US Politics, September 2018: having a nervous breakdown

We had our disagreements and they were very strong disagreements.

where's the tax returns?

The dad from TV's Webster has some big news to help you start your morning off right: Convicted former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has publicly contradicted Attorney General Jeff Sessions' sworn testimony to Congress, saying both Sessions and Donald Trump apparently supported his proposal that Trump meet with Vladimir Putin during the 2016 campaign, according to a court filing late Friday night.

hey, good mourning!

Yeah this new news is something — I’m waiting for the hilarity of Trump firing Sessions for lying to Congress.

Webster's dad really is somethin

In the long run getting rid of Sessions would presumably be positive as long as the Russia Investigation was protected surely?
That is the big negative isn't it? Just wondering if there is anything else that wouldn't be improved by getting a new AG, as long as he wasn't a trump stooge.
Which I guss would mean Sessions is probably going to be replaced whoever the winning side come Novemeber is. He's just going to be possibly replaced by somebody who has some idea of justice for the American people if the Democrats win.

Trump most likely couldnt get a nominee through the Senate, and it isnt clear he has the legal authority to just appoint an interim replacement.

Fwiw

Assuming Sessions is fired rather than resigns

You don’t think this current senate would approve a stooge?

They've been doing it for more than 200 years.

the fuck are ye sending him here for?

now I have to listen to this shit for three months ffs

You guys made it! You’re on the show

if this is payback for tamany hall im sick repeating myself that was irish-americans

measured optimism from Robin

The growing weakness and isolation of Trump and his presidency is symptomatic of the larger vulnerability and fragility of the Republican regime. https://t.co/Jh4ydPZywD pic.twitter.com/8mAPSv2yXZ

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) September 1, 2018

the fuck are ye sending him here for?

now I have to listen to this shit for three months ffs

Just be glad he hasn't dredged up some Scotsman from Ulster as an ancestor allowing him to parade about claiming to be Irish - like US Presidents usually do.

... though it's not only Presidents who do that, of course.

I keep seeing events listed at his irish properties, presumably the golf courses. So have wondered if there is ongoing protest at those already. Just spent the last year coimpiling an events list which meant I had to go through lists of events on facebook and copy them to a list on a radio station website. So would frequently come across these things.
I think most of them were pretty distant to me, or at least not exactly convenient , so I haven't investigated further. but would think that disgust at his behaviour since the beginning of his incumbency and before, might mean people were heavily anti him.

So presumably can't be the only person seeing event notices for things related to him.

wait, he was the dad from "webster"? why did i think he was the dad from "mr. belvedere"? am i racist against greeks?

ireland, please foreclose on all trump properties pronto; they are faulkner's snopes trying to emigrate. the hamlet (1940) is a prophecy. don't let it happen there too!

Bob Uecker was the dad from Mr Belvedore. Come on rushomancy keep up.

everyone is racist against us hellenics

xpost

Is Paul Ryan going to face any consequences from his PAC sharing details from CIA enrolment forms?

No

I mean if we’ve learned anything in this decade it’s that neither end of the political spectrum gives two shits about what happens to people who have security clearances with the gubmint

No RuleZ

During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control.

More recently, the American military itself sought to develop microwave arms that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people’s heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare.

Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen American diplomats and family members in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Havana and Washington.

The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report published in JAMA in March. But Douglas H. Smith, the study’s lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect and that the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury.

this month's thread title got a little too real already

these nice new tin foil hats will keep us safe and also lets QAnon know that we are already on their side, no need to infiltrate us.

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

“From an objective point of view it’s more like mass hysteria than anything else,” said Mark Hallett, the head of the human motor control section of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

i don't appreciate that kind of response, especially when i have to google the source. that's a quote from last october (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/12/cuba-mass-hysteria-sonic-attacks-neurologists)

a few paragraphs before that, the article cautions "The neurologists who talked to the Guardian cautioned that no proper diagnosis is possible without far more information and access to the 22 US victims, who have suffered a range of symptoms including hearing loss, tinnitus, headaches and dizziness."

in the 11 months since that article was published, the neurologists have had far more information and access to the victims. for those without a NYT subscription, here's more from near the end.

The medical team that studied the Cuba diplomats ascribed the symptoms in the March JAMA study to “an unknown energy source” that was highly directional. Some personnel, it noted, had covered their ears and heads but experienced no sound reduction. The team said the diplomats appeared to have developed signs of concussion without having received any blows to the head.

In May, reports emerged that American diplomats in China had suffered similar traumas. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the medical details of the two groups "very similar” and “entirely consistent" with one another. By late June, the State Department had evacuated at least 11 Americans from China.

To date, the most detailed medical case for microwave strikes has been made by Beatrice A. Golomb, a medical doctor and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. In a forthcoming paper to be published in October in Neural Computation, a peer-reviewed journal of the MIT Press, she lays out potential medical evidence for Cuban microwave strikes.

She compared the symptoms of the diplomats in Cuba to those reported for individuals said to be suffering from radio-frequency sickness. The health responses of the two groups, Dr. Golomb wrote, “conform closely.”

In closing, she argued that “numerous highly specific features” of the diplomatic incidents “fit the hypothesis” of a microwave attack, including the Frey-type production of disturbing sounds.

Scientists still disagree over what hit the diplomats. Last month, JAMA ran four letters critical of the March study, some faulting the report for ruling out mass hysteria.

Deserves its own thread imo

Especially since it’s a topic that’ll outlast the administration

Is Paul Ryan going to face any consequences from his PAC sharing details from CIA enrolment forms?

― Stevolende, Sunday, September 2, 2018 1:00 AM (one hour ago)

you keep asking if people are going to face consequences or norms are going to revert. the fact that you get to keep asking might be the answer in itself.

I keep hearing things taht sound like mishandling and wondering if that is going to counter a swing back to sanity come the mid terms.

― Stevolende, Monday, January 29, 2018 11:47 PM (seven months ago)

People are still debating whether an incumbent President can be prosecuted.

How does one get rid of McConnell?

― Stevolende, Friday, April 13, 2018 3:02 AM (four months ago)

How is Haley going to be able to run in a position of power with somebody who denigrates women to the extent that Pence does?

― Stevolende, Wednesday, April 18, 2018 4:48 AM (four months ago)

xp just wondering what trump's idea of an end result of an investigation into the existence of a pee tape would be. If he knows that he did nothing then what is he asking to be looked into.

Would think that by that age and with his lifetime experience you would learn to let the rumour ride itself out rather than feeding into it.
Just puzzles me as to what he thought further action would have shown.

Does he know what he's doing half the time?

― Stevolende, Monday, April 23, 2018 10:47 PM (four months ago)

Would have thought the wise action would have been to drop the thing once it became exposed the first time. Heard it was one reason Kushner had his clearance removed.
Hope it is going to be something that explodes in this government's face.

― Stevolende, Tuesday, May 22, 2018 5:35 AM (three months ago)

If America doesn't impeach trump isn't that pretty much going to act as condoning his behaviour and setting a beacon for accepted behaviour which should not be acceptable by any prior norms.
Would think the States would want to repair their Government set up and can only see non-impeachment as setting things so the swamp festers and consumes everything around it.

― Stevolende, Friday, May 25, 2018 7:47 PM (three months ago)

Can you undo a pardon? If delivered for corrupt reasons or anything?

― Stevolende, Friday, June 1, 2018 12:42 AM (three months ago)

can this, or any of this, be corrected still?

― Stevolende, Saturday, June 2, 2018 10:20 AM (three months ago)

Is the idea to tar everything so that supposedly there is no such thing as an objective witness. Try to make sure taht anybody who can be thought to have seen anything is enmired in a way that they would incriminate themselves,?

― Stevolende, Wednesday, June 6, 2018 5:07 AM (two months ago)

This is crazy, people normally keep the working so that they have something to look at in future. Just in case things go wrong , like.
Is this supposed to be a lasting anything or is it just a way for him to get new sites for a hotel business he shouldn't be involved in while performing a serious role?

― Stevolende, Tuesday, June 12, 2018 10:04 PM (two months ago)

'the' thought process
synecdoche?

yeah seems like the singuuar being viewed as the general by the single minded person supposedly possessing the definite article.

but surely, No thought no process? or no process to the though anyway.

― Stevolende, Friday, June 15, 2018 2:35 AM (two months ago)

Isn't no punishment of the most corrupt incumbency ever likely to lead to repetition though?
JUst hoping that there is some honesty in the near future and it's more than simply a brak in the new normal.

― Stevolende, Friday, June 15, 2018 4:03 AM (two months ago)

If this is just about to blow up in Sessions face because he's the most vocal supporter and instigator of it , will he take anything else with him when he goes.

― Stevolende, Monday, June 18, 2018 4:03 AM (two months ago)

If Sessions is the main person who is actively advocating this and not trying to say that it has to be obeyed because it is the law, is he likely to be crucified for it. & if he does is everything remotely positive that is happening because he has not been removed from the position as AG already safeguarded?

― Stevolende, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 12:21 AM (two months ago)

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?

― Stevolende, Tuesday, July 3, 2018 10:46 PM (one month ago)

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?

― Stevolende, Friday, July 6, 2018 5:48 AM (one month ago)

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?

― Stevolende, Saturday, July 7, 2018 7:24 AM (one month ago)

What happens if massive criminality is discovered. Would he still need to be impeached before anything further could be done?
There's no way to void a Presidency is there. & an impeachment would still rely on Republicans actually wanting to lift a finger to harm him. Or would it be automatic?

― Stevolende, Tuesday, July 17, 2018 3:57 AM (one month ago)

Any hope of getting rid of Mitch McConnell any time soon?

― Stevolende, Friday, July 27, 2018 8:52 AM (one month ago)

honestly that's pretty cool, keep doing what you're doing stevolende because it's a good thing

of our beloved foreign friends with a strong interest in usatian politics, I actually prefer stevolende's perpetually raised eyebrows to frederik's passionate arrogance, in the grand scheme

passionate arrogance is the american way

Only true American on this forum, IMO

Not really sure what that was supposed to show, things turn up I would hope had some hope of being sorted before everything goes down the shitter. Compiling some of what I've asked over a period of time in one place is supposed to make me think exactly what about you? Certai9nly doesn't make me feel overly positive about you? I haven't pedestalised you to a point where I'd give much of a fuck what score you were keeping. haven't pedestalised you at all, what would make you think I had. & if not where in fuck do you get off doing something like that.

Glad that some people appreciate me.

someone did that to me once, posting all the times i “loled” & it made me feel like shit

please don’t do that to ppl. it’s mean.

The US political system is complex and unlike any other in the world, and the present situation in US politics is rather abnormal. Most Americans don't understand our politics very well, so it is normal for a non-American taking an interest in it to have questions. Keep asking.

Since several McCain funeral speakers took dead aim at Trump, I figure it's just a matter of minutes before he cuts loose on the twitter.

Bush delivered pointed anti-Trump remarks. That's where we are in 2018.

Great opportunity for W to keep rehabilitating that image of his

I would never get exasperated with anyone for asking whether awful people are ever going to face any consequences for the awful things they do. I reserve my exasperation for the other awful people who enable the first group to skate through their consequence-free lives.

Re: O'Trump's forthcoming jaunt to Ireland. I reckon he'll be the first US President since FDR to either not claim any Irish ancestry or to not have it claimed on his behalf.

He continues to break all the (green, white and) golden rules of American politics.

Top o' the mourning to you?

I bet he says some really dumb things about the Irish and Ireland, intended to be flattery, but instead revealing his abysmal understanding of both Ireland and what constitutes a compliment.

It's on the cards.

