US Politics, January 2020. Because we hate ourselves.

leskiddit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LvC-L8s5_k

good read:

A Unified Theory of the Trumps’ Creepy Aesthetic

In the two years and 308 days that Donald Trump has been president, his administration has constructed far more effective barriers to immigration. No new laws have actually been passed. This transformation has mostly come about through subtle administrative shifts—a phrase that vanishes from an internal manual, a form that gets longer, an unannounced revision to a website, a memo, a footnote in a memo. Among immigration lawyers, the cumulative effect of these procedural changes is known as the invisible wall.

In the two years after Trump took office, denials for H1Bs, the most common form of visa for skilled workers, more than doubled. In the same period, wait times for citizenship also doubled, while average processing times for all kinds of visas jumped by 46 percent, even as the quantity of applications went down. In 2018, the United States added just 200,000 immigrants to the population, a startling 70 percent less than the year before.

https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/invisible-wall/?fbclid=IwAR1Z0QC9jaaHDnei2S9G0f6LMvRCei9E2wI5o0gE1eKC2VhTvweaeLUMv7I

Breaking News: Iraqi TV reported that an attack at Baghdad’s airport killed the senior Iranian commander Qassim Suleimani, at a tense moment for the U.S. and Iran

this comes a day after Khamenei responded "you can't do anything" to trump's usual bluster

Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. That’s not a question.

The question is this - as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 3, 2020

Nobody gives a toot, KM

😂

I'm thinking Iran's response would necessarily involve proxies, either using non-state groups as the weapon against the US (probable), or our allies as the proxy targets (less likely), so as to limit the possibility of sparking a full-scale war with the USA, but some kind of response can be expected. I don't think we could expect any NATO assistance here, no matter what transpires.

I want to shout "Impeach the motherfucker!", but Trump has already been impeached so this would just sound lame. I guess it will now have to be "Vote to convict and remove the motherfucker from office!" but that's not nearly as pithy.

who would have guessed these assholes would push us into a war a few months before an election except maybe everybody

BREAKING: A Deutsche Bank whistleblower has told the FBI that the Russian state-owned bank VTB underwrote Trump's loans: https://t.co/dm2N6mEKa3

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) January 3, 2020

this seems like a big deal

maybe he'll get impeached

is this report available anywhere other than "forensicnews.net" (which appears to have been established in May 2019 and whose email address on facebook is forensicn✧✧✧@protonm✧✧✧.c✧✧)

Most everything @DavidEnrich has, I provided. What I didn't provide him FIRST HAND, I directed him toward those that could.
But I can say safely say...
David certainly has 2nd hand knowledge cause his FIRST HAND is too busy stabbing at the backs his of sources. https://t.co/rXNFN45kHR

— val broeksmit (@BikiniRobotArmy) January 3, 2020

i know it's not important, but why would the first hand being busy stabbing a back mean that the second has knowledge?

http://i.imgur.com/IOXwKKH.jpg

Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) is retiring, after 6 terms. that makes 22 house republicans who are leaving at the end of the term.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENXkcEjXYAET5zs.jpg

22 house republicans who are leaving at the end of the term

Not that all of them are especially high-minded or anything but deep-dyed conservatives, but they didn't owe their first election success to Trump and probably don't like him as a person - because he is deeply unlikeable. By stepping away now, they are further ceding the party to the most fervent of the acolytes in Trump's cult of personality.

Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly-not skilled!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2013

And the rest of predicted a long time ago that there is and will continue to be a self-pwning tweet for everything

Look: if Obama does it it's evil, if Trump does it it's heavenly, how hard is this.

I wonder if Two Scoops could pull off the tan suit?

Soleimani posted memes antagonizing Trump on social media https://t.co/uVBlPwv9jx

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 3, 2020

ok now it makes sense

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (#IRGC) #Quds Force Major General Qassem Soleimani responded to #US President Donald Trump’s announcement that ‘sanctions are coming’ with a Game of Thrones-inspired meme of his ownhttps://t.co/336UFrTL8E pic.twitter.com/5uh1qtQPMB

— Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) November 3, 2018

uh oh Robert de Niro is next

or plz, Bette Midler

lmao pic.twitter.com/wF3MqaXEIr

— Josh Sawyer (@jesawyer) January 3, 2020

dickless wonder speaks

“It is my view that the president does not have the authority for a war with Iran,” Senator Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. “If he plans a large increase in troops and potential hostility over a longer time, the administration will require congressional approval and the approval of the American people.”

Dow down 233

i thought da war was good for $$$?

Iran can block the straits with a few hundred mines, and the US has no effective counter (as against drones, the US hasn't invested in mine countermeasures for 5+ decades). That's $7/gal gasoline for 6+ months, regardless of whether a cease fire is reached in days.

I know that scenario is not one to hope for but ok yeah I hope that happens

meanwhile, the night this happened I was watching fox news for work (yes, I know, yes, it sucks) to see sebastian fucking gorka defending the administration's slashing of the national security council staff at this very opportune time to do so making the argument, with a straight face, that "eisenhower didn't have this many people it's not like the world was less complicated in the days of eisenhower"

like, maybe I'm not jaded enough somehow, but while the lying no longer surprises me the self-contradiction does, constantly

It's hard to look at some of the departmental organization charts this administration inherited and not see decades of bureaucratic bloat. Too many undersecretaries with advisory but no chain-of-command roles, too many GS-15s. However, this administration is the gardener that prunes your trees to their roots. That excess at the top also provided resiliency.

enjoyed reading the recent posts

where does boris stand (at the moment) on various warrings

The apparent fact that the Soleimani assassination was carried out by drone strike at a civilian airport really is the perfect capstone for the last two decades of lunatic American violence. Nothing deflates the hysterically macho chest-thumping self-image of American warmongers than the fact that for the last decade and more the signature U.S. method of killing people has been a robot plus a gamer in a box 10,000 miles away....

The United States is so powerful that it has been able to get away with decades of pointless atrocities. One of these days it will pay for its imperial hubris. That day may be quite soon.

https://theweek.com/articles/887283

A is for (Aimless) at 12:57 3 Jan 20

22 house republicans who are leaving at the end of the term

Not that all of them are especially high-minded or anything but deep-dyed conservatives, but they didn't owe their first election success to Trump and probably don't like him as a person - because he is deeply unlikeable. By stepping away now, they are further ceding the party to the most fervent of the acolytes in Trump's cult of personality.

the difference amounts to voting for everything Trump enthusiastically vs. voting for everything Trump wants grumbling a bit and maybe sniping at him behind his back through some anonymous quote to the press

good morning!

What do Trump supporters make of this? I thought that a lot of people voted for him at least partly because he was going to bring the troops home and not get involved in any more wars

if Trump does it they love it

you may be shocked to hear that they're very excited about this and often lack a coherent worldview

xpost

they love war as long as their side is "kicking ass"

what do Trump supporters think? let’s ask ILXors what their strawmen on the street are saying

I wish it were straw men but unfortunately I went to college in Texas and grew up in the deep south

you may be surprised to know that some of us have actually read what Trump supporters are saying

or, like in Euler's case, hear about it because we too live in red states

All you need to know is that if they get any sense that the left would like them to consider a particular position in regards to any issue they will be instantly compelled to enthusiastically and loudly declare their dedication to the opposite stance. Past/future means nothing. Pushback = heel digging.

I'm sure some people on this board have legitimate insight into what Trump supporters are thinking; I just don't think ILX is the best place to find real answers to that question.

Why do you doubt what they are saying? It's true.

i'm sure many more Diner in Trump Country safaris are coming

I'm sure some people on this board have legitimate insight into what Trump supporters are thinking; I just don't think ILX is the best place to find real answers to that question.

― 💠 (crüt), Saturday, January 4, 2020 10:23 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

xp

You're doubting people with real life experience with this shit

yeah i'm a lifelong red stater w conservative family and social media contacts and i'll be the first to let you know if i see one ounce of pushback from among his faithful. i would not hold my breath.

i think the problem with the red/ blue divide is the media's fixation on how 'no one really knows someone with different politics any more' -- which in my experience isn't true at all. i know way too many people in real life who have breathtakingly appalling views.

Moodles, I'm not doubting anyone. I don't think the ILXors who responded to paolo's question are wrong per se. I just don't think asking people what their political opponents are thinking about a political subject will result in a complete picture. I apologize for making a snarky throwaway remark instead of making a lucid point.

Follow the leader. That's all there is to it, really.

You aren't going to get coherent independent thoughts about any of this stuff by talking directly to these people.

where does boris stand (at the moment) on various warrings

on holiday with no intention of returning home early

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskTrumpSupporters

That reddit is pretty interesting.

I'm pretty sure it's partly populated by actual paid shills but it makes for a useful glimpse nonetheless.

A typical attempt at cross-aisle communication:

Supporter: I am big on isolationism and it is worth noting that the increase in troops was in response to the issue in the embassy under siege.

I am still unhappy to see Trump send more troop in the Middle east and hope that this is only temporary.

I consider myself an ardent supporter and directly going into war with Iran would make me a lot less of an advocate for Trump (even if i dont see democrats as viable for 2 decades).

...

Nonsupporter: I'm just curious for your opinion, what about Pete Buttigieg is non viable, would you consider voting for him as an alternative to some of the more extreme positions in the Democratic party?

Supporter: To me, it is first of all because I was infuriated by the democrats attitude against Kavanaugh and I didnt even like the guy as a pick (too close to Bush).

I Like Buttieig but right now he has embraced a lot of the progressive stances on trans right, And illegal immigrants being offered healthcare and decriminalizing it.

I think he has a lot of charisma and i Hope he comes back in 2024 when the democrats calm down a little bit and become more moderate, id be happy with him as a president after. He has a very uniting message on a few occasions.

That's pretty good compared to most social media political discourse imo.

Sadly otm.

Speaking of reddit, there's also the following attempt at civility:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NeutralPolitics/

that conversation was kind of the guy politely saying "I'm a piece of garbage and I don't like Trump except I seem to be pretty cozy to everything he believes in and does"

not willing to throw a bone cos they didn't say "libtard"

Do you really need a reddit board to read an endless stream of bullshit talking points fed by Fox News and friends?

'Deep down, I don't like Trump, but the Dems have forced me into it with their xenotransloving ways!'

This really is as good as it gets, ladies and gentlemen.

There was a lot better on the reddit but at least 1st person was applying an actual principle, not just hero-worship, and willing to be critical of Trump when he breached it.2xp

That reads to me more "I like Trump but am afraid to say so" given that they always seem to blame Dems for pushing them into his arms.

