US Politics January 2019: we are #ready to drop something much, much bigger

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ahead-times-square-ball-drop-u-s-strategic-command-jokes-n953416

presidential harassment!

tax returns!

Calling Gil-Scott Heron. (Dead, I know.)

#PeaceIsOurProfession

We're gonna get real Kubrickian this year

JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE HATERS AND THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA! 2019 WILL BE A FANTASTIC YEAR FOR THOSE NOT SUFFERING FROM TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE, GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FOR OUR COUNTRY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2019

ohh, that would have been a good thread title

NOW I THINK I AM AARON RODGERS

Hmm, number one person suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome isss

So, a bad year for him?

the real trump derangement syndrome is the friends we made along the way

so anyway I didn't watch those 2016 "debates" just as none of you should have, but didn't they lead to HRC's telltale "why aren't I 30 points ahead" hubris?

maybe literally say "you're a diseased animal" to the asshole, as long as we're never going back to politesse

#PeaceIsOurProfession
We're gonna get real Kubrickian this year
― jmm, Tuesday, January 1, 2019 8:41 AM (two hours ago)

I'm pretty sure Kubrick & Co took this verbatim from... the Pentagon

things haven't changed THAT much

He did you complain about the deplorables thing being “elitist” at the time?

Ultimately we need a machine that regularly produces Senators like Brown and Warren more than we need a machine that elects one of them president once

— Italian Alex Pareene (@pareene) December 31, 2018

re: debates w trump and the people who support trump i often think of this quote from edouard louis in a guardian interview a couple of years ago:

Silence has to be a part of our progress. We have to put silence at the centre of politics today. Stop responding to the questions, stop letting them control the language, the debate, the agenda. I hear some argue 'it’s better to be open about these things. If you are racist and hide your racism, then you’re a hypocrite.' I say no, it’s better you keep quiet.

To me, democracy is not about saying everything. Some things, like racism, antisemitism, shouldn’t be issues, they shouldn’t be talked about. Some subjects should be considered obsolete, and yes, let’s shut down the debate because they are obsolete. I grew up as a queer child in a small village. Lots of gay children in this situation suffer the same things: being threatened, beaten up. When I published my book in Paris, some said, ‘Well, if you’d grown up in a bourgeois milieu, people would have thought the same thing, they just wouldn’t have hit you.’ Are they joking? I would rather that, than being constantly beaten up for being queer. Of course I’d rather people weren’t racist or homophobic, but if they are they can keep it to themselves. Just shut up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/trump-evangelicals-cyrus-king.html

ni dieu ni maître!

Yes. Racism, homophobia, hate in general is more about what you say and do than how you think. A nation of people who have learned not to publicly express or act on their prejudices is vastly preferable — and, in practice, vastly less hateful in the ways that matter most — to a nation where people feel free to act on them.

silent bob for president!

The month before the 2018 midterms, a thousand theaters screened “The Trump Prophecy,” a film that tells the story of Mark Taylor, a former firefighter who claims that God told him in 2011 that Donald Trump would be elected president.

What?

"Congratulations to President
@JairBolsonaro who just made a great inauguration speech - the U.S.A. is with you!"

trump tweet, just now

Nice

Seriously though the thing j posted

The identification of the 45th president with an ancient Middle Eastern potentate isn’t a fringe thing. “The Trump Prophecy” was produced with the help of professors and students at Liberty University, whose president, Jerry Falwell Jr., has been instrumental in rallying evangelical support for Mr. Trump. Jeanine Pirro of Fox News has picked up on the meme, as has Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, among many others.

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17941066/the-trump-prophecy-liberty-university-christian-nationalism

The Trump administration has used this very trope. In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions used Romans 13:1-7 — a controversial verse that demands that Jewish Christians resist political action against the Roman Empire — to argue that the Trump administration had the political and Biblical right to enforce family separation policies for migrants. Trump’s top evangelical advisors, such as prosperity gospel preacher Paula White and First Baptist Dallas preacher Robert Jeffress, have frequently implied that Trump’s authority is virtually unlimited because his presidency is divinely mandated.

Maybe i am dumb. I didn’t know about any of this.

I knew he had a strong base among evangelicals. Didnnot think they considered him a divine king.

these fucks simply can not die soon enough

This is horrifying

It also seems extremely blasphemous. Where are the christians speaking out against this?

who had 13 hours in the treeshy's first horrifying epiphany of 2019 poll

Lol at least i’m not in the death pool this year

where's the tax returns?

i’m still compiling my ballot tbf xp

Did not think they considered him a divine king.

There are definitely some evangelicals who long for a theocracy, as the correct and biblically ordained form of government. There's even a fancy term for their movement that escapes me atm, something with 'dominion' embedded in it, I think. They'd respond very favorably to such propaganda.

I don't believe that sort of craziness is widely accepted among evangelicals, yet, but you can never hurt yourself with evangelicals by quoting some bible verse that appears to bolster your position. And there aren't a lot of bible verses that endorse checks and balances between the three branches of a democratically-elected and constitutionally-based government.

dominionism

Wondering suddenly if Mittens ran for senate just as a launchpad to primary Trump. Thinking it’s more likely he runs in ‘24, why would he stick his neck out

In the meantime, I am in SW DC, one block from the National Mall, and the usual torrent of humanity is more like a trickle. A restaurant in this building is closed for the duration, and another has drastically cut back it's hours.

A primary challenge to trump would fail.

Good morning!

I would be interested in seeing tax returns fwiw

A primary challenge to trump would fail.

― Trϵϵship,

Whats the earliest/latest this could happen? I'd have ruled it out as impossible even just a month or so ago but now I'm no longer sure

hate to see a good thread title go waste

The truth is @MittRomney lacked the ability to save this nation. @realDonaldTrump has saved it. Jealously is a drink best served warm and Romney just proved it. So sad, I wish everyone had the courage @realDonaldTrump had. https://t.co/mbxoTqbSX6

— Brad Parscale (@parscale) January 2, 2019

It will fail, of course, but I would still root for it as a step towards schism between the semi-sane Republicans and the death cult.

""semi-sane Republicans"" <----sorry, who?

The ones who just want a feudal plutocracy, not the ones cheering on Biblical apocalypse.

pretty sure that is also a strong path to apocalypse

If you can trap Jeff Flake on an elevator he temporarily grows a conscience

But tomorrow he’s dying and getting reborn in the private sector, so not much time there

For Romney, that's not bad.

^^^ centrist

cold. blooded.

Blood isn’t thicker than maga https://t.co/2EDgjUC7XQ

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 2, 2019

Romney editorial does seem to be a shot across the bow but I doubt he's gonna go for the primary in 2020. Let Kasich take that bullet and then run in 2024 like the loser he is.

Today in "Jesus, what a pathetic asshole", note the poster on the table for the Situation Room meeting between Trump and Congressional leaders:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dv7Ap5jWwAEo0AU.jpg

Can a dog shit on that ASAP

that isn't the situation room. guess they realized they couldn't get cameras in there.

the situation room isn't for meetings between the prez and congress

right, but that's where they announced the meeting would be:

The gathering Wednesday afternoon should be different, at least publicly. It is being held in the White House’s secure “Situation Room,” and the media will not be invited for any portion of it, according to guidance sent from the White House.

maybe this isn't that meeting, maybe they're full of shit.

Yeah, it's possible the photo was misidentified on Twitter. It's rare, but that does happen...

what is that a poster *for* exactly

i feel like a doof, but what sanctions do they refer to? sanctions coming November? the ones on russia from november 2018? it's january 2019 in the not situation room, wtf

let me just check with my buddy Q

It's a pretty old image at this point I think. I remember seeing it awhile ago...

I think it was just a Game of Thrones joke image someone in maga headquarters made

Iran according to this piece from the time

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-game-of-thrones-iran-sanctions-are-coming-twitter-us-white-house-tweet-a8614976.html

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dv7J1pcXgAA6m11.jpg:small

there are no mavericks

Apparently he's been saying all sorts of fun things in the last half hour.

Yeah it’s a blast

my god we're going to have endure one awful perfect still of Brylcreemed Mitt for six years, eh

Those are not the Mavericks you’re looking for

cursed liberal opinions right there. (in re: mavericks)

man i really really want off now

While Mitt is fueling today's flashbacks to 2012, let us not forget to say our final farewells to another veteran of that fraught election season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4xnTcnHZbU

Goodnight, ripped prince.

