The August 2019 US Politics Thread is dumb (stupid}

There is literally nothing Donald Trump could say, aside from an expression of genuine empathy and care for other human beings, that would surprise me at this point. Nothing.

In a 180 from yesterday, Trump says he is no longer interested in tax cuts or lowering capital gains taxes. https://t.co/wGNLm74KlT

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) August 21, 2019

I am still in the middle of watching The Family doc on netflix. But yes, all these fucking assholes are the Chosen Ones. It's their thing to do and say all the crazy shit they want.

On the plus side, it seems like the contents of his brainpan are finally nearing complete putrefaction.

*adjusts the election models to give trump a slightly better chance*

The president's retweetees form quite a pantheon: Katie Hopkins, Wayne Allyn Root, various Q-ers. It may be too much to ask for William F. Buckley Jr., Milton Friedman, and Irving Kristol. But we can do better, can't we?

— Jay Nordlinger (@jaynordlinger) August 21, 2019

yeah i'd say what's unique about the OG is not the manias he has but that he lets them out unchecked

xxp

It may be too much to ask for William F. Buckley Jr., Milton Friedman, and Irving Kristol. But we can do better, can't we?

pfffffffffft

nordlinger has learned absolutely nothing. i know, shocking

oh noes, the president is retweeting the wrong kind of intellectually bankrupt frauds

what a day

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration was seriously looking at ending the right of citizenship for U.S.-born children of noncitizens and people who immigrated to the United States illegally.

“We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land, you walk over the border, have a baby - congratulations, the baby is now a U.S. citizen. ... It’s frankly ridiculous,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.

good luck amending the Constitution

Headline: Trump looks seriously at U.S. Constitution, calls it "ridiculous".

doesn't he know he's supposed to call them "anchor babies" to dehumanize them? i'm sure stephen miller will whisper the words in his ears soon.

so they're "looking" at repealing the 14th amendment?
xpost

Ireland got rid of this like ten years ago by popular plebiscite.

i know the greenland thing is a footnote in the trump presidency, but look how pathetic he is

The statement from Mette Frederiksen, the 41-year-old prime minister of Denmark, had called Mr. Trump’s hope of buying Greenland “absurd,” a statement the president called “nasty.”

“I thought it was a very not nice way of saying something,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “But all they had to do is say, no, we’d rather not do that or we’d rather not talk about it.”

Mr. Trump asserted he was taking umbrage on behalf of his nation.

“She’s not talking to me, she’s talking to the United States of America,” he said. “They can’t say ‘how absurd.’ ”

sounds like a guy who has surrounded himself with sycophants, big surprise

"looking at" is gen Shitheadese for "making noise w/ no followthru"

NARRATOR: She was talking to him

"how absurd" re: the USA is otm though

Headline: Trump looks seriously at U.S. Constitution, calls it "ridiculous".

― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, August 21, 2019 1:15 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It contains words that aren't his name so yeah. He'll only be satisfied when the world is a Trumpian version of Malkovich taking the portal into his own head.

“They can’t say ‘how absurd.’ ” for September title.

"very not nice way of saying something" --a professional orator, a leader of a global power

when he talks about other people not saying things in a nice way, it carries a lot of weight because he is renowned for being so kind and polite

'Sad!' - an oil-soaked gutter rat struggling to escape a rotisserie chicken carcass

Can someone serve him a Big Mac with little blades in it

Democrats say they got a tip from a federal employee that somebody may have tried to interfere with an IRS audit of President Donald Trump.

The revelation came to light in a court filing in Democrats’ lawsuit seeking the president’s tax returns.

In late July, the House Committee on Ways and Means “received an unsolicited communication from a federal employee setting forth credible allegations of ‘evidence of possible misconduct’― specifically, potential ‘inappropriate efforts to influence’ the mandatory audit program,” the Tuesday court filing says.

The IRS automatically audits the president and vice president every year. Democrats have said they need copies of Trump’s tax returns in part to make sure the audit is legit.

Democrats sued in July after the Trump administration refused to comply with a federal tax disclosure law that has entitled tax committee chairs to private tax information since 1924.

