US Politics, February 2018: Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots

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Morbius you do understand that all of the talking heads are compensated, right? I imagine Hannity pays better than MSNBC daytime, too.

could be; i can't pretend i care.

ICYMI

Shortly after suggesting Democrat claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia is akin to “McCarthyism” — a reference to irrational, unfounded accusations of communist-ties made by late Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s — Donald Trump Jr. said the Democrat Party are “left of commies.”

Donald Jr., who made the comments during an appearance on Fox News with host Jesse Watters, attacked Democrats and the media for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Kremlin election tampering — as he deems the investigation to be a witch hunt against President Donald Trump.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/donald-jr-compares-russia-investigation-to-mccarthyism-then-says-dems-are-left-of-commies/

now there's a man with a solid grip on a) history and b) politics

More of this please: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180205/trump-sexual-harassment-accuser-running-for-ohio-house

One of the women who came forward to accuse President Donald Trump of sexual harassment that took place before his election plans to run for an state House seat in northern Ohio, House Democrats say.

Rachel Crooks, a former Trump Tower receptionist who accused Trump of forcibly kissing her in 2005, is expected to file today to run in the 88th House District, where she will challenge two-term Rep. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin.

Trump has generally denied the accusations made by Crooks and roughly a dozen other women. Crooks has called Trump a “pathological liar.”

Aaron Fisher, executive director of the Ohio House Democratic Caucus, said he thinks that Crooks’ entrance into the race makes the seat a pickup opportunity for the party, which is trying to climb its way out of a deep minority. The district includes Sandusky and Seneca counties.

Crooks, of Tiffin, who currently works as a foreign students recruiter for Tiffin University, had expressed interest in running for office, and House Democrats have been actively recruiting her for about a month, Fisher said.

Vote for Crooks!

there's gotta be a good campaign slogan there somewhere

psyched to see just how utterly repugnant a campaign her opponents can spin up against her

"Russia Russia Russia with no evidence at all!"

www.nunesmemo.com

Huh. Anyway, linked to the Janz campaign!

If it means that Janz thinks that it's a stick to beat Nunes with, all the better.

oh for an actual stick to beat nunes with

Nunes is a self-beating stick

oh this is good

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pentagon-agency-can%E2%80%99t-account-for-hundreds-of-millions-in-spending-report/ar-BBIINjN

Note that the 18 Democratic senators writing to Trump about North Korea apparently are okay with the US instigating a war as long as we've "exhausted every diplomatic option," which can mean anything https://t.co/0oFeMVQdfD pic.twitter.com/TRa3c7Rs7Y

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) February 5, 2018

^ "instigating a war", as in we attack them? what the fucking fuck? someone plz send some strongarm goons to explain war to those senators, personally.

This article explains well the attitude I get here toward yr American president:

There were no significant protests against Trump’s visit last year, in contrast to the mass demonstrations that have been threatened ahead of any Trump trip to the U.K.

That is not only because anti-U.S. politics have lost ground in France in the last 20 years or so. It has a lot to do with the fact that the French struggle to take Trump seriously — even when he threatens North Korea. As a French diplomat who advised Macron noted: “The French see him almost as a fictitious character. Whether funny or scary, you don’t stage protests against a Commedia dell’Arte character.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/does-emmanuel-macron-like-donald-trump-back/

fact weirder than fiction, it's true

Huh. I know John Lapp slightly from school

the derp state is real

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/05/michael-goodwin-fbi-memo-proves-deep-state-is-real-and-press-is-part-it.html

can we just throw all regular fox news viewers into the ocean

“a good start”

What did the ocean ever do to you?

haha, sorry ocean

haven't u ever seen Open Water

fuck the ocean!

Michael Goodwin's opinion column linked above is an amazing journey into the mind of Michael Goodwin.

The ocean would reject them and we’d have a bigger Pacific trash gyre?

