no, i didn't know that the June 2019 US Politics thread was nasty

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

*thread

you want the edit or the typo?

edit please! after all, i took an oath

thanking you

http://www.fredsullivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/GlennFrey_c0-209-1872-1300_s561x327.jpg

another month of this shit

theoretically at least 17 more months of shit from this particular dispenser

listen as far as i’m concerned we’ve all entered a groundhog day scenario

every month a coprophagic feeder in the thread centipede that is "US Politics"

Get over it!

trying

Paul Campos’ post on the 25th Amendment over at LGM is sobering.

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/05/the-devils-workshop

As you may have noticed, it’s quite possible that Donald Trump could be a lame duck president for fully two and half months, starting on November 4th of next year, until noon on the following January 20th.

This is for obvious reasons a terrifying prospect. Among the many crises that could arise as a result is a refusal on Trump’s part to acknowledge the legitimacy of the result if he loses (I would say the odds of this happening if he does in fact lose can be calculated as roughly 100%).

Whether or not Trump personally accepts the result of the election is of trivial concern to me. What matters is how many people he can convince he's right and the election was a fraud to the point where they get violent.

The tradition in the USA is to peaceably abide by election results, no matter how suspicious or questionable the results may be. It is so strong a tradition that we had no actual street violence after the 2000 election. That wasn't solely because Gore chose not to incite his followers, but conceded. No one was going to riot on his say-so.

My sense is that Trump doesn't have nearly enough pull with the public to override the 2020 election, if he loses. His allies in Congress only put up with him as a necessary evil. More importantly, there's not one state governor who would take the risk to back him up. Sure, he'd whine, but most of the USA would shrug it off.

More importantly, there's not one state governor who would take the risk to back him up.

let's remember that Paul LePage was governor of Maine for 8 years, and Kris Kobach didn't miss by much. the GOP produces insane governors at a regular clip

they need to do way instain governor

The tradition in the USA is to peaceably abide by election results, no matter how suspicious or questionable the results may be, as long as the nominal winner is a representative of the Republican Party.

Otm

@realDonaldTrump
3 minutes ago

Washington Post got it wrong, as usual. The U.S. is charging 25% against 250 Billion Dollars of goods shipped from China, not 200 BD. Also, China is paying a heavy cost in that they will subsidize goods to keep them coming, devalue their currency, yet companies are moving to.....

@realDonaldTrump
3 minutes ago

....U.S. in order to avoid paying the 25% Tariff. Like Mexican companies will move back to the United States once the Tariff reaches the higher levels. They took many of our companies & jobs, the foolish Pols let it happen, and now they will come back unless Mexico stops the.....

@realDonaldTrump
3 minutes ago

...travesty that is taking place in allowing millions of people to easily meander through their country and INVADE the U.S., not to mention the Drugs & Human Trafficking pouring in through Mexico. Are the Drug Lords, Cartels & Coyotes really running Mexico? We will soon find out!

so let me get this straight. we will punish mexico for not solving our border problem by imposing tariffs that are good for the united states, because "mexican companies will move back to the united states once the tariff reaches the higher levels"...unless mexico solves our border problem? what?

those tariffs sure do sound like win-win-win-wins! you add them and you win, and you take 'em away and you win too! wow!

If we tariffed the rest of the world at 100% I'm pretty sure we would have all the money.

Because the other side don’t care to fight, do they folks? The Democratic Party don’t want to fight for democracy, it’s sad. That’s why I call them the Democrat party. They don’t like it, but that’s okay. That’s okay. We’re gonna keep calling them it anyway! But they don’t want to fight. Won’t fight for this big, beautiful democracy, and won’t fight for, with, their ...your big, beautiful GUNS. We love the second amendment. Some say the best amendment. But the Democrats ...don’t want you to have those guns. Want to take them away. So you won’t be able to fight them.

Other posters are much better at that than you

Matt Gaetz milkshaked outside town hall meeting in Pensacolahttps://t.co/APFuQmVHQQ

— jordan (@JordanUhl) June 1, 2019

shdn't have gone 2 the brew ha ha if he didn't want to get in a tilly

Wow, just saw where this month's title came from. This is truly the dumbest timeline.

Just in to say this thread title is sublime

good morning!

Mr. Sotosyn if you're nasty

Trump thinking of nominating a major lunatic to the Fed, who thinks it's Gosplan. She wants to hold a new Bretton Woods conference at Mar-a-Lago and create a gold-linked monetary system. Let's see how this flies with the big boys. https://t.co/MPEAN1DVes via @financialtimes

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) June 1, 2019

says it right there on the money though

ron paulbots should be pleased?

ha I thought that said God! Something now totally plausible

weren't stephen moore and herman cain also gold standard fans?

idk its hard to keep with all this bullshit and i have a masters in poli sci

Ron Paul is/was a fan.

A return to the gold standard's never going to happen. The economy would throw a piston.

Trump has pretty much been a daily illustration of what would happen if your crazy loud uncle at Thanksgiving were to become president.

Yep. And mine is dead

skim milk burn!

The Hill reports:

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Sunday said Democrats who support impeaching President Trump should “buy a spine” and do it. But he also said they’d regret it, pointing to polls that show a minority of voters back impeachment.

“Impeachment polls right up there with skim milk with the American people. But my advice to my Democratic friends is, if you want to do it, go hard or go home,” Kennedy said CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “Go to Amazon, buy a spine. If you’re not going to do it, let us get back to work.”

That's not a bad angle of attack.

Amazon has body parts now?

Only for Ultra-Super Prime subscribers.

Introducing Prime (TM) Rib

Skimmed milk is unamerican?

You can't drink skimmed milk and expect to have a functioning backbone everyone knows that.

o fuck trump is hot now, libs completely destroyed

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D8HCpCZUEAAmuCd.jpg

he’s wearing Eric as a skinsuit

The new visa application forms list a number of social media platforms and require the applicant to provide any account names they may have had on them over the previous five years.

https://www.apnews.com/c96a215355b242e58107c2125c18fc4a

sure fine totally okay

good morning!

Platform: I Love Music
Username: t✧✧@k✧✧.e✧✧

tim AT kfc.edu

how are the visa folks gonna know if i choose not to list a social media account? are they going to undertake a forensic search of every social media platform? how are they gonna know that in addition to my regular twitter handle under my own name i also have an alt where i share my detailed manifestoes on how best to cook and serve every member of trump's cabinet?

i'm sure google and facebook will be happy to help however they can

they just want an excuse to jail you when they find out you've an unreported ilx sockpuppet to 51 the usual suspects

I read that as Visa credit card. There is almost no way they can do a timely search for your social media unless you just suck at using the internet and have everything on full display. They are hoping you will give it all to them voluntarily.

i think this is probably intended more as a means to expand ways to later deport someone for submitting supposedly misleading/false documents or whatever bullshit.

exactly

or even remove your citizenship later

how are the visa folks gonna know if i choose not to list a social media account?

having talked to people who use a bunch of different data sources to aggregate potential customer data, I really assume anyone with enough money to buy bulk data can throw this stuff together

I guess if you've used a different account on a different device that doesn't use wifi, isn't paid for by any account linked to your name, doesn't have gps, has never logged into any website whatsoever other than that account, and uhhh maybe has never opened a web browser to go to anything other than the one site, you may be in the clear

This is why I tell people to never put their dob, pob or even full name on any type of social media website.

can't believe i'm gonna be denied entry to the states because the opsec around my marxist naruto slashfic tumblr wasn't watertight, smdh

Are they expecting to get links to all my long-forgotten livejournal accounts? even TSA don't deserve having to look through that

I had to work with Palantir once who was trying to gain access to a bunch of our databases of which I was one of the owners. They just wanted a datadump per the wishes of our company but there was absolutely no rationale about why they needed it or what they would use it for. We refused and eventually, eventually they were like "oh, we don't need it." It was kind of absurd.

i think the elephant in the room is whether or not we have to reveal our Ello accounts

I'm depressingly fatalistic about identity privacy because for every good actor like Yerac there's another company that's just handing crap over, or opportunistic services just selling metadata as their entire business model :/

it is with a heavy heart that i must inform you that jared kushner has stepped in front of a camera once more

Jared Kushner deflects when asked if he disapproves of Donald Trump's promotion of birtherism, saying he wasn't involved with it. @dctvny @hbodocs pic.twitter.com/D2wINVHLIx

— Axios (@axios) June 2, 2019

I'm depressingly fatalistic about identity privacy

as a former fed, my personal info (sometimes including SSN) has been stolen at least 7 times, and those are just the incidents i know about. feds make sense as targets, i guess, but also as canaries in the goldmine. everyone should be fully prepared to either become an obsessive data security champion or get used to the idea that soon everyone's information is just going to be...out there

canaries in the goldmine

hmm

i guess the good news is that it's not a typo

(that is my low key way to recruit fellow supervillains to help me collect personal data and profit. it is a veritable gold mine out there)

Trump has pretty much been a daily illustration of what would happen if your crazy loud uncle at Thanksgiving were to become president.