Might not be hero worship, but shows them adopting right wing talking points, believing in liberal stereotypes, while simultaneously somehow managing to avoid believing the conservative stereotypes.

i mean I get what you're saying, compared to the usual discourse, it IS more restrained and less jingoist vitriol, but it still strikes me as the type of bad faith arguing that would have gotten me in people's faces in 2004. it's just now there are more levels to this ugliness.

It's the same old loathsome, cretinous bullshit as ever, no doubt about it, we're just at a point where we need to consider different shades of excrement in the faint hope that a change of heart could happen.

(I say 'we' even though I'm lucky not to be living in the US at the moment. Tbf this kind of homicidal idiocy exists everywhere and it's spreading as we speak.)

This one was really O_O to me:

Nonsupporter: Do you think the right-wing media would have been applauding if Obama or Hillary had done this?

Some few pundits might have cynically and reflexively opposed it out of rank partisanship, but they would have eaten a lot of shit from their own audiences had they done so. Any right-wing talking head who criticized Obama for taking out an infamously bloody-handed, state-sponsored terrorist like Suleimani would have been roundly denounced as a media-planted RINO cuck.

I imagine most would have taken the 'Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day' angle. We didn't think of Obama as Hitler 2.0, so giving him a well-deserved high-five when he did something right (like assassinating Bin Laden) wasn't seen as unforgivable heresy, unlike the Left and Trump these days...

What kind of right-wing media was he paying attention to from 08-16?

When it comes to tribe loyalty, this is a classic post from two years ago:

https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/7bts5x/roy_moore_is_refusing_to_debate_his_democratic/dpkyfco/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7rFIZUUwAEbmPE.jpg

lmao right wing media absolutely did not applaud Obama for getting Bin Laden

in fact a number of them not so subtly suggested that the body was fake and that the real Bin Laden had been dead for years

So this is pretty fucking disgusting and any “news network” that carries this shit should be destroyed

TRUMP: "These people hate Israel -- they hate Jewish people. I won't name them. I won't bring up the name of Omar, Tlaib, AOC -- I won't bring that name up. Won't bring it up." pic.twitter.com/jCrySCb1Ag

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 3, 2020

ugh

in fact a number of them not so subtly suggested that the body was fake and that the real Bin Laden had been dead for years

A guy I worked with at the time claimed Obama nothing at all to do with the mission, and it was Panetta all the way.

I imagine this guy now thinks that Trump himself is taking on secret missions to the Middle East and taking out terrorists himself, with his own bare not-small-at-all hands.

Graham threatens to 'take matters in our own hands' if Pelosi doesn't send articles of impeachment to Senate. "My goal is to start this trial in the next coming days, not let [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi take over the Senate," Graham said....

Currently, no trial can begin until the articles come through. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he wants the Senate to follow the parameters of then-President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial: an initial agreement to first hear the case and then a later vote on whether to call witnesses....

Graham's idea isn't the only GOP proposal aimed at breaking the impasse. On Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., tweeted that he will introduce a resolution Monday to change impeachment rules so that the Senate can dismiss the articles of impeachment Trump faces

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/graham-threatens-take-matters-our-own-hands-if-pelosi-doesn-n1110651

graham going full totalitarian. he's so ecstatic that his iran war might finally happen that he's willing to do anything to please trump

thread

1) The United States is an empire. This shouldn't be controversial, but let's get it out of the way; empires don't all look alike, they do different things with different goals and approaches and technologies, and nobody who studies empires thinks the US isn't one.

— Patrick Wyman (@Patrick_Wyman) January 5, 2020

It's really weird. Denmark isn't an elite, and yet we have a fucked up ruling elite as well. So so weird. Almost like that thread is complete nonsense.

Denmark is not an empire

You’ve still got Greenland.

... and the Faroe Isles?

That's 100.000 people. That's no empire. We're a colonial power, sure.

u r really dumber than your reputation, amazing

wow sounds bad pic.twitter.com/Hrr8neNnWj

— jordan (@JordanUhl) January 3, 2020

Just, if people don't know, the US isn't in the top 15 when it comes to Military spending / Total government spending. It's 9% according to the World Bank. Which is a lot, it's 2,3% in Denmark. But it's not why you don't have M4A. In Israel it's 11,1%, and afaik, Israel has better social services. Anti-imperialism is just the completely wrong way to look at this.

interesting. the CBO thinks it's about 14.8%

Link?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

The U.S. Department of Defense budget accounted in fiscal year 2017 for about 14.8% of the United States federal budgeted expenditures. According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000–2009.[43]

Hm, the note there leads to a completely different report, and the first sentence doesn't actually seem to be according to the CBO. I can't see where that claim comes from?

I mean, Fred's right, even if we cut military spending in half there is zero chance that money wouldn't somehow end up in the pockets of the rich

good morning!

Lincoln Chafee's running for President as a Libertarian.

lol wait isn't John McAfee too

also Sam Seder

I'm just hyped for Chafee/McAfee 2020: Rhyme & Reason

more like Crime and Reason, am I right folks??

John McEnroe also running

we've def been obsessing over the wrong primary

A guy I worked with at the time claimed Obama nothing at all to do with the mission, and it was Panetta all the way.

I imagine this guy now thinks that Trump himself is taking on secret missions to the Middle East and taking out terrorists himself, with his own bare not-small-at-all hands.

No need to anecdatalyze - Trump himself tweeted "Stop congratulating Obama for killing Bin Laden. The Navy Seals killed Bin Laden." (Oct 22 2012)

And then he OF COURSE proceeded to whine about how little credit he got for killing Baghdadi.

Can the dude even hold a weapon at this point

he's right, he should get more credit for murdering those two children alongside baghdadi

i see that trump is threatening sanctions on IRAQ now, threatening to make them larger than those on Iran now. while also saying stuff like

“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” he said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

...and yet i am going to carry on with my day, i guess. after all, he's actually been a very ineffective president who doesn't have much of an effect on the world because of how incompetent he is, right

the euphemism "cultural sites" makes me wanna barf

why

maybe "designated collateral damage"

I mean as employed by numbnuts himself, because he dgaf about culture

what makes you say that?

https://i.imgur.com/uHJgcQ7.jpg

at least Little Bush had The Fart Book

that poor kid looks so sad :(

Don't think that I won't judge him the instant he chooses to become a public figure.

Just, if people don't know, the US isn't in the top 15 when it comes to Military spending / Total government spending. It's 9% according to the World Bank. Which is a lot, it's 2,3% in Denmark. But it's not why you don't have M4A. In Israel it's 11,1%, and afaik, Israel has better social services. Anti-imperialism is just the completely wrong way to look at this.

― Frederik B, Monday, 6 January 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Just hundreds of billions, anti-imperialists are so greedy they just want it all for cultural sites!

I wouldn't be able to keep myself from peeling off the gold foil and eating the load-bearing chocolate superstructure

New John Bolton statement: "I have concluded that, if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify." pic.twitter.com/1UIVIhLVb6

— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) January 6, 2020

chances of senate issuing a subpoena to bolton?

subpoena the tax returns

good morning!

Fri. (12/27): we notify Deutsche Bank about our piece

Sun. (12/29): Trump + Putin have mystery phone call

Wed. (1/1): we tell DB we are publishing Fri.

Wed. (1/1): Trump decides to kill Soleimani

Thurs. (1/2): Soleimani assassinated

Fri. (1/3): we are cyberattacked

😳 weird

— Robert J. DeNault (@robertjdenault) January 5, 2020

xp

I mean, Fred's right, even if we cut military spending in half there is zero chance that money wouldn't somehow end up in the pockets of the rich

― frogbs, Monday, January 6, 2020 9:43 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes but this is mostly* useful as a rhetorical strategy, i.e. "if you're concerned about that cost, you should logically also be concerned about this cost, unless your concern isn't actually about cost"

* except maybe not really, because the likely retort to that would probably be something along the lines of "we need to do this, we don't need universal health care," and then it's a stalemate, because what do you even do with that?

My point was more that the anti-imperialism argument just messes things up further. Isn't the point also that the US spends more on Health Care as a percent of GDP anyway? So the money is there.

General Milley has just said the letter regarding troop movements out of Iraq was a draft, and releasing it was a "mistake." It was however delivered to the Iraqi military. It seems the U.S. military is as confused as everyone else about what their intentions are.

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) January 6, 2020

hell of a story here
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/05/785672201/deceased-gop-strategists-daughter-makes-files-public-that-republicans-wanted-sea
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Pw3lc2QPJ-eEeHszCdcfjbe3uZC1DbKz

Wow indeed.

fucking "trade secrets"

Correcting Bolton:

"I have concluded that, because the Senate will not issue a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify."

My point was more that the anti-imperialism argument just messes things up further. Isn't the point also that the US spends more on Health Care as a percent of GDP anyway? So the money is there.

― Frederik B, Monday, 6 January 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Tankie twitter has really wound up your soft left technocratic politics has it not?

you're obsessed

He is inventing a weird straw man to justify hundreds of billions in defence expenditure.

Fred how could you

Lol

An interesting Rolling Stone story about Lindsey Graham. (It's not just a rant; it contains actual reporting.) Here's the pull quote:

“People try to analyze Lindsey through the prism of the manifest inconsistencies that exist between things that he used to believe and what he’s doing now,” [Steve] Schmidt says. “The way to understand him is to look at what’s consistent. And essentially what he is in American politics is what, in the aquatic world, would be a pilot fish: a smaller fish that hovers about a larger predator, like a shark, living off of its detritus. That’s Lindsey. And when he swam around the McCain shark, broadly viewed as a virtuous and good shark, Lindsey took on the patina of virtue. But wherever the apex shark is, you find the Lindsey fish hovering about, and Trump’s the newest shark in the sea. Lindsey has a real draw to power — but he’s found it unattainable on his own merits.”

A good read.

