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

how is anyone supposed to take him seriously if he doesn't use the word "hereby?"

totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)

Narrator: eating a lot at Thanksgiving does not count as totally destroying and obliterating the Economy of Turkey.

he's going to live a long comfortable life isn't he

he also vaguely remembers pardoning Turkey

I'm positive Trump has obliterated more than his fair share of toilets.

Blobfish has strong urges! Too bad they won't amount to anything

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly rebuked President Trump’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from northeast Syria, saying that a supermajority in the Senate disagreed with the president’s abrupt announcement.

“I urge the President to exercise American leadership to keep together our multinational coalition to defeat ISIS and prevent significant conflict between our NATO ally Turkey and our local Syrian counterterrorism partners,” McConnell said Monday in a statement. “Major new conflict between Turkey and our partners in Syria would seriously risk damaging Turkey’s ties to the United States and causing greater isolation for Turkey on the world stage.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK_3X4u8Ybo

it's stupid trolly-ness but i'd love to have every press question and every heckle about donny end up with the word jail. or at least mention it. press: "how do you feel about your former staff, like manafort and cohen, being in jail?" "do you ever visit anyone in jail?" "are you concerned that after your presidency, you could be charged again, and end up in jail?" crowds: "YOU'RE GOING TO JAIL!" "JAIL TRUMP" "JAIL JAIL JAIL!"

it's totally "lock her up" shit, but i still want it.

sorry, sometimes you get a feeling.

So weird how encouraging a force of chaos to do whatever he wants might, at some point, stop working in your favor. SO WEIRD, RIGHT, MITCH? HUH, LINDSAY? WEIRD! WHODATHUNKIT!?

McConnell: "No problem, Old Lunch. If Trump starts to run amok, we'll just put him on this Constitutional Leash I have here."

McConnell confidently pats his breast pocket. His face goes blank. Begins to investigate his other pockets, increasingly frantically. Bill Barr whispers something in Justice Gorsuch's ear and they both start snickering.

absolute power corrupts absolutely
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/05/us/politics/never-trumper-republicans.html

Pat Robertson is "appalled" by Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria: "The President of the United States is in great danger of losing the mandate of Heaven if he permits this to happen." pic.twitter.com/YGeNYpbGrF

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) October 7, 2019

looks like we finally found out what the line is

was just reading that

What a relief to learn that children in cages, tax cuts on billionaires, and blackmailing a foreign leader into doing his political dirty work weren't enough for Robertson.

sit around children, let me tell you the tale of Cyrus the great

Israeli media reporting that Turkey launched offensive against Kurdish forces in eastern state https://t.co/kL6cCvT1nl

— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) October 7, 2019

gee that didn't take long

Brave words from Senator Portman!

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said on Monday that President Trump shouldn't have asked China or Russia to investigate former Vice President Biden, but stressed that he didn't think the conduct warranted impeachment.

“The president should not have raised the Biden issue on that call, period. It’s not appropriate for a president to engage a foreign government in an investigation of a political opponent,” Portman told The Columbus Dispatch.

Portman is the latest GOP senator to distance themselves from Trump's public overtures to have Ukraine and China investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Portman is the latest GOP senator to distance themselves from Trump

not a lot of daylight between them there. that slap on the wrist must have really worried trump

Tucker Carlson took the same line iirc - inappropriate but doesn't "rise to the level" of an impeachable offense.

One mistake here is directionality. I know we're supposed to think in terms of "high crimes" etc. But Trumpism doesn't do "high" nor "rising." Everything about Trumpism is low, lower, doubling down.

Sen. Portman: "Gee! You really shouldn'ta oughtn'ta done that, Mr. President. Really. I mean, gosh, it seems kind of wrong to me."

Thinks to himself: There, that should do it.

*President wishes Rob Portman into the cornfield*

pat robertson looks like a ninth grade biology class's skeleton that was donated to the home ec class for a sewing project

time to retire, Mindy!

