US Politics, July 2018: FART

The next post explains why this title was a must.

Trump is trying to blow up the WTO with the Fair And Reciprocal Trade Act. I am not making that up.

https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/Man-arrested-after-shouting-womp-womp-and-13041785.php

What's up, bootlickers

Technically it's USFARTA

i hope he has a stroke

Splitting California into seven blue states should be the reasonable, moderate position we settle for when we're not able to totally abolish the Senate https://t.co/TgjSUfx5A4 by @seanilling @davidmfaris pic.twitter.com/NKmmK8KbAO

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) July 1, 2018

Coil someone enlighten me on the pronunciation of “whomp whomp”? I’m not sure I get it.

I didn't know either until the Lewandowski thing blew up. Apparently it's how the "sad trombone" sound is spelled.

More of a ‘whamp whaaaamp whaaaaaaa’ in my book but what do I know. Perhaps we need an emoji.

i've always thought that sitcom effect was a clarinet or oboe btw

Appropriate commentary for US Politics, July 2018: FART

Ever wonder what Tim Geithner's been up to?

Mass-mailing checks to strangers might seem like risky business, but Mariner Finance occupies a fertile niche in the U.S. economy. The company enables some of the nation’s wealthiest investors and investment funds to make money offering high-interest loans to cash-strapped Americans.

Mariner Finance is owned and managed by a $11.2 billion private equity fund controlled by Warburg Pincus, a storied New York firm. The president of Warburg Pincus is Timothy F. Geithner, who, as treasury secretary in the Obama administration, condemned predatory lenders. The firm’s co-chief executives, Charles R. Kaye and Joseph P. Landy, are established figures in New York’s financial world. The minimum investment in the fund is $20 million.

“It’s basically a way of monetizing poor people,” said John Lafferty, who was a manager trainee at a Mariner Finance branch for four months in 2015 in Nashville. His misgivings about the business echoed those of other former employees contacted by The Washington Post. “Maybe at the beginning, people thought these loans could help people pay their electric bill. But it has become a cash cow.”

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

Grrrrrrrrrr

from El Tomboto yesterday:

if you talk about trump winning re-election please punch yourself in the genitalia

Part of my morning workout!

Where are the 1987 Korea style protests demanding direct popular elections?

scuse me, a pig just flew past the window

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf7G8SMsRTM

It take a big bean but butte, we'll surely rumble
Take a big bean but butte, we'll surely rumble
Take a big bean but butte, we'll surely rumble
King Kong will fall as will the great wall
And the whole damn town will crumble

There's a war goin' on
Don't know why I call the fight to dawn
Riotin', lootin' suburbia
Urban rowdies, disturbia, yeah

Last call, last call from home
Can't stop Godzilla
Can't stop Godzilla

Fishbone’s original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, “When Norwood wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, ‘Man, I’ve been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?’

Who knew?

is there a Mexican politics thread?

the world cup thread for the next two hours is the mexico thread tbf

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/man-arrested-after-shouting-%e2%80%98womp-womp%e2%80%99-and-pulling-a-gun-on-immigration-protesters/ar-AAzr1Nw?ocid=ientp

the comments on Huntsville TV station's facebook page about this story are... something else

on some real galaxy brain **actually, it's the protesters' faults for being so close to a man who was legally carrying his firearm. i guess the Huntsville PD is just going to arbitrarily pick and choose which laws they want to enforce**

is this sparta

fine lookin neckbeard on our womp womp friend

i'm sure the GOP will recruit him to run for an AL house district when he's done being jammed up by the state

from El Tomboto yesterday:

/if you talk about trump winning re-election please punch yourself in the genitalia/

Part of my morning workout!

/Where are the 1987 Korea style protests demanding direct popular elections?/

scuse me, a pig just flew past the window

¡Viva AMLO!

viva mexico

¿cómo se dice “otm” en español?

eed

.@SenKamalaHarris, why are you supporting the animals of MS-13? You must not know what ICE really does. Here is a link to help you out: https://t.co/kcrNj4aVMU

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 2, 2018

spicy

dread the nickname he will inevitably give her

i reported that tweet for harassment

meanwhile there are a bunch of congress folk spending america’s birthday in... russia?

As 7 Republican lawmakers get ready to celebrate the 4th of July in #Russia, hoping to meet with Putin, remember this:@SenJohnKennedy (LA)@SenShelby (AL) @SteveDaines (MT)@SenJohnHoeven (ND) @SenJohnThune (SD) @JerryMoran (KS)@RepKayGranger (TX)https://t.co/5XLxyehvKg

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) July 1, 2018

i’m sure it’s a coincidence that most of the senators are on the senate appropriations committee and granger chairs the house appropriations defense subcommittee

of course you’re going to spend the country’s biggest holiday trying to suck off putin

surplus capital seeks new markets and if a few eggs get broken hey

In Soviet Russia, EGGS BREAK YOU!

oh no the Angry Left interrupts another dinner

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/395267-woman-confronts-pruitt-at-restaurant-tells-him-to-resign

(sorry, lunch)

how did she make it past his secret service lunch detail

On this issue - the evils of the US/UK/Saudi war on Yemen - @ChrisMurphyCT has been unyieldingly great. And he didn't just start caring about it on 1/20/2017. He's been vocal and persistent in trying to stop the heinous atrocities the US has been fueling there for years: https://t.co/4ftx0ECrdC

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 2, 2018

how did she make it past his secret service lunch detail

I don't think the Director of the EPA rates a Secret Service detail. All he has are ordinary hired goons, who have much less legal authority than the Secret Service. If she posed no clear and present danger and they tackled her, she could swear out a complaint for assault.

pruitt has a lavish 24/7 security detail: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/05/25/scott-pruitts-security-detail-cost-nearly-3-5-million-his-first-year-agency-reports/?noredirect=on

...and Tactical Pants!

what do you do when you keep seeing the same person you barely know in the hallway and you're sick of figuring out whether to make eye contact or just demote yourself to a staring-at-shoes posture?

use your tactical pants

"Tactical pants" sounds like a pragmatic measure against knowing you will inadvertently soil yourself at some point during the day.

I thought tactical pants actually meant $1,500 worth of neat $40 trousers for each of the security detail for tactical wear at posyh events or something similar. Though I think I may have one of those monetary figures a bit off.
But it does show taht Pruitt has a way larger security ensemble than he needs, though maybe any security at all would be larger than he needed. Or hypothetically if he wasn't wasting this much taxpayers' money.

I understand why he might want tactical pants, because Pruitt knows he more than most that his enemies will be aiming for the dick.

When we have an “infestation” of MS-13 GANGS in certain parts of our country, who do we send to get them out? ICE! They are tougher and smarter than these rough criminal elelments that bad immigration laws allow into our country. Dems do not appreciate the great job they do! Nov.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

ICE's core original element don't appreciate the job the goon squad elements are being made to do/doing all too willingly. Do they?

lmao at this new GOP line that only ICE can apprehend foreign criminals

criminals can be apprehended by the police iirc

you can't spell Police without ICE now can you?

Nov.

a Scotia

Nover Mind the Bollocks.

Where are the 1987 Korea style protests demanding direct popular elections?

scuse me, a pig just flew past the window

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius)

sorry if i'm vaguebooking, i don't want anything i say to be taken the wrong way, but korea has a different history from the united states and that history affects the actions of people there

Now that Harley-Davidson is moving part of its operation out of the U.S., my Administration is working with other Motor Cycle companies who want to move into the U.S. Harley customers are not happy with their move - sales are down 7% in 2017. The U.S. is where the Action is!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

Harley customers so pissed they went back in time to lower the previous year's sales

speeding motorcycle, won't you change history

https://metvcdn.metv.com/hqWvs-1443478183-blog-75.jpg

this is ominous

https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/07/03/putting-a-face-mine-to-the-risks-posed-by-gop-games-on-mueller-investigation/

i'll copy this from trump/russia thread. is this what she's getting at?

i read this as "i burned a person of interest to the matter. i wont burn them publicly yet, but here is some proof i was in contact with a person of interest. i am scared. if anything happens to me, here is a trail to the person i burned to the fbi. i have little faith that ultimately the fbi can protect me under this administration, or will necessarily investigate fully due to circumstances. public notice might help so here."

it's not very clear, that's a...sea of inferences by me?

― Hunt3r, Tuesday, July 3, 2018 11:32 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its gotta be Greenwald right

well the GOP would *never* defend pedophiles, much less elect one Speaker of the oh wai

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/03/jim-jordan-response-ignore-sex-abuse-692612

(Hastert Rule should be renamed the Pedo Rule imo)

cue Genesis Land of COnfusion

These are the pervs we're given

half the country believes Trump is not racist

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/03/poll-trump-racist-692614

otoh solid majority doesn't like his handling of immigration so - cool midterm issue to run on GOP!

just saw this, from last week

...And now they live and wait in unfamiliar places: big American suburban houses where no one speaks their language; a locked shelter on a dusty road where they spend little time outside; a converted Walmart where each morning they are required to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, in English, to the country that holds them apart from their parents.

Why must they say those words, some of the children ask at the shelter in Brownsville, on the Mexican border in Texas?

“We tell them, ‘It’s out of respect,’ ” said one employee of the facility, known as Casa Padre, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their job.

i know that posting stuff like this irritates a lot of people, sorry. very dystopia though

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/separated-immigrant-children-are-all-over-the-us-now-far-from-parents-who-dont-know-where-they-are/2018/06/24/c9bc5ba6-7568-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html

my sons have informed me that the two goalkeepers are "dickford" and "ospenis"

lol wrong thred :/

New Cabinet members Dickford & Ospenis

Ospenis is why we have Trump now.

Watching Susan Collins square her “principles” with her vote for holocaust denier Justice Dickford is going to be... something.

I guess he's an ACLU member?

Wow! The NSA has deleted 685 million phone calls and text messages. Privacy violations? They blame technical irregularities. Such a disgrace. The Witch Hunt continues!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

Wait, what?

musta been Fox & Friends?

Who cares its just more nonsense

it’s a distraction from all the reconstructed cohen shreds

After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

"pour over"

pretty funny if he did that on purpose but man I doubt it

Somewhat

They’re deleting *call detail records*, not calls and text messages. The overproduction was indeed a privacy violation, though this time it looks like the telcos problem. We should learn more about what happened. But it has exactly zilch to do with the Mueller inquiry. https://t.co/FLfbNnMiBa

— Julian Sanchez (@normative) July 3, 2018

The Washington Post is constantly quoting “anonymous sources” that do not exist. Rarely do they use the name of anyone because there is no one to give them the kind of negative quote that they are looking for. They are a disgrace to journalism but then again, so are many others!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018

does this mean WaPo is about to drop something ?

