US Politics: July 2020 - "Denigrating this Luxury Avenue"

fix yr time zone sic

fix YOUR time zone

i want my street cat mondays properly tagged dammit

This guy is such a magnificent idiot https://t.co/509a5s6gfZ

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) July 23, 2020

that's right, stephen miller's dad, you tell it

A White House spokesperson says Stephen Miller’s grandmother "did not pass away from COVID.” Even when shown a death certificate that says her death was a result of COVID-19, the White House called the claim "categorically false.” https://t.co/HEF6ziclYo

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 23, 2020

also good lord what a fucked up time

actual lol

Trump: The northeast has become very clean. The country is in very good shape, other than if you look South and West pic.twitter.com/6hfaeRSCp6

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) July 23, 2020

fuck him, not funny

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

Fred Flintstone w gigantism

I don’t normally post on this thread (or my reporting) but figured this might be of interest to some of you: https://in.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics-1mdb-goldmansachs-idINKCN24P14L

It’s an incredibly huge deal, likely the biggest settlement GS has ever agreed to (anything to avoid admitting guilt) and they will likely pay more to settle investigations in the US too.

the whole story is insane btw - massive international corruption that led to probes in at least six countries, brought down our PM, and involves Saudi and UAE royalty, Elliott Broidy, Leonardo DiCaprio and the film The Wolf of Wall Street and I’m not even close to scratching the surface of it. Dirty Money season 2, episode 2 on netflix is a decent if not exhaustive overview.

Great article!

Wolf of Wall Street was literally made with stolen money?

A little too meta, if you ask me.

wow this is wild

Man I can’t believe how little coverage this got in the states. It’s easily the biggest financial scandal in the world.

Wolf of Wall Street was literally made with stolen money?

Yeah, this is what the titular wolf had to say about it https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/25957-jordan-belfort-wolf-of-wall-street-switzerland-speeches-donald-trump-greg-coleman-3

Do you have an example of running the other way in your post-prison life?

If you look at the movie, for instance: the movie’s a huge success, and then it turns out the guys who financed it were criminals. And this guy Jho Low. Leo (Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars as Belfort in «Wolf») got sucked in. Leo’s an honest guy. But I met these guys, and said to Anne, ‘these guys are fucking criminals’.

And then I met them at the launch party. They flew me to Cannes four or five months after they bought the movie and they wanted to announce it in Cannes. It hadn't even gone into production yet, and they threw a launch party. They must have spent $3 million on a launch party. They flew in Kayne West, and I said to Anne, ‘this is a fucking scam, anybody who does this has stolen money.‘ You wouldn't spend money you worked for like that.’

And then there’s this crazy shit: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/09/arts/jho-low-1mdb-assets-piano.html

i heard about that story a couple of times in matt levine's newsletter but nowhere else. insane stuff! great piece roz.

thanks!

I forgot, there’s also this handy explainer I wrote last year: ‪https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-politics-mahathir-1mdb-expla-idUSKBN1YE0KS‬

yeah, great stuff roz! and yes, i had not heard a single word about this until this morning, so thanks for your work on it

that’s crazy - I’ve been covering it for about five years now and it just never ends. Outside Malaysia, i find it’s one of those things that people are either really familiar with (because they work in finance/legal) or haven’t heard about at all.

tbrwu I have hardly ever heard of anything at all at this point

A Yacht, a Monet, a See-Through Piano

tbf I thought this was just another thing on Trump's competency test

A Yacht, a Monet, a See-Through Piano, Panama!

Madam I am Corrupt

Quote from White House @PresSec: "[Trump] is also appalled by cancel culture... we saw a few weeks ago that Paw Patrol, a cartoon show about cops, was canceled. COPS was canceled. Live PD was canceled. Lego halted sales of their lego city police station. It's really unfortunate."

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 24, 2020

I want this to end

we saw a few weeks ago that Paw Patrol, a cartoon show about cops, was canceled.

i fuckin wish!!!!!

