The September 2019 US Politics Thread is great Great GREAT GR8

you have to take risks in life

Kavanaugh was a political prize that the entire religious right valued at the price of their immortal souls by backing Trump and protecting him so he could deliver the federal court system into their hands. Trump they may not value so highly, once they understand Pence is his replacement. Pence was always the evangelicals' insurance policy.

if you can't "outfire up" the GOP by laying out the Grifter's actions, get another job

domestic would-be terrorist to break up the day

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-arrests-army-soldier-allegedly-discussed-plans-bomb/story?id=65802902

anyone interested in Hunter should read this New Yorker profile from July; the campaign clearly knew this was going to be trouble and released basically every bit of opposition they could dig up as a firewall. he comes off like an asshole but likely not criminal.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/will-hunter-biden-jeopardize-his-fathers-campaign

he just seems kind of erratic. like apparently earlier this year he married someone within days of meeting her. and this was only a short time after he broke it off with his brother's widow.

all just kind of gossipy stuff--i don't want to pretend i know what goes on in people's lives--but it's the sort of thing i'm afraid to see circulate in the press throughout the election should biden be the candidate.

Every time I hear Biden's name between Trump and Ukraine I just think, come on, shut the fuck up, even if Biden was up to no good Trump still deserves to be impeached.

One of the many additional reasons congress needs to act is that Trump will be at least as huge a pain in the ass when he is out of office, causing tons of trouble and headaches and, well, crimes, without the benefit of congressional oversight (and with secret service protection!).

i mean, ok, but if investigating the conduct of the candidates' children is just standard practice now, are don jr and eric gonna get grilled while fuckface senior gets grilled about it?

xp

pic.twitter.com/2FMxrVOzPn

— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) September 23, 2019

What a lumbering turd.

i mean, ok, but if investigating the conduct of the candidates' children is just standard practice now, are don jr and eric gonna get grilled while fuckface senior gets grilled about it?

oh for sure. it's not fair no matter how you slice it.

every day that passes, at this very moment, makes it harder to ask the inevitable question democrats will get in 2020: if what trump was doing was so obviously criminal, why didn't you impeach him? the mueller report was more than damning; the ukraine shit is more than more than more than damning. it's going to be hard to rebut that inevitable question if they wait several months (or never) to actually impeach. it is clear that ongoing criminal activity is going on: impeach him NOW.

otm - its infuriating that the Dems are so worried about the perception that they're just "playing politics" yet are okay attempting this for maximum electoral effect, which everyone can see right through. the fact that the Dems care so much about what the right thinks of them is their single biggest political failing, especially when this contributes to what (imo) is their actual biggest issue, the perception that they're just nicer Republicans who wouldn't dare rock the boat

And of course the stupid gamble of waiting until 2020 is that if the Dems lose again, everyone and everything is even worse off than it is now. So get started, fuckers.

honestly I don't see a failed impeachment inquiry hurting them at all, Trump has such an insane amount of baggage and committing crimes in office is only like, 5% of it. plus I think everyone sorta gets that politics is just straight partisanship at this point

karl had the best point -- if dems don't move to impeach, then it seems like they don't really think what trump is doing is that serious. which takes the teeth out of their critiques of him.

if he's engaged in criminal behavior, he needs to be removed from office and charged. the dems need to demonstrate that they at least tried to do that.

Asked Josh Hawley if it’s okay for the president to ask a foreign government to help him win an election.

“Is that what he did?”

“He asked them for help with an election? Can you send me that?”

— Arthur Delaney (@ArthurDelaneyHP) September 23, 2019

They are just parsing like assholes, because anything we know is based on anonymous news reports at the moment.

that's not true - giuliani openly admitted it on live television

i should send that to josh hawley

Rudy is parsing shit, too.

"BARTIROMO: Did the president threaten to cut off aid to Ukraine?
GIULIANI: No, no. That was a false story.
BARTIROMO: 100 percent?
GIULIANI: Well I can't tell you if it's 100% percent."

He's just throwing shit around the cage.