I'd really be surprised if the WH leaking goes in both directions and he knows what they're going to drop.

there is no one to give them the kind of negative quote that they are looking for

I love how he thinks he structures his tweets like sonnets or an exquisite piece of music: melody and countermelody leading to dissonance (the exclamation point).

I swear i just heard a report on the Court nomination on WNYC that said "Senator John McCain may be too old to vote."

xp the whine of beauty

I Magid Magid, Lord Mayor & first citizen of this city hereby declare that not only is Donald J Trump (@realDonaldTrump) a WASTEMAN, but he is also henceforth banned from the great city of Sheffield!

I further declare July 13th to be Mexico Solidarity Day! 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/qYehdHYDEt

— 🚀MΛG!D (@MagicMagid) July 4, 2018

hell yes

the best

happy fourth of july

HEARD THIS PLACE WAS GREAT BEFORE THE EURAPEANS SHOWED UP - https://t.co/Qtp3PuUDXE - pic.twitter.com/rwJHTgZB0j

— da share z0ne (@dasharez0ne) July 4, 2018

Reading this thread title is like tasting barium

sorry for excerpting this at such length, but it's a fine example of the onion presidency

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — As a meeting last August in the Oval Office to discuss sanctions on Venezuela was concluding, President Donald Trump turned to his top aides and asked an unsettling question: With a fast unraveling Venezuela threatening regional security, why can’t the U.S. just simply invade the troubled country?

The suggestion stunned those present at the meeting, including U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom have since left the administration. This account of the previously undisclosed conversation comes from a senior administration official familiar with what was said.

In an exchange that lasted around five minutes, McMaster and others took turns explaining to Trump how military action could backfire and risk losing hard-won support among Latin American governments to punish President Nicolas Maduro for taking Venezuela down the path of dictatorship, according to the official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.

But Trump pushed back. Although he gave no indication he was about to order up military plans, he pointed to what he considered past cases of successful gunboat diplomacy in the region, according to the official, like the invasions of Panama and Grenada in the 1980s.

The idea, despite his aides’ best attempts to shoot it down, would nonetheless persist in the president’s head.

The next day, Aug. 11, Trump alarmed friends and foes alike with talk of a “military option” to remove Maduro from power. The public remarks were initially dismissed in U.S. policy circles as the sort of martial bluster people have come to expect from the reality TV star turned commander in chief.

But shortly afterward, he raised the issue with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, according to the U.S. official. Two high-ranking Colombian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing Trump confirmed the report.

Then in September, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump discussed it again, this time at greater length, in a private dinner with leaders from four Latin American allies that included Santos, the same three people said and Politico reported in February.

The U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue and told it wouldn’t play well, but the first thing the president said at the dinner was, “My staff told me not to say this.” Trump then went around asking each leader if they were sure they didn’t want a military solution, according to the official, who added that each leader told Trump in clear terms they were sure.

Eventually, McMaster would pull aside the president and walk him through the dangers of an invasion, the official said.

eventually, hope hicks would pull aside the president to try to convince the president not to eat the fireworks, gently rebutting his repeated claims that they weren't dangerous if eaten with other foods and liquids at the same time

The U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue and told it wouldn’t play well, but the first thing the president said at the dinner was, “My staff told me not to say this.” The U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue and told it wouldn’t play well, but the first thing the president said at the dinner was, “My staff told me not to say this.” The U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue and told it wouldn’t play well, but the first thing the president said at the dinner was, “My staff told me not to say this.” The U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue and told it wouldn’t play well, but the first thing the president said at the dinner was, “My staff told me not to say this.” The U.S. official said Trump was specifically briefed not to raise the issue and told it wouldn’t play well, but the first thing the president said at the dinner was, “My staff told me not to say this.”

a man of honesty

My staff told me not to say that I pooped in my pants

So did this thing about denaturalising naturalised citizens slip out today because ts 4th of July and they're hoping no one will notice under the din of fireworks and the smoke of BBQs? Because it seems a more heinous step than they've taken so far.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/07/senate-intelligence-july-fourth-russian-interference/
Report repudiating the Trump comments about the Russian interference being negligible and denied trickled out yesterday at 3pm at the same time as a Republican visit to Russia. Came out in the pre-holiday news dump and not sure people heard about it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-russia-investigation-latest-putin-clinton-senate-intelligence-committee-report-a8430171.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber/senate-panel-backs-intelligence-agencies-on-russia-trump-conclusions-idUSKBN1JT2YB

this thing about denaturalising naturalised citizens

another name for a naturalized citizen is "voter"

Can we "denaturalize" some birthright citizens? I have a few in mind, thanxinadvancebye

huh i guess it wouldnt surprise me if a segment of rich gop seeks to insulate themselves from him as a criminal, toxic personality. dont know how theyd make it work-

they’d try to save the racist fascist agenda, and make nice with security/intel state, but also flush trump himself twice, and hard, after the mueller report. theyd hope he goes away but to keep the benefits to their agenda? i dont think the base will go for that. also assumes a lot about that report.

i dont think the base will go for that

no can do

they can go for being twice as shite

irl, hollow, lol

The biggest effect of @Ocasio2018's victory thus far is that she's given liberals and the left license and room to breathe. When it comes to ideas, you can just see and feel the room of possibility expanding, the realm of fear and anxiety contracting. https://t.co/RxRplxkhP7

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) July 3, 2018

CR had a good thread today about the advantage the left/DSA has over liberals: they have a long-term vision of what they want to see America become, not just a set of reactions to the proto-fascist present (though they have those, too).

It’s interesting, watching this from afar; that the Ocasio’s victory is defining separate left and liberal identities in the mainstream in a way that Bernie didn’t seem to and it seems to be helped by the redhatters freaking out about free healthcare and college for all, magnifying the difference with the centre.

Sad to see that I'm already seeing a backlash against Ocasio claiming that her background is a lot less working class than she's making out. Hoping that isn't going to lead to voting apathy come November.
Would think one would want to be a lot less divisive in what people were voting for since there is a recognised monolithic thing that people do need to replace as well as more minor related problems.

it’s baseless and rooted in the right wing coding “suburbs” as only for the rich, when a lot of big cities had and have working class suburbs because... that sort of class mobility was seen as a selling point for this country, even by republicans. but now that the GOP is the party of kleptocrats, things are different.

anyway weird how this senator is like “HEY I AM IN DC LOOK FIREWORKS” after going radio silent during his little russian jaunt

Hearing the sound of fireworks all around us, celebrating freedom! pic.twitter.com/s7C6pyTdWu

— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) July 5, 2018

(which he might still be on, who knows!)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/03/ahead-of-trump-putin-summit-republicans-meet-with-russian-officials-i.html

Fourth from the left, today, in Moscow. pic.twitter.com/N7U2pHQLgZ

— Robert Holzer (@RobertHolzer) July 5, 2018

All those red ties.

AOC could've said she was raised by bears in the woods and right wingers would be like "these bears intimidate and use private pools without permission."

Anyway her district is more likely to elect a pizza rat than a Republican.

“My staff told me not to say this." I thought WH personnel would at least be well-versed in how to get a 4-year-old to do the opposite of what you want.

All those red ties.

Alabama, Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Kansas and both Dakotas should all be cut to one Senate seat each, in perpetuity

Cannot believe how many knuckle sandwiches with murder sauce are in my bag today

i didn't know red was still the Rooshen color

"Siding with the nation that destabilised our democracy to own the libs"

Morbius, don’t question the menswear knowhow of our Senators from the cousin-fucking states

Can we put a travel ban to keep them over there? Preferably in the same apartment tower with Snowden

Try not to think about the posturing these cunty wastemen scum have performed about kneeling during the anthem while they sit obediently across from their Master Kislyak and his Lord Putin

The ratio on Daines’ tweet is ... quite high

Sad to see that I'm already seeing a backlash against Ocasio claiming that her background is a lot less working class than she's making out. Hoping that isn't going to lead to voting apathy come November.
Would think one would want to be a lot less divisive in what people were voting for since there is a recognised monolithic thing that people do need to replace as well as more minor related problems.

― Stevolende, Thursday, July 5, 2018 4:12 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

concern troll self-outed

Sad to see that I'm already seeing a backlash against Ocasio claiming that her background is a lot less working class than she's making out.

You misspelled "tiny and instantly refuted dribble of right-wing bullshit."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/how-trumps-supreme-court-pick-could-undo-kennedys-legacy

I think we should go ahead and start a four-part series of RIP threads, Shakey style, for Roberts, Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch, so we can be appropriately prepared to celebrate their transitions with rude and indecorous amounts of glee (assuming, of course, that a Democrat is ever allowed to win an election again) (or not, I guess if their heads roll in baskets I’m okay with that too)

Year 243 is off to a great start btw

I will remain cautiously optimistic until the 14th amendment gets repealed

I think we should go ahead and start a four-part series of RIP threads, Shakey style, for Roberts, Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch

you rang

You do it better than anybody

ACTUALLY undoing "Kennedy's legacy" would probably be on balance more good than harm, but I know they probably just mean on social issues.

I'm already seeing a backlash against Ocasio

unless it originated at the grassroots level, its not a backlash but simply propaganda trying to get a foothold in people's minds

Seems to be getting into circulation from people I know are involved in other grassroots leftist activity. Was pretty disappointed to see it since there is an obvious thing that needs to be dealt with before it gets any further out of hand so if it is right wing propaganda it appears to be working on some people I know.

Know fewer stupid people?

How do your grassroots buddies feel about Warren’s Native American heritage?

i hate the self-punching left so much

Seems to be getting into circulation from people I know are involved in other grassroots leftist activity. Was pretty disappointed to see it since there is an obvious thing that needs to be dealt with before it gets any further out of hand so if it is right wing propaganda it appears to be working on some people I know.

I'm gonna put this simply:

1. I don't believe you

2. Even if what you say is true, the people stupid enough to fall for this and/or get agitated about it will likely be in no position to hurt Ocasio Cortez's general election campaign with it, since her strategy seems entirely built on knocking on doors and getting the neighborhood out to vote for her, so...they can go fuck themselves?

I don't care if you don't believe me. That is what happened.

Got some tweets you can quote, or any other evidence at all to support your claim?

