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

President Trump: Do we know for sure that Michael Cohen even exists?

let's not get ourselves into a "oh no i hear rick perry is from texas and is unstoppable" type lather just yet. what you'll actually see is on the one hand a bunch of marco rubios - robotic plastic conservatives awkwardly and pathetically trying to imitate trumpiness. on the other, a bunch of genuinely trumpy loons who are creepy and gross and shitty, we've seen this in a lot of the lower-level races over the last couple years. of THOSE, half will crash and burn in the primaries (again look at the last couple years) and the other half just won't be able to put together the kind of electoral map that let trump win. their appeal will be too niche, their fascist only-i-can-fix-it boasts won't resonate right, they won't be running against hillary clinton, and their gross opinions and misconduct will stick to them in ways it didn't to trump, even if his opinions and misconduct are massively worse. he's not easily copied imho.

I would like to hope that one very very small positive that might maybe result from this era is a slight uptick in people's general ability to reckon constructively with the ever-shifting ontological landscape of the pathological liar.

I could see Dwayne Johnson/the Rock making a go of it

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 13, 2018 10:14 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

too moderate and not white, don't see it

I agree w Doc Casino about the field, ppl that will be able replicate Trump's success are thin on the ground

he's not easily copied imho

Even less easy to copy is winning the electoral college while losing the popular vote by more than 3,000,000 votes.

I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but couldn't resist.

https://i.ibb.co/T4H12Gn/Dirty-Deeds-DT.jpg

he's not easily copied imho.

it's true. i still think he'll inspire a lot of other people to attempt to follow in his footsteps, though. the trump election refreshed a racist strategy that many thought had expired. his election came in the aftermath of the 2014 election GOP autopsy about immigration where it seemed like everyone was getting on board with the idea of not rallying around xenophobia quite so intensely. it's not exactly the same, but it kind of reminds me of reagan's triumphs of the 80s, as a throwback to 1964 goldwater-style conservatism that many thought was long discredited.

trump's successes (with his base) gives future GOP candidates a recent example of how effective xenophobia and fearmongering can be. if there's a time in the 2020s when a more moderate GOP candidate loses, the desire among the republican base for a proudly cruel leader will just intensify. his popularity now almost guarantees that someone will make a bid to follow in his footsteps later. i don't think the successor will look or talk like trump. they'll be a mutation of him, just as he's a mutation of reagan

(Aimless gazes deep into his crystal ball, impressively waving his hands across its surface several times.)

The unmasking of such a large bloc of voters who do not blink or flinch at Trump's xenophobia, autocracy, and undisguised white supremacy means that someone will certainly grasp for his mantle and try to ride that bloc into nationally-based power. The necessity of creating broad coalitions in order to be elected president makes this strategy a tricky one to ride all the way into the White House, but it does ensure that unapologetically racist politics will have plenty of champions in Congress and statehouses where the Trump numbers are most favorable.

Far from discrediting racism, Trump's impressive support through all the corruption, gaffes, scandals, and chaos has brightly illuminated just how slavishly devoted the quasi-racist voter bloc is to those who win their loyalty.

is joe rogan competent?

i don't want to experience the next 20 years

― Karl Malone, Thursday, December 13, 2018 6:04 PM (forty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dana White 2024 tbh

A former staffer on The Apprentice and current stand-up comic named Noel Casler claims that Donald Trump was a “speed freak” who snorted crushed-up Adderall, and also says that Trump invited teen beauty pageant contestants up to his suite.

During a recent performance, Casler told the crowd that he worked on The Apprentice for six seasons, as well as some of Trump’s beauty pageants during the 1990s, and he made some brutal revelations:

I worked on a bunch of those beauty pageants he had in the nineties too. That was a good idea, Miss teen universe? Yeah, that’s like giving Jeffrey Dahmer a cooking show. He would line up the girls on the side of the stage, and he would inspect them literally, he would stick his little freaking doll fingers in their mouth and look at their teeth. I’m not kidding, this is true, he would line them up like they were pieces of meat. He’d be like, “You, you, and you, if you want to win I’m in the penthouse suite, come and see me.” Yep. If Trump had a cooking show they’d caught the douchebag diet. McDonald’s, chocolate ice cream, and girls that look like Ivanka are all he ever eats.

Casler then claimed that Trump is a “speed freak,” and that Trump “crushes up his Adderall and he sniffs it because he can’t read, so he gets really nervous when he has to read the cue cards.”

