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

ha i only heard it, so i did not witness his blood-temp. on the phones he just seemed ~informed~.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I can only imagine Larry David being delighted at Trump being fooled by this bit <a href="https://t.co/FHGcsJtsgw";>https://t.co/FHGcsJtsgw<;/a></p>— Andrej (@AndrejNkv) <a href="

I can only imagine Larry David being delighted at Trump being fooled by this bit https://t.co/FHGcsJtsgw

— Andrej (@AndrejNkv) February 11, 2020

sorry i botched the embed there

The DOJ is changing its sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, according to a Senior DOJ official.
“The Department finds seven to nine years extreme, excessive and grossly disproportionate," the source said, adding the DOJ will clarify its position on sentencing later today

— Jake Gibson (@JakeBGibson) February 11, 2020

this whole nonsense about trumps personnel change and flynn case motions is freakin me out for real.

the doj is downgrading roger stone's sentence to 'adding an angry frown onto the richard nixon tattoo on his back'

'adding a grin and a thumbs up'

This is why no one should ever be caught saying "It's all good."

it's not fair if all mr. trump's sharpest advisors are in jail for the 2020 campaign

yea Trump not getting what that CYE bit was about is pretty par for the course (see also: Pompeo tweeting out the image of Lisa tearing up her essay)

this on the other hand...not only does it make no sense but Trump seems to be RT'ing an account claiming Bloomberg is racist because he hangs out with Trump?

Mini Mike is a short ball (very) hitter. Tiny club head speed. KEEP AMERICA GREAT! https://t.co/5DUj16jtZf

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2020

also noticed trump committed the most unforgivable sin of calling a white guy racist for supporting policies he himself was a fan of in 2016 in another tweet today

they think racism is over and everyone should "get over it" and it's horrible to throw around accusations of racism...unless they're able to do exactly that to their opponents. I'm beginning to think they're just a bunch of disingenuous assholes!

The GOP president could hold a press conference where he levies unfounded murder accusations against a democratic political rival while simultaneously bludgeoning a man to death with a length of pipe on camera. This isn't hypocrisy, it's tribalism.

Unlike Democrats, who do everything they can to frustrate justice with red tape and endless rules, Republicans just follow the simple, commonsense standard that it's not murder if the dead person deserved it.

Stone's prosecutor just resigned, very cool that we just allow the POTUS to interfere with sentencing now

maybe Rudy will win an Oscar next year! like Jojo Rabbit

https://news.yahoo.com/giuliani-storms-back-into-ukraine-investigation-with-hunter-biden-documentary-163027638.html

Three Stone prosecutors have now resigned. Jesus.

Oh sorry, I see that one left the DOJ completely. The other two just quit Stone's case. Still.

lmao Trump is gonna openly fuck with the election and no one's going to do a thing about it

I think it's safe to say that President Trump has learned his lesson and has been chastened and dare I say humbled by the experience of his impeachment. It's mourning in America!

I can't wait for the vigorous head shaking and finger wagging when he calls off the election.

So maybe the right response for this is for me to just step away from the thread and not read it. Twitter too. But -- I really really don't want people to laugh hollowly and say "well I guess that's it for democracy, election's gonna get cancelled amidst modest harumphs of disapproval from elected officials and journalists," and the reason I don't want people to do that is it makes me feel like shit and it makes me feel like there's no point and it makes me feel like giving up, which is not, I know, anyone's intention, but fuck, I am not ready to give up and I want to help other people not give up and I want other people to help me not give up. THE FUCKERS WHO ARE DOING THIS WANT US TO FEEL LIKE THERE'S NO POINT AND THEY WANT US TO GIVE UP. That is all.

cosign this sentiment about all the pointless black comedy nihilism on these threads

as Alfred and DJP have repeatedly pointed out in these threads, performative despair is white privilege in action

I've done it in the past, and now regret it

idk if anyone linked this earlier, but greg sargent of wapo had a good article about how this type of despair is exactly what trump is counting on: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/11/trumps-latest-rally-stunts-are-designed-get-you-surrender/

performative despair is white privilege in action

say it louder for the people in the back

eephus! completely and utterly otm

I mean despair is one thing, but this "yuck yuck, all hail Emperor Trump guys, hope you like reprogramming" bullshit Letterman routine that keeps popping up on here keeps pissing me off more and more.

like it isn't even based in reality. if it were that easy to topple an election, he'd have done it during the mid-terms. There are legitimate things that he could do to undermine the election that we have to fight but nobody's gonna do it if everybody is like YEA PARTY WE ARE RIGHTS-FREE IN THIS COUNTRY, NO VACCINES AND NO FREEDOMS as if it's somehow hilarious?