I've seen this but I really don't think it's going to have a measurable effect on the general election, which is nowhere near as close as the presidential

approximately 1 second after AOC won the primary, the usual rightwing suspects started to think of ways to take her down. some thought that just exposing her platform (ie this infamous hannity segment) would would be enough to frighten off some people, while others went for the "she lives in a suburb! she doesn't speak for the people! she can't be a socialist because she went to a nice college!" angle.

none of that is surprising. that rightwing response was totally predictable. just as predictable is that some people on the left would take notice of the right's bullshit kneejerk attacks on AOC and then highlight them to their own followers as yet more examples of the moral and intellectual turpitude of the right. that's not indicative of any sort of real "backlash", that's just how this terrible world operates right now

also lots of people on the left just like that flagellated feeling and can’t stand winners

oh man I REALLY hope this whole thing takes this shitbag down

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/ex-wrestler-says-rep-jim-jordan-witnessed-lewd-shower-acts-coach-ohio-state-001134484.html

yeah, the way that guy can summon a voice of righteous condemnation on demand is revolting

Our country is such a butt right now I started reading that and thought “well at least that lying douchebag didn’t spend the 4th in fucking Moscow”

maybe he'll spend three to five in the state pen

US Politics, July 2018: mudbutt

heh, Schumer told Trump he should nominate Merrick Garland

Maybe he should have said he should never nominate Garland. Does reverse psychology actually work on him.

Masha Gessen on the plight of naturalized citizens

Back in 1989, I had to make a decision about whether to lie on my citizenship application. At the time, immigration law banned “aliens afflicted with sexual deviation,” among others suffering from “psychopathic personality,” from entry to the United States. I had come to this country as a fourteen-year-old, in 1981, but I had been aware of my “sexual deviation” at the time, and this technically meant that I should not have entered the country. I decided to append a letter to my citizenship application, informing the Immigration and Naturalization Service that I was homosexual but that I disagreed with the exclusion and would be willing to discuss the matter in court. I was young, ambitious, and pragmatically cocky: I had entered the country as a stateless person, not to mention a minor, so I figured that I couldn’t be deported. The rational thing to do, however, would have been to obfuscate on my citizenship application.

My application was granted without my having to fight for it in court. I hadn’t thought about my naturalization for years, but I find myself thinking about it now, thankful for the near-accident of not having lied on my application. Over the years, the applications for both citizenship and permanent residence have grown ever longer, filling with questions that seem to be designed to be used against the applicant. Question 26 on the green-card application, for example, reads, “Have you EVER committed a crime of any kind (even if you were not arrested, cited, charged with, or tried for that crime)?” (Emphasis in the original.) The question does not specify whether it refers to a crime under current U.S. law or the laws of the country in which the crime might have been committed. In the Soviet Union of my youth, it was illegal to possess foreign currency or to spend the night anywhere you were not registered to live. In more than seventy countries, same-sex sexual activity is still illegal. On closer inspection, just about every naturalized citizen might look like an outlaw, or a liar.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/in-america-naturalized-citizens-no-longer-have-an-assumption-of-permanence

heh, Schumer told Trump he should nominate Merrick Garland

― Οὖτις, Thursday, July 5, 2018 12:44 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://pics.me.me/there-was-an-attempt-29920712.png

Fox News creep/fixer Bill Shine is now the deputy White House chief of staff, focused on communications.

How to tell nobody else wanted the job, right there.

have box will travel

I've seen this but I really don't think it's going to have a measurable effect on the general election, which is nowhere near as close as the presidential

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, July 5, 2018 11:19 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

um, this is a slight understatement if you're talking about AOC's general election. Her GOP opponent is a mens' rights activist whose one issue seems to be divorce courts, an issue that is not even impacted by congress. He has effectively raised $0. This is in one of the safest blue districts in the country.

I'm going to assume that any "backlash" on "the left" is either among the Clinton loyalist "Bernie has three houses so he's a hypocrite" crowd (a very small demographic) or super-tankie lefter-than-thou people who don't even believe in electoral politics to begin with. Either group should be dismissed out of hand. I'm waiting for evidence that such a "backlash" exists.

considering she's somewhat lefty, a WOC, and increasingly ubiquitous (at least for people who pay attention to US political media), the backlash has been pretty muted/limited tbh - I notice it most among the suspicious-of-electoral-politics crowd but that's to be expected

clinton loyalists i know seem to be v into aoc

actually honestly i only know one clinton loyalist so that prob means nothing

yeah tbc I didn't mean all clinton loyalists just the small subset that still seems to be heavily berniebashing after all this time

um, this is a slight understatement if you're talking about AOC's general election. Her GOP opponent is a mens' rights activist whose one issue seems to be divorce courts, an issue that is not even impacted by congress. He has effectively raised $0. This is in one of the safest blue districts in the country.

yes exactly

yeah. any attempt to pull down AOC is aimed at undercutting her national significance.

album-oriented country

yeah. any attempt to pull down AOC is aimed at undercutting her national significance.

― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, July 5, 2018 6:17 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which is amazing because all she's done so far is won a goddamn primary and exhibited above average media savvy

(not undercutting her I think shes great but its impressive to see the right fully mobilize against her)

it really has been, they've spent so long calling people like Hillary and Obama socialists that they have no idea how to react when they're confronted with an actual one

Well, also, she's young! So she, folks like Beto O'Rourke ... they're not going anywhere.

Speaking as a resident of TX, I hope you are right about Beto, but color me skeptical.

^^Oddly, I've already seen a conservative friend of mine tell me that Beto isn't going to beat Cruz, and that he should already be putting some focus towards getting the Dem Presidential nom in 2020 instead.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/05/trump-sanctuary-cities-ruling-695286

Seems like a stretch, but ok

xp

guys Jim Jordan is being "bullied" online and he is going to call the Capitol Police about it
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/05/trump-sanctuary-cities-ruling-695286

er
https://thinkprogress.org/jordan-bullying-claims-83d2c32c6e53/

pruitt out

Wow, that really is huge

waht

FINALLY

Pruitt soon to be nominated to fill SCOTUS vacancy?

Guess that will put to rest rumors about using him as a replacement for Sessions.

fired by tweet!

lol

too bad his deputy replacement will be equally shitty

on the plus side there's no way in hell the Senate confirms a new appointee any time soon

I thought Pruitt was partially getting away with things because of teh rapport between him and the President. Subsequently it's unlikely that any replacement for him would get away with a fraction of the same shite isn't it?

so uh can he be prosecuted for any of this or is he gonna skate

lmao just kidding I know the answer already

apparently he worked with james inhoffe, so, yes, correct xxp

outlasted Gorsuch's mom, which is a real embarrassment considering he was exponentially more corrupt

I don't think he did anything criminally prosecutable tbh

at worst they could make him repay some of the money he overspent

wow the pruitt stuff is insane. when you are too brazen and corrupt even for the Trump administration

does he get to keep the tactical pants y/n

Trump didn't fire him because he was corrupt, he fired him because he was too poor to be less conspicuously corrupt

in a perfect world, he would have resigned because he had a come-to-Jesus moment after being scolded in public by a teacher carrying a baby, but we all know that isn't what happened.

does anybody have a spare piano to drop on this guy

https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/who-andrew-wheeler-and-why-you-should-be-afraid-him

I see that Ocasio is dead to some Clintonistas because the Unmentionable Susan Sarandon canvassed for her.

BREAKING: @EPAScottPruitt resignation letter to @realDonaldTrump. Obtained by @johnrobertsFox: pic.twitter.com/A3ErO84hLQ

— Fin Gomez (@finnygo) July 5, 2018

hasn't the plan been all along for that dip shit just to run for office back in Oklahoma again?

I don't think he did anything criminally prosecutable tbh

deleting communications?

Bribery? It is not legal to quid pro quo with lobbyists for financial gain is it?

or is that just unethical?

pete venkman for epa

It is not legal to quid pro quo with lobbyists for financial gain is it?

the supreme court has basically said otherwise

#blessed

I don't think he did anything criminally prosecutable tbh
deleting communications?

― frogbs, Thursday, July 5, 2018 8:04 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can also add falsification of government records to cover up shenanigans.. per the stories of pruitt maintaining multiple calendars to cover up his bullshit

yeah good luck prosecuting that stuff, I'm sure the KKK Keebler Elf is gonna get right on that

jared's neverending failure to list his meetings/financial connections on his security clearance was felonious, but who's gonna prosecute him

"Scott Pruit has reigned, the search is on for a new shitty leader"

love how his resignation letter paints him out to be a victim of left-wing meanies and not one of the most blatantly corrupt Cabinet members in US history

tbf he was chosen by God to burn this planet to the ground

has Pruitt found out yet

the insane religiosity of the resignation suggests he did dictate it himself

Haste to find out that Pruitt was tactically nasty so the next, more effectively damaging EPA leader isn't seen as bad.
BUt that does call for a level of intelligence and strategic thinking on the Republican side

Hate to find

Getting wacky out there.

NEWS - @LannyDavis, the Clinton-era White House official, tells me he's been retained by @MichaelCohen212 as he prepares for a potential legal onslaught from prosecutors and a potential PR onslaught from Trump associates.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 5, 2018

lmao

BREAKING: White House introduces Scott Pruitt’s replacement pic.twitter.com/r3sCwCGm1W

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) July 5, 2018

Reading between the lines of that resignation letter, "my desire has always been to service you..."

Aw how sweet:

Davis in statement on Cohen retaining him: pic.twitter.com/KIV3Kt0Aym

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 5, 2018

just a counselor doing what counselors do

Davis in statement on Cohen retaining him: pic.twitter.com/KIV3Kt0Aym

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 5, 2018

Whoops sorry for the repeat -- meant this:

Here's a fun FOIA'd email exchange. WaPo asked EPA about a FB post in which Andrew Wheeler called Trump a "bully" and said he was a bad businessman. EPA asked Wheeler to "lock down" his social media accounts, and assured him, "This is the smallest fire we will put out all day." pic.twitter.com/RyJwSjUyZr

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 5, 2018

surely there's a "bad meaning GOOD!" mea culpa forthcoming

good thing he hates the environment just enough to still go work for him

can't imagine Pruitt willingly resigned, I kinda wonder if that letter was written for him and that Pruitt himself found out on TV while eating another free lunch at the Navy cafeteria

is this because the interns or subs ratted him out about having to pay for his reservations lol but not lol

idk if anyone knows or cares about this latest right wing idiot freakout but there was a viral video today of some guy at Whataburger stealing a teenager's MAGA hat and throwing a drink in his face

got a lot of play on all the usual outlets, but wouldn't ya just know it

Witnesses say teens in viral MAGA hat video were joking about lynching black people before Whataburger attack https://t.co/60rmrjFTpk

— Raw Story (@RawStory) July 5, 2018

what an asshole, they were just boys bein' buys, everybody blows off steam by talking about lynching minorities!