― earlnash, Sunday, 2 June 2019 18:46 (yesterday) Permalink

if only

im pretty fatalistic about any real chances for individual data security too fwiw (almost nothing). and mh is right, bad models and actors do dominate that space.

maybe every space. in this world of “greater fools” (in a nonstandard, nonecon sense), and of trumpy zero-sum transactionalism, maybe the biggest surprise to me is that no non-state bad actors have acquired some reaaaally crazy shit and pulled a ransom extortion using explosive nukes. or like, just used nukes.

*consults DM Guide* the world feels like it’s gone from lawful evil to chaotic evil. or it could be just i’m really aging out, and realizing the world is always chaotic evil, and that my assumption of post ww2 lawfulness, as limited as it was, was even more a fallacy than i suspected.

great now we need to get rid of donny AND end the existence of the two party system. because fuck that idea, pete.

sorry, im playing on the phone and...i’m hanging up now.

a means to expand ways to later deport someone for submitting supposedly misleading/false documents

otmfm. it has a barely plausible connection to counter-terrorism to use as a cover story, but it will only be used as a handy stick to beat anyone they don't like and want to deport, similar to using loitering or vagrancy laws to beat up on homeless people.

jared has spoken!

Dear @FBI @CIA @NSAGov @ODNIgov @DHSgov: I sure hope you don't share any classified information with Jared Kushner.#MondayMorning Thoughts https://t.co/Rb3G9uBlcu

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 3, 2019

If you had a Dave Matthews fan page on Geocities, you probably deserve deportation or worse. Especially if it autoplayed a song upon opening.

Add ten years hard labor for every dancing teddy bear animated GIF.

eh, no exporting that shit to other countries, deal with your own problems, USA.

pic.twitter.com/PZLjvpOoAO

— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) June 3, 2019

i hope this slicked hair is the new look

but more than that, i hope he d1e5

this is the water and this is the well

trump is the most lynchian president

https://images.haarets.co.il/image/fetch/w_1081,h_625,x_161,y_21,c_crop,g_north_west/w_609,h_343,q_auto,c_fill,f_auto/fl_any_format.preserve_transparency.progressive:none/https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.5665466.1515416005!/image/1018316866.jpg
We've met before, haven't we?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/03/so-much-land-under-so-much-water-extreme-flooding-is-drowning-parts-of-the-midwest

this seems like some seriously bad shit and quite underexposed in the news, from this end at least.

Recent deaths of multiple ICE detainees were preventable, according to internal agency documents I obtained for @tytinvestigates.

In one memo, an ICE official warns Acting Director Albence their health services department is “severely dysfunctional”https://t.co/OnUrFgeLiL pic.twitter.com/Z1FrQAQSNN

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 3, 2019

New: The House Judiciary Committee will continue hearings focused on the alleged crimes and misconduct laid out in the Mueller's report.

The next hearing will feature former White House Counsel John Dean as well as ex-U.S. Attorneys and legal experts. https://t.co/tJnD6zhOyl

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 3, 2019

a blast from the past

the clips from this kushner interview are just...I don't even know anymore

https://www.axios.com/jared-kushner-palestinians-trust-peace-plan-2824a0fb-305a-4835-9a46-51f8611fe421.html

for once, Jonathan Swan earned his paycheck.

his incredulity is refreshing

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

Meanwhile, the effort to retrofit Trumpism with conservative legitimacy churns onward: https://nationalconservatism.org/?fbclid=IwAR3r_8T3XyFkha3NR9GdtAanT9FlwddV-H2nG5tVA8-1YKgyTFkiEyFUBmY

Is the new American and British nationalism a hostile usurper that has arrived on the scene to displace political conservatism? Or is nationalism an essential, if neglected, part of the Anglo-American conservative tradition at its best?

You'll never guess which one they pick ...

calzino thanks for that midwest flood link, yes it is terrifying and underreported

I watched the Kushner episode, and I have to ask, is axios an elaborate joke? it seems like a parody of the NEW MEDIA company who dares to BE DIFFERENT by taking you BEHIND THE SCENES (accomplishing the same thing that anchor banter does)

is axios an elaborate joke?

You wish.

Check out its founders.

the joke is coming from inside the beltway

china's ministry of culture and tourism otm

BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Tuesday issued a travel alert for Chinese tourists traveling to the United States.

Noting the frequent occurrence of shootings, robberies and theft in the United States recently, the ministry warned Chinese tourists to fully assess the risks of traveling there.

Chinese tourists are urged to learn about the information about the public security situation and related laws and regulations of tourist destinations, to raise safety awareness and step up precautions to stay safe.

The travel alert is valid until Dec. 31, 2019.

Fair comment surely?

Should have made it valid until Jan. 20, 2021

more of a sick burn than anythng else

I mean you're not likley to get shot here unless you're doing something really weird like sitting in a classroom or being at your job

This plan to bring John Dean and friends in to testify about the Mueller report seems extremely stupid to me. Is there any point to this at all?

Is there any point to any of it?

anyone else ready for really vigorous, really shitty rallies chanting “HIGH CRIMES! MISDEMEANORS! HIGH CRIMES! MISDEMEANORS!” not for any candidacy, but like, for fun and nancy. and with no impeachment proceedings resulting. just let the pressure rise.

not sure of best venue yet

is axios an elaborate joke?

The handheld cameras on that kushner interview were an elaborate joke, holy shit. Like watching the blair witch project, starring an empty vessel

the GOP should subpoena G. Gordon Liddy and we can get to the bottom of this Watergate hoax

Good morning!

is axios an elaborate joke?

Mike Allen and a guy I think was Jim VandeHei sat next to me at a cocktail bar over here. I didn't know who they were at the time, but I tried to make light conversation with Mike Allen. He noticed me but deliberately ignored me. Then I saw all the Axios stickers on his macbook and did some googling, found out it was him.

Kind of a dick.

hi American thread 👋🏻 the Queen secretly owning Trump discourse is like shit Christmas

Speculating on whether or not famous/powerful people are subtly owning Trump in their interactions with him is QAnon for liberals https://t.co/SKtcuComS2

— Paul Blest (@pblest) June 4, 2019

This is making the queen seem way more favourable than the reptile she really is tbh :-/

anyone looks good next to a creepy psychopath

No way to talk about the heir to the throne.

lol

WASHINGTON — Republican senators sent the White House a sharp message on Tuesday, warning that they were opposed to President Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on Mexican imports, just hours after the president said lawmakers would be “foolish” to try to stop him.

Mr. Trump’s latest threat — 5 percent tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico, rising to as high as 25 percent until the Mexican government stems the flow of migrants — has riled Republican senators who fear its impact on the economy and their home states. They emerged from a closed-door lunch in the Capitol angered by the briefing they received from a deputy White House counsel, Patrick F. Philbin, and Assistant Attorney General Steven A. Engel on the legal basis for imposing new tariffs by declaring a national emergency.

“I want you to take a message back” to the White House, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, told the attorneys, according to people familiar with the meeting. “You didn’t hear a single yes” from the Republican conference. He called the proposed tariffs a $30 billion tax hike on Texans.

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, said he warned the lawyers that the Senate could muster an overwhelming majority to beat back the tariffs, even if Mr. Trump were to veto a resolution disapproving them. Republicans may be broadly supportive of Mr. Trump’s push to build a wall and secure the border, he said, but they are almost uniformly opposed to the imposition of tariffs on Mexico.

“The White House should be concerned about what that vote would result in, because Republicans really don’t like taxing American consumers and businesses,” Mr. Johnson said.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, fretted, “We’re holding a gun to our own heads.”

just wait til they figure out that the China tariffs are ALSO paid for by american people consumers

They also apposed the national emergency five months ago -- remember that bill? Then they caved. Veremos.

spending this wild tuesday night checking out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Communications_Director

am i the only one who never realized that pat buchanan was communicators director for reagan from 1985-87?

also, from april 1987 to july 2017, there was never a gap between the tenures of communications directors - one would start the day the other finished. trump has had several multi-week gaps already: 16 days between the mooch and hope hicks, almost three months between hicks and bill shine, and now almost 3 months since bill shine left.

i'm not expert, but it seems like it would be important to have a communications director.

i'm not an expert!

Twitter makes that unnecessary.

watch this to die instantly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEy7LRpuv9A

How far does Piers manage to get his tongue up Donnie's b-hole?

i don't know, i didn't watch because i didn't want to die instantly

the inhuman centipede

lol:

We did it! https://t.co/rx6ZKGyVBD

— Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser) June 5, 2019

hahahaa

the very definition of an open goal from ivanka there

I would bet a substantial sum of money that the significance of what she wrote is completely lost on her.

I thought "Jared" would be sound, solid entertainment in January 2017.