Trump says he had a meeting about Iran and the Middle East with lots of good-looking generals: "Like from a movie. Better looking than Tom Cruise, and stronger."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2019

well, that's encouraging

I mean, it's a suspect porn setup but then again

Apparently he's been saying all sorts of fun things in the last half hour.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, January 2, 2019 2:18 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah it’s a blast

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, January 2, 2019 2:19 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

?

poetry

Trump says he was all alone in his "big house" over the holidays -- "except for all of the guys out on the lawn with machine guns." He says that he's never seen so many machine guns, and they didn't even wave at him. He adds, "All alone with the machine-gunners."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2019

Yeah, I'm sure a week in relative isolation did absolute wonders for his mental state.

Ah yes

Trump: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia."

Trump then goes on to endorse the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Via Fox. pic.twitter.com/oE0fuDLXyz

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 2, 2019

Elsewhere

Not a joke: A Canadian man was arrested early this morning outside the White House fence, telling @SecretService he came to the U.S. hoping @realDonaldTrump could help him find a wife. He said he brought two bottles of @CrownRoyal for the president.

— Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) January 2, 2019

change you can't believe is happening

So any guesses as to what vacated cabinet position this man will soon be filling?

trying to parse out that afghanistan word salad has made my brain 12% smoother

It all makes sense now, we are living in an episode of Trailer Park Boys

I wonder what % of his supporters will continue to champion their leader once his public statements have devolved into endless spells of recursive babbling without the merest whiff of measurable linguistic content.

I mean, yeah, we're almost there, but to his credit he is still capable of forming words.

I can't tell the difference.

I still watch the Republican debate footage from time to time and it's crazy how much more lucid and coherent he was then compared to now. Its only been 3 years

consider how fast Barack Obama went grey, and then apply that trajectory to DJT's higher brain functions

i agree with frogbs. he was never very articulate, lol, but the way he talks now is much more disjointed than it used to be.

I prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of how he speaks now, since I can't bring myself to ever actually watch him talk

ha

"I haven't decided who I'm going to endorse in 2020," Romney tells @jaketapper

— Rick Klein (@rickklein) January 2, 2019

until I see an actual vote against Trump I'm consider all this just a lot of posturing bullshit akin to his "maverick" predecessors

yup, for sure

ask and ye shall ... not receive

.@MittRomney to @jaketapper on shutdown: "i'll be with republicans. I think it's important to secure the border."

— Abigail Crutchfield (@ACrutchfield14) January 2, 2019

also important to secure dogs to roofs of cars iirc

"I acknowledged the president was successful and I was not," Romney said. "He did something I couldn’t do. He won, and I recognize that and appreciate that. But no, I’m not running again and we’ll see whether someone else does in a Republican primary or not."

the most common rebuttal I see to dunking on the flakes and romneys for their pearl clutching is “well what do you want them to do, abandon GOP policies” and well friends let me remind you the GOP has exactly zero policy positions except whatever trump says they have

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 2, 2019

Why — why — why — why is he not running one of those outlet malls. Why in the name of God can’t you tell me that? https://t.co/jFLn7Ga6za

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 2, 2019

I just realized that, now that it's January, we all can look forward to another State of the Union address from our current president. It may be the longest thing he reads all year.

isn't the Speaker of the House in charge of scheduling those lol

someone suggested upthread that she will request one during the shutdown for maximum embarassment, which would be lol

i think the suggestion was to request it on the day the next shutdown would have begun, but since we're already in shutdown ...

oh right

I wouldn't be surprised if this shutdown dragged on for weeks and maybe even months, Trump is so fucking stupid

and now is not a good time for the IRS to be furloughed btw

By 2/16/18, the IRS had paid out 01.2 billion in refunds. That's still six weeks away, but people will notice that. https://t.co/Mz6lMWaiTR https://t.co/v7Lglm88nr

— Richard Rubin (@RichardRubinDC) January 2, 2019

it's political suicide for him but hey what the hell

The IRS needs to put their union reps to work.

If I were Pelosi I would obtain an unwholesome enjoyment from savouring when I would ask Trump to give the State of the Union. Imagine what you could time it to coincide with, or follow on from.

Trump will probably just refuse to give one.

or hand in something written in sharpie

He'll be Facetiming the SotU from the toity this year, mark my words.

Look, the PAYGO rule is bad policy. But if Dems ditch it, they'll lose all those single-issue, deficit-reduction voters who plan to carefully study the Democratic Party’s changes to House procedure before going to the ballot box in 2020! https://t.co/qzPLcDcEpi

— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) January 2, 2019

Sure like to see ol' donny trump wriggle his way out of *this* jam

It's been a high honor to serve @POTUS & the American People as @Interior Secretary. We've restored public lands “for the benefit & enjoyment of the people,” improved public access & shall never be held hostage again for our energy needs. God bless America & those who defend her. pic.twitter.com/JXzVmrpDTg

— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) January 2, 2019

You posted that so I would spit on my monitor, right?

Zinke's handwriting is kind of hard to read but I'm pretty sure that says "avaricious people," not "American people"

have they said what committees romney will be on?

Trump's already appointed him head of The Itty Bitty Mitty Committee.

That cabinet meet today was great. When he used the phrase "We're not talkin' about..." at one point (in reference to what, I forget), I thought of Allen Iverson not-talking about practice.

"meeting"

According to CNN witches favor Democrats and they are offended that the Meuller investigation is described as a Witch Hunt. There is no reason for the witches to be offended because Witch Hunt derives from,for example,the Salem Witch Hunts where people were executed unjustly.

— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) January 3, 2019

at what point do these people get laughed out of town??

When the first missiles hit

let the subpoenas roll!

good morning!

bring it

"Mr Trump reportedly told Ms Pelosi she should support the wall as she was a "good Catholic" and the Vatican City had a wall."

got 'er

I hated border wall until I remembered that my house has walls now I am fan of border wall.

just don't call wall (or farmer subsidies) socialisms

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/thom-hartmann-the-gop-is-reviving-one-of-its-favorite-scams/

"Mr Trump reportedly told Ms Pelosi she should support concentration camps as she was a "good Girl Scout" and Scouts go to camp."

"Mr Trump reportedly told Ms Pelosi she should support torture as she was a "good Jackson 5 fan" and "Torture" was a jam."

something there is that totally loves a wall, absolutely the best wall, just so good

Who could hate wall, it start with same letter as water and everybody need water

I don't know how this fuckin' dumbshit manages to walk upright, I really don't.

Give'em hell, Mitt!

Senator-elect @MittRomney: I would vote for the border wall https://t.co/zYdIqx4TXf @TheLeadCNN

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 2, 2019

20-foot jenga wall, my friend

Who on earth honestly believed that Romney was going to diverge from the party line in any respect beyond incredibly meek resistance to Trumpism?

Morning Joe

Joe and Mika

What is the name of this condition that, absent any solid supporting evidence, makes people think that someone is suddenly going to start behaving more virtuously than they've behaved for literally their entire adult life?

Getting born again

Magic UnderWall

because maybe
mitt was gonna be the way that'd save me

Mormon Mavericks should've been a sports team.

Mittens mostly objects to Yam's bad manners, like so many MSNBC watchers

Trump never rose to the level of Presidency. he says the quiet parts out loud. otherwise he ok and I still agree with 99% of his policies.

"Trump"

The Shutdown is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election. The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of the achievements of “Trump,” so they are going all out on the desperately needed Wall and Border Security - and Presidential Harassment. For them, strictly politics!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2019

Someday, researchers at major universities will study Trump's punctuation tics like archeologists do bones.

oh wow he dropped the October surprise almost two years early oh damn how will we ever

xpost

you have to admit trump's good at this

I feel bad for him. He so desperately wants to toil in the arduous fields of governance but the dems just won't let him. He didn't become president just so he could lie around watching the tube and shoveling fistfuls of half-melted ice cream into his foodhole, people.

Nah

Xp

yes shakey, donald trump is v bad at twitter, the facts are clearly with you

Good at what, amping up his base? getting ratioed daily?

his 35% get sexually aroused even if a cat walks across his keyboard and clicks submit

I'm sure a percentage of ILX gets sexually aroused by cat walk on keyboard too.

*raises hand sheepishly*

Neanderthal yes both those things!

I did myself a favor and got permabanned from Twitter.

