US Politics, July 2018: FART

The next post explains why this title was a must.

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

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

What's up, bootlickers

Technically it's USFARTA

i hope he has a stroke

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

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) July 1, 2018

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

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

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

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

Appropriate commentary for US Politics, July 2018: FART

Ever wonder what Tim Geithner's been up to?

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

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

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

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

Grrrrrrrrrr

from El Tomboto yesterday:

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

Part of my morning workout!

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

scuse me, a pig just flew past the window

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

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

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

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

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

Who knew?

is there a Mexican politics thread?

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

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

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

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

is this sparta

fine lookin neckbeard on our womp womp friend

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

from El Tomboto yesterday:

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

Part of my morning workout!

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

scuse me, a pig just flew past the window

¡Viva AMLO!

viva mexico

¿cómo se dice “otm” en español?

eed

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

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

spicy

dread the nickname he will inevitably give her

i reported that tweet for harassment

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

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

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) July 1, 2018

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

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

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

In Soviet Russia, EGGS BREAK YOU!

oh no the Angry Left interrupts another dinner

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

(sorry, lunch)

how did she make it past his secret service lunch detail

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

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 2, 2018

how did she make it past his secret service lunch detail

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

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

...and Tactical Pants!

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

use your tactical pants

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Fake News Media is going CRAZY! They are totally unhinged and in many ways, after witnessing first hand the damage they do to so many innocent and decent people, I enjoy watching. In 7 years, when I am no longer in office, their ratings will dry up and they will be gone!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018

That sentence kind of got away from you there, champ.

Nixon at least had been to a grocery store.

I wish Trump would have a heart attack during a public televised speech. Id probably beat off

I just got prescribed blood pressure meds and largely blame this administration

Nixon's father was a grocer

Wish I could remember who wrote a Twilight Zone-ish story I read as a kid, about a guy who was told there was a collective that was concentrating on his demise at a particular time of day, for five minutes or so, and would continue to do so until it was effective. Seems like a Sturgeon or Sheckley type story. Can't remember what the guy had done to deserve it, but the specificity of a time (say 5:15 p.m.) and the number of people concentrating (5 thousand?) added strength to its voodoo power of suggestion. I've googled various phrases, but no luck.

It was 13 Democrats the other day where did the new 4 come from

He reminds me of when you lied and told your mom you had no homework and based on your history of lying, threatened to call your teacher and you screamed NOOOOO

I seriously cannot imagine any other adult consistently behaving like such a petulant choad without eventually getting the living shit kicked out of them.

xpost https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/scratchpad-iii/images/d/d2/Here_Comes_Mr._Stork.png/revision/latest?cb=20180121014608

I seriously cannot imagine any other adult consistently behaving like such a petulant choad while 40+% of the voting public cheer him like he's the fucking racist beatles

I wish Trump would have a heart attack during a public televised speech. Id probably beat off

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 1 August 2018 14:44 (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Not only .. is this the last speech today, .... but this is the last speech I'll ever do! "

Aug. thread title: How many Angry Democrats does it take to screw in a Rigged Witch Hunt?

is this the first time he's directly told Sessions to kill the investigation?

It is. He was less direct but hinted at the same thing previously

Under His eye

A highly respected Federal judge today stated that the “Trump Administration gets great credit” for reuniting illegal families. Thank you, and please look at the previous administrations record - not good!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018

imagine bragging about this

Wish I could remember who wrote a Twilight Zone-ish story I read as a kid, about a guy who was told there was a collective that was concentrating on his demise at a particular time of day, for five minutes or so, and would continue to do so until it was effective. Seems like a Sturgeon or Sheckley type story. Can't remember what the guy had done to deserve it, but the specificity of a time (say 5:15 p.m.) and the number of people concentrating (5 thousand?) added strength to its voodoo power of suggestion. I've googled various phrases, but no luck.

― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Wednesday, August 1, 2018 3:47 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's one about a hate mail campaigner who introduces hoodoo or something which backfires on him & he winds up a fraction of his size. Wonder if it might be a line or two in that.

> wtf is a 'rigged witch'

a spoonerism?

If by 'spoonerism' you mean 'an incoherent expression of paranoia made just after President Coke Sweats has had a toot' I concur.

Lot more attention paid to the typo on this one than that he’s seemingly admitting to a crime again.

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1024676935065120768

Has 17 Angry Democrats gained traction anywhere? I still don't know what he's talking about when he says that.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 7:21 AM (one hour ago)

35 members of Mueller's team of lawyers: 17 Democrats and take a wild guess which party the other 18 are affiliated.

Did the smocking gun tweet get deleted?

is there a separate thread for all of the trials and court proceedings connected with...all of this? like manafort's trial?

something tells me this judge may be a doofus

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The federal judge overseeing the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort doesn’t want the word “oligarch” – which was invoked by both sides on Tuesday – to be used in front of the jury

In a back and forth between U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis and prosecutors at the start of Wednesday’s proceedings, the prosecutors argued that witnesses should be allowed to use the term in testimony.

