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

You just buried the last great weird robot leader of the United States.

The late President Trump would be twitching and sparking in his grave if he could hear you now.

Like, can we all agree that Donald Trump would not survive long if left to his own devices? Like if we put him in a little house with all of the amenities and gave him a stipend to take care of his bills and his food and whatnot and we didn't provide him any assistance with day-to-day tasks which we all do pretty much without thinking about them...dude would be dead or at least grievously-ill within a week, week and a half tops. Why is he in charge of anything?

― my hand is finally unglued from my face (Old Lunch), Tuesday, December 11, 2018 2:00 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dude do you get tired of rewriting this post twice a month cause I sure get tired of reading it

Who is ghost writing posts in my name, I demand to know it

i demand to see the tax returns

I can see we have ILXers still in shock that Trump won.

we should discuss the reasons why we think that happened, just to get everybody up to speed

Did Hillary Quentin have any responsibility for this, y/n, and also explain your answer and what he could have done different

Look, this thing has affected everyone in a variety of ways, and I for one am a broken shell of the man I once was, so I beg pity of you. Pity me, please.

Sometimes when trump gets super saucy to the press corps, I feel like I am back at work dealing with one the trophy white guy hires again. "no, you need to double click on the mouse. Two clicks... try it again but faster. And make sure you click all the way. click click."

Yes. By way of contrast, last night I watched an 11-year-old Latino boy go from knowing nothing whatever about HTML to building a rudimentary Fortnite webpage in about an hour.

Bernie locking up the youth vote.

People 65 and older must have pretty good health insurance 🤔 https://t.co/2voSb74DHm

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 10, 2018

Like the number of 'OMG, WHAT EVEN IS SMOCKING' articles I saw yesterday was a little sad.

In general I agree but tbh smocking gun was objectively hilarious. I'm ok with enjoying whatever comic relief we are afforded.

All I want to add to this week's "how does Trump exist, exactly" ILX reflection is that I think if I saw a video proving he doesn't know how to tie his shoes, I wouldn't be surprised. Which is weird to think about. How it wouldn't be shocking at all. Or if he revealed that he believed you're supposed to swallow toothpaste when you brush your teeth. Anyway.

nice

.@NancyPelosi, speaking to a few reporters in the Capitol, previews her meeting with Trump: “Our message to him is: Mr. President, you have the White House, you’re the president; you have control of the Senate, control of the House; it’s up to you to keep the government open.”

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 11, 2018

it seems to me that two things are true, 1) he is the President of the United States and the things he says and does are by definition newsworthy and 2) he is objectively one of the dumbest, most simple-minded human beings on the planet. I don't know how you get around either of these facts. it truly is amazing to watch the GOP faithful praise the man and continue to insist "he's actually quite shrewd" while he's going on TV every day talking about invisible planes and acid-washed emails. he's had 3 whole years to demonstrate even the smallest level of insight and he's repeatedly failed. and yet the party with total control of government (for now) has no choice but to follow his every idiot whim. I don't think you can have an honest conversation about Trump in which his outright stupidity doesn't play a major role.

iiiiii-diot whim

I've never seen the point of criticizing his spelling and public statements; for him it's a form of jiu-jitsu.

Apparently Churchill couldn't spell either - mind you he was an arsehole too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that unlike Reagan and Dubya, Trump is very much an idiot first and a Republican second. The man is an old-school racist, I'll give him that, but otherwise does he really give a shit about any GOP party goals, or any political issues whatsoever? Outside of perhaps lower taxes for himself. Trump's "policy goals" are all over the place. His commitment to being uninformed and combative is the only constant thing about him.

Remember when he got that mental evaluation and the entire GOP + right-wing media circuit did a victory lap because he scored a "30/30" on his dementia test? How do we know that's true? How do we know he didn't score a 30 in the same way that he weighs 239 pounds?

Remember when he got that mental evaluation and the entire GOP + right-wing media circuit did a victory lap because he scored a "30/30" on his dementia test?

it is still really funny that this happened and that they publicized the results

Incredible argument unfolding now in front of the press between trump, Pelosi and Schumer over votes for border security. Pelosi keeps asking not to discuss it in front of the press. pic.twitter.com/pEEnFhuplY

— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) December 11, 2018

apparently in the midst of this argument trump said "i am proud to shut down the government", which actually makes a lot of sense given that he only represents his base

what is up with this criminal justice reform bill that Grassley and Trump want? is there anything decent in it or is it just the usual bullshit?

He is proud to shut down the government because he thinks that means he'll finally get his much-deserved vacation.

It looks decent, doesn't go far enough of course, and by far the best thing this Congress has assembled.

"Criminal Reform Bill To Protect Me and My Family, Good Quality, Great Bill!"

the brief summary I saw referenced reducing minimum sentencing (which is good), but I would expect the current Senate GOP to water that down with more private prisons or quotas on dead black people or something

Basically Tom Cotton has been ranting about it for weeks, and that alone means I like it.

this is amazing

btw Merry Xmas everybody!
https://boingboing.net/2018/12/10/robert-mueller-devotional-cand.html

chuck is such a blob of crap

Trump and Pelosi sparred in the Oval Office over votes in Congress for border wall funding pic.twitter.com/xcOVoDDQ1m

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) December 11, 2018

weird flashbacks to uncomfortable thanksgiving dinners there

Broadly speaking, the bill pairs investments in anti-recidivism programs in federal prisons and an expansion of early release credits with changes to sentencing laws. Its authors have made a set of yet-to-be-released revisions to accommodate Republican concerns in recent days, but even with the changes, the bill is still expected to impact thousands of current federal inmates and future offenders.

Many of the changes are said to be designed to limit the types of offenders who would be eligible for early release credits under the law.

Trump trying to explain vote-counting and legislative process to NANCY FUCKING PELOSI

She calls him Mr. President, he calls her Nancy, what an asshole

idk how anybody in conversation w him is able to resist just smashing his brains out with a hammer after 5 minutes

Oh man.

WOW. Sitting in the Oval Office, Sen. Schumer looks to reporters and says, "When the president brags that he got North Dakota and Indiana, he’s in trouble..." President Trump: "I did!"

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 11, 2018

haha burn

just Chuck 'n' Nancy, sitting around for a friendly tea

One key takeaway. Whatever the criticisms, Democrats would be INSANE not to keep Nancy Pelosi as their leader.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 11, 2018

oh god

Didn't realize that Schumer baited Trump into the final quote (after Pelosi owned him basically non-stop for the whole avail) "I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck."

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 11, 2018

Perfection.

paraphrasing Nancy's burn here " I didn't want transparency there becasue we didn't want to make the president look stupid when we called him out on his lies "

Side note: Trump hates to be called Donald, so he thinks it is psychologically cutting to call them Chuck and Nancy, when it is only rude.

Pence really is dumb as a tree stump, isn't he

he is an actual tree stump iirc

the hair is glued on

Our movement is changing what's possible.

In the 24 hrs since our sit-ins, NINE NEW REPS, including major Dem Leaders, have backed @Ocasio2018's Select Committee on a #GreenNewDeal

Our joint statement with @justicedems: pic.twitter.com/uksOW1OKvz

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) December 11, 2018

https://i.imgur.com/iqlOqF1.jpg