Hmm

NEW: Exclusive: 4th former Ohio State Univ. wrestler has come forward to contradict Rep. Jim Jordan’s claim that he had no idea the wrestling team doctor was molesting athletes. https://t.co/4he5yrODXg

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 5, 2018

why won't those online bullies leave him alone

lmao Trump himself just came out in Jim Jordan's defense, great timing

It's telling (if not surprising) how quickly these people will embrace the very language that they'd otherwise dismiss as decadent or effete.

Once upon a time, military service was a path to citizenship. No more, it seems.

Ah, of course.

Trump on his crowds: "I have broken more Elton John records...and I don't have a musical instrument: I don't have a guitar or an organ. No organ. Elton has an organ."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 5, 2018

this train don't stop

no organ

TRUMP 2020: No Organ.

Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Covfefe Player

Melania Can't Buy You Love (Do U?)

Honky cat

MAGA LibTears & Red Hatters

Bennie and the Warm Jets

And I guess that's why they call it fake news

Hold me closer, tiny hand sir

Rocketman with bigger button that works, obv.

how does he think a DNA test works

Trump challenging Elizabeth Warren to a Native American heritage test: “We will take that little kit, we have to do it gently because we’re in the "Me Too" generation. We will slowly toss it, hoping it doesn’t hit her and injure her arm.”

pic.twitter.com/Df5LA8rTHT

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 6, 2018

No organ.

Guys...it got weirder.

Korean media: Trump asked Kim Jong Un, whom he had called Rocket Man, if he knows the Elton John song Rocket Man, and Kim said no, so Pompeo is bringing Kim the CD, which Trump has autographed. https://t.co/Z1EAg4ZaAM

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 6, 2018

I guess that's nice of him

salute to scott pruit, man. a guy who truly takes seriously his role as movie villain

Fucked up thing for me in all this is I always thought about that song in the context of growing up in Rocket City, in Alabama, represented by Senator Richard Shelby, and basically NO NO NO and I don’t want it to be a LONG LONG TIME, I want this to all be over with now immediately now

Economic anxiety!

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-missouri-town-tariff-20180705-story.html

Few, been a day or two since we had one of those pieces about what Trump voters really think.

Fucking hell I hadn't watched him on the campaign trail in a while but last night's rally was more disturbing than ever.

He made fun of McCain (again) and Poppy Bush, I heard.

All this and Pocahontas too!

people wanna hear him play the hits

well here we prefer the one-time performances, like "Russia probably meddled"

yeah i know we've heard it all before . it's just the disgusting manner in which he utters this bullshit when he's all hyped up by his dumbshit groupies

Did he play "Lock Her Up?" That's my jam.

I've seen an amount of genuine left-wing AOC criticism, the anti-war part of her site apparently disappeared and returned saying "This continued <war> damages America’s legitimacy as a force for good", and there are some tweets from May saying that "We have to replace ICE with an updated INS-structure that handles crime through the same court system we've had for well over 100 years".

(Which, you know, that's the thing about a slogan, if it's snappy enough to gain traction then different people will be projecting different things onto it)

from her official website, today:

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States has entangled itself in war and occupation throughout the Middle East and North Africa. As of 2018, we are currently involved in military action in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Hundreds of thousands of civilians in these countries have been killed either as collateral damage from American strikes or from the instability caused by U.S. interventions. Millions more have fled their broken countries, contributing to the global refugee crisis.

This continued action damages America’s legitimacy as a force for good, creates new generations of potential terrorists, and erodes American prosperity. In times when we’re told that there’s not enough money, Republicans and corporate Democrats seem to find the cash to fund a $1.1 trillion fighter jet program or a $1.7 trillion-dollar nuclear weapon “modernization” program. The costs are extreme: the Pentagon’s budget for 2018 is $700 billion dollars: to continue fighting an endless War on Terror and refighting the Cold War with a new arms race that nobody can win.

According to the Constitution, the right to declare war belongs to the legislative body, and yet many of these global acts of aggression have never once been voted on by Congress. In some cases, we've even acted unilaterally, without the backing of the United Nations.

America should not be in the business of destabilizing countries. While we may see ourselves as liberators, the world increasingly views us as occupiers and aggressors. Alexandria believes that we must end the "forever war" by bringing our troops home, and ending the air strikes that perpetuate the cycle of terrorism throughout the world.

By bringing our troops home, we can begin to heal the wounds we're opening by continuing military engagement. We can begin to repair our image. We can reunite military families, separated by repeated deployments. We can become stronger by building stronger diplomatic and economic ties, and by saving our armed forces only for when they're truly needed.

Idk by mainstream political standards that's pretty good even with the added sentence

I do agree that the "drift" occurring with "Abolish ICE" essentially getting co-opted to mean "Rebrand ICE" is depressing.

If you don’t understand the substantive difference between INS and the current ICE then oh well open borders for everything I guess

that wasn't directed at AOC, I should have been clearer

Sure, and I'm not disagreeing, Simon, just noting that there are some criticisms which aren't spewed straight from the gullet of Fox News.

Yeah. I certainly don't begrudge anyone their skepticism and it certainly beats unchecked hero worship.

“It’s just one big mess,” said Brogdon, who fears she may struggle to keep the large, brick home she bought just a few months ago. “He’s looking at the big picture, and I understand that. But he’s got to stop and look at the small towns around here that are really going to get hurt.”

Isn't this just the working-class, right-wing version of "Obama is just playing eleven-dimensional chess"?

No, because Obama was actually trying to rope-a-dope people, and guys like me loved it, even though it almost never worked.

That’s just an idiot who ruined my country and hasn’t figured out yet that she voted for an illiterate and innumerate psychopath who doesn’t give two shits about her or anyone else in wherever she lives.

even Yam's saintly predecessor made a "no saviors, please" speech last week

xxp

this person has 81k followers apparently, lol

The Abolish Ice narrative is a Russian Active Measure. It’s purpose is to make the Democrats seem supportive of open borders and anti law enforcement. ICE needs reform and may need to be absorbed into another Homeland Security apparatus. https://t.co/ea2Y8vW36A

— Andrew C Laufer, Esq (@lauferlaw) July 5, 2018

POTUS going after "thousand points of light" / big Bush, the base will go along with that. figure he'll go after Reagan too eventually, will the base go for that? I figure, yes, probably... and then what is the Republican party?

What it’s always wanted to be

not the party of Reagan

They're nihilists, they destroy each other.

no one will do this, but i encourage everyone to go watch the entirety of "Under the Sun", let yourself react to it however you want to, and immediately afterward read this sentence

'Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with an Elton John CD that includes his hit song “Rocket Man,” signed by President Donald Trump, North Korean media reported Friday.'

Oh, I found the "left" Ocasio backlash:

Ladies, Gentlemen and others, this time including @FBIWFO, part two in our series “The Defenders of @Ocasio2018”!

What does today’s lucky contestant think of Russia? Let’s find out! https://t.co/VG6QlSKCvJ

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) July 6, 2018

And yet, Central American toddlers are vermin, in his view. https://t.co/0uW8qvxeqs

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 6, 2018

The power of Trump's rhetoric. https://t.co/HhcdJfbOxJ

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) July 5, 2018

Lol remember Louise Mensch? It’s been awhile. What was her catachphrase again?

“One more bump”, I believe

"Roll another number for the road."

Bennie and the Warm Jets

― Hunt3r, Thursday, July 5, 2018 10:45 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hold me closer, tiny hand sir

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, July 5, 2018 10:56 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Grateful for these

Sorta think him signing and sending a copy of rocket man to kju is both the least pro and the most legit dirtbaggy move he could do.

Every Wednesday morning at 7 a.m., up to a dozen Cabinet members leave their staffs behind and quietly gather, often at the mammoth Department of Agriculture building just south of the National Mall.

There, they dive into Bible study. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Carson are among the regular attendees, and at times they are joined by Vice President Mike Pence and others.

The members rarely speak about the sessions, reflecting the low-key, keep-their-heads-down approach most have taken to their positions.

https://i.imgur.com/gDLtqL6.jpg

Weaponizing the bible and Bible study is a conservative tradition xl

if asked to name the top 3 people in the cabinet who literally have no idea what they're doing, i would go with carson, devos, and perry.

having no idea is not the worst thing in this context

change "cabinet" to the broader "administration" and Jared would definitely belong.

lol morbs otm

I've got an idea, why don't they study the Bible full-time

speaking of Under the Sun, there was a part of it where someone is asked to pretend to be an industrial engineer and play out a scene with two factory workers where he makes suggestions to improve productivity. so they play out this really stilted conversation about 8mm and 16mm and 12mm fabric details and how a machine needs to be fixed. he speaks with the ignorant confidence of a man with authority who only has to read a set of lines, while the two workers/actors nod vigorously and say "yes" to whatever vague suggestions he makes about the machine needing to be fixed. having accomplished absolutely nothing, the meeting is concluded with the understanding that everything will be better later. reminded me of people like perry and carson in a way, these career asslickers being carried along with this wave of stupidity

yeah iirc that guy was selected to be a part of the faux documentary (with the real doc being the making of the fake doc) but then the NK higher-ups decided his actual job wasn't sufficiently grand so they had him pretend to run this factory or whatever.

they should have had him wear rick perry glasses though, they make you smart

every 'trump voters sticking by their guy' piece was written in 1976

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

Rick Perry instructing a CRISPR team sounds hilarious xp

another day, another story about GOP sexual predators and a wrestling team

https://thinkprogress.org/jordan-wrestlers-coming-forward-758b8ddcc70e/

So I heard that it was Lionel Davis representing Cohen.

(Sorry.)

The url lol: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/06/will-susan-collins-get-snookered-again-218951

that's the third time I've seen that argument that Collins (and/or Murkowski) exercise leverage and hold-out for a bipartisan process but... come on does anyone really think that is going to happen? It would be a blow to McConnell's power as Maj. Leader on one of only issues for which he can claim any real success, he would do everything in his power to circumvent/crush it.

It doesn't occur to the writer that "snookered" for Collins "I'm voting exactly how I want."

