The August 2019 US Politics Thread is dumb (stupid}

nothing about this is august

bump

good morning!

It would be some good work by ilx if there ever is a band called Good Mourning & The Tax Returns

with Bimble as lead guitarist

what's great about the "Trump as isolationist, dems sound like Trump" takes is they ignore Trump has increased troop levels in Afghanistan and troop levels remain static in Syria despite his tantrums every few months about withdrawals. Withdrawals that mysteriously never come. pic.twitter.com/co0VsUgAfc

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) August 1, 2019

Trump's all for bringing them back...in body bags.

.@SpeakerPelosi doesn’t respond to repeated questions about a majority of her caucus supporting impeachment, telling reporters she’ll have a statement later today.

— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) August 1, 2019

Pelosi did get a nice burn in today calling Jared a slumlord.

disgraceful antisemitism from pelosi, smdh at the tropes

gotta admire the rigor of the survey design from Team Trump:

Would you say you have an unfavorable or favorable view of socialism?
Unfavorable
Favorable

Which type of country would you prefer the United States be?
A thriving Capitalist country
A radical Socialist country

Who do you think has a better vision for America’s future?
President Donald Trump
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Who do you plan to vote for in 2020?
President Donald Trump
A socialist Democrat

Do you think that the federal government should be LESS involved in our healthcare system?
Yes
No

Do you have a problem with American taxpayer dollars being used to give illegal aliens FREE healthcare?
Yes
No

Do you agree with President Trump that Democrats have become the party of OPEN BORDERS?
Yes
No

Would you be upset if YOUR taxes were raised in order to pay for more welfare programs for illegal immigrants?
Yes
No

Would you be upset if YOUR taxes being raised in order to pay for socialist programs like the $92 TRILLION Green New Deal?
Yes
No

pretty easy to answer those

there is no FREE healthcare for immigrants ! unless they mean getting treatment at an emergency room ? that is not fucking healthcare

Which would you prefer to find on the sidewalk?

[ ] $100 bill beautifully signed by President Donald J. Trump
[ ] a dead rat signed by the failed and very racist Elijah Cummings

I hope Kamala Harris moves off her line about her campaign being about "3:00 a.m. issues" (i.e., the things that keep you up at night). Unhelpful reminder of Hillary Clinton's silly 3:00-a.m.-call ad from 2008.

GOP benefits from recasting a complex world into a dumbfuck binary simplistic enough for an enfeebled mule to comprehend, news at 11

as it happens, our president is already up at 3am and tweeting like a drunk college pledge

At his rally, Trump says "we will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America, and curing childhood cancer very shortly"

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) August 2, 2019

🙃

Too bad Trump is a germaphobe, he could really make a killing laying hands on his base and pronouncing them cured of all bodily ills

trump personally curing childhood cancer is the sole way he could get on my good side tbh

I have made the decision to not seek reelection for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas in order to pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security. https://t.co/GeZ4Hh264f

— Rep. Will Hurd (@HurdOnTheHill) August 2, 2019

Third Texas Republican Congressman to retire. Also the only serving Black Republican Congressman. Also only partially into Trump.

He’s in one of the most contested swing districts in the country. He held on by a slim margin to Gina Ortiz jones who I think is running again. It’s hers to lose now.

Gina Ortiz Jones is running again. I know because I gave her $200 last time and she called me and told me she was running again about a month ago and can she have another $200. It is insane to me that talking to idiots like me is the main time-sink of even elected reps.

Huge deal and consistent with rumblings that while Texas EVs are probably still not in play the state legislature might be (big deal for eg abortion rights). And tx23 is one of the few remaining plausibly flippable congressional seats in the country.

Also look at these fucken idiots. They’ll probably end up working as internal lobbyists for the same tech company

https://youtu.be/UtBZSn-Be1w

this seems cool and good and will definitely only be used for entirely legal and legitimate purposes

The US military is conducting wide area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.

Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.

The balloons are carrying high tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.

Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

morning!

Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

lol

yeah i didn't laugh when i saw that

what the fuck

Again, how do you engage with the world in this fashion for 70+ years without someone eventually putting you in the hospital.

Hire only the best security

how dare you be so callous towards the man singlehandedly curing childhood cancer

he's probably not even gonna do it now, because you're all so unfair to him

If Trump found a cure for cancer today he'd just tease us with it until after the election

cure for cancer is KFC and libtears, you're welcome

I'm going to have a surveillance balloon probably drifting over and maybe crashing into my house, awesome

Pink Floyd in town?

So Ratcliffe got Harriet Miers-ized

Too bad!