“First of all, I didn’t know anything about it, but I’m not even sure it happened,” Trump told Piers Morgan on “Good Morning Britain.” “I hear it’s fake news. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But again, I don’t talk about John McCain unless someone asks me about it.”

oh so it didn't really happen .

Destined for Bartlett's Quotes. Trump: “China, India, Russia, many other nations, they have not very good air, not very good water, and the sense of pollution. If you go to certain cities, you can’t even breathe, and now that air is going up. They don’t do the responsibility.”

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 5, 2019

reading that in the voice of prime Jerry Lewis

Reading that as if it were the final gaseous emissions from a dying horse's suppurating asshole.

pollution: it’s real and bad in other countries but fine in the usa

We do the responsibility here

His words on the border in Ireland were similarly nonsensical. If we have time left for hindsight, its gaze upon this era will be withering.

they don't have the freedom molecules, and that's why they resent us

i really hope whoever ends up debating this oatmeal-brained fuck treats his utterances with the proper level of incomprehension and exhaustion. but of course you know they won't, they'll just act like a totally normal grown adult has just said a totally normal grown adult thing and not "they don't do the responsibility"

fucking hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQxn1yYE7VU

Candidate One: (stomps on whoopee cushion filled with mayonnaise while firing off two airhorns)
Candidate Two: With respect, the assumptions underscoring my opponent's position are baseless, for the following reasons...

I fucking wish

En route to The Hague! 🇺🇸🇳🇱#GES2019

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 5, 2019

46.1% of american voters: i like the mayo man that makes fartz
48.2% of american voters: ... we are in hell

*mix it all up with a little electoral college*
the mayo man wins!

^ the succinctest encapsulation of the current predicament I have yet seen

reading that in the voice of prime Jerry Lewis

omg

No one understands borders like big brains in the corner.

“The Senate won’t remove him” is a terrible argument for why the House shouldn’t hold Trump accountable. And the politics of forcing the Senate to vote to protect Trump are good - here’s Trump’s approval in the states we need to take back the Senate: https://t.co/ahLIlLA7Kz

— Adam Jentleson 🎈🐢 (@AJentleson) June 5, 2019

46.1% of american voters: i like the mayo man that makes fartz
48.2% of american voters: ... we are in hell

*mix it all up with a little electoral college*
the mayo man wins!

― i will never make a typo ever again (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 5 June 2019 20:03 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow attacked rn

lmao

lmayo, tbh

if you were wondering what all the soldiers deployed to confront the evil caravans at the southern border are doing

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-to-spend-a-month-painting-border-barriers-to-improve-aesthetic-appearance/

painting >> shooting

if i were the CO i'd order everyone to use paintball guns. painting AND shooting training. two birds with one stone. also, to pick up any dead birds they find by the wall (because builds kill many more birds each year than wind turbines. fun fact to mention next time your crazy ass uncle is going on a tirade about wind energy because he suddenly cares so much about the livelihood of birds). three birds with one stone.

Dodo's D-Day speech sounded like it was done thru a prompter

(earpiece i mean)

He does that thing where he lisps and, like a two-pack-a-day smoker, inhales deeply

NEWSFLASH: After Normandy speech, Trump now "presidential", according to MSDNC's Andrea Mitchell.

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 6, 2019

So they're cutting activities (including legal aid) to kids at the border...

Pelosi tells Democrats she wants Trump "in prison," not impeached

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she doesn’t want Donald Trump impeached because she’d rather see him “in prison,” Politico reported.

Pelosi, who has been resisting Democratic calls for impeachment, made the comments Tuesday night during a contentious meeting with House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler.

“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” she said, Democratic sources told Politico.

Nadler was pushing Pelosi to allow his committee to launch an impeachment inquiry, the second time he’s made that request in recent weeks, according to the report.

An increasing number of Democrats have called for impeachment, but Pelosi has steadfastly resisted.

Pelosi reportedly argued at the meeting with Nadler and other Democrats that she would prefer to see Trump defeated in the 2020 election and then prosecuted for his crimes.

i want to be wrong, but there is no way in hell that even a democratic led DOJ is going to send trump to prison

"it's time to move on. it's time to heal. it's time to look forward", etc

walk, chew gum xxp

but yes if Nixon, Dubya ad nauseum have taught us anything is that the executive cretins don't go to jail

walk, chew gum

i was wondering this too, like what's wrong w/ impeachment AND prison afterward? but i suppose pelosi is in the camp that thinks impeachment will lead to a 2020 election loss for democrats

Was there ever a time in our history where the party leading the impeachment hearings didn't win the subsequent presidential election? It's certainly been true during my lifetime.

I mean, I know this iteration of the Democratic Party could be the first to fuck that up, but still

yeah i feel like the exercise of power - impeachment, whatever - establishes its own legitimacy all by itself

Come on, fellas, rash action might send our nation hurtling into chaos. Can you even imagine?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJq7J2uzSlc

At last.

The notion that impeaching Clinton hurt the Republican Party isn’t entirely a myth. The House Republican majority voted to formally begin an impeachment inquiry in October 1998, just weeks before the midterm elections. GOP leaders confidently predicted that public revulsion with Clinton would lead to big Republican gains. “The Republicans were all full of themselves going into the election,” says then–Democratic Representative Martin Frost of Texas, who chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that year. “They expected to pick up 20 or 30 seats.” Instead, in November, Democrats gained five—the first time a president’s party had won House seats in the sixth year of his tenure since Andrew Jackson in 1834.

But it’s easy to overstate the magnitude of the GOP’s backslide in 1998. In the Senate, Democrats gained no seats that year, leaving the Republican majority intact. Nor did the five-seat House loss cost the GOP its majority in that chamber. Republicans still won more of the total national popular vote in House races than Democrats. Swing voters didn’t stampede away from the GOP; in exit polls, Republicans still narrowly beat Democrats among independent voters. And while impeachment provoked big turnout from African Americans, Clinton’s most passionate supporters, overall, turnout that year was very low.

The midterm election was widely seen as a red light from the public on impeachment. But Republicans barreled ahead and voted in mid-December to remove Clinton anyway. On the day they did so, there was about as much public support for impeaching Clinton as there is today for impeaching Trump. A Gallup poll at the time showed that 35 percent of the public overall backed impeachment, including 40 percent of independents. In a CNN poll this week, 41 percent of the public supported impeachment, including 35 percent of independents. Overall, Clinton’s public support in Gallup polling was much stronger at the time (63 percent job-approval rating) than Trump’s is now (40 percent).

Nancy Pelosi, please observe carefully the number of years spent in prison by the perpetrators of the financial frauds that almost disemboweled the entire Western world's economies in 2008. Now compare that to number of years spent in prison by the perpetrators of the Iran-Contra crimes. Now imagine how much time Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the USA, will spend in prison for his crimes in office. Then stop perpetuating that "in prison" nonsense.

This "want him to go to prison" thing is inane on multiple fronts. First, as an impeachment delay tactic it's lazy and transparent. Second, it undermines her argument for taking things slowly, i.e. that she's an institutionalist who values due process, thoroughness, surety, etc. Instead she's echoing and legitinizing Trump's own "lock her up!" discourse. It's just not serious. It's stupid.

But most obviously WTF she is actually saying that in the meantime it's okay for a guy who merits imprisonment—a criminal!—to remain in the highest office. Like it's more important to the country that he is "punished" sometime down the road than e.g. have the nuclear codes taken away ASAP

boomin'

Since the Senate will never convict impeachment amounts to a motion of strong moral disapproval. A weak-looking move.

Hadrian OTM

the weakest looking move of all is worrying about how something looks. if trump has committed crimes in office he should be impeached.

Maybe, but in politics, "how things look" very often has material consequences (I agree that trump should be impeached though).

You've got to break these people. Constant drumbeat of witnesses, bad news etc. It creates its own reality. Yes the Democrats are in control of the House, yes they're trying to bring down the Republicans by any means necessary, why because Republican ideas are bad, they're bad people, and oh their president is a criminal. Whatever it takes. Not fair? Too bad, shut up, we have the power now, don't like it then vote us out. Hate Trump? Come with us.

Trump has stumbled into a kind of timeless political truth which is that being hated by the right people is an asset. The Democrats keep thinking everybody can like them. Fuck Trump supporters forever

true. there is no virtue in being soft on republicans. i would turn the guns on the officeholders and the corrupt interests they represent though, not the average voter. (sanders and warren both do this well).

well I mean as the presumed collateral damage from any Trump investigation, or indeed any flavor of the termination with extreme prejudice of the entire Republican project. If they want to go down with the ship, good riddance

yeah, sure. i think the democrats are confused because they think going hard on the republican party will alienate certain voters. but those voters can make a decision. and it's not like the republican project has helped them far from it.

at this point, given the circunstances and the stakes, the opposition isn't even Trump — it's Pelosi Stoyer et al vs. decades of self-sabotage syndrome

i mean, the republican party is not a reasonable conservative opposition that you can make deals with to further shared goals. they aren't looking for market based solutions to climate change and healthcare--they are represented the interests of like carpetbagging elites and selling it by stoking paranoia and hysteria, often demonizing pelosi herself. the democrats just need to get hip to the situation.

calling these people what they are is painful--it shatters the cherished idea that we live in a functional republic--but you have to live in the real world not the fake one

You've got to break these people. Constant drumbeat of witnesses, bad news etc. It creates its own reality. Yes the Democrats are in control of the House, yes they're trying to bring down the Republicans by any means necessary, why because Republican ideas are bad, they're bad people, and oh their president is a criminal. Whatever it takes. Not fair? Too bad, shut up, we have the power now, don't like it then vote us out. Hate Trump? Come with us.

