US Politics, November 2019: These people are truly sick.

This has been true for some timd

Some people who dont follow politics too closely fail to understand this. “Conservative” doesn’t capture the idea that we should take an axe to the entire federal government, knowing this will have massively destructive ripple effects for ordinary citizens.

"arsonists" might be a better term

the DC Circuit Court case decision from earlier this year came in, McGahn must comply with House Judiciary Committee subpoena

“The case involves a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee to former White House counsel Don McGahn. It predates House Democrats’ formal announcement of an impeachment inquiry into Trump, but represents the first test in court since Trump took office of an argument the administration is pushing to stymie the impeachment inquiry: that current and former senior White House officials have “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas.”

on to the Supreme Court

Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh seem like locks to vote to reverse. Ginsburg, Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor presumably will vote to uphold. Our boy Chief Justice John ('John-Boy Walton') Roberts seems likely to be The Decider.

But if Congress can never subpoena senior WH officials for any reason then, almost automatically, no court or prosecutor would ever be able to, either. That strikes me as an unhealthy amount of immunity. Y'know.

give the people a king

The people demand a king

http://d279m997dpfwgl.cloudfront.net/wp/2019/03/AP_18334546967309-1000x666.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Richard_Thomas_2015.jpg/1200px-Richard_Thomas_2015.jpg

Indeed, the current dispute is only about whether Mr. McGahn must show up to be asked questions. Even if the Supreme Court were to ultimately say he must, it would leave unanswered whether the questions that lawmakers want to ask him — primarily about conversations with Mr. Trump detailed in the Mueller report — are subject to executive privilege, so the litigation process might have to start all over again at that point.

I mean, if you're inclined to favor despotism, the best time to formalize your preference is when your country is being led by someone who has proven to have basically no loyalty to anyone that didn't have dirt on him. Someone who couldn't care less about the interests of those seeking to solidify his power.

another Congress vs. executive branch battle:

Supreme Court blocks House committee from immediately reviewing Trump’s financial records:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-blocks-house-committee-from-immediately-reviewing-trumps-financial-records/2019/11/25/b73a26ac-0d79-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-tax-returns.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

fucking bastards

I remember reading Steve Vladeck’s comments on twitter mentioning that “there are plenty of reasons why a Justice who is otherwise inclined to vote against Trump on the merits might still want to freeze the status quo until the full Court can conduct plenary review.”

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1195044031321034753.html

not expecting anything good from this court though

Trump Tells Allies He Wants Absolved War Criminals to Campaign for Him

If Donald Trump gets his wish, he’ll soon take the three convicted or accused war criminals he spared from consequence on the road as special guests in his reelection campaign, according to two sources who have heard Trump discuss their potential roles for the 2020 effort.

Despite military and international backlash to Trump’s Nov. 15 clemency – fallout from which cost Navy Secretary Richard Spencer his job on Sunday – Trump believes he has rectified major injustices. Two people tell The Daily Beast they’ve heard Trump talk about how he’d like to have the now-cleared Clint Lorance, Matthew Golsteyn, or Edward Gallagher show up at his 2020 rallies, or even have a moment on stage at his renomination convention in Charlotte next year. Right-wing media has portrayed all three as martyrs brought down by “political correctness” within the military.

“He briefly discussed making it a big deal at the convention,” said one of these sources, who requested anonymity to talk about private conversations. “The president made a reference to the 2016 [convention] and where they brought on-stage heroes” like former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, who refused to execute detained civilians ahead of a devastating Taliban attack.

these people are truly sick

jesus fucking christ

extremely in favour of him making this a major plank of his campaign, myself

former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, who refused to execute detained civilians ahead of a devastating Taliban attack.

Presumably Trump is working to have Luttrell court-martialed for this.

please do it sir

sir,

Rhonda,

I looked at him with tears in my eyes and said, "Sir, this is without a doubt the finest thing any world leader has ever done in the history of the world." Everyone in the room was crying. Even the dog was crying.

crying like a dog!