DonaldJTrumpJr appears to no longer follow @QueefTornado. (This bot cannot tell if this was an unfollow, suspension or block.)

— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) August 2, 2019

It seems that the follower has become the master.

Huckabee writing jokes for the pres now?

A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

It's either Huckabee or Gene Shalit

this is honestly a great tactic

Sending our condolences to the President! 🤣 https://t.co/ZMHGbkqJwa

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 2, 2019

Question, inspired by the current tariff wars with China: I remember a few years ago hearing a lot about how China owned billions of dollars worth of our debt, and all they had to do if they wanted to basically fist-fuck us to death was call in those chips. Is that no longer the case? What ever happened with that?

Post QE, its clear the Fed would prop up the bond market.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/connecticut-man-who-calls-himself-hitler-reincarnated-charged-with-threats-to-murder-entire-daycare-center/

*clicks link*
*feels bad about thinking "well that's kinda what i expected him to look like"*

if Rocky (or at least someone in the asap crew... ferg probably?) doesn't write a verse telling trump to fuck off and mind his own business i dunno
anyways rip nipsey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZ5e94QnWk

If I'm understanding correctly, Sweden doesn't have a cash bail system and they release most people that aren't deemed dangerous until their court date

Dare to dream when it's all you have left.

-Bob Marley

yea I like Chris Hayes a lot, he seems to keep sight of the important issues & doesn't sensationalize. Maddow's reporting is often very good but I find the way she constantly smirks at the camera and says things like "here's the thing. here's what you're not going to believe. here's the link everyone is missing" like she's Alex Jones is pretty irritating

as for Lawrence all you need to know is he's a West Wing writer whose main problem with the President seems to be his lack of decorum. there was leaked video of him a year or two ago getting very very mad about the teleprompter if I recall correctly

it's v cool to see the same ppl that didn't bat an eye when Trump divulged classified info to Russian govt officials ready to string up Comey for leaking classified info via a surrogate. All while yelling "MEDIA BIAS!!" over the headlines stating Comey was cleared of leaking the info personally.

Look who's suddenly against leaking.

Even senior members of Comey's own leadership team were "shocked" and "stunned" and "disappointed" when they learned of Comey's misconduct and improper leaking. Time for a sequel to "Ethical Leadership." Let the bidding war between MSNBC & CNN commence: pic.twitter.com/nPknD6zJ94

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 29, 2019

Kinda tired of people expressing opinions and perspectives tbrr.

Like what's even the point when you only 'opine' in bad faith to carry water for someone you will drop like a hot rock the second he's no longer breathing/president. It's clear that none of these fuckers even care about whatever scandalous topic of the day is giving them the vapors or that they're trying to legitimately course correct. Just nihilistic mouthbreathing with a little extra noise behind it.

And yeah yeah, I know, it's all the same old mindless tribal standard-bearing, nothing new under the sun, but how about instead of tweeting you take that Cro-Magnon shit to some subterranean cave system appropriate to your level of social development. Or just like shovel fistful after fistful of ground glass into your mouth until you literally die.

</vituperation>

GET ON IT, NANCE

In a conference call Friday, Pelosi reportedly told her caucus that although she “grinds her teeth” nightly “about what’s going on in the White House,” Democrats should be “unifying and not dividing,” and that—House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler’s suggestions that impeachment is already underway evidently notwithstanding—the party should wait for a stronger case for impeachment to emerge given that “the public isn’t there” on beginning proceedings.

Late Tuesday, The Washington Post handed Pelosi that stronger case. According to multiple officials reached by the Post’s Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey, Trump, in his eagerness to finish a substantial portion of the border wall by next year’s Election Day, has not only urged the wanton seizure of private land and violation of environmental regulations, he has also assured his subordinates “that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/154907/border-wall-trumps-high-crime

Ordering one's subordinates to commit illegalities (aka 'crimes') while simultaneously offering to pardon them is quite clearly a "high crime", in that it is a serious abuse of executive power that could only be committed by a person occupying the "high office" of president. Moreover, the only check upon this abuse of power provided for in the Constitution is impeachment, since the framers knew that it would be impossible to define every crime that is available to a head of state. So, they left it solely to Congress to halt such abuses of power, which undermine the very fabric of the Constitution.

They built a system that could only function properly when guided by people with high ethical standards and the courage to follow their oath of office, even when it was difficult or dangerous to do so. That's why it is so hopelessly broken now.

the party should wait for a stronger case for impeachment to emerge given that “the public isn’t there” on beginning proceedings.