OTMFM! There are no rules anymore and defeating Trump won’t bring back a world where there are rules (if such a world ever existed). Dems are still playing by the rules instead of breaking shit.

Gonna repost:

The political world has changed significantly since 1998. Key among those changes is the consolidation of a conservative-media infrastructure that dominates communication to the GOP rank and file. That dynamic means Trump is even less likely than Clinton to suffer major erosion of support from his base, and thus also from his party’s representatives in Congress. And Trump has repeatedly demonstrated, with the help of the conservative-media ecosystem, that he can energize his supporters by portraying attacks on him as efforts from disdainful “elites” to suppress their influence. That could allow him to wave impeachment as a bloody shirt to spur turnout from his base in 2020. Even swing voters uneasy about Trump might also recoil from the sheer level of political conflict that impeachment would inevitably ignite in today’s combustible media environment.

All of that suggests it’s not a guaranteed political winner for House Democrats to impeach Trump when there’s virtually no chance the Senate will vote to remove him. But the full ledger on Clinton’s impeachment invalidates the common assumption that impeachment without removal is a guaranteed political loser. Considering both the 1998 and 2000 elections, there’s considerable evidence that the struggle actually helped the GOP; at worst, its political impact was equivocal. Which means that, on impeachment, House Democrats may have more leeway than they believe to do what they think is legally and morally right.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/06/did-clintons-impeachment-actually-hurt-republicans/591175/

Instead she's echoing and legitinizing Trump's own "lock her up!" discourse

come on, "legitimizing"?

we all want this man who deserves to go to prison to go to prison

alfred's repost otm

i agree

btw the Embed podcast is doing a series about Mitch right now. The episode that dropped this week has a speech where Mitch calls out John McCain on the Senate floor challenging him to name names of Senators he thinks are corrupt. McCain tries to brush him off multiple times before basically saying, "You are, Mitch."

it is true that Bill Clinton was not re-elected in 2000 that’s a good pt

he can energize his supporters by portraying attacks on him as efforts from disdainful “elites” to suppress their influence. That could allow him to wave impeachment as a bloody shirt to spur turnout from his base in 2020. Even swing voters uneasy about Trump might also recoil from the sheer level of political conflict that impeachment would inevitably ignite in today’s combustible media environment.

This is dense with false premises. First, it presumes that Trump's base will not already be maximally inflamed. This is Donald Trump we're talking about. *Not* impeaching him is going to somehow pacify his base? His base will be demagogued into a frenzy no matter what, on immigration and on "socialism" not to mention the investigation his DOJ will open on his opponent. Second, this "swing voter" business. Who exactly are we talking about? The guy is polling at 40%!

"political conflict would inevitably ignite"

LOL the house is right now on the verge of holding the attorney general in contempt but god forbid "conflict"

His base will be demagogued into a frenzy no matter what

yes, exactly

otm

"This is one of the true, in terms of war, in terms of, probably you can also say, in terms of peace, because this led to something very special."

froooom seeea tooooo shiiining seeeaaaa

You need to read the whole article. The point is that there's enough facile comparisons to 1998 for House Dems to say fuck it, let's impeach.

Instead she's echoing and legitinizing Trump's own "lock her up!" discourse

come on, "legitimizing"?

― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, June 7, 2019 10:18 AM (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ok yeah that is an overstatement...I mean "legitimizing" in the eyes of his supporters. Better put, maybe: abetting a false equivalency

Because of the 'LOCK HER UP!!!' chants on the other side, it may be preferable for one of the most powerful and high-profile democratic elected officials to say something more like 'I want Donald Trump to face these charges in a court of law once he's no longer protected by his office' rather than 'I want Donald Trump to go to jail' no matter how keenly we all recognize the benefit that would be conferred upon humanity by caging him like a sick ape.

yes

yep

btw the Embed podcast is doing a series about Mitch right now. The episode that dropped this week has a speech where Mitch calls out John McCain on the Senate floor challenging him to name names of Senators he thinks are corrupt. McCain tries to brush him off multiple times before basically saying, "You are, Mitch."

lol

McCain was often terrible but I am down for zings like this

btw how close are we to an election where both of the main campaign platforms explicitly include sending their opponent to prison if they win?

awesomely close!

Could happen this year

oh yeah -- good morning!

xxxp Alfred I see that now, you posted his caveat

it seems a simple political safeaguard (to the extent it's even necessary) would be driving home the message that they are impeaching on moral grounds and per constitutional duty *with no expectation the Senate has the moral courage or political fortitude to follow through*

iow make it clear the senate vote is meaningless because it's a foregone conclusion, put McConell on the defensive

there are obviously high level conflicts of interest, financial crimes, and tax schemes that could be uncovered through subpoenas. its not like obstruction of justice is the only thing trump did wrong.

yes and strictly in terms of dividing/diverting Trump attention during a campaign it's a no-brainer.

He will be in Pittsburgh or wherever next summer ready tout the stock market but totally derailed mocking some former employee who testified that afternoon to cooking his books or silencing an abortion payment or w/e

every single day

Reuters/Ipsos 2020 head-to-head (polling May 29- June 5, 2019):

Biden 47% (+13)
Trump 34

Sanders 44 (+9)
Trump 35

Warren 40 (+4)
Trump 36

Harris 39 (+3)
Trump 36

Buttigieg 37 (+2)
Trump 35

Every one of those margins is still too close for comfort. And also a reminder that we need to double our efforts in finding a barge big enough for 1/3 of the American population.

A barge or a rocket. A zeppelin, perhaps? Whatever gets them off this particular landmass is cool with me.

For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2019

lol of which the moon is a part

🤔

he probably meant "of which the moon is part cheese' but he ran out of characters

It's moments like this that I just want a reporter to ask him a very simple, straightforward question and get his response on record, a simple question like 'where is the moon?' Because there's a very good chance that he thinks it's near Mars. So many missed opportunities along these lines. 'When was the United States founded?' 'How many years are in a century?' 'Briefly summarize a single book that you've read.'

the responses would be the same incoherent flailing he does around all other topics and the effect would be nil

i would gin up an impression but it's all been done before

The Moon (the nipple of Mars)

many people say the moon is actually a part of mars. not a lot of people know that but it's a big concern i hear .. next question

such a jokester, this president

i mean im not even good at that and it to easy

i wonder if he'll be hit by a meteorite

It's heartening that we're so mired in his swill that video of our septuagenarian POTUS reciting the alphabet incorrectly wouldn't elicit more than a resigned shrug.

'Of Course He's Stupid, No One Cares' b/w 'Way to Give that Snooty Fuckin' Alphabet Wit Fer!'

Fact Check: What is the moon? https://t.co/qmavnR0Y54

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 7, 2019

surely he was implying that moon would form a part of a mission to Mars? but in that case... why tweet

Why surely?

He might think the moon orbits mars.

Achieve Mind-Blowing Orgasms By Having Your Partner Read Direct Quotes of Democrats Calling for Impeachment: https://t.co/QMrIBi0pYG pic.twitter.com/ApkcS9nMkb

— Reductress (@Reductress) June 7, 2019

i still wanna see ~actually disruptive~ marches with *CLANG CLANG* HIGH CRIMES! *CLANG CLANG* MISDEMEANORS!*CLANG CLANG* HIGH CRIMES! *CLANG CLANG* MISDEMEANORS! *CLANG CLANG* but i don't think the ppl are with me.

by ~actually disruptive~ i mean, like, rudely delaying brunch or a bike ride or a mind-blowing orgasm.

given what trump's doing to kids on the mexican border alone he and his entire administration of enabling lackeys needs to be physically, publicly shamed. chari vari. tar, feathers, the stocks. if it's televised that's just a bonus. they need to pay. everyone who now says they support him should be afraid to admit it. there is no excuse. i don't give a shit about his taxes. but yemenis who are still dying from bombs he continues to sell the saudis, children actually dying on the border through neglect, people treated like dogs and worse - if he's going to treat the public like it's the 1600s let's return the goddamn favor

guys

Andrew Sullivan wrote a column

Shall I link to it

^rhetorical question

this was an actual tweet today from Trump:

"If we are able to make the deal with Mexico, & there is a good chance that we will, they will begin purchasing Farm & Agricultural products at very high levels, starting immediately. If we are unable to make the deal, Mexico will begin paying Tariffs at the 5% level on Monday!"

he said something similar about tariffs on China, like he is actively trying to misinform the portion of the US public that doesn't understand what they are. why doesn't some reporter ask him to explain this?