Hey Alfred, rrgrgrgrrijdddnfffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

(wink)

there was some article on politico the other day (is it linked in this thread? idk) about how Trump has gotten *worse* at Twitter since becoming president. whatever that means. but yeah why does anyone care about it anymore, it's all just inconsequential noise

jfc stop with the "He's obv awful but you have to give him some credit on _____"

Hitler sure was good at speeches huh

Hitler was good at sweating and shouting

thought you wrote "Hillary"

Romney gets sworn in as senator; he is expected to get a seat on Senate Foreign Relations

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 3, 2019

I assume it's a kiddie seat

jfc stop with the "He's obv awful but you have to give him some credit on _____"

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, January 3, 2019 12:15 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do i even need to link to the @dril tweet?

dril also good at stoking his base on that website

Trump is dril, all is clear.

i wonder if the president gets to do whatever he wants in the betsy ross museum

I assume it's a kiddie seat

He's a Republican with a passport - it's a gimme.

"Did I do that?"

NEW: The Justice Department is investigating whether Ryan Zinke lied to Interior's inspector general. W/ @mattzap @jdawsey1 and @Reinlwapo https://t.co/9FXrd0UAD2

— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) January 3, 2019

Encouraging:

Nancy Pelosi's speech today as Democrats take over the House places the climate crisis front and center, describing it as the "existential threat of our time": pic.twitter.com/Hpu4ZL9QJw

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 3, 2019

Great. Let's see daily followthrough on that.

that is the right language to use

Precisely the lazy thinking that characterizes Isaacson's books. https://t.co/lvr2ZOpdvx

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 3, 2019

every time I see Zinke I'm reminded of this dude from idiocracy

https://d3jjg4nf4bbybe.cloudfront.net/u/97686/b2afcce41a7e4dc40d9781182677b0aa7c63a39f/original/crazy-danny.gif/!!/b%3AW1sic2l6ZSIsInBob3RvIl1d.jpg

Can "kind" just be removed from the lexicon, all it means was he says nice things to affluent wite ppl

derply moral

she breaks their brains

Republicans have stayed quiet as Democrats casts votes for @NancyPelosi but some decided to boo as @AOC voted for her.

— Lindsey McPherson (@lindsemcpherson) January 3, 2019

re Romney the republicans really have pretty much every flavor of marvel villain covered

- greedbag bully with his name in gold letters on a tower who thinks he's charming
- corporate raider with shark-like smile who runs "bain capital"

actually they all kind of fit into those categories

unfortunately for us all, the first one of those is marvel's flagship *hero*

and the latter are always so boring that people forget to keep hating them by the time they leave the theater. so we're doomed.

Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is...
...High School video of “Sandy” Ocasio-Cortezpic.twitter.com/s723Vga9zF

— AnonymousQ (@AnonymousQ1776) January 2, 2019

Man...they're really afraid of her, huh?

I'd hang out with her.

goodness, she danced in high school, she's ruined

She's a...theatre kid?

Remember that these people chortling at young AOC also think "President Ivanka" is a good thing.

College. And I think she produced the video?

here's the whole thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj2Xald7NYQ

Can't wait until the next big political hope is brought down by a dumb fan video of "Happy" they appeared in from 2014 goes viral.

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis jigging his boobies imitating the Buffalo Bill scene in The Silence of the Lambs.

"I apologize if anyone was offended by my Bird Box challenge video. In my defense it was the '10s."

it boggles the mind that people could view her as clueless know-it-all yet think DT is a genius.

Haha it's so harmless. Easy to forget these days that footage of someone from politics merely existing before political involvement isn't inherently "dirt" I suppose.

She lacks the consistency of comportment we need in a political leader. Why, just look at our president, who has steadfastly remained a sour little pig's anus for seven decades.

Or perhaps can we just

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

jfc stop with the "He's obv awful but you have to give him some credit on _____"

He's obv awful but you have to give him some credit on being absolutely terrible too

xp i'm frankly stunned that's the most incriminating footage they could find; i kinda assume anyone in their twenties has pictures of their genitals on a server somewhere

applebee's?

the irony is that between recreating dances from a 30 year-old movie, being really into Star Trek apparently, and I think I saw in the yearbook reveal yesterday that she was in Key Club, AOC is actually a damn nerd.

xp i was thinking señor frogs, but sure

The delightful dancing video of AOC that is being circulated right now* is actually part of a pretty storied, if now mostly forgotten, remix culture phenomenon. If you'll allow me...

--
* apparently by numbskulls incapable of joy

— Parker Higgins (@xor) January 3, 2019

re Romney the republicans really have pretty much every flavor of marvel villain covered

- greedbag bully with his name in gold letters on a tower who thinks he's charming
- corporate raider with shark-like smile who runs "bain capital"

actually they all kind of fit into those categories

idk: out of the major Marvel villains, this covers Perelman and Perlmutter OK, but while you can probably map Cheney to Goodman and Bush-as-veep to Shooter, it's going to be hard to find a gladhanding backstabber who steals credit from everyone while achieving very little, gets paid millions specifically for fucking other people over, and is regarded as a PR genius for spouting a handful of tired catchphrases for decades on end, all the while wearing a ludicrously obvious hairpiece.

(Jemas = Scaramucci.)

So republicans openly hate fun and dancing? Nice

https://media.giphy.com/media/Qjmp5vKEERPyw/giphy.gif

"I can't dance, I can't sing..."

AOC's 2028 presidential campaign will be the second remake of Footloose

I see what u did there sic

(also lol)

was fun while it lasted but I just don't see how AOC comes back from this

can’t believe morbs thinks we’ll make it to 2028 tbh

I should have mentioned multiple business bankruptcies ending in court fights & settlements & convictions, or licensing their name to grotesquely poor-quality products, but was just going top of the dome after Perelman and Perlmutter

Dance Like Qanon Is Watching You

— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) January 3, 2019

Apparently some sort of last minute Trump presser happening, probably complaining about the dance video.

Hopefully he is resigning

Boring

"You can call it a wall, you can call it a barrier, whatever you want," Trump says, adding that people "want" security.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 3, 2019

i had honestly forgotten about the breakfast club/phoenix thing; simpler times

Trump just promised that he and Pelosi are going to get lots done on infrastructure--wasn't infrastructure some kind of code for impending doom at one point near the beginning of Trump's term?

hah sic yes i meant to say all the national-stage republicans fit those two categories - i imagine marvel is quite a bit more imaginative than the GOP

President Trump is making a formal briefing from the White House press briefing room for the first time in his presidency. pic.twitter.com/CFzkFRPpS1

— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 3, 2019

This is like a casting call for the next Lex Luthor

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) January 3, 2019

I just remembered that there exists a video of Trump motorboating Rudy Giuliani

nah Tracer, in between Goodman and Disney it's pretty much all hedge funds, all the time

i imagine marvel is quite a bit more imaginative than the GOP

NARRATOR: they were not

He's taking no questions

Of course, he ghosts once he's done foaming at the mouth.

republicans are mad about AOC because she makes them too horny

why do they cover this fucking propaganda bullshit ?

why do i even ask? forget it

wonder what the people shaming AOC for dancing in a video think about Brett Kavanaugh getting blackout drunk and sexually assaulting young ladies in high school

They’re all monsters

ehhh boys being boys iirc

So one of the baldheads mentioned he worked for 10 years in Naco, AZ and they need a wall... there's been a wall there for over 40 years (here's a google streetview from 2011):

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3345331,-109.9421873,3a,75y,178.52h,84.51t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s9rdzGhwZl5csQG4qQ2z0wg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D9rdzGhwZl5csQG4qQ2z0wg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D142.06607%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Not only that but 3 years ago the DHS found a 900 foot tunnel under the aforementioned wall.

Trump was just trying to get the spotlight off Pelosi

Not only that but 3 years ago the DHS found a 900 foot tunnel under the aforementioned wall.

lol

there's absolutely a lot of tunnels across the border.

College. And I think she produced the video?

here's the whole thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj2Xald7NYQ

― dan selzer, Thursday, January 3, 2019 3:00 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

video is 4:20 long, nice 😎

I don't think there will be Wall ever, but am pretty curious how they'd all respond when an illegal immigrant commits murder after it's in place

war of conquest obvi

y'know, again

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said Thursday that he’s done with elected office.

“There’s no way I’ll return to it,” Gowdy told The Greenville News. “I’m not going to lobby. And if I enjoyed politics, I wouldn’t be leaving.”

Instead, he’s joined Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough as head of the firm’s white-collar defense and government investigations team, the News reported.

“If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have run for Congress in the first place,” Gowdy said, adding: “I will keep the relationships, but I will not be on the ballot ever again.”

must be hard to realize you belong to a party of complete fucking assholes who should be ashamed of themselves for every millisecond of every life they ever live again throughout eternity

Trump floating Webb's name as Mattis replacement. Bipartisanship!

https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5c2e729f0df1762f6b2d6c50-1920-960.jpg

nice

What's Paul Ryan still doing there? (bottom left)

He reverted to his child mode.

