession that is vanishing out of existence. suck it up and adjust.

xxp

AN INSIDE SOURCE JUST TOLD ME MUELLER IS CHARGING GORKA WITH OBSTRUCTION OF SIDEWALK. STRATEGY IS TO TURN HIM AND GET HIM TO GIVE UP OTHERS. #THERESISTANCE

Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently released a proposal aimed at saving coal from cheap renewable energy

so much for a free market economy

That Reuters article is grim. Why the fuck is a job training center offering a coal mining course?

to go along with the shoe cobbling courses

Hellow job center, I would like a job selling black and white televisions, show me how

doubling down

President Bush, in a moment of national tragedy, understood the meaning of his high office & sought to bring our country together.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 1, 2017

buckle up for 8 years thx to shitbags like this

I kinda have to say... fuck these morons (re: recalcitrant former coal miners)

xp

hmm

https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/660094?unlock=MYK56MKQA8DVOT86

First, a newly released batch of Morning Consult polls testing senators’ popularity is showing that three of the most vulnerable Democratic senators—North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, and Montana’s Jon Tester—hold job-approval ratings above 50 percent, while the one swing-state GOP senator up for reelection (Nevada’s Dean Heller) has an approval rating among the lowest in the Senate. Among all Democratic senators up in 2018, only Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri is in truly precarious territory (with 42 percent approving, 39 percent disapproving).

Second, Democrats hold an imposing fundraising advantage. All 10 red-state Democrats banked over $3 million in their campaign accounts at the end of the quarter ending in September—with seven topping the $5 million mark. Not a single Republican challenger raised $1 million—something of a Mendoza line for Senate fundraising. Heller was outraised by Democratic challenger Jacky Rosen. Even Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Alabama nominee Roy Moore were outraised by long-shot Democratic opponents.

https://thinkprogress.org/papadopoulos-plea-includes-more-evidence-that-sessions-lied-under-oath-05fc02506be9/

of course he lied under oath. there will be no consequences for that, however. that's not something Mueller will bring charges on, it's something the Senate has the purview to pursue.

i still can't get over that he drives a mustang

you were expecting one of those little Shriner cars?

SCOOP:Trump wants to name tax bill “The Cut Cut Cut Act” but Hill leaders disagree <24 hrs out name still undecided https://t.co/GsEuylUdj9

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) November 1, 2017

lol whut

the bill so good they named it thrice

No. Stop. Seriously, stop it.

“The Cut Cut Cut Act”

Trump certainly understands his voters.

House GOP bill reportedly will now keep top income tax rate as is. Missed their deadline for releasing the bill, however...

if this top news would have come out yesterday it there'd definitely be at least three repeating words in this thread title

Still, behind closed doors, there has been back-and-forth between House Speaker Paul Ryan, and House Ways and Means chairman Kevin Brady about the naming of the bill, including multiple phone calls in the past week.

Ryan initially kicked the naming over to Trump because of his penchant towards branding, according to a senior Hill aide.

Ryan and Brady have pushed back on the naming of the bill. However, Trump has held firm.

Trump has been insistent that the bill be called “The Cut Cut Cut Act.”

even the thing that trump is supposedly good at, he is bad at

cut cut cut

cut cut cut

cut your taxes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3fZuW-aJsg

I find myself thinking more and more of the alternate universe where the unmoneyed Trump is in the nursing home where he belongs.

Kevin B is on the cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nfj4Y9WdUQ

you were expecting one of those little Shriner cars?

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 11:50 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no it's just mustangs are like...i dunno...seem like such a "this is a used car that a 16 year dude saves up for because it's 'cool'" just fits his kinda sad macho wannabe thing

The QVC president

wonder if he's subconsciously influenced by the recent republican primary when a pizza magnate introduced his "9-9-9" tax proposal and captivated a nation

“The Cut Cut Cut Act”

Even Sarah Palin would be embarrassed by that name.

I doubt that.

This past year all makes so much more sense if you assume that Trump has been trying really hard to look like a dipshit so that they'll just make him stop being president without forcing him to resign like a loser. It's a more believable narrative than the sad reality of the situation.

xp
She'd name it the "Cut Baby Cut" Act.

dude is an excellent salesman, one of the best. This should really call it the cut cut cut Act.

alternate suggestions:

- Cut Us Some Slack Act
- Is Trump Gonna Have to Cut a Bitch Act
- Cut MAGA covfefe @$T

or Cut Cut Goose, and that is how they can determine who actually gets the cuts, too.

lol cut cut goose

guess who said it?

“We need quick justice and we need strong justice. Much quicker and much stronger than we have right now, because what we have right now is a joke, and it’s a laughingstock,” he continued. “No wonder so much of this stuff takes place. And I think I can speak for plenty of other countries too that are in the same situation.”

http://www.jesusjonesarchive.info/1990/90bandpic2.jpg
Cut, cut, cut
All the taaaxes
It's a fact, it's time to act!

DiBlasio

xp

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/the-west-wing-trump-is-apoplectic-as-allies-fear-impeachment

All sorts of fun in that one.

xp
She'd name it the "Cut Baby Cut" Act.

― nickn, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 5:07 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I prefer the K7 verison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbd2PBO3k6w

This thread needs a stupid pun or obnoxious quote in its title. It's too hard to find in the list of updated threads right now.

agree that generic title started by a Britisher is unacceptable

is there a uk flag emoji we could edit in

or Cut Cut Goose, and that is how they can determine who actually gets the cuts, too.

cut cut gray cut

good luck usa

dammit Mookie beat me to it

I'm going to start the December thread and it's going to be called 'USA Politik + Præsident Trump December 2017'. That way I'll have finished my ban right in time for the end of year nominations.

This past year all makes so much more sense if you assume that Trump has been trying really hard to look like a dipshit so that they'll just make him stop being president without forcing him to resign like a loser. It's a more believable narrative than the sad reality of the situation.

brewster's billions

xp
She'd name it the "Cut Baby Cut" Act.

“One thing Steve wants Trump to do is take this more seriously,” the Bannon confidant told me. “Stop joking around. Stop tweeting.”

Has anyone tried using the magic word, maybe that's the trick.

this is the day trump became president

In a series of phone calls with Trump on Monday and Tuesday, Bannon told the president ...

So how is Bannon's role outside the WH any different than it was in the WH? Less oversight?

Different couch to sit on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n25t31IBgeE

looks like Two Scoops is fucking up the House tax bill some more, tweeting about how it should include a repeal of the individual mandate for Obamacare lol

Meanwhile there was a document dump today of thousands of files related to the Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden and, well . . .

One of the files in the CIA document dump from Osama bin Laden’s compound: “YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv” https://t.co/p7mrQHN1u6 pic.twitter.com/S1Gf7I869F

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) November 1, 2017

it's President Clinton's fault for selling us up the river on a raft of uranium

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/the-west-wing-trump-is-apoplectic-as-allies-fear-impeachment

“YOU CAN’T GO ANY LOWER”: INSIDE THE WEST WING, TRUMP IS APOPLECTIC AS ALLIES FEAR IMPEACHMENT

lol headline NOT otm

we can and will go much lower

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/the-west-wing-trump-is-a-poopyhead-as-allies-fear-impeachment

we can and will go much lower

Now, see, this is a thread title!

Headline refers to his approval ratings not the moral state of the nation

But yes that is wrong too

The thought of a special prosecutor investigating Clinton, Mueller and Rosenstein while Mueller and Rosenstein are investigating Trump is pretty dark.

that scenario is p fucked up and yet makes perfect sense, I can see Trump going for it.

but who appoints the special prosecutor in this hypothetical scenario, Sessions?

YouTube_-_funy_cats.flv

re: thread title... feels weirdly appropriate since Weinstein & avalanche of other predators being outed pushed Trump out of top of the news for the longest stretch of time since the election.

karl thank u for posting my fav space ghost clip

“Jared is the worst political adviser in the White House in modern history,” Nunberg said. “I’m only saying publicly what everyone says behind the scenes at Fox News, in conservative media, and the Senate and Congress.”

lmao Jared rules

I honestly can't imagine that Trump's approval ratings could go any lower. Yes, he's said and done one stupid thing after another for the past year (and then also for decades as a public figure), but I'm pretty sure that's over now, don't you?

xpost it only gets better with time! hahaha

it's really funny, though, to imagine the "cut cut cut" debate happening in the midst of the atmosphere described in the vanity fair piece

I would imagine mounting scandal + a failure to pass tax reform would probably shudder off most of the remaining non-Pepes

Yeah, business as usual, but nonetheless it is pretty audacious for Trump's lawyers to reportedly argue in court re: the ongoing defamation lawsuit that him referring to his accusers as "liars" was just a political opinion.

i can't access those abottabad files :(

just feeling a little silly at the moment but seriously, imagine the shot of a random white house aide's face after watching a tense discussion of regarding the mueller investigation gradually morph into an equally tense debate about why it should or should not be called the cut cut cut plan

Trump administration is death by a thousand cut cut cuts.

YouTube_-_funy_cuts.flv

I would imagine mounting scandal + a failure to pass tax reform would probably shudder off most of the remaining non-Pepes

it's hard to say what his floor is at this point, there's been a slow but steady erosion in overall GOP support but that's gonna bottom out at some point and whether it's 25% or 30% who can say. We are definitely going to find out sad lol.

