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

If a bank asks for your password you have to give it to them. It's the law.

Yeah what was the clickhole all about, and why was it likely pulled?

Basically best Seth Abramson parody yet.

Anyway, clarity!

A White House official who just briefed reporters on the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria could not say how many have come home, what the timeline is or when others will be leaving. The official referred several questions to DOD, who is referring questions to the WH.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 19, 2018

Oh my etc

DOJ has asked a court to keep a gag order in place in the case of accused Russian agent Mariia Butina, partly in case her "cooperation may lead to any other arrests." https://t.co/ioi8Iyy6rS

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 19, 2018

plz plz Oliver North plz plz

Ha, tempting.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), under pressure from groups on the left, will not agree to a customary year-end package of judicial nominees, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

Schumer and his Democratic colleagues are in no mood to agree to a year-end deal after a federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Affordable Care Act last week, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

https://splinternews.com/looks-like-yelling-at-chuck-schumer-actually-worked-1831213554

More of a little detail but anyway

NEW: Trump indicated in a 1988 sworn affidavit that he has a deep understanding of campaign-finance laws.

To bring a campaign-finance case, prosecutors have to show someone knew the rules and violated them willfully.

via @rebeccaballhaus @joe_palazzolo https://t.co/Ecc5xUPv7e

— Nicole Hong (@nicole_hong) December 19, 2018

it doesn't matter, the DOJ will never allow indictment of him while he's in office

seems like best case scenario is he loses re-election in 2020 and is promptly indicted for felony campaign finance violations but at that point it will be little more than schaudenfreude

lol @ Morbz continuing to link to splinter news articles that are just the news from other sites but w overheated partisan rhetoric inserted in every paragraph

if an ex-president were found guilty of a felony it would be a little more than schadenfreude.

i mean i know it's exhausting and everything is a big deal which means nothing is, but come on.

bipartisan carbon dividend bill similar to the House bill is introduced in the Senate: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr7173

Tell your Senators to support it: https://www2.citizensclimatelobby.org/acton/ct/17897/s-094f-1812/Bct/q-006c/l-sf-contact-0052:2b15b/ct2_0/1?sid=TV2%3ALI8HbJz2F

oh it would totally be a huge deal, no doubt

at the same time the immediate goal is removing Trump from power
xp

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-seeks-roger-stones-testimony-to-house-intelligence-panel-suggesting-special-counsel-is-near-end-of-probe-of-trump-adviser/2018/12/19/ac5c3ee6-0226-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.aae437072dad

For weeks, the special counsel’s office has had access to an unofficial copy of Stone’s closed-door September 2017 interview, according to people with knowledge of the process. Mueller’s request of the official copy signals the special counsel could now be pursuing an indictment, several legal experts said.

“That suggests prosecutors are getting ready to bring a charge,” said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner. “Prosecutors can’t bring a charge without an original certified copy of the transcript that shows the witness lied.”

Nunes looking at the calendar in despair.

Why he's a sensitive fellow, he is.

https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1075533375065202689

Weird that didn't work. From NBC News reporter Frank Thorp:

Pres Trump says the soldiers who died fighting against ISIS would want the US to pull our troops out of Syria. Pres Trump: "We won, and that's the way we want it, and that's the way they (*points to the sky*) want it."

Was he pointing at a UFO?

clouds

a russian satellite

otm

Bipartisan statement from Senators Burr and Warner, chair and ranking member of Senate Intel, on lifting of Deripaska company sanctions: “This deal will require constant monitoring to ensure that neither Mr. Deripaska nor the Russian government violate the terms of the agreement” pic.twitter.com/HIvsMZsEqf

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 19, 2018

Erick Erickson is having a breakdown. Good.

The President is regularly his own worst enemy. He cuts a deal -- the best deals we are told -- to give Central America 0 billion without a wall. Then he flees Syria against the advice of everyone. Then he ends sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 20, 2018

Pobrecito.

wasn't he a nevertrumper

he's an imbecile

Well yeah

The enemy of my enemy is my president (and still my enemy) (and not actually my goddamn president if I goddamn say he isn't).

calling him "his own worst enemy" is a way to suggest he actually has the right ideas, he just fumbles them sometimes, vs him having actively terrible ideas almost 100% of the time.

depending on how the winds shift he can pretend he meant it one way or the other

calling him "his own worst enemy" is a way to suggest he is actively and significantly screwing up, too. that seems like a conclusion I can cautiously agree to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html

The project’s operators created a Facebook page on which they posed as conservative Alabamians, using it to try to divide Republicans and even to endorse a write-in candidate to draw votes from Mr. Moore. It involved a scheme to link the Moore campaign to thousands of Russian accounts that suddenly began following the Republican candidate on Twitter, a development that drew national media attention.

“We orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the report says.

it sucks that i feel like i finally found my natural calling and it's coming up with schemes to abuse social media platforms to influence elections. i just feel like i could do a much better job

Why even make the effort? You could have pasted Clinton's face on a hippo with the word "hippocrit" under it and gotten results. Flynn and his son (and both Don Trumps) would have retweeted it.

good morning!

A few sharp Hill hands remind me that Pelosi as speaker could decide to invite Trump for SOTU on the day on or after shutdown deadline... timing will be at her discretion and she could make it quite a rough week for POTUS to head to Cap

— Robert Costa (@costareports) December 20, 2018

that would be delightful

so Trump otm about pulling troops out of Syria? I know a little about geopolitics, I guess, hence my disgust at seeing The Bipartisan Foreign Policy Community tearing him a new one.

Not otm. It's a betrayal of the Kurds. Yet again.

Meantime, mild surprise here

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/house-intelligence-committee-votes-unanimously-give-mueller-documents-trump-ally-roger-stone/

In that I would have thought Nunes would be all "NOOOOO!" But.

loooooool

When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn’t happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries - but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2018

surprised he didn't write "US of A."

Will he be able to go to Mar-a-lago, the pain, the pain...

hoho

Ryan’s press conference has suddenly been canceled or postponed. Trump sent this tweet after speaking with Ryan. https://t.co/kUJrIRfAWb

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) December 20, 2018

Like P.G. Wodehouse said, "to find a man's true character, play golf with him."

Would love to play a round with the Orange One and call him on BS. "Mr. President, I had you for an eight, before the 8 foot putt you gave yourself."

Guessing one or two holes of honest golf, he'd spin into a rage and lose control for the rest of the round.

Honestly, part of the fun of golf is the (thankfully rare) double-hitting a simple chip, feeling that flash of disappointment/rage/impotence, and then calling myself for an extra stroke.

If only Trump's documented golfing transgressions could turn the golfing community against him.

And here I'd been under the impression that golf was one of the like two skills (along with flimflammery natch) in the known universe at which Trump wasn't an unmitigated flop.