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/472044-independent-support-for-impeachment-inquiry-rises-following-public-hearings

impossible, I heard it went from 75% to 25%

GO JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON (Harvard ‘92)

The Politico/Morning Consult poll showed 44 percent of independent voters backed the impeachment inquiry, a 4-point jump from last week’s poll.

not sure you can call a 4-point move a "jump", especially with margin of error. plus, the overall line remained the same

Overall, registered voters backed the impeachment inquiry at the same rate as last week at 48 percent, but opposition to the investigation slipped by two points to 43 percent.

which lines up with the new CNN poll, which found almost no movement from before the hearings. the TPM take:

Here are a few interesting data points from the just-released CNN poll on impeachment. The topline is pretty bad for the President. 50% of Americans believe the President should be impeached and removed from office. 43% disagree. Slightly more encouraging for the President is that those are the exact numbers CNN/SSRS found in mid-late October, prior to the public hearings. The President’s approval stands at 42% with 54% disapproving. In other words, the numbers are bad. But the hearings didn’t move anyone. We can also note that his approval is basically identical to the number who oppose removal from office. It’s like perfect polarization. You either support President Trump or you think he should be removed from office.

not shocking but still

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/

were there impeachment polls for obama? i'm kind of assuming that at any given point in time, at least 20% of the country would have supported impeaching him.

Pretty sure 79% supported impeaching him, 120% supported supporting him, 84% supported giving him a third term, 32% supported erasing his two terms, 27% supported giving him a stamp and 21% supported eliminating the post office. Iirc, it's been a while

from July 2014:

According to a CNN/ORC International poll released Friday, 33 percent of Americans think the president should be impeached and removed from office, compared with 65 percent who say they don’t support impeachment. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans say they support impeaching Obama, compared with just 35 percent of independent voters and 13 percent of Democrats.

https://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/poll-impeach-obama-support-33-percent-109369

33% thought obama should be impeached in 2014 (for...Benghazi?). 50% think trump should be impeached now. and i would guess that there's very little overlap between the two.

also just want to highlight this finding from the 2014 poll for sad lols: "When asked about when Congress should attempt to impeach a president, 79 percent of Americans said it should be used only if there is evidence of a serious crime — such as treason or bribery. Eighteen percent said impeachment could appropriately be used to registered dissatisfaction with White House policies."

the formatting on my ilx posts are starting to resemble deranged angry emails from that guy in the office who doesn't know how to use email but is angry. sorry

This is the president of the United States....wondering why the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage....wasn’t commemorated...a long time ago...? https://t.co/uIdnAyziJQ

— Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) November 26, 2019

brain worms in overdrive today

It is a bit weird that we kept postponing the centennial. Particularly that we even did twice more during the tenure of President Git-r-Dun.

This, folks. This is what happens when you fail to shut down a blowhard with a hearty 'STFU' every time they start incoherently bloviating.

we regret to inform the human population that women's suffrage centennial week has once again been indefinitely delayed

xpost Seriously. I doubt he'll participate in any debates, but if he does it will be the first time in years he'll be forced to stop talking.

Stop talking *and* listen, actually.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll showed 44 percent of independent voters backed the impeachment inquiry, a 4-point jump from last week’s poll.

not sure you can call a 4-point move a "jump", especially with margin of error. plus, the overall line remained the same

In two polls a week apart, four points is fairly significant movement. It could be an outlier to your point, but I would be more suspect of a poll reflecting an eight point jump in a week becay people don't pivot quite that fast.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you. Great job. Anybody? Anybody? Final — final — Kellyanne? How about Kellyanne?

MS. CONWAY: Mr. President, thank you —

THE PRESIDENT: She’s always very laidback and shy. (Laughter.)

MS. CONWAY: I’ll be laidback. Thank you. I think the women speak for itself. And thank you for your leadership. We really look forward to continuing the celebration of the Centennial of the Women’s Right to Vote. We go right up into next August of 2020. But it’s even hard to imagine it’s only been 100 years. And since we still have had — never had any female President, perhaps we’ll have that in our lifetime, but your victory kept that job open. So we’re here to celebrate —

THE PRESIDENT: In five years, right? (Laughter.) Five years.

PARTICIPANT: Or longer. (Laughter.)

MS. NANCE: Yeah, we can wait.

"but the dinner's on the table now!"

25% thought 'there oughta be a law'

You cannot make this sh*t up.

After being presented with the fact that a Pentagon official just told @ABC that Conan is FEMALE, a White House official tells us that the WH is still standing by its story that Conan is MALE (as Trump said). The official would not go on the record. https://t.co/XR63R0SD1l

— Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) November 26, 2019

I know its easy to laugh at dumb shit like this but the way everyone in this administration just needlessly chips away at reality is seriously evil

jfc that's insane. "Our dear leader cannot be wrong, so the dog is now male."

grabs dog

flips dog over

takes out Sharpie

https://66.media.tumblr.com/6ebb298b100b978c5eedf3be598eaadd/tumblr_inline_nmtpqg9HIa1qgy9dr_500.png

hopefully conan will bite yellow boys nuts off and they can discuss gender on more equal footing/pawing