US Politics December 2018: ~very legal and very cool~

7 of 9 was actually a lady borg.

I'm sorry I keep saying this but I really implore you to pay attention to and talk about with your non-Midwestern the foul package the Wisconsin legislature is trying to pass today; they lost the governor's race, the attorney general race, and the statewide popular assembly vote race, but hold a legislative majority thanks to gerrymandered district lines and plan to use it to block the campaign promises the new governor ran on and that Wisconsin voted for. Focusing on the marquee national races and ignoring state legislatures is how we got into this mess.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/12/03/5-senators-spotlight-opponents-try-stop-lame-duck-bill/2189439002/

I'm happy it's gotten some topline national attention too.

I have a family member in the state senate up there in WI that I’m pretty sure is supporting that crap. Shameful crybabies.

absolutely delighted to report that it isn't just the USPS that's shutting down tomorrow, it's most of the fed. which means, in my case, that the people that are supposed to be getting my employment package sorted out for a monday start date will be downing tools, and that there's a chance I'll have to wait another month to begin my new job. anyway fuck george bush

Man, it's like a GOP dream come true to fuck the day up for an entire country without even having to be alive to do it.

Meantime, remember this guy?

Steve Bannon will no longer be speaking at a UM, the latest event to be cancelled after the announcement he would be a keynote speaker at a joint conference on sex robots this month. https://t.co/7mqwD26h9H pic.twitter.com/u2i3iC0V81

— Montana Kaimin (@MontanaKaimin) December 4, 2018

“join conference on sex robots”

*joint

Either way, what a terrible world

wow the future is so bright I gotta wear shades

actual lizard person

I assume he's being presented as a tacit argument against sex with humans.

I don't know, man. We're really missing something if we don't hear out the alt-right position on sex robots.

Make Androids Rammable Again

G is for 'rammable' I guess (probably shouldn't've had that fourth martini at lunch)

As a Fed, I got the day off tomorrow for National Day of Mourning George H. W. Bush. I shall spend it posting to ILX. I’m sure that’s what Bush would’ve wanted.

Heyo - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/attorneys-general-issue-subpoenas-to-trump-entities-in-dc-hotel-case/2018/12/04/29e13dc0-f4db-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html?utm_term=.6e287ccbcc15

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I thought they were delaying shutdown due to Bush death

The agency’s attorneys again asked Messitte for a stay Friday, in the hope that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit would intervene.

so is this gonna go to the SC?

WHERE THE HELL'S MY FLYNN SENTENCING MEMO?!

Note to eager journalists and court-followers:

One of the primary benefits of federal practice with PACER is that you e-file your brief any time you want, up to 11:59 p.m. on the due date if you like living on the edge.

Season your anticipation accordingly.

— ScottFreeHat (@Popehat) December 4, 2018

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cia-director-briefs-small-group-senators-saudi-crown/story?id=59598135

Lede:

Following a briefing by CIA director Gina Haspel Tuesday on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, leading Republican senators told reporters that there was "zero question" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal murder.

doesn't matter, tbh

this is exactly the kind of thing "serious" Senators love, the opportunity to do some self-righteous moral grandstanding for the cameras that they know has no hope of affecting any kind of actual outcome, legislative or otherwise

as a former intellectual property paralegal I've filed like 30 briefs at 11:58 at night and it fucking sucks

Following a briefing by CIA director Gina Haspel Tuesday on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, leading Republican senators told reporters that there was "zero question" that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal murder.

have these senators heard that MBS completely denies it, though? completely denies! so it will be impossible to ever find out the truth.

this may come as a shock, but a great deal of what happens in politics and otherwise actually really "doesn't matter" and doesn't make a difference, and is just grandstanding on a major or very minor scale

and yet we talk about it, because it's a thread for talking about these things, not just the most important events that are the hinges upon which the future turns

true

Also: it's 4:25 p.m. EST and almost happy hour

I, too, love christmas surprises

Hi, today the yield curve inverted. This means the interest rates on longer term bonds are now lower than those on short term bonds ( basically, you make less money on a longer term bet)

Here's an article reassuring you why this isn't a big deal (from November 2006)

— 🏴Captain Nuance 🇵🇸🇮🇷 and 420 others (@bluegrass_red) December 4, 2018

https://t.co/sC0n8F0wAm

— 🏴Captain Nuance 🇵🇸🇮🇷 and 420 others (@bluegrass_red) December 4, 2018

subprime mortgage market starting collapsing 3 months later...https://t.co/oRwGzvnARO

— 🏴Captain Nuance 🇵🇸🇮🇷 and 420 others (@bluegrass_red) December 4, 2018

wait, am i supposed to be concerned that the motley fool was wrong, or am i supposed to believe captain nuance and 420 others

Yeah, what am I supposed to be concerned about?

He's arguing this may portend another crash and the '06 op-ed was myopic.

I suppose if one predicts a correction and/or crash it will eventually happen, esp. since it hasn't happened for a while, but I suppose that is a more specific warning.

kind of comprehensible explainer

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-12-03/u-s-yield-curve-just-inverted-that-s-huge

i don't think anyone predicting a recession next year is out on a limb at this point

not quite a canary in the coal mine.. article I read said something like 'a recession has followed within 6-24 months'

When were folks first talking about an inversion curve? A year ago? A quick google found some predictions Dec. 2017 that the inversion curve could arrive in the next year, and another article from the previous summer that predicted it by the end of that year, 2017. So I suppose people have been seeing this coming for at least a year and a half. And now it's year, and a recession could be another 2 years off. Or sooner. Who knows? It's about time, probably.

not quite a canary in the coal mine.. article I read said something like 'a recession has followed within 6-24 months'

― officer sonny bonds, lytton pd (mayor jingleberries), Tuesday, December 4, 2018 9:48 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pal of mine today said 'so this means we can expect a recession sometime between this year and the heat death of the sun'

you can bank on it.

Hrm.

NEW: DOJ inspector general's office released a report finding a now-former senior DOJ official sexually assaulted and sexually harassed women working for him — no criminal prosecution, the official retired, he isn't named https://t.co/34C5yg55om pic.twitter.com/Llc5SvVm4W

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 4, 2018

Stone took the fifth?

Is that pretty much an admission of guilt?

Can't testify because it would be self incrimination?

An admission of guilt, yes. But, crucially, it is not evidence of guilt.

p sure Mueller has evidence of his guilt at this point

evidence of guilt doesn't mean it will win in court or even get an indictment