Would've been wiser to name it the Measure Twice, Cut Once Bill.

Cut Hillary Dems Fake News Bill

If he fellated Steve Bannon while strangling a kitten on camera, his approval rating miiiiight fall to like 20%.

no it would have to be him fucking a kid, and not a 16-year-old. Shooting someone on 5th Ave. would make his numbers go up. also praising Allah, but I'm trying to be realistic here

if something like that came out they'd just say it's fake. the technology for that is getting there xp

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/ai-creates-fake-obama

GOP is totally fine w kid fuckers tbh

xp

Time for carpet_kaiser to make an entrance.

Sunday, October 29, 2017 10:33 AM Site carpet_kaiser has been banned permanently. 51'd

yeah but video, shakey?

eh you're probably right lol

just as the tension became nearly unbearable, trump suddenly stood and stared down at paul ryan in the chair across the desk. "cut cut cut cut cut cut plan. six cuts. double down." he was unraveling in front of our very eyes

Ryan will unveil the tax plan in a press conference where he keeps saying the word 'cut' over and over, occasionally looking off-stage to see Donald Trump nodding and mouthing 'again'.

I thought the thread title would be along the lines of "Presideent Trtump was rermarkably stgroing in hius joint press event with Sen McConnell"

feeling vindicated here

Funy cats, never to early: November 2017 US Politics

xxp SO DID I

enemies of the working people

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42431-meet-trump-s-anti-worker-labor-department-nominees

Anti-worker Labor Department nominees?! But...but that doesn't make any sense! It's like putting someone who hates ice cream in charge of the Sweet Treats Department! Someone needs to have a talk with Mr. Trump about this.

Still waiting for him to introduce Surgeon General Petri Dish of Ebola.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Talk_Talk_Talk_%28The_Psychedelic_Furs_album_-_cover_art%29.jpg

(it was that or pink floyd the final cut cut cut)

We'll know Trump's in danger when Fox moves from "collusion isn't illegal" to "people who don't collude with foreign countries hate America"

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) November 1, 2017

What is collusion ultimately but cooperation and friendship? You aren't against America having friends, are you? Because that sounds like something an enemy of America would want.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNklvOXXkAEXtdN.jpg:small

i think Jared is aging faster than Trump

missed opportunity to court the emo vote by calling it the One Armed Scissor act

Hated is aging faster because his father in law is hot old mayonnaise.

Uh Jared

Alfred man your phone knows what's what, don't correct it.

fucking phone should work for The Plum Line.

ok on second thought, here:

https://i.imgur.com/NvyEy4X.jpg

on the fence but not to offend
cut, cut, cut cut

the blatant lies from sarah sanders today* in the face of obvious evidence to the contrary remind me of the first few days of the administration when spicer was a entity and he was clearly lying about the stupid inauguration crowd estimate size. i remember following along and being kind of stunned that they would lie so plainly and blankly. heavy orwellian vibes. it's a shame everyone's computer monitors are pretty crisp these days, because this era of footage deserves the retrofuture dystopian CRT monitor look

*trump: "We need quick justice and we need strong justice — much quicker and much stronger than we have right now. Because what we have right now is a joke and it’s a laughingstock. And no wonder so much of this stuff takes place. And I think I can speak for plenty of other countries, too, that are in the same situation."

Acosta: he called the US Justice system a 'joke and a laughingstock' during his comments
Sanders: that's not what he said. he said that process, that process has people calling us a joke and calling us a laughingstock.

that's not what he said. i mean, one one level this is all so fucking stupid, but on another, that's not what he said and it's insulting to be lied to like that

spicer was a new entity

my typos are out of control today, sry

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/us/politics/trump-russia-charges.html

don't worry guys, at least Trump is feelin' good

He also pushed back against a report published Monday night by The Washington Post, which the president said described him as “angry at everybody.”

“I’m actually not angry at anybody,” Mr. Trump told The Times.

and another thing: im not mad. please dont put in the newspaper that i got mad.

— wint (@dril) December 29, 2014

"Pointing to the indictment of his former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, the president said, “And even if you look at that, there’s not even a mention of Trump in there.”

“It has nothing to do with us,” Mr. Trump said."

i feel like this points to why he got so obsessively enraged with comey after he found out that he might be subject to investigation. because he felt like comey had promised him that he would NOT be under investigation. he seemed particularly betrayed by the idea that comey had lied to him about that. but doesn't it seem so plausible that maybe comey said "you are not under investigation...at this time.", to which trump replied "so you're saying i'm not under investigation?", then Comey said "...at this time", and then trump nodded and thought "ha...got him!"? he just kind of doesn't get things

that's not what he said. i mean, one one level this is all so fucking stupid, but on another, that's not what he said and it's insulting to be lied to like that

that what's so irritating about this administration; they lie about the dumbest things on the planet, and even when confronted with concrete evidence of their dishonesty they just stare at you and say "how DARE you question the President of the United States of America like that?"... it's definitely Orwellian, but in the dumbest possible way

Huckster-Sanders is a fine analog to Ron Ziegler (Nixon's p.s.) in this respect

During the campaign he told us that someone who was under investigation by the FBI isn't fit to be president. Like 14 times.

now's a little late to be concerned about appearing to be a hypocrite based on things you said during the campaign

this is 100% him not liking negative press coverage and probably 0% him actually caring about his staff potentially committing treason

it's definitely Orwellian, but in the dumbest possible way

which is reassuring in a strange way, their utter incompetence blunts the fascistic attitude. I remember being legitimately freaked out by that first Spicer press conference - but it quickly became clear how silly they all were/are. makes things easier to deal with for sure.

i feel like this points to why he got so obsessively enraged with comey after he found out that he might be subject to investigation. because he felt like comey had promised him that he would NOT be under investigation. he seemed particularly betrayed by the idea that comey had lied to him about that. but doesn't it seem so plausible that maybe comey said "you are not under investigation...at this time.", to which trump replied "so you're saying i'm not under investigation?", then Comey said "...at this time", and then trump nodded and thought "ha...got him!"? he just kind of doesn't get things

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 4:36 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes, it's like someone being told that they aren't under arrest for a particular crime and thinking that they now have immunity from ever being arrested again. Because double jeopardy and I plead the fifth! Sad!

I don't find it reassuring, this gives future politicians the green light to continue the same behavior after Trump and team are long gone.

xp

if trump were born a working class man, the last thing we'd ever heard from him would be him whining "but i asked him if he was a cop and he said he wasn't! if you ask a cop if they're a cop they have to tell you the truth, it's in the consti-*policecar door slams*

xp yeah it's still horrible but it's relatively reassuring opposed to a competent fascist administration. but the longterm implications are obviously dire, yeah

it is kind of amusing that we live under a fascist regime whose only goal is making Trump look like the bestest most smartest President ever

a fascist regime whose only goal is making Trump look like the bestest most smartest President ever

Well, tbf, it also wants to wholly subvert or corrupt the departments of Justice, State, Interior, Education, HHS, HUD, Energy, & the EPA.

This is all bound to continue under more competent leadership in the future, and we will be thankful because we won't be contending with constant threats of nuclear war and insufficiently masked white supremacy.

we will be thankful because we won't be contending with constant threats of... insufficiently masked white supremacy.

true for limited values of "we"

did anyone watch the techie grilling?

"Can you please explain the difference between a bot and a troll?" -- a real sentence asked by a real congressman

— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) November 1, 2017

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNklvOXXkAEXtdN.jpg:small

"Hello darkness, my old friend..."

Incredible photo

https://carboncostume.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Killer-BOB.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8ClF26pN3Uw/maxresdefault.jpg

would totally bookmark a thread of photos of trump sidekicks realising they have made a huge mistake, while trump rages in the foreground (preferably out of focus)

http://www.trbimg.com/img-583e41c3/turbine/ct-donald-trump-secretary-of-state-mitt-romney-20161129

https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/president-donald-trump-paul-ryan-gop.jpg?quality=85

yeah that's the fuckin stuff

https://i.imgur.com/Ie5Q3my.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZCF4Y63.jpg

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/the-wall-street-journal-editorial-board-coverage-of-mueller/amp

But of course

New from us: Michael Flynn Followed Five Russian Troll Accounts, Pushed Their Messages in Days Before the Electionhttps://t.co/GlpDIX7n6w

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) November 2, 2017

Game 7 is a snoozer. You should read about Betsy DeVos adjusting from impactful outsider to ineffectual bureaucrat. https://t.co/IhoXdcG2n5 pic.twitter.com/ugdEeAsUa2

— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) November 2, 2017

also what is going on with this tax plan?

They’re gonna revive the secret-bill strategy, but for raising your taxes to finance enormous tax cuts for the rich. https://t.co/Jk4KZDHM9J pic.twitter.com/9DOCfyFphv

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) November 1, 2017

I'm starting to get the feeling these people may not have our best interests at heart

Who knows exactly what is up with the tax cut shit - no one has seen anything - but it seems at least as confused. confusing and challenging as ACA repeal. They've got their slim margin to begin with, but there already appears to be several in the GOP with issues and concerns they want addressed. Some states want property tax deduction, some don't. Trump wants permanent corporate tax reduction, others think it should be gradually phased out. Trump floated ACA repeal as part of it, others said no. And so on. And that's before it's even released and dissected, not just from Dems but from everyone. Add to that Cohn saying he wants it by Friday, before Trump leaves for Asia, not to mention that they have 10 days before Thanksgiving break to juggle objections, constituencies, push-back and who knows what the fuck Trump will say about it, and it seems like a real uphill battle.

