At the risk of stating the obvious, the July 2019 US Politics Thread is horse-sh*t

the problem with criticizing this administration is that you're left trying to find new ways to explain why the can of creamed corn poured over the steaming pile of dogshit and served as dinner is disgusting; you end up looking the fool stating what should be obvious but even so its hard to be heard over the noise of a third of the country licking the plate

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, July 18, 2019 2:42 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

the more often you try to explain how disgusting it is to them the more enthusiastic their eating becomes. The more you insist they should feel sick like you do, the happier they are to do it to make you feel sicker.

you don't even have to. just look back a few years and ask where all this "if you don't like it, leave!" crap was when they were flinging shit at Obama nonstop. hell, even look back to 2016 when Trump's core issue was that America sucked and he was the only one who could fix it.

Also just, I'ma be cool, but how dare you bargain with a woman's life because you think it seems fine? She's not a THING, a bargaining chip to slide across the counter on the chance that it might slightly weaken an enemy. HOW DARE YOU.

― There's more Italy than necessary. (in orbit), Thursday, July 18, 2019 2:02 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTMFM

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, July 18, 2019 1:12 PM (forty-five minutes ago)

OTMFM X2

I mean, it's not like some tidal wave of immigrants have flooded the US and taken 'our' jobs en masse. It seems, historically, that there are factors you can point to as the catalyst for reactive uprisings, but what the fuck are these people reacting to aside from, like, rabble rousers on the internet and a dipshit president who says every stupid thing that bubbles out of his brainstem?

honestly, capitalism, they just haven't been told that's it

Middle-aged and older Americans grew up in a United States essentially without immigrants, and I think most don't know that the America of today is the historical norm, and the mid-20th-century clampdown on immigration which they see as "normal" was the anomaly.

Shame the graph can't estimate percentage figures for 1560-1860 too.

I'm so afraid for her.

For Ilhan and AOC in particular but also for everyone else who confronts hatred right now because of the militarization + relentless othering + paranoia valu combo time that we're in.

honestly, capitalism, they just haven't been told that's it

they've been told, they just don't like that answer. ironically, one of the things they hate about the squad is that they don't like their answer, which is why people like lindsey graham calls them communists

Perfect:

.@IlhanMN: “I believe he is fascist because today even Lindsey Graham defended his comments by saying that if I was wearing a MAGA hat -- if there was a Somali person wearing a MAGA hat -- they would not be deported. But because I criticize the president, I should be deported.” pic.twitter.com/nYXSmVwian

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 18, 2019

xp: it's been said plenty, but not said by the sources that they listen to.

IMO Ilhan Omar is made of steel and her constituents (I am one, and I was so proud to vote for her) have been rallying around her all week.

For Ilhan and AOC in particular but also for everyone else who confronts hatred right now because of the militarization + relentless othering + paranoia valu combo time that we're in.

also, that this is one of the only places on earth where you have to worry about many of the hate-filled people also being proud gun owners.

really glad she used the word "fascist"

"fascially-charged"

fascial cream

anyway Trump backing down on this (somewhat) is actually a bit of a surprise...will he bring her up at the next rally? will "Send her back" become the next "Lock her up"? I can't wait to find out!!!

plantation-minded fasciitis

He got anxious calls from Cabinet members and congressmen who weren't Lindsey Graham.

He advised sending her back along with her brother who is also her husband.

I think the ex-husband was the supposed brother? It's hard to follow and I don't really care about the personal lives of politicians as long as they're not leaving a trail of human misery

GREAT NEWS

it appears that the US claims to have shot down an Iranian drone that came near a navy ship

Weirdly, I had an interaction recently with a woman in North London who said she was interested in American politics. When I said Ilhan was my Congresswoman, she mentioned the brother thing just after bringing up the accusation of anti-Semitism, in this really cutesy/insouciant way. Gross. I asked her if she was reading weird right-wing sites for kicks, because this was total bullshit.