(xp) LOLz

I'm betting he hasn't even read the ILX thread on whether Ireland should be referred to as part of the British Isles. :-0

Second straight sub 40% approval rating in a row just came out, this one from IBD/TIPP.

that's good. not good: now we've reached the point where the polls are actually worth paying attention to, and it's stressing me the hell out, i have some serious fucking 2016 ptsd.

I can't tell if it's some kind of privilege that makes me feel like I have 2016 PTSD. I have a pretty good head on my shoulders, but I have found that I am prone to more significant and serious mood swings post election. Real spikes in anger and depression, at least relative to my usual disposition.

i don't know if it's "privilege", i don't care. 2016 fucked me up. 2016 fucked a lot of people i care about up. not all of my friends survived 2016. if somebody wants to give me shit over that, they can try, but they're not going to get very far.

I by no means was suggesting that Stevolende oughtn't be perplexed by the complete abrogation of any upholding of standards or laws by the ruling party; just that continuing to expect a reversal on the matter, at this stage in the administration, might be fruitless.

It's certainly a counterpoint to the gawping despair evinced by everyone else itt (bar qualmsley), though.

at this stage in the administration

also this stage in capitalism

imo i and sic are the only ppl with a handle on how to approach this (ignore, observe, drink)

obviously this administration is doing damage that is and will continue to cause real suffering to u.s. citizens and people the world over, but still, i can't help but get cynical about people who claim to feel traumatized or "fucked up".

Looked like a lot of self-congratulatory effort to go to to say as little as what Sic's saying .

oh I’m 100% in the gawping despair / psychically traumatised column, I’m just not blogging abt it itt

and my actual expectations have only taken one single downtick since he made it into the primaries: during the hours that the state results were coming in on November 9th

You're almost as bad a poster as i

We're livin on the edge

obviously this administration is doing damage that is and will continue to cause real suffering to u.s. citizens and people the world over, but still, i can't help but get cynical about people who claim to feel traumatized or "fucked up".

― rip van wanko, Saturday, September 1, 2018 3:40 PM

this is very condescending

I literally had a conversation with my wife the week after about what it would take for our family to flee the country.

i can't help but get cynical about people who claim to feel traumatized or "fucked up".

An epic failure of imagination here.

i worded that poorly; i'm not being sarcastic, i really do have trouble understanding how the present circumstances are causing acute, direct psychological harm to ilx pundits, esp the str8 white male. the situation is worrisome, even distressing, but anything beyond that makes me suspent you may have a codependent or otherwise dysfunctional relationship to "the news"

people itt have explicitly laid out for you their direct personal connections to profoundly unsettling and traumatic circumstances and threats posed by the trump administration, most notably deportation. idk what more you want man.

i really do have trouble understanding how the present circumstances are causing acute, direct psychological harm to ilx pundits, esp the str8 white male.

In a word: empathy.

"i really do have trouble understanding how the present circumstances are causing acute, direct psychological harm to ilx pundits, esp the str8 white male."

who cares that you think other people might not be having a ‘real’ experience?

when you're Jewish, with a family, and the Nazis are not just marching but have allies in the white house ... do the math.

Wow, yeah. Do you have trouble believing that climate change is equally affecting?

i worded that poorly; i'm not being sarcastic, i really do have trouble understanding how the present circumstances are causing acute, direct psychological harm to ilx pundits, esp the str8 white male. the situation is worrisome, even distressing, but anything beyond that makes me suspent you may have a codependent or otherwise dysfunctional relationship to "the news"

― rip van wanko

thanks for sharing!

there’s been some epic bullshit on this thread today.

trumpism is a new dimension to an existing nightmare.

anybody cynical about the traumatizing effects of it can fuck off as far as I’m concerned because it’s absolutely real, even if it’s not directly tangible to any individual on any day of the week.

actually rvw has just given an all-time amazingly understated description of POTUS

(a str8 white male who finds the situation worrisome, distressing, and more; causing some to suspect he has a codependent or otherwise dysfunctional relationship to "the news")

esp the str8 white male

idk was with em til this

I wouldn't compare any issues I have to people going through far more, but I find that when I'm down now it's a bit worse due to an ambient, chattering unease that's in the air in our u.s. of a.

New thred imo

so i do have to ask - what is the supposed benefit of this gaslightig?

or if you prefer, “nothing to fear but fear itself” hardmanni g

Lunch otm. You don't have to be directly affected to be distressed, if your politics is rooted in empathy for the downtrodden.

That can go too far of course - ask me some time about vicarious traumatization among animal rights activists, for example.

But you can be a straight white dude and find plenty to worry about w/r/t the current regime. Maybe it's not coming for you, but you know it's coming for people you care about. And that is not nothing.

hardmanni g

quality dn material

One time a particularly racist Trump fan neighbor I’ve never met chimed in on a NextDoor thread about Trump and—directly replying to a dude who was worried about things happening and talking around other non-white people and women—said “don’t worry — you’ll be fine.”

The atmosphere has made me feel ill at ease perpetually And what’s happening to some people around here is terrible. There was a fruit vendor who disappeared for a month via ICE and it took the entire community raising money and making noise to get him temporarily out of custody (and back to friends and family who had little notion of where he was.) I suspect he was a lucky one.

i live in a small town that was just raided by ice. i'm not facing lockdown and deportation because of my "citizenship" but it's not like the 9 people who disappeared haven't had a ripple effect in the community, affecting everyone negatively in some way. i get the impulse to call people out when it seems like they're overdoing it based on their social standing but that seems like crossing a boundary in a bad way or what tlg said is gaslighting. you never know how someone is really being affected by all of this. i'm a white gay cis-presenting man so my job or my ability to walk outside in the street isn't being overtly threatened but i'm two generations down from a horrible abuser who is in many ways like trump, so i've had to block out his words/appearances as much as i can because it can honestly be a little triggering psychologically and it will set my day on fire if i'm not careful.

Great post.

i really do have trouble understanding how the present circumstances are causing acute, direct psychological harm to ilx pundits, esp the str8 white male.

Up until February 2017 I used to work for a book publisher who specialized in ESL courses designed to help adult non-English speakers to learn English as their children learned English in grade school. Great folks to work for - I I had been with them full or part-time for almost eight years. One of the few times that a tech job didn't cause me to feel like I was part of the problem. Post-election, almost every school in the border states froze or eliminated the budgets for ESL programs because publicly-funded programs to help immigrants became radioactive.

Is it acute psychological harm? I dunno - I guess I was fucked up by getting laid off and back in the hellscape of being a developer in his 50s who's competing in the job space against 20 year old sociopaths. I feel worse for my friends with the publishing company - they had to put it in stasis.

An assertion Wednesday by a white Republican gubernatorial candidate that Florida voters can't afford to "monkey this up" and vote for his black Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, was widely viewed as a "dog whistle" to rally racists.

If it was a dog-whistle — the GOP candidate denies any racial intent — a jungle music-scored robo-call that has circulated in Florida is more akin to a bullhorn.

If nothing else, the minute-long audio clip is a clear sign of how quickly racism — subtle in some cases, overt in others — has entered the contest to determine who will lead Florida.

"Well hello there,” the call begins as the sounds of drums and monkeys can be heard in the background, according to the New York Times. “I is Andrew Gillum."

"We Negroes . . . done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an stone."

The speaker goes on to say he'll pass a law letting African Americans evade arrest “if the Negro know fo' sho he didn't do nothin'."

It is unclear how many people heard the call.

wtf

map <3

How hard is it to figure out the origin of a robo call? If this came from the de santis campaign that should be exposed.

Never mind

A disclaimer at the end of the robo-call says it was produced by the Road to Power, a white-supremacist and anti-Semitic group based in Idaho.

Really disturbing in any case

what about the democrats who made robocalls saying Desantis was an idiot? there are fine folk on both sides

It's not libel if it's true though is it?

It’s not racist to say deSantis is an idiot.

Really good summary of the feels happening over this Labor Day weekend, imo:

We’re living in a time that is lacking any sense of normalcy. I can’t speak for other people, but to me it feels like at any moment this could all fall apart, the country could fall apart, the world could go to war. I think about the fact that the president unapologetically praised Neo-nazis on television and I feel like running around outside screaming at the top of my lungs. I don’t understand how that–if nothing else–didn’t effectively mean the end of his presidency. A lot of this feels unreal to me. A lot of feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from. And I’m someone who is largely spared the deliberate cruelty of this administration.

Our president is an illiterate reality TV star with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and can’t stand normally. I’m freaking. People are freaking. So perhaps that explains why some people thought “Hey, that guy gave Michelle some candy. That’s nice.” Trump would never give someone candy; it would never occur to him. Other people largely don’t exist to him except as bit players in his life. It was a profoundly normal moment in a moment of deep, deep, scary weirdness.

normals defending deep deep scary weirdness with no visible reservations (or professed support!) is def part of issue. Either there are many more deep deep scary weirds, or norms are far more defective than I can handle.

read you some hannah arendt

xp a little from column a, a little from column b

i'd say mostly column b.

U ain't never had a prez like me

Yup Arendt is great advice but I was hopin for more normal norms fewer empowered sociopaths as post ww2 period expired. Maybe i’ll Reread some...

that’s what they hoped for after wwi iirc

More Please: https://www.newsweek.com/david-hogg-ted-cruz-trump-billboard-beto-orourke-senate-texas-stadium-1101369?amp=1

This kid

fucking love that guy

Did this get posted here yet?

4chan nerds are photoshopping David Hogg to look female, calling him Daisy, and then having sexual fantasies about their Daisy Hogg memes. I feel like this is some... new, uncharted form of self-own pic.twitter.com/UkbYERuhan

— Michael Edison Hayden (@MichaelEHayden) August 28, 2018

Like, I enjoy many things about the internet but if you're asking if I would support its wholesale deletion I'd probably have to say yes.

long live the new lunch

like everything else to do with 4chan, that makes me want to kill myself

From the Alt-Right thread (Re: Daisy Hogg)

it's a shitty transphobic joke that doesn't need amplifying

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Tuesday, August 28, 2018 1:19 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

missed opportunity for September thread title:

It’s always interesting to read the full transcripts of Trump interviews. For example, here he is seemingly referring to 9/11 as “a tiny period of time with a bullhorn.” https://t.co/fn1FbBm2uq pic.twitter.com/jDs7ueEDfP

— Gabe Fleisher (@WakeUp2Politics) September 2, 2018

I like this thread title because it always makes me think of Nervous Breakdown by Black Flag

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/09/01/mollie-tibbetts-father-common-decency-immigration-heartless-despicable-donald-trump-jr-column/1163131002/

Make no mistake, Mollie was my daughter and my best friend. At her eulogy, I said Mollie was nobody’s victim. Nor is she a pawn in others’ debate. She may not be able to speak for herself, but I can and will. Please leave us out of your debate. Allow us to grieve in privacy and with dignity. At long last, show some decency. On behalf of my family and Mollie’s memory, I’m imploring you to stop.

I’m sure tankie reprobates like Simon H. can figure out some years from now why that didn’t make them choice up.

*choke* and as someone who’s been to enough funerals it’s fucking boring to politically Weekend Bernie the dead.

Skip commenting on the ritual; do the good work and dredge up the policy/vote/quote reasons why you hate/love the dead

Let them live a little longer or don’t

I like this thread title because it always makes me think of Nervous Breakdown by Black Flag

Greg Ginn would be a worse president than Trump

Keith or Chuck would fuckin' rule tho

this is the first time I've been called a tankie, how exciting

tankie kindly

u must be hungary for more

Ginn probably voted for Hat Gary Johnson

add tankie to "neoliberal" and "cuck" to the list of words I never heard or saw for most of my life and then every day for the past couple years

Happy Job Creator Day!

