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

Meanwhile, in "hilarious failure incoming" news, George Papadopoulos has filed to run for Katie Hill's seat.

I Just wish Omar would stop saying dumb fucking shit. She’s hard to defend sometimes

Looks like Omar is trying to defend herself, but even her supporters are (respectfully) not really buying it.

My issue was with the timing and context. I think we should demand accountability for human rights abuses consistently, not simply when it suits our political goals.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 29, 2019

still seems mostly like bad political nous more than actual bad politics but I wouldn't be surprised if she takes a turn

Accountability for human rights abuses includes political goals. This isn't a binary.

There's a fine line between thoughtful and over-thinking. Esp on the Left when being thoughtful (ie considerate, respectful) is a defining trait. Omar overthought this fer sure.

very well put, Alfred.

thank you

I suppose that Omar could as easily have voted 'yes' and issued the same statement regarding her position, but if she had voted 'yes' rather than 'present', would anyone have reported or read her statement? So from that perspective, her controversial 'present' vote was valuable in ways that yet another 'yes' would not have been.

However, some forms of courting attention through controversy are less strategically valuable than others. Her appearing to deliberately slight a group's recognition for the genocide it suffered could be considered as more hazardous than helpful to propagating her position. She took that chance. It may backfire on her.

I still feel like a lot of the ire at Omar misses the point of having a big tent.

Omar hasn't "positioned" herself as a big tent but as one of the stakes.

seems like a backfire to me

either way the depressing thing is that this will not get much play either way because the populace at large frankly does not know about, nor care, about this genocide. CNN isn't even running anything on this resolution.

My Trump loving uncle though was eager to post about Omar's vote (ignoring the 11 republicans who voted No).

lmao

Sondland and his partner in Provenance Hotels, which owns and operates several hotels in liberal Portland, signed on to host a Trump fundraiser in Seattle, but when that was reported in Portland, they expressed surprise that they were listed as co-sponsors and disavowed Trump (and said they wanted nothing to do with him). Sondland later turned around thereafter and donated $1M to the Inauguration Committee.

On top of everything else, Sondland and his wife are of course devotees of Ayn Rand and own a building downtown they have named The Galt. The Galt houses the offices of his wife’s real estate development company, Atlas Properties. I am sure you appreciate the references.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/prime/sondland-mania-grows

oh goodness what would we do without such titans

*shrugs* fuck him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj95VQUjXxY

disappointed that wasn't a new ray stevens tune

Source familiar with Vindman’s closed doors deposition says he has testified that he took notes during the July 25th phone call, and made two or so recommended edits to the summarized call transcript that weren’t used in the end (ie using company in place of Burisma)
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 29, 2019

As I suspected, what Vindman testified was that the WH used "company" when "Burisma" was actually said, and when he recommended correcting that his suggestion wasn't taken.

That makes a lot more sense, thank you.

Although, in a weird way his testimony was even more compelling when he appeared to be admitting to being a stooge at the same time

On a visit to Portland a couple of years ago we ended up staying at a different hotel just because while we love the Ace there, you know, variety. After the fact we discovered we'd been at a Sondland hotel, and I'm happy to say the Ace all the way now...

good morning!

We're gonna see more stunts like last week's pizza rush.

Don't be surprised if the GOP tries to shut down the government and blame Dems.

Godspeed, Improv Everywhere GOP

the WH used "company" when "Burisma" was actually said

This seems like it could be key. I heard a Republican flak on NPR this morning whose spin was that Trump's phone call was about lots of different corruption, not just Burisma.

but according to the White House's own damn transript, Trump mentioned Biden and his son by name multiple times!

Yeah, and it was perfect!

See also: beautiful

There's no way this could possibly go wrong or blow up in this rancid asshole's face.

Trump Wants You To Know He's Smart Enough To 'Do Quid Pro Quo'

As Donald Trump gets dragged deeper, and deeper, and deeper into his Ukraine scandal and the impeachment inquiry accelerates toward a likely House vote before the year’s end, the president is increasingly insistent that, if he wanted to commit a crime, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to get caught.

At other times, Trump has privately avowed that if he wanted to commit the crimes or outrageous actions he’s accused of, he’d be smart enough to do it—and that people should stop saying he’s too dumb or incompetent to do crimes.

As Donald Trump gets dragged deeper, and deeper, and deeper into his Ukraine scandal and the impeachment inquiry accelerates toward a likely House vote before the year’s end, the president is increasingly insistent that, if he wanted to commit a crime, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to get caught.

At other times, Trump has privately avowed that if he wanted to commit the crimes or outrageous actions he’s accused of, he’d be smart enough to do it—and that people should stop saying he’s too dumb or incompetent to do crimes.

“[The president] mentioned he had seen it and then he started saying things like, ‘What are they talking about, if I wanted to do quid pro quo, I would’ve done the damn quid pro quo,’ and… then defended his intelligence and then talked about how ‘perfect’ the call [with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] was,” said a source familiar with Trump’s reaction to the Journal editorial. Another person familiar with the president’s comments on the matter corroborated the account.

if the government shuts down, does that shut down impeachment hearings?

probably not

no

Congress has to be in session to end any shutdown, after all

if the government shuts down, does that shut down impeachment hearings?

if it did, they would shut it down weeks ago

speculative question:

how many americans do you think would rather have a king than a president?

60% easy, but they'd still want to vote for him.

the President is Sideshow Bob

probably the same percentage that already thinks Jesus is king

brought it up because this morning i experienced an unwanted flashback to a big argument i had with my dad a couple years ago, remembering his exasperated face when i told him conservatives tended to be authoritarians. he was so pissed (despite him being a police officer all his life). and then i said something like "evangelicals are authoritarians - don't you submit to god's authority?" which shut him up...

anyway, just daydreaming about a nightmare and retconning it so i won, but my parents would take a king in a heartbeat, especially if that king swore fealty to david and solomon and jesus and said all the right thing about the millenial kingdom of god

skewed poll question ideas:

"if you had to choose, would you rather have the opposing party win the next presidential election, or have your own party's presidential candidate proclaimed as king?"

automated robot voice: "hi, this is gallup land line polling agency limited, incorporated dot com. if you had to choose, would you rather donald trump win the 2020 election, or elizabeth warren be proclaimed queen for life?"

Jesus is king

Kanye's still popular iirc

I was thinking about that the other day and realized that while I would've grumbled loudly and been appalled on a daily basis, I definitely could've lived if McCain or Romney had won. Hindsight is a helluva thing.

I would never countenance a king, don't care who it is

(says a guy who likes to irritate britishers by asking why they haven't had the royal family shot yet)

Kanye's still popular iirc

is he?

I would never countenance a king, don't care who it is

exactly, i'm with you. i am scared of americans, though (i think conservatives would overwhelmingly choose a king in those circumstances, like 90%+, and i think at least 50% of left-leaning people would choose queen warren (or king mayor pete or whoever else)

When threads collide!

And now Chile's president has cancelled the APEC summit next month.

This throws the Trump-Xi meeting and "phase one" trade deal signing up into the air.

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 30, 2019

we have now reached the part of the work week where i make up retcon old arguments with my dad and then make up hypothetical scenarios so that i can stand apart from the bad people in my mind. my work here is done, which means i should probably go back to my actual work

Take our Royal Family, please.

how many americans do you think would rather have a king than a president?

― It is my great honor to post on this messageboard!

Most heterosexual American men want to be topped by a man called “Coach,” tbh