The public are more easily led than followed, you figure someone who has been in politics longer than I have been alive would realize that.

no no, the best way to persuade the public that the president's insane crime spree should be stopped, or that presidents should not conduct insane crime sprees, is to let them really go wild on their crime sprees until they get totally normalised more people notice that it's bad

JFC these Nazi assholes are fucking evil:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/08/the-trump-administration-has-packed-the-immigration-appeals-board-with-hardliners/

Cool that my bro is quoted in this piece, though.

Or they’ll get hung up worrying that the schoolyard bully’s “I was only joking” defense will be used to make them look like humorless snowflakes... if only they had a former SNL writer in the senate to stand up for them.

(xp)

If he gets impeached, he'll be "exonerated" by the Senate

worth it

Not if you think about it for more than 5 seconds

the key is to start it but not to let the senate get to it before the election

Exactly

morally required

consensus!

lol

Shakey's devotion to Grancy's political 'genius' is inspiring

“groovy Nancy”?

was wondering who 'Grancy' was

I love her too

She is obviously calculating that a failed impeachment would hurt her party's chances of regaining power, but the problem is that inaction by democrats allows Senators of the other party to duck responsibility for their votes and the consequent catastrophic legacy to the future of the US republic. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Most of these arguments for not impeaching (for political reasons) fail to consider the effect of a televised, months-long trial detailing all thee crimes/transgressions—and the political advantage to having R's vote *not* to convict. Make them excuse the guy in writing, officially.

A failure to impeach certainly won't help in trying to swing the senate.

Televised months-long trials don't work anymore in our atomized viewing culture.

It doesn't mean I will get no satisfaction, nor that the Dems shouldn't press their advantage.

can you imagine how bad the democratic leadership will be at running a televised months long trial?

lol “televised”

This revolution will not be podcasted

the consequent catastrophic legacy to the future of the US republic

I agree with this entirely, ignoring for the moment that it almost certainly has no future.

He acted like a spy during the G7?

https://www.insider.com/spies-react-trump-g7-summit-russian-asset-2019-8

Ugh this is so dumb.

https://www.insider.com/aoc-defends-right-to-block-twitter-users-who-harass-her-2019-8

Following this from July 9th
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-blocking-twitter-followers-discriminatory-us-court-ruling-2019-7

Strikes me as a stupid court ruling.

Trump, like AOC, is using a personal, pre-public service Twitter account, which is more akin to a personal bulletin board than the official office, or for that matter the public square. I could better understand the ruling if it pertained to staffed @POTUS or @NY14thRep official accounts. My speech rights don't imply an obligation that others pay attention, nor do they give me rights to prank call, send obscene or threatening messages, etc.

Plus, I would find Twitter utterly useless if I couldn't block more noxious users, like Trump.

No one understands the 1st Amendment, do they

(If you disagree with my statement, you will be in violation of my 1st Amendment rights.)

public figures should be allowed to turn off comments.

If we maintain the spirit of this assertion, I have to assume, say, that Mitch McConnell is required by the 1st Amendment to remain seated in that restaurant until everyone is done telling him what a piece of shit he is, no matter how little of his dessert is left.

I think that's just his ass, though

here are a couple from back in Washington

https://i.imgur.com/cz9XCHi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/igu5DDk.jpg

President Hurricane

Looking like our great South Carolina could get hit MUCH harder than first thought. Georgia and North Carolina also. It’s moving around and very hard to predict, except that it is one of the biggest and strongest (and really wide) that we have seen in decades. Be safe!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2019

"I hereby order South Carolina to Be Safe!"

continuing to contemplate his ability to handle public appearances: he was meant to be attending WWII commemorations in Poland this weekend, and cancelled the trip on the grounds that he needed to monitor the Hurricane Dorian situation (thank you, Mr President). He flew to Camp David yesterday, but today got choppered ($) to a Trump golf course ($$$) in Virgina.

White House spoxcreature says that he has a person on the trip specifically updating him every hour, on the links, about the hurricane.

President Big Boy was up early and excited about his party day. In two hours before his flight, he tweeted or retweeted 52 separate posts of significant national intent. The retweets were almost certainly by handled by Scavino, or a sub-scavino in an office in DC, but let's have a look at what Mr "I Know Words" himself chose to inform constituents preparing for a natural disaster:

Thank you Kevin. Great things are happening at the Border!

(Sen. Kevin Cramer, ND, went to inspect a concentration camp.)

Great job Thom!

(Sen. Thom Tillis, NC, has failed to die for the 59th year in a row.)

One of the greats!

(Sen. Johnny Isakson, GA [twitter bio: "Keep comments family friendly."], is peacing the fuck out of his job to suck a pension from the taxpayer teat instead.

