The August 2019 US Politics Thread is dumb (stupid}

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

Good news, everyone -- the 10th Circuit ruled yesterday that states have no right to punish or nullify the votes of faithless electors in Presidential elections!

The decision, from a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, is a victory for Micheal Baca, a Colorado Democratic elector in 2016. Under state law, he was required to cast his ballot for Hillary Clinton, who won the state's popular vote. Instead, he crossed out her name and wrote in John Kasich, a Republican and then the governor of Ohio.

(This is probably actually not good news.)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/faithless-elector-a-court-ruling-just-changed-how-we-pick-our-president/ar-AAG8tdZ

I'm certain that people will only be called out as faithless electors by those operating in good faith. Seems absolutely watertight to me.

NEW YORK (AP) — About 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s overall job performance, according to a new poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which finds some support for the president’s handling of the U.S. economy but gives him weak marks on other major issues.

Just 36% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president; 62% disapprove.

The numbers may be ugly for a first-term president facing reelection in 14 months, but they are remarkably consistent. Trump’s approval rating has never dipped below 32% or risen above 42% in AP-NORC polls since he took office. By comparison, President Barack Obama’s approval never dropped below 40% in polling by Gallup.

You can take that consistency to the bank!

Following Ayanna Pressley's Twitter almost makes me wish I still lived in Boston.

Obama never dropped below 40, yet inspired a backlash so strong that assholes elected a person whose agenda seems almost exclusively a repudiation of Obama. Lotta good those numbers do.

what's the point of being loved unless you're universally loved

In totally surprising news, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be joining Fox News as an on-air talking head.

as one of their liberal voices no doubt

Following Ayanna Pressley's Twitter almost makes me wish I still lived in Boston.

she is my rep

'He is deteriorating too rapidly to be on the ballot next year' in a rational world yes, but do you really think he'll wind up not on the ballot? I don't see that happening.

He's Jim Jones and he's IVing the koolaid into our arms

'He is deteriorating too rapidly

Age-related mental deterioration rarely happens on a smooth trend line, but accelerates or slows unpredictably. You can't take what happened this week and reliably project its future path. To do so is wishful thinking.

All he has to force out of his sound canal is "mmmprh yes guns, bad abortion" and he has 50 million instant votes.