All Collins really wants is a fig leaf to cover her naughty bits votes. I read she talked to Trump and he personally assured her that he would not ask his nominee about their position on Roe v Wade. This seemed to satisfy her.

having no idea is not the worst thing in this context

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Friday, July 6, 2018 12:36 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously, I just looked at the full list of Cabinet members and if you only count the people who have been there since the beginning, I don't know how Perry isn't the "best" simply because afaik he hasn't really done anything personally or through the power of his position sufficiently destructive to warrant much attention.

happy two year anniversary to this tweet

Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the 'Star of David' also?
Dishonest media! #Frozen pic.twitter.com/4LJBpSm8xa

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2016

50 schtickers

There, they dive into Bible study. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Carson are among the regular attendees, and at times they are joined by Vice President Mike Pence and others.

wtf crazy bible are they studying where they don't end up thinking they'll burn in hell?

they skip all the wimpy compassionate stuff

The Wall Street version of #resistance - the Serve America Movement - is ludicrously being led by Morgan Stanley luminaries who don’t seem to know exactly what they stand for: https://t.co/HRJhAsNfGN

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) July 3, 2018

I can't even laugh at the Bible study thing too much since apparently Gillenbrand does it too.

xpost The thing I remember most about E. Grossman was he trying to get all trash cans removed from all the desks so that people would have to get up and move around to throw away their rubbish.

I assume bible study means planning sessions for the establishment of Gilead.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-admin-admits-it-cant-reunite-migrant-families-by-court-deadline-hours-after-it-said-it-can-65058e65d3f0/

the thing I don't understand is the consequences of them failing to fulfill the court order. Like, do they get a fine or are they at risk for a further injunction or...?

Good news:

BREAKING: The US attorney's office in DC is dismissing all remaining Inauguration Day mass arrest cases. The government had been unable to secure any convictions at trial so far; there were 38 cases left.
Filing: https://t.co/G3Sj03ZyyN
Statement from the US attorney's office: pic.twitter.com/ikySuzE65s

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) July 6, 2018

Thank god. Fucking waste of time and money for everyone involved.

Well, not if the goal was to terrify and intimidate people.

don't think ppl have been terrified and intimidated out of protesting tbh

https://www.mediaite.com/online/bill-shines-wife-complained-she-couldnt-use-n-word-and-spread-conspiracy-theories-about-blacks/

big surprise that the new White House communications chief's wife is a racist bitch

pobrecito
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/395779-cook-moves-brat-seat-to-toss-up-four-years-after-stunning-victory-over-gop

COOK BRAT SEAT TOSS

Wow, that Shine article. All the overconfidence, none of the intelligence or compassion. Kind of how I imagined the "ching chong" girl turning out.

over and over, they just want permission to be racist

how I imagined the "ching chong" girl turning out.

I had to google and apparently this is some instagram teenager who made a ~rap~ dis song on youtube with the refrain "ching chong ching chong ching chong bitch" in September 2017

also she is a baby dolezal

get comfy, shitbag!
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Lawyers-Manafort-in-solitary-confinement-as-he-13054605.php

At least one of them got locked up.
Shame it wasn't Flynn really. MIght have been a little more fitting after his cheerleading.
Do hope Manafort is going to remain in there for a good long while. He's not going to flip now or anything is he?
I mean equal rights for evil shits innit. Like too remain behind bars when you've been caught like.

at this point I would guess that no, Manafort will not flip because he is counting (with good reason) on a full pardon.

I'm not sure he *can* flip. Committing crimes while under house arrest tends to erode whatever legal bargaining power you once had.

fair point.

trying to think what unrepentant Watergate figure he most resembles - he's not a low-level thug like Liddy, nor a cabinet member. Bebe Rebozo, I suppose?

Mitchell was unrepentant but a far bigger deal in the administration

I forgot that Mitchell was Nixon's campaign manager in '72!

Was wondering why he was laying low.

NEW: NYT: Mueller needs to prove that he has evidence that Trump committed a crime & that his testimony is essential to completing the investigation before Trump would agree to an interview, per Giuliani, Trump’s lead lawyer in the case https://t.co/5sIi9xbL3C @nytmike @maggieNYT

— Evan Rosenfeld (@Evan_Rosenfeld) July 7, 2018

um, that's ridiculous.

Murder suspects should try that one

and desperate

xp

he should have offered to sit for an interview only if mueller provided proof that he was not guilty.

Hey look another actual Nazi won a GOP primary
https://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-GOP-candidate-denies-Holocaust-13055111.php

jesus, how many is that now? 3? more?

trick question. all of them are nazis.

omar navarro (maxine waters' opponent in ca 43) has a campaign staff made up of known local supervisor meeting anti-semite cranks and nazis and brings the proud boys to his rallies.

discussed around 8 mins in on the (very good!) LA podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/time-crisis-edge-of-navarro/id1365234191?i=1000414019769&mt=2

all of them are nazis.

it depends on whether you think a crypto-Nazi qualifies as a real Nazi or just a fellow traveler.

where would you draw the line, aimless

Ha speak of the devils

There’s a GOP candidate for Congress in CA who:
-is friends with anti-Semite Baked Alaska
-has a bodyguard who went to the Charlottesville rally
-has aides who post the 14 words and use parentheses to indicate Jewish people

The guy in this article is a DIFFERENT GOP candidate. https://t.co/gL5ATeVhtC

— Hayes Davenport (@hayesdavenport) July 7, 2018

xp - at the point where they give active or material support or encouragement to fascist policies. merely sympathizing secretly, but impotently, although it is reprehensible enough, adds no energy to the system in any particular direction. btw, voting for fascists def counts as support and encouragement.

so, arthur jones (illinois, 3rd district), john fitzgerald, (california, 11th district), and whoever is friends with Baked Alaska are all candidates in the general for the house of reps

then russell walker running for state rep in north carolina's 48th district

Baked Alaska friend is Omar Navarro

Manafort wants his trial moved from Northern Virginia (which is too liberal to be fair) to someplace more rural, like Roanoke.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/paul-manafort-wants-trial-moved-to-roanoke-says-alexandria-too-liberal/2018/07/06/0b6b72c6-8167-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html

I must say, this is an interesting idea that should be carried further. Let's have all proceedings for immigration law take place in Queens, Berkeley, Portland, or Madison.

All drug possession cases will be henceforth tried in Compton.

Of course the optimal venue for the Manafort trial is Moscow, but whatevs

As I warned you, these clowns will fuck this up and when they do, they shift the blame to Kim and start doing really dangerous things. https://t.co/MkC7q8dm7N

— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) July 7, 2018

I didn't know there was a second occurrence of "ching chong". What I was referencing was Al3xandra W@llace's rant about not being able to reach a PoliSci epiphany in the UCLA library because of Asian distractions. Jimmy Wong's song is a perfect response. I bought the song.

is this Al3xandra here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOB2RyWhfRs

Thought this wasn’t a bad read, on the way that basically all these people will still find relatively cushy private sector jobs in DC regardless of what transpires: https://splinternews.com/there-s-no-trump-administration-crony-too-evil-for-dc-s-1827306717

Another experienced lobbyist was less circumspect. Pat Griffin, a veteran Democratic lobbyist, said Nieslen would have no trouble getting hired after working for Trump. Griffin said he suspects if Trump disavowed Nielsen in some public way, that could pose problems for her, but if she’s able to go quietly, “She’ll do just fine in this perverted little world.” Relationships, such as with those “on the Hill, in the area she has some expertise,” trump all other considerations, he said.

the real swamp

On the flip side, I’m proud of juries in my town not giving the prosecution team a single win in months of trials for the inauguration protesters

"you'll never work in this town again" is only for Hollywood

Parklife! https://t.co/iOqWqOdKjT

— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) July 7, 2018

Rigged Witch Hunt would be an awesome band name.

good mourning!

Isn't a rigged witch hunt something of a double negative? If the witch hunt is rigged, doesn't that mean there *is* a witch?

that's an Obama-era analysis based on anything meaning anything

Meantime

When former @realDonaldTrump lawyer Ty Cobb plays air guitar at a punk rock show in DC last night. #ItsMuellerTime #MAGA #slashrundc #harDCore #DrainTheSwamp pic.twitter.com/hMmcguzDRA

— Chris (@chris_suspect) July 8, 2018

PUNK'S NOT DEAD

anyone know what wilford brimley was up to last night btw

looks like the other local punks, after discovering that ty cobb was present, proceeded to loosen up their ties just a bit, slinging the suitcoat over one shoulder if need be

and they all flocked to Cobb like Methodists to a potluck

Apparently Ty Cobb saw the hardcore band Copstabber at my local punk/metal bar @slashrundc last night https://t.co/PB90b5FEXM

— Daniel Newhauser (@dnewhauser) July 8, 2018

oh fuck sorry for double post

https://copstabber1.bandcamp.com/
is what Ty Cobb's into?

A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly.

Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.

American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding” and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.

When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.

The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.

The showdown over the issue was recounted by more than a dozen participants from several countries, many of whom requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from the United States.

...“What happened was tantamount to blackmail, with the U.S. holding the world hostage and trying to overturn nearly 40 years of consensus on best way to protect infant and young child health,” she said.

In the end, the Americans’ efforts were mostly unsuccessful. It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure — and the Americans did not threaten them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html

one of those stories that won't gain any traction, but jfc

I thought people were still boycotting Nestlé decades after their debacle in the 80s over promotion of formula

https://copstabber1.bandcamp.com/

They still make bands like this, huh?

Their song "Piece of Meat" sounds like a fake punk song from an episode of Law & Order: SVU.

The fuck is wrong with baby formula?

Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children

...does not say formula is bad, but rather that it is inferior.

THe big issue was that baby formula was being promoted over the use of mother's milk. Like it being said taht mother's milk itself was inferior. I would assume that baby formula was an attempt to replicate the benefits of mother's milk by artificial or not 100% natural means.
I think the use fo mother's milk heklps to pass on immunity to local pathogens etc. Since the mother has adapted to their local environment whereas baby formula is done to cover as wide an area as possible etc.

But nestlé et al could afford more advertising sugesting that mother's milk was the old passé way whereas this scientifiaclly created formula was the thing of the future.
Which caused outcry and boycotting across a lot of the globe and the stigma survives. But not all mother's are able to create milk all the time so formula does have its uses

And formula is only as good as your clean water, which is a problem for many people in the world.

And formula isn’t free

all of that is nice, but how would our pharmaceutical companies make money off of breastfeeding? won't someone think of our favorite corps?

yo fuck off Snrub

this is the single worst story so far IMO

I know, corporations=evil and all but my own personal children would likely have died without formula. So.