Which isn't to say it won't pass, but at least as much as the ACA repeal many in the GOP seems to recognize this as a total shit-burger that no one wants to eat.

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2017/10/RTS1HUT5/lead_960.jpg?1509481097

What if there were just one brave republican that was brave enough to eat the shitburger

what is going on with this tax plan?

The Republicans passed massive tax cuts for the rich in 2001 under GW Bush and when those cuts were set to expire during Obama's first term, they just ran around screaming "the Democrats want to raise income taxes" to anyone stupid enough to listen. It worked.

They learned a valuable lesson which they are all set to apply again to anew round of massive tax cuts for the rich.

The Politico article mentions in passing some of the real damage DeVos is doing:

Already since taking office, DeVos’ department has deregulated the for-profit college industry that was targeted by Obama for its abuses and lack of accountability; revised the rule for defrauded students to gain loan forgiveness; attempted to consolidate all student loans under one servicing company, a plan she later abandoned; and, most notably, rescinded the Obama-era guidance on Title IX as it pertained to sexual assault cases on campus.

at 8:00am our fucking president is screaming "death penalty" over the internet . i hate this so much

luv2tweet about ongoing legal proceedings

Can't wait till "Do you follow Donald Trump on Twitter?" becomes a question defense attorneys ask to disqualify jurors. ("Do you watch Fox News?" already should be.)

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/sam-clovis-department-of-agriculture/index.html

As for the 400 lb guy in Jersey

https://www.wsj.com/articles/prosecutors-consider-bringing-charges-in-dnc-hacking-case-1509618203

Re: Clovis, is says a lot that it takes possible collusion with a foreign power to derail his nom for chief scientist of the department of agriculture, and not the fact that he lacks any scientific background.

Rick Perry suggests fossil fuels help prevent sexual assault https://t.co/tLVOJd2DGY pic.twitter.com/kjurODSy8y

— The Hill (@thehill) November 2, 2017

unexpected source!

Former interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile claims Hillary Clinton secretly took over the DNC before she had won the Democratic primary.

In an excerpt from her new book published by Politico, Brazile said she promised Clinton’s opponent, Bernie Sanders, that she would get to the bottom of whether Clinton had “rigged the nomination process.” She wrote, “By September 7, the day I called Bernie, I had found my proof and it broke my heart.”

Brazile describes a fundraising agreement between the Hillary Victory Fund, Hillary for America, and the DNC that stipulated that Hillary would control the “party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised” in exchange for Clinton raising money and investing in the DNC. It was signed long before Clinton became the nominee.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donna-brazile-i-found-proof-that-hillary-rigged-the-race-against-bernie

that is some beyond-galaxy-brain shit xp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNoKk5nXcAAVlxI.jpg

Re: Perry, I guess when Trump sets the stupidity bar so high, you really have to launch over that fucker if you wanna make the stupidest public statement of any given day.

Morbs I already links that on the Dems thread, this one is only for "he's orange!" jokes and breathless dot-connecting

please don't say 'launch over that fucker' about the guy who looks after the usa's nuclear arsenal, i'm nervous enough as it is xp

when was the last time someone mentioned Trump's orange skin on this thread

I think he looks less orange recently

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/fashion/trump-official-portrait.html

Instead, it depicts Mr. Trump in front of the de rigueur American flag, in a navy suit with flag pin, white shirt, patterned blue tie — and big grin. The orange glow has been toned down, but it is the smile that really sticks out. It almost looks as if he’s being tickled. The word chortle comes to mind.

It’s better than most of his other portrait photos where he looks like he’s shitting his pants

The official portrait makes him look like he just shit his pants on purpose.

It’s better than most of his other portrait photos where he looks like he’s shitting his pants

― officer sonny bonds, lytton pd (mayor jingleberries), Thursday, November 2, 2017 9:45 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The crazy thing is that you can tell he practiced that shitting face in the mirror a lot, so it's obviously what he thinks is his best photo face.

most photos of trump in the white house have him looking whiter, paler, more washed out overall. I sort of wondered if there was a conscious decision made that this made him look presidential or something.

like it's a distinct change in appearance post-campaign

That is the least convincing imitation of a human smile I've ever seen.

xpost Well he's been stuck in an office most of the day.

maybe just no more time for the tanning bed/spray tan

Plenty of time to eat tho. His face and head are bigger than ever.

I thought about that Deadspin article detailing Trump's hair guy who essentially had moved in next to him at Trump Tower, and how he'd have to get "topped off" every couple weeks or so...what happened to that? Did he just move the guy to Mar-a-Lago, knowing he would be there every single weekend?

Clovis is out - he's withdrawn his nomination.

gonna be quite the challenge to find another nominee as uniquely unqualified as he was, trump's gonna have to raise his game

Goo goo ga joob

mourning!

robert mercer:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNowMPdW0AATyKO.jpg:small

gee thx dad

imagine being so tight with milo that it takes 'several weeks' to sever ties with him

I'm trying to remember if I've heard anything about a vigilante who goes around poisoning farm animals and doing donuts in cornfields, because I think that might be our Ag Man.

"society will struggle to distinguish the signal of truth from the correlated noise of conformity"

☝️ this is someone who gets his reading suggestions from SV VCs

“Sam Clovis was almost a comically bad nominee, even for this administration.” -@SenatorLeahy pic.twitter.com/f5sMa0QiaY

— Aaron Booth (@ActorAaronBooth) November 2, 2017

The cabinet nomination process should just involve a parade of people putting their face through the hole of a giant picture of Calvin peeing on the department in question until they find the unctuous mug that best fits.

Old Lunch, your sense of humor helps me smile through otherwise painfully stupid shit like Trump appointees. ty

plenty more tax plan analysis to come, but tweeter-in-chief will benefit from this

the text eliminates the alternative minimum tax, which is designed to hit higher-income earners

xpost Thank you back. Finding a way to laugh at the horror is pretty much the only thing that keeps me from shutting down completely rn.

The proposal repeals an itemized deduction for medical expenses, a crucial provision to households with extraordinary health-care costs. It also repeals the tax credit for adoption and the deduction for student-loan interest.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/11/republicans-double-down-on-screwing-blue-states-in-tax-bill/

"We don't want people to get abortions but we also don't want people to adopt children that can't be raised by their birth parents." - the GOP

It's super-important that all babies be brought to term but once that's taken care of it's basically

http://memes.ucoz.com/_nw/25/96588251.jpg

Hmm...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/jeff-sessions-congress-russia-trump-campaign/index.html

The notable part here is both Cornyn and Grassley making noises.

they'll "look into it" and then accept His Keebler-ness's bullshit explanation, since he's such a good man dontchaknow

Likely, but the fact that they're even saying something is a shift.

atm, seems like this tax bill should be the focus of attention & resistance, because they're going to try to rush it through as fast as possible, before anyone knows what hit them. I look forward to news reports that expose all the poison pills in it.

*"Unborn"* children can now have 529s. This is new. No one has talked about this. pic.twitter.com/cM9Mt8kKZ6

— Meghna Chakrabarti (@MeghnaWBUR) November 2, 2017

"a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb"

corporations are unborn children, my friend

what the everloving fuck

March: I didn't have meetings w/ Russian intermediaries about campaign
July: I didn't talk to Russians
Late July: Oops
Nov: Double oops pic.twitter.com/nAhFbKkrEv

— Lis Power (@LisPower1) November 2, 2017

49% of Americans believe Trump committed a crime re: Russia

"and 30% believe he was justified in doing so"

nothing surprising here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/02/winners-and-losers-in-the-gop-tax-plan/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-high_tax-winnerslosers-230pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.c13776dfeed6

on the campaign trail, Trump said that hedge funds were “getting away with murder” on their taxes and that he would take away carried interest, the popular opening in the tax code these Wall Street titans use. But the bill does not change or eliminate carried interest, which is also used by some real estate developers.

The GOP preserves the earned-income tax credit, a popular refundable credit for the working class, but the bill does not expand it.

So the other 51% believe Hilary Clinton committed a crime re: Russia? (xxp)

U.S. district court judge Amy Berman Jackson said President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort could be a flight risk on Thursday as she mulled requests to loosen the conditions of his house arrest.

The judge set a bond hearing for Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. to discuss a request made by Manafort’s lawyers to remove a GPS monitoring system and to allow him to move more freely about.

“The charges are significant and his ties and assets abroad are significant so I have concerns about flight,” Berman said. Manafort is under house arrest with $10 million unsecured bond that would become due should he violate court orders or flee the country.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/358476-judge-worried-manafort-could-pose-flight-risk

dude has three passports

the whole bail bond system is a fucking joke fuck that shit

i think he can fly

whoever wrote this up for Franken did a good job:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/franken-blasts-sessions-papadopoulos-you-failed-to-tell-the-truth

Okay Hensarling announced he’s leaving yesterday, now Lamar Smith?

haha for real that's awesome

Sessions fuck ups are a good excuse for Trump to can him and get someone in there to fire Mueller, no?

