Trump, May 2017: 100 days of [unintelligible]

I work with a dude who was a cop in Milwaukee for 15 years and he said something like "I haven't heard a single story about Clarke that made him out to be anything less than completely insane"

ok. so i don't see why you can't say the guy is horrible on some issues and good on others.

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, May 17, 2017 1:19 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i want this embossed on a plaque and bolted to morbs's desk. maybe all of our desks, sometimes.

re: flipping congress: i stand by this post from last month:

don't think they have much of shot in either chamber, but reducing the GOP margins would be genuinely useful in its own right - many more situations like the health care debacle ahead, with ryan and mitch counting every single vote and trying to placate all their different and hopelessly contradictory GOP constituencies. happy to see that get even just a little harder for them.

i suppose there's a VERY tiny chance that if the senate could be brought within one vote (including pence) then a very enterprising schumer could get susan collins to jump to 'independent' in exchange for chairpersonships a la jeffords. i've pooh-poohed that scenario before, but only because getting several people to do that at once is a LOT harder than when you just need one. collins is probably the only shot since it'd be political suicide for epople not from maine, last bastion of the old-fashioned liberal republican, whose other senator is also an "I" caucusing with the democrats.

― long dark poptart of the rodeo (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, April 12, 2017 11:54 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

mind you i think clinging to a jeffords scenario is just a notch or two above fantasizing about the 25th amendment (which folks in these threads have done a good job rebutting). but it's sorta kinda closer to reality. if you like, throw in the possibility of a purple-state GOP senator (say, colorado's cory gardner) leaving office unexpectedly, due to health or scandal or deciding to travel the world and write a novel, and the seat getting filled by a Dem. anything could happen!

the most important thing imho is that the worse trump's numbers get and the more scandals he attracts, the harder a time it is for those GOP congresspeople not in 100% secure seats - obviously is a great many of them thanks to gerrymandering, but still. their town halls are consumed by constituent anger, TV appearances intended to talk up legislation is burned through with questions about the president. late nights in the office bleakly staring at the numbers through the bottom of a glass of scotch. go against the president and they will be primaried by a red-hat loon. support the president through thick and thin and the small portion of their republican constituents who haven't drunk the kool-aid are enough to tip the margins and hand the seat to a democrat. this is a good situation imo.

"Donald Trump kyngur pissa" as new campaign slogan

not that it matters but it's 86 degrees in New York City on May 17. high in the 90s tomorrow. let's cut some taxes and pray for the best : )

the problem w/ flipping the senate is that your opportunities are so limited you'd need to basically sweep the board to have any shot. obv that doesn't apply to the house so i'm not sure why ppl are so cynical about dems ability to flip? they're polling amazing on generic ballot (ok, can't predict the future), and incumbent's party almost always experiences waves against them at midterms (even popular presidents). it's not a sure thing (gerrymandering, poor midterm turnout for dem voters) but it's not super unlikely imo.

voter suppression, too

go against the president and they will be primaried by a red-hat loon. support the president through thick and thin and the small portion of their republican constituents who haven't drunk the kool-aid

This scenario is what the anonymous "longtime GOP staffer" cited in a tweet upthread was probably thinking of when they compared the situation to "Reservoir Dogs, where everyone ends up on the floor dead."

I think I'd be OK if everyone in the GOP ended up dead.

don't worry they will

if they lose the special elections in GA and/or MT GOP apparatus is going to start to freak out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xmXOP3lhM

xposts thanks caek :) would be nice if it came from higher up, like tillerson, but it's something i guess

lol Trump is scheduled to meet the Pope while Comey testifies in the House next Wed.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho): “What I’m worried about is, in the early 1970s, politicians like me were standing around saying, ‘Nixon’s okay, he didn’t do anything,’ and look what it led to,” he said. “And every day there is something that adds on to it.”

Genuinely shocked at level of reflectiveness here tbh

If Trump were a praying man ...

Actually, given this Pope, who knows what might come out of this.

the problem w/ flipping the senate is that your opportunities are so limited you'd need to basically sweep the board to have any shot. obv that doesn't apply to the house so i'm not sure why ppl are so cynical about dems ability to flip? they're polling amazing on generic ballot (ok, can't predict the future), and incumbent's party almost always experiences waves against them at midterms (even popular presidents). it's not a sure thing (gerrymandering, poor midterm turnout for dem voters) but it's not super unlikely imo.

