US Politics November 2017

even if the VA Gov race ends in disappointment, today still may be fairly positive for democrats. This is a pretty good round up on what else is happening:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/7/16612630/new-jersey-governor-election

That Page transcript is like Joseph Heller meets Lewis Carroll.

can't speak for LC, but clearly Heller was inspired by the Carter Pages of his time.

Asked during a Seoul news conference whether he would entertain “extreme vetting” on guns, Trump appeared irritated by the question and suggested it was not appropriate to talk about “in the heart of South Korea.”

He then answered by saying “if we did what you are suggesting it would have made no difference three days ago.” Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle, killing 26 people in a church.

Another man, Stephen Willeford, later grabbed his own gun and exchanged fire with Kelley outside the church. Police found Kelley dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but authorities said Willeford helped stop Kelley and called him a “hero.”

Trump referred to Willeford as a “brave man” and said “if he had not had a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. … It’s not going to help.”

“You look at the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation, is Chicago,” Trump replied. “And Chicago is a disaster. It's a total disaster.... If this man didn't have a gun or rifle, you'd be talking about a much worse situation in the great state of Texas.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/11/07/trump-says-hundreds-more-might-have-died-in-texas-shooting-if-gun-laws-were-tougher/

“You look at the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation, is Chicago,”

He really loves repeating this lie

Oops

Wow: JD Gordon tells NBC's @vmsalama he tried to stop Page from going to Moscow, but Page went around him "directly to campaign leadership."

— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) November 7, 2017

Trump referred to Willeford as a “brave man” and said “if he had not had a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. … It’s not going to help.”

600 people live in Sutherland Springs. Trump is pretty much suggesting that he would have massacred the entire town.

^the movie in his head

"until one man.... with a Colt .45 in his BVDs.... jumped in his '03 celica and started firing out the window..."

On the tradition of 'patriotic leaders' who hate their fellow citizens:

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/05/john-kelly-loves-america-he-just-hates-americans/

Lots of feedback on this is not that John Kelly doesn't detest Americans, but that he's absolutely right to do so https://t.co/yAlDdwiD8n pic.twitter.com/W70wtb2Q1S

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) November 6, 2017

Donald Trump 'tells Japanese emperor mass shootings can happen anywhere' — in country with no mass shootings

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/donald-trump-japan-emperor-akihito-texas-mass-shooting-visit-shinzo-abe-sutherland-springs-a8041391.html

xp imo there's a fairly common sentiment that that masses are not only unwashed but dumb and if they get screwed over they deserve it

hundreds more dead. … It’s not going to help

so now anything no worse than las vegas is marked as a win

baby steps

xp imo there's a fairly common sentiment that that masses are not only unwashed but dumb and if they get screwed over they deserve it

― mh, Tuesday, November 7, 2017

common on ILX Too

people need to realize that spiting the unwashed dumb masses by denying them basic amenities actually fucks over the whole society

the whole "you don't work as hard as me so you get shitty healthcare" attitude is backward and fucks up hospitals for all people, serious cutting off the nose to spite the face move

“You look at the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation, is Chicago,”

He really loves repeating this lie

Seriously, what a shithead. For those who didn't follow, Chicago had pretty strict gun laws (as did/does DC?) but whether or not they were effective in the face of weapons brought over the border from Indiana, they were weakened by a legal challenge brought by the NRA.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/11/07/the-case-of-wilbur-ross-phantom-2-billion/#1364ca767515

the irony of him saying that in a country that literally never has mass shootings hasn't really occurred to him has it

people need to realize that spiting the unwashed dumb masses by denying them basic amenities actually fucks over the whole society

the whole "you don't work as hard as me so you get shitty healthcare" attitude is backward and fucks up hospitals for all people, serious cutting off the nose to spite the face move

― mh, Tuesday, November 7, 2017 10:56 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You start talking about other people and my eyes just glaze over until you say my name again.

There's a lot that people need to realize about the benefits of not treating their fellow citizens like shit but, looking back on centuries of history, I'm not holding my breath.

Duh. Samurai warriors don't do "mass shootings", obviously. Pay attention.

xp

Charles Pierce has the right idea regarding the Page transcript:

I found that the best way to read it was to dim all the lights and play all my Hawkwind albums really loud.

xpost Yeah, man, Japan is infamous for mass samurai sword slayings. Ever see Seven Samurai? So many deaths! And that was just seven! Sad!

