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

should have gone with Fletch

good guy Michael Flynn:

"This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised."

- August 2016

I've posted this like twice but I haven't forgotten this NPR interview that came out right after Flynn was named as NatSec Advisor

INSKEEP: Which is interesting because one of the jobs of a national security adviser, of course, is to keep things orderly and make sure that the president gets information in an orderly fashion. Any sense of what he was like as a manager?

CHAYES: Orderly, he was not.

(LAUGHTER)

INSKEEP: No? You're saying that - what do you mean by that?

CHAYES: Anything but. I mean, remember Linus in the Snoopy and the Charlie Brown cartoons? Something like that.

INSKEEP: I'll give - do you mean to say Pig-Pen?

CHAYES: The one - Pig-Pen, Pig-Pen (laughter). right.

INSKEEP: OK, the kid who was a little dirty, OK. So you're saying that things were a little chaotic around General Flynn. But you found this guy to be extraordinarily enthusiastic.

Let me ask another thing - because of some of General Flyn statements about Muslims, people are going to be asked if he is prejudiced in some way. There you are with him in Afghanistan. He's with American troops, few of whom would be Muslim. He's in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. How did he handle that?

CHAYES: I never found him in his personal dealings to be prejudiced, either in terms of religion, race or, in particular, gender. I mean, interestingly, the intelligence community within the Army is one of the ones where women really can rise to the top. And Flynn always surrounded himself with women and often said, look, it's just - diversity isn't even an issue because there's too much talent. I can't afford to lose the potential talent. So on a personal level, I never saw him behave in discriminatory ways.

INSKEEP: In just a few seconds, as someone who knows General Flynn, when you heard news of his selection, were you reassured, happy, disturbed, troubled, many questions - how would you phrase it?

CHAYES: My heart sank.

INSKEEP: Really? Why?

CHAYES: Everything I just said. The NSA is an institution that, first of all, has to keep the trains running. That's the first job of the national security adviser - is to make that National Security Council run.

INSKEEP: OK.

CHAYES: Flynn can't make anything run.

https://www.npr.org/2016/11/18/502568434/trump-offers-key-posts-to-sen-sessions-rep-pompeo-retired-lt-gen-flynn

I bet Flynn wishes he ran.

imagine being so dumb that you all but commit treason by accident and then blithely admit to it

It's called Creutzfeldt-Jacob and it's nothing to be ashamed of

Honestly surprised Flynn's lawyers aren't gunning for a senility defense. It's pretty supportable, by all accounts.

Do you mean Dunning-Kruger?

A sliver of good news..

The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a new rule banning bump stocks, the attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire in sustained, rapid bursts and that a gunman used to massacre 58 people and wound hundreds of others at a Las Vegas concert in October 2017.

The new regulation, which had been expected, would ban the sale or possession of the devices under a new interpretation of existing law. Americans who own bump stocks would have 90 days to destroy their devices or to turn them in to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Justice Department said A.T.F. would post destruction instructions on its website.

I misread that as "bumper stickers"

I was wondering if that bump stock announcement was the admin trying to change the conversation from the nonstop bad news

Like that they there isn't some BS grandfather clause on this one.

So does that mean that the Trump administration ... is literally coming to take your gun (accessory) away?

Honestly surprised Flynn's lawyers aren't gunning for a senility defense.

Gnerally, a lawyer can't submit a defense that his client is unwilling to subscribe to.

Hm hm hm

NEW: Remember that mystery grand jury subpoena case argued last week in the DC Circuit? A decision is out, and it's public, sort of — it's about a company (unnamed) owned by a country (unnamed). Court upheld the denial of a motion to quash the subpoena https://t.co/y091zXa6kU pic.twitter.com/5CzjpLY1cb

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 18, 2018

There is *no* reference in today's judgment to Mueller's office. But there's no reference at all to who is prosecuting this case, so we don't have any new, concrete info on that front

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 18, 2018

Deutschbank?

hm wait no they are not owned by a country

Something something Saudi Arabia something?