It's not that formula's bad, like. Giving it away free to mothers for just long enough for their milk to dry up is. Especially when they live in areas without reliably clean water.

And it is those people WHO is trying to protect.

Yeah formula is fine it’s stigmatizing breastfeeding which is stupid and bad. But you can settle down sleeve, Snrub asked a question

Snrub acted like a total dick who refuses to know anything

The fuck is wrong with baby formula?

Hey, I’m just trying to learn here. Sheesh.

http://thehill.com/policy/international/396031-police-uk-woman-dies-after-exposure-to-soviet-era-nerve-agent

Our foreign policy is shot to all shit. Random citizens of allied countries have died and are dying from exposure to Russian nerve agents used in a sloppy assassination attempt and we say nothing. It’s fucking inexcusable.

Every one of the senators who spent Independence Day in Moscow deserves to watch their own family die from novichok exposure.

Whoa, buddy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2018/07/08/where-are-the-babies-mitch-mcconnell-pursued-from-restaurant-by-angry-crowd/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b32ff1fa132d

"“No comfort for fascists!” said the man who called McConnell a “turtle head.”"

Mitch just deserves to be burned over 90% of his body and scream until his lungs and heart can no longer function, like the IED victim I read about the other day.

Ready for the cries of the anguished who say the lefties have gone too far. (Of course, this is *nothing*.)

The Nestlé boycott has been going on since 1977, and followed a semi-failed libel trial over reporting on their practices. If one had not been aware of this at any point in the last 41 years*, and wanted to learn about it, they might more fruitfully say "I've never heard of this boycott. What is the issue with the marketing of baby formula in underdeveloped countries?" than to demand "The fuck is wrong with baby formula?"

The latter suggests an immediate attitude of not believing anything could be wrong with baby formula, the marketing thereof, or the use of it in conditions where clean water is unavailable. This places an unwarranted onus of defence on those questioned.

Snrub's 18-year posting history suggests that he considers ignorance a virtue, making this phrasing still more aggressive than it might read in more general ILX badinage.


*I'm not sure if I'd ever known about the libel trial element before checking the date, just now.

I would like to track all such cries to their sources and dislocate the jaws involved

OK sic you win. I’m sure there’s a science fiction thread that demands your astuteness

Quality blobfish harrassment upthread

Ironically it’s the near-total lack of women on this thread that’s stopping it from turning into a massive firestorm right now.

Re breastfeeding - i work in medical and my orientation included a whole segment on the importance of it, was refreshing to see a level headed reaction to it

Do you mean ironic in the sense that women might generally agree that the white-liberal neighborhood shaming of who breastfeeds and who doesn’t have fuck all to do with the US pushing dangerous info to marginalized people in South America that Nestle wants to make a disgusting buck off of?

I can empathize with parents who choose formula in countries where their children will live with no appreciable difference; hustling the rest of the world for the purpose of a state-sanctioned (USA!) bottom line is some ‘Third Man’ (rip Graham Greene) horseshit — sometimes the line between parenting and libertarianism makes me think the latter ought to show its card on the parents who buy into it

No, but I should make it clearer that I don't mean "women be fighting". It's another ILX situation where there's a hearty discussion sans people with any skin in the game (nb I have no skin in the game) and my experience is that a discussion involving said people can get friendship-destroying very quickly.

the white-liberal neighborhood shaming of who breastfeeds and who doesn’t

That is, ah, an interesting view of the phenomenon.

Oh I have skin in the game, as does YMP, and formula forever in that regard. Pushing formula on people, though, if it’s anything like the way breastfeeding was pushed on my family, is bullshit and deserves forceful reprimand.

As others have pointed out this is just one more symptom of the administration’s truly phenomenal schoolyard bully foreign policy. We’re happy to pick on Ecuador all day but god forbid Russia get called out for fucking poisoning our allies.

good mourning!

Morning Tom,

The UK cannot give a crap about Russians poisoning random civilians because

a) football
b) lighting the country on fire thanks, in part, to previous russian meddling; but mainly due to our own native stupidity

Thanks for caring, I’m glad someone does. Adopting a policy that encourages 3rd world mothers to poison their own children seems par for the course these days. Fuck me, the world is a miserable place right now.

Good evening Ed,

The UK already made a statement to the effect that Russians poisoning people on its soil was fucking unacceptable. The USA sent a pile of red state senators to the Russian capital to make more pee pee tapes in response. Don’t get in the way of my rage.

I think it took a car bombing in the US for America to decide supporting Operation Condor wasn’t great. (That’s half-remembered from a long time ago, so maybe I’m mistaken.)

however jackie chan’s armour of god ii: operation condor (1990) is rad iirc

Good read, despite the byline: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html

xpost Is that the one with the wind tunnel fight?

yeah!

apparently that Chait piece lifts a theory from....Lyndon LaRouche, lol

http://joan-druett.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-trump-prediction-from-1987.html?m=1

The crux of the Chait piece is the most amazing aspect of this whole mess: "How do you even think about the small but real  chance — 10 percent? 20 percent? — that the president of the United States has been covertly influenced or personally compromised by a hostile foreign power for decades?" We have no idea how small or real, but we know it's not "zero" and it could be as high as "100%."

I mean, he's almost certainly a rapist and that can be deduced without a Pepe Silvia-style diagram.

keep it up boys

https://www.twitter.com/eschor/status/1016302632883970048

fuck yeah

these people are going to be using interns as food-tasters soon

i am having trouble making it through the article without stopping every paragraph to imagine strangling trump

the nymag piece, i mean. other trivial notes: must be nice to be a famous artist so you can just coast; that graphic showing all the connections between the actors may be based on real information but it looks completely ridiculous; and all of this is going to be 100x bigger than JFK for conspiracy theorists til the day i finally die

i am having trouble making it through the article without stopping every paragraph to imagine strangling trump

― Karl Malone,

And pissing on him?

He'd like that tho.

these people are going to be using interns as food-tasters soon

I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2018

yea dude the handshake is what did it

https://i.imgur.com/MMfgN2A.jpg

Even more importantly, our handshake.

https://cdn.watch.aetnd.com/prod.cdn.watch.aetnd.com.s3.amazonaws.com/sites/2/2018/05/hith-handshake-nixon-elvis-E.jpeg?w=1200

elvis as drug czar was actually a very accurate primer for the trump administration's cabinet selections

I went with that for lolz but so many handshakes to choose from. Hitler/Chamberlain. Stalin/Roosevelt.

wow that chait piece was me politely smiling and nodding briefly up to recognition one of us is probly having a manic episode

Michelle Wolf has it right. We all should have a tight collection of scathing criticisms to lob at Trump sycophants on the off chance we run across one.

nah, i don't think it's crazy. there are several dozen highly suspicious, sometimes damning, things that the public already knows about. the anecdote in the closing paragraphs, for example - just before the inauguration the CIA essentially told Israel that trump was a Putin's puppet and not to share sensitive information with him. that alone is O_O.

i hope we all make it through this year alive, and by that i mean i hope a bunch of incredibly stupid americans with guns don't decide to defend trump's honor once he's going down

xpost

i mean i hope a bunch of incredibly stupid americans with guns don't decide to defend trump's honor once he's going down

That's more than he ever did.

xp

I understand/think dude has a very long term client relationship of some kind, but the leash depicted there is so tight and strong, I don't see how a stupid willful dog like Trump would ever comply that long

then why is he demanding a one-on-one meeting with Putin with no else present, against the protests of virtually everyone in the entire world including his own advisers, even though it is literally the most suspicious thing he could do in these circumstances

the audacious stupidity of it is so overwhelming, like what else could that possibly mean, other than he's reporting in to dad to get new instructions

i rather think he is so fucking deluded that he believes his BS that he is at this point in control of the leash man

Michelle Wolf has it right. We all should have a tight collection of scathing criticisms to lob at Trump sycophants on the off chance we run across one.

i guess i'll out myself as crazy here, but i'll go ahead and be the first person to suggest that trump's endgame might be being whisked away to some island palace where he can't be extradited.

xpost to Hunt3r - yeah you might be right about that! what a shitshow

xp he has got away with everything so far, as far as he can tell. BKs, mob shit, money launders. now he's prez. hand is still hot.

oh, i agree that might be another delusion.

then why is he demanding a one-on-one meeting with Putin with no else present, against the protests of virtually everyone in the entire world including his own advisers, even though it is literally the most suspicious thing he could do in these circumstances

I understand that he has also stipulated that they will be using the Cone of Silence

https://villagemedia.blob.core.windows.net/files/sootoday/images/stock-images/coneofsilence.jpg

lol

The Navy would like remind everyone that they actually give a shit about treaties and alliances

Alliances with our @NATO partners remains a crucial element in maintaining global security in order to deter, defend, and win against our adversaries. #NavyLethality #Partnerships #SeaBreeze https://t.co/valheMWrZI

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) July 8, 2018

there have been literally no consequences for anything so far and if he gets his one-on-one meeting with Putin people will forget about it in a week or two. Congressional Republicans will look the other way and the news media will treat this as just another thing that "looks bad" but ultimately probably doesn't mean anything. what happened when he met with Russian ambassadors in the White House without any US media, then bragged about firing Comey and proceeded to give away confidential info?

it made for a really satisfying conclusion to a chait piece

i'll go ahead and be the first person to suggest that trump's endgame might be being whisked away to some island palace where he can't be extradited

I really don't think he has an endgame, or can remember what he had for Sunday brunch.

his endgame is: my supporters have a hell of a lot more guns

the (tweeted) excuse as he flies away on a russian jet toward an unknown tropical destination, just after mike pence turns on him: "the DEEP STATE is CORRUPT, the FBI colluded with crooked Hillary Clinton and the Angry Democrats are out to get me! Hannity exonerated me last night and the failing New York Times refuses to accept the truth! No chance of fair trial here so I am regrouping with my patriotic staff so that we can form a new USA with just us in a secret place, PEACE OUT!"

i am just joking, totally serious, mean none of that but also part of it, this whole business is making me lose it tbh (and i think the same is true of many people, which plays into dipshit's hands)

you'll have a new SCOTUS nominee to channel yr rage at soon I hear

his endgame is: my supporters have a hell of a lot more guns
so real it hurts, no joke. i'm not even sure trump relies on that info, but i expect most of his believers do.

I'm amusing myself by imagining the tweets if the networks all decided not to run his episode of The Bachelor: Supreme Court Edition live, and instead just reported who he'd picked on the 11 o'clock news.