You say pilot fish, I say

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a7/e6/bc/a7e6bc66156b7c7a993420d39b44e507.jpg

was waiting for this to become the official party line

On Fox & Friends, Kevin McCarthy suggests that if Adam Schiff had "been trying to protect us" from Iran instead of doing impeachment, Trump wouldn't have droned Soleimani. pic.twitter.com/VFyhLsIgtb

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 7, 2020

2020 - it's all adam schiff's fault

by the way, i think maybe someone mentioned this upthread, but is there anything that prevents the House from issuing a subpoena to Bolton? sure, the Senate isn't going to be likely to do it unless a handful of republicans are willing to break away from mcconnell's grip and allow it to happen (i think they just need a simple majority for a subpoena). but the house could do it, and what reason would Bolton have to agree to testify in front of the senate but not the house?

no idea if the House can call witnesses after submitting articles

i don't see why not. have the proceedings of the house investigative committees officially closed? and even if they have, what would happen in the (wildly hypothetical, of course) scenario that trump continues to commit more crimes more or less in public?

i realize they're trying to go with a narrow impeachment proceeding, rather than fully pursue the dozens of different impeachable offenses that are ongoing, so all this is moot. but dang, i wish they'd just carry on with their work and keep tacking on new articles of impeachment every couple weeks.

You are too sensible, Karl.

Senate trial, Senate rules. If Schumer doesn't have enough starch in his shorts to hammer out terms beforehand, whoever's prosecuting the trial for the House won't get to call witnesses, as I understand it.

This is the moment when someone catches a reptilian putting extra starch into the senate dry cleaner service, but no one can connect the dots

never wanna think about "starch" and "Schumer's shorts."

articles of impeachment are like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKMYs-9LW2w

never wanna think about "starch" and "Schumer's shorts."

All the other metaphors that came to mind were worse.

maybe i'm giving the democrats too much credit, but right now i like to think they're trying to figure out via informal lines of communication what bolton would say if they got him on the record.

"baba booey"

bolton's timing with the whole 'escalating WWIII' thing is interesting. he suddenly made his availability to testify known after the assassination. one would think that he would pleased with the assassination, since it could lead to the war he so desperately wants. but his announcement immediately freaked the GOP out. maybe bolton was alarmed by the way the assassination was approved so haphazardly, and finally realized that yeah, it's time to impeach the motherfucker since he's the dumbest person in the solar system (want to make sure to include orbiting astronauts)? or was his timing purely coincidental?

there's a lot of really weird shit going on right now, of which we have very little information. ah, reminds me of the mid-90s, kinda comforting. along the same lines is the "imminent threat" that led to the assassination. pretty clear now there was no imminent threat, based upon 1) the trump administration lying about matters big and small from the very first second they were sworn in, 2) the lack of a consistent explanation of what the threat was or could be, and 3) the lack of any evidence for an imminent threat

ah, reminds me of the mid-90s

lol i saw a youtube comment (on the music video for stone temple pilots' "interstate love song") that said "bring back 1994, put 2019 in the trash" and i was like... hmmmmmm

obv they were referring to music but i was still like "lol"

🎵 promises of what I seemed to be 🎵

So the House can absolutely subpoena Bolton, but there's no guarantee he'd honor it.
I'm a little surprised they don't seem to be doing much of anything at the moment. I think the House should continue to hold hearings if they aren't getting cooperation from the Senate.

In letter and spirit not what the Constitution says, nor what Hamilton explicates in the Federalist papers concerning impeachment. https://t.co/OFG4OKFmMn

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 6, 2020

Um, er https://media1.tenor.com/images/37b57399cd901b6e27fe26150262a301/tenor.gif

meanwhile Mindy Moderate has spoken:

Susan] Collins told reporters at Monday evening votes that the Senate should follow the 1999 precedent and consider the question of subpoenaing additional witnesses and documents only after House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team present their opening arguments.
She noted in a statement Monday that then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) adopted a resolution in 1999 to set out the rules for the proceeding that didn't include any agreement for specific witnesses to testify.

“The process moved to a period during which the Senate debated and voted that three witnesses should be deposed. I believe that this process — the Clinton approach — worked well,” she said. Murkowski also urged colleagues to follow the path laid out during the Clinton trial. “I think we need to do what they did the last time they did this unfortunate process and that was to go through a first phase and then they reassessed after that,” she told reporters.

Yes because the same Mitch McConnell that refused to confirm Merrick Garland based on some complete bullshit could definitely be trusted to run a straightforward senate trial.

why don't schumer/pelosi just go ahead and formally say they'd like to hear from trump during the trial, in addition to the other four? he's the one at the center of this. he probably WANTS to do it, since he loves being on tv and thinks he can convincingly talk himself out of anything.

hell, we can even throw in a sweetener: his entire testimony could take place under the deafening roar of helicopter blades, his favorite place to discuss important matters

ideally schedule that for October 28

I read today that nothing is stopping hte House from subpoena-ing Bolton. They could do that and create or amend the articles. They could even do this after sending the articles to the Senate. I don't know why they haven't yet. Maybe they will.

i think they should. he obviously wants to speak. he just wants to be forced to speak. go ahead house, force him to speak!

my rep tweeted 'shopped pic of Obama & Iranian Prez. When called out on it, he apologized profusely and vowed to be more careful with what info he shares online. Lol jk here's his response:

Gosar later sought to deflect criticism with more tweets disparaging those who ridiculed him, especially in the media.

"To the dim witted reporters ... no one said this wasn’t photoshopped. No one said the president of Iran was dead. No one said Obama met with Rouhani in person. The tweet says: 'the world is a better place without either of them in power'.

"The point remains to all but the dimmest: Obama coddled, appeased, nurtured and protected the worlds No. 1 sponsor of terror. The world is better without Obama as president. The world will be better off without Rouhani."

as we all know, every time you tweet a pic that is NOT 'shopped, it's customary to label it as such. Otherwise, everyone just assumes every pic is 'shopped.

sometimes I am amazed that this shithead was voted into office...but then I take a look at some of my neighbors and it makes more sense

"The world will be better off without Rouhani." Does Gosar know that Rouhani wasn't the one who was killed? Also Rouhani is relatively moderate as far as Iran goes? And also Rouhani doesn't have much power? fuck Gosar to death.

n.b. Bolton said he would comply with a _Senate_ subpoena, not a House one.

Because the gop majority Senate is not going to subpoena anyone, certainly not him, this is pretty much like saying you'd accept an invitation to become queen of England.

Exactly

even if he does testify and brings the goods "you can't impeach the president, we're at war now"

n.b. Bolton said he would comply with a _Senate_ subpoena, not a House one.

I get the reasoning but I think i think Bolton would look extremely bad if he didn’t comply with a house subpoena, especially if they subpoenaed him in response to the senate not doing it.

I agree, if the senate won't commit to it, the house should definitely subpoena him, and take him to court if necessary

Bolton is very careful to differentiate among those he thinks will disapprove of his statements or actions. He will continue to duck any House subpoena on his previously stated grounds, because he doesn't fear reprisals from Democrats. otoh, keeping in the good graces of the Republicans will ensure him a comfortable future, a good income, continuing political influence, and probably another stint in a high official position.

Bolton’s offer to testify is only so he can publish his book without getting blowback

the GOP, a study in contrasts

Natl Security officials gave a compelling briefing to Senators just now. They answered every important question.

Anyone who walks out & says they aren’t convinced action against #Soleimani was justified is either never going to be convinced or just oppose everything Trump does.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 8, 2020

vs

Mike Lee calls Iran briefing “probably the worst briefing at least on a military issue I’ve seen,” adding that it was “insulting” to be told by administration officials not to debate merits of taking military action

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 8, 2020

A ticked off Mike Lee says the Iran briefing was so bad it changed his mind on Kaine’s war powers resolution, and now he’s going to support it

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 8, 2020

lool

“I walked into the briefing undecided. I walked out decided,” @SenMikeLee says announcing support for Dem war powers resolution. @RandPaul agrees.
Lee’s words describing briefing: “.. un-American, unconstitutional ... wrong ... insulting ... completely unacceptable.”

— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) January 8, 2020

I'm kind of curious what happened to make it THAT bad

lmao spicy

There's more: @MikeLeeforUtah says that after today's "stunt" (aka the briefing he's not happy with), "I'm willing to consider and introduce any and every war powers resolution."

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 8, 2020

Lindsey Graham grabbed his ass

Oh come on, like that's never happened before

Republican senator Mike Lee blasts the Trump administrations post-Iran briefing, says they were told they could not dissent from Trump, couldn't debate it, and if Trump needed justification to go to war "I'm sure we could think of something" pic.twitter.com/bfyPqoSf8c

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 8, 2020

Fox News cut away from Republican Sen. Mike Lee as he excoriated the Trump admin’s Soleimani briefing as “probably the worst briefing at least on a military issue I’ve seen.” pic.twitter.com/736Qtd6bWZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 8, 2020

New Matmos record leaked:

58 times. He sniffed 58 times during his address. Here are all of them. pic.twitter.com/GoAIfsfdLd

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 8, 2020

Someone who's been on camera his entire adult life and doesn't know how to back the fuck off a mic. One of the very few rudimentary skills anyone else in his shoes would have mastered long ago.

Is it a really important detail to know how many times he sniffed

he sniffs when he's racked up in order to try and seem sane and coherent for a camera

I mean this is just basic stuff

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/I_move_away_from_the_mic_to_breathe_in.jpg

Meagan Daily has lost her mind:

The populist mood persisted and found expression on the Left. There was Occupy Wall Street. There was Black Lives Matter. And then, most fearsome of all, there was the Bernie Sanders campaign, with its unexpectedly popular message of democratic socialism — even in Fox country. It was up to a few clever conservatives to rethink the movement’s strategy. The smartest among them have always known that conservatism’s long-term survival hinges on preventing the working-class portion of its base from heeding the siren song of the Left.

Enter Donald Trump, a man apart. A billionaire, yes, but one who had little reverence for the stodgy experts whose graphs proved the struggling worker was a loser worthy of his lot. Trump spoke of the need to stay out of costly and stupid military adventures while people back home struggled to put food on the table. He promised to stop trade deals that bled jobs from whole regions, leaving husks of towns beleaguered by poverty and drug addiction and engulfed in gloom.

Trump spoke of the need to stay out of costly and stupid military adventures... He promised to stop trade deals that bled jobs...

Trump definitely spoke those things and promised those things, but he spoke ten times as much about his stupid border wall and how nasty immigrants were and how deceitful journalists were and how Chy-nuh was our enemy and how amazingly astute he was. Those other things were just sidecars to the main issues of racism, xenophobia, and hatred of liberals.