First they came for paw patrol...

http://media.newyorker.com/cartoons/5f1b0114eb1eec154599e09b/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/A24484.jpg

xp Goldman/1MDB scandal is really amazing, thanks for the flag. the initial settlement article does a bad job of context really, so also thanks for follow up-

class action suit

i mean, imagine if, uh, let me just make these up without looking around my living room, it's like if remote control, book, floor, coffee table, rug joined the lawsuit, haha

Praxis

Shoutout to @KingJames for paying fines and fees with his voting rights organization so Floridians can vote!https://t.co/6nXpE3zm5H

— Voto Latino (@votolatino) July 24, 2020

I was hoping someone would set up a fund for that. I just donated:
https://wegotthevote.org/finesandfees/

thanks for sharing taht. I just did as well and shared.

Already donated, in before LeBron!

Anyone informed on what's happening with Shahid Buttar? seeing allegations of mistreatment, and DSA considering removing their endorsement

https://theintercept.com/2020/07/23/shahid-buttar-campaign-allegations/

Hey @NYCMayor you ok with the NYPD expanding its power to revoke press credentials and restrict journalists’ freedom to cover stories?https://t.co/F1RjLxukZA

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) July 24, 2020

Re:Buttar, I'm not surprised. His Twitter presence is unprofessional and I've seen multiple long-time SF racial justice activists say they don't trust him and that he only started showing up at actions the last couple months. It's a shame because we really need a progressive candidate to at least try to keep Nancy honest (#morbsbait) but he's not it.

He didn't really have a chance in hell anyway, right?

Another huge crowd tonight in Portland, including a new "wall" on the front lines: a Wall of Vets.

Here's a look at the line of military veterans getting set up here in front of the federal courthouse. Behind them, the Wall of Moms and the Wall of Dads are arriving. pic.twitter.com/gGnXHjI3k2

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) July 25, 2020

whattayaknow, he ended up building walls after all

Xxpost - probably not but these are crazy times.

with the continued brain poisoning of the religious right, a little excited to see how it makes its way into the Contemporary Christian Music scene.

new releases like

Jesus Rifle - Fuck Your Feelings
Faith Terrorist - My Right as an American
Christhammer - Jesus Isn't a Cunt

The Washington Post reports:

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, which runs the 40th president’s library near Los Angeles, has demanded that President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) quit raising campaign money by using Ronald Reagan’s name and likeness.

“It was simply handled with a phone call mid-last week to the RNC, and they agreed to stop,” Reagan Foundation chief marketing officer Melissa Giller said in an email Saturday.

What came to the foundation’s attention — and compelled officials there to complain — was a fundraising email that went out July 19 with “Donald J. Trump” identified as the sender and a subject line that read: “Ronald Reagan and Yours Truly.”

Good morning!

Approval of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has hit a new low, with just 32 percent of Americans saying they support his strategy, according to a poll released Sunday.

Notably, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found support for the president’s handling of the pandemic has dipped among Republicans, with 68 percent now approving of his handling of it.

The poll also found that 81 percent of Republicans approve of the president’s overall job performance, contradicting a claim Trump repeatedly makes — including in a tweet Friday — that his approval within his own party remains steady at 96 percent.

Trump's overall approval rating remains fairly constant at 38 percent, although just 2 in 10 of those polled said the country is heading in the right direction, a new low for the Trump presidency.

The poll found approval of the president’s handling of the economic crisis has dipped, too — with just 38 percent of Americans now saying the economy is good, down from the 67 percent in January, before the pandemic's spread.

The numbers come as the president changed his tone on the coronavirus pandemic in this week’s White House task force briefing and on social media in a tacit acknowledgment he is facing polling headwinds 100 days out from the November general election.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/26/support-for-trumps-coronavirus-strategy-dips-381509

lol fuck off R Reagan Presidential Foundation.

your ‘movement’ built this.

His bowel movement, maybe.

Getting worried about Illhan Omar

Seeing a lot of Antone signs, the amount of the campaign is spending is insane

I'm getting I'd say 6-8 mailers a week, some now not from his campaign but attack fliers from PACs

noted and donating rn

Awesome! I just did too.

Last poll I saw she was way up but congressional local primary polling who the fuck knows,I guess the guy she beat was way up too.

Though part of her base is the Somali community, could see that community being skeptical of polling.

Hmmm, the Trump administration is sending federal troops into cities in order to create "viral content"? Is the policy objective merely to dominate Twitter and Facebook? ---> https://t.co/9nxY4SxEkc pic.twitter.com/QT0QCWg0QX

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) July 25, 2020