US Politics, March 2018: Why do people leave the White House for good?

xpost Looks like a scene from Videodrome.

This is why this shit matters:

President Trump must face a defamation suit filed by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge denied him immunity through his job as the nation’s commander-in-chief.

“In Clinton v Jones the United States Supreme Court held that a sitting president is not immune from being sued in federal court for unofficial acts,” Justice Jennifer Schecter wrote in a ruling released Tuesday, citing the sexual harassment suit that led to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton for lying under oath about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

“It left open the question of whether concerns of federalism and comity compel a different conclusion for suits brought in state court. Because they do not, defendant’s motion to dismiss this case or hold it in abeyance is denied,” Schecter ruled.

The decision means that Zervos, who in 2016 accused then-candidate Trump of groping her and pressing his privates against her in 2007, can pursue her defamation case against the president for suggesting she made up the allegations for “10 minutes of fame.”

The drip drip drip has to start somewhere. White Evangelical Women, Core Supporters of Trump, Begin Tiptoeing Away

Barbara Lee vs the DeVos

https://splinternews.com/watch-betsy-devos-get-torn-to-shreds-for-her-pitiful-an-1823925811

Hey, don't forget that Betsy DeVos sucks too

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/education-secretary-devos-reorganization-plan-union.html

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will go before a House panel on Tuesday to defend her agency’s budget, including a sweeping overhaul of the Education Department that has strained relations within her agency and with Congress — and defies the White House’s budget office.

In recent weeks, Ms. DeVos has clashed fiercely with department staff members over the plan, which they say she tried to withhold from Congress as she imposed on the department what they call an illegal collective bargaining agreement.

Ms. DeVos will testify before the House Appropriations Committee, whose staff was told a week ago that her office had withheld vital information from it regarding the department’s budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. The budget request calls for a 5 percent spending cut, eliminates dozens of programs and pitches a $1 billion school choice proposal. It also includes a shake-up of several divisions that is already underway.

xp haha

Lee wasn’t impressed. “Madam Secretary, you just don’t care much about civil rights of black and brown students,” she concluded. “This is horrible.”

When Mariotti wins the AG nomination by the single vote I cast this afternoon, h can thank Josh and Ned's tireless retweeting itt for making me aware of his existence.

Also worth noting that IL has a wacky tobaccy referendum up on today's ballot. Puff tuff, brothers and sisters.

My wife was pretty excited by this referendum on the ballot today. I gotta figure it's just a testing the waters sort of thing. Voting was quick and easy and I'm thankful for the crew at our precinct.

Hey, don't forget that Betsy DeVos sucks too

This could never, ever happen.

Ben Carson, ladies & germs

First of all, when I assumed the position, I was told that, traditionally, secretaries redecorate their offices. I came in, I looked at it—you know, I’m not really big into decorating. If it was up to me my office would probably look like a hospital waiting room. But at any rate, I invited my wife to come in and help me downstairs at the sub-basement. We have a bunch of used furniture, we went down, made a couple of changes, had some drapes added, which were down in the basement also, and some blinds for the window. The total cost for the renovation: $3,500. A few months later, I was told that the dining room set needed to be changed. I said, ‘Why?’ Because people are being stuck by nails, a chair collapsed with somebody sitting in it—it’s 50 years old. I said, ‘OK, we could potentially do that.’ I ask my wife also to help me with that. They showed us some catalogues; the prices were beyond what I wanted to pay. I made it clear that didn’t seem right to me. And, you know, I left it with my wife, I said, ‘Help choose something.’ But I said, ‘The money that is going to be used—we need to take care of the deputy secretary’s office, and whatever’s leftover, take care of the dining room furniture. It was very important to do that. I realized that. But I had so many other important things to do at that point. I had no assistant secretary, I had no deputy secretary, I was running from place to place dealing with a lot of important issues, so I really wasn’t all that concerned about furniture. The next thing that I, quite frankly, heard about it, was that this $31,000 table had been bought. I said, ‘What the heck is that all about?’

https://splinternews.com/ben-carson-women-be-shopping-1823925488

If only this department had, like, a staff. That is not the secretary's wife. Are we to believe that if anyone in HUD needs a new desk chair they go to Mrs. Carson, because no one else is capable of dealing with it?

i guess i should stop being surprised by how fucking insane people are but still

They said that Christian voters who backed Trump had been derided as unthinking, unsophisticated hypocrites, but for many of them that only affirmed their resolve. One of the women said that her parents had come to the United States illegally from El Salvador and that she was born a short time later. Her father is now a citizen. She supports Mr. Trump and his hard-line plans on immigration.