New Matmos record leaked:

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, January 8, 2020 5:17 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

this is fine

NEW: Today Trump will propose rolling back a bedrock environmental law, exempting projects without significant federal funding from environmental reviews that have been required for 50 years. By @eilperin and @brady_dennis https://t.co/7V39YDZdSA

— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) January 9, 2020

sounds tailor made for his wall

Good morning!

not sure how to reconcile the fact that 1) most people think a prominent supreme court attempt to repeal the ACA this year would be bad electoral politics for the GOP, and so only worth doing if you expect to win the case 2) quite a lot of the GOP seems to be operating on the assumption that the case doesn't stand a chance.

"The entire ACA is unconstitutional because the mandate penalty remains law but is currently $0!"

"Cool story, guys. Anyway, we're expanding Medicaid under the ACA."

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 9, 2020

somebody's the mark here, and given the tx state gop is involved, i like to think it's them. but who knows.

“I will send them over when I’m ready,” Ms. Pelosi said at her weekly news conference on Thursday morning, “and that will probably be soon.”

this is weak sounding as i feared it would be, but i'm glad that it's happening now and not in late february or something. the potential gains to be made by waiting to send the articles were 1) extract concessions from senate GOP/mcconnell on additional witnesses, 2) hope that news reveals more trump corruption, 3) pressure senate GOP swing votes to either do something responsible by not standing in lockstep opposition, or at least get them to make clear their fealty to trump ahead of the election.

they didn't get 1), they got a little bit of 2), and if there was an effort to make 3) happen it seems to have passed without incident

And in a bid to signal to Ms. Pelosi that her time was running out, Mr. McConnell signed on to a resolution introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, that would alter Senate rules to allow the impeachment charges to be dismissed without a trial if they are not delivered within 25 days of House approval.

impeachment articles were approved dec 18. 25 days is ~ january 12. this coming monday. well, she held onto them as long as she could, i guess.

what would not be weak? No snark intended.

xpost

it's not her fault at this moment, it's the situation they find themselves. there's not really a strong way to rephrase it.

I thought a POLITICAL GENIUS could come up w/ something

she has an Obama 9-dimensional chess set at home

this pretty much nails it

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7IUnVnFKhU/?igshid=fp0flmpci849

good morning!

mcconnell has told gop senators to expect a trial next week, apparently

'How has your life improved since you intentionally decimated your genital region with a disc sander?'
'Mm...eh, y'know...mmmrrmmmm ehhh huhhhhhnnnnnnggggggh GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHI don't know, it just has. It just has.'

Quite the nugget in this WSJ story --->

"Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said" https://t.co/3xxLFJ6XTk

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) January 10, 2020

hmm, wonder if this could possibly related to known warmonger lindsey graham somehow hearing about the plan to assassinate soleimani days before the strike, on a golf course, despite none of the democrats being briefed about it

so at least sticking with Obama on this amirite

#US to #Iraq: We’re staying. pic.twitter.com/bnliyZY9O1

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 10, 2020

Narrator: He was not a force for good in the Middle East.

YES WE ARE. and we will stay until everyone sees that. they will thank us in the end!! after they pay back the trillions they owe us for the forcing of good that we did

and we take their oil

the dinosaurs were Americans

*** MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ***

democratic congressman from ISIS

our right, appropriate force posture

the plan to assassinate soleimani days before the strike, on a golf course

I totally know what you meant but the wording allows several amusing misreadings

https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Hose%20Republicans%22

this is such a funny thing to lie about pic.twitter.com/TwZcTPQtJQ

— Dr. Smallpenis (@CNNRGLDN) January 13, 2020

good afternoon!

this seems like a bad thing for the President of the United States to retweet

The corrupted Dems trying their best to come to the Ayatollah's rescue.#NancyPelosiFakeNews pic.twitter.com/a0ksPHeXCy

— داون آندر (@D0wn_Under) January 13, 2020

OIC u have not been informed that we've dispensed with norms, no worries, it's a common misapprehension

Washington — The White House is preparing for some Republican senators to join Democrats in voting to call witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial, which could get underway in the coming days.

Senior White House officials tell CBS News they increasingly believe that at least four Republicans, and likely more, will vote to call witnesses. In addition to Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and possibly Cory Gardner of Colorado, the White House also views Rand Paul of Kentucky as a "wild card" and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as an "institutionalist" who might vote to call witnesses, as one official put it.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/impeachment-trial-white-house-expects-republican-defections-on-calling-new-witnesses-in-the-senate/

important background for those not aware:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the question of whether to call new witnesses in the trial would be decided by the full Senate after the trial gets underway. A simple majority of 51 votes will be needed to approve motions to call witnesses, meaning Democrats would need to convince four out of the 53 Republicans in the Senate to vote with them to compel testimony.

whose brows can we furrow up in here

the only good thing about mcconnell being an utterly amoral scoundrel who enjoys the suffering of his opposition of any party, providing he has cover, is that no at risk gop sen has one iota of confidence in him to meet a supportive agreement in their own positions or at home. he better be paying straight cash homey, by which i mean my sen.

Lotsa Parnas stuff dropped

House Intel is releasing some of the documents from Lev Parnas - including this scrawled note: "get Zalensky to Annonce that the Biden case will Be Investigated" pic.twitter.com/m3slygGDOj

— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 14, 2020

Um holy sh*t. This certainly makes it sound like Parnas and co. were actively tracking Yovanovitch's movements. This could explain why Yovanovitch was moved out of Ukraine so quickly. https://t.co/4rBRB06ZGN pic.twitter.com/5Gc8WcGPih

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 14, 2020

why were they tracking her movements (and security detail!)

were they thinking of killing her? does that make sense given the case?

that's too speculative. i withdraw the post. but so odd

One of those guys tracking her is now running for Congress.

maybe they just wanted to give her a hug

i guess they were planning to intimidate her in some way--so she wouldn't say anything about the "investigations"

there will be no withdrawing of posts!

on the one hand this is really serious.

on the other hand, I’m dying: “what’s the word bro? any good stuff?”

BREAKING: Michael Avenatti was taken into custody by federal agents during a disciplinary hearing at California’s State Bar Court https://t.co/aKwub5VclW

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 15, 2020

#basta

New Pew polling:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENyHh_mXkAMfwSD?format=jpg

India and the Philippines fall into line with Modi and Duterte, but interestingly Brazil demurs.

Interesting discussion further down about how confidence in Trump has up among members of populist far right parties over, been flat to down among the rest of foreign citizens.

Merkel still wins in a plurality vote for world leader:

Merkel: Sweden, Netherlands, France, Germany, Canada, UK, Spain, South Korea, Australia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Japan, Tunisia, Italy, Brazil
Putin: Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovakia, Indonesia, Turkey, Czech Rep
Trump: Phillipines, Israel, Kenya, India, Poland, Hungary
Xi: Nigeria, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico
Macron: Lebanon

surprised by the high ratings in kenya and nigeria

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/14/michael-flynn-seeks-to-withdraw-guilty-plea-trump#_=_

8/89 in Mexico, lol

dunno so much about kenya but it's utterly unsurprising why nigeria would be in favour - i know several nigerian families professionally and they all have in common a strong patriarchal culture where the dads are larger-than-life domestic tyrants (even in the nicest possible way!) and success in business is seen as next to godliness

(and these aren't all wealthy families either)

LOL Lebanon.

Impeachment managers revealed:

As expected, the most prominent leaders of the impeachment investigation, Representatives Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will be part of the group.

Ms. Pelosi also named Representatives Zoe Lofgren of California, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Val B. Demings of Florida, Jason Crow of Colorado and Sylvia R. Garcia of Texas. Mr. Crow and Ms. Garcia are both first-term members.

Just announced on @MSNBC: @maddow will be interviewing Lev Parnas tonight at 9pm ET.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 15, 2020

Lofgren and Jeffries both killed it in the House hearings, seem like wise choices

Weird that a smoking gun seems to have appeared last night with these Parnas revelations but I guess just throw in the huge pile of smoking guns, nbd

you mean smocking

yes how rediculous of me

it's only a matter of time before they turn up a literal smoking gun.

I'm not really following this story but is the gist of it that the Trump admin were seriously considering murdering Yovanovitch?

She was an imminent threat! But also that doesn't matter cause she did bad stuff in the past. Don't question the President, commie.

Jeez people and their bad faith readings of those texts. They were just watching for the most opportune time to deliver the singing telegram wishing her well.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MenacingKeyAoudad-mobile.mp4

URLS-that-never-age dept: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-book-portrays-trump-as-erratic-at-times-dangerously-uninformed/2020/01/15/4d45bf44-370f-11ea-a01d-b7cc8ec1a85d_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/15/trump-rails-against-refrigerators-promises-cleaner-dishes-milwaukee-rally

“Remember the dishwasher? You’d press it, boom! There’d be, like, an explosion. Five minutes later you open it up, the steam pours out,” he said. Trump then criticized newer models, claiming women – just women – across the country have to now wash their dishes “10 times”.

“Anybody have a new dishwasher? I’m sorry for that,” he told the crowd, promising that under his presidency their “dishes will be beautiful”.

he's mixing up real life with Home Improvement again

what does he think about airline food?

It's good.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF4raEHmhag/media/?size=l

https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/cinnamon-hitler-0-600.jpg?w=600

"get up on the fucking step ladder so my jowls aren't visible"

I hate that I know this, but this is not the first time he's done this dishwasher rant.

Dec. 19:

"Remember the dishwasher?" he said. "You'd press it, boom! There’d be like an explosion. Five minutes later you open it up, the steam pours out.”

"Now you press it 12 times. Women tell me ..." the president said. "You know, they give you four drops of water."

Well my "new" dishwasher does suck balls but it's because the water here is hard as hard can be. Stricter environmental/water laws might help that, Mr President.

The Mooch, courtesy of the Wapo:

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he asks him, “Are you an act?”

“I’m a total act and I don’t understand why people don’t get it,” Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he asks him, “Are you an asshole?”

“I’m a total asshole and I don’t understand why people don’t get it,” Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he asks him, “Are your methods unsound?”

“I don't have any methods,” Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he advises him, "Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up."

"But Anthony...I am Pagliacci," Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

It was kind of funny when Trump was talking about how he wasn’t going to talk about refrigerators and toilets in the State of the Union because it wouldn’t be elegant

he'll have to hold it in, just like every person there. or maybe not, in his case.

Parnas apparently naming names and burning bridges on Maddow, right now.

Oh, goody!

His confessions have been pretty clear-eyed. Implicating Trump directly.

Lev Parnas to @maddow "Why would President Zelensky’s inner circle, or Minister Avakov, or all these people, or President Poroshenko, meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me. And that's the secret that they're trying to keep. I was on the ground doing their work.”