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mitch-mcconnell-is-the-only-senator-more-unpopular-than-susan-collins/

also this classic moment seems to have generally gotten lost in the impeachment furor, but lol at Ernst's very Trumpian/nigh incoherent answer:

Oh boy, this constituent at a Joni Ernst town hall in Templeton, Iowa really nailed the issue on the head, leaving the Iowa senator flailing with no good answers.

This lady got right to the point, summarizing Trump's public call for China to dig up dirt on Biden before she asked, "How is that helping anybody?"

"Where is the line? When are you guys going to say enough?" she pressed. "And stand up and say I'm not backing any of this."

She went on to mock the current Republicans, saying "it's not this, it's not that or everything else. Yet you still stand there silent. And your silence is supporting him and not standing up."

As others applauded, she continued, "You didn't pledge an oath to the President. You pledged an oath to our country, you pledged it to our Constitution."

"When are you guys going to start standing up and actually be there for us?" she concluded.

Senator Ernst's answer: "So, President Trump. I can say yea, nay, whatever. The president is going to say what the president is going to do," she shrugged. "It's up to us as members of Congress to continue working with our allies making sure that we are staying strong in the face of adversity. That's what we have to do is continue to encourage those other countries so that's what we will continue to do."

perfectly clear

So, President Trump. I can say yea, nay, whatever. The president is going to say what the president is going to do

when you've got Senators like Joni Ernst in them...

profiles in courage

if Mindy Moderate of Maine's in trouble, that's good news for next year, or at least better news.

xp
"I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so, because uh, some uh, people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the US should help the US, uh, or uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. For our children."

yyyeahhhh

I WILL TOTALLY DESTROY AND OBLITERATE THE ECONOMY OF TURKEY!!! I'VE DONE BEFORE--!!! #PresidentSupervillain pic.twitter.com/1co7Dns4f6

— Pres. Supervillain (@PresVillain) October 7, 2019

was waiting for that one!

OMG nickn, you totally snaked me. Exactly the quote that came to mind.

Except that she was a beauty pageant contestant and not an elected official and now I just kinda want to die.

It must be true

TRUMP: "When I took over our military, we did not have ammunition. I was told by a top general, maybe the top of them all, 'Sir, I'm sorry sir, we don't have ammunition.' I said, I will never let that happen to another president." pic.twitter.com/Rnmv7i17Nj

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 7, 2019

That quote was from like two weeks ago or did he say it again

Literally said it live within the past hour.

the emperor has no clothes but the chutzpah on that motherfucker

One little kernel of hope I've been clinging to lately is that he's been making a lot of references here and there to the notion of future presidents, the next president, etc. He'll make a fuckin' stink on the way out and for long afterwards, but he seems to accept at least in the abstract that someone will be taking his job eventually.

that's cuz he hates this fucking job

But it keeps him out of jail

oh I imagine his life is very like a prison

granted he deserves to be in a much worse prison

Wasn't he making the 'eight years...or maybe more RIGHT" joke also recently enough?

maybe the top of them all lololol

Remember when Barack Hussein Obama cut military budget to $567.00 and our kablowie guys had nothing to make go the guns go kablowie?? Dark times. I alone fixed it.

WE SHIT BULLETS

so was this whole thing a birthday gift for Putin or what

There's has been a real issue with supplies of precision guided munitions (JDAM kits, Hellfire, Small Diameter Bomb, APKWS), simply because the rules of engagement on most missions against ISIS & Taliban have required them. That's not on Obama, its all because the Air Force prefers shiny toys like the F-35 over munitions, and underestimated expenditure rates.

The U.S. is still well ahead of NATO allies on this. France and England pretty much expended their entire guided munition arsenals in a few weeks of action in Libya.

The munitions problem is a big one right now

some people say it's the biggest

I guess it’s not one if you prefer a relatively neutered US & allied military with significantly decreased ability to go on intervention adventures, but from the DoD’s perspective, the rate they’ve been burning through ammo is really problematic for “readiness”