I really don't think he has an endgame, or can remember what he had for Sunday brunch.

― Simon H., Monday, July 9, 2018 12:00 PM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/pbox.php?url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/files/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-02-at-7.38.19-AM.png&w=1484&op=resize&opt=1&filter=antialias&t=20170517

you'll have a new SCOTUS nominee to channel yr rage at soon I hear

― Simon H., Monday, July 9, 2018 4:10 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my amateur take is picking barrett is the realest troll move but I dont think trump can put his misogyny aside and NOT nominate a white male

The “there’s indications Russia had an interest in him in 1987” thing that matches something written in an old LaRouche newsletter is just a very small part of it. Good reasons not to like Chait but no good reasons at this point to deny the general conclusions of the piece.

apparently that Chait piece lifts a theory from....Lyndon LaRouche, lol
― Simon H., Monday, July 9, 2018 6:21 AM (two hours ago)

his endgame is: my supporters have a hell of a lot more guns

so real it hurts, no joke. i'm not even sure trump relies on that info, but i expect most of his believers do.

Yeah it's curious. He's always been a racist, sexist piece of shit of course. But he wasn't THIS specific piece of shit, surfing on THESE specific waves of identity politics, until 2016.

It wasn't until someone (i.e., not him) realized there was a massive amount of political power that could be grabbed if you stroked these particular scrotums in this specific way that it turned into a movement. It capitalized on the Teahadi backlash to Obama's election, but the potential energy had been there on the scene since the Gingrich contract days.

Trump feeds on the energy of his redhat supporters like a leech, but it's interesting to remember that it seems like he only discovered them a couple years ago; they must still seem to him like a happy accident. Wow, all these froth-flecked people howling my name, great. It's not like he was specifically courting these choads ten, or even five, years ago. But: match made in heaven. They're both so happy they found each other. It might be sweet if it weren't so horrifying.

there's also the fact that it doesn't once reckon with the fall of the Soviet Union (h/t Hannah Gais) xp

It's not like he was specifically courting these choads ten, or even five, years ago.

the birther stuff was in like 2011, maybe even earlier, so he was well on a path before 2016

yeah he seems pretty consistent, he's just gotten less and less "cogent" over the years

there's also the fact that it doesn't once reckon with the fall of the Soviet Union (h/t Hannah Gais) xp

― Simon H., Monday, July 9, 2018 12:35 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is... a major issue in my (layperson, relative idiot) opinion

xxpost It’s not really relevant though. The important stuff covered all happens after the fall of the Soviet Union and it’s not a stretch to suggest mutual business interests and individuals with govt influence persist/recoagulate across that change. She’s mischaracterizing or maybe misidentifying the implication there.

I would think it's at least worthy of inquiry if you're out to look into this sort of thing.

Link for those who don’t know what you’re referring to (and it’s a good read even if I think she’s cherry-picking her nutjobs just a tad): https://thebaffler.com/this-american-carnage/whos-afraid-of-the-russian-soul-gais

then why is he demanding a one-on-one meeting with Putin with no else present

fwiw, when this was brought up recently, someone pointed out that Reagan and Gorbachev met one-on-one for 5 hours at their (last?) summit. I don't remember anyone freaking out about it, but maybe they did.

Weinberger probably did

archive:

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-11-19/news/mn-7784_1_private-meeting

Don’t recall Gorby operating an “Internet Research Agency,” probing our election systems, or violently seizing land from an independent neighboring republic

I was actually referring to Gais' comments on Twitter but thx for the link Tombot xps

wiw, when this was brought up recently, someone pointed out that Reagan and Gorbachev met one-on-one for 5 hours at their (last?) summit. I don't remember anyone freaking out about it, but maybe they did.

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 9, 2018 1:54 PM

shoudl also point out that the library chat in Geneva was scrupulously scripted by Reagan and Gorby's staffs. It wasn't spontaneous. Each had his staff-supplied points.

maybe reagan was like "hey i got this kid donald trump on my team, i'll have him meet up with you all in moscow in 1987 and we'll get this ball rolling"

I suspected you'd have the historical dope, Alfred. (But I'm not sure RR was always staying on script by then.)

In Montgomery Burns territory... Bloomberg reports:

Donald Trump’s personal driver for more than 25 years says the billionaire real estate developer didn’t pay him overtime and raised his salary only twice in 15 years, clawing back the second raise by cutting off his health benefits.

Noel Cintron, who is listed in public records as a registered Republican, sued the Trump Organization for about 3,300 hours of overtime that he says he worked in the past six years. He’s not allowed to sue for overtime prior to that due to the statute of limitations.

“In an utterly callous display of unwarranted privilege and entitlement and without even a minimal sense of noblesse oblige,” Trump and his businesses exploited the driver, Cintron says in the complaint.

Why do people think Kushner wanted a secret back channel to Russia?

Nothing about the current govt presided over by an ex-KGB agent could have possibly carried over from the USSR, it’s “Russophobia” to speculate about that.

NP, I just said it was worth addressing in the piece. Sheesh.

i guess i'll out myself as crazy here, but i'll go ahead and be the first person to suggest that trump's endgame might be being whisked away to some island palace where he can't be extradited.

i half-believe he'll defect during his one-on-one with Putin, CURTAIN. But then again, that's how I thought The Americans would end, too.

president trump keeps demanding an 18-hour one-on-one with putin, in putin's presidential aircraft on the way to an undisclosed location

just shitballing but would be kinda nice for the ending moments of his presidency to resemble the OJ ford bronco chase

I fully support Trump removing himself to a remote island

Oh dear what a shame, heard the uk trip's been cancelled.

Even if it isn't because of the balloon, I want to keep believing that it is.

Oh dear what a shame, heard the uk trip's been cancelled.

― Stevolende, Monday, July 9, 2018 1:56 PM (ten minutes ago)

Source?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/pregnant-migrant-women-miscarriage-cpb-ice-detention-trump?utm_term=.iulgJ4krd#.hjwylJn5X

again not surprised in the least

Where we are as a country pic.twitter.com/x8UuqPyRHZ

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 8, 2018

ninja supreme court justice would be pretty kewl tho

"His enemies hear only the swish of his robes in the night. Then, a death that comes swifter than justice. By day? Back on the bench. Steven Seagal IS Ninja Justice. Premieres at 9 (8 central)."

Re-read chait more closely, and the back 3/4 of that is not news, just a good summary. Hard to believe it's still needed by anyone, but way less out there than I initially cast it.

Ted Falconi sharing new of a cancellation in January from ABC news. Would seem like a good idea to repeat right now though wouldn't it.

Within minutes of Trump's announcement of Neil Gorsuch's nomination last year, the dark money group Judicial Crisis Network launched a site called https://t.co/5awuP4LNQ6.

Looks like someone has sites ready to go for tonight's announcement as well. pic.twitter.com/zqTgXuXjSM

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) July 9, 2018

Kellyanne Conway absolutely did not reply like this. pic.twitter.com/Tr6IujO05u

— Dan O'Sullivan (@Bro_Pair) July 9, 2018

None of this needed to happen, but it is happening. Trump's tweet today is the prelude to the *really* terrifying tweet that Kim has betrayed him, leaving just one option open to the United States.

— Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) July 9, 2018

So glad I've been squatting on confirmgarland.com. Fingers crossed, guys!

“ever-attitudinal trenches”

Great retort! It flatly agrees that yes she should go look in the mirror and it's awkward because mirrors are not typical supermarket items. Such quick wit!

xposts

re: chait, i definitely remember pretty much all those stories, but it's pretty damning seeing them all laid out sequentially

but i'll go ahead and be the first person to suggest that trump's endgame might be being whisked away to some island palace where he can't be extradited.

the guy loathes being outside, and indeed being any location that is not one of his own two shitty palaces. he also likes nothing more than public attention, and throws actual tantrums when he doesn't get the right kind. his two houses are built so that just to enter them, he has to pass many people who admire him enough to pay over the odds to also be in the building. there is no way he would wish, plan for, or enjoy safe exile to an island.

"Does my sister like him?"

https://splinternews.com/trump-brings-his-usual-level-of-intelligence-to-momento-1827450623

.@Sen_JoeManchin was also invited to the White House tonight for the SCOTUS announcement but will not attend, spokesman says. Heitkamp & Donnelly are also not attending. These 3 will be key because they voted for Gorsuch.

— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) July 9, 2018

Aaand more chaos/noise tomorrow:

HOLY SH#T!

“The Washington, D.C. lobbyist who has been on the hunt for Seth Rich’s killer found a “credible” witness who will identify the two men he believes murdered the DNC staffer.”#MondayMotivation #ScotusPick https://t.co/IvujLH7hoy

— 🇺🇸Michael Flynn Jr🇺🇸 (@mflynnJR) July 9, 2018

Barrett's off the shortlist apparently.

well, she *does* have a uterus

Barrett was the scariest among a shitty bunch so I am hoping so. I hate that this is what passes for good news these days but...

they're all horrifying

theres no way Trump actually has someone in mind yet is there

himself

a) He doesn't know yet who he's going to name
b) He will have to be reminded tomorrow who he chose

c) hopefully he dies of a heart attack

and I can't stand how the TV channels will interrupt their nightly programming for this shit. Not like I watch anything but my boy on MSNBC at 8 p.m., but the continued obeisance to American presidents by broadcasters -- just ugh. Especially a president who created non-suspenseful moments around theoretically firing people.

but the ratings!

(totally agree, of course. I will be blissfully unaware, both because I will be at rehearsal but also cuz I don't receive nightly TV programming)

saw a rumor that 9pm was chosen to boost hannity's ratings

his show will benefit from the nomination of Justice Hannity.

the latest Nina Tottenberg-approved rumor: Donald Trump will nominate Zombie Scalia to fill departing Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat.