— Anne Rumsey Gearan (@agearan) January 16, 2020

Parnas says Giuliani told Ukrainian officials that Parnas was a representative of Trump and was acting on his behalf. Parnas says he would call Giuliani, put him on speakerphone, and Giuliani would confirm as Trump’s personal lawyer that Parnas was representing Trump.@maddow

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 16, 2020

A good thing he won't be subpoenaed by the Senate and make his statements under oath, because that might be embarrassing to the Republicans when they all vote to acquit and we wouldn't want that.

If this was so important, then why didn't it come out earlier? Hmm!?!

Must be the work of George Soros. Or maybe Nancy Pelosi. Or both in cahoots with each other and possibly the Clintons.

This interview is jaw dropping

Too bad it’s being overshadowed by bullshit Warren/Bernie drama

Dude just described the Trump hotel as a "breeding ground" for shady people.

Parnas is one well-spoken thug, more lucid than many of these weirdos. I was expecting, like, a Rocky & Bullwinkle villain.

Hardest hit: moose and sqvirrel

Dude just described the Trump hotel as a "breeding ground" for shady people.

― Josh in Chicago,

Well, the rooms have bedbugs, you pay $21 for a martini, and the cushions are pink

Would be awesome if everyone from Trump on down broke out in the same kind of rash.

In their Buttholez

Lev Parnas has the Attorney General involved up to his eyeballs in this shit

https://am22.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2019/04/thats-impossible-luke-star-wars.jpg

yikes

dangling exoneration for Dmitri Firtash to discredit the Mueller report coming out of his own department

straight takedown of Devin Nunes, implicating him on a micro level in Yavonovich removal

Is it to late to add Lev Parnas to the 2020 deadpool?

Maybe he's hoping to finally get his own Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Parnas_and_Igor_Fruman

lol

This Maddow episode is nuts.

How long til Rudy flips?

hopefully when his car hits an embankment

Rudy can't afford to flip. He's in too deep. He must stick with Donald to the end and hope to dodge most of the bullets he's a ripe target for, and a pardon falls out of it somehow in the end.

Dude on after Maddow asked why he was talking, and she said he basically said his head is full of all sorts of information, and that if it stays there it's really easy to "make it go away" or something, so better to get it out when he can.

On the other head, he is so clearly sketchy and self-interested a la Michael Cohen that everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt.

Can't believe you'd so casually impugn the character of someone who looks like he just stepped out of a David Lee Roth video.

(If only they'd shot the interview in extreme close-up through a fisheye lens as Lev exaggeratedly mopped flop sweat from his brow.)

And a glazed donut to go!

and good morning!!

On the other head, he is so clearly sketchy and self-interested a la Michael Cohen that everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt.

Unlike his boss, Donald J. Trump.

There's no reason not to believe this guy. You don't just go ratting out the president, his lawyer, the secretary of state, the attorney general, the vice president, and the former chair of the house intelligence committee on a whim

unfortunately for us guys like this and Michael Cohen are more credible than most any elected Republican

There is every reason not to believe this guy! (At least not entirely.) He's trying to stay out of jail and/or not get whacked. But there is every reason to believe him, too, as the people he is ratting on are criminals and liars. Tbh I'm not sure I heard anything new from him as opposed to just more/further corroboration of stuff that's been reported. But since it's corroboration from the mouth of a sketchy, not trustworthy guy out to save himself ... we're a bit back to the beginning.

Like, everything he said is definitely within the realm of truth, don't get me wrong. I'm just not sure what it offers yet beyond a bit more pressure, more reasons others with more direct knowledge should testify. But that may be up to the aforementioned criminals liars.

The police in Ukraine have opened a criminal investigation into whether allies of President Trump had the United States ambassador to the country under surveillance while she was stationed in Kyiv, the Ukrainian government said on Thursday.

See, it’s not THAT hard to get Ukraine to announce a criminal investigation!

To be the first of millions of people to make that joke today

xp Josh you have effectively put over Lindsey Graham's talking points next week.

And you are levaing out the big difference between his story and the accounts he effectively corroborates and fleshes out: he has evidentiary documents, audio recordings, and texts

It's far from getting the president removed from office but it's hardly "back to the beginning."

Between this and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thread on ILM, Josh is in a very "eh, I don't see the big deal" mood this week.

I watched excerpts of Parnas talking to Anderson Cooper this morning and I was way more stunning than I expected it to be, particularly since he also provided evidence to back up his claims

I haven’t read the rock HOF thread but it sounds like he might be otm there

Parnas has also—I think persuasively—dismissed claims that Yovanovich was physically surveilled or in any physical danger

KM have you seen the interview?

Yeah, I dunno, I feel like we have been here before. For example, the author of that New Yorker piece exposing thoroughly reported Trump inc. corruption and money laundering in Central Asia has been reminding people of his piece, saying, basically, hey, it's all here, tons of crime! But Congress, law enforcement, the press, all seem unwilling or unable to do anything with this information. as of yet. who knows, things might change.

That's different than saying, "It's no big deal," though.

again I'm not saying this is going to lead to a conviction, but it absolutely significantly complicates things for senate R's. The documentary evidence they are trying to suppress is not longer any mystery. It's different in kind and available to the public: a first-hand account implicating the president directly, bolstered by texts and voicemails and contemporaneous handwritten notes.

Plus Pat Benatar has had operatic training.

what do Don 'n' Ghost of Glenn think?

get over it

trying criminal conspiracies generally involve the testimony of criminals

Parnas has also—I think persuasively—dismissed claims that Yovanovich was physically surveilled or in any physical danger

This was basically Fox News' headline last night, the one cherry they could pick from Parnas' interview.

DON: The arrogance of this administration is something to behold. As key chroniclers of ol' Tricky Dick in songs like "On The Border" and "The Last Resort"--and then again of Reagan on my own releases "If Dirt Were Dollars" and "All She Wants To Do Is Dance"--I have think, "Are ever really done with this shit?"

GLENN: I'm still wondering why we could never get Giraldo out of the room so we could tell Pat, "Love Is A Battle Field...and we surrender!"

DON: Well, yeah.

xpost Don't need to tell me! It seems like it should be a big deal. But we just had hours and hours of testimony from career government officials, in theory the opposite of criminals, saying esentially the same thing as this guy. And Asshole was impeached as a result. He can't be more impeached, and as far as removal goes I'm not sure this moves the needle much. It's just further fodder for a future book.

The problem is we are running with the shadows of the night.

Les Parnas may be a real tough cookie with a long history, but I don't feel this disqualifies his testimony

Politics is a battlefield

He's been a tarred and feathered criminal but his testimony seems credible. No promises, no demands, just facts

guys don't harden your heart towards lev

wait that's Quarterflash

Does he distort the facts?

I dunno. Seems like there's no looking forward or turning back. He belongs to the light.

lol brownie - classic blunder! At least you didn't hit us with Sheena Easton or Laura Branigan.

Politics is a battlefield

― Yeets don't fail me now (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, January 16, 2020 9:46 AM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lev is a Battlefield

otm

the weirdest thing is parnas is the most perceptive, most interview adept, and maybe the most informed and most skilled person in all of trumpland i've heard so far. by a bit. that makes him neither honest nor credible, but i admit i did not see it coming.

One presumes that these flailing, dysfunctional public figures are dependent upon at least a handful of people who are content to stay in the shadows while demonstrating some semblance of competence (however debased those competently-handled acts may be). Like if it's abject morons all the way down they would've blown themselves up on a runway by now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-and-fury-smart-genius-obama-774169%3famp=1

Why u gotta burn fourth-graders so harshly, Newsweek

Newsweek is 100% garbage now, avoid

https://splinternews.com/what-the-hell-is-going-on-at-newsweek-1822742941

It's Lev whose head i've seen showing that even his haircut is more there by intention than fact isn't it?
Looks like a few black strands combed over nothing in several of the shots I've seen.

BUt did sound like what he was saying on Rachel Maddow was pretty damning. & i think there's more to come tonight isn't there? Think I heard word of a part 2 at the end of the podcast version I was listening to.

good luck usa

Hard to overstate how unpredictable talking to voters can be: Melissa from Algona, Iowa, caucused for Bernie in 2016, then voted for a Trump; she supports Medicare for All but supports Buttigieg, but will likely vote for Trump again if Buttigieg doesn’t win the Dem nomination. pic.twitter.com/ZgvQQ7NoW2

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) January 16, 2020

i can...uhm...just....ugh...err....oh my....huh...what?

didn't mean to go full Mystikal there but that is just baffling internal consistency there.

We’re so fucked.

Lo... I have been to Iowa, it is indeed a mystical place.

yes we're gonna be fucked by this one voter

We’re so fucked.

Yep, and not just the Americans.

It's just attention grift

My takeaway is "don't ask people political questions when they're high"

obviously not this one voter . I have not seen anything these last three years culminated by this shit show of a democratic race that would lead me to believe that a large portion of the most vulnerable people in our society will not continue to be fucked.

Immediately afterward, Melissa was asked to point to Iran on a map and pointed to a spot in the lower Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles from the nearest land

In a groundbreaking NYT interview, a disheveled man loitering outside a 7-11 and wearing a Dire Straits t-shirt as a bandana claims next president will be can of half-eaten peas.

We r doomed.

Who let this man hold our fates in his hand. Who.

uh I would vote for a can of half-eaten peas over Donald J. Trump.

peas 2020

LOL, I didn't even notice that I suggested it was a can full of partially-eaten peas rather than a can that had been half consumed. That changes everything.

Canned yam trolls gonna be on you so bad

ok I have not really followed the Lev Parnas stuff, what did he say and how is it different from what's already revealed?

http://www027.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/9-Plant-Based-Proteins-You-Should-Be-Eating.jpeg

Drag 'em, Nancy: https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Nancy-Pelosi-Facebook-ads-misinformation-fake-news-14980860.php

Peas on earth, can it be

the oldest of lunches

is anyone else fallowing this Dmytro Firtash stuff?

Former Rudy Giuliani amigo Lev Parnas may have revealed a staggering scandal on Wednesday, with Ukrainian gas billionaire Dmytro Firtash at the center.

The allegation is this: Trump and his legal team offered to have federal foreign bribery charges against Firtash dropped if the oligarch, described by federal prosecutors as an “upper-echelon” associate of the Russian mafia, helped Trump discredit the Mueller investigation and Joe Biden.