Nobody works harder or smarter than Joni!

(Sen. Joni Ernst, IA, is conducting town halls.)

An amazing guy, respected by all!

Work on farm Fri. Burning piles of brush WindyFire got out of control. Thank God for good naber He help get undr control PantsBurnLegWound

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) April 11, 2009

Nobody knows more about Healthcare than John. Great guy!

(Sen. John Barrasso, WY, may or may not know how to spell "health care.")

Cory is doing a Great job for Colorado!

(Sen. Cory Gardner, CO, met with three farmers for a productive discussion on improving mental health access and cutting "burdensome federal regulations to keep rural Colorado thriving." Not clear whether the mental health access will be achieved through burdensom federal regulations, and if so, how soon they can be cut.)

“The IG found that James Comey leaked Classified Documents to his attorneys, which can be (is) a violation of the Espionage Act. This is consistent with all the lies that Comey has been spreading. @GreggJarrett @ByronYork @LouDobbs

This does not appear to, even with the parenthetical removed on the assumption that it is helpful editorialising added by the president, be a quote from any source. (This tweet is followed by five retweets, including one by the president's daughter from two weeks ago) Either he is continuing to quote a source, or possibly he is actively leaking a classified report, which can be - heck, I have it on good authority, is - a violation of the Espionage Act.

While Madeleine Westerhout has a fully enforceable confidentiality agreement, she is a very good person and I don’t think there would ever be reason to use it. She called me yesterday to apologize, had a bad night. I fully understood and forgave her! I love Tiffany, doing great!

The president is openly threatening to prosecute his personal assistant Director Of Operations, whom he fired yesterday for saying things that 100% of the universe know to be true, unless she keeps omerta. Nonetheless, he is grateful to have been reminded of his fat daughter's name.

...Yes, I am currently suing various people for violating their confidentiality agreements. Disgusting and foul mouthed Omarosa is one. I gave her every break, despite the fact that she was despised by everyone, and she went for some cheap money from a book. Numerous others also!

Really, be a shame if something... happened to you. Maybe don't draw any attention. Regardless, black people are worse.

A great team, working hard!

Trump stole $155 million in disaster relief funding from the disaster relief agency a month ago in order to fund concentration camps. Here is a photo of one of them reading a briefing from a hurricane expert about the hurricane that is approaching the US, while the other three people in the room ignore him and text their friends.

I was right about Comey, CROOKED COP!

The president is probably addressing his attorney general, who has just entered the room, but whose name the president has forgotten?

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, which is happening, and then, KEEP AMERICA GREAT!

Make that which is currently in progress, begin.

Looking like our great South Carolina could get hit MUCH harder than first thought. Georgia and North Carolina also. It’s moving around and very hard to predict, except that it is one of the biggest and strongest (and really wide) that we have seen in decades. Be safe!

The president's golf pants have been let out again.

Dan will be GREAT!

The Great State of North Carolina has EARLY VOTING for a very important Congressional (Ninth) race. Please vote early (now), or on Election Day, September 10th, for Dan Bishop, a great guy. His opponent wants Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities & is weak on Crime, Military & Vets!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019

Has anyone noticed that the top shows on @foxnews
and cable ratings are those that are Fair (or great) to your favorite President, me! Congratulations to @seanhannity
for being the number one show on Cable Television!

Tucker Carlson has recently slightly overtaken Rachel Maddow in overall viewers. Hannity and Carlson's share of 18-49 viewers is 1/3 that of teenagers playing football, or the Jersey Shore reunion show where The Situation goes to jail.

lol i love those grassley tweets

great post sic

i'm sorry, i know

but yeah, out of the handful of words and phrases he relies on so heavily, "great" is the one. the one above all. it is pathetic. MAGreatA, jfc

A great team, working hard!

Trump stole $155 million in disaster relief funding from the disaster relief agency a month ago in order to fund concentration camps. Here is a photo of one of them reading a briefing from a hurricane expert about the hurricane that is approaching the US, while the other three people in the room ignore him and text their friends.

This is the one that is most enraging, somehow. Even if the three-out-of-four FEMA personnel on their phones are texting actual colleagues or w/e, the reason that he has abandoned affairs of state in order to get paid millions of dollars to cheat at an environmentally-destructive game was ostensibly to monitor the hurricane situation, and this 21-letter sentence, tossed off without regard to anything actually happening in the department or the atmosphere, is the most that this sack of hate can manage to spark out of his remaining fetid neurons after straight-up taking their operating funds away in order to pay racist scum less cowardly than himself to torture brown children.

New Thread: The September 2019 US Politics Thread is great Great GREAT GR8