Funny that it took the right so long to find that AOC video, which I came across the day after she won the primary.

We need more people in Congress who participated in the Lisztomania Brat Pack Mashup meme. pic.twitter.com/re8pJ89oJq

— John M. Cunningham (@jmcunning) June 27, 2018

This is such a stupid non-story.

aoc.xls

It is a story. The story is conservative twitter want people to be miserable and never smile.

it's better than a non-story it only has people liking her more imo

It’s part of their whole agenda. Poverty wages. Paranoia.

It's a nice story about people dancing to a great song and having fun. Makes me want to listen to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix again for the first time in years.

lol mookie

I want this to be a story for as long as possible honestly

1901 is such a great song.

the public needs to know what other dances AOC knows

can she teach us how to dougie?

what about the freak, the Patti Duke, or the spank?

There will definitely be more dance videos as a result. Maybe even some copycats.

Watch her majority whip, watch her nae-nar

can we talk about Trump's spray tan today

**TRIGGER WARNING**

https://i.imgur.com/J1PmCkT.png
https://i.imgur.com/o7ttACK.png

xp
Maybe she can do the Electric Slide and capture some of that "rural" vote.

xp - maybe not fakes, but there's a good chance those have been digitally enhanced for added visual grotesquerie

Nope, not fake - clearly visible in the MSNBC video:

https://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/trump-steps-into-the-white-house-briefing-room-for-first-time-of-presidency-1419293763578

lock her up!

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chicago-alderman-ed-burke-charged-federal-probe

a corrupt Chicago politician!? what'll they think of nex

gad! you're right. the spray-on was just that plainly botched

reminds me of the shot of him going up the stairs to Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to his shoe. nobody told him. so much about the Trump presidency in one image.

i want to see spray tan trump with spray on hair

and poop all over him

however you want to read that

I sincerely hope that the GOP has become such a twisted pack of subhuman wraiths that they truly believe exposing their adversaries as relatable, likable individuals (see also: Cruz's hawt takes on Beto) is a totes effective plan of attack. Scoop! AOC has almost certainly never kicked a dog in the face! Booo to AOC!

well it took 'em like 5 weeks to find a single unflattering picture of AOC so maybe this is just a new strategy

i dislike the AOC story but only because it made me realize that Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, an album i think of as a recent release whose deep cuts i should really get around to checking out one of these days, actually came out a decade ago

I remember the days when people pointed out that he'd essentially devolved into Master Shake, but Shake is way more coherent than this:

What...

THE FUCK 😐pic.twitter.com/Derhx9jk4k

— UnsilentMajority 🖤 (@The_UnSilent_) January 3, 2019

Good stuff

I have invited @realDonaldTrump to deliver his State of the Union address before a Joint Session Congress on Tuesday, January 29, 2019. https://t.co/TOMOaLBR37 pic.twitter.com/viV8regxcf

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 4, 2019

Haha

I bet this is not as well received as the last one

Is that a significant date? Trying to give him as much time this month as possible to buckle and cover his ass?

(I gather the letter is tradition.)

i wonder if the letter traditionally includes a sentence with a tutorial on how the entire government is supposed to work

I wouldn't be surprised if that's part of the tradition.

She should draw a picture for him instead.

Pelosi just called the wall an "immorality. It's not who we are as a nation."

This is refreshing, as opposed to "but he said Mexico will pay for it."

lol

The disheveled sadness of Trey Gowdy’s final departure from Congress is so delicious, I wish I could spread it on toast and start each day enjoying it’s glorious taste. pic.twitter.com/u7uJsp9lbL

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) January 3, 2019

i was at dinner during the 1Q and they had the game on and i was just up and clapping in the middle of the club

demar was outstanding this first half

this is good content. kiu

https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-reintroduces-bill-requiring-president-trump-to-publicly-release-his-tax-returns

lmao i just realized i posted that in the wrong thread. mod delete?

Nah

I'm watching it too bison and yeah

Raucous reception for @RashidaTlaib at MoveOn reception near the Hill. Her closing remarks: “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker.”

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 4, 2019

In a perfect world she would be our next president. She’s old enough and she was born in the US.

loving Trey Gowdy as The Sadtorialist

Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib tells cheering crowd that Trump impeachment coming

“We’re going to go in and impeach the motherfucker” pic.twitter.com/oQJYqR78IA

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 4, 2019

baby they don't

we're going to go in and impeach the motherfucker

we're going to go in and impeach the motherfucker

Fight fire with 🔥 fire.

Then put fire out.

Of course it is the lead story on foxnews.com right now bc it’s clearly so much more important than reopening the federal government.

government is the problem!

good morning!

Ktflhchxlxkghch

Jon Chait has the vapors.

This is a gift to Trump. https://t.co/ewbINkN0lt

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 4, 2019

No, it's true. The threat of impeachment may raise Trump's approval rating to 43 or even 44 percent.

We impeached him but it only made him stronger

lol there is not a single person jumping on the Trump Train because of this who wasn't on already

Two hours later, the "no, what I meant was"/tone-policing tweet arrives.

for what it's worth, I think Tlaib made a fairly strong case for impeachment here, and expressing it at a rally as "impeach the motherfucker" undermines her own case https://t.co/udnvpeF55B

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 4, 2019

Looking through my old New Yorkers--oh, here's a Toobin article from May about how Dems talking about impeachment are going to make them lose the midterms.

I would argue that 'motherfucker' doesn't so much undermine Tlaib's case as it understates just how motherfuckery the motherfucker in question is.

BTW, Rashida Tlaib won one of the true upsets of the 2018 primaries, in large part because multiple black candidates split the vote in a majority black district.

If she quickly gets nationally known for f-bombing Trump I’m *sure* it helps her raise money and consolidate support.

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 4, 2019

Reeeeally hope this right wing trend of inadvertently signal boosting progressive pols continues.

I'm having a Twitter fight with Mark Salter about Tlaib's remarks. Good morning indeed!

just stepped into a tiny hotel elevator with a pear-shaped septuagenarian wearing a "Qwwg1gwa" t shirt tucked into his jeans ama

xpost the guy who worked for a politician who never famously called his wife the c-word publicly?

lol year two of this fuckiong abomination and these idiots are clutching their pearls over this? unbelievable

I would argue that 'motherfucker' doesn't so much undermine Tlaib's case as it understates just how motherfuckery the motherfucker in question is.

― The Mandal Brah Set (Old Lunch), Friday, January 4, 2019 7:55 AM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for the sake of fairness and accuracy the press should’ve been calling him as a motherfucker for decades

Also, these fools act as if talking about impeachment and impeachment are the same.

More like Daughterfucker am i right?

Your truly,
Bill Maher

I will always speak truth to power. #unapologeticallyMe

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 4, 2019

Word to your motha

where's the tax returns, motherfucker?

lol now Salter, former McCain speechwriter, is wondering what the hell a movie blogger's ever done for his country.

you can tell him "I have singlehandedly caused a re-evaluation of Kim Gordon's underrated "Sweet Shine" song - what the fuck have YOU done"

Kim G / Chuck D 2020

The disheveled sadness of Trey Gowdy’s final departure from Congress is so delicious, I wish I could spread it on toast and start each day enjoying it’s glorious taste.

That picture is like Trey Gowdy cosplaying what it would look like if Philip Seymour Hoffman played Trey Gowdy

I was thinking about that picture and idly wondering - who in modern American political history has come back from an electoral loss to be re-elected at a later date? Is it just a given in this day and age that one loss means you're out for good?

I mean, I assume that oversized suit was a deliberate joke, right?

He was imitating David Byrne

you may ask yourself dammit xp

Gowdy didn't lose an election did he?

lost the genetic lottery iirc

who in modern American political history has come back from an electoral loss to be re-elected at a later date?

re-elected to the same job? Bill Clinton as gov.

good call! that's the kind of thing I was wondering about.

I guess I thought Gowdy had lost? or did he just not run again?

not running again and is real proud about how above-it-all he is now

seeing Gowdy go on and on about how broken Washington is and how he's completely done with it and isn't even going to lobby just makes me think his next grift is going to be really fucking epic. I could see him maybe running a megachurch, he's got the look for it.

the banjo boy from deliverance did surprisingly well for himself

From the right wing Daily Caller:

Republican Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts will announce his retirement at a press conference in Kansas Friday afternoon, two sources close with Roberts told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Roberts, 84, will make the announcement around 11:15 E.T. in his home state. Roberts, who has served in the Senate since 1997, will announce his retirement after months of speculation.