― Mordy

lack of leadership and vision mostly, as well as astonishingly poor strategic vision over the past 25 years. it's eminently doable, but distrusting the democrats' ability to do it is reasonable, if not always helpful.

Oh hey, more of this

Full quote from senior White House official on Trump threat to leave #NATO right here: pic.twitter.com/RTbOq2vg1w

— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) May 17, 2017

this is good:

Two sources tell me D.C. police are using video to identify the body guards who instigated the melee and plan to pursue arrest warrants.

— Aaron C. Davis (@byaaroncdavis) May 17, 2017

"Two sources tell me D.C. police are using video to identify the body guards who instigated the melee and plan to pursue arrest warrants."

same guy says "concerned" is "among the weakest of state dept's stock condemnations"

Re: NATO. That's just Trump desperately trying to change the headlines. Too vague a threat to do the trick. It will be noticed by NATO allies, and make them freak out, but for domestic consumption it will be drowned out by Comey/Russia.

Chatter has begun about what a President Mike Pence might look like.

I feel safe in assuming he would continue to look like a stunned Mr. Potato Head.

I don't really believe the Dem has a chance in Montana-AL but please, people, go ahead and convince me I'm wrong.

that's the spirit!

I donated to Quist and now I get 10 e-mails a day asking for more with some terrible spammy headlines. I cannot believe this is effective fundraising.

This doesn't surprise me

Update: DHS won't confirm Sheriff David Clarke's claim he was hired https://t.co/FYd8QF87dr via @dcexaminer

— Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) May 17, 2017

Chatter has begun about what a President Mike Pence might look like.

I feel safe in assuming he would continue to look like a stunned Mr. Potato Head.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, May 17, 2017 10:07 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Which one would be worse though? Trump or Pence? I would really be interested in finding out what people think about this.

are you interested in enough to load 3746 messages

Lol

I have read almost all of them, believe it or not

But still no idea

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/baddudes-2_zpsbulyxbzi.gif

We've covered this.

still love this very vice presidential hardman effort by Pence.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4072626.1492425220!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/south-korea-us-pence-korea.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wMVEf_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=high

i might prefer this President Pence

https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/hunter-pence.jpg?w=1000&h=600&crop=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUNPDnCBLxH/

looks more like roger stone tbh

*shudder* either way obv

Fake Pence BTW

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/17/justice-department-hands-trump-russia-probe-to-special-counsel?via=twitter_page

DOJ names robert mueller as special counsel to investigate trump/russia

just now from Washington Post

KIEV —A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016 exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/house-majority-leader-to-colleagues-in-2016-i-think-putin-pays-trump/2017/05/17/515f6f8a-3aff-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.c5d03a541565

paul ryan fighting the good fight as ever

So with Mueller on board, does that mean the House and Senate stop what they're doing?

xp holy shit lol

xpost no, they'll keep going. i expect, though, that mueller's appointment will mean that the republicans who finally started to come around on naming some sort of special counsel or committee will now backtrack and say that mueller's appointment means that everything is fine and nothing further is needed

This feels like surfacing for a breath of fresh air.

Now a long, long, frustrating wait.....

Mueller seems like a solid choice, no?

this wapo story is fucking incredible

The situation was difficult, Ryan said. Groysman, he said, had told him that Russian-backed forces were firing 30-40 shells into Ukrainian territory every day. And the prime minister described Russian tactics that include “financing our populists, financing people in our governments to undo our governments.”

Ryan said Russia’s goal was to “turn Ukraine against itself.” Groysman underlined Russia’s intentions, saying “They’re just going to roll right through us and go to the Baltics and everyone else,” according to Ryan’s summary of the prime minister’s remarks in the recording.

“Yes,” Rodgers said in agreement, noting that the Russians were funding non-government organizations across Europe as part of a wider “propaganda war.”

“Maniacal,” Ryan said. “And guess, guess who’s the only one taking a strong stand up against it? We are.”

Rodgers disagreed. “We’re not…we’re not…but, we’re not,” she said.

THIS IS HAPPENING HERE RIGHT NOW

when it's 90 degrees tomorrow, in May, in NYC, we're probably going to be telling funny jokes still

well, aside from the shelling xp

let's get that phone back in that baby-brained idiot's hands ok?