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

CORKER: “Mitch is on the phone with Paul now, so....” *corker starts laughing*

Q: Why are you laughing?

Corker: “Well, why not?”
///
Corker: “Ya’ll have fun! I may not see ya’ll again for a while...”

Q: You’re not going to come back from TN for votes?

Corker: “I doubt it.”

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) December 20, 2018

Haha

yet in that photo he's posing as Eustace Tilley

nah, p sure its
https://bilder.buecher.de/zusatz/41/41138/41138144_deta_4.jpg

Q: What’s going to happen?

CORKER: “Who knows? Does the person sitting beside him at the WH know?”

*Ted Cruz walks by and says to a reporter: “I think we need to follow through and fund the wall.”*

*Corker starts laughing again.”

CORKER: “You can’t make this stuff up!”

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) December 20, 2018

no dark sarcasm in the Dome

lmao of course

Oh my god the Wall Go Fund Me is a money laundering scheme. What a close out to the year https://t.co/DMsWz7LclZ

— American Propagandist (@ArmyStrang) December 20, 2018

woooowww my boy, defeated congressmen Carlos Curbelo, is livid on MSNBC.

Is there anyone outside the talker class who thinks Trump and Rs can "win" the shutdown here?

— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) December 20, 2018

this is totally a self-inflicted wound and they are really gonna do their damnedest on it so let's popcorn.gif this motherfucker

A happy day!

DON YOUNG, the dean of the House, just went up to the house well and SCREAMED at Doug Collins, who is presiding over the vote, to close voting.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 20, 2018

"There, there."

Meadows just approached McCarthy in the front of the chamber, shook his hand and patted him on the elbow.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 20, 2018

this is also, hilariously, going to totally overshadow their one significant legislative accomplishment this year - one which might even appeal to non-death cultist voters - the criminal justice reform bill

xp

Who knew he was such an aesthete? https://t.co/LH72ISEJMX

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) December 19, 2018

btw, it looks like stock market is clearing the way for the Green New Deal to gather more support in the next Congress. my preference would be to pass the spending for it asap, because if the business sector is frightened of recession it will back a big economic stimulus package. repealing most the 2017 tax cut can wait until after the GND is secured.

hm I hadn't thought of that, that's a good point - in the event of a downturn the argument for the GND as a stimulus package is way more attractive than trying to, say, raise taxes

Assuming that even most of the Freedom Caucus don't really believe "the wall" is essential to national security, what's their angle on all this? Just that it plays well at home? Seems so self-defeating, it's not going to go well for them politically.

All is well. Um.

Farm Bill signing in 15 minutes! #Emmys #TBT pic.twitter.com/KtSS17xvIn

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

this is also, hilariously, going to totally overshadow their one significant legislative accomplishment this year - one which might even appeal to non-death cultist voters - the criminal justice reform bill

otm

just this morning i was thinking about how the criminal justice bill was a raaaare bright spot for this administration (putting aside that there's much more to be done), and they just obliterated any positive coverage they might have gotten on that

My guess is that most members of the Freedom Caucus are no more sophisticated or sensible than their constituencies. They probably accept the idea that a border wall will successfully interdict undocumented immigrants, just because, wow, that's a big wall and how could they get past it? All we have to do is apply some sure-fire American know-how and spend a little money. Problem solved!

the freedom caucus is acting this way because they represent the most right-leaning terrible people in the entire country. they were voted in to vote for racist things and oppose the federal government as much as possible. it makes sense that they're voting this way and advocating for the things they do.

meanwhile, the GOP lacks a pelosi-type figure to make everyone get in line, or at least count votes and twist arms and make sure they can pass a bill. and Trump doesn't know what the fuck is going on and can't read.

so this is the GOP's leadership fault. they can't control their stupid children

Freedom Caucus continually under the delusion that they have leverage over the Senate (and their own caucus in the House), which they do not.

The culmination of two years with absolute power over the federal government, ladies and gentlemen. It's a glorious, glorious sight to behold.

Meantime

The Georgia "deportation bus" candidate has been indicted over an incident where he says servers were stolen form his office; his former campaign manager said they were being used to mine cryptocurrency https://t.co/whQu0rxRsV

— Terri Rupar (@terri_rupar) December 20, 2018

Follow Me to Mexico Prison

It's a dark day when this bimbo is otm:

What this shutdown farce will do is make sure Republican legislators really hate Trump, even as they fear him far less

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 20, 2018

How to win friends and influence people

Rep. Meadows tells federal employees who won’t get paid during shutdown: You signed up for this https://t.co/XaLuP5cVCj

— Post Politics (@postpolitics) December 20, 2018

cool dudes all

apparently now talking up an Afghanistan withdrawal

err, take that with a huge grain of salt for now I guess

Big. @jaketapper reports that Trump administration officials are now bracing for the president to announce the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan soon. No final decision has been made by Trump, the sources warned.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 20, 2018

whoa

gotta reassign them to construction duty on the beautiful fence

tbf, unlike in Syria where I feel like protecting the Kurds and YPG is an admirable goal, idk wtf we've accomplished in Afghanistan (apart from chasing OBL out of it)

could've sworn we already withdrew from Afghanistan several times. Was it Iraq?

No timeline on Syria makes it as worthless as any of his other declarations.

BTW, I wonder how much of Trump's fabled master negotiator rep over the years, however self-promoted, was really no more than this bullshit no-compromise, my way or the highway anti-negotiation? Probably a lot of it. Maybe all of it.

well duh, only pussies compromise

Mattis gone at the end of February, Trump tweets

so long Moderate Dog

Yeah, who's going to want THAT job.

i already turned it down

lindsey graham? but now he's in trouble because he made his dad mad yesterday on twitter

so the house is going to try to pass a CR with border funding, just to show mean old nancy pelosi that they can do it (during her smackdown of trump earlier this week she said that the house didn't have the votes to pass it in the first place). wouldn't it be kind of satisfying if it didn't pass because it didn't get the votes of GOP members who were criticized by trump after the midterms for not "embracing" trump? i'm sure they would relish an opportunity to say "fuck you" on the way out the door

lindsey graham? but now he's in trouble because he made his dad mad yesterday on twitter

It would be amusing to see Graham try.

so the house is going to try to pass a CR with border funding

I look forward to their failure

bracing for the president to announce the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan soon

This would be wholly in character for Trump and seems extremely plausible, given how badly the news cycles have been treating him lately. he's looking for something, anything, he can use to change the conversation and make his crackpot base happy, without needing direct congressional approval. in the process, he's just burning more bridges to all his non-crackpot allies.

and many of them aren't even there because they're bummed about losing their election, have been kicked out of their offices already, are mad at trump and the world, never understood the meaning of public service, or some combination of those things

xp

What are words for

! This line of Mattis resignation letter (h/t @Elizabeth_McLau): “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.” pic.twitter.com/S1z75wotsK

— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) December 20, 2018

he probably is withdrawing from afghanistan then

and also the paragraph before that, where he talks about "treating allies with respect"

wonder if this is in protest of the syria decision, then

xp