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

i do know that he was questioning whether tobacco causes lung cancer as late as the early 00s though. which, jfc.

is it too late to call out the complete misuse / gross misunderstanding of "whistleblower" upthread? unless the late great really thinks the WPA should be abolished and the office of special counsel is a waste of money

though tbf the industry was publicly "questioning" as late as '99 when the the AGs of 40-odd states more or less said "fuck you stop it rn"

man. the poor tobacco industry. if they'd been able to hold on just a little longer they would've had a whole political party and the most-watched cable "news" network carrying their water.

So, uh, Nunes keeps on Nunesing

Devin Nunes created and is paying for a fake news site that, among other things, attacks me. So I am going to do the same thing.

Aw, just kidding. I don't need to spend money peddling fake news. I've learned there is an easier way to inform the American people: tell the truth. https://t.co/EF2tGe9ORZ

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 11, 2018

Jesus fucking Christ

Anthony Ratekin, Nunes’ chief of staff, declined to provide comment on Nunes’ involvement with the news site. “Until Politico retracts its multitude of fake stories on Congressman Nunes, we will not go on the record,” he was quoted as saying.

“I talk to Flynn virtually everyday, if not multiple times a day,” @DevinNunes said in December 2016. “Seldom there's a day that goes by that I don't talk to Flynn, and especially right after the campaign, directly.” https://t.co/Xjy0DsGBFj

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 11, 2018

This guy

https://www.axios.com/twisted-trump-says-porter-sick-guilty-defends-him-publicly-1518385468-1e643a55-5ef4-43fe-90f4-fdba5fc7eadb.html

would love to see Nunes roped in on obstruction charges, what a despicable human being

yeah, he really does represent several layers of what's especially wrong about modern politics in the u.s.

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/politics/a9278165/devin-nunes-winery/

would love to see nunes tarred and feathered tbh

hey, if any of you ever hear about someone that is deported and is not a criminal, please let me know. there is a very close family member that has pledged to apologize to me if she ever finds out that someone was deported that isn't a criminal. trump only cares about deporting the criminals, he doesn't want to deport the non-criminals (says she)

― Karl Malone, Friday, February 9, 2018 5:03 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

starting to happen. lots of edge cases too, where ICE is acting before a court verdict. people who've lived here 20-50 years, gone. you probably saw this one:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/371398-ice-defies-house-judiciary-request-deports-palestinian-man

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article198215114.html
^^ Syed Ahmed Jamal got a temporary stay after this article went up

and of course this one -- recreational drug charges for a green card veteran. serving in the forces is not a guarantee of citizenship - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-green-card-veteran-hunger-strike-20180131-story.html

this just in:

College student and barista. In the US twenty-four years, since he was three. Married to a US citizen. Facing deportation over a pending misdemeanor charge over an argument on a bus which hasn't even gone to trial yet.

— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) February 12, 2018

Jennie Willoughby: 'President Trump Will Not Diminish My Truth'

http://time.com/5143589/rob-porter-ex-wife-trump-domestic-violence/

Married to a US citizen. Facing deportation

How is this even legally possible? I don't understand.

I don't know if you've noticed, but elements of the current US government are not significantly concerned with legality

omg infrastructure week! she here!

Officials said the $200bn in federal support would come from cuts to existing programs.

oh

For Karl re:

if any of you ever hear about someone that is deported and is not a criminal, please let me know. there is a very close family member that has pledged to apologize to me if she ever finds out that someone was deported that isn't a criminal. trump only cares about deporting the criminals, he doesn't want to deport the non-criminals (says she)

ICE arrests of noncriminal immigrants have doubled under Trump:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-takes-shackles-off-ice-which-is-slapping-them-on-immigrants-who-thought-they-were-safe/2018/02/11/4bd5c164-083a-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html

As ICE officers get wider latitude to determine whom they detain, the biggest jump in arrests has been of immigrants with no criminal convictions. The agency made 37,734 “noncriminal” arrests in the government’s 2017 fiscal year, more than twice the number in the previous year.

KM, can you please let us know when you get that apology?

As demonstrated here by @damianpaletta, it is literally impossible for Washington Post or NY Times reporters to conceive of the possibility that Republicans were always lying about this https://t.co/Ofp5Cr3dtc pic.twitter.com/GtnbLrXprP

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) February 12, 2018

phew. finally we can privatize medicare and social security. 2005 - 17 were a mere blip on our way to galt's gulch : )

It's almost as if the republican party has been an overt hive of scum and villainy for the past fifty years.

sure. fine. do it. but they sure as fuck had better do it before all the aging tea party -> Trump voters who live off SS & Medicare are dead. at least let them, for once in their lives, experience the full consequences of their votes.

"entitlements" will still be around for the last of the baby boomer generation i'd bet. starting once generation x approaches retirement -- the rest of us will be on our own, free to enjoy our american liberty : )

"we're gonna have nuclear like we've never seen before"

^prez just now, awesome

starting my bucket list

"we're gonna have nuclear like we've never seen before"

^prez just now, awesome

Ah, he's just stomping his foot 'cause people are talking about the Obamas today. The spotlight was off him for a second and he felt physical pain, so he lashed out.