If corroborated, Parnas’ allegations would implicate Attorney General Bill Barr in the scandal in a deeper way than previously known, and would suggest that federal indictments are up for grabs as a bargaining chip for Trump’s political fortunes.

Even Firtash, is that really new? I thought those two scummy Fox lawyers Joe and Victoria were representing him already, and he pops up a lot in Maddow's book. He's under house arrest in Vienna, right? Like, here's a chunk from the Times in Nov.:

But interviews with the two Ukrainian oligarchs — Dmitry Firtash and Ihor Kolomoisky — as well as with several other people with knowledge of Mr. Giuliani’s dealings, point to a new dimension in his exertions on behalf of his client, Mr. Trump. Taken together, they depict a strategy clearly aimed at leveraging information from politically powerful but legally vulnerable foreign citizens.

In the case of Mr. Firtash, an energy tycoon with deep ties to the Kremlin who is facing extradition to the United States on bribery and racketeering charges, one of Mr. Giuliani’s associates has described offering the oligarch help with his Justice Department problems — if Mr. Firtash hired two lawyers who were close to President Trump and were already working with Mr. Giuliani on his dirt-digging mission. Mr. Firtash said the offer was made in late June when he met with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, both Soviet-born businessmen involved in Mr. Giuliani’s Ukraine pursuit.

Mr. Parnas’s lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, confirmed that account and added that his client had met with Mr. Firtash at Mr. Giuliani’s direction and encouraged the oligarch to help in the hunt for compromising information “as part of any potential resolution to his extradition matter.”

Mr. Firtash’s relationship to the Trump-allied lawyers — Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova — has led to intense speculation that he is, at least indirectly, helping to finance Mr. Giuliani’s campaign. But until now he has stayed silent, and many of the details of how and why he came to hire the lawyers have remained murky.

Dunno what this has to do with Barr, though of course I like many suspect Barr knows more than he lets on.

This is what Parnas was saying about Barr specifically, last night

Even Firtash, is that really new?

nope, it's been festering for a long time. just like the Parnas/Oleg thing, whose names first started popping up several months ago. but that's why i asked if anyone's been following the Firtash thing - not sure i've seen anyone on ilx mention it.

Dunno what this has to do with Barr

The allegation is this: Trump and his legal team offered to have federal foreign bribery charges against Firtash dropped if the oligarch, described by federal prosecutors as an “upper-echelon” associate of the Russian mafia, helped Trump discredit the Mueller investigation and Joe Biden.

in order to drop federal foreign bribery charges, you gotta have a bill barr

KM watch the inteview, it's not deduction—Parnas is making a first person account of Barr's direct involvement

but i guess josh's larger point is just, what is the point of discussing any of it if it's not going to actually lead to consequences. i guess. i still stubbornly like to pay attention to what crimes are happening and how they happened. that way, as i sit in the smoldering ashes of the post-apocalypse and people are being maddeningly vague about what happened and why, i can be the boss of the trashcan fire

BREAKING NEWS

I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2020

ok i lol'd

people around the trashfire are going to be like "...there were bad men...and they told lies...and we paid for those lies..." and i'm going to poke the fire a bit with a stick and then drop the most detailed oral history imaginable over the course of 2 months

xxp the whole decision to impeach was made with the understanding that it probably won't "actually lead to consequences"

KM watch the inteview, it's not deduction—Parnas is making a first person account of Barr's direct involvement

think you might be mixing me up with someone, i didn't say parnas was being deductive. he seems like a scumbag and a half, but so does everyone in trump's orbit. he also has a reason to tell the truth and rat on other people (to lessen his own sentence)

Had anyone in the history of the English language actually used the phrase 'perfect phone call' prior to a few months ago?

Outside of like the manager of a call center?

Melissa from Algona is the lionized swing voter, ie a schizo moron

i propose a new clinical term: "caucusoid"

I heard a werewolf making a phone call at Trader Vic's
the call was perfect

Ha no, Karl: I'm saying *we* don't need to deduce anything, per your "if DOH, then Barr" construction

That there's a guy who was running these errands for Barr saying as much

Lev Parnas is 42 years old holy shit

Whah!?

He must have a fantastic-looking picture in his attic

sorry fake news he is 47

still though

ha I was just about to fact-check

it says he was born 1972. xpost He still looks like he is hitting 60 hard.

Igor Fruman is 15, way more fucked up imo

and Donald Trump is 31!

He looks like a 47 year old from the 1970s or 80s.

LOL, otm. It's like every time a character declares their youthful age in an episode of Twilight Zone or something and I'm all like, yeah okay there Captain AARP.

there was a really good Twitter thread about this

this is nonsense but did people in the past look older when they were younger?

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) December 27, 2019

and Donald Trump is 31!

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 16, 2020 4:08 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

he's too young to be president. we got him!

Where's the birth certificate?

mid-20th century Americans smoked, drank, made jokes about 'sensitive' topics w/out shitting themselves

yeah we gotta make america that great again

i think they probably shitted themselves some from the drinking

Didn't we discuss this phenomenon recently wrt that pic of the Mary Tyler Moore cast?

brad i got some Milton Berle joeks for ya

kids today tell jokes that would make any mid 20th century american shit themselves fuck this snowflake narrative

Shecky Greene is still alive, let's test yr very dubious theory out on him

imagine showing someone from the 50's a single episode of Rick & Morty or Family Guy. they'd be so triggered lmao

nah comedy is only edgy if it targets a certain race or ethnicity or sexual orientation

/sarcasm

ok then...Family Guy

that twitter thread is insane

Brandon McCarthy is easily a top 10 athlete (retired or not) who tweets. TBF not much competition there.

Thanks 2 Uncle Morbsy for demonstrating that the Greatest Generation still remembers how to deliver those old-timey verbal laxatives.

Lol at mid-century "comedians" being edgy in any way except for racism.

Current profanity alone would curl their toes.

"what's a useless cumbubble?"

when the market for cum was driven to historic, very shortterm, elevated heights by the false expectation that no nut november would meet projected participation levels.

ok lol

John Roberts looked uncharacteristically nervous today in the Senate.

He's trying to calculate just how much humiliation he's willing to endure to provide cover for his friend Trump and the GOP.

Roberts is one of those fuckos dedicated to the GOP more than Trump. I can tell he loathes him because he has no reason to hide it, but he's a Reagan devotee, and this overcomes the loathing.

wondering if he will have any sway in the impeachment trial, I wish he would but am thinking probably not

Rehnquist only issued one ruling during the Clinton impeachment -- in the Democrats' favor! I wonder if Roberts will be so generous without wearing a Gilbert & Sullivan-inspired robe.

https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Rehnquist-robe.jpg

lol

I should point out: man, what a difference in looks and health between the Mad Men generation and Roberts'.

Lol at mid-century "comedians" being edgy in any way except for racism

Art Carney did a nightclub impression of FDR taking a shit

I prefer funny to edgy, also go fuck your favorite aunt

ok lol

i feel so lame that in my head i've configured a trump lackey cage match ladder (i dunno-- sondland, volker, pompeo, rudy, perry, barr, graham, mcconnell, jared, baron, mirelda, mara lago...) and i'm rooting for parnas so far, just on audio charisma. i don't believe believe a word, really, but i'm part of lev legion. i know upcoming facts will destroy my allegiance. lev lev lev

NEW SENATOR APPROVAL RANKINGS: @BernieSanders retains his spot as the country's most popular senator among his/her constituents.@SenatorCollins unseats @senatemajldr as the most unpopular.https://t.co/6aFYI9jEAW pic.twitter.com/SBbuFruIIC

— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) January 16, 2020

Lol at mid-century "comedians" being edgy in any way except for racism

Art Carney did a nightclub impression of FDR taking a shit

Wow, all the fifth graders must have been in stitches. Give him the Mark Twain prize.

I prefer funny to edgy, also go fuck your favorite aunt

It would appear not.

see ya got(?) the joke

one in a row

ok "go fuck your favorite aunt" made me lol

good morning!!!

Dershowitz? This administration's situational unawareness continues to astound me.

lol it’s only because trump recognized the guys name from somewhere

Acting role of the day: The suburban mom in these AAN ads who has to be a disappointed constituent of every swing state Democrat. pic.twitter.com/bUB6xq5C4D

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 17, 2020

Can someone please hip me to what dimension of chess this represents, please

They are rigging the election again against Bernie Sanders, just like last time, only even more obviously. They are bringing him out of so important Iowa in order that, as a Senator, he sit through the Impeachment Hoax Trial. Crazy Nancy thereby gives the strong edge to Sleepy...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2020

Ken Starr also on the team?

alan dershowitz and kenneth starr - so weird that he would end up picking famous lawyers who we've all seen on tv!!

Saul Goodman not available

xp to OL
pretty basic setting your enemies against each other, no?

Definitely why he picked them! Truly the most transparent of administrations xxp

GOP is more of a Matlock demographic tbf.

though if we want to do the usual armchair psychoanalyzing, it makes sense to me that Sanders would appeal to trump on an instinctual interpersonal level compared to Warren and Biden

He tried to draw parallels between himself and Bernie back in '16 too.

The Sanders campaign, while being in service of a much more competent human being in practically every way imaginable, is also working the cult of personality angle so the affinity is unsurprising to me.

We gotta get Andy Griffith

i heard it's not about bernie sanders, it's about us

https://i.imgur.com/RmJZ5K7.jpg

#NotMeUs

also working the cult of personality angle

might also be said of the last elected Democratic president, and most of his predecessors with the obvious exceptions like Poppy Bush

good news everyone, we caught the trump team in an irreconcilable contradiction! we got him! we got him!!!!

Congress tried to impeach both Nixon and Clinton for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. It’s very hard for Dershowitz to argue that neither one is an impeachable offense. https://t.co/LX2g27LgBI

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 17, 2020

Team Grifter also thinks he'd have the easiest time beating Bern; be careful what you wish for xp

might also be said of the last elected Democratic president, and most of his predecessors with the obvious exceptions like Poppy Bush

yeah, and?

yeah and he turned out to be a personality for sure

thats all im giving

(all Frauds in Chief depend on at least having a perceived good-nuff personality; hence Dukakis and Kerry...)

ah the "it's just low crimes and demeanors" defense

Saul Goodman not available
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes)

Or Jackie Chiles, or Whiplash Willie from The Fortune Cookie.