Ellis ordered the government to file briefs to defend the use of the term, which he said was “pejorative.”

“We’re not going to have this case tried that he associated with despicable people,” Ellis said, referring to Manafort.

“That’s not the American way,” Ellis added.

It would appear so yes. He fixed it and reposted.

what did it say ?

lol the legendary manafort capone

Xpost this except he spelled smoking “smocking”

“We already have a smoking gun about a campaign getting dirt on their opponent, it was Hillary Clinton. How is it OK for Hillary Clinton to proactively seek dirt from the Russians but the Trump campaign met at the Russians request and that is bad?” Marc Thiessen, Washington Post

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018

Ha, better search terms this morning found it! "The Candidate" by Henry Slesar, published in Rogue magazine, 1961. I'd forgotten the twist ending. Movie version here.

Chaos, rampant in an age of distrust
Confrontations
Compulsive habitat

Today I’m proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates – leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America they’re running to represent: pic.twitter.com/gWzalQhFas

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 1, 2018

serious question: what is the quick answer to Marc Thiessen's question? Why is soliciting the Steele dossier ok, but not having a meeting with some random Russians? Is it because Steele is not a gov't agent (just a former one?)

how many times per day do you think Trump complains that there should be another investigation of the Clinton campaign

like, does he not realize he could tell the justice department to get to work on that, or does he try and then they tell him they already did that?

good luck, Bam!

I'm sure Trump is seething at staff about that saying "President Obama" and not "Ex-President Obama."

fwiw I am interested in the legal distinction here
xp

Sometimes i think the best troll reply to his tweets are "u got a phone, bruh"

xp presumably because Steele was an investigator doing actual detective work and not an agent of a foreign government? and he was paid to do exactly that

if it was a random russian person offering intelligence to Trump for cash, I think it's no big deal and comparable. and who knows, maybe that is how the investigation turns out. but what it seems like so far is that it was all some weird quid pro quo crap, and linked with all the money laundering and shady business deals. and there's the implication some of what the russian agents/oligarchs/whatever were offering was illegally procured email, or that they offered services that were outright criminal

if Trump said "hack their email" and someone did just that, then it's not far off from saying "break into their office"

Re: Steele? He's not a state agency/actor. I think it's illegal to accept help from state agents/actors in a presidential campaign. So is soliciting or accepting (or going to accept) knowingly stolen information, which Steele was not peddling but the Russians (allegedly) were.

hmm missing somebody in those NY endorsements, O?

The most terrifying thing is just how out in the open he has been with his lawbreaking. Most of it is due to tribalism but some of his less knuckledraggy followers are probably claiming 5D Chess because they can't fathom he is really stupid enough to telegraph everything to law enforcement when in actuality it's because he's done this and avoided consequences his entire life.

9/11 probably poisoned the well forever with our politics. People in all parties have been willing to accept utter bullshit in the name of counterterrorism and are more easily duped into us vs them binaries.

When I grew up terrorism wasn't a thing people in my city worried about, even after the Oklahoma City bombing. I had to ask my dad what terrorism was when I was 10.

the problem with proving collusion with a foreign government is that part of the russian government is linked so heavily to the oligarchy/kleptocracy that you could spend an infinite amount of time debating whether someone is a "state actor" or working in that capacity

yeah, that kinda seems like the crux of the issue, and as such its a grey area ripe for exploitation by a shitbag like his Orangeness

August already!!

US Politics, August 2018: There must be something wrong, please recheck that poll!

serious question: what is the quick answer to Marc Thiessen's question? Why is soliciting the Steele dossier ok, but not having a meeting with some random Russians? Is it because Steele is not a gov't agent (just a former one?)

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 12:25 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Re: Steele? He's not a state agency/actor. I think it's illegal to accept help from state agents/actors in a presidential campaign. So is soliciting or accepting (or going to accept) knowingly stolen information, which Steele was not peddling but the Russians (allegedly) were.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 12:33 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the adversarial nature of our relationship with Russia is a factor as well, in light of the fact that ever intelligence agency has concluded that they were engaged in efforts to hack the DNC sow disinformation, and otherwise do anything they could to undermine the legitimacy of our process as well as swing the race to Trump. if, say, representatives of the Italian government met with the Trump team to peddle dirt, I don't think it's nearly as big of a deal.

hmm missing somebody in those NY endorsements, O?

― President Keyes, Wednesday, August 1, 2018 4:35 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

assume these endorsements are for people in close races not rofflestomps in dark blue districts

then again gavin newsome might be in a rofflestomp in CA gov but he's a piece of shit and I can see him making it way closer than it has a right to be

Mods, close thread.

And America

Wait. I'm still on the middle of America and I want to see how it ends. Lock thread, though.