US Politics, February 2020. They want to kill your cows.

shoved pence off the edge on her way out

Endless options

yeah, exactly. i don't really dig this thing where Dems microanalyze every minor event like the speech rip or the alleged "mocking clapping" in terms of 'what it means for 2020'. It was a cool optic moment, it doesn't 'mean' anything, and who really cares?

this is Howard Dean scream level whinging.

xxxposts to Malone

I think trump gets sympathy when it seems he is the target of classist attacks on his erudition

from who?

xp -- I guess I don't really believe they are effective "coping mechanisms" so much as passive aggressive energy diversions. They seem like symptoms of a losing mindset to me, where we snicker rather than effectively confront. But at the end of the day I agree snuffing out "lol Kansas" type tweets is not a high priority.

From his supporters. They identify with the perception that the eggheads and elites of ilx and congress look down on him.

who cares about his supporters?

xp

I mean, this is the game he played—the way he got supporters. Self pity is his favorite hobby and he took his people along for the ride. It’s “done” at this point but this is a huge part of his appeal

I think it's less that he gets sympathy and more that democrats look like petty, spiteful nerds.

I understand, on the one hand, being frustrated by the futility of pointing out Trump's obvious mental decline, given how little it matters in any substantive way and the fact that he would still be a sitting president with comparable approval even if he were just constantly writhing on the ground covered in his own shit. But on the other hand, I think there's real utility (perhaps not utility with any immediate impact but something that is hopefully cumulative) in pointing out that THIS IS NOT NORMAL OR OKAY any/every time it occurs to you that this is not normal or okay, even if it's the eleventy-millionth time that someone has pointed out that instances of this particular phenomenon are not normal or okay. Because the alternative, it seems, is to eventually lapse into a defeated shrug and allow the abnormal to become normalized, if only via entropy born of exhaustion. The bar has already fallen to a dangerously low level, so I'd hate to see it plummet further because people are tired of bitching about all of the things that are obviously wrong with our Commander-in-Queef.

And we've been here before! We did the exact same thing through two terms of W, except there was no twitter.

totally forgot how we started the year on the precipice of pointless armageddon, fml

for a guy who is collapsing mentally and has no idea what he is doing or how to form sentences, he did manage to read out a very long, prepared speech to millions of people, live, without messing up too badly, which is more than i could expect of most people, including myself

I guess if the real issue is legitimate concern for his mental fitness, that's not conveyed very well by lulz tweets about "He direderd the December dersalt."

ugh meant to c&p the soleimani ref

for a guy who is collapsing mentally and has no idea what he is doing or how to form sentences, he did manage to read out a very long, prepared speech to millions of people, live, without messing up too badly, which is more than i could expect of most people, including myself

― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Wednesday, February 5, 2020 12:00 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the man technically is literate and has never experienced a second of self-doubt in his entire life. that's really all you need to pull off that feat.

His entire adult live has been played out in front of cameras. An ability to occasionally avoid stepping on and subsequently ripping off his own dick while on camera is not exactly what I'd call a high competence threshold.

he loves listening to himself

Who cares

For a dementia patient he is doing a bang up job controlling all of our lives and attention.

yeah well here are on a thread called "U.S. Politics."

alfred makes a typo about once every 4 to 5 years, so i just want to call it out

Clear signs of cognitive decline, would not vote for.

bout how often we get a change of power in Congress!

But on the other hand, I think there's real utility (perhaps not utility with any immediate impact but something that is hopefully cumulative) in pointing out that THIS IS NOT NORMAL OR OKAY any/every time it occurs to you that this is not normal or okay, even if it's the eleventy-millionth time that someone has pointed out that instances of this particular phenomenon are not normal or okay

but this is pretty much exactly where his support comes from. people hate politicians. they hate Congress as a whole. pretty much everyone thinks our government is a total failure. the main plank of Trump's appeal (outside of racism) is that he wasn't "politics as usual"

Would’ve been nice if Nancy Pelosi ripped up Trump’s military budget

— Justin Jackson (@J_ManPrime21) February 5, 2020

i guess we're all dealing with our own futile battles

morning, Karl!

when we finally wake up on 11/9/2016 after the longest sleep ever, it will be very refreshing.

Hopefully as refreshing as the shower our husband Bobby will be taking.