'a very stable genius'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/youre-a-bunch-of-dopes-and-babies-inside-trumps-stunning-tirade-against-generals/2020/01/16/d6dbb8a6-387e-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html

my military vet friends on fb are not happy about what that article is reporting

I remain eternally mystified by the fact that no one has ever beaten this man into a coma.

supposedly he also didn't know what pearl harbor was

“You would totally go bankrupt if you had to run your own business.”

Trump appears to be aware of some of the history, tweeting in 2016: "Does President Obama ever discuss the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor while he's in Japan? Thousands of American lives lost."

Does Shinzō Abe ever discuss the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki while he's in the U.S.?

sorry, i just What Abouted a trump tweet from 2016

He literally cannot imagine anyone functioning any differently that he did in a given situation.

'You would totally shit your pants four times a day if you had to be president.'

Trump unleashed his disdain, calling Afghanistan a “loser war.”

You know...

Tillerson said... “That’s not why they put on a uniform and go out and die . . . They do it to protect our freedom.”

bullshit

most of them do it to get the fuck out of their hometown or bcz there are no jobs

benefits package

otm

reddit is kinda funny sometimes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/idontknowhim/

LOL

martha mcsally

In a Capitol Hill hallway yesterday, CNN’s Manu Raju asked appointed Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) if she’d consider examining fresh evidence as part of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. As you’ve probably heard, the Arizona Republican did not handle the question well.

“You’re a liberal hack,” McSally told a respected congressional journalist. “I’m not talking to you. You’re a liberal hack.”

Republican politics being what it is in the Trump era, McSally’s office registered the domain name LiberalHack.com almost immediately after the incident. Soon after, the GOP senator asked donors to reward her outburst with campaign contributions. Last night, the Arizonan celebrated the incident on Fox News, as “You’re a liberal hack, buddy” t-shirts went on sale online.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-mcsally-others-gop-respond-fresh-evidence-against-trump

just rolls off the tongue

Man, if only I had the presence of mind to capitalize on every one of my pissbaby conniptions.

She's so close to getting it

Meghan McCain: McSally ‘Didn’t Earn’ the Senate Seat She Inherited From My Dad. https://t.co/NraM5QIANo

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 17, 2020

Is she, though?

like comet vs earth close but yeah

Who, at long last, is going to be our Ron Reagan?

so the neo-nazis descending on Richmond this weekend

Despite his scolding the poor generals he didn't take away their pocket money did he

on MLK day no less xp

where is Grant to take Richmond when you need him?

Grant's tomb

NEWS from Hell: Roy Cohn disappointed he was left off impeachment defense team.

one explanation:

"Cohn's last visit (to Mar-a-Lago was) a few months before he died of AIDS. Trump recalled to his guests that after Cohn had left, 'I had to spend a fortune to fumigate all the dishes and silverware.'"

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-roy-cohn-aids-florida-resort-book-1482672

Seriously how does anyone like this choad

he brought back Merry Christmas

Great stuff from On the Media this week, including this segment on political engagement -- which some people apparently define as tweeting, watching MSNBC, etc.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/politics-power-on-the-media

forget dennis perrin -- asking me to listen to podcasts really crosses the line

you can listen over the air on WNYC Sunday morning, dear :)

When i take photos of sherman and nike in nyc and insta “the north’s gonna do it again,” i _know_ his issues, and i _still_ feel it. it’s a baad problem of feels eh?

Richmond, VA. Charlottesville, SC. For some reason these neo-Nazis seem to feel a strong affinity with the deep Confederacy. I wonder what's up with that?

Charlottesville, VA

lol

theyre just upset about them statues bein removed

richmond was or is ranked three for cities in the US with the most tattoo shops. It's a weird place. They do have Po-white Parkway though.

It's a tired trope by this point but dude really is a Saturday-morning cartoon villain:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/17/trump-administration-school-lunch-michelle-obama-rules-roll-back

Is Chris Murphy's twitter feed account of the trial legal if he's directly involved?
I've heard jurors and trial participants in other situations being held to silence during the trial process.
So wondered when I saw he was going to give a daily update.

Apparently that is OK. They are not jurors in the traditional sense. They have to be quiet during the proceedings and can't question witnesses, those are a couple of similarities, but there are a lot of differences. For example, they can speak outside of the trial about the trial, don't need to be sequestered, and over the course of the trial they can even overrule the judge (Roberts), among other unique powers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/us/politics/trump-vaping-azar.html

“I never should have done this vaping thing,” Mr. Trump said, adding an expletive, according to two of the people familiar with what happened.

BIG NEWS: New study by Chris Cai et al. just up at @PLOSMedicine.
-First ever systematic review of economic analyses of single-payer.
-Researchers analyzed 22 cost estimates over 3 decades
-20 of the 22 predicted net savings
-Median net savings of 3.5% https://t.co/8v7mBig4aT pic.twitter.com/3HPqZ3Necl

— Adam W Gaffney (@awgaffney) January 15, 2020

What about the paper towels? https://t.co/OxlWtfwSpN

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) January 18, 2020

omg Big Vape got to him

I know it's a different insane thing every day but that Sea Wall tweet is just chaotic on a whole new level

same level, imo

I mean, what does he care if New York gets flooded? He's moving to Mar-a-Lago, and everybody knows Florida is totally immune to rising oceans.

acknowledges that seawall will be "needed," owns the libs anyway

Sea walls are ugly. Border walls are beautiful.

#allwallsmatter

Sea walls won't work. Border walls will work.

so appropriate

It was exactly three years ago today, January 20, 2017, that I was sworn into office. So appropriate that today is also MLK jr DAY. African-American Unemployment is the LOWEST in the history of our Country, by far. Also, best Poverty, Youth, and Employment numbers, ever. Great!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2020

so relieved to hear the Youth numbers are the best

So thoughtful and generous of him to take some time to talk about himself on this day.

I was thinking the other day, as I often do, about how confounding it is that Trump is so obviously a bullshit artist, so clearly a buffoon who somehow stumbled pinwheeling backwards into the presidency, so plainly a grifter who is out to enrich himself at every opportunity, a wannabe fascist with dreams of being Supreme Leader for Life, a corrupt villain who clings to power by dividing, by attacking, by bullying, by lying, and by literally any means necessary, and yet somehow there are so many people who buy into his bullshit! How can people believe in someone who is so painfully obviously a fraud? He doesn’t even try to hide it or pretend otherwise! And then I thought about professional wrestling, because that’s another thing that always confounded me. How do people possibly believe it is real? And of course Trump has the pro wrestling connections, he’s been in the ring, he knows it gets people fired up no matter how transparently fake it is. The over-the-top showmanship, the tough-guy posturing, the trash talk. People eat it up and don’t care that it’s not real because it’s a macho fantasy with good guys and bad guys, alliances and backstabbings, surprise attacks and killer put-downs. It’s as though he somehow managed to pose himself as the good guy in his own Wrestlemania tournament, with the ability to turn his adversaries into cartoonish evil strawmen to be taunted, to be hated, to be set up and knocked down like bowling pins while the crowd roars. And so he managed to get enough true believers fired up enough to build political momentum, leading others in the GOP to realize one by one that at some point they would have to jump on the train or get run over by it. And now they’re all on that idiot’s train and I hope it goes off a fucking cliff.

he’s a heel. A lot of people have decided they want to cheer for the heel because he feels like their heel.

Yeah Trump is a heel. From the boasting to the obvious cheating to the constant whining about being wronged/disrespected. Heels are far more fun to root for than good guys.

leading others in the GOP to realize one by one that at some point they would have to jump on the train or get run over by it. And now they’re all on that idiot’s train and I hope it goes off a fucking cliff.

― epistantophus, Tuesday, January 21, 2020 12:11 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

And as I say often, they're also all dedicated to playing a game where if anyone else tries to point out something that is supposed to make them reconsider or even just reflect on their position in regards to any GOP talking point, they will instead dig in their heels out of spite. Nobody is to get the satisfaction of seeing any of them concede to any point regardless of counterarguments or new information. Dig in those heels every time, that's the game. And it's a game because context does not matter at all. The only rule is the more pushback you get the more you dig them in.

happy anniv

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down one of its worst and most activist decisions ever. https://t.co/PggwjFzN9l

— Nathaniel St. Clair (@NatStClair) January 21, 2020

And as I say often, they're also all dedicated to playing a game where if anyone else tries to point out something that is supposed to make them reconsider or even just reflect on their position in regards to any GOP talking point, they will instead dig in their heels out of spite.

This is not a game, it's human nature

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds

I framed it that way semi-sarcastically because i've never seen such a stubborn dedication to that "rule" (as I described it) before the Trump era, to this much of a cartoony extreme degree.

such a stubborn dedication to that "rule" (as I described it) before the Trump era

When your job depends on figuring out what an amorphous blob of hundreds of thousands, or millions, of voters might "think" in the aggregate, you adopt a very heuristic attitude. Trump did things no professional politician would have dared to try before 2016, but he succeeded, so it became monkey-see, monkey-do time in DC.

Del. Lee Carter, the Virginia General Assembly's sole Democratic socialist, just passed his first bill. It prevents employers from classifying workers as tipped employees if they're prohibited from soliciting tips. https://t.co/ucRe1p5Mpi

— Ned Oliver (@nedoliver) January 22, 2020

He appears to be celebrating by shitposting from the House floor https://t.co/Z5jyeC3dvT

— Ned Oliver (@nedoliver) January 22, 2020

that's a good tweet

I agree w TRAINS

Ruining the non-sequitLOLs a bit, but if you click on Lee's tweet, it's in regards to a separate train bill that passed afterwards

Still a good tweet tho

Are we sure it's not a zombie who can't correctly spell BRAINS?

Don't trains have . . . BOXCARS?!!!

rarely ime

Trump promised his mileage standards would make cars cheaper and safer. New documents raise doubts about that.
Top Senate Democrat argues that revised rule “will lead to vehicles that are neither safer, nor more affordable or fuel-efficient.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/01/23/trump-vowed-his-mileage-standards-would-make-cars-cheaper-safer-new-documents-raise-doubts-about-that/

The Trump administration on Thursday signed its long-promised regulation to remove millions of miles of streams and roughly half the country’s wetlands from federal protection, the largest rollback of the Clean Water Act since the modern law was passed in 1972.

The move delivers a major win for the agriculture, homebuilding, mining, and oil and gas industries, which have for decades sought to shrink the scope of the water law that requires them to obtain permits to discharge pollution into waterways or fill in wetlands, and imposes fines for oil spills into protected waterways.