Sessions is not the roadblock keeping Mueller from getting fired

Sessions is also the only member of Trump's cabinet delivering results

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), whose questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in his January confirmation hearing kicked off a chain of events that ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel, on Thursday had some more pointed questions for Sessions.

wait is this true? Franken seems pretty legit.

well he should fire him anyways because fuck that guy

yes that is absolutely true, because Franken's questioning >>> Sessions recusal from investigation >>> Trump firing Comey >>> Mueller appointment

xp

Sessions is also the only member of Trump's cabinet delivering results

I think DeVos belongs here as well

tbf stupid ass sessions walked into it by adding some flavor to his answer that fucked him over even harder

Franken: "CNN just published a story alleging that the intelligence community provided documents to the president-elect last week that included information that quote, ‘Russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.’ These documents also allegedly say quote, ‘There was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump's surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.’

"Now, again, I'm telling you this as it's coming out, so you know. But if it's true, it's obviously extremely serious and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?"

Sessions: "Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."

yeah it was a total unforced error

with Chaffetz, Hensarling, Smith + others leaving the GOP House caucus, Ryan's gonna be facing a serious "brain drain" of senior leadership + committee chairs, even if their seats are not at risk.

that's what draining the swamp means

well if Trumpists take those seats it's more like pumping the swamp

full of Trump ooze

This is the state of the GOP leadership pipeline. In a decade, state legislatures will start filling up with Gamergaters, MRAs, /pol/ posters, Anime Nazis, and Proud Boys. These are, as of now, the only people in their age cohort becoming more active in Republican politics in the Trump era. Everyone else is fleeing. This will be the legacy of Trumpism: It won’t be long before voters who reflexively check the box labeled “Republican” because their parents did, or because they think their property taxes are too high, or because Fox made them scared of terrorism, start electing Pepe racists to Congress.

I don't see that as a huge change tbh.

yeah lol "start"

Ted Bilbo was a Senator

!

Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page has spent more than five hours behind closed doors w/ House Intel Cmte, w/o a lawyer.

— Ben Siegel (@benyc) November 2, 2017

xpost I thought Bilbo was a hobbit thank you drive through.

did someone say
https://i.imgur.com/u0nX81d.jpg

believe me, I tried to think of a more appropriate term

lol

Jeb Hensarling being dragged from his lair

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.sequart.org%2Fimages%2FStarship-Troopers-Brain-Bug-660x371.jpg&f=1

Fighting Baseball for Super Famicom: A League of Fake Americans POLL

Good god.

Now going on 6.5 hours and Page still there

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 2, 2017

All the committee members stumble out, having been driven insane Lovecraft-style.

Page seems like an idiot who just enjoys attention, I kinda doubt anything significant will come out of his babbling

That Page guy is nuts. 6.5 hours? No lawyer? Does he know that he's essentially under oath, and anything wrong can be used against him? So better theory is that he is ... cooperating.

Possible that one of them suggested a quick game of Catan before diving in to the questions

definitely think the best film that gets made about this administration is gonna be the one focusing on Carter Page

the day the indictments broke he appeared on Chris Hayes' show. meanwhile, on FOX, Tucker Carlson was interviewing the Dilbert guy. somehow that felt heavy with significance to me.

Does he know that he's essentially under oath, and anything wrong can be used against him?

He has a childlike but unwavering belief in his own innocence

dude has three passports

a couple of visas

Page is so slimy I wouldn't be shocked if his trip to Russia in July or whenever was at the behest of the FBI. Considering that George Papasfritas had been tied up with the law for almost a year before anyone really knew, and Page is more high profile than that.

By the way, every time I hear "George Papadopoulos" I think of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFqov8a9iL4

dude has three passports

and a partridge in a pear tree

"but i signed the immunity agreement!"
"mr page, that was a lunch order..."

dude has three passports

a couple of visas
and a partridge in a pear tree

The correct answer was: "You don't even know my real name."

also the Senate can't bring criminal charges against Page, and aren't connected to Mueller, so odds of him getting in some trouble over this are low imo

That Page guy is nuts. 6.5 hours? No lawyer? Does he know that he's essentially under oath, and anything wrong can be used against him? So better theory is that he is ... cooperating.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, November 2, 2017 8:53 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

page is pretty useless as a cooperator - only way they'd give him a deal is if he has irrefutable goods on someone that they can apply without him ever having to testify in court. can you imagine this fucking moron testifying and not getting lit on fire by a good lawyer?

well yeah but I cannot imagine the House Intel Committee spending a single minute more than they have to with this guy. lord knows what they're talking about in there.

"I DID IT I DID IT AND I'M GLAD I TELL YOU."

"...we only asked your name?"

http://i.imgur.com/vB7YUZw.gif

Yam just called the tax bill "a big beautiful Christmas present"

If that George guy is seriously in the mix, then it would be a mistake to underrate Page as somehow too stupid and useless to have played a role in this mess.

I saw Page on Chris Hayes' show a few months ago. I've heard tamarind ducks talk that made more sense.

That Clovis guy, he's talking, too! If we dismissed anyone in this thing as too stupid we wouldn't be left with anyone.

idk the stupid and useless guys are often invaluable to investigations like these

Like these, aka, like Watergate.

They have to be privvy to valuable info, is the thing

Valuable is a vague term. If they have proof that Trump, or Sessions, or anyone lied, that seems valuable enough. And that's not much, all things considered.

GAH

Seven hours into Carter Page interview, Rep. Speier steps out and says “it’s gonna be awhile.”

The transcript of this hearing will be wild.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 2, 2017

xpost Like, the George dude, he's a low level schlub by any account, and he got busted for lying about emailing Russians. That's a lower standard than Sessions's and Flynn's and Kush's infractions.

They have to be privvy to valuable info, is the thing

just remember, the guy at the top spilled highly classified information to the Russian ambassador in the Oval Office for literally no reason other than to brag. it would not surprise me if Page was just incidentally sitting on some sort of bombshell without really knowing it.

Everyone already knows Sessions lied. Trump lies on a daily basis. This is not prosecutable newd.

News

Lol

I'm sorry, in ILX lore this will go down as "nude"

send newds

First images from Page meeting leaked:

Josh Marshall had some thoughts about Papadopoulos that could easily apply to Page and Clovis as well.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wrestling-with-the-fact-that-papadopoulos-is-a-moron

https://i.pinimg.com/474x/f5/37/f7/f537f71d486f840f8fc1448e73a1a014--you-smile-simpsons.jpg

ha, xpost

The thing about this rogue's gallery of useful idiots is that they're exactly the kind of low-hanging fruit the Russians would try to exploit.

Hmm

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/jared-kushner-robert-mueller-documents-russia-investigation/index.html

Jared Kushner has turned over documents in recent weeks to special counsel Robert Mueller as investigators have begun asking in witness interviews about Kushner's role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey, CNN has learned....

Two separate sources told CNN that investigators have asked other witnesses about Kushner's role in firing Comey. Investigators have also asked about how a statement was issued in the name of Donald Trump Jr. regarding a Trump Tower meeting and about the circumstances surrounding the departures of other White House aides, according to one source.

http://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2016/07/doonesbury.gif

GOOD GOD

Carter Page has invoked the 5th, on his own without a lawyer, regarding document production, says House Intel member Speier. Which documents? "Any documents," she tells me.

— Billy House (@HouseInSession) November 2, 2017

what is even happening here

Lol ulysses

pleading the fifth on a jack chick comic

wild, wild stuff

Forgive me if already posted
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-unaware-top-adviser-testified-grand-jury/story?id=50895265&cid=social_twitter_abcn

The correct answer was: "You don't even know my real name."

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, November 2, 2017 5:00 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe papadapolous *****is not even greek*******

xpost -- clown shoes all the way down!

hold up, did Carter page plead the fifth after 7 hours of being talked to? Or did he plead it at the start?

Fuck knows.

if Don Jr could get indicted somehow I'd not be sad

he's a big dummy, but if he can't do it, no one can.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/02/carter-page-russia-probe-documents-244483

“I’m helping to the greatest extent I can,” Page told reporters after exiting his interview, which was held in a secure Capitol hearing room. The committee is slated to release a transcript of his testimony in three days at Page’s request.

Worth it for the photo:

https://static.politico.com/dims4/default/3a4bdd0/2147483647/resize/1160x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2F86%2F6d%2F06bdbf494b19aa8a5c04f043ddd5%2F171102-page-getty-1160.jpg

If investigate committee mtgs go on long enough, do they wheel in a cart of diet cokes or monster drinks or something

carter page: history’s most hapless man?

Oh BTW this happened.

BREAKING: Judge Mehta orders DOJ to file briefs by Nov 13 addressing if tweets by @realDonaldTrump reflect official USG policy/views. #FOIA

— Bradley P. Moss, Esq (@BradMossEsq) November 2, 2017

@realDonaldTrump

This account doesn't exist

Try searching for another.

wtf

Omgggggggggg

thread title just got appropriate

I couldn’t believe it was real

wait waht did that really just happen

maybe he finally listened to hillary

huge if true

can anyone just sign up for it now? i nominate karl malone to be our new president

hooooly fucking shit if this is not just some weird twitter hiccup/failure

yeah

aw darn it's back :(

don't worry it's just twitter being the pile of crap it always is

a brief, beautiful glimpse of a better world

the last five minutes are a fantastic case-study in [remainder of post redacted before trenchant social commentary thread can be activated]

I don’t think I ever want to wake up again

Well shit

I like how every single twitter account just did the same 2 tweets

Trump's twitter account has gone
¦
It's back now

a man can dream

Weird times man

most peculiar momma

Trump's account is probably running on its very own cluster in twitter's infrastructure

Ohhhhh dear.