Trump screams that the media is "crooked as hell" and says a Republican would "get the electric chair" for what Biden has done, doesn't actually say what Biden has done but tries to cast aspersions. This is all occurring at the annual UN meeting. pic.twitter.com/TR0RSNkzMa

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) September 23, 2019

this is a fun update of "lock her up"

pedantic but Trump did not scream

corrupt liar twitterer oliver willis is crooked as hell

That should be a crisp, focused speech by the Grifter tomw morning, whoever among you will be liveblogging it.

“No, I didn’t — I didn’t do it,” Mr. Trump told reporters, when asked whether he had conditioned the aid on the promise of an investigation of Mr. Biden. He said he hoped that the transcript of a July 25 phone call he had with Mr. Zelensky would be released, claiming that it would exonerate him. “And I hope you get to see it soon,” he said. But then the president angrily denied that he had committed to releasing the document, arguing that making the transcript public would set a bad precedent, and he waffled repeatedly over whether he would authorize its disclosure.

dumb, dumb. dumb, dumb.

The meetings were the first of more than a dozen sit-downs Mr. Trump had scheduled with world leaders here — including with Mr. Zelensky of Ukraine, whom he will see Wednesday.

future transcript, meeting between Zelensky and Trump on Wednesday

TRUMP: ...so did you get the biden shit? you won't get the money until you give me the dirt on biden

remember when the mueller investigation ended, and we were provided with very little insight into trump's finances and tax records? and how congress still hasn't been able to make public basic information about his conflicts of interest?

so much fun

set a bad president

I know it’s blindingly obvious, but how do the Trump faithful reconcile “DRAIN THE SWAMP” with this transparent bluster about “precedent” and “what’s appropriate” etc?

They don't. Fake News! Lock Her Up! You're the Puppet! Emails!

or for that matter, how did the priority of the D leadership become “what’s best for us, timing wise” over “is the president criminal”?
I know, I see politics like an 8 year old, just had to vent.

probably occasioned by that hilarious piece at the Giant Comb where 2scoops described “three countries” who have “come to study” the wall but “I’ll have to check with them if I can say their names for security reasons.”

no, you're right. the democrats' obsession with optics is shameful. it's also absurd because they're not even good at it. every time they make decisions based on how it will look, it's always completely transparent and it backfires

remember when the mueller investigation ended, and we were provided with very little insight into trump's finances and tax records?

remember when the Mueller investigation ended, which had little scope to examine his finances and none at all to his tax records, so did not address those issues, but turned over financial matters they had uncovered (including their subpoena of Deutsche Bank) to law enforcement agencies that could investigate those matters?

and how congress still hasn't been able to make public basic information about his conflicts of interest?

how can congress make this information more public than it already is?

If i was a member of congress i’d put some effort into answering that question.

It’s at the very least weird that manafort and cohen went down for financial and tax crimes and the trump organization remains in many ways a black box.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/swamp-chronicles/the-questions-about-trumps-businesses-that-are-still-unanswered

remember when House Intelligence, House Financial Services, House Oversight, the Manhattan DA and the state of New York were all engaged in active investigations into Trump's finances, with multiple subpoenas to multiple financial organisations?

Welcome back, treeship

treesh please stop remembering things, you do not need to make up for your absences

Yes, there are still open investigations. Correct.

xp

It's been years. Years! Investigating things that were issues the day he took office, are no less issues today, were issues during the 2018 midterms that brought the Dems back in, and will continue to be issues as long as he is in office. And that's not taking into account the even bigger things that go above and beyond, like what Mueller investigated or this Ukraine stuff. For God's sake, there are people currently in jail for things that he is being investigated for! If all it takes is for Trump and his cronies to blatantly ignore subpoenas to slow these things down, they will never get completed.

exactly

Dude has nearly 50 (F I F T Y) years' practice of avoiding prosecution for engaging in very very obvious criming, through loopholes or stonewalling or a skill at finding extremely slimy lawyers. It's extremely maddening, but years is the best-case scenario at getting him on anything, not a few months by an under-resourced investigation that is now up against White House lawyers and some of the largest banks in the world.

very very obvious criming

He was barred from opening a casino in Sydney T H I R T Y - T H R E E years ago because he was too obviously involved in organised crime!

exactly

Mother's husband in the soup

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/pence-gave-ukraine-the-message-too