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

What do FBI agents look for in background investigations? CARLA F. BAD:

Character
Associates
Reputation
Loyalty
Ability
Finances
Bias
Alcohol
Drugs

Apply that test to anyone you're wondering about who doesn't have a clearance and you'll have your answer.

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) February 15, 2018

p sure Carla F. Bad was an old ilm poster, or maybe someone that sent me a spam email once

Pretty sure alcohol is only included so it can help spell bad

Oh no they ask you about a half-dozen follow up questions if you admit to drinking.

Like the sedition questions, I figure there’s a story that this one time an interviewee broke down like Denzel at the end of Flight, “OK, OK, I’m drunk and plotting to overthrow the government right now!” so it can’t hurt to try

like my primary care physician xp

FBI checklist based on the '60s TV series The FBI

*suddenly remembers Drunkenly Animate thread*

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S04E11/646411.jpg?b64lines=IEkgRE8gRU5KT1kgQQogU05JRlRFUiBPRiBQT1JUIEFUCiBDSFJJU1RNQVMu

Leading Candidate For A Red Texas US Senate Seat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWHKUW77Eps

And yes, it is <KATHALEEN>, and there are border wall references in her ads.

Hmmmm

NEW: Lawmakers furious as BANNON won't answer Russia probe questions, say the White House "scripted" his testimony to be intentionally misleading.

But he met with MUELLER earlier in the week for 20 hours over multiple days.https://t.co/XEFpgABjqo

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 15, 2018

damn I never thought one of these threads would sit dormant for 14 whole hours. I guess all it took was a mass school shooting.

trump's immigration plan got 39 votes in the senate. the mccain/coons plan got 52. another "centrist" measure got 54. fun detail in the nyt story:

The White House had worked vigorously to bring down every other approach. In a conference call with reporters just before voting began, a senior White House official lashed out at Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, a key sponsor of an alternative measure. Speaking only on condition of anonymity despite repeated requests to be on the record, the official accused Mr. Graham of attacking Homeland Security officials and standing in the way of needed immigration changes.

“Senator Graham has been an obstacle for those reforms,” the official said. He accused Mr. Graham of misleading other senators, including Democrats, about the damage the proposal will do. He said that Democrats should not let “Lindsey Graham dictate what Democrat senators ought to do.”

On Capitol Hill, Mr. Graham punched back at Stephen Miller, a top White House aide and immigration hard-liner. “As long as the president allows Steve Miller and others to run the show down there, we’re never going to get anywhere,” he said.

hmm, wonder who the politically ignorant coldhearted cowardly official who refused to go on record was

DC media twitter didn't even bother to hide it, Miller's name was everywhere.

That's the second insult Huckleberry hurls at Stephen Miller in the last two weeks

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c0/Steve_Miller_Band_Fly_Like_an_Eagle.jpg/220px-Steve_Miller_Band_Fly_Like_an_Eagle.jpg

This shoe is dropping.

#BREAKING: Senior Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates is finalizing a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, indicating he’s poised to cooperate in the investigation! https://t.co/lJok2JjsCA

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) February 15, 2018

Mostly this'll be turned on Manafort, I suspect, rather than anything broader...but you never know.

I imagine it puts even more pressure on Manafort to cooperate himself.

...well yes.

Unless he expects to be pardoned, which he probably does.

BREAKING: The Trump administration just backed down and settled our FOIA lawsuit to obtain the White House visitor logs they were trying to keep secret.

The public will have access to these records in the coming months. pic.twitter.com/57WIJ6Whtj

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) February 15, 2018

Hooray!

Now we will finally know whether terrible people have disproportionate influence on the government!

So much grifting. Trump's Inauguration Committee with some interesting payments

The company that received the biggest payment — $26 million — was WIS Media Partners of Marina del Rey, Calif. Records show that the firm was created in December 2016, about six weeks before the inauguration, and its founder, according to a person familiar with the firm, was Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a longtime friend of Mrs. Trump’s. Otherwise there is very little information available about the company.

Ms. Winston Wolkoff made her name planning Manhattan society galas. An associate of the Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Ms. Winston Wolkoff traveled in the same circles as Mrs. Trump, who attended Ms. Winston Wolkoff’s 40th birthday party in 2010. Ms. Winston Wolkoff has subsequently been brought on as a senior adviser to the first lady’s official government office.

Two people with direct knowledge of Ms. Winston Wolkoff’s role, who asked to remain anonymous, said she often invoked Mrs. Trump’s name with transition officials as she delivered instructions for the inauguration. But Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Trump, said the first lady “had no involvement” with the inaugural committee “and had no knowledge of how funds were spent.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/politics/trumps-inaugural-committee-paid-26-million-to-first-ladys-friend.html

Ha, I was just about to post that. Same old bullshit.

A little more than three weeks after his inauguration, Donald Trump gave his first-ever press conference as president.

Over the course of 77 dizzying minutes, Trump told journalists hastily corralled into the East Room that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was “fake news,” asked an African-American reporter whether she was friends with the Congressional Black Congress, and declared that members of the media who printed leaks from within his own White House should be “ashamed of themselves.”

