US Politics November 2017

but you have to admit . . .

Don't lose your head over this, Shakey.

there it is

About right

WH staff has given up on the idea of stopping the president from tweeting, I'm told. On retweeting of anti-Muslim videos and other offensive posts, WH aides will say "well the issue has been raised" and try to make the most of it, I'm told.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 29, 2017

what else have they given up on

not letting america slide into civil war

GeneralKellyHoldingHead.jpg

in-house drug testing

propecia can do a number on someone

anyway how do I provide material support to some leftist violence

asking for a friend

british cabinet (i.e. government leadership)

So POTUS has endorsed the views of a vile, hate-filled racist organisation that hates me and people like me. He is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing

— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) November 29, 2017

https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/danvergano/kellyanne-conway-is-opioids-czar

why because she look intersting

Can't believe two huge Ayn Rand fans could fall out like this. xp

Shut down the government. Call it "Remind Everyone of All the Important Shit The Government Does For Them Every Day That the GOP Wants to Take Away Day."

creepy development

Across the government, acting directors who were installed without Senate approval are quietly dropping the “acting” title from their name, suggesting they have every intention of overstaying their legal welcome.

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) allows the president to install an acting leader of any federal agency or office where there is a vacancy. In the case of the CFPB, the debate is about whether the statute applies to the agency, whose specific line of succession would make Leandra English, the hand-picked deputy director, the acting director.

...

Trade publication Energy & Environment News highlighted this issue in a small story earlier this week. Reporter Hannah Northey cited several cases of acting heads installed under the FVRA dropping their “acting” titles in the past month — while still controlling policy at their respective agencies.

Dan Simmons, an expat of the American Legislative Exchange Council, has been presiding over the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The Trump administration has not named a nominee for the Senate-confirmed position, and Simmons hit his 210-day time limit on November 16. The Department of Energy subsequently removed Simmons’s title of acting director, while stating he would still “serve in a leadership capacity” as a principal deputy assistant secretary. Simmons signed off on a proposal to overhaul energy efficiency standards the next day.

In other words, the Trump administration designated and then un-designated the acting director, ostensibly to comply with the letter of the law while violating its spirit. By keeping the leadership in place without the technical “acting director” title, they have circumvented the requirement for Senate advice and consent.

The Trump administration has also made such moves at the Office of Nuclear Energy, where former acting director Edward McGinnis is currently the principal deputy assistant secretary, and at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, where former acting director Eric Rolfing is now listed as deputy director.

https://theintercept.com/2017/11/29/trump-administration-acting-director-cfpb-mick-mulvaney/

well I'm glad I've already had the internal "stay or go" debate and have decided to fight to the death here in the US, see y'all in the internment camps

the independent country of Manhattan welcomes you

I'm not sure I have any real expectation of surviving Trump's presidency. If nothing else, this level of persistent stress doesn't exactly lend itself to longevity.

saw some news blurb about birth rates plummeting.. aside from being completely unable to afford a child, why the fuck would I want to bring one into this hellscape we call the usa?

we should create a separate nihilism thread for u guys imo

like, the endless stream of it (while occasionally funny) is not really about politics

here you go

Nihilism: C/D

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has postponed an anticipated grand jury testimony linked to his investigation into Michael Flynn amid growing indications of possible plea deal discussions.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/special-counsel-michael-flynn/index.html

https://thinkprogress.org/moore-study-course-vison-forum-135402ed8816/

this fucking idiot just tried to @ theresamay and tagged the wrong account. jfc.

@realDonaldTrump
.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!

Honestly no idea if I'd prefer May to @ back or not.

I think I’ve found a tiny upside to Trump: Aaron Sorkin is incapable of writing dialogue or drama incorporating him

Sorkin says Trump holds no appeal for him, fictional or otherwise: "Trump is exactly what he looks like: a really dumb guy with an observable psychiatric disorder" https://t.co/D192wZJK3c pic.twitter.com/YeNltuFY4R

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 29, 2017

we should create a separate nihilism thread for u guys imo

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, November 29, 2017 6:03 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like, the endless stream of it (while occasionally funny) is not really about politics

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, November 29, 2017 6:03 PM (one hour ago)

say what you will about nihilism, at least it's not an ethos

If the electoral tide doesn't shift in 2018, let alone a couple of weeks from now, then I don't think I can take another year of this shit. Because if it doesn't shift, it's only going to get worse and worse.