But Politico contends:Legal experts say the Trump rule is likely to be placed on hold by federal courts in at least some states, if not nationwide, as the litigation works its way through the courts. In the meantime. developers and other industries will have to decide how much of a risk they're willing to take.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/23/trump-epa-curbs-water-protections-102779

doubts are raised and democrats argue but god forbid the washington post weigh in either way

Doesn’t get more humiliating than this. Trump is in a meeting with the president of Iraqi Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani, but he mistakes him for the leader of the Syrian Kurds & goes on & on talking “safezones” in Syria & Turkey. Truly astounding ignorance.pic.twitter.com/YQbu4SA3it

— Sina Toossi (@SinaToossi) January 22, 2020

president toddler fuckaduck is a a big boy who knows a lot

can't humiliate the unhumiliatable

As such, it's genuinely a wonder that he wears a diaper in lieu of just copping a squat wherever he happens to be when the spirit moves him. He's pure shameless id made manifest, what's really stopping him.

think it might've made the news if Barzani had treated it like a gameshow and at the end said "I am ACTUALLY..."

you fools, haven't you learned how to be right all the time? he didn't mix the two leaders up. no he didn't. that didn't happen.

yup, just gotta play your kurds right

and what many people are saying is how bad it is when YOU mixed up the two leaders. you did that. very dumb of you.

I was shitposting! Haha and you guys fell for it. I love winding you up. God it’s so easy! Try harder n00bs! 😂😂😂

Has there been an instance yet that we're aware of where he's publicly addressed someone by the wrong name, they corrected them, and he then doubled down and insisted that the name he chose for them was correct? If not, it's really only a matter of time, I assume.

Can't wait until he has a mini-stroke in the midst of naming the country that he's president of and then insists at every subsequent turn that he absolutely meant to call it Amrilkull because that's what it's called, and maybe even has the presidential seal altered accordingly.

i mean, shifty schiff keeps going by adam, even though trump keeps correcting him

Has there been an instance yet that we're aware of where he's publicly addressed someone by the wrong name, they corrected them, and he then doubled down and insisted that the name he chose for them was correct?.

he was honoring the unknown soldiers, whose name by definition is disputed

also, YOU did that

only when you did it, it was a specific soldier with a real name and you got it wrong

If he insisted George Benson wrote and performed the Ghostbusters theme and got corrected, the Justice Department would have the deepfake music video by Tuesday

Reagan asked his HUD secretary -- only black Cabinet member -- "how are things going in your city, Mr Mayor?" once

^that was shortly after he'd been shot so

I won't finish my thought

mea culpa km, you are right, apologies to Dear Leader

thank you, hadrian. now, please face the other direction and walk down this long hallway

outside is in that direction!

but my children

the state will take care of them
just kidding

ugh, the feeling when someone passes your impromptu "point at ukraine on an unmarked map" test, which you thought to be impossible

Wow. @NPR's @NPRKelly just now on @npratc says @SecPompeo was furious about being questioned about Ukraine in her interview. Took her into his office, cursed at her, dropping f-bombs, made her point to Ukraine on an unmarked map (she did). It's just...shocking.

— Lulu Garcia-Navarro (@lourdesgnavarro) January 24, 2020

can trump point to ukraine

Currently is iirc

XP He did, and it was perfect!

I think I.F. Stone wd've told Pomp to fuck off

for the last 20 hours, the pinned tweet of the president has been this

pic.twitter.com/Acyh0HStm8

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020

i guess he's retreating to the base within his base: trolls

Someone asked Trump to point out Ukraine on a map and he confidently stabbed his finger in the direction of a stapler on an adjacent table, just like any good American with a sound sense of world geometry. Geology. Maps, the...the, uh, class that was about maps.

Trump apparently will be speaking at the March For Life, a Pro-Life rally. He's the first President to do so.

It's sort of amazing how many contenders there are for "no wait -- that guy, THAT GUY is the very biggest asshole in the building." (Today I'm thinking Pompeo but a day will pass and there'll be some other astonishing feat of assholery from another human sphincter in a position of high responsibility)

oh my fucking GOD pompeo, jfc

The Secretary of State has issued this statement regarding his NPR interview: pic.twitter.com/Jp6vl3wny9

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) January 25, 2020

for those who may have missed this, i'm sad to say this is real:

after throwing a tantrum because he was a fucking moron during an interview, he pulled Kelly into a separate room (off mic) and yelled at her for several minutes, then asked her to point to Ukraine on a map and asked his aides to produce an unmarked global map. then she pointed to Ukraine on a map, according to Kelly. I believe her. i at least believe that she would point to the correct continent, which should go without saying except that...in Pompeo's statement above, he is clearly hinting that she pointed to Bangladesh.

Ukraine is not particularly difficult to find for someone with a basic sense of geography and geopolitics. The Crimean peninsula is fairly recognizable. But on the chance that she did get it wrong, I find it extremely hard to believe that she would've pointed somewhere not even close to eastern Europe. Like, if you're going to make shit up, say she pointed to Belarus or Georgia or something.

we have to grapple with the real possibility that she pointed to somewhere like belarus, and pompeo thought it was bangladesh

i know everyone is bad at geography and lots of people don't know who the vice president is, etc etc, but imagine kelly being asked to point to ukraine and then pointing to bangladesh on this map

https://i.imgur.com/ZR1BvWm.jpg

I couldn't identity Ukraine on a map in the same situation

lol @ the implication that Pompeo can pinpoint Bangladesh on a map.

a lot of people couldn't. a lot of people in the united states can't point to new hampshire. and especially not to american samoa.

but would you at least point to the right continent?

I do like to think that even the most ignorant American journalist knows that Ukraine is next to Russia. And Russia is easily recognizable because it's BIG.

Of course she knows where Ukraine is. Pompeo is just straight up lying

It is worth noting that Pompeo is not a reptile in the literal sense.

i just find it so shocking that mary louise kelly, who got her masters in European Studies at Cambridge, pointed to bangladesh instead of Ukraine. but you gotta trust pompeo on this one, he is the secretary of state!! and after all, would someone who asked a journalist to point to Ukraine on an unmarked map be so petty to lie about her answer??

i find it inspiring, in a way, that these complete dipshits manage to rise to the most powerful ranks in the world. you don't have to know things, or be smart, or have a good idea. you don't need to be a good person, you don't need to be honest. you can be a petty motherfucker every single day of your life and be proud of it. if you're a big confident white guy from kansas and you think the rapture is going to take place in our lifetime, you can do whatever the fuck you want

Sniffs grabs crotch salutes gets a beer

attaboy!

I think about that often when I’m deep in the pits and it genuinely helps in a ‘it’s not just you, the world really is out of order’ kind of way.

xp

it''ll be a bummer if the coronavirus goes uncontained and send us all to premaure, painful death but then again some of us will be Mike Pompeo

Christ what an asshole

We need to give him the Santorum treatment on Urban dictionary

we have to grapple with the real possibility that she pointed to somewhere like belarus, and pompeo thought it was bangladesh

she absolutely pointed to ukraine, and pompeo tried to smear her by suggesting she pointed to belarus but then fucked it up

morons all the way down

First of all, is Pompeo saying she made a promise not to ask about Ukraine? She’d be a pretty shitty journalist to agree to that during an impeachment.

of course she didn't promise that.

he's just playing to his audience.

I suppose by now it's basically just predictable that the laughably transparently false Bangladesh zing is also a tacit admission that Pompeo is a belligerent, mansplaining dickhead who screamed at an adult woman to point out a country on a map in a pathetic and failed attempt to make himself look smarter than her

First of all, is Pompeo saying she made a promise not to ask about Ukraine? She’d be a pretty shitty journalist to agree to that during an impeachment.

also, in the midst of the interview (which you can listen to in full), she audibly tells him that he needs to talk to his aides because she made clear she would discuss ukraine the night before

the whole thing is just pathetic. the Point at Ukraine test is so revealing..it's like, do most of the people in Pompeo's vicinity fail that test, i guess? lol

is Pompeo saying she made a promise not to ask about Ukraine?

I think his "two lies" were 1) that, when he asked to speak with her privately she agreed to make it "off the record", but when he used that opportunity to dump a bucket of verbal shit on her head she disclosed that he did so, and 2) that she pointed to Ukraine on the unlabeled map and he thought she pointed to (wtf?) Bangladesh.

Characterizing these as "two lies" is about as disingenuous as possible for a person who just threw a huge tantrum and expected no repercussions.

1) that, when he asked to speak with her privately she agreed to make it "off the record"
2) that she pointed to Ukraine on the unlabeled map and he thought she pointed to (wtf?) Bangladesh

think the other accused 'lie' is that she had 'promised' not to ask about ukraine in the formal interview

Claiming she made such as promise is too absurd not to look ridiculous.

yeah. the sad truth is that i wouldn't put it past a lot of "journalists" to make that promise (like a CBN reporter or a large portion of fox news). but i cannot imagine mary louise kelly agreeing to that in a million years. and during the segment itself i think she stressed that she would never agree to that.

after Pence is Pompeo the biggest christ-bitten idiot in the the admin?

well, Rick Perry's gone.

In recording Trump asks how long Ukraine can resist Russians

President Donald Trump inquired how long Ukraine would be able to resist Russian aggression without U.S. assistance during a 2018 meeting with donors that included the indicted associates of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

“How long would they last in a fight with Russia?” Trump is heard asking in the audio portion of a video recording, moments before he calls for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. She was removed a year later after a campaign to discredit her by Giuliani and others, an action that is part of Democrats’ case arguing for the removal of the president in his Senate impeachment trial.

A video recording of the entire 80-minute dinner at the Trump Hotel in Washington was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. Excerpts were first published Friday by ABC News. People can be seen in only some portions of the recording.

The recording contradicts the president’s statements that he did not know the Giuliani associates Lev Parnas or Igor Fruman, key figures in the investigation who were indicted last year on campaign finance charges. The recording came to light as Democrats continued to press for witnesses and other evidence to be considered during the impeachment trial.

On the recording, a voice that appears to be Parnas’ can be heard saying, “The biggest problem there, I think where we need to start is we got to get rid of the ambassador.” He later can be heard telling Trump: “She’s basically walking around telling everybody, ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached. Just wait.’”

Trump responds: “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.”

...

Trump also tells the assembled guests that it is “ridiculous” and “wrong” that he can’t hold political fundraisers inside the White House, saying it would save the government money compared to driving him the four blocks to his hotel.

god, that last paragraph.

it's the kind of paragraph that must be used in closing. there is no point in going on after that.