I'm pretty sure he has had it explained to him, but the lie is so much more beautiful that he quickly forgets the truth and embraces the falsehood, just as a lover who is blind to any blemishes in his beloved.

yes and strictly in terms of dividing/diverting Trump attention during a campaign it's a no-brainer.

Given how successfully she has pwned him in every head-to-head she's engaged in since the mid-terms, this seems plausibly Pelosi's policy.

She's keeping the prospect in the public eye by repeatedly saying it's not the time, which in itself is stoking more of the public and elected Democratic representatives to call on her to initiate it. If this is intentional, then when they finally do launch impeachment proceedings, it will feel more inevitable.

Having him distracted by evidence and hearings and testimony during the (final eight months of his four-year) campaign is going to be of more practical use than letting him rail against it as a witch hunt to a tame media for a year beforehand.

Building a case (or dozens and dozens of cases) that conclude after November 2020 increases the chances of him and, hopefully, his children and members of his administration being actually prosecuted (if she's sincere about seeing him gaoled rather than mildly censured in office, this would check both boxes).

And he's neither going anywhere else as long as he remains in office, nor is he going to get less crime-ier during the next year. She seems to be fairly skilled at playing the long game, and this isn't that long.

This may be true, but the Democrats are coming off as indecisive right now. It's not that they need to impeach immediately, but they need to at least make people feel like they are aggressively moving things forward. Their approach is instead maddeningly passive.

I'm agnostic on whether it's an advisable approach, and it's just speculation on my part. But it fits with everything else that she both says and does publicly.

they need to at least make people feel like they are aggressively moving things forward

It's only a couple of weeks since a 100-week investigation concluded, in a frustrating fashion. I can see value both in optics and strategy in not leaping into something else immediately with no planning.

sometimes you just want thor to cut of thanos's head and then turn into the dude. so to speak.

"off"

Pelosi will come out for impeachment the way Obama came out for gay marriage (i.e. only after it is a political inevitability).

iirc that's the only good thing biden's done -- getting out ahead of obama on gay marriage

iirc Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act?

lol i don't doubt it

Yes, it's a stiff competition (not to mention a competition of stiffs), but I nominate Joe Manchin for the honor of being the only senator more repulsive than Ted Cruz...https://t.co/5adCzJIONN

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 9, 2019

At DOT, Chao hired a former McConnell campaign worker and had him focus on Kentucky grants that could help her husband campaign for re-election. My story this morning with @TSnyderDC.https://t.co/UEBvEtGH8C

— Tucker Doherty (@tucker_doherty) June 10, 2019

our *other* royal family

That Manchin story is almost a year old?

well, has he recanted?

So, anyone have a good grasp of this whole tariffs issue? I feel like they are being covered in a hyper-partisan way. Like, if a dem president used tariffs to try to enforce working condition standards everyone wouldn't be laughing off the tactic as pathetically naive the way they are with Trump.

I mean, duh, tariffs aren't payments from China/Mexico to the USA, but they ARE a way to dis-incentivize US companies from outsourcing manufacturing to China/Mexico. And hitting powerful companies with tariffs seems like as good a strategy as any if you want to influence the politics of another country.

All of this is not to say that Trump's reasons for tariffs (particularly wrt Mexico where he is looking for Mexico to clamp down on their borders) are great, but are tariffs really bad policy?

I think I'm in the minority who believe John Dean testimony before the judiciary committee is exactly the kind of grandtstanding/theater the Dems need in lieu of WH stonewalling....but LOL at "fake liberal news media" CNN MSNBC not broadcasting it because a helicopter landed on a building three hours ago

are tariffs really bad policy?

Tariffs can be a helpful economic policy, under some circumstances, but tariffs are not a helpful foreign policy. The main reason to create a tariff is to shelter a domestic industry from foreign competition by giving that industry a privileged access to your domestic market. This can protect an industry whose domestic presence is seen as a national priority. In a country with a weak currency high tariffs can discourage the outflow of 'hard' currency reserves.

For example, Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum will allow domestic steel mills and aluminum producers an extra margin within which they can raise prices on their products, increasing their profitability. Whether this serves the national interest depends entirely on your parochial interest in the profits made by those industries. A steelworker whose mill might have shut down will be pleased. Every customer who uses steel or aluminum will not be pleased at paying higher prices.

As an instrument of foreign policy, tariffs generally stink, because the odds are that the government you are trying to influence is too insulated from the effects of your tariff to capitulate to your attempts at bullying them. The pain is felt in places too local and too remote from the government to be effectively transmitted, while the sharp indignity of broadcasting your weakness by giving in to the bullying is all too obvious.

Democrats can pledge to move away from two-country tariff wars and instead toward mobilizing an international response with allies against China’s trade abuses. Similarly, Democrats can argue for renegotiated trade deals that raise wage, labor and environmental standards, with the goal of helping U.S. workers via a sensible internationalism in contrast to Trump’s erratic nationalism. ...Democrats can argue for improved regional cooperation on the asylum crisis, including investments in Central America and policies to encourage in-country application for asylum to reduce the impetus to such migrations. They can combine this with a refusal to back off our international humanitarian commitments

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/10/trumps-latest-rage-threat-gives-democrats-big-opening-one-just-took-it/?utm_term=.45fc32241770

https://t.co/daUxFHkrs1

reince preibus is in the navy now

as an ensign. shit. why'd they let him in?

i forgot about prince rebus

Not even funny, just sad.

“Potus took a piece of paper out of his breast pocket and said it’s his deal with Mexico. He declined to show it to us, but said it will go into effect when Mexico tells him it’s okay to release it.” - via pool

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 11, 2019

https://resources.cleanitsupply.com/LARGE/USSCO/147159.JPG

<Jackie Treehorn doodle gif>

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C15t6muW8AQ5Hka.jpg

what is that

Early press conference in 2017, when Trump presented stacks of files that were supposedly his legal plans to distribute control over Trump Org to his sons. Widely speculated to all be blank copier paper.

callin' back to Yam's first year is experientially like asking us to recall the War of 1812

https://i.imgur.com/qUO0VXs.jpg

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!

it says FOLD AND HOLD UP TO CAMERAS

i have here in my hand list

The trial of No More Deaths volunteer Scott Warren has ended in a hung jury here at US District Court in Tucson. The US Attorney’s office will have to decide whether to retry him. Next hearing set for July 2.

— Palms aren't really trees (@senyorreporter) June 11, 2019

fold your paper child you walk like a president

you can watch the House Intel committee grill Andrew McCarthy on the Mueller report here:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?461556-1/house-intel-committee-mueller-report-lessons-learned&live

Adam Schiff appears to suffer from a case of crazy eyes.

"I would like to ask my wife, the first lady, to say a few words because she has been so much into the whole situation with the drugs and opioids, in particular the drugs.” — Trump at an opioid roundtable, per pooler @PhilipWegmann

— Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) June 12, 2019

Explains Her Face...ial Expression.

Xpppopppl
Do 2nd/3rd world countries benefit from 1st world countries having self-destructive tariffs?

truthflash: america first, and in america we benefit when tariffs exist (because it forces corporations in other countries to be very sorry and move back to god's country) and we benefit when they don't exist (because we only remove tariffs when we get what we get the best fucking deal of all time in return)

Somebody deciphered the deal paper and it is not gibberish, just lame

This fucking guy
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/id-exclusive-interview-trump-listen-foreigners-offered-dirt/story?id=63669304

Russian if you’re listening it’s all good ! Stop by anytime

Wouldn’t this be enough to start impeachment? He just stated his willingness to cheat in 2020.

you would think so

or are we instead going to normalize it

He really could shoot someone on 5th ave, because he can’t be accused of a crime while he’s president because a sitting president can’t be indicted because we’re all fucking stupid and also it’s not fair to accuse someone of a crime who can’t defend themselves in court, and impeachment isn’t an option because republicans are mean and unfair

Why are his finances still a “black box” four years after he became a problem?

Is there already a house bill to allow for the indictment of sitting presidents? House dems should pass that so we can all scream at McConnell when he refuses to bring it to a vote for some mysterious reason

There is so much about this situation that is just bizarre. His charity was shut down for self dealing, we’ve seen a few extremely weird and suspicious tax returns, but the full story of where his financing comes from is not known.

