US Politics May 2019: " If I was burned at the stake, I would ask for a mirror"

This LGM piece resonates strongly with me.

What happens if Donald Trump is president on January 21st, 2021? By “what happens” I mean what follows from that for you personally, both in terms of what political actions and personal life choices you may make.

I realize this is a disturbing and indeed horrifying prospect, but it’s one I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. It goes without saying that all of us will do our best to make sure it doesn’t come to that. But what if does? What then?

Of course a lot depends on how this should come to happen. An at least facially legitimate election is one thing, an apparently stolen one is another. And the possibility exists, even if it’s remote, that the results of the election won’t determine the outcome, and the political situation devolves into something like civil war. (A year ago I would have said the chances of that were so remote as not to be worth considering. I don’t think that’s the case any more).

The reason I’m asking this question is that at some point acceding to creeping fascism becomes collaboration. At what point does an authoritarian takeover become too obvious to be tolerable? At what point does resistance have to become something more than a slogan?

I really don't think the senate will ever be in the hands of the democrats again in my lifetime

― Dan S, Wednesday, May 8, 2019 10:01 PM (nine minutes ago)

I said this about the House in 2004 and 2014!

There are no certainties except (a) Jake Gyllenhaal (b) death

lol

The economy will not hold up. Lest I'm misunderstood, it's not a wish -- it's an inevitability.

You didn’t exactly put a timeline on that, though

Anyone who puts a strict timeline on that is fooling themselves.

well, this is ILX.

I’m willing to go out on a limb. This economy will not last...36 hours

ok i'll stop looking for a living wage then

this is all such shit, I hope you find a living wage

I really don't think the senate will ever be in the hands of the democrats again in my lifetime

― Dan S, Wednesday, May 8, 2019 10:01 PM (nine minutes ago)

I said this about the House in 2004 and 2014!

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 8, 2019 7:12 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago)

but we have too many states that are resolutely republican

it's sickening to me

how does Congress compel Don Jr, Hope Hicks, Steve Bannon or anyone else to testify. they can't and they won't as far as I can see, we live in a fake democracy

i totally get where you're coming from man, i've been there, but maybe time for bed

lol yes

Demographics favors Dems over the next few decades, at least for the House and Presidency. There's certainly the issue of small population states holding sway over the Senate and holding the threat of filibusters over legislation, and of course a Federalist society packed judiciary.

The Dems were on the defense in the senate in 2018, with some

Demographics favors Dems over the next few decades, at least for the House and Presidency. There's certainly the issue of small population states holding sway over the Senate for the foreseeable future and holding the threat of filibusters over legislation, and of course a Federalist Society-packed judiciary for a generation...

The Dems were on the defense in the Senate in 2018, given they had about twice the incumbents up. It's GOPs turn to play defense in 2020.

I really feel there's been a sea change on the climate issue in the general electorate over the past few years. Few are willing to make personal sacrifices to ensure their great grandchildren don't drown, burn, and starve; and it took 40 years too long, but at least there's a majority recognizing the problem. Head in the sand denialism will be NAGL, and I think majorities are going to start holding denialists accountable...

Might force you to write something independent and critical for a change. https://t.co/QTD1KOja0o

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) May 8, 2019

well, let's not do anything hasty

Op Ed: Only Someone as Wealthy and Handsome and Well-Endowed as Donald Trump is Man Enough to Return my Press Credentials

milbank's twitter bio reads 'purveyor of fake news', so trump was perfectly justified in revoking his credentials imo

xxxp It took a lot of strength for me not to reply to Milbank, "Yeah, creeping fascism, etc., but you are a pretty shitty journalist."

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/05/09/white-house-website-boston-red-socks-sox-visit-president-trump/

'Siri, how you spell socks?'

anyone have thoughts about the subpoena of don jr, notable because it comes from the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee? very conspicuous for any republican, let alone a committee, to do anything but say "case closed" and stonewall the entire thing

i think Burr heads that committee and he's not running for re-election so maybe he's not quite as eager to carry Trump's water as the rest of the gang, but he's hardly joining #resistance either. definitely not a clown on the level of Nunes though.

Psh, Trump just can't get a break. He spells shit wrong and people complain. He spells "socks" right and people still complain! There's just no winning for this guy.

xpost Didn't Nunes team with Schiff to support getting the entire Mueller intelligence report?

Karl, I think it rattled the WH a little.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday criticized Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee for not informing him that President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. would be subpoenaed by the panel as part of its ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

In an interview with CBS News, Mulvaney said it was “bad form” for the Republican-led committee to subpoena Trump Jr. without giving him advance notice.