So...Kansas has a newly elected Democratic governor (Laura Kelly), but she doesn't take office until January 14. Is Roberts retiring immediately, thus allowing the current Republican governor to appoint someone to fill the vacancy? (Unlike Arizona, Kansas doesn't require that the appointed senator be from the same political party as the departing senator.)

Oh, never mind, probably just retiring at the end of his current term, which ends in 2020.

would definitely put Kansas in the potential Senate seat pickup for Dems category, that's good news

Tell me, pal, just so I know how esteemed a patriot I'm talking to, what the fuck have you ever done for your country? Because the guy you're trashing did quite a bit. Nothing wrong with blogging about movies but, really, I might show a little more humility if I were you.

— Mark Salter (@MarkSalter55) January 4, 2019

lmao, sick burn man. How will you ever recover from this Alfred?

xp yeah that's excellent news abt Kansas if that's the case

There ya go

I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous.

Wait till they find out Congresswomen dance too! 💃🏽

Have a great weekend everyone :) pic.twitter.com/9y6ALOw4F6

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 4, 2019

<3

hahaha god she is the fucking best

everybody cut loose

I'm sure that song choice was deliberate too. A+ trolling. DOES NITWIT CONGRESSGIRL AOC THINK ALL WARS ARE BAD?

LOOOOOL Alfred, if he tugs his patriot forelock (aka the GOP notional phallus) any harder he’s gonna do himself an injury.

that owns

Can we maybe gently nudge Elizabeth Warren toward consulting with AOC on her non-policy related public statements?

yeah it's perfect

also i don't think it's been remarked on but what a fuckin coup getting @AOC

if ever there was a time to call the president a motherfucker while dancing on top of a roof, that time is now

wanted to share this photo from this AM that delighted me: Will Lawrence & Varshini Prakash, co-founders of Sunrise Movement (whose Green New Deal protest AOC joined), flanking Waleed Shahid of Justice Dems & policy director for C Nixon

https://i.imgur.com/fbh3KTY.png?1

(all fellow alumni of the institute where i trained!)

I hope she has a bright legislative and political career ahead of her, but for the moment I'm glad AOC is embracing her troll role. Her mere existence is a left-wing version of owning the libs.

AOC and RT actually not cowering in the face of the stupidity in the name of "bipartisanship" or "civility" is so goddamn satisfying

like these motherfuckers will hate you no matter what, fuck em

like there is literally not one single self identified conservative politician or "thinker" that's not deserving of being flushed straight down the fuckin toilet, there's absolutely no reason to respect any of them

but what about decorum and civility ? surely we can expect our electoral officials to uphold traditions and norms

elected *

don't worry, GOP, "impeach the motherfucker" is just lady locker room talk

— Elizabeth May (@_ElizabethMay) January 4, 2019

lol

Someone needs to tell Trump to get his fuckin shinebox

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/13

lol

"how can you be against Wall and yet not want to tear down everyone's backyard fence???"
"yes universal healthcare may work in other countries, but US is much larger then they are so it wouldn't work here"

"Y'all hate global warming but you have seat warmers in your car"

It's...getting odd out there.

Ocasio-Cortez wants a 70-80% income tax on the rich. I agree! Start with the Koch Bros. -- and also make it WEALTH tax.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) January 4, 2019

Coulter is so weird

ann coulter…welcomet othe resistanc

WTF is the backstory behind that?

Did her Twitter actually get hacked?

she's in showbiz

More on This Bill
CBO Cost Estimates [0]

Xp

I can see it because Koch supports immigration, hates the wall, etc.

Coulter is a value-free, opportunistic contrarian, she sees the way the wind is blowing and has decided that it's time to start stoking conservatears.

ann coulter…welcomet othe resistanc

― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Friday, January 4, 2019 11:14 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

makes me think maybe she's not super wealthy these days?

Moved into a duplex with her mom iirc

well, makes me think that her wealth really was more in the form of, eg, paychecks from publishers and w/e, and not from capital gains/investments/etc ("wealth")

lol there is not a single person jumping on the Trump Train because of this who wasn't on already

― frogbs, Friday, January 4, 2019 7:45 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also this is otm

Xxpost Her mom who died in 2009

strasserite turn is all

Xxpost Her mom who died in 2009

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Friday, January 4, 2019 6:28 PM (four seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://imgc.allpostersimages.com/img/print/posters/psycho-anthony-perkins-1960_a-G-9337947-8363143.jpg

A libertarian paradise!

Schumer now says Trump "said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time -- months or even YEARS."

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) January 4, 2019

He said, sobbing, as he stormed up to his bedroom

can't get voted out of office if there's no government
rollsafe.gif

"also I HATE YOU!" [door slams]

Calvin Coolidge's dream!

Can't wait until people realize that means they won't be getting their tax refunds.

The Coulter/Jimmie Walker possible coupledom is the most interesting thing about her.

During the Nixon years of the Vietnam war there was a theory floating around that he was trying to convince the North Vietnamese he was crazy enough to nuke Hanoi, but only as a subtle negotiating tactic in order to drive a harder bargain at the Paris peace talks, iow Nixon was 'crazy like a fox'. As it turned out, the North Vietnamese called his bluff, played Nixon like a fiddle, and won the war because they had a winning strategy and all Nixon had was his willingness to drop millions of tons of bombs indiscriminately, killing whoever was underneath them.

Trump's whole negotiating strategy seems very Nixonian in this regard.

dang I hadn't give much thought to AOC until now & wow she's hilarious & just what the Dems need for responding to the idiot party, while having actual values besides that sweet lobby cash à la Biden et al

Anyway Trump's rambling now.

xp yeah it's really neat how AOC went from "she sounds great but can't possibly win Crowley's district" to "awesome that she won but she's probably gonna tone it down" to the master troll w/ awesome policy goals that she is now

Can't wait until people realize that means they won't be getting their tax refunds.

I've already told my wife that if there's no government in April, we ain't filing. "Let 'em come and get us!" *stockpiles weapons and cans of soup*

Trump admits that a steel wall would be more expensive than a non-steel wall, but he says he probably wants to do a steel wall "because I really feel the other side feels better about it." (The other side does not feel substantially better about it.)

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 4, 2019

Y'all...

Mark Salter blocked me.

You horrid criminal.

In Rose Garden, Trump casually says former presidents have privately told him they should have built the wall.

— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) January 4, 2019

At the end the syphilis had Capone thinking he was back in Brooklyn.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 4, 2019

What could Benjamin Harrison have told him??

I assume these 'former presidents' are nothing more than puppets crudely fashioned from the takeout containers piling up as he bums around the WH with nothing to do but eat and hallucinate.

I'll bet he thinks Col. Sanders is a former president.

well he didn't specify presidents of the united states now did he

he thinks Alexander Hamilton is a president cuz he saw his face on a bill once

Hooray!

"I did say that. Absolutely," Trump says, when Major Garrett asks if he threatened a shutdown of "months or even years," as Schumer recounted.

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 4, 2019

As for Ann, Ben Garrison is ON THE CASE

!! shots fired pic.twitter.com/hVBpYrSuko

— Sandy Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 4, 2019

It was when they were all hanging out looking at that guy on the park bench

xps

re taxes, i'm going to shut down and not pay.

xpost There is a link between herpes and alzheimers.

I forced a bot to watch the rose garden press conference and write a summary gif pic.twitter.com/InvPNWP2iy

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 4, 2019

Wm.Henry Harrison to Trump: "What you think 33 in the Glock is for?"

Now there's a deep callback.

i've been online too long ned, i've seen too much

Trump is now talking about "the military version of eminent domain" to build the wall

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 4, 2019

Aw.

Asked if he'd ask landlords to go easy on federal workers not getting paid right now, Trump says, "I think they will...I think that happens. Hey, I've been a landlord for a long time...they work with people." Pressed, he eventually says he would indeed tell them to go easy.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 4, 2019

Please please please when the time comes can we indulge his nigh-erotic obsession with walls and give him the 'Black Cat'-ing he so clearly desires?

It's about time the United States invaded Texas and seized their land

Jade Helm redux

but this time a (slight?) majority of texans would be all "invade me, Daddy"

Trump's executive order to tell Landlords that they are required to maybe consider possibly being lenient on rent payments from federal employees, y'know, if they can.

giving Texas back to Mexico would probably solve a lot of this nation's problems tbh

Landlords are ime total bros who absolutely have the best interests of their tenants at heart. Caring about people is why they got into the game. Why just look at our president.