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/09/02/labor-day-entrepreneurs/1125746002/

if the french resistance welcomed every nazi except hitler pic.twitter.com/E52HpDejUO

— maple cocaine (@historyinflicks) September 2, 2018

tankie is a great word though bc I've known some Stalin apologists and they deserve every bit of ridicule and ostracization they can get

is a group of them coming up with policies a thinkie tankie thats the question

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that the administration may claim executive privilege to block Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from releasing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report when the investigation is finished, according to a New Yorker report.

Giuliani claims that President Donald Trump’s original legal team—which has undergone many mutations since—cut a deal with Mueller that that the White House can object to public dissemination of information from the probe on the grounds of executive privilege.

When asked if the White House is likely to invoke this clause, Giuliani was frank: “I’m sure we will.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/giuliani-says-team-trump-will-likely-try-to-block-mueller-report-release

"cut a deal". i'm imagining this "deal" now. "ok, you do your investigation, but we might object to its release on executive privilege grounds!" "uh, ok." such great deals!

That New Yorker profile on Guiliani linked in the TPM piece is terrifying.

"I am sure we will."

I am sure they will, too. Especially since the SCOTUS will be converted into a rubber stamp for executive power by the time the report is issued. Which is why the Democrats need to control at least one branch of government by then. Congress can conduct its own investigations, draw up its own report, and file a bill of impeachment without recourse to either the Justice Department or the SCOTUS.

um does this mean what I think it does

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......

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

lmao this guy is the most blatantly corrupt politician in US history

....The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with Lyin’ James Comey. The Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting - UNTIL I FIRED HIM! Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint like figure in fact. Really sick!

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

it's just his usual needling. he thinks it will herd sessions in the direction he wants, without his having to give any direct orders that could incriminate him.

idk blatantly suggesting the justice dept should halt criminal investigations for political purposes feels a bit...abnormal, even for this administration

...abnormal, even for this administration

nope. with him it's a tradition he started in the first couple of weeks after the inauguration.

Third sub-40% approval rating just came out. First real evidence of a 'slide' in a while, will hold my breath as to whether it self-corrects

refolding his hair resolutely and getting the AG to say ""Snoissesffej!" will make everything maga-better

Lol

Giuliani really doesn't get the concept of a poker face huh

My favorite quote from that New Yorker profile of Giuliani:

The President took a more indulgent stance. “He’s learning the subject matter,” Trump said of Giuliani. “He started yesterday. He’ll get his facts straight.” (Giuliani had started about a month earlier.)

i hate to suggest that the Grifter has a point about Comey, but y'know...

sort of like the Dems got back to fellating the Maverick cuz he died in mid-feud w/ President Circus Peanut

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, man

You don't have to like a guy to think the reason he was fired was horseshit

Or probably illegal

This morning I saw that Bannon was going to be interviewed by Remnick at the New Yorker festival. And poof, now I see that he has already been disinvited after several of the other invited famous people announced they would drop out. I'd probably do the same, if I were invited. What Remnick (who is smart) didn't realize about Bannon (who is probably also smart) is that Bannon won just by being asked to be there, and wins doubly by being dropped. The way you win against Bannon is to stop acting like he has anything important to say at all. See also, probably, Trump and his twitter diarrhea. Except that Trump, unlike Bannon, can make horrible shit happen overnight, so unfortunately someone should at least check in with him once in a while.

in the course of my time here i'm aware of having been called a cunt twice -- once by the lex and once by imago <3 -- but 'tankie' is a level i can't even fathom

captain's log, sept 3 2018

the stars are so beautiful tonight. i love space so much. tonight i had to google 'tankie'. here is the popularity scan readings from urbandictionary:

https://i.imgur.com/u7wbITP.png

Asparagus for dinner again. I hate asparagus. Does this mean I'll never grow up?

inviting bannon in the first place was absurd, but i'm not sure that disinviting him is a 'win'. he's a spent force; i'm skeptical that trump/fox will go to bat for him for being silenced by the fake media

If reports that came out several months ago are to be credited, our president, Donald Trump, probably phones Steve Bannon during the wee hours several times a month, still seeking his opinions and advice.

it's true that they gave him a 'win' just by inviting him (steve bannon is now 4 games below .500). then they gave him another win by disinviting him because it shows the liberal tankies can't handle the truth. it was a shitshow from the very beginning. great job all around, new yorker.

It's a win for Bannon because it underscores his boogeyman bona fides, and every time he gets dissed by the Jew York Media helps earn him him back credit with his cronies.

(steve bannon is now 4 games below .500)

stop confusing steve bannon with the pirates

(to be crystal clear, once they invited him to speak, they were doomed to lose no matter what happened. letting him speak would be bad. disinviting him would be bad. it's kind of like what happens after you decide to heat up a bunch of canola oil in a frying pan and toss it up in the air over a wedding party)

And now for something completely different:

http://remezcla.com/features/music/beto-orourke-punk-band-foss-cedric-bixler-zavala/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/opinion/midterms-healthcare-bankrupt.html

The Republican opposition to Obamacare is so evil.

I wonder what these republicans will do when they get trounced out of office?
Hmmm
"Boehner joined the board of tobacco company Reynolds American on September 15, 2016.[99]
In 2018, John Boehner announced his joining the board of Acreage Holdings, a cannabis corporation, to "promote the use of medical marijuana" and to advocate for federal decriminalization of it, a shift in his previously adamant opposition to cannabis legalization.["

wikipedia

weedboehner420

The worst kind..

I wonder if this is how Trump's meeting go

"At a cabinet meeting in Baghdad, Minister of Health Riyadh Ibrahim Hussein suggested that Saddam could step down temporarily as a way of easing Iran towards a ceasefire, and then afterwards would come back to power.[46]:147 Saddam, annoyed, asked if anyone else in the Cabinet agreed with the Health Minister's idea. When no one raised their hand in support, he escorted Riyadh Hussein to the next room, closed the door, and shot him with his pistol.[46]:147 Saddam returned to the room and continued with his meeting."

look i'm not saying that it'd be a good thing for trump to murder rick perry or wilbur ross or kirstjen nielsen if and when they displease him but i'm not not saying it either if you get me

Not sure where you got that from, ie:

At this point, Saddam asked his ministers for candid advice. Health Minister Dr. Riyadh Ibrahim suggested that Saddam temporarily step down to promote peace negotiations. Initially, Saddam Hussein appeared to take in this opinion as part of his cabinet democracy. A few weeks later, Dr. Ibrahim was sacked when held responsible for a fatal incident in an Iraqi hospital where a patient died from intravenous administration of the wrong concentration of potassium supplement.

Dr. Ibrahim was arrested a few days after he started his new life as a sacked minister. He was known to have publicly declared before that arrest that he was "glad that he got away alive." Pieces of Ibrahim's dismembered body were delivered to his wife the next day.[72]

xp

where I get everything from, wikipedia

Bulloch, John; Morris, Harvey (1989). The Gulf War: Its Origins, History and Consequences (1st published ed.). London: Methuen.

Same :-/ (from Saddam's wiki)

Kevin Woods, James Lacey, and Williamson Murray, "Saddam's Delusions: The View From the Inside", Foreign Affairs, May/June 2006.

The Trumpian version of this is calling the people he's had other functionaries fire on his behalf and expressing his disappointment that they've decided to leave his employ.

WHat! Wikipedia has conflicting data!

maybe its one of those "many worlds" or "alternative facts" things

either way it seems dr ibrahim died of distinctly unnatural causes

good mourning!

Dismemberment influenza is endemic to totalitarian states iirc.

Democrats chance of taking the House ticked up to 80% on 538. They don't seem to track the Senate, as far as I can tell. Not sure why.

*coughnovember82016cough*

Nate Silver, the renowned pollster who has seriously talked up the chances of Donald Trump winning today's election, has released his final forecast.

And it is good news for Hillary Clinton, with Silver's model now giving her a 71.4 per cent chance of victory compared to Mr Trump's 28.6 per cent.

Silver's FiveThirtyEight project had come in for some criticism in the last week after it gave Mr Trump a chunky 35 per cent chance of becoming president.

Ah, found a note in an article about the TX Senate race that a Senate forecast is coming soon.

I mean you can’t say he was wrong, in the real world we only flip the coin the one time is all

xxp

Not sure what the point is? 538 was much more accurate on the 2016 election than other sources.

Republicans currently have a 20% chance to hold the House. That's a real chance and they might be successful! But the fact that their chances are that low and dropping is still a good sign for Democrats.

They are currently working on a senate model.

What we need are senate supermodels.

Then they could broadcast hearings like the PPV Victoria Secret's Angel Show or whatever.

http://www.simpsonspark.com/framegrabs/5f09/frame037.jpg

custoooooooos!

fp'd u for giving me the mental image of trump in a skimpy silk thong and bustier xp

BREAKING NEWS w/ @PhilipRucker: Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency https://t.co/dUBY1SlrwX

— Robert Costa (@costareports) September 4, 2018

*jerkoff motion*

I’d rather read a Costa/Rucker/Philip book

A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.

Woodward describes “an administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.

thread titles in here

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

we're in crazytown!

The most shocking thing about these revelations is the notion that anyone could possibly be shocked by them at this point. If you have functioning sense organs and the capacity to use them intentionally, none of this is new information.

tfw when your preferred flavour of horrible-but-covert racism conflicts with the president's more flamboyant style of racism

poor general kelly :(

I mean, the specifics and the confirmations, sure, but...come on. We allowed a gremlin to become president. Of course he's breakdancing and peeing in the rosebushes and wildly firing a pistol at passersby.

feel like woodward's book is what trump was freaking the fuck out about last week when he talked about fake books

lol

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’ ”

“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”

But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.

“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.

“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”

mr president, you are dumb as a rock and if you testify you will be charged with a dizzying array of crimes including starting the great fire of london and inventing smallpox

The bits about them literally taking documents off his desk so he can't sign them, and him then forgetting they ever existed, are...something.

evidence of trump's steel-trap mind, operating at the top of his game, for sure

Not sure what the point is? 538 was much more accurate on the 2016 election than other sources.

yea Nate Silver was beating the "hey guys there's a real good chance that Trump loses the popular vote but wins the electoral college" drum pretty hard that last week and I don't recall anyone else even floating that as a possibility.

my lowkey fave part from the wapo story:

The 448-page book was obtained by The Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at The Post...

huh yeah wonder how the post obtained the book, itisamystery.jpg

wait a sec he ordered Assad killed holy shit

I'll be the best witness that there ever was. I wasn't there.

to be fair Trump winning is as traumatic as we feared it would be the week before the election, so being in denial about the possibility that he'd win was a reasonable life decision

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”

One of the things that does continue to confound me is trying to figure out why, throughout his adult life, other people have such a compulsion to pull the bottle of drain cleaner away just before Trump gets it to his lips. Yes, please, dissuade him when his tendency toward mindless self-destruction will involve collateral damage, but if he's so perpetually insistent, it might actually be a kindness to just let him jam that fork into the wall socket already.

someone make a sitcom of Trimp's West Wing immediately it sounds hilarious!

wait a sec he ordered Assad killed holy shit

but trump's underlings disregarded it

it's a real 'if a tree falls in the forest'-type situation

One of the things that does continue to confound me is trying to figure out why, throughout his adult life, other people have such a compulsion to pull the bottle of drain cleaner away just before Trump gets it to his lips. Yes, please, dissuade him when his tendency toward mindless self-destruction will involve collateral damage, but if he's so perpetually insistent, it might actually be a kindness to just let him jam that fork into the wall socket already.