I kinda believe that Ben Carson doesn't remember buying a $31,000 table

Next documentary up:

https://www.channel4.com/news/exposed-undercover-secrets-of-donald-trump-data-firm-cambridge-analytica

No lie about this, of course:

Mr Nix also belittled representatives on the House Intelligence Committee to whom he gave evidence in 2017. He claims Republican members asked just three questions. “After five minutes – done.”

“They’re politicians, they’re not technical. They don’t understand how it works,” he said.

trump is not going to like this because it implies all the things the campaign did (crimes) were somebody else's idea, and he's going to tweet that they were all his

BREAKING: *CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA SUSPENDS CEO ALEXANDER NIX

— Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) March 20, 2018

Analytics pick Nix nixed etc

First Hicks Nixed, Now Nix in Bobby 3-Stix Russia Elect-Fix Up-Mix; Next: Dick Pix?

Fuck, I left out MI6

New: Johnson Joy, one of Ben Carson’s top officials at HUD, has resigned following our report this weekend. Two sources tell me he was escorted out by security this morning. https://t.co/JrPvHGjY8A

— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) March 20, 2018

hats off Moo that's p good

Johnson Joy?

This whole administration feels like an episode of Punk'd.

If only this department had, like, a staff. That is not the secretary's wife. Are we to believe that if anyone in HUD needs a new desk chair they go to Mrs. Carson, because no one else is capable of dealing with it?

Firing people who point out that you're doing something legal essentially legalizes whatever it was you were doing, from what I understand. It's like putting your fingers in your ears and scrunching your eyes shut and going 'la la la la'. Double jeopardy!

'doing something illegal'

duh

lol John Kennedy (R-LA) tamping down anti-Mueller tweets as mere talk: "The President grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought."

get that man some Beano

haha that's a good burn xp

Speaking of burns

Technically I didn't sleep with the POTUS 12 years ago. There was no sleeping (hehe) and he was just a goofy reality TV star. But I digress...People DO care that he lied about it, had me bullied, broke laws to cover it up, etc. And PS...I am NOT going anywhere. xoxoxo https://t.co/Js9sEnanIk

— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) March 20, 2018

hehe

PA GOP going ham on the court

Does 'desperately thrusting a flaccid wad of gristle in the general vicinity of a porn star's privates' count as 'sleeping with'?

Not if she's on the telly

...what?

Oh it's been a day.

Trump ignored warnings from his national security advisers when he congratulated Putin, including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating "DO NOT CONGRATULATE." https://t.co/vEcwhGeEMQ

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 20, 2018

lmao

tbf to trump, in the little picture version of the briefing they made for him the cartoon figure who is supposed to be waving his hands as in "no, don't congratulate putin, don't do it!" could be mistaken for someone exuberantly waving at putin and congratulating and praising him

"... let's see now, D-O-N-U-T ... C-O-N-G-R-- I gotta call Vlad, anyway."

that feels weirdly sinister to me but i'm getting more and more hackles up about putin every day

jabroney billionaire pritzker wins

Greaaaaaaaat.

Looks like Mariotti only needs another...200k+ votes to take the nomination!

I thought the video of Trump talking about congratulating Putin was glitching for a second but, no, he really did repeat himself three times within the span of about a minute and a half.

bump

he probably meant to congratulation MGMT for their upcoming album

benghazi!

http://www.newsweek.com/us-soldiers-killed-niger-wrong-equipment-not-supposed-be-there-report-says-854275

I am going to guess the operation was not brought to Trump's desk for fear over how he would pronounce "Niger"

Epic interview with lawyers representing Michael Cohen (and Trump) and Stormy Daniels. I can't imagine Trump would be feeling too great about his legal representation if this is the best they can do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1595&v=UNWqrAhaLhM