Trump's executive order to tell Landlords that they are required to maybe consider possibly being lenient on rent payments from federal employees, y'know, if they can.

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Friday, January 4, 2019 3:12 PM (three minutes ago)

the fuck? this is the stupidest shit ever . god i hate this fucking idiot

Landlords are ime total bros who absolutely have the best interests of their tenants at heart. Caring about people is why they got into the game. Why just look at our president.

i know some landlords that treat the tenants fucking great but they have fucking mortgages to pay too .

sorry for the overuse of the f words . this is just too much for me today. im out

xpost Oh, I know there are some good ones but again ime they've been massive shitwipes almost to a number.

He didn't really issue that E.O.

I feel like there was once a major #SCOTUS case in which the President seized property within the United States during what he claimed was a national emergency even though Congress hadn't authorized him to do so.

(It didn't end well for the President.)https://t.co/esGUHGCf1l https://t.co/Ei40QeKMGr

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 4, 2019

the fuck? this is the stupidest shit ever . god i hate this fucking idiot

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, January 4, 2019 2:18 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

evergreen post

"Usually it's a left, not a right." Here's the full Trump quote on the driving routes of human traffickers. pic.twitter.com/4VM5DjrSZi

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 4, 2019

And BTW

BIG MUELLER NEWS: The federal grand jury in DC that Mueller has been using was just extended for another six months, per my colleague @kpolantz. The original 18-month term was set to expire but the chief judge of the DC District Court has extended the grand jury's mandate.

— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) January 4, 2019

NYC is the home of landlords working with people

or in Jared's case, with rat infestations

can't wait for Trump's lifelong crime syndicate to be fully revealed on the exact day he leaves office

Will the democrats give him the wall?

It seems like he kind of has them in a bind as he is willing to destroy the country to satisfy his ego if need be and they’re not.

or in Jared's case, with rat infestations

also known as "Jared infestations"

It seems like he kind of has them in a bind as he is willing to destroy the country to satisfy his ego if need be and they’re not.

if enough GOP people in the Senate (like Cory Gardner) start to feel the heat/see the writing on the wall re: politically surviving a total financial meltdown while the IRS collapses and people don't get their tax refunds then they won't need Trump.

an unlikely scenario but who knows where this is going

It seems like he kind of has them in a bind as he is willing to destroy the country to satisfy his ego if need be and they’re not.

there's also the argument that giving into trump would also set a bad precedent. if he succeeds by taking a hostage, he'll do it again. (he probably will do it again, regardless, but he'll definitely do it again if it works even once)

xp

I don't see this nat'l emergency/military eminent domain thing flying, legally speaking. Congress and the SC are going to jealously guard their political power and perogatives on points like that.

Maybe he will declare he's going to do that, let the issue get kicked to the courts, and reopen the govt in the meantime.

Pelosi should tell him to do that actually, that'd be funny

we're at partial shutdown now, with most of the federal workforce still at work. when does it become full shutdown?

Yea he has no intention of doing it. It's like the "considering firing Powell" shit.

Xpost

isn't everything else already funded through December?

Congress and the SC are going to jealously guard their political power and perogatives on points like that.

Congress has practically ceded its exclusive war-making powers to the executive already, and that was before it became enthralled to our current ogre.

yeah this is different

One party always blinks

In this case the GOP will shit

this plus no IRS refunds are going to be the breaking point if it gets to february

First on CNN: Hundreds of TSA screeners, working without pay, calling out sick at major airports, @Rene_MarshCNN and @gregorywallace report: https://t.co/XT3Z4av8OC

— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) January 4, 2019

TSA should absolutely stay home

They’re not good for anything anyway

if this goes on for a whole lot longer, tsa agents are going to stop showing up to work without being paid. (sounds like food stamps would be seriously curtailed after the end of january, but nobody cares about those people.) shit will really start grinding to a halt, not just having tons of trash in yosemite. the real magaheads won't care, but i think trump will be hard-pressed to blame democrats for the shutdown when both houses of congress, which had gop majorities at the time, passed a spending bill that he then vetoed

will this wall let Americans flee to Mexico in case Yellowstone erupts/Canada invades/... ?

xp - It wasn't a true veto, in the sense that it never got as far as final passage by Congress. Now the Senate Republicans will be careful not to pass anything he won't sign off on ahead, to save him the political cost of using an actual veto. Those senators are being held hostage, too, except they all have Stockholm Syndrome and won't escape even with an open door in front of them.

But of course

A senior admin official tells me lawyers from Pentagon, DHS and White House are "working out the details" over how the president could declare a national emergency to use DOD to build his wall, bypassing Congress.

— Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley) January 4, 2019

Meaning they were all caught off guard as well.

so not gonna happen

guess who controls the military budget (it is not the DOD)

A follow up (that was posted a couple of hours back)

An Obama admin official says Congressional committees would still need to approve DOD resources being reallocated to border. Not something that can be easily waived with the magic words "national emergency"

— Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley) January 4, 2019

just add it to the 9/11 national emergency that remains ongoing

caek and shakey, i think other depts are funded through 9/30/19

Clowns.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/millions-face-delayed-tax-refunds-cuts-to-food-aid-as-white-house-scrambles-to-deal-with-shutdown/2019/01/04/b5b58616-0fa3-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html?utm_term=.f20d5ad47042

Food stamps for 38 million low-income Americans face severe reductions and more than $140 billion in tax refunds are at risk of being frozen or delayed if the government shutdown stretches into February, widespread disruptions that threaten to hurt the economy.

The Trump administration, which had not anticipated a long-term shutdown, recognized only this week the breadth of the potential impact, several senior administration officials said. The officials said they’re focused now on understanding the scope of the consequences and determining whether there is anything they can do to intervene.

it's almost as if someone with no experience in government has no idea how the government actually works

Safe to assume he also has no concept of how it feels to normal people to must things like food stamps and tax refunds.

*to miss things

The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences
The Trump administration, which had not anticipated... the consequences

this should probably go here:

Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer Introduce Nationwide Vote-by-Mail Bill

So if it lasts until April & we all decide not to bother paying income tax to a shuddered IRS, what then?

They won't know who paid or didn't so only fair that everybody goes to jail

union dissolved, everybody goes home

Grover Norquist wins!

The GOP don't care about the IRS, they can't deport it or grab its tits

nice

this is kind of a non sequitur but god stfu The Palmer Report

During Friday’s meeting at the White House over the ongoing shutdown standoff, President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made little substantive progress as Pelosi and Schumer urged Trump to reopen the government by Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

One of these knowledgeable sources told The Daily Beast President Trump kicked off the meeting with a rant lasting roughly 15 minutes that included his $5.6 billion demand for a border wall, and threatened that he was willing to keep the government closed for “years” if that’s what it took to get his wall. He also, unprompted, brought up the Democrats who want him impeached, and even blamed Pelosi for new Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib saying at a party earlier this week that Democrats would impeach the “motherfucker” Trump. (It is unclear why Trump would think Pelosi was responsible for this.)

Trump proceeded to tell the room he was too popular to impeach.

Along with saying the word “fuck” at least three times throughout the meeting, the president bizarrely stated that he did not want to call the partial government shutdown a “shutdown,” according to the source. Instead, he referred to it as a “strike.” (Many of the federal employees affected by the weeks-long shutdown have been working without pay. That is essentially the opposite of a strike.)

During the course of this meeting, the Democrats in the room were visibly shaking their heads in exasperation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was one of the Republicans in the room. He barely spoke, according to a source familiar with Friday’s meeting.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

He probably doesn't understand that shutting down the government for "years", or anything anywhere close to that, via his obstinate refusal to do his job, would definitely lead to his impeachment.

I actually suffer from listomania, or at least used to--I got over it. (Sorry, can't get over that video.)

can't get lisztomania out of my head now!

Just watched the lisztomania video, and why are they doing the Charleston to a song that doesn't seeing??

It's Breakfast Club dances

(Some of the original is from Pretty in Pink)

good morning!

no collusion!

Collusion is Capitalized, what's the "matter" with #you

party of personal responsibility :)

Many people currently a part of my opposition, including President Obama & the Dems, have had campaign violations, in some cases for very large sums of money. These are civil cases. They paid a fine & settled. While no big deal, I did not commit a campaign violation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2019

NARRATOR: "He had committed many, many campaign violations..."

when you pay a fine and settle, they let you do it

I agree he is no big deal.