This piece lays out the problems well.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/swamp-chronicles/is-fraud-part-of-the-trump-organizations-business-model

It is becoming increasingly clear that, in the language of business schools, the Trump Organization’s core competency is in profiting from misrepresentation and deceit and, potentially, fraud. There are many ways to make money in real estate. The normal way is to identify a need in the market, raise money by convincing lenders or investors that your plan is sound, build the structure, then either profit through ongoing rent or by selling units. The key variables in such a business are what is known as product-market fit—the accuracy with which a developer understands the housing or commercial needs of a place—and the ability to execute well by keeping costs down without sacrificing the right level of quality. Perhaps more than anything, practitioners of a successful real-estate business obsessively focus on maintaining the ability to borrow money cheaply. The profit on many real-estate projects often comes down to simple math: the cheaper you can borrow money to build, the more money you make. The more trustworthy you are, through a long period of successful projects, the less interest banks will demand on their loans, so the more profit you can make, and the more successful you will be.

Rather famously, Trump overinvested in luxury housing, spent too much on his casinos, and completely blew his brief foray into a regional airline. Far worse, Trump did the very opposite of insuring a long record of fiscal prudence that would allow him to borrow money cheaply. Despite the company’s mixed record, it has survived and grown. It’s doing something well, so what is it?

I would think by now journalists would have formed a clear picture of who trump is and where his money comes from but apparently not. It’s all still speculative—he’s never been hit with the kinds of financial crimes that took down his associates even though something is obviously not right with this business.

The obstruction stuff is important mostly because it is indicative of his character. His instinct is to stall and hide things from law enforcement. Why? Who is he and why is he president?

In a key passage, Bannon is reported as saying he believes investigations of Donald Trump’s financial history will provide proof of the underlying criminality of his eponymous company.
Assessing the president’s exposure to various investigations, many seeded by the special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation of Russian election interference, Wolff writes: “Trump was vulnerable because for 40 years he had run what increasingly seemed to resemble a semi-criminal enterprise.”
He then quotes Bannon as saying: “I think we can drop the ‘semi’ part.”

Not that stephen k bannon is a reliable source but i don’t understand why we’re still in the realm of rumor and insinuation in this department. We should know by now whether this description holds water.

That’s what was disappointing about mueller—he only answered this very narrow range of questions when the expansiveness of his investigation suggested we’d learn somethinf

I’m out now. Sorry

agree with it all

Treeship otm

Who is he and why is he president?

July thread title obviously

the confidence in supercop Mueller never fails to amuse

he's a fuckin fed, they always save us

“the”

That’s what was disappointing about mueller—he only answered this very narrow range of questions when the expansiveness of his investigation suggested we’d learn somethinf

the other investigations he passed the stuff he learned on to, are they still ongoing?

That’s what they say. It still seems weird how little we know about the Trump organziation, given wall to wall Mueller and Trump scandal coverage for two years.

I never had confidenr in Mueller as a “supercop.” But I think the weary cynicism in regard to Trump is bizarre. He doesn’t act like any other politician and there is a lot we still don’t know about him.

If the Elaine Chao scandals stick to her do they automatically reduce the status of her husband?

they will not stick

would like to hold onto the idea that overt corruption would be something that might be punished not swept under the carpet however that's done. & that does sound like it is something that does involve both partners in that venal couple.
Would just be really convenient if the evil one was taken out of the picture by the exposure of his wife's venality.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/I_Like_Dreamin%27_-_K._Nolan.jpg

If trump started imprisoning his politcal enemies would you guys just throw up your hands and say “that’s how it is!” and “toldja!” You’re like frogs in a pot.

Mitch is not allowed to use the department of transportation as a source of funding for his political supporters. The House can investigate.

What would you like us to do treeship?

Not make jokes about how minimal accountability is “dreaming”

Are you new here?

You can call and email your congressman like I did every day from January to August 2017.

sooner or later people are gonna have to start start throwing things

isn't that what posting on a message board is

that’s what radiohead polls are for

Did you get any replies from your congressman, Alfred?

My congressman was the ousted Carlos Curbelo. His office people were kind, recognizing me after a while. He represented a Clinton deep blue district, so he had lots of wiggle room.

I’m the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and a human rights lawyer.

I’m running to take on Trump’s favorite Democrat, @RepCuellar.

It's time for South Texas to have a real Democrat who will fight for la gente, not corporate donors.

Join us: https://t.co/BcsWSFTX0c pic.twitter.com/2GVdu6hZYs

— Jessica Cisneros for Congress (@JCisnerosTX) June 13, 2019

hey yall, on of the worst dems in the congress is getting primaried! rep cuellar is a stooge for the oil industry bc FRACKIN JOBS.

sooner or later people are gonna have to start start throwing things

― d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII)

At least 24 officers injured in Memphis unrest after U.S. Marshals fatally shoot young black man

unfortunately no one pays attention until white ppl are doing throwing

So what you're saying is "get woke, St Louis Blues fans"

nothing's going to change until every hockey fan reads the mueller report

http://www.pajiba.com/assets_c/2018/08/MuellerHockey-thumb-700xauto-201135.jpg

http://www.pajiba.com/assets_c/2018/08/MuellerHockey-thumb-700xauto-201135.jpg

Wow. The Office of Special Counsel finds that @KellyannePolls repeatedly violated the Hatch Act and **is recommending her removal from federal service.** pic.twitter.com/LMC258AF7g

— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) June 13, 2019

Nearly a year after Rep. Duncan Hunter suggested his wife was to blame for their indictment over the alleged misuse of $250,000 in campaign funds, Margaret Hunter headed to court to change her not guilty plea, which could pave the way for her to testify. https://t.co/HOz27ukfzq

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 13, 2019

Sadly, Conway is correct in her assessment that there’s no way the hatch act is going to affect her.

Official White House response:

*jerking-off gesture*

yup

This has inspired me to design a "jerking-off gesture" emoji, which journalists can just post in lieu of transcribing Trump's or his henchmen's answers to their questions:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D89bf5eXsAAnchK.jpg

the worst punishment for kellyanne in this matter is a sideways move to a superpac where she'll get paid 10x as much and still be on tv and in contact with the president in the exact same amounts

In the modern era we try to Fail Upward

unperson you have done a great thing

👋🍆🤑

If only there were a way to incorporate the attendant facial expression (eyelids at half-mast, disinterested and perhaps mildly crosseyed glare into the middle distance, pursed lips blowing raspberries, head retracted toward the shoulders creating a triple- or quadruple-chin).

Could just be a tiny closeup of Sarah Sanders’ normal facial expression

That's the one.

There used to be a GIF of Colin Farrell on a talk show making the jerk off hand gesture that I wanted to find and post on this thread and I actually got as far as typing "Colin Farrell jerkoff" into a browser on my work computer before my brain went "WHAT ARE YOU DOING"

(rechecks the thread title. nods.)

jackoffmotion.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpg

lol

I thought the jerkoff emoji was ✊↔️

👋🍆🤑

Seems to be the way it's done.

The Hill reports:

President Trump bashed Sen. Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign after the California Democrat said her Justice Department would “have no choice” but to prosecute Trump if she were elected.

“Oh, give me a break. She’s running for president, she’s doing horribly, she’s way down in the polls,” Trump said. “I must say, Pocahontas is really cleaning her clock,” he added, referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with a derisive nickname meant to mock her claims of Native American heritage.

Still, Trump acknowledged that he might adopt the same strategy if he were in Harris’s position. “I heard she made that statement,” Trump said. “And you know what? Who wouldn’t? Probably if I were running in her position, I’d make the same statement.”

game recognize game

My first reaction to the quote was 'here is a man who needs to be slapped hard. More than once.'

This just looks like “slapping wang to get rich”

close! intent was "might as well slap wang because i'm rich"

Hey, how's Trump's promised investigation of Hillary going again?

she's in jail i believe

pretty sure i've seen her mugshots in that orange jumpsuit

executed iirc, but only Fox mentioned it

It's bad enough that he's the worst human ever, but his tackiness and thorough, all-encompassing tastelessness is the cherry on top of this turd blossom.

I'm hard pressed to think of any rich person who has good taste, tbh

Oprah, sometimes

btw there is a NYC #ImpeachTrump Now rally in Foley Square, Saturday at noon.

oh i'm sure he'll be impeached by then

Like he said, if he were you he'd impeach him too.

That's a snappy campaign slogan.

President, Impeach thyself

selfpeach

so hey Pompeo ramping up vs Iran

It's too bad Alex Jones and the 9/11 nutters have discredited the term "false flag," because that's sure what these tanker attacks sound like.

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) June 13, 2019

Trump says Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving WH.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 13, 2019

this fucker is really gonna keep saying "pocahontas" isn't he

he's inconsistent in some things, but not in acting like a total dickwad

https://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpg
Trump says Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving WH.
https://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpg
Trump says Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving WH.
https://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/uu2mRZG.jpg
Trump says Press Secretary Sarah Sanders is leaving WH.

What are the odds that there is no longer any such job as White House Press Secretary once she leaves? 50/50?

I'm not going to believe that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving as White House press secretary until she denies it herself.

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) June 13, 2019

if you mean until after the election starts in earnest, I would put it at 90/10
i would imagine trump will use WH Press Secretary as his bully pulpit for reelection as of January 2020

yeah it hardly seems necessary to replace her. no one holds press conferences or answers questions; the entire media operation is trump tweeting

there is still no director of communications, either, since bill shine left on march 8.