"entitlements" will still be around for the last of the baby boomer generation i'd bet

The money that is (and will be) tied up in the Boomer retirement wave isn't being set on fire. It's going somewhere.* Seems like now would be a good time to own a retirement community or a home health care service. Someone should look into how much those businesses are being corporatized/monopolized/consolidated.

If your parents are financially comfortable, and also healthy, they will likely spend most of their money on travel and leisure pursuits before you inherit anything. If our parents are not healthy, they will spend most of it on health care.

I smell a business opportunity here.

Gen Xers should band together to create a conglomerate that offers three lines of business:

1. "Adventure travel for dynamic seniors." Skydiving, bungee jumping, rock climbing, parasailing - but with completely inadequate safety provisions.

2. Home health care, but care that is completely incompetent.

These are all ways to can return Boomer wealth into the economy. Get olds to die stupidly doing something fun, or get them to die stupidly through negligent care. But collect their money in the meantime. Get them coming and going.

Maybe add a financial/legal estate consulting line of business - gain control of the wills and steer the money toward addressing inequality.

(* = Sidenote: this is an annoyingly missing component of some discussions of economics - there seem to still be people think that as soon as money is disbursed to someone, it effectively vanishes. This is not the case.)

YMP OTM

Someone should look into how much those businesses are being corporatized/monopolized/consolidated.

Retirement communities around here are all being swallowed up by some behemoth called Brookdale.

KM, can you please let us know when you get that apology?

ha, she'll never apologize because she'll never admit it that it's true. i meant for the original request ("if any of you ever hear about someone that is deported and is not a criminal, please let me know") to be dripping with sarcasm but with a few day's distance that wasn't clear at all! she didn't even think that trump said "shithole" (or "shithouse") because "not everyone agreed" he said it. it didn't matter that even lindsey fucking graham admitted it happened, or that white house didn't deny it. anyway, sorry, bad sarcasm alert on my side.

Cool.

My post upthread was obv mostly joking but with a leetle core of seriousness.

If I had enterprise-level investment-type money and/or an entrepreneurial temperament I actually think that elder care has the potential to be something of an economic equalizer. I mean, think about the math:

The population of people who _consume_ home health care includes a heck of a lot of old white people who are already rich.

The population of workers who _provide_ home health care is (1) overwhelmingly female (2) poor (3) often recent immigrants and people of color.

So if you could somehow avoid having a megacorp mine this situation for maximal profit while paying the workers nothing (a big "if"), this line of business is a potential way to take money directly from rich white men and hand it directly to poor women of color.

ha, she'll never apologize because she'll never admit it that it's true.

ya don't say!

the idea of eliminating all desires is becoming more and more appealing

"I want to thank every sheriff in America. Since our founding, the independently elected sheriff has been the people's protector, who keeps law enforcement close to and accountable to people through the elected process," Sessions said in remarks at the National Sheriffs Association winter meeting, adding, "The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement."

ahahahahah what

How long it going to take for these motherfuckers to just openly wear their klan robes?

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ktylne8j--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/podvhkst1sy53afdcgls.jpg

Here’s Jeff Sessions talking about “the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement” pic.twitter.com/Z7r0lOvBcI via @misstessowen

— Keegan Hamilton (@keegan_hamilton) February 12, 2018

he musta been talking about the Sheriff of Nottingham

you know, one makes a joke and finds out it's being used as spin IRL

Important to note that he could have very likely been referring to the organizational structures of policing from Britain that the US adopted. Still, he should know better than to use such loaded language

— Tess Owen (@misstessowen) February 12, 2018

https://splinternews.com/jeff-sessions-let-his-racism-peek-through-a-little-more-1822927819

Anglo-Americans and David Clarke.

I mean obviously his office will say he was talking about the office of "sheriff" itself etc. (Because you know other cultures don't have law enforcement, they all just run around willy nilly.)

xpost!

He also used similar language in a speech last week, referring to the late Justice Scalia as "one of the best judges in American history, and maybe even the Anglo-American tradition." https://t.co/TpCqH5sVkK

— Tess Owen (@misstessowen) February 12, 2018

The Anglo-American traditions of law and justice that brought us Dred Scott, Jim Crow, and all-white juries.

it's okay, guys. anglo-schmanglo. the stock market's almost back to where it was right before the republicans added $1.5 trillion to the deficit to make permanent corporate tax cuts : )

The market was more or less priced for the tax cuts before the tax bill passed anyway. It's only lately they've started thinking about the macro-economic effects of a massive stimulus in a full employment economy, instead of just the big injection of short term corporate profits.

ho boy

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/vanessa-trump-taken-hospital-precaution-after-suspicious-letter-n847231

anglo-schmanglo

https://www.beefeatergin.com/static/img/cocktails/white-lady.png

I hate mangos.

Do your ears anglo, do they wobble to and fro

I salt and pepper ma anglo