“I have no difficulty with bipartisanship, but to subpoena the president of the United States’s son and not at least get a heads-up, I thought was — let’s say — bad form,” Mulvaney said.

mulvaney knows that as the chief of staff of the well-oiled machine that is the trump administration, he's in a good position to criticize the "bad form" of others

GOOD MOURNING

WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the United States was in a “constitutional crisis” and warned that House Democrats might move to hold more Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress if they continued their refusals to comply with committee subpoenas.

Speaking to reporters in the Capitol, Ms. Pelosi said she agreed with Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who said Wednesday that the nation was in a constitutional crisis after his committee recommended the House hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over an unredacted version of the special counsel’s report, along with the report’s underlying evidence.

“The administration has decided they are not going to honor their oath of office,” she said.

Ms. Pelosi said Democrats would bring the contempt citation to the floor for a vote of the full House “when we are ready.”

Democrats have not settled on a precise date for the vote to hold Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress, though Mr. Nadler said after Wednesday’s vote that he wanted it scheduled “rapidly.”

Democratic leaders may wait to pair the Judiciary Committee’s contempt recommendations with another, most likely from the Intelligence Committee should its conflict with the Justice Department get to that point.

The committee’s chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff, issued a subpoena on Thursday for Mr. Barr to hand over the full Mueller report and evidence, as well as all counterintelligence and foreign intelligence generated by the special counsel’s investigations. He gave the Justice Department until May 15 to comply. If Mr. Barr ignores that deadline, the Intelligence Committee would probably hold its own contempt proceedings and send another recommendation to the House floor.

There are other possible contempt citations in the wings as well, including for Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel who is under subpoena by the Judiciary Committee, and witnesses in unrelated Oversight and Reform Committee investigations.

“In terms of timing, when we’re ready, we’ll come to the floor,” Ms. Pelosi said. “There might be some other contempt of Congress issues that we want to deal with at the same time.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/politics/pelosi-constitutional-crisis.html

rank these things that have all happened in the last couple hours, in terms of importance:

25% tariffs on $200B of chinese goods starts tomorrow
US just seized a north korean ship in retaliation for missile launches
ongoing constitutional crisis

ok, 2 of the 3 are thing that did not happen in the last 2 hours, but otherwise that was a good description of the list, i thought

hadn't heard about the NK ship! sounds spicy

Life over the last couple of years feels kinda like being a tornado chaser who waits until there's like five cyclones whipping through a cornfield and gets out of his jeep to see how long he can leap and dodge between them before being ripped to pieces. Fun, in other words. A lot of fun.

so it's not just sanctions on NK, but a blockade? i guess might makes right in these matters, but that doesn't sound 'legal'

Eh, the metaphor I'd use is more like being kidnapped and stuck in the backseat of said tornado chaser, or learning the bus driver on a mountain road is a member of a death cult.

https://makeagif.com/gif/christopher-walken-annie-hall-gvf8Pt

Or rather

https://dz7u9q3vpd4eo.cloudfront.net/wp-content/legacy/posts/d0744f52-b206-49ea-a7c9-27f820968fbf.jpg

Taken aback by the Senate Intelligence Committee’s subpoena issued to Donald Trump Jr., President Trump on Thursday defended his son, leaning on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to do so.

...“He’s now testified for 20 hours or something — massive amount of time. The Mueller report came out. That’s the bible. The Mueller report came out and they said he did nothing wrong. The only thing is, it’s oppo research,” Trump continued, arguing that his campaign was simply engaged in a routine search for damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

...“My son is a good person. My son testified for hours and hours. My son was totally exonerated by Mueller, who frankly does not like Donald Trump — me, this Donald Trump,” he said. “And frankly for my son after being exonerated to now get a subpoena to go again and speak again after close to 20 hours of telling everybody that would listen about a nothing meeting, yeah, I’m pretty surprised.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/donald-trump-surprised-subpoena-son-don-jr

confirmation that trump did not read the mueller report

or rather, he's read as much of the mueller report as he has the bible

You got it wrong: this Donald Trump.

Mueller, who frankly does not like Donald Trump — me, this Donald Trump

omg

This Donald Trump is the new This Fuckin' Guy.

Confirmation that the hole in the front of Donald Trump's head is capable of emitting words that adhere closely enough to the general structure of our language that people still hopefully insist that the sound they hear is anything more than a random collage of words not terribly unlike the utterances of a parrot.

i read that as him saying his son didn't like him

"According to his first wife, Ivana, Donald Trump was never keen on bequeathing his name to anybody," Julia Ioffe wrote in GQ. "It was Ivana who wanted to call their newborn Donald junior. 'You can't do that!' Trump is quoted as saying in Ivana's memoir, 'Raising Trump.' 'What if he - as in that Donald Trump, not this Donald Trump - turns out to be a loser?'"

that would have been embarassing

That anecdote, in complete isolation, is sufficient justification for the woodchipperizing of its subject imo. Who but an irredeemable POS worries that their unborn/newborn baby might be a loser.

I mean, it was a legitimate worry in this instance, but still.