I don't really like his tweets being itt but I remain morbidly fascinated by which tweets of his get the most likes. The top 3 from the last 30 days or so.

Merry Christmas!
509K

Happy New Year!
278K

Congratulations to President
@JairBolsonaro who just made a great inauguration speech - the U.S.A. is with you!
265K (compared to 86K for the Obrador congrats tweet incidentally)

Not that surprising in terms of content but those figures are way way above his average.

the popularity of the bolsonaro one is creepy af. maybe it's bolstered by all the creepy brazilians who voted for him

Under-told story imo is how Pence has tried to fill the same influential VP role as Cheney and Biden, complete w shuttle diplomacy during big fights, but just doesn't have the clout. Recall him trying unsuccessfully to get ACA repeal bill thru Senate. https://t.co/gUXzFaUlAg

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 5, 2019

this is one of the reasons why, although there's a case to be made that pence's politics and beliefs are worse and more sincere, i would swap him for trump in a heartbeat.

weigel conveniently omits the time that pence stared down north korea at the olympics and intimidated them into very successful peace talks

maybe it's bolstered by all the creepy brazilians who voted for him

I'm pretty certain that's the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85I7tUIFmrQ

Brazilian Bolso Bots 2020

Republicans: Let Americans keep more of their own hard-earned money
Democrats: Take away 70% of your income and give it to leftist fantasy programs https://t.co/NxJPSCqvrt

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) January 5, 2019

in case you see or hear any fucking moron talking about how we're all going to be taxed at 70% if AOC's communist rebellion succeeds, you might want to know that the number of people in the U.S. who make more than $10 million a year is approximately 16,000.

https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-size-of-adjusted-gross-income

ILX is a pretty informed crowd imo but there are also a TON of people who don't understand how progressive tax brackets work. if you're a lurker and you've ever wondered if people avoid making enough money to enter a higher tax bracket so that they don't get taxed at the higher rate, just do yourself a favor and spend 2 minutes googling it and figuring out how it works. i have met numerous people in all walks of life who have no idea how it works.

the usual right wing morons are going insane about her comments, both "journalists" and politicians. i don't blame them so much because they've long since revealed that they're irredeemable pieces of shit. but journalists with good intentions clearly need to remind people how progressive taxes work. it's a failure of our education system as well, but since the bulk of our population has long since exited the period of learning and refuse to consider self-education, it's on the media to teach our dumb asses how shit works

I like telling people (usually old white etc) they’re poor when they talk about 70% taxes*

*ymmv if you know actual rich people

even scalise makes nowhere close to $10 million a year. his net worth is negative! https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00009660&year=2015

i just...don't understand wtf is happening inside the brains of these people

That Tweet thread I posted a couple hours ago, Karl, explains in layman's terms how progressive taxation works. I've saved it to share with the usual nuts.

^^yeah all i can do is laugh when like my poor ass parents (now retired and living solely off SS and a teacher's pension -i.e. literal socialism) who rarely ever made much more than the threshold to actually pay federal income taxes whine about govt/ taxes. it's just fascinating how deeply poisoned the national psyche is on this subject.

anyway seems like the reasoned, centered take now is that taxing those 16k people at the 70% marginal rate really won't amount to a hill of beans so hey why do anything at all lol

xp hmmm, i missed it and i can't seem to find it! do you mind linking?

steve should stick to what he's good at -- baseball

anyway seems like the reasoned, centered take now is that taxing those 16k people at the 70% marginal rate really won't amount to a hill of beans so hey why do anything at all lol

uuuugh yeah, that's another thing but my internet outrage is nearing my daily maximum limit so i need to back off

Karl:

okay so a lot of (rich, white) folks are freaking out about what a 70% tax rate on the wealthy would look like and they’re scared about it and shit (even though it’s literally what rich baby boomers already dealt with).

SO LET’S DO THE MATH.

— Dianna E. Anderson 🏳️‍🌈 (@diannaeanderson) January 5, 2019

there it is, thanks!

is there a rough dollar amount estimate for what that would generate?

not to naysay that tweet-thread too much because it's well-intentioned, but i read that earlier and i didn't like the digression it takes into using the Rock's personal finances as a measure of how taxing the wealthy could pay for other things. for example, it says "The Rock would pay almost enough in taxes in a single year to completely solve Flint’s water crisis", which just isn't true. if the Rock makes $65 million and has to pay 70% of taxes over 10 million, the portion over $10 million would generate $38.5 million in tax revenue. estimates for the cost of solving Flint's water crisis vary, but it's much, much more than that. the state was ordered to replace 18,000 water service lines at a cost of over $100 million, and that's just part of the cost of fixing the whole mess. anyway, i think all of that stuff is a distraction from the main point

on top of that, i also don't think it's a good tactical move to argue for the benefits of taxing the wealthy by personifying the issue using dwayne 'the rock' johnson, one of the most beloved celebrities out there. would much rather think about what taxing jeff bezos or zuckerberg could accomplish, if one were to go down that road

yeah not just in actual revenues, but underscoring the fact that the Bezos & Zucks of this country have the kind of political clout and aim that creates bad tax code to begin with

yeah but if you tax bezos at 70% he'll just quit and head to galt's gulch and *then* where will we be

is there a rough dollar amount estimate for what that would generate?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/05/ocasio-cortez-wants-higher-taxes-very-rich-americans-heres-how-much-money-could-that-raise

an AOC-esque plan of 70% tax rate on income over 10 million would raise about $720 billion per decade

yeah but if you tax bezos at 70% he'll just quit and head to galt's gulch and *then* where will we be

the driver's seat of a bulldozer would be p cool

Aiming a plan at disliked rich folks makes it vulnerable to complaints about liked rich folk - pointing out that the liked ones are going to be just fine does a much better job.

xxp thank you!

so almost exactly as much as cutting the $716 billion military budget by 10%

por que no los dos?

Problems, problems

NBC reporting the Pentagon Chief of Staff has resigned. This within 24 hours of Trump claiming he can call national emergency and direct DOD to build a wall.

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) January 5, 2019

Dunno how i feel about everyone who can say no to this fuck keeps resigning

Aiming a plan at disliked rich folks makes it vulnerable to complaints about liked rich folk - pointing out that the liked ones are going to be just fine does a much better job.

yeah a lot of them are image-conscious and are always quick to say 'i'm very comfortable' to downplay the immense gap between them and the fans who make them very comfortable

heres's a recycled thought destined for lonely doom on a saturday night. the presidency and everything connected to it has been one non-stop entertainment story ever since he bumbled his way down the escalator in 2015. that has been a key factor in trump's popularity among his base. he may be the dumbest man in the united states, but he is also unpredictable and entertaining.

honestly i don't know what is going to happen when/if we go back to a "normal" president. it just doesn't seem possible. this is whisky-induced non-sense, but i think in some ways he has created a permanent thing or space that will have to be occupied by something or someone even after he leaves. like even if the president/administration is relatively normal, than something else will have to be completely off to compensate for it. it's hard to explain, but maybe someone else gets the same vibe

I’ve thought about that a lot, how the void trump leaves when he leaves the White House will extend well past the Oval Office. of course he will continue being absolutely insane in public until he dies or goes to prison so there’s that

i used to worry about how future presidential candidates would try to fill that void, or how the public would look for people who could fill it. but now i think it's more likely that the president will be "normal" and the weirdness will be displaced somewhere else.

i don't know, maybe not. but he seems like a Nero character, terrible for the ages. Nero fucking blew, but his death kicked off more terribleness (the year of the four emperors)

eh, maybe we'll be lucky and someone stable will come on board. just seems like like the world is tilted

were there romanians after ceaucescu who DIDN'T do the thing from that SNL sketch where they all spit on the floor every time they say his name

cuz that's how i dream of people acting after trump is dead

Trump getting in blew it all up which is why you should all celebrate ppl like Tlaib inviting the present

Is there a role for a White House court fool or something. Combining the roles of trump and Giuliani and always seeking press attention. Minister of Fake News?
& is it all like one continuous Saturnalia where the King/e,peror is played for laughs by some pleb who would only have the job temporarily during the festival. with the big NB about the temporary status of the role

the bullying, defensive, toxic weirdness will go back to professional wrestling where it belongs, and can be studied safely, and mocked

Is there a role for a White House court fool or something.

his name is Donald J. Trump iirc

good morning!

what television news segment will the president of the US tweet angrily four times about this morning?

Odds that he has literally suggested Tom Cruise for one of his Pentagon positions?