So, the pompeo statement

1.) how would they have enough evidence to make an assessment yet. 2.) would they *dare* try some gulf of tonkin shit in 2019–really? 3.) is it possible iran is behind the attacks and 4.) even so the haste of the assessment is suspicious, no?

oh cool we going to be at war for the next election . great timing bros

If that is what they’re doing i’m going to go throw some bricks at a certain building in my city

That cannot happen. A war with iran would be a catastrophe.

1.) how would they have enough evidence to make an assessment yet. 2.) would they *dare* try some gulf of tonkin shit in 2019–really? 3.) is it possible iran is behind the attacks and 4.) even so the haste of the assessment is suspicious, no?

― Trϵϵship, Thursday, June 13, 2019 10:38 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

1) lol they don't
2) fraid so
3) it's possible.
4) yes. remember the weapons of mass destruction and its "proof"

You should have added:

5) is it possible the us is behind these attacks

It's possible.

yeah hard not at least consider the false flag scenario here

a half-assed causis belli that everyone knows is totally fake and flimsy yet just kinda gains shrugs is basically perfect for this administration

i suspect MBS

Any of the Sunni-ruled Gulf states, or Israel, really. There are lots of parties interested in an expansion of the 40+ year Saudi-Iran proxy conflict to include US intervention, and few of them are Iranian.

A war with iran would be a catastrophe.

Let's see. There's no chance that Saudi Arabia would not be involved from the get-go. Our planes take out much of Iran's oil capacity. Their missiles take out a lesser, but substantial, portion of SA oil capacity. Several thousand dead from all the bombing. There's the first 12 hours for you. After that the death/casualty list will just keep climbing. If there's an invasion there's no way it doesn't lead to the Iraq debacle x10. At the very least. No invasion just means the Iran government never falls and the war accomplishes zero change except for a million dead, more millions starving, a defiant Iran in rubble, and plenty of violent blowback for decades without end.

Yup. Checks out.

Every single rogue regime would scramble to get nukes as fast as possible. The US has already proven they won’g abide nuclear agreements. (I know they burned this bridge with the iraq war, but iran was still willing to negotiate with oba. I don’t think countries will take this risk again...)

Oba=obama obviously. #typoking

Iran wasn't just "willing to negotiate", they held up and are holding up their end of the deal, according to those monitoring them. A deal the US backed out of (because insanity)

Yeah but they negotiated with obama. They were willing to do that and to do it in good faith.

I’m on your side here, this is fucked

Of course. Iran is suffering many fold: due to sanctions, tensions in the region etc. I feel confident stating a war is the very last thing they want. I can't be so sure of the US on that matter. xp

Yeah, that's the gist, sadly

I’m not a fan of the Islamic Republic let me be clear, but I’m less a fan of war. And the US should honor its fucking agreements with other nations. A new president doesn’t mean a totally new government that can just scrap everything on a whim.

It'll be rather interesting from the standpoint of how survivable modern naval surface ships are to sea-skimming and ballistic missiles (like the Iranian Khalij Fars and Hormuz-1 and -2). We haven't seen near-peer naval conflict since the Falklands war, and then the missiles had the upper hand. After Iran downed and and safely landed a RQ-170 drone in 2011, I don't doubt their technical potential.

I will not be interested in that

What strikes me (npi) is that these missiles/torpedoes are effective at setting a ship on fire, but don't sink them. They're like little pin pricks. If whoever is behind this wanted to sink ships, they could've just as easily.

Above water-line limpets. What we've seen so far is just for show.

Not if it was just some terrorists xp

Do we know a nation is behind this?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D8-qu7cXYAEX-ue.jpg

just want to make sure i have the WWIII flow chart correct here.

- US says Iran did it, and retaliates (air strikes, even more sanctions, new 'Death to Iran' counter-programming on NRAtv)
- Iran retaliates
- Saudi Arabia and Israel side with US
- Syria sides with Iran(?)
- Russia and Turkey...?

in this incredibly tense and complicated situation, it is vital that we all start from a shared set of facts. the president of the united states has weighed in:

In an interview broadcast on Friday by “Fox & Friends,” President Trump directly accused Tehran, saying, “Iran did do it.”

“You saw the boat,” he said. “It has Iran written all over it.” Mr. Trump added: “They didn’t want the evidence left behind. They don’t know that we have things that we can detect in the dark that work very well. We have that. It was them that did it.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/japanese-oil-tanker-owner-says-us-is-wrong-about-gulf-attack

yes, but can the japanese oil tanker owner detect things in the dark?

good morning!

i ask you all - can you detect things in the dark??

maybe at some point in your timeline a united states secretary of defense will be appointed (with trump changing the title to 'secretary of offense' no doubt)

Flashlights, do you have them?

Shocker

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/06/14/politics/kellyanne-conway-trump-hatch-act/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

The most compelling evidence to support Mr. Pompeo’s claim was video footage released Thursday night by the United States Central Command. A military spokesman, Capt. Bill Urban, said the video showed an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps patrol boat pulling up alongside the Kokuka Courageous, one of the stricken ships, several hours after the initial explosion, and removing an unexploded limpet mine in broad daylight.

Also on Thursday night, the United States military released two photographs of the ship’s hull, showing damage and what it said was likely the unexploded mine.

obv i'm very skeptical of anything coming from the trump administration's claims. but people coming out saying 'false flag' (without evidence) are just as silly as those who immediately blamed iran (without evidence).

A war with iran would be a catastrophe.

Let's see. There's no chance that Saudi Arabia would not be involved from the get-go. Our planes take out much of Iran's oil capacity. Their missiles take out a lesser, but substantial, portion of SA oil capacity. Several thousand dead from all the bombing. There's the first 12 hours for you. After that the death/casualty list will just keep climbing. If there's an invasion there's no way it doesn't lead to the Iraq debacle x10. At the very least. No invasion just means the Iran government never falls and the war accomplishes zero change except for a million dead, more millions starving, a defiant Iran in rubble, and plenty of violent blowback for decades without end.

Yup. Checks out.

― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, June 13, 2019 9:15 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just gonna leave this here

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/06/usa.iraq

"Van Riper had at his disposal a computer-generated flotilla of small boats and planes, many of them civilian, which he kept buzzing around the virtual Persian Gulf in circles as the game was about to get under way. As the US fleet entered the Gulf, Van Riper gave a signal - not in a radio transmission that might have been intercepted, but in a coded message broadcast from the minarets of mosques at the call to prayer. The seemingly harmless pleasure craft and propeller planes suddenly turned deadly, ramming into Blue boats and airfields along the Gulf in scores of al-Qaida-style suicide attacks. Meanwhile, Chinese Silkworm-type cruise missiles fired from some of the small boats sank the US fleet's only aircraft carrier and two marine helicopter carriers. The tactics were reminiscent of the al-Qaida attack on the USS Cole in Yemen two years ago, but the Blue fleet did not seem prepared. Sixteen ships were sunk altogether, along with thousands of marines. If it had really happened, it would have been the worst naval disaster since Pearl Harbor."

It would start a global conflict

Iran is three times the size of iraq and a major regional power

this is the diplomatic moment that jared kushner was born to face

It’s not even something to consider as a possibility. What the hell is wrong with john bolton?

obv i'm very skeptical of anything coming from the trump administration's claims. but people coming out saying 'false flag' (without evidence) are just as silly as those who immediately blamed iran (without evidence).

the reason people think this is because it doesn't make a lot of sense for Iran to just randomly do this right now.

We can’t even provide food and medicine to our own people. We also cannot seem to process the refugees coming into our own southern border—the system is apparently “overtaxed.” The concept of a war with a country of 80 million is so wtf

I agree carne asada. It makes zero sense, especially given abe’s presence in iran yesterday. The islamic republic sucks in many ways but they’re usually not irrational actors in this sense. But who knows—even if they did it i want a diplomatic solution

Trump just claimed Pelosi made a "fascist" statement

I mean fine

I’m more worried about the possibility of a war that would cost maybe millions of lives than an old man being a jerk

i understand why people are skeptical that iran did it - like i said, i'm right there with you. what i'm criticizing is the immediate leap to "FALSE FLAG!", which is just as ridiculous when everyone lacks evidence

I was also listening to this podcast and they discussed what a fragile security situation the gulf states are in. kuwait in particular gets all its water from desalinization plants that can be easily blown up. we'd have to do daily airlifts of water to avoid the entire population dying of thirst.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/radio-war-nerd-26939754

the US intelligence community faces a very high burden of trust for reasons that should be fairly obvious

Iran could have bombed my apartment building and i wouldn’t support a war led by trump and bolton

someone just tell me to stop if i'm missing the point, but there's a big difference between not trusting the US intelligence community (which, yeah, duh!) and "false flag!"

definitely a crank-y position but it's not as though it's totally without precedent

I hate conspiracy theories but something about this seems off

best thing to do is pretend it's 1985 and there's no pressure to immediately come up with a theory less than 48 hours after it happened and the evidence is just starting to bubble up

whoa, husker du has a new album out, sick
wait, reagan is president, fuck?
invest in apple!

wish i could bomb oil tankers

I’m more worried about the possibility of a war that would cost maybe millions of lives than an old man being a jerk

I am afraid these two things may be inextricable

looks like mnuchin has delayed the design of the new $20 bill with harriet tubman to 2025, so that trump won't have to see his favorite president andrew jackson replaced with a black woman even if he gets reelected

trump has been treated more unfairly than any president

ultimately war boils down to a bunch of old men being jerks

The best possible outcome is still for Trump to die in office before November 2020. Because if he wins re-election, we're fucked, and if he loses, we have to put up with him calling into Fox & Friends for an hour every morning - and the press covering it like it matters - for the next 20 years, or until solar flares melt all our satellites and there's no more TV.