― Digital Squirts (Old Lunch),

Please be consistent: kill him by drain cleaner or fork in the socket?

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fgifimage.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F08%2Fwhy-not-both-animated-gif-7.gif&f=1

Why not both?

haha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E88HEuwInno

It’s beyond fucked up that that gif is captioned in English imo

i've only ever seen it as a gif!

I feel like the most heroic act a high-level WH aide could undertake at this point is to walk into a meeting with Trump bragging about, for instance, how much rat poison he'd consumed last night, asserting that it might have been the most rat poison ever consumed by a human being, and that he's absolutely sure that only a real man could ever break his record.

Not sure what the point is? 538 was much more accurate on the 2016 election than other sources.

haha, not to relive that dreadful evening but 538's optimism was still shining bright while Nate Cohn/NYT/Upshot was showing the dread much, much, much earlier than 538, like as soon as the bulk of Florida returns were coming in.

I even want to say 538 was pretty much in denial until the election was called, leading Nate Silver to write like several pieces over the next few days explaining how probability/statistics work to laypeople but ultimately eating a lot of crow at the margin at which Trump prevailed (which his model only forecasted something like <1% of the time).

someone make a sitcom of Trimp's West Wing immediately it sounds hilarious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsW-atvN9y0

I wish I could remember the source but I remember some university predicting Bernie for the win which I think probably could have been accurate as some people feel bernie's chances were unfairly squashed by the democratic party so he never got the chance

Hmm, what you say is intersting, let us speculate on it for 9,571 posts plz

ITS A CONSPIRACY MANNN!!!

well that's it i'm voting for Trump and moving to the Steve Hoffman boards

seems weird to judge a model by whether it exactly matched the exact margin of victory or how gloomy they sounded on election night. they gave trump better odds than many or most observers, and in texty pieces went out of their way to sound bet-hedgey rather than calling it outright for clinton. it's appropriate to approach their 3-in-4 chance for the dems taking the house with the same awareness that that also means a 1-in-4 chance the GOP holds on to it.

although there's only a fifty percent chance of that

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

538's model waited for individual states to be called before changing its odds, it wasn't optimistic or in denial, it lacked sentience

I guess one factor that can be hard to account for is"how many people will actually turn out to vote"?

Former Senator Jon Kyl will be named as John McCain's replacement in Arizona, but has committed to serving only until January.

so then there's a special election after that?

And I understand that David Merdyr is the leading GOP contender to ultimately win the seat legitimately (although he faces stiff competition from William Hommyside).

-_-

no xmas for jon kyls

xpost Very familiar with that expression, as you might imagine.

"Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: “I don’t trust you. I don’t want you doing any more negotiations. … You’re past your prime.”"

America loves some one who insults others- now we have an insulty prez

Entertainment!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/04/transcript-phone-call-between-president-trump-journalist-bob-woodward/?utm_term=.c284e99cbfe7

Over the course of 11-plus minutes, Trump repeatedly claimed his White House staff hadn't informed him of Woodward's interview request -- despite also admitting Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had told him Woodward wanted to talk. He also started the phone call by saying Woodward had "always been fair" to him, but by the end said the book would be "inaccurate."

cletus wept

some of the juicier/terrifying bits from woodward's book, via TPM:

Trump constantly mocks and puts down his own staff

Trump called former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a “little rat” who “scurries around”
Trump said former Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster dresses like a “beer salesman”
Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was “past his prime” and that he didn’t trust him to make deals
Trump said that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is “mentally retarded” and a “dumb Southerner”

White House staffers often mock the President behind his back and fight internally

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that Trump has the understanding of “a fifth or sixth grader”
Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an “idiot” and said that being his chief of staff was “the worst job” he ever had
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon called Ivanka Trump just a “goddamn staffer” —she retorted that as first daughter, she would never be a regular staffer

Trump told Mattis to “fucking kill” Assad

Trump told Mattis to “fucking kill” Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after he attacked his own people, and Mattis ignored the order and deescalated the situation after the President left. Trump also reportedly asked for plans of a preemptive military strike on North Korea only one month into his presidency.

- i think that last bit about his impulses with north korea and assad are relevant to the debate going on in this thread a few days ago about the "real" damage that trump has done, or is capable of. holy shit, that is terrifying. and yes, the counterpoint is that he was held in check by his own staff and didn't end up getting what he wanted (similar to a lot of his domestic policy ineffectiveness). my counterpoint to this hypothetical counterpoint is that while his domestic failures at least partially play out in public or in ways that we can track, that's not true of his foreign policy and attempts at making war. he's being held in check by certain people and their personalities, not facts or reason, and despite constant leaks about how unhinged trump is and tirades in the oval office and all that bullshit, we don't really have any idea of what's going on in there. that is scary.

- sad lol at southern republicans who think a NYC real estate asshole wearing a cheap-ass red hat understands them or cares about them.

“You’re a goddamn staffer!” Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. “You walk around this place and act like you’re in charge, and you’re not. You’re on staff!”

Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: “I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.”

Now there's a Netflix series waiting to happen!

FIRST DAUGHTER

remember when people were upset that they were called deplorable

"So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal."

if he *had* killed Assad, a huge chunk of the American media would have said that it was the day he finally became President

that would have been a crazy day in the media, but i think it would be forgotten quickly as actual world war III would start soon afterward

Doesn’t the assad assassination thing complicate the narrative that he is promoting Russia’s interests?

jesus, that woodward interview transcript, it’s like a fucking Turing test with a computer programmed to respond with trump’s favourite phrases

So re: that phone call with Woodward, I guess Trump actually can stay mostly focused on a single topic for 10+ minutes when a) the topic is him and b) he's lying his ass off.

I mean, y'know, ''''''''focused''''''''.

Doesn’t the assad assassination thing complicate the narrative that he is promoting Russia’s interests?

shhhhhhh

Hope burning Nike products is effecting Republican pockets more than the environment.
Campaign itself looks good & hope the firm does have contracts for NFL uniforms for the foreseeable future.

What the hell does killing Assad have to do with Russian interests?</trumpbrain>

Like, I think, maybe, perhaps, it could be that y'all are giving Donald Trump's capacity for nuanced thought a little too much credit.

I would wager that any move he's made counter to Russian interests has been inadvertent on his part (although perhaps presented as intentional after the fact) or done under duress.

I even want to say 538 was pretty much in denial until the election was called, leading Nate Silver to write like several pieces over the next few days explaining how probability/statistics work to laypeople but ultimately eating a lot of crow at the margin at which Trump prevailed (which his model only forecasted something like <1% of the time).

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), 4. september 2018 18:10 (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm not sure where you've got that, but that's definitely wrong. It might have been less than 1% of getting exactly 304 electoral votes, but it's much more than 1% of getting AT LEAST 304 electoral votes: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/

for some reason I get the feeling that thr leverage Putin has over Trumb is he has a video of him peeing on hookers.

seems like nto such a big deal to be reshaping the world over

if he *had* killed Assad, a huge chunk of the American media would have said that it was the day he finally became President

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), 4. september 2018 19:10 (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No they would not.

Doesn’t the assad assassination thing complicate the narrative that he is promoting Russia’s interests?

― 🦅 (Trϵϵship), 4. september 2018 19:16 (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not really, no. Even if it turns out he had been literally recruited by the FSB ten years ago it's also true that he is an idiot with no impulse control.

Xpost I seriously doubt that is all they have. Who'd hate him for that at this point

I would wager that any move he's made counter to Russian interests has been inadvertent on his part (although perhaps presented as intentional after the fact) or done under duress.

― Digital Squirts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 10:23 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's like Matt Damon in The Departed, just taking care of law and order business once in awhile to maintain his cover.

Commodification of dissent is a time-honored Nike strategy. #NikeBoycott https://t.co/tL6SPNq5Qc

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) September 4, 2018

Trump: Well, it’s too bad. Of course, you and I had a conversation a couple of years ago, and so that I think got you there a little bit. And we had a conversation many years ago, if you remember, in Trump Tower.

BW: Yeah, I do.

Trump: That has to be 20 years ago. And you were thinking about doing a book about me then, which is interesting. Who knew it would’ve been on this subject? Right? That was not in the cards at that time.

BW: That’s right. Well, I’m sorry, I . ..

Trump: I still remember that.

see i remember things!

In one of the debate ms he suggested we join forces with Russia in Syria to drive out ISIS, Al Qaeda and other Sunni groups—who he said were the real threat—and everyone lost their mind because he was saying out strategic interests aligned with Russia. He definitely didn’t forget that Assad was Russia’s man in the region between then and now.

Trump: Well, if you would call Madeleine [Westerhout] in my office . . . Did you speak to Madeleine?

BW: No, I didn’t. But I . ..

Trump: Madeleine is the key. She’s the secret. Because she’s the person . ..

BW: Well, I talked to Raj [Shah] about it. I talked to . . . I talked to Kellyanne.

Trump: Well, a lot of them are afraid to come and talk, or — you know, they are busy. I’m busy. But I don’t mind talking to you. I would’ve spoken to you. I spoke to you 20 years [ago] and I spoke to you a year and a half or two years ago.

BW: A couple of years ago, I understand.

Madeleine Westerhout now on subpoena alert.

Conway: I said you tried talking to everybody? What about when you interviewed, like, other people? They all said yes? That they’d try?

BW: Yeah, well, about six or seven people. I tried. And I couldn’t have — you and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne. And I said, I want to cover the substantive issues in foreign policy and domestic policy. And you said you would get back to me. Nothing.

Conway: Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions, but . ..

BW: Who are the people?

Conway: But anyway, I’ll give you back to the president. And I’m glad to hear that you tried through seven or eight different people. That’s good. You should tell him all the names. [Laughs] Thank you.

🐦[Commodification of dissent is a time-honored Nike strategy. #NikeBoycott🕸 https://t.co/tL6SPNq5Qc🕸
— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) September 4, 2018🕸]🐦

In one of the debate ms he suggested we join forces with Russia in Syria to drive out ISIS, Al Qaeda and other Sunni groups—who he said were the real threat—and everyone lost their mind because he was saying out strategic interests aligned with Russia. He definitely didn’t forget that Assad was Russia’s man in the region between then and now.

― 🦅 (Trϵϵship), 4. september 2018 19:37 (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Eh. Trump would forget Ivanka is his own daughter if Sean Hannity said something negative about her.

time-honored Nike strategy

i mean everyone does it. i do think it's typically done when the dissent is more widely accepted which actually in this case may be an interesting signifier, i assume Nike did some research on whether it would be accepted or not and i wonder if their numbers might be a bit telling w/r/t a shift of sorts.

Competitive Adidas Unveils Darren Wilson As New Face Of Brand https://t.co/otdtUR8SK3 pic.twitter.com/gvZ1xQyzBf

— The Onion (@TheOnion) September 4, 2018

New FL GOV poll from Quinnipiac: Gillum 50, DeSantis 47 https://t.co/337PmAW6JE

— Adam Wollner (@AdamWollner) September 4, 2018

TRUE

very nice

Nice

Can’t believe this DeWaantis had his “macaca” moment on day one of the general campaign.

Trump is right sometimes. He is. That Sessions, for example, could not survive as a country lawyer with a town square shingle in Tuscumbia, AL. He is right about that.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 4, 2018

watching these kavanaugh proceedings, grassley's incompetence is remarkable. sometimes to his own party's detriment, even! what a shitshow

sorry, i should keep that to the SC thread

at this point I have no idea what the fuck russia could possibly have on trump that would make any dent in things whatsoever

He's secretly a Dem sleeper agent working to realize the socialist future of the USA?

they could be his creditors

Ah, now that's a sweet spicy take.

