US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

xp well there's a funny thing about how they teach in crappy schools

Great news, kingfish!

https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/464317-gop-senator-defends-trump-asking-for-biden-probe-wouldnt-democrats

God these fuckstains need to all have their arteries harden.

Schools in the US stopped teaching “civics” decades ago - they changed the name of the classes to “social studies” and “government” and IIRC they become electives, not mandatory, sometime around the age of 14. Happy to be corrected on this point.

Rick Perry resigning https://t.co/6iKeMgatGu

— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) October 3, 2019

Wow

When you lose PERRY...

you lose his glasses too

Trump just needed him to tackle another swamp

XP ...and his hair.

Rick Perry has three reasons for resigning, which means we'll find out the two he can remember.

— Charlotte Clymer🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) October 3, 2019

i had 'civics' in the 80s

but it was taught by the asshole assistant baseball coach who was later fired for perving (idk the details) on students

anyway no civics course is as persuasive as fox news, if that's your thing. i blame a certain AUSTRALIAN

All this shit is makin me not looking forward to come back to the States in a week

multi-xps - Schools in the US are probably the most balkanized school system of any nation on earth, so any blanket statements about what and how they teach will be in part wrong. As for calling the courses "civics", "social studies" or "government", that seems about as indicative of their substance as calling US prisons "penitentiaries", "correctional facilities", or "carceral housing".

Seems like I see this meme posted by a different burnout friend on FB every couple weeks.

https://i.redd.it/okt8azrh6ht01.jpg

That is wrongly attributed to Zappa. It was actually said by Einstein during a long, thoughtful conversation with Bob Marley.

I live in Texas, went to high school during the W governorship and presidency, and had mandatory US History, World History, Texas History, Geography, and US Government. Global Issues (ultimately the most important of all), was an elective.

XP I thought it was Audrey Hepburn.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/03/politics/trump-biden-call-xi-secure-server/index.html

with bonus outrage:

Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.

anyway no civics course is as persuasive as fox news, if that's your thing. i blame a certain AUSTRALIAN

no Australians were involved in the founding of Fox News tbf

i will not bf

founders are less important than owners, iirc

no Australian has ever owned Fox News

I thought Telmarines under Miraz took over Australia iirc

I learned/retained virtually nothing from K-12 social studies. And much of what little I do remember is a gloss on the truth if not outright incorrect.

if we are going to be fair, the most likely next owner of Fox will be someone who moved to Australia at age 18 and lived there during the 1990s

we are not going to be fair

perhaps you would like to clarify rupert murdoch's role in the world?

i do not care that he is now a naturalized american citizen

rupert murdoch's role in the world is to poison and degrade democracy

yeah. it's a curious ambition

I learned/retained virtually nothing from K-12 social studies. And much of what little I do remember is a gloss on the truth if not outright incorrect.

― Furter-Bursting Tater Squirter (Old Lunch), Thursday, October 3, 2019 8:37 PM bookmarkflaglink

Man Robert Fulghum got dark

Highly recommend this for anyone looking for a civics primer, intended in part as just that:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/books/review-these-truths-history-united-states-jill-lepore.html

It omits indigenous history, but, yes, it's a solid book to press on your conservative dad during the holidays.

That assumes one's conservative dad reads books which are not one of Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Time" series or Tom Clancy's many paeans to unchecked militarism.

see also https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/greg-grandin/the-end-of-the-myth

Are we going to get a "foreign interference in elections is actually fine" pivot at some point?

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 3 October 2019 23:40 (yesterday)

Yeah, 12 hours ago

As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2019

oh, so the Steele Dossier is cool now? Thanks

The argument that one is fine and the other is not arguably cuts both ways but the Steele dossier had the advantage of being anonymised - Giuliani's binder seems to be made up of statements from people who, in the last 24 hours, were investigated over their ties to an illegal gambling ring (Lutsenko) and didn't bother to turn up to their own appeal against getting fired (Shokin). Neither is going to stand by anything they allegedly said to him or would have any credibility if they did.

That assumes one's conservative dad reads books which are not one of Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Time" series or Tom Clancy's many paeans to unchecked militarism.

― A is for (Aimless), Thursday, October 3, 2019

Mine!

It would be ridiculous to say that it cuts both ways; the president is using the power of his office to force a state to comply with his personal wishes. There is no such parallel in the Steele Dossier.

Re: the pivot. I meant from the rest of the gop and their media, so far it seems they would rather deflect and move on than do this, of course trump has already tried this, but he says all sorts of wacky shit.

If the investigation had actually been started by the Steele dossier, it would have been kinda similar, though.

I continue to be perplexed by the dismassal of the Steele dossier as some kind of hack job. To my understanding It's deeply sourced and has been largely corroborated, w/ exception of pee tape stuff (which, there's totally a pee tape)

One of the claims of Trump world is that the Dossier was illegal because Hillary's campaign was relying on a foreign operative to dig up dirt. If what Trump is doing is kosher then that argument is moat.

But Trump is in the right because the dirt he is trying to dig up is totally true, but the dirt Hillary's campaign was trying to dig up was totally fake. Ipso facto.

pointing out GOP/Trump hypocrisy is about the most toothless argument we have

that's why i made it on a politics thread not a tv ad

Yeah I just read the execrable Marc Thiessen arguing that "Democrats told us opposition research is okay and everybody does it."

So the argument is not just "whatever the president does is fine," but "because a Democrat kinda did a thing once, Democrats can't complain now." Because Both Sides.

Weirdly, I have been unable to use this tactic successfully in my dealings with the law: "But officer, there was this one time that a Republican killed someone. Both Sides!"

Except that Fusion GPS is not another country

pointing out GOP/Trump hypocrisy is about the most toothless argument we have

This is true but may become even more incredibly depressing if there should happen to be a Supreme Court vacancy next year.