FWIW Omar’s mother died when she was two; her ex-husband is three years younger than her.

the right are abominable shitheads everywhere but the american right boggles the damn mind.

altho now I've said that i remember that there are canadian conservatives who think that trudeau is fidel castro's son

Yeah, before she could go there, I mentioned that I’d grown up in a Jewish enclave, Minnesota’s largest, that’s right in the middle of Omar’s district and largely supportive of her, and where the level of debate about what constitutes AS, and I/P issues, seems more forthright than the current UK discourse. She was a weapons-grade dinner-party Islamophobic fuckwit, obvs.

I asked her if she was reading weird right-wing sites for kicks

The President of the United States alluded to it and added "we'll find out". You don't necessarily have to read right-wing sites to know about it.

This was over a month ago! Nobody in the UK would’ve known about that gross rumour unless they went hunting for negative stories about her.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/meghan-mccain-feels-victimized-by-trumps-attacks-on-omar-youre-taking-away-my-agency-to-criticize-her/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

So apparently this actually ISNT satire

Totes real...saw it this morning (don't ask)

She slightly humanized herself later by revealing she never ever cared for Rand Paul.

waiting with bated breath for an eli valley cartoon of this new meghan development

The John Oliver compilation of Meghan's "Can I just say..." comments on her group talk show was both funny and depressing. And perfectly edited with the last clip being someone refusing to yield to her.

Meghan really strikes me as the 2020 version of Tucker Carlson in '04: Angry at the powers that be ruining 'my conservatism' before eventually embracing the shitheads.

The President of the United States alluded to it and added "we'll find out".

waiting with bated breath for an eli valley cartoon of this new meghan development

pic.twitter.com/cpYx3w5c8H

— Eli Valley (@elivalley) July 18, 2019

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_xSnYJXUAAN3Bn?format=jpg&name=medium

Nancy Pelosi said the WORDS that the President used were racist. But those same words are in the Dictionary. Does that mean that the Dictionary is now racist? Should all Dictionaries be banned since Democrats are offended by words? #TDS pic.twitter.com/AvDtxbtNKH

— Diamond and Silk® (@DiamondandSilk) July 17, 2019

folks we've just been broken on the wheel of logic

xp lol I forgot he'd already done it

If have only the vaguest passing acquaintance with who Diamond and Silk even are, but if that's what passes for witty "gotcha" rejoinder on the right, we truly are beyond hope.

The defense I'm waiting for is "he's not racist, he's race-ist."

Well done, Twin Cities!

Congresswoman Omar just arrived back in the Twin Cities. pic.twitter.com/ZiFqWnDJgQ

— Tom Hauser (@thauserkstp) July 18, 2019

For assorted philosophical and professional reasons I’ve never donated money to a political candidate in my life. But I sent Omar $25 today, Not much money, not much of a gesture, but I felt like I had to do something.

“I believe he is fascist.” -@IlhanMN on Trump. pic.twitter.com/feh32zfH6m

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) July 18, 2019

A week after AOC won I wondered if she was going to get assassinated. Now I'm worried about Omar. Some dumbnut already got arrested with his plans to shoot a ton of liberal figures (and apparently charges were dropped???).

The John Oliver compilation of Meghan's "Can I just say..." comments on her group talk show was both funny and depressing. And perfectly edited with the last clip being someone refusing to yield to her.

unofficial upload here

God it’s like Farage’s ‘No No No, Let me speak’

Wrong McCain died

Politico reports:

President Donald Trump is likely to nominate Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to be the next Labor secretary, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The younger Scalia, a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is a management-side attorney who in 2006 argued on behalf of Wal-Mart against a Maryland law that would have required the retail giant to spend more health care money on its employees.

having a cabinet of secretaries that actually hate the field they’re representing is a thing

it takes dedication

I just binged Robert Evan's It Could Happen Here podcast, so I'm of the mind just about anything is possible WRT the Squad's personal security.

I wouldn't mind if the eventual Democratic nominee dispensed with abstractly coded hopeful slogans like "Change we can Believe In" or "Stronger Together", and just went with the bluntly judgemental "We're Better than This."

President having a normal one on Twitter today

just went with the bluntly judgemental "We're Better than This."

How about "Beat the Klan Shitheads"?

there are now _three_ "Radical Left Congresswomen"