Plenty of people living in socialist countries WISH they had a job from which they could take a break. The arrogance and ignorance of this Congresswoman-elect is stunning: https://t.co/dhdgq826dn

— Matt Rooney (@MattRooneyNJ) December 18, 2018

how dare she take a break from a job she won't have for 3 weeks

It seems unfair to the civil service to call all executive rulemaking actions those of “the Trump administration”, even more so than when they were “the Bush administration”

that stupid ass matt rooney tweet doesnt even make sense? pretty sure most countries that aren't america give their employees plenty of time off? or is his assertion that there's teeming hordes of socialist workers who don't have jobs to take breaks from?

Matt Rooney's a nobody outside of New Jersey, perhaps not even a somebody there. ratioed as fuck too

the latter. e.g. unemployment is very bad in Spain atm. but the idea that a person with a job must never take time off because there are unemployed people is right about as reasonable as telling children they must lick their plates because there are starving children in Africa.

"Matt Rooney" retweets James Woods.

Yeah I went to the source and regretted it

I'm kinda all for this demonization of AOC. Gives her a loudspeaker, and distracts the wingnuts from calumnies against anyone running in 2020.

Yeah, GOP is gonna be so far gone by 2020 they'll wind up doing a fair bit of our campaigning for us. '(Democratic candidate) is on record as someone who cares about you and wants to improve your life. Can we afford four years with (Democratic candidate) in the White House? Vote (Republican who proudly urinated on a homeless man in front of news cameras) in 2020!'

#draftloganpaulGOP2020

So does anyone know if this criminal justice reform bill is any good or what?

Yeah, GOP is gonna be so far gone by 2020

just hear to remind us there's actually no bottom and when you think there's a bottom, a few years later it's like the john birch society or nazis are back.

The most-publicized provisions, such as greater judicial discretion during sentencing, seem like an improvement over current law. How well-suited it might be to reduce the shocking over-representation of minorities in prison remains to be seen.

Details, details.

“A newly obtained document shows President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming on Sunday the document was never signed.” https://t.co/UdEf1vfqGQ

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) December 19, 2018

"I signed it with the wrong hand!"

There is one difference between Trump and every other right-wing leader of the past 100 years.

He doesn't want to lead. He wants everyone to follow him though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JRQMD7rmEk

Well, good morning!

big if true

We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

He should go over there and wander around by himself for a little while to show us how safe things are now.

Gee, I wonder how Russia would feel about the US withdrawing from Syria

I’m all for gtfo Syria, but do it as part of a larger plan of peace coordinated with other countries and with international support, not as some unilateral dumbass tweet that we’ll later learn was not discussed with key members of Congress, administration, and Jared

tweet makes me wonder what he was doing in Syria before the Trump presidency

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

Looking for future mistresses/wives, iirc.

"do they still have -- whattayacallit -- harems there?"

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

― j., Wednesday, December 19, 2018

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMOOOOOAH

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWI3ODY4YmYtNDlkZi00MDk0LWJmNzgtYjg3M2RjMWMzMjQyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjA3NDg2Mzg@._V1_.jpg

Lindsey Graham on Trump’s Syria move: “If these media reports are true, it will be an Obama-like mistake made by the Trump Administration. While American patience in confronting radical Islam may wane, the radical Islamists’ passion to kill Americans and our allies never wavers.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2018

A relief that Huckleberry still places a premium on killing brown lives over loyalty to Trump.

I had wondered how Rania Khalek would react to this

1/ Even when the US withdraws from areas it is occupying it finds a stupid way to do it.

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) December 19, 2018

xp he never really changed and never really will

love to spend a trillion+ dollars 'protecting' americans from terrorists because they killed a fraction of those killed by guns domestically

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

― j., Wednesday, December 19, 2018 10:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lisa needs braces