Casler told the crowd “I’m not kidding this is true. I had a 24-page NDA non-disclosure agreement, I didn’t know that he was becoming president, now it’s no way dumbass, I’m telling you everything I know.”

Maybe this guy will give it a go in 2036

This is the official Twitter account of Julian von Abele, which I will use to communicate my thoughts and updates on my situation. pic.twitter.com/F7woD4rwNi

— Julian von Abele (@VonAbele) December 12, 2018

hey, i chose the c/d thread for that one

xp

🤷‍♂️

some people I consider viable heirs to the gop throne: tom cotton, nikki haley

Well that's been a full morning. Good thread on a key thing:

THREAD: What can we learn from the cooperation deal with Russian spy Maria Butina? (Answer: A lot.)

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) December 13, 2018

Ah yes

Pres Trump says he's down to 5 candidates for WH Chief of Staff. Calls them "really good ones. Terrific people. Mostly well known." Says they're undergoing interviews. pic.twitter.com/hZIFA8eNx0

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 13, 2018

it's gonna be Jared

it will be newt

A fusion

newt is capable of the self-delusion and ambition necessary to accept, if it is offered. he wouldn't last long.

Eye of Newt, toe of Jared. xp

oh man I have been hoping Newt would somehow make it into Trump's inner circle since he picked a VP

I don't actually think Newt would take the job. It's too backstage/behind-the-scenes for him. He's like Schumer; if he can't get in front of a microphone or camera at least once a day he starts melting.

newt would take it in a heartbeat imo. AND he'll find a way to get on camera at the same time

haven't read this quite yet but seems useful:

.@SarahKliff and @dylanlscott read the 8 major Democratic plans to expand Medicare, Medicaid, or just health care, and explained how they all work, and where they all differ. You'll want to bookmark this. https://t.co/jFWvZ2TWp3

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) December 13, 2018

I could see him saying "Host ALL your private office debates in front of the cameras!" and then he and Trump ranting about moonbases and cocaine in front of Schumer and Pelosi while Pence finally just pretends to be dead.

it's gonna be Jared

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 13, 2018 1:37 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fogle?

We're well past the bottom of the barrel, but never discount the potential depths which might still be reached.

true there's gotta be some anti-trafficking organization he can be appointed to

*very mall voice*

He went with JARED!

off topic, if someone dupes and blackmails you are you allowed to claim there was no collusion with them? Asking for a friend.

Brundlefly Kushnewt

My brain is melting

President Trump tells Fox News: "I think I have the greatest face in the history of politics. I have people that I love and that love me, frankly, that includes a lot of women. I’ve got a tremendous percentage of women last time, remember?"

— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) December 13, 2018

52% of white women iirc so broken clock etc

senate votes to withdraw US military support for saudi arabia in yemen

what's crazy about all this is that if trump just would have went with the boilerplate response of "we strongly condemn saudi arabia's role in the death of Khashoggi", this entire vote never would have happened

as it stands, another point for his incompetence leading to unexpected positive outcomes

President Trump tells Fox News: "I think I have the greatest face in the history of politics.

triumphinsultcomicdog.jpg

idk how big a deal this is given that the bill is DOA

xp

like, Trump doesn't even have to veto it.

If it's brought up again in the *new* Congress (where I'm sure it would pass the House), well that's a different story

Trump's use of "frankly" right before he's going to brag about something is so great

Rep. Colin Peterson (D) on siding with GOP on Yemen vote: “Our party gets off on tangents”

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) December 12, 2018

Shakey Downer...

HISTORIC VICTORY: The Senate has voted to stop U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. This is the first time ever that the Senate has voted to end an unauthorized war. https://t.co/8SLVTA5m2d

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 13, 2018

Hi everyone—-The Fox News transcript apparently has a typo in it. President Trump apparently said he has the greatest BASE in the history of politics, not “FACE”. I deleted my last tweet. Transcript (w/typo) attached! pic.twitter.com/7PcXLn63K5

— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) December 13, 2018

Face of Base.

what's sad is that trump saying he had the greatest face in politics didn't even surprise me, like not even a little bit. it seemed like a thing he would say

speaking of faces -- have Bernie, Mike Lee, and Chris Murphy been photographed together before today?

If Pecker told Mueller this, the question of Trump's culpability on the campaign finance charges is settled. https://t.co/r8wYeP5lwF

— Philip Bump (@pbump) December 13, 2018

cool so we just wait 2 years for an indictment, right?

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a68c6b30-0d56-4320-bda6-04bbc9f5fd7e