Former Trump adviser Carter Page privately testifies he told Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the campaign https://t.co/9edxNu54VT pic.twitter.com/JvUvkwLTxl

— CNN (@CNN) November 2, 2017

https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/lobot_0ee16719.jpeg?region=173%2C150%2C1540%2C770&width=480

that's what i was looking for

i nominate karl malone to be our new president

― Doctor Casino, Thursday, November 2, 2017 10:57 PM (fifty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogYgHlNnqo

Yeah, about that.

"The saddest thing is that because I'm the president... I am not supposed to be involved w/ the Justice Dept." Trump today to @LarryOConnor

— Robert Costa (@costareports) November 2, 2017

I'm told a lot of people did not know about the separation of powers. Did you know that? There are separate powers! What a country.

Earlier today @realdonaldtrump’s account was inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee. The account was down for 11 minutes, and has since been restored. We are continuing to investigate and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017

No, don't take steps! Encourage human error! Not sad!

why are they trying to prevent it happening again? seems to me 11 minutes is a record that begs to be broken.

Ugh, this is what it's going to feel like when they manage to revive Trump after his inevitable coronary, isn't it?

God works in mysterious ways! Let go and let god!

stands to reason that human error took him off line, considering human error gave him the presidency.

erect a statue of that twitter employee

sitting on horseback with his finger poised over a delete button

Through our investigation we have learned that this was done by a Twitter customer support employee who did this on the employee’s last day. We are conducting a full internal review. https://t.co/mlarOgiaRF

— Twitter Government (@TwitterGov) November 3, 2017

I wanted a poem to be most eloquent take on the current US presidency but I didn't believe it was possible:

http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.ca/2017/11/jerome-rothenberg-america2017-president.html

Meanwhile, Trump's Gallup approval percentage -- which hit a new low of 33 on Sunday -- has climbed 5 points since the indictments.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Rude teens are saying “Hey man, what’s happening?” to John Kasich pic.twitter.com/LCVikVFaSU

— Remembrance Day Name (@WindingDot) November 2, 2017

rarely is the question asked, 'is our young people, like, cutting it'

"Too many of our young people are like 'Hey, man, what's happening'."

^ Kasich using valley girl locution to disrespect young people who at least speak in standard English sentences.

my brotha

Rerun was like “which Doobie you be, Kasich?”

Ugh, this is what it's going to feel like when they manage to revive Trump after his inevitable coronary, isn't it?

I was relating to a friend the other day about the happiness displayed in the immediate wake of 'Covfefe' when we all thought Two Scoops had been felled by a cardiac episode on the toilet.

Sadly these situations are what the 25th amendment is actually about not a soft coup.

Rude teens are saying “Hey man, what’s happening?” to John Kasich

Heard this in the voice of the start of "Bitchin Camaro" by the Dead Milkmen.

"Trump rescued all the hurricane victims with a big fire truck and drove it up here from Puerto Rico."
"You're kidding!"
"I must be, Puerto Rico is an island."

it is absolutely, 100% us against them pic.twitter.com/a31Wvc0MyA

— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) November 2, 2017

Guillotine's hungry, assholes.

Kasich demands a "what's poppin'" for his greetings.

My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

what the fuck is that supposed to mean

I am assuming that whoever operates his Twitter has previously been hiding from him the fact that it gets any responses. "Sorry again Mr President, no real feedback, we'll try again tomorrow"

It means he's becoming so effective, so virile, that the fake news media are trying to silence him however they can, but he won't be stopped, because he is Trump Man

twitter couldn't keep a lid on his tweets forever - this is going to blow the roof off the whole trump for president campaign

that was the first of a few tweets whose thrust was "word's getting out that the real colluder is...CROOKED HILLARY"

What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States.

....People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

Um, DJT OTM?

Are people actually befuddled by that word must be getting out tweet? Doesnt he say shit like that all the time?

I went up 2 points in the polls
The message must be getting out etc

he's much more likely to say shit like 'the fake news media won't tell you that the stock market is at a record high! iirc

ISIS just claimed the Degenerate Animal who killed, and so badly wounded, the wonderful people on the West Side, was "their soldier." .....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

...Based on that, the Military has hit ISIS "much harder" over the last two days. They will pay a big price for every attack on us!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

What is time? Time is of no consequence to us here, in hell.

cause THEN effect? not in trump's america, pal

biggest attack on the West Side since Common released "The Bitch in You"

"degenerate animal", nice, let's just go there shall we

Everyone looks like a degenerate animal to a degenerate animal.

This is grim, and I assume the thought's gone through everyone's mind anyway: what if it doesn't matter?

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis

Yeah, I think that without intense and sustained effort to turn this ship around, we're on a slow but certain journey into a new iteration of the Dark Ages.

Once enough people have undertaken a campaign against consensus reality, there's really nowhere else to go.

"degenerate animal", nice, let's just go there shall we

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, November 3, 2017 8:42 AM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea it is so gross

And intense and sustained effort is being comprehensively pre-framed as "New World Order!"

the Vegas shooter's not degenerate tho, he's an interesting riddle to be cracked. fml

The most depressing thought re: all the current goings-on and in particular "mainstream" GOP retirements is that the next few generations of GOP candidates (and therefore winners or obstructionists) may all be full-on Trump/Moore etc.deluded lunatics. That's what I don't get from the craven Ryan/Mitch myopic approach: clearly they see what is happening, right? Those guys are dicks, but they're not crazy, and I can't imagine they want a party of Roy Moores, either. I mean, the flip answer is "of course they do," but I don't know about that. We've made it so far over the Trump hump that I fear we have to wait till it all rolls around to the beginning again.

I think they've mostly given up

Yeah, but in all seriousness, what does that mean?

This is grim, and I assume the thought's gone through everyone's mind anyway: what if it doesn't matter?

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis🕸

there will and must be a counterforce to that

On his face, though, in essence, is Trump any crazier than Reagan? More conservative than Reagan or his crew? I don't think so. It's just annoying/frightening to watch someone try to recapture that particular era of callous lunacy.

yea I think the comments about the future of right wing media/politicians all being Gamergate/Cernovich types is pretty OTM, these are pretty much the only young Republicans that exist right now

On his face, though, in essence, is Trump any crazier than Reagan? More conservative than Reagan or his crew? I don't think so. It's just annoying/frightening to watch someone try to recapture that particular era of callous lunacy.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, November 3, 2017 9:46 AM

Reagan lied and often lied well, and the Beltway press was even more populated by credulous gasbags than now, but two notable exceptions aside Reagan's approval ratings were steady.

there will and must be a counterforce to that

from where? trump diehards aren't going to believe anything from 'fake news' outlets and their favoured sources of news sure as shit aren't going to be reporting any negative fallout from mueller's investigation in good faith, so what 'counterforce' will persuade them?

also, first term Reagan elicited different reactions than second term Ronnie. I mean, Gorby hadn't entered the picture.

ehhhhhhhhh I think there are just as many bland church bake-sale teens and thirtysomethings - banging on about abortion and how government should be run like a business and how liberals are so cuckoo with their tax-and-spend ways - as there were before trump. they're probably all a lot nastier than they were when i last really dealt with them face to face, thanks to the long fox news era, and certainly the more racist and hateful aspects of their political thinking have a much more dangerous license to be spoken these days. but it's not like every rank-and-file republican dropped everything to join 4chan a year ago.

calling DJT a "degenerate animal" or a "disgusting animal" should be de rigueur… would troll the fuck out of cerno/alt-right/ gamer/4chan shitheads, who think only they get to troll…

Trump referring to Warren as Pocahontas. For shame. How would Trump feel if people called him Hitler because of his German roots?

The only real upside of the increasingly-nihilistic right is that it's difficult for gravy-stained brownshirts to breed from the isolated confines of their parents' basements.

that Vox piece was great, and yeah, pretty much exactly what I anticipate happening :/

Trump referring to Warren as Pocahontas. For shame. How would Trump feel if people called him Hitler because of his German roots?

No, no, it's supposed to be "Fauxcahontas," because she falsely claimed some Native American ancestry to get preferential treatment and get counted as a diversity hire. That's the Rush/Fox line, anyway. (Alternative zing: "Lieawatha.")

But because Trump is stupid, he just says "Pocahontas" and the Red Hat Brigade howls with approval anyway, because they knew what he meant. And having the right enemies / pissing off the right people is all that matters anymore.

Yes, he could just as easily call her Eleanor Roosevelt or Attila the Hun or Clubber Lang. It doesn't matter if it has a meaningful referent or makes any sense as long as it's understood that it's a pejorative used to keep a big-mouth woman in her place.

No, no, it's supposed to be "Fauxcahontas," because she falsely claimed some Native American ancestry to get preferential treatment and get counted as a diversity hire. That's the Rush/Fox line, anyway. (Alternative zing: "Lieawatha.")

I have never heard either of these, whereas "Pocahontas" comes up all the time from conservatives in MA.

now i want trump to call someone 'clubber lang' ffs

Trump referring to Warren as Pocahontas. For shame. How would Trump feel if people called him Hitler because of his German roots?

Flora MacDonald would be funnier. His mother's even from the same area.