Brit Hume says the lesson from Woodward's book is "Thank God for the people around Trump" for literally stealing papers off his desk to prevent catastrophes. "That's a service to the country... without question." pic.twitter.com/4hjHCAp6MG

— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) September 4, 2018

Yeah sounds like a sustainable system for sure

The GOP doesn't believe in systems, they belive in $ystem$.

G🤑P

hack the planet

lol at fox news’ take being ‘let’s hear it for the heroes working around the clock to prevent our big wet president from sitting on the nuclear button’

I'd been waiting to see what acts of bravery might be undertaken by those close enough to the man to best understand the threat he poses to the well-being of humanity, but I guess I'll take memo abscondery if that's all we're going to get.

I would wager that any move he's made counter to Russian interests has been inadvertent on his part (although perhaps presented as intentional after the fact) or done under duress.

― Digital Squirts (Old Lunch), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 10:23 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's like Matt Damon in The Departed, just taking care of law and order business once in awhile to maintain his cover.

― omar little, Tuesday, September 4, 2018 12:32 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or he's a complete baby brain dipshit that just reacts one way in one moment or another way in another moment

Hi ums very root to my presidetn what can I do?

I have no idea what the fuck russia could possibly have on trump that would make any dent in things whatsoever

A flood of conclusive evidence that the Trump Organization is a Racketeering-Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO), thus destroying not just his power as president, but destroying his family fortune and putting several family members in prison and maybe him as well. Seems very possible in my estimate, given that Trump has already been investigated and heavily fined for money laundering.

or getting pegged by russion sex workers

guarantee the CGI argument would come into play

Get Orangeboy's Papers

Forget it its Trumptown

re Jon Kyl

https://splinternews.com/john-mccains-replacement-is-a-familiar-old-senate-ghoul-1828805133

A flood of conclusive evidence that the Trump Organization is a Racketeering-Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO), thus destroying not just his power as president, but destroying his family fortune and putting several family members in prison and maybe him as well. Seems very possible in my estimate, given that Trump has already been investigated and heavily fined for money laundering.

― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 3:12 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do you really think a single person will care about this on the republican side

all they have to do is say "it's fake news" and it doesn't matter anymore

More OK trolling:

Her name is Zina Bash. She works in the White House. Good God. https://t.co/X85DJ8Wj6h

— Lisa Guerrero 💃🏽 (@4lisaguerrero) September 4, 2018

She's a deputy to Miller, even

Poor little rich girl worth millions, married to a cop, and originally from my dirt-poor bordertown

"Ms. Bash also served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit."

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=119958

she seems nice

here she is on TV

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1484356/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t1333

West Wing

and has the face she's earned. xp

I don't see the sign? It looks like she's grabbing her arm.

her hand

I don't care tbh. we've known there are white supremacists in the white house from day 1.

from her linkedin

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School
Degree NameMBA Field Of StudyAccounting
Dates attended or expected graduation 2011 – 2013

Activities and Societies: Penn Association of Law & Business, Wharton Latin American Students Association

not saying/just saying

(not denying that she's a white supremacist obviously. so many self-haters out there.)

exactly. If her purse fell and out spilled a copy of Mein Kampf I wouldn't be surprised.

Must be one hell of an NDA.

Trump’s former lawyer John Dowd responds:

There was no so-called ‘practice session’ or ‘re-enactment’ of a mock interview at the Special Counsel’s office. Further, I did not refer to the President as a “liar” and did not say that he was likely to end up in an ‘orange jump suit’.

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) September 4, 2018

"No, really."

Re: Zina Bash, the positioning of her fingers would seem more innocuous if it weren't for the "88" neck tat

might be easy to discredit Wolff and Omarosa but it's gonna be a lot tougher with Woodward especially given that this is like the 50th iteration of the fly-on-the-wall "Trump really is a moron and everyone despises him" story

here’s how you discredit it: ‘fake news’

I assume it's nothing but vom.

STANDBY: @TheDCVince and I just completed an exclusive interview with @POTUS in the Oval Office. Topics incl Woodward, Kaepernick, Neil Armstrong, Mueller, Declassification, Access Hollywood, NBC, the Catholic Church, and more. Stories to come on @DailyCaller...

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) September 4, 2018

bob woodward is just jealous of mr. trump's success. if he really knew something, he'd be a billionaire, too, not some lowlife reporter

bob woodward is just jealous of mr. trump's success. if he really knew something, he'd be a billionaire, too, not some lowlife reporter

― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 1:24 PM (two seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

[obligatory monthly post of worthington's law youtube]

https://heavy.com/news/2018/09/zina-bash/

she's three years older than Stephen Miller but looks about 20 younger.

Bash’s father is Dr. Lawrence Richard Gelman, a “distinguished physician” in the Rio Grande Valley, so says a feature in Empower Texans. That feature says that Dr. Gelman “is a second-generation Polish-American Jew whose parents barely escaped the Holocaust and found solace in America.” Dr. Gelman met his wife, Maria Esperanza, in Monterrey, Mexico, and the couple was married in 1979. They have four children together, Zina, Alexander, Rachel and Sharon. When asked about his politics in the article, Dr. Gelman says, “I don’t belong to anything, I hate politics…We [as a society] are affected by what goes on in Washington, and Austin; my involvement wasn’t intentional, it was more of a self-defense. When you’ve got your kids, [you] want to try to return the way things used to be, the way things are supposed to be.”

In 2017, Dr. Gelman wrote and produced a documentary called, The Hoax of Man-Made Global Warming. Dr. Gelman called climate activists “hucksters” who “perpetrate ad convenient lie.” In the early 2000’s, Dr. Gelman hosted a political talk radio show titled, Talk Back with Dr. Lawrence Gelman. Dr. Gelman told Texas Border Business about elaborated on his feelings about climate change in an interview. He said, “We don’t believe [man made climate change] is occurring. Climate change and temperature have been going on forever, but it’s nothing to do with what man is doing. We believe that it’s being used by government and others for their agenda.”

he seems nice

Wow a new celebrity

I’m not convinced zina bash is doing a white power sign. But who knows

meanwhile, #resistance sneakers pay rent, too

An unexpectedly even-handed message from Trump on Nike-Kaepernick: He says "it's a terrible message they're sending," but also, "it is what this country is all about, that you have certain freedoms to do things that other people think you shouldn’t do." https://t.co/HQDbTBZ4tv

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 4, 2018

(see next post)

I dunno, that's a pretty unnatural position to have your fingers in. I mean who knows but it seems deliberate to me

One thing I am sure of is that the right is gonna use this to whine about the way they get treated yet again, "gosh, now my HANDS are racist!??"

here’s how you discredit it: ‘fake news’

not so fast

Only the Obama WH can get away with attacking Bob Woodward.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2013

what

what does that even mean

(oh, timestamp)

I wonder what was goin on at that time

it is amazing how accurate my prediction that how Trump's old Twitter feed was gonna prophesize his entire presidency was

I’m not convinced zina bash is doing a white power sign. But who knows

― 🦅 (Trϵϵship), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 4:01 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I doubt it too, and freaking out over it is idiotic.

_here’s how you discredit it: ‘fake news’_


not so fast

🐦[Only the Obama WH can get away with attacking Bob Woodward.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2013🕸]🐦

Doesn't Nike have offices in Trump Tower?

hahahah of course that's why he's holding back

Maybe the people who work at Twitter should say what they think about the apparent fact that:

1. The incentives they've created push Trump to be more extreme

2. The people around Trump believe his tweeting could start a war pic.twitter.com/OFpDWpuvnO

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) September 4, 2018

freaking out over it is idiotic.

Best explained here: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/alt-rights-newest-ploy-trolling-false-symbols/

These master baiters represent the so-called alt-right, the meme-fluent arm of American white nationalism

I see what they did there

The "as a nurse" part is 👀

“For a variety of reasons that I know as a spouse and a nurse,” says Judith Giuliani of her former husband, “he has become a different man.”https://t.co/J8YdkUj7d6

— Elise Hu (@elisewho) September 4, 2018

Sorry but having been a Rudy spouse does not give me huge amounts of confidence in your judgment

He does seem significantly dumber than he was in years past

Sure. Would you let your husband go out like this?

https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2007/11/06/53802706-a642-11e2-a3f0-029118418759/resize/620x465/4bd991e97aa7f846b83bbed67a8cf625/image3463082.jpg

B R A I N W O R M S

for some reason I get the feeling that thr leverage Putin has over Trumb is he has a video of him peeing on hookers.

literally none of the reported intelligence about this putative tape suggests that Trump was peeing on the hookers.

Lol

i believe the pee flowed in the opposite direction, as it were

So the woodward book is fire and fury but well sourced?

NEW: Special counsel Mueller reportedly told the White House he will accept written answers from Trump on questions about whether his campaign conspired with Russia -- but *not* questions about obstruction. https://t.co/Mgp9lUjOVj

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) September 4, 2018

I hope Trump writes in his much-admired Twitter prose style.

trump just tweeted statements from kelly and mattis asserting that woodward is lying.

"the idea i ever called the president an idiot is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite"
(kelly) ((what is the opposite of an idiot?))

"the contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence."
(mattis)

i mean, so we're supposed to believe that kelly referred to trump as a genius at some point? maybe he did, who knows. god these people are pathetic

"the idea i ever called the president an idiot is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite"

The opposite of "not true" is true. well-played, sir! well-played, indeed.

and now a statement by sanders, noted teller of the truth

'this book is nothing but fabricated stories, many by disgruntled former employees, told to make the president look bad'

A tale of sound and fury, told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

i believe the pee flowed in the opposite direction, as it were

not even!

"the idea i ever called the president an idiot is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite"
(kelly) ((what is the opposite of an idiot?))

I have no problem believing that Trump has called Kelly an idiot many, many times, while Kelly has merely referred to the president as an idiot.

Sarah, how would one go about weaving a fictional tale that makes Trump look worse than his words and actions do on a daily basis without painting him as basically a monster in a horror movie, machete-ing people or eating their brains or what have you? That a mighty fine line to tread, and I'm not sure most of today's WH staffers are up to the task. So I think I might go with Occam on this one.

two Marine 4 stars taping up the nuclear football with their professional reputation is totally pathetic it's true

sic otm

the contemptuous words about the president [meaning hillary, since 2scoops conspired with the kremlin, so he's illegitimate] attributed to me in woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence

were never uttered by me or in my presence

I merely wrote them on a napkin and passed them to Mr. Woodward across the table, while mouthing the words "safer this way".

idk what zina bash meant to do there, but no one sits like that accidentally and there is very little daylight between 'actual' white supremacists and ppl who merely use white supremacy to troll

yeah there was no way that wasn't on purpose. creepy as fuck

#ZinaBash receives a text message and is immediately seen flashing the #WhitePower #DogWhistle signal. Did you know #ZinaBash reports to ant-immigration Trumper #StephenMiller #EnoughIsEnough #SCOTUS #KavanaughConfirmationHearing pic.twitter.com/wzAWY8S3Cy

— Deborah K. Herman (@deborahkherman) September 4, 2018

Seriously, that is such an unnatural shape that she very consciously makes.

I’m no zina bash expert, but didn’t the links upthread mention she was part jewish, part latina?

All trouble.

lol

I watched the video again. Maybe you guys are right. It’s a weird way to hold one’s hand.

homegirl is definitely trolling with that shit, cmon

ADL doesn't agree:

https://www.adl.org/blog/no-the-ok-gesture-is-not-a-hate-symbol

What’s the diff between a fake white supremacist shibboleth and a real one tho

I recommend the contrapoints video on the alt right for a breakdown of how they use seemingly innocuous symbols to gaslight their accusers

So, working theory is she is a stephen miller / steve bannon style edgelord who wants to troll people into thinking she is a nazi?

