The August 2019 US Politics Thread is dumb (stupid}

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.

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

Viewed purely in terms of the intent of the framers of the US constitution, this is the correct ruling. They had a horror of democracy and tried to fence it in with several layers of undemocratic bumpf, among which the electoral college is an outstanding example. That eccentric electoral vote cast by what is being termed "a faithless elector" precisely fills the original purpose of electors: to derail the popular vote if they chose to derail it.

Punishing an elector for exercising his constitutionally mandated franchise would be equivalent to punishing any other voter for their vote.

Reason #456 Why the EC Sucks

Yeah, but we're saddled with the blasted EC forever, because the small mostly rural states enjoy their disproportionate powers and can easily block any amendment that dilutes that power. Even the national Popular Vote Imitative (if that's the right name) where the bigger states pledge to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote, once enough of them participate to ensure a majority of the EC, can be derailed by "faithless electors".

get 'em

March for Our Lives unveils bold new proposal for gun control legislation https://t.co/nrle9XxVfh pic.twitter.com/TYAI2c7a20

— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) August 22, 2019

I think the boldest move would be to buy an AR15 for every military aged black man in the United States, the @GOP would ban assault rifles by Monday!

— Eric Robinson 🇮🇪 (@EricRobinson00) August 22, 2019

Dear white allies,

Shut the fuck up.

Sincerely, me

The thing about using racism to achieve a noble goal is that you are still enabling and nurturing racism, which ultimately is not good for anyone and especially not good for, say, me. So shut the fuck up with this shit.

Yeah, but we're saddled with the blasted EC forever

idk, i'm hearing that you can alter the constitution pretty easily with an executive order

Imitative

argh! Initiative!

'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.

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.

His physical condition is deteriorating as well - he's been propping himself up at rallies by resting his gut on lecterns (which he once would have been too self-conscious to do), his control over his tongue is slipping, he was wearing either a back brace or a diaper in Europe, he's drenched in sweat more often than before. You can't plot a curve, but he's not going to reverse the trend. Three years ago his racking would give him the appearance of focus and precision* for the duration of a TV debate; these days it just gives him the energy to ramble for 90 minutes.

It's not wishful thinking, inasmuch as I'm pretty sure I'd prefer to see him on the ballot rather than anyone with a shred of competency. (Bright side is that the GOP don't appear to have anyone in the wings, and they can't groom a successor while King George and Rupert are in the court.) I'm just estimating that it's far more likely that medical incapacity would remove him from contention by June 2nd, than that the officials of the GOP will remove him for temperamental unfitness between now and Friday evening.

* only to those who were willing to perceive such traits, of course, but marks are the only audience he cares about.

He's gonna have a hell of a time at the no-podium debate (town hall?).

I'm coming around to the idea that he's going to refuse to debate the Democratic nominee. He'll just tweet 20 times a day from like April to November.

he was wearing either a back brace or a diaper in Europe

My Twitter muting must be more successful than I thought it was given that this is the first time I'm hearing about this.

he'll just say "Obama refuses to debate me" and his followers will parrot it, considering how man yof them think he was President and golfing during Katrina

Dan - there were some really wild full-body profile photos at the time, but searching any combination of Trump Europe padding butt diaper -balloon returns too many results to conveniently sift. Check the first 20 seconds of this photocall though:

He sickens me. 😐
Please lock him up! 🔐
pic.twitter.com/J3AuvS25H9

— Patricia Revisits Patrick Henry 💙 (@2021_free) June 29, 2019

It's as if I watched The Naked Gun parody of the presidency.

lol

I think that's just his ass, though

well here's hoping for the worst anyway

Let's be clear, having that ass would be the worst

in multiple ways

alley-oop.gif

I think that's just his ass, though

you forget how gorgeously plump, curvy and not-square his real ass is

https://pics.me.me/cher-cher-trump-has-mammoth-ass-and-visible-panty-line-pic-twitter-com-51942716.png

+1 to me for having images off

For sure that image is indeed a turnoff.

Here's a less horrifying but still alarming one:

When WDRB Louisville reporter Lawrence Smith asked Trump yesterday how he can appeal to urban voters in the city, Trump said with a smile, "Well, I used to bat with a Louisville Slugger. No bat like it." pic.twitter.com/Iyp1DLbSin

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 22, 2019

beat on the brat