Apparently four Secret Service agents picked up Kavanaugh.

true reality star president would send secret service agents to 3 different finalists, just to make sure to keep the intrigue up. it's like when everyone has to pack their bags and be ready to go on elimination night

Lol *cry* lol

Barrett spotted in Indiana not long ago, which suggests she IS out.

i miss that week or two when he thought he was on good terms with "chuck and nancy" and would sometimes accidentally do things that they liked. maybe this will happen again and merrick garland will be the surprise nominee

lol, looks like chuck already tried it!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/05/politics/chuck-schumer-trump-supreme-court-nominee/index.html

I could not hate this Apprentice-style rollout of the announce more. Our country is so fuckin dumb

Me too but I can imagine that most people don't give any shits about this and won't even know what is going on so at least the ratings will suck

true reality star president would send secret service agents to 3 different finalists, just to make sure to keep the intrigue up. it's like when everyone has to pack their bags and be ready to go on elimination night

― Karl Malone, Monday, July 9, 2018 5:19 PM (fifty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Isn't this more or less what he did with the gorsuch pick?

https://i.imgur.com/Rddoux5.jpg

fuck everything

This is true, and empirically supported by data. See recent paper with Adam Bonica in the Journal of Law & Economics, where we show conservative grads of top law schools significantly more likely to become judges https://t.co/DLZbFaBiLW https://t.co/P0L5Gp9T21

— Maya Sen (@maya_sen) July 9, 2018

Some of the more scholarly types here can chime in: has there been a time (in recent history or otherwise) the SC served a leading progressive role?

the warren court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Court

the scotus' progressivism was derailed by nixon's four (YES, FOUR) appointees.

Again - calling all Shakeys to fire up those preemptive RIP threads for these fuckbirds

i was thinking about this today, this idea that our political institutions should somehow be "balanced" between rapacious power-mongers and, like, those who want to take power back from the vested interests that have successfully tilted the playing field in favour of the 1% and aggressively redistributed wealth to them.. like.. why on earth should that ever be the case that these two forces co-existed in our institutions in some kind of natural ebb and flow? when has it ever been the case? these are the very levers of power we are talking about here, the actual buttons and prompts that reproduce hegemony (or attempt to, anyway) - there is NO natural state of things in which their power is "balanced" with that of workers and the rest of us. maybe this is super naive to ever think otherwise?? but honestly i think i've always somehow deep down been fooled by the two-party system and the nominal leftness of the democratic party - and maybe the somewhat even split of most recent elections - that a natural order was deeply ingrained in our culture, a balance of some sort between right and left wings, a pendulum would swing, the earth had its rhythms.. no, that's not how it works, not how it has ever worked. power is held onto desperately, sometimes attempts are made to mitigate that, sometimes these attempts are successful, more often they're not. conflict, not consensus. and a very unequal conflict at that

You live in a monarchy

re: the court and its current political makeup, please enjoy the first five-ish minutes of this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myozsiCo8BM

The “balance” between the demos and merchant-class oligarchs is just the best stretch we could get from having completely unqualified rich people run everything all the time. Now somewhat qualified rich people sometimes run things and highly overqualified but usually overly obsequious non-rich people sometimes get to run things too. Progress!!!

(Present people running things excepted of course)

i do live in a monarchy yes, it's a bizarre place. it's also a place where one of the two main parties explicitly promises to renationalize water, electricity and trains (after having only pretended to promise those things for a few decades)

Some of the more scholarly types here can chime in: has there been a time (in recent history or otherwise) the SC served a leading progressive role?

― Simon H.,

The Warren Court, thanks to Republican Earl Warren's masterly political instincts. The Hughes and Stone courts before it went some distance too, despite the war cases and awful leadership under the latter.

the scotus' progressivism was derailed by nixon's four (YES, FOUR) appointees.

― 21st savagery fox (m bison

Blackmun and Powell became the swing votes b/c of Rehnquist, the Scalia/Thomas of his day as an associate justice. Powell wrote this infamous memo, though -- enormously influential, whose effects we still feel.

the official account of this month's theme chimes in

dear brett kavanaugh. you dont know me but i think you suck ass. you look like dog shit and your hair is too big. dan akyroyd looking ass bitch go fuck yourself forever. sincerely everyone

— jon hendren (@fart) July 10, 2018

It's really said that the Republican party is in such a place right now - a haven for the worst scum you can imagine - that I can look at a nominee for the Supreme Court standing up there with his arms around his daughters and my first thought is, I wonder which one of them he's secretly fucking.

^ sad not said

uh, yeah that is sad

Remember the undocumented pregnant minor who was denied access to an abortion? Brett Kavanaugh was in the minority of judges who voted against giving her access to an abortion. He will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) July 10, 2018

uh, yeah that is sad

You're probably right. Republicans don't tend to go for opposite-sex molestation.

uh

...those moments when you desperately wish ILX allowed editing posts you've already submitted...

I'm still waiting for the following threads:

RIP JOHN ROBERTS
RIP SAM ALITO
RIP CLARENCE THOMAS
RIP NEIL GORSUCH

Sadly, those will only be positive stories if Democrats control both executive and legislative branches, otherwise, we're fucked.

President Trump on Tuesday issued full pardons to Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond, Oregon cattle ranchers convicted for arson who became a cause célèbre among the anti-government far-right.

“The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West,” the White House said in a statement. “Justice is overdue.”

somehow i don't think the hammonds would have been pardoned if they weren't white guys

I think we're fucked anyway Moodles. I just want a place to applaud when those gentlemen fall to the scythe.

xp jesus fuckin christ that's enraging

law and order president my ass

“The Hammonds are solid white citizens,” the White House said in a statement. “Go fuck yourself.”

I can't wait until this fat ugly fuck is out of office and I can talk endless shit about him and his fucking treasonous staff who hate our country

NEW: Per media conference by HHS and DHS officials, 4 children under 5 have so far been reunified with their parents (out of a total of around 100 who are supposed to be reunified today.)

— Neena Satija (@neenareports) July 10, 2018

loser loses again

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/09/judge-rejects-trump-request-flores-immigrant-children-704019

these dumb motherfuckers have never cracked open an actual history book in their life, have they

what's a book

Is it too early to start a census 2020 thread

today in "balls of the convicted"

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Former national security adviser Mike Flynn has a new job: He has joined a global lobbying and investment advisory firm. As he awaits sentencing for lying to federal investigators, he is going into business with Washington lobbyist Nick Muzin and his New York partner Joey Allaham with a new firm called Stonington Global LLC, they told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Flynn’s December guilty plea grew out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and faces up to six months in jail.

Mr. Flynn was back in court Tuesday for the first time since his guilty plea, as U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan asked for an update on where the legal teams stand on his sentencing. The judge didn’t set a sentencing date.

Totally misread that as Strongington

Has @Trump_ebooks been mentioned on here yet? https://twitter.com/smithee_bot

Happy #CowAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/0o68cVEhrO

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 10, 2018

ben and jerry would have his legs if he didn't post about cows on cow appreciation day

hey everyone Trump just issued an EO allowing him to personally appoint all administrative law judges instead of agencies using a competitive selection process USA USA USA

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-excepting-administrative-law-judges-competitive-service/

don't know much about this guy, but I thought the thread was interesting

1. I don't think we are fully grappling with the possibility that we could be on the on the cusp of a completely new era, a fundamental reshaping of the international order. And I don't mean over the course of the Trump Administration. I mean by next week.

— Dan Shapiro (@DanielBShapiro) July 9, 2018

Excited 2 die :)

None of that is news, is it?

well we're just warming up for the big November military parade in Pennsylvania Square

It's a pretty smooth slide from "narcissist autocrat" to "hey an actual dictator", huh - and all within the framework of "USA freedom" and "the greatest democracy".

Proud of my brother Peter and his work :)

https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/separated-the-border-honduran-dad-and-his-year-old-are-reunited/i3ZmTFEnUufvDmZiieHv9L/

Not sure why AJC filed this under "entertainment," though.

there he goes

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/11/trump-nato-germany-totally-controlled-and-captive-russia-defense-spending/774308002/

Ha ha, Trump goes to Brussels and starts yapping about how Germany is "totally controlled by Russia" because they buy Russian gas, and Merkel doesn't immediately say, "Bitch, you got your fucking job from Russia - sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up"? Once again, politeness is gonna get us all killed.

lol Merkel has actually lived in a version of Germany that was explicitly controlled by Russia, i'm not sure she needs any lessons from Donald Trump on that score

yeah I’m in east Germany right now, the response seems to be

wait for it

lol

good mourning!

aka the German "lol"

I never realised the end of the world would be so stupid

this is the way the world ends
this is the way the world ends
this is the way the world ends
not with a bang but with twitter

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected accusations by Donald Trump that Germany is “totally controlled by Russia,” reminding the U.S. president that she remembered Soviet occupation, and saying it is “good that we are independent today.”

“Because of given circumstances I want to point out one thing: I experienced the Soviet occupation of one part of Germany myself. It is good that we are independent today,” said Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, a former satellite state of the Soviet Union.

(this is all actually in that first link)

yeah I don't click USA today links on my mobile they are a mess

don't know much about this guy, but I thought the thread was interesting

― Dan S, Mittwoch, 11. Juli 2018

aka the German "lol"

That's the Berlin Lol

Thank you, try the sauerbraten.

The thread doesn't seem to consider that U.S. drone ops on this side of the pond are totally fux0red without Ramstein air base.

I really don't understand why people don't just call Trump's bluff. "OK, you want out? Get out. How soon can you have all your bases in Germany closed, and every soldier on a plane back home? Go ask your generals. We'll wait."

*sulky silence*

*the subject is never raised again*

You can't reason with a cretin.

There's all sorts of shit like that that just makes me think, probably for the better, that these countries and world leaders just don't think about that asshole and his ignorance nearly as much as I do. Like:

"Vat's on the agenda today?"
"Today? You meet with Hans Laborleader, we've got the opening of the laundromat, zher is zee trade deal with Luxenburg to hash out, we have some immigrants to settle/unsettle. Oh, and Donald Trump is in town, so we have to have orange juice and steaks with Donald Trump."
"Ugh, steaks again? How long will that take?"
"I dunno, an hour?"
"Call me halfway through and pretend there is an emergency so I can leave."
"No prob."
"Cool, cool. Can you get me and my family tickets to zee water park? It's supposed to be warm today, ya?"

What I really wonder is how soon it'll get bad enough here that European countries will take asylum claims from fleeing Americans seriously. (Asking for a friend.)

Apparently on Fox:

“And the Republicans who say, ‘Well, we have a broad foreign policy apparatus and we forced him to impose these sanctions, and we forced him to do these things.’ He’s going to fly into Brussels like a seagull. He is going to defecate all over everything, squawk and fly away is what he’s going to do in Brussels. And the Europeans are going to continue to say to each other, ‘We don’t have a reliable partner in the U.S. government right now.’”

Who said that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okjhQhNe72w

It's said by Fox politics editor Chris Stirewalt.

He’s going to fly into Brussels like a seagull vs he kissed the boy like a kitten

vs moved on her like a bitch

This new Melania double is weak sauce. #wheresmelania pic.twitter.com/yAsbR7CuQJ

— Johnny Killoran (@metroville) July 10, 2018