One year later, that circus-like exchange remains Trump’s first, last, and only formal press conference—the longest period of time without a solo press conference held by an American president in at least half a century.

Who'd like some good news? DSA-backed Philly DA continues to rule

The Philadelphia District Attorney said criminal charges for marijuana possession against 51 people were dropped en masse last week ahead of a meeting with assistant district attorneys Thursday where the DA would outline a new pot policy.

The new policy will be straight-forward, according to District Attorney Larry Krasner.

"We are going to tell them, yes, drop any cases that are simply marijuana possession," Krasner said at a press conference prior to the staff meeting. He stressed that the policy only applies to simple possession, not charges like possession with intent to deliver or selling it.

His approach builds on 4-year-old rules implemented by Mayor Michael Nutter and the previous District Attorney, Seth Williams. Initially introduced by current Mayor Jim Kenney when he was a city councilman, they gave Philadelphia police the power to issue citations for marijuana possession. That essentially made pot possession punishable by a fine.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Marijuana-Criminal-Cases-Dropped-En-Masse-by-Philadelphia-District-Attorney-Larry-Krasner-474228023.html

Come on, this is the thread for a country run by idiots. Stay on course.

Anyway, I'm shocked:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-a-playboy-model-and-a-system-for-concealing-infidelity-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal

As the pool party at the Playboy Mansion came to an end, Trump asked for McDougal’s telephone number. For McDougal, who grew up in a small town in Michigan and worked as a preschool teacher before beginning her modelling career, such advances were not unusual. John Crawford, McDougal’s friend, who also helped broker her deal with A.M.I., said that Trump was “another powerful guy hitting on her, a gal who’s paid to be at work.” Trump and McDougal began talking frequently on the phone, and soon had what McDougal described as their first date: dinner in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. McDougal wrote that Trump impressed her. “I was so nervous! I was into his intelligence + charm. Such a polite man,” she wrote. “We talked for a couple hours – then, it was “ON”! We got naked + had sex.” As McDougal was getting dressed to leave, Trump did something that surprised her. “He offered me money,” she wrote. “I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks - I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you - NOT for money’ - He told me ‘you are special.’ ”

You're welcome.

During Trump’s relationship with McDougal, she wrote, he introduced her to members of his family and took her to his private residences. At a January, 2007, launch party in Los Angeles for Trump’s now-defunct liquor brand, Trump Vodka, McDougal, who was photographed entering the event, recalled sitting at a table with Kim Kardashian, Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Trump, Jr.,’s wife, Vanessa, who was pregnant. At one point, Trump held a party for “The Apprentice” at the Playboy Mansion, and McDougal worked as a costumed Playboy bunny. “We took pics together, alone + with his family,” McDougal wrote. She recalled that Trump said he had asked his son Eric “who he thought was the most beautiful girl here + Eric pointed me. Mr. T said ‘He has great taste’ + we laughed!” Trump gave McDougal tours of Trump Tower and his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. In Trump Tower, McDougal wrote, Trump pointed out Melania’s separate bedroom. He “said she liked her space,” McDougal wrote, “to read or be alone.”

It's just so brazen and ... well, sad.

She recalled that Trump said he had asked his son Eric “who he thought was the most beautiful girl here + Eric pointed me. Mr. T said ‘He has great taste’ + we laughed!”

nothing bonds a father and son quite like agreeing on the attractiveness of a woman the father has slept with in the presence of the son's wife

looking forward to one of his sidepieces who might have snapped pix of don don with his spiral combover down

suggested that they lie down to “watch some telly-telly.”

WTF

donnie two-times

looking forward to one of his sidepieces who might have snapped pix of don don with his spiral combover down

― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, February 16, 2018 7:42 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sincerely misread this as a reference to his Little Don and imagined a pubic mound which replicates the tonsorial sculpture on his head and, well, I'm still vomiting right now.

two things:

even if donnie two scoops were cleared of any russia related wrongdoings the fact that he’s a crook has been so obvious for years, like how can everyone not see it

how much did the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT writing staff know about his dealings, because reading the farrow piece kept making me think of the lindsay/love subplot from season four. or is it just that he’s tawdry in the most obvious ways

also the gossip press is fucking evil and complicit

I'm still vomiting right now.

Given your handle I just always assumed

yeah arrested development really does seem like eerie prophecy nowadays doesn't it :(

the fact that he’s a crook has been so obvious for years, like how can everyone not see it

the chuds don't care, he's the kind of shameless crook they like to think they'd be given half a chance, plus he triggers the libs

Misread that as 'triggers the ibs'. I think I need some new contacts.

that too though

man we're really powering through the bodily secretions itt today huh

donnie both-ends

When she raised her concern about her mother’s disapproval to Trump, he replied, “What, that old hag?” (McDougal, hurt, pointed out that Trump and her mother were close in age.)

lol

I mean, even disregarding everything else, the similarities between Trump Jr. and Gob...

🤦‍♀️

irony of trump's base being essentially identical with the people who clinton's infidelities made physically, reflexively ill

that graf needs subbing but i think u get it

pic.twitter.com/lAIasLxFZA

— Soviet Sergey (@SovietSergey) February 16, 2018