Official White House graphic:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9CIXhAWkAAhWQb.jpg

who is the head of the Joint Chiefs right now? anyone we've heard of?

if he loses, we have to put up with him calling into Fox & Friends for an hour every morning - and the press covering it like it matters - for the next 20 years, or until solar flares melt all our satellites and there's no more TV.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, June 14, 2019 10:24 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark

oh shit i hadn't thought about this

Yeah, you know that thing where ex-presidents kinda fade away from public life and you don't really hear a whole lot from them once they're out of office? Get ready for that to be a thing of the past.

am sure Pres Ivanka will find a role for him in her 2040 admin

In this scenario, the USA plays the Ancient Mariner and Trump plays the role of dead albatross hung around the USA's neck.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9CIXhAWkAAhWQb.jpg

wtf. does trump have a sense of humor about himself now?

is this seriously a white house graphic?

yeah. trump retweeted it from the whitehouse twitter page.

pic.twitter.com/c40BQpZFtW

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 14, 2019

It likes like a Nascar rally car

Why is the president fucking a flag?

its a metaphor

ha like Trump is able to grasp why everyone else thinks that image is funny/awful

all he cares about is that it is effective because it centers all the attention on himself

the flag likes it

when you're a star they let you do it

he's Bidening Old Glory

Ragging Anoe

Lots of people sharing this, no idea who this person is, she seems a little too close to resistance grifter types so I’m a little wary of sharing it as gospel truth, but:

IF YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT TRUMP IS DOING AT THE BORDER, you need to read and share this thread. @jacobsoboroff @JuliaEAinsley please read this.

I have just gotten off the phone with a friend who is a legal volunteer in Border Patrol facilities.

Don't look away.

1/

— Elizabeth C. McLaughlin (@ECMcLaughlin) June 13, 2019

Shouldn’t there be reporters all over the border right now?

she seems a little too close to resistance grifter types

yeah. whatever facts she's presenting there are dragged down by her vibe, which practically shouts 'propaganda'.

I know the topic has moved on, but commercial ships are equipped with radar and sonar devices, the EXACT purpose of which is to detect things in the dark.

Interesting. But only patriotic proud American commercial ships, right?!

I really couldn't give a fuck if Iran threw shitty bombs at a NON US tanker. although I guess now the word is they were trying to hit a US drone which I guess is...provacative, but also, who gives a fuck? What if Iran had drones flying off the East Coast? Wouldn't we shoot them down?

I need thousands of American 23 yr olds to protect my freedom of speech by murdering Iranian civilians because a Japanese oil tanker got attacked 8000 miles from America.

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) June 14, 2019

last two posts otm

Any nation has the recognized right to shoot down hostile aircraft overflying its airspace, including within its 12 nm territorial waters. I have no doubt that US drones have in the past overflown Iranian territory.

Would the average US citizen recognize that Iran has a right to defend its sovereign territory? As my parents' generation used to say, "eh, go tell it to the marines". That's just how we empires roll.

Blockbuster story buried in this NYT report.

Pentagon, intelligence officials fear they cannot trust Trump enough to brief him fully on new US cyber operation against Russia for fear he will "countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials" as he did before with Russians. pic.twitter.com/BgSF3zi8nm

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) June 15, 2019

well yeah

gotta loop that motherfucker out

I hope whoever assembles the PDBs has a post-Trump memoir coming up. Even redacted, these are among the most embarrassing stories I've read about Trump's actual functioning in a presidential role. The PDB reduced to two pages of bullet points with large colorful maps, insertions of the phrase "President Trump" as often as possible to maintain attention, intelligence withheld from CinC for fear of leaks to other powers.

Happy Father's Day!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-48656431
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights, named after US President Donald Trump.
At a naming ceremony on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said Trump Heights honoured Mr Trump for his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

THE DUMBEST TIMELINE

Trump to ABC: "I’m not a breakfast guy at all, fortunately. I like the lunches but the dinners is what I really like."

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) June 17, 2019

the fact that there is a democratic debate in mere weeks was kind of shocking to me, that not that it's certain a dem will win, but that both time and the system churn on and there will come a day when life proceeds without this man as our leader. barring some nuclear conflagration but that could happen with or without him anyway

'the dinners is what I really like' for July Title.

"I run the country. I like mustard on my biscuit, hrm."

poor Mick Mulvaney

Pres. Trump says he “might” turn over his “financial statement” to Congress.

“I hope they get it, because it’s a fantastic financial statement,” he tells @GStephanopoulos in the Oval Office. https://t.co/8q0FwFD9qt pic.twitter.com/fw1tIc0vxO

— ABC News (@ABC) June 17, 2019

Nice to see the president adhering to the historical sense of "fantastic" as "having the nature of fantasy"

good morning!

I don't understand why news organizations release transcripts with "(inaudible)" all over them. THAT'S YOUR FUCKING JOB. IF YOU DIDN'T HEAR WHAT HE SAID, LISTEN TO IT AGAIN. That's what I have to do when I'm transcribing my own interviews - the motherfucker mumbles or swallows his words, and you go back and listen again until you figure it out.

The transcript in question.

TBF, there's a degree of continuity in most human speech which allows us to infer as to the identity of an indistinct word based on the context of the larger utterance. This is a more difficult undertaking when the utterance in question is the spoken equivalent of someone cramming a children's dictionary into a woodchipper.

I know armchair psychoanalyzing Trump is no fun anymore, but him tweeting this is pretty funny: "Happy Father’s Day to all, including my worst and most vicious critics"

less funny was his offhand suggestion that maybe people wouldn't want him to leave after the end of his second term.

xpost AKA RIP Fred Trump. Sad!

STEPHANOPOULOS: This was-- you feel like this is your (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Yeah, I-- I do. I feel it's really-- really a great part of the country for us. Yeah.

STEPHANOPOULOS: This was the first state you ever (inaudible).

If only ABC had some way of determining what their own employee was saying

I know armchair psychoanalyzing Trump is no fun anymore, but him tweeting this is pretty funny: "Happy Father’s Day to all, including my worst and most vicious critics"

― rob, Monday, June 17, 2019 9:33 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

come on, this is playing the hits--wishing happy memorial day to the haters and losers, etc.

I think he means the thought of Fred Trump gives rise to some feelings of persecution

Nice to see the president adhering to the historical sense of "fantastic" as "having the nature of fantasy"

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Monday, June 17, 2019 6:45 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reminds me of this martin amis anecdote about his dad. no doubt trump is familiar.

Has your enormity in the Observer been pointed out to you?" he asked with enthusiasm over breakfast one Sunday morning (I had left home by then, but I still spent about every other weekend at his house). "My enormity?" I knew he was applying the word in its proper sense – "something very bad", and not "something very big i nsize". And my mistake was certainly atrocious: I had used martial as a verb.

Shanahan Defense nomination pulled

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/18/patrick-shanahan-acting-defense-secretary-full-statement-domestic-violence-case/1486878001/

Trump says Shanahan withdrew to spend more time with his family. Shanahan was divorced after a domestic violence incident 10 years ago. His children are grown. He hasn't remarried.

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 18, 2019

Maybe he's moving back in with his folks.

why is it not surprising that Trump doesn’t know what “spending time with your family” means

I think he does, he's just using "family" as in crime family

Tons upon tons of empty seats at arena Trump rally in my hometown tonight. Can't wait to see what he lies the attendance up to

Is that right? The nyt coverage of it suggests a huge crowd, lots of people lining up many hours in advance

People too busy working their second and third jobs to go to rallies.

i was told ppl had been waiting up to 40 hours to attend the hatefest

"Lots of empty seats" is not incompatible with "some people showed up a day early "

Trump stages his greatest show yet
The president’s elaborate reelection rally in Florida featured thousands of adoring supporters.

By GABBY ORR 06/18/2019 07:21 PM EDT Updated 06/18/2019 10:39 PM EDT

^the Politico headline

why would this be his greatest show yet? it seems like it was the same old schtick.

just confirms to me that politico is a trash website