'donald where's your trousers' now playing on internal jukebox

clubber lang is a fuckin inspired choice for an imaginary non sequitur trump insult, bravo

Best memory in the world

http://m.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Trump-I-don-t-remember-meeting-at-center-of-12329138.php

How I wish media would stop using photos of butthole-mouth Trump :'-o

used to be i cherished the sight of every butthole

now i can barely stand to look at a butthole for more than an hour or two at a time

thanks obama

LBI, please be sensitive, a butthole is the only mouth he has.

the Oval Orifice

donald t. rump

OL that's true. Morbius eww

Our president's brave refusal to contort his facial sphincter into a quote 'normal' mouth shape increases awareness of those unfortunate souls who have to go through life unable to produce anything but utter shit from their word holes.

That Vox piece is hella depressing for sure.

yeah I think "lol nothing matters" has kind of been the lesson for a while now, especially in light of stuff like this

Meanwhile, Trump's Gallup approval percentage -- which hit a new low of 33 on Sunday -- has climbed 5 points since the indictments.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just wondering, from a legal perspective, if you have a person claiming repeatedly that they have an excellent memory, one of the best ever, stretching back decades, except when they are questioned or deposed, when they suddenly get foggy or forgetful, does that carry any weight? Like, contempt or something? Unless they outright plead the fifth?

Of course his polling went up, Mueller's investigation declared him 100% not guilty. He said it himself, there is no Trump in the charges.

http://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-introduce-bill-to-remove-bob-mueller-from-special-counsel-2017-11

but her uraniums

xxp he can just claim that he was exaggerating? I feel you sometimes take things literally that no-one else takes literally.

xp here we go

How is this anything other than a bureaucratic if no less naked method of arranging to have the judge at your trial whacked?

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, along with Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Louie Gohmert of Texas,

looooool, fucking LOUIE GOHMERT IS LEADING THE CHARGE EVERYBODY

if you look around, facebook has good posts on this

As much as I like Jeff Sessions it is time for him to resign. He has recused himself from all things Russia and Clinton thus making him useless and his assistant Rod Rosenstein must go too because of his involvement in the Uranium One Scandal. Bring in someone like...yes I am going to say it...Giuliani who has no agenda and is a pit bull. Jeff Sessions is a lame duck Attorney General and must do the honorable thing and step down. Hell make him DHS Secretary he would be good there but he has to go.

Sorry, did you say 'good'?

ah yes, the famously agenda-free rudy giuliani

Giuliani is too dirty to be confirmed even in this shitshow

pleading the fifth

pleading the filth

I made a couple G. Gordon Liddy will be the new special prosecutor jokes on twitter yesterday and now I'm leaving one here.

please clap.

he can just claim that he was exaggerating? I feel you sometimes take things literally that no-one else takes literally.

Impugning credibility is a common legal strategy. I mean, his dumbass tweets have been used against him in court. So, sure, he could say "I was just exaggerating," but "I was just exaggerating" is a shit defense that no doubt brings people down all the time.

Also who else is excited about having to re-live the 2016 election for the rest of our mother fucking lives

hey for awhile it was 2000

at least the heat is off Nader

...yes I am going to say it...

no Nader, no GWB
no GWB, no Iraq war
no Iraq war, no ISIS

unfortunately i think Trump still wins in this timeline

Tracer, u wanna rassle

So this uranium shit, is this going to be the new Benghazi/ACA, with just a new motion or law or appeal or some other BS being introduced again, and again, and again, no matter the result?

Anyway, nothing seems impossible anymore, but as a friend reminded me, Mueller is not just this one unstoppable terminator. There are whole teams of FBI/DOJ people working on this stuff, many privy to what Mueller is privy to. If he is somehow removed, that ends his authority but not necessarily any investigation.

It may get raised over and over, but the record is very clear about what happened, and there is absolutely nothing suspicious about it.

its 1000% a smokescreen and is effective because its so convoluted.

lol I know it's a dumb train of thought Morbs

But like in baseball, we often think that when one unexpected variable takes the flow of events far off course, any speculation on what would have happened absent that variable is spurious. BUT.. accepting that logic means accepting that equally there's no reason to believe things wouldn't have actually worked out exactly the way they looked like they were going to in the first place

but hey let's relitigate just one election at a time here, soz everyone

"As much as I like Jeff Sessions..."

BUT.. accepting that logic means accepting that equally there's no reason to believe things wouldn't have actually worked out exactly the way they looked like they were going to in the first place

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/89/cc/9489cc4aaa333ebd57a6d9fc13be6499.jpg

Here's some joy!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/technology/trump-twitter-deleted.html

The person who shut down Mr. Trump’s account was a contractor, the people said.

The discovery highlights a difficult issue for Twitter, as well as other technology companies that rely on large amounts of contract workers to handle sensitive work. Facebook, Twitter and other companies outsource content review to third-party services like ProUnlimited and Cognizant, which are essentially internet call centers staffed with hundreds of workers who deal with customer service issues.

Facebook and Twitter had spent much of the early part of this week testifying in congressional hearings about how they planned to hire more people to help prohibit the misuse of their platforms. Facebook said it was hiring an additional 10,000 workers to review flagged content, bringing the total to 20,000 by the end of 2018.

But in a conference call with investors earlier this week, the social network said many of these will likely not be full-time employees; the company will largely rely on third-party contractors.

Twitter employees have expressed concern about the widely available nature of internal tools for handling customer accounts. Hundreds of employees are able to access the accounts of so-called Very Important Tweeters, or VITs, and can take actions like disabling the accounts, according to current and former Twitter employees. Twitter customer support cannot, however, access customers’ private direct messages, nor can they tweet on behalf of other users, these people said.

Random mystery hire: welcome to the #resistance

Very Important Tweeters, or VITs

ffs

The self-mutilation that the center-to-left endlessly inflicts on itself certainly has nothing to do with people like Dubya and Trump becoming President and turning our country into a laughingstock.

That is to say it’s not at all a dumb train of thought, Tracer, and imo spoilers from the Greens are pragmatically no different than Richard Spencer

deplorables have a point that liberals are stuck-up

well they shift debate nominally to the left rather than to the right which has its own pragmatic benefits and someone like corbyn, who lost the most recent election, is i think a very positive development for the labour party (and for the UK more widely)

not sure generalizable rules can be extracted from the nader farrago

lol dlh ty

I actually think Tracer's speculation has some merit, in that the impulses that led Trump are primarily around domestic politics, rather than foreign policy.

But generally you can't change one variable and assume every other one stays the same. Would we have gone from Gore to Obama in that timeline?

labour gained power and vastly outperformed expectation so not really comparable to a US situation, also don't know if you noticed but corbyn is the prime minister

deplorables have a point that liberals are stuck-up

Have said it before that we are living a snobs vs. slobs comedy, except 1) the good guys are the stuck up ones, and 2) it's not funny.

well they shift debate nominally to the left rather than to the right

Twitter customer support cannot, however, access customers’ private direct messages, nor can they tweet on behalf of other users, these people said.

this at least is good, I always wondered if some rogue employee could just tweet "I hereby order a missile strike on NoKo" and plunge the world into Wargames-style annihilation

the unbroken string of nicer mass murderers/unionbusters who've run the show gave us Dubya and Trump

also don't get your "center" on my "left"

that said it's kind of amazing that no one's guessed his Twitter password yet

12345

Morbius demonstrating his strong grasp of elections once again

http://hodgespart.com/gong_images/_gong/spaceballs.jpg

just watched that last weekend with the kids, it is the best

Very Important Tweeters, or VITs

I want to love you (VIT!) Twitter Trump Thing!

I do understand elections, Tom. I've already said if I'd lived in a swing state I'd have voted for Rodham-Kissinger, and you people would never have heard the end of it.

https://www.thenation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Hillary_Kissinger_AP_img.jpg

does the ongoing breakdown in our spiritual/civic/material life alluded to in that vox piece mirror the spectre of the onset climate change? like in addition to dealing with megahurricans when i'm 70 am i also going to have to look out for pepe greenshirt brigades

I do think there's some correlation. As people slowly start to realize we're on a collision course that can only be reversed or even slowed through the application of will that just doesn't seem to exist, they understandably stop giving as much of a fuck.

that would confirm my theory that a lot of those folks secretly do believe in climate change but are just petrified and would rather ignore it and succumb to nihilism

Colon cancer is fake news (dies)!

Never underestimate people's capacity for compartmentalization, particularly when they're frightened.

oblivious liberal stuck-up-ed-ness tends to irritate as much as naked conservative neo-feudalism does both 1) weaponized fox-deplorables and 2) people who grew up and persist paycheck-to-paycheck who aren't quite politicized / ideological; "meritocratic" liberals not realizing that (and ignoring group 2 altogether) is a tragic american flaw, a 'dunning-kruger effect' of the left, as it were

xpost

Trumps phone has two-factor authentication, keyed to his non-reproducible butthole mouth; every morning he kisses it to sign in.

Whomp whomp

Bloomberg: Authorities in Cyprus gave Manafort’s bank records to Mueller’s team just before he was indicted. https://t.co/KEUZtbhC6Q

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 3, 2017

succumb to nihilism

nihilism is comforting tbh

love nihilism

When you believe in nothing you've got nothing to lose.

President Trump has posted his first golf score to his USGA handicap page since June 2016. It says he shot a 68 last month.