Meantime, but of course

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/womans-effort-to-infiltrate-the-washington-post-dates-back-months/2017/11/29/ce95e01a-d51e-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html?tid=ss_tw-bottom&utm_term=.5b0a72b8d7eb

There once was a New York man home-grown
"Lock her up" he often would intone
He might wind up browsing
through some federal housing
in a jumpsuit that matches his skin tone

I like to think I can tolerate enormous amounts of pain and toxicity but if I add up all the channels of information I’ve had to cut out of my life since the election, it’s actually bad out here, folks.


and I should fucking know, I used to breathe the lies during Dubya’s first term.

it is bad out there

I just want to read about STARDEW INFINITY: JEDI AVENGERS: THE LAST VALLEY feat. BARACK OBAMA #TBT

I think I’ve found a tiny upside to Trump: Aaron Sorkin is incapable of writing dialogue or drama incorporating him

Trump's success is anathema to the way he writes politicians / political battles so this makes perfect sense

I am a veteran and a career civil servant and I literally can’t with this, right now, sometimes

I bet McMaster has surprise puke moments during the day

Probably someone made this point today, but obvious question for Huckabee's daughter (who I realize has a job that requires she spout nonsense...and chooses to do so): what would your reaction be if I made a fake video tomorrow of 30 schoolkids getting gunned down by a guy in fatigues and armed to the hilt, which I then posted on Twitter to make the case for gun control? That threat is real too.

Yeah, okay. Yeah. I'm peace-ing out on this thread and also the news in general for a while. I'm grinding my teeth to nubs and drinking so I can calm down enough to sleep. Something's gotta give, and I need to make sure that 'something' isn't a blood vessel in my brain. Keep fightin' the good fight, y'all.

this entire tax thing--the process, the policy, all of it--is completely insane, will be a disaster, and has nothing to do with Trump. This would be happening under President Rubio.

— slackbot (@pareene) November 29, 2017

Honestly no idea if I'd prefer May to @ back or not.

If he literally spat in her face she'd stand their with her weird frozen grin thank him for it. The good news is he's managed to make this the leading story in the British media for the second day in a row and re-started the debate on cancelling a state visit by a US President for, as far as I know, the first time ever.

I feel bad for the random @theresamay with six followers who's probably getting a fuckload of abusive shit right now, although I guess she has done for a while. I feel worse for wishing he'd accidentally tweeted at the porn star instead.

The weakest PM that Britain has known in decades is not going to get in a fight with President no matter how much shit he throws at her. But it's a good reminder that she can expect absolutely fuck all from the US and that everyone in her party should stop maintaining the fantasy that we will.

Given one of their own MPs was literally murdered in the street by a Britain First supporter there's no way that even the most craven Opposition MP could fail to oppose his visit, right?

But it's a good reminder that she can expect absolutely fuck all from the US and that everyone in her party should stop maintaining the fantasy that we will.

You'd think we'd have got the message about that in the UK by now after the entire history of relations between the two countries.

The grander the state visit the better. Roll out the golden carriages. Remind the country how absolutely craven we are and that we have, against the odds, managed to find a way to make ourselves even weaker wrt the US than we have been since WWII.

Sajid Javid and Nadhim Zahwahi, both active members of a government that is, in some respects, even more racist can gtfo with their Strongly Worded Condemnations tbh.

Nazi sympathizer profiled by the New York Times says he lost his job and — soon — his home https://t.co/Jf9pmrFqWR

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 30, 2017

Good morning!

you have 10 and a half hours to come up with a new title!

i guess 15 and a half if we're going with EST

US Politics December 2017

https://www.vox.com/2017/11/30/16517022/impeachment-donald-trump

May’s gotta tell Trump to fuck off in this situation. The only move.