US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

The Guardian live coverage is interesting in that it's embedding in each part of the story that Trump's side of it is complete horseshit.

― Andrew Farrell, Friday, February 15, 2019 5:07 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's the only way to try to do basic reporting about this.

Yeah, that it's so remarkable is sad.

TBF, most 'journalists' aren't really engaged in basic reporting these days.

I heard about it from a woman I said what are you talking about then I read it in a paper and I put out a statement that said don't do it

"He had rocket ships flying over Japan"

Jim Acosta, who the president doesn’t like, asks Trump why he is declaring a national emergency at a time when statistics show undocumented immigration has just dropped to its lowest level in a decade.

“You don’t really believe that stat do you?” Trump says. That stat comes from his own government.

Trump says he has seen statistics which contradict the numbers reported by the government’s Customs and Border Protection bureau.

The president is asked where he is getting those statistics from.

“I use many stats,” Trump says.

based on his medical report, he might need many stents

Trump, responding to my question, concedes there’s no national emergency to justify building his wall: “I didn’t need to do this... I just want to do it faster.”
That answer will complicate his legal case.

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) February 15, 2019

I thought SCOTUS made a habit lately of disregarding intentions

starting to think this trump fella is a bad president tbh

I didn't need to rob a bank really but waiting until payday is sooooo boooooring.

ha!

@dick_nixon Am I hearing right? Did he just use a racist asian accent to quote China’s Xi? “We give death penalty to people who sell drugs.” He purposely left out the article.

— Nancy Mades-Byrd (@NMBPodcaster) February 15, 2019

hmm, maybe the president is racist.

The more xenophobic interpretation of Trump's words/actions is often the correct one. It's called Occam's Racist iirc.

so is everyone gonna register GOP to vote for Weld?

the NY primary's date is not yet established, so my vote on the Dem side might actually matter,

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her colleague Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) will introduce a bill to block President Donald Trump‘s national emergency declaration, she announced on Twitter Friday morning.

“If President Trump declares a national emergency to fund his border wall, I’m prepared to introduce a resolution to terminate the President’s emergency declaration,” Castro of Texas said in a statement Thursday. The National Emergencies Act gives Congress the authority to do so by enacting a joint resolution, according to Castro.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-plans-bill-to-block-trumps-national-emergency-declaration/

I don't know what the procedure is here but it would seem the President admitting on live TV that the emergency declaration was unnecessary might help their case

I believe it falls under stare stupide

Inevitable but anyway

Breaking: "A federal judge has placed a gag order on Roger Stone and attorneys involved in his criminal case," @kpolantz reports

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 15, 2019

Have to say this is very clever.

NEW: A judge ruled Roger Stone can still talk to the press and in public about his case, he just can't do it in front of the courthouse. She warned that if he tries to complain later about pretrial publicity, she'll consider how much he's to blame https://t.co/6sFKGK7Q3D pic.twitter.com/va228PJXQ7

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) February 15, 2019

Hmm.

Huge scoop from @PamelaBrownCNN -- Sarah Sanders has been interviewed by the special counsel.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 15, 2019

"The President urged me, like he has everyone in the administration, to fully cooperate with the special counsel. I was happy to voluntarily sit down with them," Sanders said in a statement to CNN.

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) February 15, 2019

"Then they started asking questions. Can I go home now?"

extremely voluntarily. the most.

I'd like to imagine she responded to the special counsel just as she does to the media.

Hahaha. I imagine if she tried that it lasted about five seconds.

Many xposts, but I just read: I thought SCOTUS made a habit lately of disregarding intentions as "I thought POTUS made a habit lately of disregarding infections."

well, sure, hence the existence of Alito, Gorsuch, etc.

ACLU suing Yamergency

perhaps he can consider declaring a national emergency because mass shootings are still happening

rather than “hur dur i want to build a fence”

He doesn't want his presidency to end without some form of physical thing he can slap his name on and call his legacy. That's all it boils down to, he doesn't give a shit how it happens.

meanwhile President Coulter has a warning:

The goal is to get Trump's stupidest voters to say "HE'S FIGHTING!" No he's not. If he signs this bill, it's over. https://t.co/6DQSkqxV8h

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) February 15, 2019

Worth noting

Here's prosecutors' response to Roger Stone's challenge to having his case designated as "related" to the prosecution of Russian nationals re: the DNC hack — they argue there are common search warrants and underlying criminal events involved https://t.co/FTLAfUhfma pic.twitter.com/suWHoXPYPM

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) February 15, 2019

Prosecutors: "In other words, the criminal conduct alleged in Netyksho was a central focus of the congressional investigation that [Stone] is alleged to have obstructed..." pic.twitter.com/SCnGiTJSls

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) February 15, 2019

Annnnnd...

Breaking: Prosecutors say for the first time they have evidence of Roger Stone communicating with Wikileaks, according to a new court filing from special counsel prosecutors.

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 15, 2019

Elsewhere:

NEW: House Oversight says it has new documents from OGE that show Trump's lawyers gave the agency "evolving stories" on whether Trump had reimbursed Cohen—including likening the expenses for which Trump reimbursed him to "payments for a kitchen remodel." https://t.co/F0IDF3VApt

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) February 15, 2019

My congressperson, who was sort of a "moderate" on border and immigration issues until Trump, has spent the last two years going all in on fascism. And for the laziest of reasons, really--pure political expediency. He makes me want to vomit.

https://ptpimg.me/7xq144.png

https://ptpimg.me/7xq144.png

I'd say I'd like to see this "research," but there's not a single word of that that isn't in absolute bad faith.

I know that these people will never suffer for their actions, and that upsets me.

from the progression of his talking points, and what he has been willing to support and justify, over the past two years, it's obvious that there is literally nothing that the president and his administration might do that my representative and most other GOP reps could not find it in themselves to support. arrests of journalists, concentration camps, genocide. it's all fine with them. or would be fine if we prepare for it by a few increments. when i see his never-not-bland face i see the face of those that murdered my relatives in Theresienstadt.

if that seems extreme to you, you're not paying attention.

I don't catch up until late in the day, so I'm sure this has been discussed lots already, but "I didn’t need to do this...I just want to do it faster" on the day the emergency is declared and the legal challenges are launched is beyond surreal. Not to mention relegating the emergency to fifth or sixth on the press conference agenda. Or the sing-songy 9th-Circuit rap.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/430191-trump-predicts-ninth-circuit-will-block-emergency-wall-declaration?jwsource=cl

Image if he wasn’t a fucking idiot??

that sing-song 9th Circuit rant was really unhinged

Holy shit, what the fuck.

Sometimes I just need to say it explicitly and really let it sink in: this man is the President of the United States.

wow, what the hell

Mustard needs to set that to a great beat

Our auto-autotuning POTUS.