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

Very sad day & night in Paris. Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2018

He literally thinks this agreement was written by the French

it’s an odd point to make

Not politically speaking. It is just more 'wedge politics' and is no different than Sarah Palin always talking about 'the real America and real Americans' in 2008, which pointedly did not include citizens who live in big cities. Suburbs are OK, because they skew toward the white middle class, but big cities are vipers' nests of minorities and liberals (i.e. second-class citizens, barely human when you think about it.) This attitude among rural Republicans is also what promotes and protects gerrymandering.

I think we're going to find a lot of Russian "active measures" when the autopsy of the French protests is done.

Yes, the French are famous for their hesitance to riot.

Russia doesn't create fissures. It takes advantage of them.

a lot of people don't realize that gucci spearheaded these protests earlier this summer

When you watch les gillets jaunes smashing boutique windows today, do take a moment to remember Gucci's choice, just 5 months ago, to market a luxury clothing collection with a mocking reappropriation of the aesthetics of the May 68 student protests in Paris pic.twitter.com/Sv9tIp1Jjm

— ཊལབསརངཧ (@David_Rudnick) December 8, 2018

lol

Russia doesn't create fissures. It takes advantage of them.

― Sanpaku, Saturday, December 8, 2018 6:15 PM (fifty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They learned from the best, after all. I wouldn't be surprised to discover the troll farms had a hand in goosing these protests, but as you say, they only work with what's already there. I'm skeptical of thinking of their influence as decisive.

kelly (finally) out

Christ, Priebus feels so long ago it took me more than a minute to remember he's who Kelly replaced.

3 Chief of Staffs in less than 3 years of being President: Part of the reason why @BarackObama can't manage to pass his agenda.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2012

Mooch back in?

Jared

So our guy has nicknamed Richard Blumenthal “the Dick”

Rick the Dick

These tweets are once again super unhinged and bizarre

Not happy with this situation

oh my god trey gowdy is such an idiot

Mr. Gowdy. When you say "lying," I generally think of an intent to deceive as opposed to someone just uttering a false statement.
Mr. Comey. Sure.
Mr. Gowdy. Is it possible to utter a false statement without it being lying?
Mr. Comey. I can't answer -- that's a philosophical question I can't answer.
Mr. Gowdy. No, I mean, if I said, "Hey, look, I hope you had a great day yesterday on Tuesday," that's demonstrably false.
Mr. Comey. That's an expression of opinion.
Mr. Gowdy. No, it's a fact that yesterday was --
Mr. Comey. You hope I have a great day --
Mr. Gowdy. No, no, no, yesterday was not Tuesday.
Mr. Comey. Oh, see, I didn't even know that. Yeah.
Mr. Gowdy. So is it possible to make a false statement without having the intent to deceive?
Mr. Comey. Yes.
Mr. Gowdy. All right. Is making a false statement without the intent to deceive a crime?
Mr. Comey. I don't know. I can't answer that without thinking better about it.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/420413-read-transcript-of-comeys-interview-before-house-lawmakers

re the impeachment stuff, i think this is an interesting point:

Yep. If Trump were unpopular enough to not just be impeached but also *removed* from office, Democrats would rather run against him. https://t.co/dgpxl5ucLU

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 4, 2018

This is also why, to the extent Trump faces impeachment/removal risk, it may be more concentrated in 2019 than 2020. If it gets really bad, Republicans *might* think there's a window to remove him, nominate a different candidate, and cut their losses.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 4, 2018

like if there's a danger impeachment might actually work, there's a cynical argument in 2020 for not doing it

a stupid argument

increasing dems' odds in 2020 isn't the only thing that matters. it's inherently bad and dangerous to have an unhinged racist sociopath in the oval office. mike pence would not be better politically but trump is more than a political threat. the damage he's done and is doing to the fabric of the country is incalculable.

Would serving as president give Pence enough of a boost that he could win the primary? Would that be good or bad in the general?

i think it's the wrong way of thinking. we already know democrats are bad at scheming. they should fight principled fights and the fact is that trump has no business being president.

i'm not in charge of these decisions anyway so it doesn't matter, but i think the democrats would be morons if they had the chance to end this circus early and didn't take it.

there's a cynical argument in 2020 for not doing it

Nothing requires the Republicans to nominate Trump in 2020, especially if he's so unpopular that he couldn't win. So, Nate Silver is just blowing smoke rings to amuse himself.

i don't think he's suggesting a tactical non-impeachment is likely, or even something the democrats should do.

it's just another thing on the list of pluses/minuses for who impeachment/non-impeachment might benefit, depending on its timing.

we already know democrats are bad at scheming. they should fight principled fights and the fact is that trump has no business being president.

they’re bad at fighting principled fights too. they might as well fight the battle that’s actually going on rather than starting another one on a different field that even they won’t turn up to.

Pence is just Trump without the cult of personality. I think he’d be easier to beat.

oh this argument again!

That's my wager too. Even his own Repulican legislature got sick of him as Governor of Indiana.

Last time a presidential incumbent seeking another term wasn't nominated by his party: Chester A. Arthur in 1884.
Last time a presidential incumbent elected to the office and seeking another term wasn't nominated by his party: Franklin Pierce in 1856.

seems like a long time for you but when you get to be my age

Last time everybody was wrong about the presidential election: 2016

Morbs otm

huh https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/jerry-falwell-jr-michael-cohen-pool-attendant-lawsuit

A pool boy and Jerry Falwell, Jr.:

nfluential evangelical leader and Donald Trump backer Jerry Falwell Jr. went into business with a young pool attendant he and his wife met while staying at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade County.

The suit, which has not been previously reported, was brought by a father and son who claim that after they helped conceive of the business, the pool attendant and Falwell wrongly cut them out of it. The suit says that while Falwell Jr. and his wife were guests at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach in 2012, they developed a “friendly relationship” with the pool attendant, Giancarlo Granda; flew Granda in a private jet; and eventually backed him in a business venture, setting up a hostel that offers low-cost dorm-style nightly accommodations to visitors. The pool attendant, according to public records databases, was 21 when he met the Falwells.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/jerry-falwell-jr-michael-cohen-pool-attendant-lawsuit

Like so many things from the last two years, a bit on the nose

who among us has not tried to help out the pool boy

great site admin pool boy

the word ‘conceive’ seems to be hinting at more than just the birthing of a crackerjack business to me

Academics and writers are going to have to be much crisper about discussing the involvement of online disinformation in real-world events. The Russian trolls love to draft behind legitimate movements; IRA pushed #BlackLivesMatter, that doesn’t invalidate BLM’s legit issues. https://t.co/Rexf25PtxZ

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) December 8, 2018

Effective propaganda has always taken advantage of whatever strongly motivates its target audience and then harnesses that motivation as a means to its own ends. The amount of disinformation included is just enough to direct the energy into the desired course. A good propagandist uses accepted truth and facts wherever possible, because that lends legitimacy to the entirety of the contents.

This stuff is all elementary and everyone in the media ought to know it before they toddle into their first assignment.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ayers-not-taking-job-as-white-house-chief-of-staff/ar-BBQIS0X?ocid=spartanntp

Trumpie couldn't even get this right.

This stuff is all elementary and everyone in the media ought to know it before they toddle into their first assignment.

― A is for (Aimless), Sunday, December 9, 2018 8:02 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

But do they know it's Christmas

narrator: maybe?

Not sure if this will embed but tommorow oughta be interesting.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrL2FjyhqBO/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=rr7t666croxy

Smock weed every day iirc

good morning!

"Smocking Gun" is my favorite Robert Cray jam...

Our president and his brain worms