"this morning i asked general beringer to piss on the sparkplug"

http://agentpalmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/General-Beringer-Commander-of-NORAD-in-WarGames.jpg

I'm having an argument with a friend's conservative pal who insists that (a) "nobody paid the top rates" in the 1950s and 1960s (b) capital will start fleeing the United States because, after all, "capital creates output."

Starting to think politicians should just pretend marginal tax rates are a new idea

POL: “Under *my* plan, everyone pays the *same* taxes on the first 10 thousand, the next ten thousand—all the way up”
SOME GUY NAMED STEVE: “the SAME taxes?!”
POL: “that’s right Steve”

— Tom Lee (@tjl) January 6, 2019

i would fully expect some "capital strike" if marginal rates are raised 1% above the Clinton era. even so, fuck em.

Of course
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/424074-bolton-no-troop-withdrawal-from-syria-until-isis-contained-kurds-protected

Why the media reports on everything this moron says as if it's real or achievable or plausible or anything that will ever happen remains a frustrating mystery.

remains a frustrating mystery

eyeballs, clicks, ad revenue. also, cable news must fill every minute of every 24 hours.

kinda love jumaane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-gw5I0MoSk

Eh, 70% would be nice, but these fine countries do fine with top marginal income tax rates (including provincial/state/subnational taxes) above 50%:

Sweden 60.15%
Canada 58.75% (in Quebec, other provinces lower)
Japan 55.945%
Denmark 55.85%
Austria 55%
Finland 52.25%
Luxembourg 52.45%
Ireland 52%
Netherlands 51.95%
United States 51.8% (37% max federal + 13.3% max state + 1.5% max city).

Personally, I'd be content with a 40% top Federal rate, but eliminating the provisions that privilege unearned income from capital gains (taxed at only 15% or 20%) compared to earned income, and of course simplifying the code to eliminate shelters.

if I ran the zoo I'd pay our UN fees and introduce a global 80% tax rate on the top 2% of people in all countries to eliminate safe havens under the penalty of sanctions but idk I like to wish/dream

is there a mainstream economic argument for taxing capital gains lower than income? or is is entirely political?

Everything about gifting, trusts, estates and inheritances needs to be revamped too.

people with lots of money should have it all pooled and redistributed

It's kind of amazing that VP Pence has been relegated to meeting with congressional staff. Here's what that means in Washington code: It show he has no clout to make any deal, and it completely devalues the office he represents.

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 6, 2019

lol

This too:

https://www.macleans.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MIKE-PENCE-KIRSTEN-SINEMA-PIC-OF-THE-WEEK02-810x608.jpg

Having to swear in noted atheist and bisexual (and new Arizona senator) Kirsten Sinema with a law book instead of a Bible.

Kyrsten, even.

Fuck him up Kyrsten

Like, how can this old guard ^^^ even compete. "Only game in town" is a sad, sad, losing strategy.

fully half of her last name is "SIN". Run, Mike, run!

sorry for nerd but ive just been enjoying all the talk about marginal tax rates etc

is there a site that chucks out even a best-guess income-tax-only figure for tax youd be liable for on a given income?

sanpakus list had me wondering, because even at that theres serious variance in the thresholds for that highest marginal rate to kick in (and thresholds under which no tax is paid) and itd be a v useful comparator

google is frend

https://i.imgur.com/ru73bVd.png

yeah the threshold question is crucial to creating an apples-to-apples comparison both in budgetary terms and in terms of trying to reduce income inequality.

it completely devalues the office he represents.

Uh, it devalues an office that has been notoriously characterized as 'not worth a bucket of warm piss'?

now think of that, but one worse

two buckets of warm piss?

one bucket of cold tbh

good morning!

so how long til Bolton gets fired
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/07/trump-syria-withdraw-plan-1084328

I give him three months.

“We’ll have offers on the table when we find somebody that’s not crazy to deal with,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We’re not going to put any offers on the table as long as people in charge of these negotiations accuse all of us who want a wall of being a racist.”

He did not refer to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by name, but criticized her answer to a question of whether she would be open to putting one dollar toward funding the border wall. “A dollar? A dollar? Yeah, one dollar,” she told reporters Thursday.

How long until Trump is running around an otherwise empty WH in nothing but stained briefs and no longer even pretending to be president?

coupla days

hope he gets teargassed at the border

you folks and your endless optimism

NYT reports he wants to address the nation tomw night

first he has to convince the lyin' media to carry it?

looks like Senate Dems are going to block all legislation until this gets resolved:

In the Senate, some Democrats are floating an idea to block all business until Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agrees to take up the House-passed appropriations bills. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) broached the plan that now has support from several prominent Democrats. [this includes Sanders, Booker, Cardin]

The idea, Van Hollen told Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent, is gaining traction in the Democratic caucus and from outside groups. The AFL-CIO endorsed it Monday morning. Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) came out in support of it in the afternoon.

good

We will abort one fetus an hour until resolved

a preview (except no one will cut away from trump)

Israel Channel 10 cuts away in the middle of Netanyahu's "dramatic announcement" once it becomes clear he's just complaining about minutiae of the investigations against him.

— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) January 7, 2019

imagine if US media had the balls

Bibi is still alive?

other countries' media seem to have far less reverence for pols than our MSM

Trump should have a shoe thrown at him whenever he appears in public tbh

Whomp whomp

During a private meeting with aides at Camp David on Sunday, Trump said he wanted them to come up with a resolution to the shutdown fight that would reopen the government—without him appearing to have capitulated to Democrats. w/@peterwsj https://t.co/o7xZJBLzUR

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) January 7, 2019

President Deals, everybody!

other countries' media seem to have far less reverence for pols than our MSM

I thought it worthy of note that no network cut away from programming to carry this dipshit's live events the last few days.

I would just take the one dollar offered by Nancy before that too is off the table

"And while you are at it, here is a room full of straw which you must spin into gold for me," Trump said to his aides and advisors, " Pronto!"

just delegatin'

If Nancy took the dollar, progressive libs would eat her alive

NANCY CAPITULATES

This was all meant to make him look good to his die-hard base. It won't matter to them that he will lose this stupid fight because he'll just blame Democrats and they'll accept that without any problem. It won't diminish their love for him one bit. So, mission accomplished, insofar as there was anything you could call a mission here at all. No matter how you slice it, it's still governance by catering to stupidity.

Leaked Trump plans for $1 Pelosi wall:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DT1ZRGmW0AAPmFf.jpg

Trump should just say he already built the wall. Hell, he should just say he used his own money, billions of it! His fans would love it and, let's face it, America would be much safer.

think that the problem may have been that there was a border wall in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.

The wall just got 10″ higher

It's not your job to be as confused as Donnie is

The New York Times reports:

President Trump announced on Monday that he would address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening to discuss what he called the crisis at the southern border, and the White House said that later in the week he would travel to the border as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the need for a wall — the sticking point in negotiations with Democrats which caused a government shutdown.

It was not immediately clear which outlets would carry his address. The four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC — confirmed receiving the White House request on Monday for Mr. Trump to speak during the 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time slot, but producers had not decided whether to grant him the time. Pre-empting prime-time coverage is an expensive proposition for television executives, who have sold millions of dollars’ worth of advertising against entertainment programming.

I'm already picturing some Coen-esque farce with 'human traffickers' he's hired to 'kidnap' him at the border and free him from the crushing misery of an unwanted presidency but who ultimately wind up getting him horribly killed through an increasingly-absurd series of mishaps.

Bob Roberts "assassination attempt"

would watch.

it does strike me that none of the major networks giving him any airtime for this would probably hit him deeper than anything else so far

Is he going to set fire to the Reichstag border patrol HQ?

so liberal media once again hating an American president #tuckercarlson

Like Fox won't carry it

Fox the entertainment network? Do they have any Tuesday night hits?

Dem Senate strategy gaining steam - Warner, Harris, Kaine, Merkley and Carper all behind it now too

Maybe they can do a picture in picture type of thing and have him mumbling in the corner while a Depends commercial plays at full volume.

XPS Fox has got new eps of Lethal Weapon and The Gifted tomorrow night. That'll be a problem w/all the networks, as that night features a load of first new eps of the year.

sweet

I was looking through charity shops earlier today and came across a book of advice on various subjects by celebrities, including a chapter on negotiating by Donald Trump. Was he taken seriously at one point.

won the Republican primaries in 2016 iirc? maybe someone can check

The Apprentice allowed him to pretend he was taken seriously as a business titan and I t
hink the bemused culture industry just entertained the notion out of an interest in selling shit

worth mentioning that none of the networks carried Obama's immigration speech in 2014