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) November 2, 2017

gtfo

relax, he was just playing the par threes

i heard that kim jong-un played putt putt last year and got a hole-in-one on all 18 holes. it was amazing, no one had even heard of that before

the dotard's tax return reveal is gonna be epic

I predict his tax returns come in well under par.

imo spoilers from the Greens are pragmatically no different than Richard Spencer

the US Greens are barely a party and Jill Stein is a moron, but electoral reform is the problem, not genuinely well-meaning people wanting to improve constituents' lives

i'm all about learning what's in the tax returns

but, just curious, does anyone think it will matter at all what's in there, no matter how bad or shocking? it's why the scenario in the david roberts/vox thing posted a little upthread was so terrible to think about, because it seems so likely.

like, America is profoundly broken by being a two-party system, but the last two days have shown how futile it can be attempting to effect change from within, and independent candidates do get elected in the US. sometimes.

DJT probably drew little penises in all the boxes when he did his taxes, and the people who dislike him will be outraged, and the people who like him will hoot and holler and continue drinking furniture polish or whatever it is that makes their brains like that.

"those penises were already on the boxes when i received them, your honor"

there's nothing on the page that says you can't draw penises in the boxes

It never stops with him!

Carter Page tells @jaketapper he told a few more people on Trump campaign beyond Sessions about his trip to Moscow in 2016. Won't say who

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 3, 2017

Orwell quote comes to mind, from Wigan Pier:

The ordinary man may not flinch from a dictatorship of the proletariat, if you offer it tactfully; offer him a dictatorship of the prigs, and he gets ready to fight...

does anyone think it will matter at all what's in there, no matter how bad or shocking?

yes. i've become less flippant about don's teflon-ness since paul manafort and rick gates were indicted by former FBI director robert mueller. that's a batshit crazy development in US history. if the GOP can't pass ALEC's income tax cut for the Kochs and their seditious ilk, 2scoops might be in a bit of trouble

And I should say I use my quote refers to the comment “oblivious liberal stuck-up-ed-ness”

i forget - did anyone know carter page before he suddenly appeared on the foreign policy team? i know it's kind of a mystery how some of the 5 people on the team were selected, and who recommended them. but was carter page an unfamiliar name before landing on the team, too?

the ken burns documentary event on this period is going to have to be at least 40 hours long, there's so much

Yeah I first remember Page's name surfacing around that time, and a couple of American reporter/policy types noting his Moscow trips and speeches -- I remember following one real time moment of coverage -- and them thinking he was all about bootlicking garbage.

https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/JRdoNqTii6kGVV7V3VxrQQ--~B/Zmk9c3RyaW07aD0zODg7cHlvZmY9MDtxPTk1O3c9NzIwO3NtPTE7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/http://media.zenfs.com/en/homerun/feed_manager_auto_publish_494/876f0cd80a4a192d06ec76c4b5260fc9

this photo makes it look like Donald Trump was hiding behind a corner waiting to jump out so he could yell at Bowe Bergdahl.

xpost

first impressions were very accurate in this case. somehow i've managed to avoid video of him until this week. he is kind of fascinating. everything about him seems very unreal and unlikely, yet here he is, talking to everyone, no filter

miserable-looking soldier otm

The video of Carter Page’s speech in Moscow in June 2016 is one of the top Google results when you search for his name and it was widely covered at the time (partly because he tried to do part of it in Russian and ended up talking gobbledegook). The idea that none of Trump’s team recall him mentioning it before he went is vaguely plausible but the idea, which Sessions seemed to hint at, that he didn’t know about it afterwards is magnificently silly.

He is a nobody - no real business experience, no academic credentials and no expertise in Russian affairs bar having lived there for a few years iirc. He seems to have a minor talent for grifting.

Given that last point he should have been Trump's AG.

genuinely well-meaning people wanting to improve constituents' lives

that in no way describes nader or stein when they ran afaict

pretty sure sic was talking about Greens below the presidential level, like some who are winning offices

so this Asia trip should go well, huh

everything about him seems very unreal and unlikely, yet here he is, talking to everyone, no filter

Wait, are we talking about Trump or Carter Page?

page shaved his head in rejection of mr. trump's demanding leadership fwiu

ICYMI

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/03/561797675/im-the-only-one-that-matters-trump-says-of-state-dept-job-vacancies

let's try to think of hypothetical situations where it is good to have a leader that think he's the only person who matters

NPR's hourly news played a clip of Yam yelling over his helicopter "not an important meeting, don't remember much about it" re the Papadopoulos offer to set up a meeting with Putin. Then the correspondent wrapped up with "Last month, the president said he had 'one of the greatest memories of all time.'"

*twist*

L'etat, c'est lui

"We don't need all of the people. You know, it's called cost-saving."

the "it's called" formulation is one of the all-time classic condescensions of the 80s and 90s and i wouldn't be surprised if, like so many of his aggressively dumbass mannerisms, the condescension has just become so ingrained in his thought and action that it's become a tic, barely signifying its original cutting quality anymore and just part of the skein of general hostility that he approaches the world with

Our asshole president is landing here in Honolulu for a layover in a couple of hours. Mayor's let all 8,000 city employees take a vacation day if they want. Traffic is going to be hell as usual when presidential visits happen. There's a big demonstration planned at the state capital, and I'm on the fence about whether to go. Trump is probably going to be some distance away at Pearl Harbor the whole time, but hopefully he'll see the protests on TV and know he's not too welcome in Hawaii. I don't have a sign to wave but if I did it would say, uh, God I don't know, DIE IN A FIRE or smthg.

let's try to think of hypothetical situations where it is good to have a leader that think he's the only person who matters

― Karl Malone, Friday, November 3, 2017 4:32 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

FWIW, I don't think he's speaking wrt his role as president. I think this is genuinely his perspective of the world. Why should he care what a country full of NPCs think about anything?

What if...

...Trump's entire MO for the HNL trip is to inspect Obama's birth certificate?

xpost Our job is just to tell him which village to visit next and how to level up his fake news shield.

that in no way describes nader or stein when they ran afaict

yeah I deliberately excluded Stein before saying that

xp So I do have valid reasons to be ambivalent about the rally.

If Donald inspected the birth certificate and found Obama was born in Hawaii, of course he still wouldn't accept it then, either. Official records are fake news. Anything we don't want to be true is fake news.

xpost

Our armory carries the best equipment around!
...Our armory carries the best equipment around!
...You won't find a better shield in America!
...Our armory carries the best equipment around!

Pee tape imminent.

Longtime Trump bodyguard to face questions about 2013 Moscow trip https://t.co/zupTSatxOo

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 4, 2017

We ain’t that lucky/cursed.

please let the pee tape drop on 12/25/17

all i want for christmas is u(rine)

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLIppgE45wM

I hate zappa but when I was a kid that was the FUNNIEST shit.

Throwback to a bad soap opera that feels like it was broadcast half a decade ago, even though it was, like, this July: Today I noticed that my currently dormant Viennese experimental music calendar/Twitter account from back when I lived there was follow-spammed by the Mooch. I let the beautiful absurdity of it all linger for a few hours, then did what I guess was the ethically sound thing to do

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNyxbBMWsAA6eQ0.jpg:largehttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNzge5mWAAA3-io.jpg:large

Hm, that first screenshot was kinda unnecessary. Anyway, one day he'll turn up at the Alte Schmiede or Rhiz or another one of Vienna's marvelous underground/experimental etc. venues and proclaim proudly that he found all of this without the help of @VienneseMoon

WASHINGTON — One of President Trump’s biggest disappointments in office, by his own account, was discovering that he is not supposed to personally direct law enforcement decisions by the Justice Department and the F.B.I. So, instead, he has made himself into perhaps the most vocal critic of America’s system of justice ever to occupy the Oval Office.

Just this week, he denounced the criminal justice system as “a joke” and “a laughingstock.” He demanded that the suspect in the New York terrorist attack be executed. He spent Friday berating the Justice Department and F.B.I. for not investigating his political opponents. He then turned to the military justice system and called a court-martial decision “a complete and total disgrace.”

The repeated assaults on law enforcement cross lines that presidents have largely observed since the Watergate era, raising questions about the separation of politics and the law. But as extraordinary as Mr. Trump’s broadsides are, perhaps more striking is that investigators and prosecutors are so far ignoring the head of the executive branch in which they serve while military judges and juries are for the most part disregarding the opinions of their commander in chief.

“You know, the saddest thing is that because I’m the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department,” Mr. Trump said in a radio interview on Thursday on the “Larry O’Connor Show.” “I am not supposed to be involved with the F.B.I. I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing. And I’m very frustrated by it.”

That frustration has been fueled particularly by Mr. Trump’s inability to control the special counsel investigation into whether his campaign coordinated with Russia during last year’s election, an investigation that unveiled its first criminal charges this week against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman and two other advisers.