It’s sowing that discord and chaos that Bannon/Russia/Miller love.

1/ @zignallabs data shows 59% of the conversation around Zina Bash is being amplified by bots. That means malicious actors are successfully sowing discord right now. We need to be vigilant and not fall for these tactics https://t.co/NaiX93eUoH

— Josh Ginsberg (@joshginsberg) September 4, 2018

So childish

uuuuugh just end this day

Cannot believe someone with a name one letter away from that of a beverage-centric party I threw in '94 is wreaking so much havoc rn.

At any rate, there seems to be a lot of ambiguity surrounding this whole affair, who did what with their hand and what does it mean and who is she associated with and are these people just actively fucking with everyone or is the whole thing just totally innocent and the reactions kinda tinfoil-hatty. I just can't say anything for certain, except this: she self-identifies as a Republican, so calling her a white supremacist on that basis is accurate and good enough for me.

I’m no zina bash expert, but didn’t the links upthread mention she was part jewish, part latina?

in fact she's actually julia salazar in yet another stunning political reversal

That hand symbol likely means one of 2 things:
- someone messaged her and told her to do it because it would stir shit up with conspiracy nuts (and thats certainly worked!)
- she was told something she had to acknowledge quietly, knowing she was on camera so she did that to say she got the message (seems convoluted and weird tbh)

"everything ok over there?"

*makes ok sign for 2 minutes*

i have no better explanation, though. what a weird, weird thing, all of it

My theory now is she did it to stir up controversy and 1.)bait the left into looking paranoid as well as 2.) become famous

really, I don't think it necessarily meant either of those things, I think it was much more sinister

The real world implications of all this... fail to impress me.

America’s got Zina Fever (TM)

lol

Heh, got a chuckle out of this line.

"Estimates peg Rudy’s net worth at around $45 million, and to their infinite chagrin, his enablers cannot enable him now. The president’s lawyer doesn’t have a prenup."

I think this is what it was about—trolling people, pwning lins, high fives from the stormfront crowd

*libs

It is incredibly sinister—not discounting that. The whole “mischievously” courting the alt right thing is extremely dangerous

this is all so fucking dumb. it's like "did trump say the n-word on a tape" who gives a shit? brown families are being fucking separated. he's been a racist shithead forever and so are most people who work for him. the fuck does it matter if he says the word. like that or a white power sign is what we need to convince folks they are racist shitheads

didn’t the links upthread mention she was part jewish, part latina?

this is irrelevant

or that that is among the most alarming and disturbing shit happening

marcos otm

Yeah i agree

My man marcos

i hear that but at the same time i don’t want to give these people a pass on anything

i mean this particular zina thing is stupid obviously but i don’t want to say the trump tape doesn’t matter because, well, it matters to me, i guess

i want more productive discord, please

^not sure exactly what this means but I love thinking about it

It is incredibly sinister—not discounting that. The whole “mischievously” courting the alt right thing is extremely dangerous

― 🦅 (Trϵϵship), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 7:01 PM

this is all so fucking dumb. it's like "did trump say the n-word on a tape" who gives a shit? brown families are being fucking separated. he's been a racist shithead forever and so are most people who work for him. the fuck does it matter if he says the word. like that or a white power sign is what we need to convince folks they are racist shitheads

― marcos, Tuesday, September 4, 2018 7:08 PM

or that that is among the most alarming and disturbing shit happening

― marcos, Tuesday, September 4, 2018 7:09 PM

Yeah i agree

― 🦅 (Trϵϵship), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 7:18 PM

the most sinister and dangerous 17 mins

It's stupid like covfefe was stupid. Dada from the right. Keeps folks' heads active and agitated.

I don't know I think it's more than that because it's a signal to racists.

The fact that she’s personally close enough to Kavanaugh that he had her seated directly behind him for the hearing is - I don’t want to say 'concerning' - maybe …what’s the adjective?

Sickening?It's like a double-reverse troll, with libs falling over calling eachother paranoid or niave in response to what? An ok sign? She didn't even need to say a word. It is both malicious and stupid, cynical and effective. It's a shit sandwich.

it wasn't just an ok sign

it's a signal to racists

or... is it? (cue eerie theramin music).

Fuck it. This is just mistaking shadow for substance. Ask yourself why it would be important to signal white supremacists? What might change about life in the USA now that such a signal has been made and received by white supremacists? Nothing. White supremacists make no difference to the confirmation process unless they are US Senators and can vote. And the votes of roughly 49 of those Senators won't matter, either.

So, making such a signal, even if it were intentional, is pointless to the outcome. And if you are speaking to an audience of those who haven't yet made up their minds that the Trump administration embraces racists, pointing at this presumed 'secret hand signal' and yelling about it will not convince anyone who wasn't convinced by Trump's blatantly ambiguous response to white supremacists murdering someone in Charlottesville.

she was his law clerk, she's on his confirmation team, she's worked for trump, ken paxton and ted cruz, she just sucks all around, doesn't take a board full of hand geniuses to figure this out

xp agree but I still think we can't stop talking about this

It's an ok symbol to anyone who isn't looking into it. That's what I mean. For it to mean more, you've got to take a bite from it and then you lose. Or don't take a bite and be niave and ignore it and Stephen Miller wins because he gets to signal racists from a supreme Court nominee hearing.

sciatica otm

"it's a signal to racists

or... is it? (cue eerie theramin music).

Fuck it. This is just mistaking shadow for substance. Ask yourself why it would be important to signal white supremacists? What might change about life in the USA now that such a signal has been made and received by white supremacists? Nothing."

???

Stephen Miller wins because he gets to signal racists from a supreme Court nominee hearing.

this is stupid. how does that 'win' win him anything he didn't already have? If he wants to play this kind of silly games with white supremacists, then fucking let him. Drawing attention to it is far worse than ignoring it, in the same way feeding trolls is worse than ignoring them. Without all the added attention, this would be meaningful to a relative handful of fringey shitheads who mean almost nothing in terms of real political power. All twenty thousand of them could have their hearts aflutter over getting the love shown by Zina Pseudo-Miller and what more would come of it? Zilch. They are already acolytes of Trump. Nothing would be 'won'.

???

OK. YOu wonder why I said nothing. So, tell me what fundamental fact of life in the USA do you think has changed since yesterday?

I agree that drawing attention to it is not productive and I agree that it doesn't mean anything to any more than a bunch of shitheads, but the idea that there is someone so close to power (and also maybe someone who is going to transcend to ultimate power) that agrees with this shit is very dispiriting

If you're freaking out about hand signals, the white supremacists have already won. Because they actually signal to one another in a different and more overt way called 'identifying as Republicans' and the more you're distracted by what a configuration of fingers might mean, the easier it is for them to actually engage in shaping the world according to their agenda. Let them have fun with their decoder rings and semaphore flags. Who even gives a fuck about that shit compared to the shit they actually do when they aren't trolling the easiest marks in the world.

"the idea that there is someone so close to power (and also maybe someone who is going to transcend to ultimate power) that agrees with this shit is very dispiriting"

I have some terrible news for you from 22 months ago

yes lol

I still don't think we should acquiesce. fuck Kavanaugh forever

They want us to up to the thread title!

*to live up to

fuck Kavanaugh forever

Finally a point we can all agree on.

If you're freaking out about hand signals, the white supremacists have already won. Because they actually signal to one another in a different and more overt way called 'identifying as Republicans' and the more you're distracted by what a configuration of fingers might mean, the easier it is for them to actually engage in shaping the world according to their agenda. Let them have fun with their decoder rings and semaphore flags. Who even gives a fuck about that shit compared to the shit they actually do when they aren't trolling the easiest marks in the world.

this

really disagree

and anyway setting aside the racist-enabling bullshit he is an ultimate Gilead-level misogynist who will vote to overturn Roe v Wade

As an appeals court judge he authored a decision which put up extreme roadblocks that essentially prevented a detained undocumented immigrant from getting an abortion. She eventually was able to get one because he was overruled en banc, but in his dissent he called the issue a ‘novel situation’, writing:

“The en banc majority, by contrast, reflects a philosophy that unlawful immigrant minors have a right to immediate abortion on demand, not to be interfered with even by Government efforts to help minors navigate what is undeniably a difficult situation by expeditiously transferring them to their sponsors.”

Except the government wasn’t making any effort to find a sponsor, even as the clock was running out, and the woman already had the consent of the lower court, all of which he of course knew.

Anybody who says they feel confident that he won’t vote to overturn Roe is kidding themselves

no no no kavabnaugh is the thing to worry about, not woman doing hand signals

you don't think kavanaugh put that woman in the seat behind him?

any chance that an R vote is gonna cave on this?

very tired of the "distraction" argument, it's all important and there's lots of people out there still pissed & organizing about the missing kids, every time somebody gets angry abt shit they do and decides to take action it's a win. so yeah, go to town on whatshername, fuck that Nazi dogwhistle garbage. it's a big target, hit it everywhere.

"they" meaning the current regime in that 3rd clause

Fun replies here:

In true American fashion I just DRONE STRIKED my Nike shoes! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/0S9C6lgAkE

— jordan (@JordanUhl) September 4, 2018

you don't think kavanaugh put that woman in the seat behind him?

i don't think it matters. i think kavanaugh is what matters. i think she is a distraction and i think she is working. we should be concentrated upon kavanaugh.

Just out of curiosity: Why is it that it's needed to concentrate on Kavanaugh? Isn't the whole thing a charade anyway?

every progressive American just needs to wish really really hard and they'll be able to Care Bear stare Kavanaugh's nomination away

if Kavanaugh gets on the Supreme Court it's because YOU, the supposedly concerned citizen, didn't try hard enough

Corporatist Dems will probably say something along the lines of “technically 49 isnt larger number than 50”. I’m just not sure that’s true though.

Whereas focusing on hand signals of Trump underling will... do what exactly?

I mean I dig how exciting conspiracy theories are etc

It propably won't do anything, I just don't see how it hurts. Plus it underlines how much of a charade this is. It's probably better that these sham hearings dissolve into chaos rather than proceed orderly.

xp That's creepy enough without it being a specific signal. She's part of the Kavanagh team so whatever she's doing seems dodgy if its conscious, which it appears to be.

Would just think that a court hearing was a suppsedly solemn occasion where the attention was supposed to be on the proceedings not getting a whatever on camera.

Unless you were trying to prevent a farce from going through as a confirmation. & I thought she was supporting him.

Well it's down on camera now so it'll either come back and haunt her or she'll have something to laugh about in time to come, possibly dine out on.

where are the tax returns?

I mean she's clearly a fucking awful person but surely the focus should be, what kavanaugh's effect on people's lives and freedoms, etc? because that's the substantive effect of this experience. and if this is just a done deal, then the dems should underscore to the electorate what has been done here, how voters' lives will be worse off because of it, not, you know, a demonstrably awful person signalled or did not signal something to her demonstrably awful constituency of garbage.

hate to say it but the right is getting exactly what they want out of this, there's a Supreme Court hearing which could shape the court for decades and the left is all freaked out about a hand signal. of course it was deliberate, of course she's a damn racist, you don't need a hand signal to tell you that

EXACTLY

xpost Hilarious Nike drone strike comments pretty much encapsulate the internet.