TS: seeing Patrick Duffy naked vs sleeping for four years

No option for sleeping with Patrick Duffy for four years?

from Code Pink:

Last night at Trump’s State of the Union address, Democrats gave a standing ovation to one of his worst foreign policy blunders: the regime change attempt to place Juan Guaidó into the position of “interim president” of Venezuela. Instead of standing up against another US coup attempt, sanctions that have killed at least 40,000 people, and military threats that could destabilize the entire Latin American region, many Democrats stood up to cheer Trump on.

We are both shocked and outraged that the Democrats, including Speaker Pelosi, are cheering Trump’s foreign policy debacle. Coups and regime change cause chaos, suffering, and death, as happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Bolivia—to name a few...

Coups and regime change cause chaos, suffering, and death

If only the media thought this was a worthwhile narrative, as compared to "we poked the bad guy in the nose - USA! USA!".

speech rip will accomplish precisely nothing

in a psycho-social battle, which of these is most effective for 1) effective political opposition, and 2) for voter persuasion and participation? 3) are these the same for freshman rep and the speaker?

a. sitting behind opponent, recorded, ripping up his speech
b. walking out beforehand
c. walking out during speech
d. never showing up
e. yelling “YOU LIE!”
f. mincing near his lectern during speech and taking a shit on the carpet

1. Lol nothing, but ‘a’ or ‘c’ if it flips out your opponents enough (doubtful, they don’t care— they winning)
2. ‘c’ if voters want demonstration, ‘e’ if you want to raise cash from angry partisans, and maaaybe ‘f’ if you make monetized dirtbag patreon podcasts
3. ‘c’ because that’s possibly visible, or ‘e’ or ‘f’, depending on how you fundraise. ‘a’ is not likely possible because you are likely remote to camera?

more accurate intro to item 3: “no best courses are dif for freshman and speaker. for freshman...”

i could add that for freshman, ‘d’ is a good response if you go out and fundraise or raise support during your night off.

Not in reference to anything in particular (and I know before I ask that the answer is basically just 'tribalism') but how is it that there are people sufficiently credulous to believe that someone who demonstrably and pathologically lies to everyone about everything and is demonstrably and pathologically self-interested is honest with them and has their best interests at heart? Like you'd think even a dog would've figured this shit out by now.

i suspect they dont really stop to think about his individual decisions making a dif to _them_. he is just the icon for the side. creditable for all, amazingly culpable for nothing. thinks the party will ensure things stay orderly, to his interest and understanding.

I think of the georgia trumpy jackass whose wife was deported. Not until that line really really really connects to trump hisself will he change jackshit.

Manchin is a vote to convict

so is romney

so Roberts declared that Trump is not guilty on Article 1
if 48% of a jury votes guilty that's not generally a complete exoneration

seems like "not removed" would be more apt

Evidence is not the basis for the vote

I guess after Kavanaugh, the most naked demonstration that politics is exclusively about power and principle plays no part

Nihilism ftw.

I made a solemn oath before God to always defend the principle of maintaining a thin veneer of "decency"

If only the media thought this was a worthwhile narrative, as compared to "we poked the bad guy in the nose - USA! USA!".

Aimless OTM

I guess if the real issue is legitimate concern for his mental fitness, that's not conveyed very well by lulz tweets about "He direderd the December dersalt."

The point wasn't "lulz he gets words wrong bcz he's dumb," it was him experiencing two consecutive full-body spasms that interfered with his ability to form words. I know there's precedent, but it still seems non-ideal for the executive branch of the government to be extensively covering up for the sole elected element of it having a suite of medical issues that make it non-functional, if that's what's happening.

(everyone sure proved that they want to talk about actual actions taken by the US government rather than the President's neurological condition or general assholishness, by diverting to discuss the implications of CBP's exclusion from FOIA, and the eradication of archives as a basic concept, instead though. point made!)

he did manage to read out a very long, prepared speech to millions of people, live

luv u Z and there's genuinely no reason why you should remember that I've been saying the same thing itt since September 2016, but this was just hours ago tbfttm

For the third time, “body spasms” are not a symptom of dementia. Please stop with this bullshit. The guy is a narcissist asshole and clearly his mental state and diction are flaky, but he does not have dementia or any other neurological illness unless diagnosed by somebody competent. To say otherwise is denigrating to people who actually live with these diseases.