...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/us/politics/trump-says-justice-dept-and-fbi-must-do-what-is-right-and-investigate-democrats.html

seriously, one of my biggest frustrations is that i would really, honestly, love to hear trump's thoughts on the long-term repercussions of allowing a president to control investigations into the activities of presidential administrations. what would he think if obama were allowed to shut down an investigation into the obama administration? or clinton? or nixon? i would love for him to consider this question, and then just lay out his vision for how the world would be better that way.

no need to state the obvious, that he's not capable of it, that he's a literal piece of shit, no literally, he is literally a piece of shit, etc. i know all that. i'm just saying, god damn is it frustrating to know that none of us will ever get clear answers to so many things about trump. at some point maybe we will achieve some measure of closure with what has happened the last few years, but there will be always be some things that are just so fucking unbelievable, with no answers. at least nixon was an intelligent man and you could imagine having a conversation with him where he revealed, inadvertently or purposefully, what his motives were. but trump..god damn. it is maddening.

also, giantmiddlefinger4K_HD.png to david rivkin.

Some conservatives defended Mr. Trump’s right to exercise oversight of the country’s law enforcement agencies, saying that it would be dangerous to have an attorney general and an F.B.I. director who were not answerable to elected leaders.

“The notion that law enforcement, in particular, is somehow to be insulated from political influences and therefore inevitably insulated from political accountability is a horribly dangerous idea from the standpoint of civil liberty,” said David B. Rivkin Jr., a White House and Justice Department lawyer under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

However, Mr. Rivkin added, “That doesn’t mean you exercise your authority to direct those things in a crude and obscene fashion. You have to exercise some politesse about it.”

It would be better because since every Dem is a criminal, Trump making the justice department great again (MtJDGA!) would mean no Dem would ever become president, ensuring that that power would never be misused.

"I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing. And I’m very frustrated by it.”

Or, to put it another way, he'd love to be doing the kind of things he's not supposed to do. Which basically translates as, "I'd like do anything and everything I feel like doing. I'd love to be Il Duce or Der Fuehrer."

what is the name for a society built upon a commonly shared respect for facts? it's not the social contract. is it just referring to the preconditions of civil society? i'm blanking on a key term, sorry.

but whatever it is, it feels like it's crumbling. the white house approves a climate report that is, while supported by science and in line with past reports, completely at odds with every action the trump administration has taken on climate change. what a jarring conflict! it makes no sense! and it really doesn't matter. feels like things like this happen all the time, recently.

if trump were playing dimensional-style chess, i'd almost argue this was the final goal, more than anything else: showing that the government can pretty much fall on its face and be incompetent everywhere, and you'll still get by. the corporations are doing fine, and they're here to make sure that we can be fine, at least when using their products. i'm not criticizing the escapists - i have been escaping all the fucking time the last year+. it can be a way of life. but corporatization of everything has accelerated in a gross way. it is everywhere and it permeates everything. i have no proof or evidence, i just feel it, and believe it. it permeates the culture. have you heard of the new trivia quiz app HQ? it is accidentally the purest distillation of dystopia, and it is real, and it is your hand twice a day. 30,000 people competing for $150 with the Smash TV voice as the host. it's hard to explain, and if you do decide to check it out let me know since it gives me a free extra life if i refer you. doubling the user base twice in 2 days, then again in another 2 days, then again. exponential growth, from the founders of Vine! i can't stop playing it.

sorry, got the rainy saturday blues. but for me one of the mental images of the year was facebook, twitter, and google sending their lawyers to testify in front of congress, instead of the CEOs appearing, as is usually the case when a company or entire industry completely fucks up. they sent their representatives! that's power. have your people talk to my people. and did anyone really care for longer than 24 hours? anyway, it just seems like a result of all of this is showing that the effective control of...civil society...? can shift from a system that is at least nominally based upon representation and elections to one that is wholly corporate and privatized. i can already hear the people saying that happened 50 years ago, but imo we have seen many glimpses of it before, but never so broadly across society, and so persistently, and more importantly without sufficient complaint to push it back.

On the plus side, Zuckerberg during their earnings call deviated from script and said specifically that the company was spending so much to right the ship that earnings would actually be negatively affected. So there is that.

what is the name for a society built upon a commonly shared respect for facts?

According to the neo-cons in the GW Bush administration, it's "the reality-based community". Strange to say, they proudly excluded themselves from that community.

On the plus side, Zuckerberg during their earnings call deviated from script and said specifically that the company was spending so much to right the ship that earnings would actually be negatively affected. So there is that.

that's what i mean, though! a plus is that this unelected dude we have no control over has generously decided to donate a small portion of his company's profits to the idea of helping out the country that currently contains their headquarters, and we're all like "well, he can do whatever he wants and it affects all of us, but glad they did the right thing here." that is power

the name is "the state of nature"

wait i mean the other way round lol. sure fucked up that partic gnomic truism

anyway i posted this in the pol phil thread cuz found it spooky

sheldon wolin on hobbes:

The state of nature symbolized not only an extreme disorder in human relations, causing men to consent to the creation of an irresistible power; it was also a condition distraught by an anarchy of meanings. In nature each man could freely use his reason to seek his own ends: each was the final judge of what constituted rationality. The problem posed involved more than the moral issues arising from man's vanity or his desire for pre-eminence. It was a genuinely philosophical one involving the status of knowledge....
[Man] alone of all the animals possessed speech and was capable of science, yet he alone could turn speech into deception, ideas into sedition, learning into mystification.... These ironical overtones rule out interpreting the state of nature as belonging to the remote past... Instead, it represented an imaginative reconstruction of a recurrent human possibility ... built on the causes and consequences of political breakdown. Its meaning remained eternally contemporary and urgent....

In this sense, the concept did not belong solely to the past or even to the present. Its status was that of an ever-present possibility inherent in any organized political society, a ubiquitous threat which, like some macabre companion, accompanied society in every stage of its journey. It was present each night, as men sealed themselves in their homes and succeeded only in locking in fear.... The content of the state of nature could be filled in by consulting "the manner of life which men that have formerly lived under a peaceful government, use to generate into, in a civil war."

― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, January 11, 2017 10:25 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In Nietzsche's dream we each remain the arbiters of rationality, and like Hobbes this betrays the usual promise of objectivity; but there is, he says, another way to understand objectivity:

understood not as `disinterested contemplation' (which is a non-concept and absurdity), but rather as the capacity to have one's pro and contra in one's power, and to shift them in and out: so that one knows how to make precisely the difference in perspectives and affective interpretations useful for knowledge...There is only a perspectival seeing, only a perspectival `knowing'; and the more affects we allow to speak about a matter, the more eyes, different eyes, we know how to bring to bear on one and the same matter, that much more complete will our concept of this matter, our objectivity be.

Objectivity as completeness: but this is the aim only of a very powerful individual, one who can assume so many different identities that she can see the question from every angle.

To N there is no "neutral" point of view, no neutral individual, no neutral state. Only the best, though, can inhabit a multiplicity of points of view, of identities; on them rests the possibility of another escape from the state of nature.

hey that sounds democratic

yes!

tho tbf it also sounds okay to the kind of guy who thinks he's my voice

stopped clock

NEW: WH responds to Bush41 calling POTUS a "blowhard". Calls Iraq "greatest foreign policy mistakes in American history". via/ @NoahGrayCNN pic.twitter.com/XQ2f1JK81C

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) November 4, 2017

Impending death clears the mind.

where's the tax returns?

what is the name for a society built upon a commonly shared respect for facts?

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

He doesn’t know the difference between 41 and 43 right

Rand Paul was just beat up by his neighbor?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/04/sen-rand-paul-assaulted-his-kentucky-home-man-arrested/832663001/

so who would be the best kind of aggrieved constituent for him to have been assaulted by, politically

A woman

Reported elsewhere it's his neighbor.

Yeah, not a rando

sounds like a Bowling Green massacre

p sure any major military contractor doesn't like Paul v much

otoh no major military contractor has ever actually suffered so much as a broken fingernail from his posturing nonsense

Such people don't like unfriendly rhetoric even if it is ineffectual, e.g. Wall Street turning on Obama because he made grumpy noises while he ensured that they paid not a jot for their Subprime Era crimes.

"don't just suck me off, tell me how much you like it"

Trump: I came here to see the pokemons.
Abe: They aren't real.
Trump: Just show them to me. pic.twitter.com/mlkjCVhYmg

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) November 5, 2017

is...did...I...just... https://t.co/TGgP7YDbGi pic.twitter.com/9y6p8LGSm5

— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) November 5, 2017

It's funny the way that qualities I'd find charming in a three-year-old make me want this septuagenarian to go to sleep and never wake up.

Donald Trump, forever lobbing katanas at ballistic missiles

Looks like Flynn and his idiot son are next

Please let this happen while Trump is still overseas

Sounds like this shoe is finally dropping.

EXCLUSIVE: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges in Michael Flynn investigation https://t.co/8TD2rrfPiw pic.twitter.com/0WSRPX1Kd7

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 5, 2017

Oh I should clarify. It’s Flynn’s idiot son, not Trump’s

You know what's weird? I heard that apparently Michael Flynn's son is actually named Michael Flynn. Not Michael Flynn Jr., just Michael Flynn. I think he informally goes by Jr.

This winter: Indictment Mondays!!

xp Is that weird? I share the same name as my father and grandfather and none of us have a suffix.

maybe it's not weird?

You're only a junior if your full name is exactly like your dad's, including middle name.

The Jr. thing is very American. So given that he is American, I suppose it's weird.

Flynn the Elder, Flynn the Younger, Flynn the Eskimo...

Flynn Jr. is currently posting jubilantly on Twitter about a woman being punched.

flynn the traitor. tomorrow's gonna be interesting

That would be his twitter, @mflynnjr