Their filing in federal court this week argued that District Judge Trevor McFadden should order the Treasury Department to hand over Trump’s tax returns without a trial, since the disclosure law gives no leeway to refuse. And they say the whistleblower’s material bolsters their case.

The Trump administration responded that the request for Trump’s taxes raises weighty issues about whether Congress is overstepping its constitutional powers, and that the court should take its time. Past administrations have benefited from federal court cases taking longer than election cycles.

In an Aug. 8 letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) called the tipster’s claim a “grave charge” that cast doubt on Mnuchin’s argument that there’s no reason to worry IRS agents could be subject to political influence. He asked for a “a rolling production of documents and communications of specified Treasury and IRS employees.”

Mnuchin refused to cooperate, saying he forwarded Neal’s letter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an internal agency watchdog.

A Treasury spokesman declined to comment.

The tax return case is one of several legal battles between Congress and the administration that could have major consequences for the U.S. system of government. In the past, courts have given lawmakers wide latitude for investigations, but Trump has stonewalled to an unprecedented degree.

Add it to the list.

just lol if you don't think the president blatantly and illegally interfered in the effort to get his tax returns

just lol if you don't think the president blatantly and illegally interfered in the effort to get his tax returns, and will likely get away with it, as he has gotten away with a ton of other things, many even more serious than this.

"Ubsurd," "Armed Forca," Appliculble," "Obstulcles" -- Trump had a hard time pronouncing a number of words on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/1HLRO1i5Xd

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2019

Is it just me or has this week been especially dumb (stupid}?

Trump is a slightly more coherent Billy Milano at this point.

Idk who that insults more

it's 4:45 am at the party, when the only people standing are just kind of laughing at dumb shit and that's all that's been happening for hours
but the weirdest guy of all is a teetotaler

trump never made anything as joy-giving as “mr. oofus”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cSvkyV9j6d4

Trump is a slightly more coherent Billy Milano at this point.

Idk who that insults more

― FUCK YOUR POTATO (Neanderthal), Thursday, 22 August 2019 00:37 (one hour ago) link

Stormtrumpers of Death

There is something ineffable about this week in particular that seems to be a threshold between 'old and incurious narcissistic rich fuck who lies and flubs on the reg and is in a general state of inarguable cognitive decline' and 'is it possible for the brain of a living human to melt because I think that might be happening'.

it's nice that daniel dale et al are keeping track of Donald Trump's 12,000 False Statements but i'd rather they take these data points and come to the obvious conclusion

we already know he's a lying hypocrite; these aren't gotcha points. come out and fucking say he's unfit and say it every day

Otm

Daniel Dale is a beat reporter, who does a very good job of reporting his assigned beat. He does not have any ability to depose the head of a foreign power.

yes

Who said he did?

(nb: he doesn't have a problem making commentary like "This is one of the least-hinged speeches Trump has given in a long time," separate from his factual reporting of the facts that it is his job to report.)

feels to me like Daniel Dale is willing to say he's unfit more than other reporters

daniel dale is in great shape, though

healthiest reporter ever

come out and fucking say he's unfit and say it every day

The difficulty is that, short of Trump's becoming clearly physical incapable of carrying out his duties or of making his thoughts known to his staff, there is no standard of 'unfitness' other than what Congress or his Cabinet officers can agree upon.

Because the Republicans whose participation would be required to remove him find it convenient for Trump to remain in office, there is no way to push him out of office until November 2020, so long as he doesn't keel over into a coma. Even then many Republicans would say it was premature to remove him from office.

Him not being able to carry out an official state visit because he can't handle a woman saying no to him is pretty close to him being practically incapable of carrying out his duties to me, tbh.

He has been emotionally incapable of carrying out his duties since at least 1986. Today’s tantrum will change nothing in the eyes of the political party that is using him as cover.

He is deteriorating too rapidly to be on the ballot next year, but I absolutely cannot imagine a bottom to his behaviour that will make the GOP take action in 2019 while he’s still walking and making vaguely word-shaped noises.

And owning/triggering the libs

good luck amending the Constitution

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 21 August 2019 18:15 (yesterday) link

aiui, if you have the votes on the supreme court, the constitution can be whatever you want