and we won more than 40 seats in 2018. The fuck is wrong with you people?

it's pretty damn fucked what happened today, yes. no way to sugar coat it. but I figured he'd start flexing his muscles after he got faux-"exonerated" just as he did post "release the memo", post "Nunes-gate", post "Mueller report", and yet his momentum never lasts for long and we do manage to get a few licks in.

but hey if anybody wants to pack it in and think 2020 is over, well, there's other message boards mang

xpost fuckin' seriously. and even then i had to convince my Democrat friends that the election wasn't a disaster simply because Desantis won our state. like, stop listening to Katatonia cds or somethin

i have the other other kind of (mostly white) privilege in action, which is THIS IS MY COUNTRY because I WAS BORN HERE and I SERVED so if anybody tries to tell me democracy’s over there will be significant issues for them

I have always despised the handwringing and shrugging and moaning, especially since Trump didn’t even win anything close to a majority.

sometimes my wife is like “if he wins again, we’re leaving the country” and I am all NOPE I WILL NOT LET THEM WIN which, granted, could be its own variety of mental hangup

lots of people have that mental hangup

I don't think I'm engaging in performative despair here - for what it's worth I am fully expecting Trump to lose in 2020, barring even crazier electoral college math than what we got in 2016. But the fact remains that Trump has tried to interfere in both of these elections, both times was caught red-handed, both times "exonerated" by a Senate that was more than willing to engage in a cover up, and in both cases saw his approval ratings jump right afterwards. It's practically a given that he's going to try to pull something blatantly illegal in the months leading up to November.

srsly. Why would I surrender this country to this crew of sociopaths and charlatans, especially when Americans significantly poorer and browner than me will suffer for my cowardice?

Tombot otm, "I'm leaving" talk - even in mournful jest - just hands the nation to the usurper. And it abandons those without the resources to flee. In other words, precisely those ppl who are meant to be protected and or uplifted by the political action of privileged white liberals like, well me

what "both times" are you even talking about

xps

Or what Alfred said (and said better)

the 2016 election and the 2020 one

on a related note

Trump says the military should look at disciplinary action against Lt. Col. Vindman, who gave testimony in impeachment hearings about the president pic.twitter.com/yX1ysfOMQ5

— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) February 11, 2020

I have a similar Tombot-ish reaction rooted primarily in how long my family's been here and what I feel is my responsibility as a result

xps

i'm sorry guys, long enervating day both politically and otherwise and I'm feeling raw, probably i am overreacting to posts not meant to be unhelpful, wish I had the level of equanimity required to just take every shitty piece of news that hits me in the chest and instead of absorbing it as despair let it bounce off me as a donation to one of the thousands of candidates around the country who are trying to make things better in their own spheres.

sorry for this shitty metaphor, long day as mentioned above

pull something blatantly illegal in the months leading up to November.

I just imagine the scene in Three Amigos where the German keeps accusing Ned of using tricks to simulate his fast-draw skills, and then it turns out Ned is actually fast.

I get it, but sometimes part of processing the despair is just venting it out a little before it can be productively refocused. If that makes sense. I can only absorb so much disheartening news before I feel so overwhelmed that either a) I have to vent my spleen in despair, so to speak; or b) just shutdown completely and ignore it all. The latter, for me, is the far more damaging long term option. I absolutely get how performative despair comes from a place of privilege, but I also just fucking feel despair. Really strongly. It's hard not to in this constant onslaught. Hats off to folks who are far better disciplined with how they express it though, seriously.

we're all trying to cope with a shitty, twilight zone-ish situation. I rmde @ some of the drama queen theatrics (not talking solely about on ILX) sometimes but I understand where it's coming from (a good place...these ppl are on my "team"), can sympathize, and understand it's therapeutic as eephus and jon said.

I cheered myself by giving some money to Pennsylvania state legislative races

xp -- "I'm leaving" thought processes are always short-circuited by the fact that I'm a writer so no other country wants me

I think people should leave if they fear for their safety, but short of that it seems a little, idk, soft? Spoiled? Like you’re going to abandon your country because the president causes you some psychic distress?

Also, this is the most powerful country in the world - if it really falls to despotism or whatever then it’s going to be bad news for the entire world.

"Like you’re going to abandon your country because the president causes you some psychic distress?"

I've never considered leaving BUT if I did it'd wouldn't be cause of one asshole in the white house it'd be cause of the millions who want him there

Like there's this old coot who rides around town in a shitty military surplus truck with an enormous US flag and Trump flag. Yesterday he drove past and a group of milquetoast people waved and cheered him. Literally turns my stomach to share my country with these people.

Yeah that’s why I joined the military and got my ass out of Alabama