no, i didn't know that the June 2019 US Politics thread was nasty

Interesting. But only patriotic proud American commercial ships, right?!

I really couldn't give a fuck if Iran threw shitty bombs at a NON US tanker. although I guess now the word is they were trying to hit a US drone which I guess is...provacative, but also, who gives a fuck? What if Iran had drones flying off the East Coast? Wouldn't we shoot them down?

I need thousands of American 23 yr olds to protect my freedom of speech by murdering Iranian civilians because a Japanese oil tanker got attacked 8000 miles from America.

— rob delaney (@robdelaney) June 14, 2019

last two posts otm

Any nation has the recognized right to shoot down hostile aircraft overflying its airspace, including within its 12 nm territorial waters. I have no doubt that US drones have in the past overflown Iranian territory.

Would the average US citizen recognize that Iran has a right to defend its sovereign territory? As my parents' generation used to say, "eh, go tell it to the marines". That's just how we empires roll.

Blockbuster story buried in this NYT report.

Pentagon, intelligence officials fear they cannot trust Trump enough to brief him fully on new US cyber operation against Russia for fear he will "countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials" as he did before with Russians. pic.twitter.com/BgSF3zi8nm

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) June 15, 2019

well yeah

gotta loop that motherfucker out

I hope whoever assembles the PDBs has a post-Trump memoir coming up. Even redacted, these are among the most embarrassing stories I've read about Trump's actual functioning in a presidential role. The PDB reduced to two pages of bullet points with large colorful maps, insertions of the phrase "President Trump" as often as possible to maintain attention, intelligence withheld from CinC for fear of leaks to other powers.

Happy Father's Day!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-48656431
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a new settlement in the occupied Golan Heights, named after US President Donald Trump.
At a naming ceremony on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said Trump Heights honoured Mr Trump for his decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

THE DUMBEST TIMELINE

Trump to ABC: "I’m not a breakfast guy at all, fortunately. I like the lunches but the dinners is what I really like."

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) June 17, 2019

the fact that there is a democratic debate in mere weeks was kind of shocking to me, that not that it's certain a dem will win, but that both time and the system churn on and there will come a day when life proceeds without this man as our leader. barring some nuclear conflagration but that could happen with or without him anyway

'the dinners is what I really like' for July Title.

"I run the country. I like mustard on my biscuit, hrm."

poor Mick Mulvaney

Pres. Trump says he “might” turn over his “financial statement” to Congress.

“I hope they get it, because it’s a fantastic financial statement,” he tells @GStephanopoulos in the Oval Office. https://t.co/8q0FwFD9qt pic.twitter.com/fw1tIc0vxO

— ABC News (@ABC) June 17, 2019

Nice to see the president adhering to the historical sense of "fantastic" as "having the nature of fantasy"

good morning!

I don't understand why news organizations release transcripts with "(inaudible)" all over them. THAT'S YOUR FUCKING JOB. IF YOU DIDN'T HEAR WHAT HE SAID, LISTEN TO IT AGAIN. That's what I have to do when I'm transcribing my own interviews - the motherfucker mumbles or swallows his words, and you go back and listen again until you figure it out.

The transcript in question.

TBF, there's a degree of continuity in most human speech which allows us to infer as to the identity of an indistinct word based on the context of the larger utterance. This is a more difficult undertaking when the utterance in question is the spoken equivalent of someone cramming a children's dictionary into a woodchipper.

I know armchair psychoanalyzing Trump is no fun anymore, but him tweeting this is pretty funny: "Happy Father’s Day to all, including my worst and most vicious critics"

less funny was his offhand suggestion that maybe people wouldn't want him to leave after the end of his second term.

xpost AKA RIP Fred Trump. Sad!

STEPHANOPOULOS: This was-- you feel like this is your (inaudible)?

TRUMP: Yeah, I-- I do. I feel it's really-- really a great part of the country for us. Yeah.

STEPHANOPOULOS: This was the first state you ever (inaudible).

If only ABC had some way of determining what their own employee was saying

I know armchair psychoanalyzing Trump is no fun anymore, but him tweeting this is pretty funny: "Happy Father’s Day to all, including my worst and most vicious critics"

― rob, Monday, June 17, 2019 9:33 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

come on, this is playing the hits--wishing happy memorial day to the haters and losers, etc.

I think he means the thought of Fred Trump gives rise to some feelings of persecution

Nice to see the president adhering to the historical sense of "fantastic" as "having the nature of fantasy"

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Monday, June 17, 2019 6:45 AM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reminds me of this martin amis anecdote about his dad. no doubt trump is familiar.

Has your enormity in the Observer been pointed out to you?" he asked with enthusiasm over breakfast one Sunday morning (I had left home by then, but I still spent about every other weekend at his house). "My enormity?" I knew he was applying the word in its proper sense – "something very bad", and not "something very big i nsize". And my mistake was certainly atrocious: I had used martial as a verb.

Shanahan Defense nomination pulled

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/18/patrick-shanahan-acting-defense-secretary-full-statement-domestic-violence-case/1486878001/

Trump says Shanahan withdrew to spend more time with his family. Shanahan was divorced after a domestic violence incident 10 years ago. His children are grown. He hasn't remarried.

— Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 18, 2019

Maybe he's moving back in with his folks.

why is it not surprising that Trump doesn’t know what “spending time with your family” means

I think he does, he's just using "family" as in crime family

Tons upon tons of empty seats at arena Trump rally in my hometown tonight. Can't wait to see what he lies the attendance up to

Is that right? The nyt coverage of it suggests a huge crowd, lots of people lining up many hours in advance

People too busy working their second and third jobs to go to rallies.

i was told ppl had been waiting up to 40 hours to attend the hatefest

"Lots of empty seats" is not incompatible with "some people showed up a day early "

Trump stages his greatest show yet
The president’s elaborate reelection rally in Florida featured thousands of adoring supporters.

By GABBY ORR 06/18/2019 07:21 PM EDT Updated 06/18/2019 10:39 PM EDT

^the Politico headline

why would this be his greatest show yet? it seems like it was the same old schtick.

just confirms to me that politico is a trash website

i watched a bit. not a great show.

melania is not a good hype man. don jr is worse. if trump really knew how to work a crowd he wouldn't have these two speak before him.

wait malaria was the hype man for trump i thought she really dint care

she seemed pretty indifferent but idk how much that was an effect of her accent.

not compelling imo.

I just dont get it. A man so conspicously show-offy rich he has GOLD FUCKING TOILETS, and a foreign snoooty wife, and kids with trust funds and snooty handed-on-a-platter jobs, and fucking country clubs.

And this is the man white, working class, hardscrabble americans think is on their side?

i know. it's fucking weird.

he's a weird dude. why is he so comfortable giving 86 minute speeches when he can't read a page of text?

Supposedly the arena did eventually fill up. They allocated more tickets than seats largely because of no-shows and protest ticket claims.

Also the people who lined up days in advance were like less than 100 people lol. Some friends snapped pics of the losers