When people on the left of the dial get hyperfocused on some zoom-and-enhance investigative folly like this, it contributes to the Alex Jones-ification Louise Mensch-ification of the left. If we dispense with our insistence upon the rigor of actual facts in favor of wild speculation, the right wins. If we jump when we are trolled (or even, in jumping at an inadvertent troll, communicate how willing we are to jump at a succession of intentional trolls), the right wins. I don't know what this woman I'd never heard of before was doing with her hand. I don't really care what she was doing with her hand. She's a professed Republican. Like all professed Republicans, she is inherently a white supremacist. Whether this means she's a frothing skinhead or a kindly doting mother who simply wants her little Billy to have an advantage over those other children, I don't know. Because, again, I have almost no idea who this person is. But, hey, consider this for a minute: if she is in fact a far right neo-Nazi, we've just spent an entire day empowering her by making her a household name rather than dismissing her like the clown that she is. That's maybe energy that could be better spent elsewhere.

have we really spent hours discussing this thing

As we inch ever-closer to the Dark Ages Part 2: The Darker Ages, I'm going to put the people who should goddamn well know better on blast when they seem hellbent on hastening that impending world where scientists are drowned as heretics for trying to manipulate us with their fake news.

dark harder

The actual fact of this case is that someone who works for Kavanaugh made something that looked like a White Power sign on television, and hasn't spent five minutes going 'hey guys, that was not a White Power sign'. She might be trolling, she might be a White Supremacist, whatever, but those are facts, not speculation. She could end that speculation in five minutes if she wanted to, and it says a lot about the GOP and about Kavanaugh that she won't. Seeing as there really is nothing productive that can be done about the substance of this case, I don't get why it's so bad to focus on?

And it's not like no politician on the left has ever tried to say that the Supreme Court is important, but it somehow clearly doesn't mean as much to voters on the left as it does to voters on the right.

I'm not conspiratorially minded usually but man it looks hella deliberate to me

zina bash....sitting normal....checks phone...reads something...sitting not normal pic.twitter.com/RdEdIK3QKG

— m i t h (@ManInTheHoody) September 4, 2018

What does this say about the GOP that we don't already know. What. What. Please, tell me what.

But so what? These things work through constant repetition. It's not as if FOX NEWS only has one 'War on Christmas' segment or Bernie Sanders only proposes 'Stop the War in Yemen' one time because then people know.

Also, I don't want to go down that 'it's telling that the Comet Ping Pong and Voodoo Donut people won't present us with incontrovertible evidence that they aren't engaged in child trafficking' road. Someone digs up dirt on this lady's involvement with the white power movement, great, sure seems like she was engaged in something shady at Kavanaugh's confirmation. Until then, I'll maintain skepticism.

These things work through constant repetition. It's not as if FOX NEWS only has one 'War on Christmas' segment or Bernie Sanders only proposes 'Stop the War in Yemen' one time because then people know.

― Frederik B, Wednesday, September 5, 2018 8:46 AM (fifty-eight seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Okay, so if people are concerned about this one ambiguous instance of something that might be a show of white power solidarity, maybe hype up all of the overt and explicit and unambiguous demonstrations of white power solidarity that are taking place with alarming frequency. What agenda is served if people on the left get totally spun for a week on this one thing and there winds up being nothing substantive to support the speculation?

Compared to some of the baseless shit we discuss on here, this is pretty fact based and harmless. Remember when Joe Crowley paid Joe Lieberman to say he should run against AOC on the Working Party Ticket?

And it's not incontrovertible evidence that I'm asking for. But if you inadvertently make something like a White Power sign, you say you didn't make a White Power sign. It's not even apologizing or nothing, just clearing things up. Don't send signs on tv is a pretty good and simple rule to avoid getting in trouble.

There is enough substance already to support speculation. Nothing more is needed. Just don't go Louise Mensch about it.

https://www.axios.com/2018-midterm-elections-democrats-detailed-agenda-76866210-1cf5-40f7-8422-bb29949437ae.html

And Pelosi, despite opposition from some progressives, is committed to reviving the "pay-go" (or pay as you go) rule she had during her previous run as speaker, requiring that new spending be paid for by budget cuts or revenue offsets.

cool, cool.

Tried to watch Kavanaugh's speech right now, and it's already been interrupted twice. There's not going to be a focus on substance, it's a circus.

Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost. Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018

Almost everyone agrees that my Administration has done more in less than two years than any other Administration in the history of our Country. I’m tough as hell on people & if I weren’t, nothing would get done. Also, I question everybody & everything-which is why I got elected!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018

"Everything in this book is lies! But when I talk shit about my employees, like it says in the book which is full of lies, it's for a good reason - and people like when I do it!"

I like the idea that his mad ranting is a management style that has pid dividends in the form of more efficiency. Def squares with what we’re seeing.

Also, he retweeted the statements from Kelly and Mattis from yesterday. This Woodward book has really crawled up his ass. I think the tape of him sounding like a lost old man on the phone was what pushed him all the way over the edge, though.

He sounded so creepy on the woodward call btw—the fake polite thing he did in the beginning.

i understand the impulse to fret but... the same "owning the libs" drive that causes conservatives to make bizarre and inscrutable hand gestures in public is the drive that causes them to systematically self-sabotage. the same mass moral panic that causes sustained freak-outs over those inscrutable hand gestures is the most effective means of resistance we collectively have. obviously mass moral panic is a poor basis for governance, but it's what we've got - all we can do is ride it out.

Hmm

Not sure

imagine for example someone going on two dozen different shows to claim that Obama was not born in the United States despite having no evidence whatsoever

I think we should instead a free trial ilx membership to stephen miller and zina bash so they can see that maybe liberals aren’t so bad after all.

I just inadvertently made the same gesture while scratching a mosquito bite on my arm. Not dispositive, just a data point and OMG WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS

https://www.circa.com/story/2018/09/04/nation/conspiracy-theory-about-white-house-aide-zina-bash-displaying-white-supremacy-hand-signals-goes-viral

this is why the internet is weird

There's not going to be a focus on substance

OMG, how unprecedented!

How much of this attention is due to the fact that she is sort of hot?

jfc

it's a fact that she's sort of hot, eh

she also has the kind of mug that = tot not worth the drama

OMG WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS

^^^^^

and hasn't spent five minutes going 'hey guys, that was not a White Power sign'

This is the fourth Google hit for "denies white power hand sign" (because I couldn't remember her name)

https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/09/04/lawyer-accused-flashing-white-power-hand-gesture-kavanaugh-hearing/

y'all need to stop. stop. especially when it becomes "huh huh she's not even sexy" or whatever the fuck is being lurched into here.

i'm assuming this is self-parody now

i know i'm probably wrong

i'm assuming this is self-parody now

new board decsrip pls mods

anyway a relative (by marriage) won a primary for state office in MA! funnel me any favor requests.

so weird that someone who works for or associates with people with nationalist or racist tendencies pushing nationalist or racist agendas might be misidentified as a racist herself. I am pretty confident she is a piece of shit whatever she was doing with her hand.

Okay, so if people are concerned about this one ambiguous instance of something that might be a show of white power solidarity, maybe hype up all of the overt and explicit and unambiguous demonstrations of white power solidarity that are taking place with alarming frequency. What agenda is served if people on the left get totally spun for a week on this one thing and there winds up being nothing substantive to support the speculation?

I see shit like this constantly and it is infuriating. the problem is there is literally nothing any of us can do. kavanaugh is essentially confirmed, there is nothing anybody can do about it -- see stories about supposed "convincables" like susan collins already having pre-approved him -- and focusing on "the real issues" will amount to nothing more than flailing at a different thing uselessly.

among my least favorite things is the crushing weight of moral scolding about issues that are so large-scale that, unless you have a huge amount of power (like many Congresspeople) or hyperspecialized skills (say, immigration lawyers who actually have the experience, speak the languages, are in the right place at the right time, can find lodging, etc. to do something about border specializations), you can do literally nothing to affect in any way.

which is of course bleak. it's terrifyingly bleak! but scolding it doesn't make it less terrifyingly bleak, it just adds scolding.

s/specializations/separations

it rules that the most respected person in Democratic politics is willing to go to the mat for his failed mayor pal on his way out but can't be bothered to do anything to get a Democrat elected Governor in Maryland, where his endorsement could make a huge difference. https://t.co/JzQbfdfiSt

— Michael T Sweeney (@mtsw) September 4, 2018

Sure, but you sound more like an adult when you talk about policy issues instead of explaining cryptic microaggressions you read about that somebody else saw on the teevee

xxxp

katherine otm. and honestly this might just be me speaking as a person dying of sweat on a 90 degree subway platform but it probably is never a helpful move on this board to go around telling people they should talk about something else to gain adult status.

That's a good point :-)

Yeah, I don't know that that's what actually happened, though.

one of Kavanaugh's staffers dog-whistling to white supremacists over Dianne Feinstein talking sure sounds like something that could have policy implications, given that overt white supremacists in governmental positions (Stephen Miller on down) have indeed influenced policy, but don't mind me I'm just a kid

Otm. The mainstreaming of literal white supremacists—even in this idiotic winking way—is absolutely a major issue and is why I was flipping out all the time about trump even before he was elected. There is no place for that stuff in a republic.

wtf is this?

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/maine/articles/2018-09-04/governor-submits-medicaid-plan-urges-feds-to-reject-it

Here is my plan for our state to get healthcare paid for - I think you should reject it even though voters in my state approved it

how about this: don't feed the fucking trolls

BREAKING: lepage is top-tier asshole

is he expecting CMS will say "Oh bu the Governor says we should reject it so that's that " if its a Trumpo appointed person maybe they would

not looking good

"Seema Verma was sworn in as the 15th Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on March 14, 2017. "

The mainstreaming of literal white supremacists
...is called “electing Republicans” and was going on before you were born

—even in this idiotic winking way—
...that requires several minutes of unconvincing explanation to people who aren’t following enough liberal Twitter, possibly because they’re watching the hearings with the sound on

is absolutely a major issue and is why I was flipping out all the time about trump even before he was elected.
Congratulations?

There is no place for that stuff in a republic.
Not even in Europe does that count as illegal hate speech.

I’m FP’ing every post about Zina’s fingers after this. That’s my little contribution to meaningless flailing today.

here we see the lasting impact of this disastrous presidency - the ruin of all public institutions with agents of the private sector - here to destroy teh institutions they are meant to protect !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seema_Verma#cite_note-17

The mainstreaming of literal white supremacists
...is called “electing Republicans” and was going on before you were born

OTM x 10000000000000

well yeah but letting Stephen fucking Miller dictate policy feels like a pretty sudden shifting of the Overton window

the problem with lording it over people that adults watch with the sound on is that it. does. not. fucking. matter. Dianne Feinstein could be singing "Friday" by Rebecca Black at the podium and it would have as much effect on whether Kavanaugh is confirmed or not.

I’m FP’ing every post about Zina’s fingers after this. That’s my little contribution to meaningless flailing today.

― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Wednesday, September 5, 2018 9:53 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

zina fingers turn to FP fingers

We need to poll TS: Trump: Culmination or Aberration and get out of the way so that posters like Treeship can relax w/a cocktail.

also by "literal white supremacists" affecting policy I was referring to news stories like this. at what level of minutiae does this stop being flailing?

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/emails-link-former-dhs-policy-analyst-to-white-nationalists/568843/

he problem with lording it over people that adults watch with the sound on is that it. does. not. fucking. matter. Dianne Feinstein could be singing "Friday" by Rebecca Black at the podium and it would have as much effect on whether Kavanaugh is confirmed or not.

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Wednesday, September 5, 2018 1

Well, the point, as I see it, of yesterday's histrionics from the protesters was to intimidate any Dem senators on or not on the Judiciary Committee: any Dems, like my boy in Florida, considering a vote for Kavanaugh. I expect Susan Collins has been whistling Dixie since July.

really the Overton window is all over the map right now, it's a real trickster

so that posters like Treeship can relax w/a cocktail.