Trump is an idiot and doesn't do irony but just for the sake of historical accuracy - Japan has had mass murders

"It's not our problem, it's Godzilla's"

murders yes but not mass shootings

last year they had a spike in gang-related shootings, which brought the total fatalities from 8 to 27

Aum Shuriya

they have 27/33000th as much freedom as we do tho

xposts Yes, there was (for instance) the horrifying mass murder at the disabled care home last year. This doesn't seem to be the point Trump is making, though.

imagine if that guy had an AR-15 instead of a bag of knives, or better yet don't

yeah I know, I'll let it go

xp

Seth Abramson's epic Twitter threads are usually more than I'm willing to wade through, but this lengthy review of the Page transcript is pretty illuminating.

(THREAD) This thread offers comments on—and analysis of—Carter Page's recent testimony before the House Intel Committee (transcript, 243pp). pic.twitter.com/AZoa7i5XBE

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) November 7, 2017

every Carter Page expression suggests such euphoria, such happiness with the way the world works

Wow, that thread. lol at the assumption that the FBI could probably arrest Page today if they wanted to, or could have months ago, but preferred to just keep him around to occasionally hit up for damning testimony. Because that close read ... jeebus. Like, the mention that Page told Hope Hicks what he was up to, and that means obviously assumes that Hicks told Trump? Just damning stuff.

wormtongue

was way smarter than Page

this idiot can barely string a sentence together

with trump as saruman to putin's sauron, the internet (facebook, twitter, news comment sections) one multi-faceted palantir. so fucked up

is the ring the oppo dump?

apparently even Trey Gowdy was astonished:

Gowdy: All right, I’ve written down four different words. I didn’t think I’d ever be going through this with anyone, but we’ve got to, I guess. You seem to draw a distinction between a meeting, a greeting, a conversation, and you hearing a speech. So to the extent you may have said that you have met with senior members of the Russian government or legislators in Russia, were those meetings, greetings, conversations, or were you sitting in the audience listening?

Page: The greetings were to Arkady Dvorkovich and perhaps – I believe – there were a couple of legislators, again, in the audience, you know, people whose kids were graduating from this top university, like if you go to Yale’s commencement, or Stanford’s commencement, and there may be some senior government officials – or the University of Pennsylvania’s commencement – who said hello very briefly. But, so meetings and greetings or, sorry, greetings and brief conversations would be each of those. In terms of listening to the speech, which is the primary focus and the primary thing I was driving at with these incredible insights, was really the primary focus of where I got my information.

Gowdy: So what you were trying to communicate is that you had derived great insight from having listened to someone make a speech?

Page: Certainly, yes, as I have from Donald J. Trump during the campaign.

does that make Adam Schiff Frodo?

xxp

seth abramson is a mensch level grifter

xp
http://i1.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/the-ring-true.png
pictured: Huckabee Sanders stepping away from the podium

I hope Page doesn't get indicted, he's probably my favorite character in the whole series

Page is a bot come to life, right

seth abramson is a mensch level grifter

Maybe! But he read the fucking thing and highlighted the best bits, so good for you, grifter.

Jim, are you saying the thread is BS? It seemed reasonable to me, perhaps a little overheated?

49/ BOMBSHELL #1: Page *lied to FBI investigators and Congress*. He in fact *told the campaign he had a private meeting with the Deputy PM*.

37/ Rooney and Gowdy let him testify, at one point, "by narrative"—which is when you let a liar or troubled person just talk themselves out.

38/ It's the equivalent—in trial advocacy—of throwing up your hands and saying, "I don't give a sh*t anymore—just say what you want to say."

i believe the bailiff of twitter has indicted abramson for treason and i take no pleasure in that

The implications of this are STAGGERING. Page didn't go to Russia as a "private citizen"—he lied. The campaign and Trump lied. Remember: PAGE briefed HICKS *before* going to Moscow, then emailed the top brass his after-action report—surely, again, to HICKS. So Trump knew. Page admits withholding that smoking-gun document from Congress under what—I'll tell you—is a totally invalid Fifth Amendment exercise.