GOP expected to ok the release of the Democratic rebuttal memo, because why not, they know Trump is going to refuse to declassify it.

let it hurt him and not them, I suspect is their mindset. and now Nunes' memo has been out a week so a rebuttal memo (in their minds) will look like sour grapes.

it's a win-win

I am sort of hoping Dems will decline to release a memo of their own on principle—to preserve sanctity of FISA process—which in turn would provoke Nunes et al into ginning up anther #releasethememo! outcry. And then, yes, let them have it.

Someone noted the smartest thing Trump could have done was to not declassify the GOP memo, so it would have stayed secret suspicions of vast crime and corruption and not some limp dick non-revelation. But obviously Trump is not smart. In this case, not declassifying the Dem response would likely be the *dumb* thing to do, which means he will probably go that route, too.

BTW, aren't we just a couple of days away from the promise of a DACA solution and/or another budget showdown? And don't we have another debt ceiling deal looming as well? How's that fabled McConnell negotiation by honor system holding up?

More punting than in the Super Bowl:

One scenario being discussed in leadership circles on both sides of Capitol Hill is to detach immigration and budget negotiations. That would allow a “global deal” that covers government spending, disaster aid and the debt ceiling, all of which Trump and Congress have to deal with in coming weeks.

Under this scenario, Congress would pass a stopgap this week to fund the government through late next month, possibly March 22 or March 23. The Senate would then proceed with debate over the Dreamers’ issue, while lawmakers finalize a deal on boosting budget caps for two years. An omnibus appropriations measure would then be drafted that funds federal agencies through Sept. 30. The package would include disaster aid for Florida, Texas, California, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virigin Islands estimated at $81 billion — and possibly far more once the Senate finishes with it — as well as an increase in the debt ceiling.

All these legislative items would be voted on next month, whether or not the immigration issue is resolved. The Trump administration also would have to forgo immediate action against the Dreamers under this scenario, allowing the issue to play out in the federal court system or with DACA somehow extended another year.

Senate Democrats believe that the Senate could pass both a budget caps deal and a Dreamer package. Ryan would then have to juggle both as he tries to get them through the House while avoiding a challenge to his leadership.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/05/government-shutdown-2018-house-republicans-389943

fucking spineless

Trump says Democrats are "treasonous" for not applauding him at the State of the Union. "Can we call that treason? Why not."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 5, 2018

So the Dow is now down roughly 300 points since Trump started speaking

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 5, 2018

also the government shuts down in 80 hours iirc

probably a good idea for trump to start lowering the bar for treason tbh

I think suffered several embolisms after reading Trump's casual employment of the word 'treason' just now. That vaguely man-shaped blob of reactive protoplasm just has no motherfucking clue about anything whatsoever.

Keep thinking that they’re nearing the “we’re not evil or treasonous, but some of our team was just stupid and inexperienced” line.

And that Many of the partisans are actually really stupid, and they will keep on maga-ing after the line is far past.

But then we blow far past that line and we all just keep maga-ing.

It's probably too much to hope that we'd finally get our articles of impeachment in the event of a legitimate market crash, huh.

remember that one time bill clinton appointed a special prosecutor to investigate ken starr's investigation of whitewater?

https://www.axios.com/white-house-trump-lawyers-approved-of-a-second-special-counsel-6edafd54-c4d7-4ae6-80b7-c7c312b8ca51.html

obviously all stock market gains are due to trump making america great again, and all drops are due to democrats being treasonous illegal immigrants. try to keep up here.

All past stock market gains were in anticipation of Trump one day getting elected. Everything is failing in to place.

what happened to the 'taking the knee' demonstrations? anything at the superbowl?

everyone stood at the superbowl. the stock market appears to be taking the knee today, though

w/o hazarding a guess at what the average ilxor stock portfolio looks like, I'm gonna risk offense by confessing I hope the market plummets to not-quite-catastrophic levels

is that bad?

No. It's human.