Dude's one of a kind.

realistically speaking one of the few people who could have realistically moved the needle on kavanaugh's chances was mccain (via his replacement, or arranging a lack thereof) and in the surprise of the century, he didn't.

what possible reason would McCain have had for voting against Kavanaugh? he would've voted yes without a moment's hesitation. McCain never gave a fuck about abortion rights, unions, executive privelege etc.

Isn’t it better if republicans are frequently made to distance themselves from nazis though? Even if they historically have appealed to prejudice, shouldn’t they at least be made to watch themselves lest they get lumped in with hate movements? I don’t really want the at right crowd to become just another part of the rich tapestry of american politics.

Xps

Isn’t it better if republicans are frequently made to distance themselves from nazis though? Even if they historically have appealed to prejudice, shouldn’t they at least be made to watch themselves lest they get lumped in with hate movements?

Why does it matter? These people haven't given a fuck since January 1981.

I mean, whatever.

Why is it better, treesh? They reap what they've sown.

I meant after he died, via either:

- arranging his replacement to be... not the guy it was
- arranging it so he wouldn't get a replacement

obviously he did not in fact do either of those, but even his 0.00000000001% chance to have done anything about it is more of a chance than anyone posting in this thread has, so please redirect your scolding elsewhere

xp -- versions of "the alt-right crowd" have been a part of "the rich tapestry of american politics" since the very beginning and the perception that they weren't is recent

Nixon went a-courting the white supremacists and it’s been a fruitful marriage, there’s no wedge thin enough to fit between the GOP and white hate

well yeah but letting Stephen fucking Miller dictate policy feels like a pretty sudden shifting of the Overton window

The things that Stephen Miller wants to do are not being thwarted by us turning into Pizzagate - exactly the opposite.

"us turning into pizzagate" is a better description of, say, eric garland threads, or the whole "melania is dead and that's a stunt double" thing, not this

and even if we were turning into pizzagate and one of us were to go to the Nowheresville Combination Cracker Barrel and MAGA Millinery with a gun because they've got Nazis down in the basement, it still would not have an effect either way on Stephen Miller is doing

MARCO RUBIO ALEX JONES FITE

Here's video of the Alex Jones - Rubio spat https://t.co/lGDaHAcZUc

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 5, 2018

tired: this is a watergate redux

wired: we've collapsed into like a late-Hapsburg or late-Ottoman state, where advisors and aides all govern according to their own whims and manage up by distracting the angry and inept leader with theater, trying to ride it out before collapse

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) September 4, 2018

^ also a contender for board description

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz2oXidxH7k

Oh hey, here's something to take our minds off the OK sign.

Someone in the GOP gave wing extremist trolls and conspiracy theorists front row seats at the Congressional hearing on social media.

This strikes me as another tactic by Stephen Miller to inflame, divide, and distract, similar to yesterday’s hand sign at the Kavanaugh hearing. pic.twitter.com/IfsfFFjMYs

— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath) September 5, 2018

as a formative political experience of mine, the perfidy of Watergate has a quaint rationality to it now (and I'm not forgetting Liddy)

I mean, this is very reminiscent of Roger Stone bringing the Clinton women into the last Presidential debate. Everything makes 42,000 pages less of a headline.

I mean, yes, there's that, but once again -- the only thing that is there to be distracted from is that this is a foregone conclusion. it's already theater

(the harriet miers nomination isn't even 15 years ago but already seems like it's from another universe)

I mean, this is very reminiscent of Roger Stone bringing the Clinton women into the last Presidential debate

goddamn there's so much stupid bullshit every day i forget about stuff like this

massive xpost

this praise kek hand sign episode is more akin to 'obama giving daps to people is actually a terrorist fist bump'

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2008/06/13/ObamaFist460.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=d0d8711cf17a995bd755a18d4a937ed6

the only person in that rubio/jones video who shouldn't be ground into pesto is the woman at the end asking why they're giving him any screentime.

alex jones pesto mmmm

the salty flavour is sweat

I don't want to be FP'd but the 'terrorist fist bump' is not at all like 'praise kek hand sign' and it's very important to point that out. Thinking black people are terrorists over a handsign is racist. Thinking Republicans are White Supremacists over a handsign is pretty much common sense. One group has brought this on themselves, and the other has been vilified for centuries. It's not comparable.

That wasn’t jingleberries’ point

None the less, I'll just point it out, so nobody get's thinks it is.

But yeah, both has to do with hands.

"I'll take you out myself"

lol plz kill each other

https://www.newsweek.com/alex-jones-marco-rubio-senate-hearing-confrontation-gay-fight-frat-boy-1106946

the only person in that rubio/jones video who shouldn't be ground into pesto is the woman at the end asking why they're giving him any screentime.

― canary christ (stevie), Wednesday, September 5, 2018 9:00 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a real american hero imo

there is also the slight difference of terrorists not en masse seeing the supposed fist jab and thinking “oh hell yeah that’s our guy,” or for that matter the VERY SLIGHT difference of racism being a factor in people latching onto the gesture

but please go on about how people pointing out this thing are actually hysterical children

Okay, I guess since a solid 24 hours have now elapsed, we can all present the evidence we've amassed about the sordid white power history of the Manchurian Handidate and the online correspondence of her compatriots congratulating her on representing the tribe on live TV. Because we surely aren't still propping this narrative up solely on the basis of our imaginations at this point. Surely not.

there is nothing behind the hand gesture

neither is there anything beneath or beyond the hand gesture

there is only the hand gesture, signifier without signified or referent, the spiraling fingers of recrimination and the zero point of the plotless plots of the regime

Peron
Peron
Peron
Peron
Peron

It's also that she's a republican :)

'Oh, so are we just going to assume that all republicans are white supremacists with even the flimsiest evidence?'

Well... Yeah!

this is one of the worst one of these threads we've ever had

I dont get how mattis and kelly can stay in their jobs after this woodward book.

Trump is not the type to shrug off being insulted. No way he believes the denials.

Trump is gonna believe them when they said Woodward is lying

There's even a term for it that he likes...fay canoes?

'Oh, so are we just going to assume that all republicans are white supremacists with even the flimsiest evidence?'

Well... Yeah!

― Frederik B, Wednesday, September 5, 2018 11:47 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Let's shift the goalposts and pretend that this is the argument at hand, sure, why not, could be fun.

Okay, I guess since a solid 24 hours have now elapsed, we can all present the evidence we've amassed about the sordid white power history of the Manchurian Handidate and the online correspondence of her compatriots congratulating her on representing the tribe on live TV. Because we surely aren't still propping this narrative up solely on the basis of our imaginations at this point. Surely not.

the point is that it's trolling, and judging by this thread the trolling is working

“I’m a Southerner, people can judge my intellect, my IQ, by my product and what I produce rather than what somebody else says,” Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said in an interview.

“e’re a pretty smart bunch. We lost the Civil War, but I think we’re winning the economic war since then … I’m not gonna get into name calling because I don’t think you should be allowed to call names — including the president,” he added.

yup you sound like a fucking moron

the south, historically renowned for its good economy compared to the north after the civil war

We can thank the South for succotash, that's true.

the economic powerhouse of the South, which produces... not much, gets its food and raw materials and technology and p much everything else from other states, including lavish federal subsidies and benefits financed by other, wealthier states. Thx for all the gas pipelines though I guess.

One reason why Atlanta got so many flattering write-ups in the late seventies and early eighties was how it finally started building shit instead of being a beneficiary of federal aid since the New Deal.

pretty sure a lot of the shit that was built in atlanta in the sixties and seventies depended on federal support, not least with regard to highway money, urban renewal plowing downtown under, etc.

shhh they'll hear you!

this constant stream of protesters getting in one-liners and then getting hauled out while the senators and kavanaugh remain in suspended animation and the journalists and other powerful white people in the room smile and laugh at each other is one of the most surreal things i've ever seen

For reference: The combination of CA, NY and TX pretty much eats all the other states combined.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/United_States_GDP_by_States.png/400px-United_States_GDP_by_States.png

I would never have guessed 10 years ago that the star of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Coyote Ugly would be getting arrested on the Senate floor, but here we are.

I was just arrested for civil disobedience in the Kavanaugh hearings.

Many citizens before me have fought for the equal rights of women. I can’t be silent when someone is nominated to the Supreme Court who would take our equal rights away.#StopKavanaghpic.twitter.com/f3SG7gmVam

— Piper Perabo (@PiperPerabo) September 4, 2018

More fun!

On eve of Woodward book excerpts, Kushner told Trump he can’t be at war with the establishment if they’re going to survive in DC. My latest:https://t.co/XuLQvDprvk

— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) September 5, 2018

“I’d rather be an unapologetic defender of Donald Trump than Judas,” one West Wing official told me.

...but at least Judas got paid.

To be a fly on the wall:

Even Trump’s family is concerned the president is in deep trouble. After attending John McCain’s funeral, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump told Trump he needs to get control of himself. A person briefed on the conversation recalled, “Jared told him if they’re going to last in Washington they can’t be this far off the mark with the establishment.”

xpost

that should be one of the endorsement quotes on the back of trump's (ghostwritten) memoir

"Dad, act normal for a while"

"Jared and Ivanka try to talk sense into the president" is on of my favorite media memes. It's pure sitcom.

“You can normally only do 10 percent of what he tells you to do. Ninety percent is fucking crazy,” a former West Wing official said, fretting about what Trump may instruct aides to do.

not even waiting for the election

ICYMI last night, up @theintercept on Pelosi's adamant stand to revive pay-go and cripple the ability to pursue an activist agenda, even with a Democrat in the WH https://t.co/dydVwaa0f9

— David Dayen (@ddayen) September 5, 2018

The only reason a horse hasn't been nominated to the Supreme Court is that Trump has never demonstrated any affection for animals.

He's uncomfortable with appointees who are more intelligent than him.

xpost TBF, that's only because he was forbidden as a child from going near animals after several family pets were found mysteriously disassembled and partially eaten.

I am all for tax increases

xp

the “pay-go” rule that mandates all new spending is offset with budget cuts or tax increases.

hmmm, i wonder if a republican senate + trump president will go with budget cuts or tax increases, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Getting very interesting on this front.

Mueller has subpoenaed InfoWars conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi https://t.co/iEkjkSXJmg

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 5, 2018

hmmm, i wonder if a republican senate + trump president will go with budget cuts or tax increases, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

they won't go with either

I respect Pelosi's capabilities as a power broker, but as ever when considering questions of power, we must remember to ask 'whose?'

haha mr Where's the Birth Certificate?

*adjusts monocle*

he better hide all his Ameros!!

Pay-go is such a stupid idea. No one cares that Democrats are fiscally responsible.

Republicans care about Democrats' fiscal responsibility, but only as a handy stick to beat them with. When they are in power, fiscal responsibility flies out the window. /blindingly obvious

and yet there is still a broad public perception that the GOP is the party of "fiscal responsibility" (which is what Pelosi, in her hamfisted way, thinks she is combatting)

GOP is certainly in charge of weakening the government, making sure power is retained in the private sector - that is their fiscal responsibility

I exercise fiscal responsibility when deciding among top shelf gins #Sotoforspeaker

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html

The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

thank you for your service, also eat shit

McCain would be for it. Fire at me all you like, but this is exactly the idiotic destablizing do-gooderism he stood for. Rubio is grabbing the hem. https://t.co/lvvIH1EpFD

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) September 3, 2018

you see when we were throwing babies in cages its important to remember that it was a fully-functional adult doing that

I didn't know the nyt cut a syndication deal with clickhole