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

hey it’s infrastructure week again

this means there's a 95% chance that either a cabinet secretary is going to jail or, like, we find out Mike Pence is Benjamin Button-ing pic.twitter.com/PbNW860d4Q

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) March 29, 2018

Whoops!

Michael Cohen's attorney just claimed on @OutFrontCNN that Trump was not aware of the Stormy Daniels agreement or the payment, which means that there was no contract between Trump and Daniels, and Daniels can release the materials. Why would he admit this on national television?

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) March 28, 2018

Further to which.

Here is Michael Cohen's lawyer and spokesman saying categorically that Cohen negotiated agreement w/o ever telling his client DJT anything abt it and made him a party to the agreement w/o any intention of telling him abt it or having him sign it. @MichaelAvenatti @renato_mariotti pic.twitter.com/xqNLvcx1uX

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 29, 2018

The best people

God, all this shit is endlessly exhausting.

Oh shit, Trump's lawyer's lawyer better get a lawyer

I don't believe this guy is representing Cohen in this matter, he's just a bag of gas doing advance work

God, all this shit is endlessly exhausting.

yup, the "circus" part of the equation

so the story now is that Michael Cohen just randomly gave a porn star $130,000 AND negotiated an NDA with her without Trump's knowledge, even though Trump never slept with her and was just trying to get her on Celebrity Apprentice?

[entire crowd chanting]

PISS TAPE
DICK PIC
PISS TAPE
DICK PIC

lisa needs braces

it'd be dreadful if the people concerned were saving the worst stuff for a month of mounting horrors steadily released in the leadup to November

God, all this shit is endlessly exhausting.

Not if you don't have a fantasy league of the lawyers. I mean, Jesus Christ, who cares.

Not going quietly.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/29/597866101/fired-va-secretary-says-white-house-muzzled-him

Fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin tells NPR's Morning Edition that political forces in the Trump administration want to privatize the VA — and he was standing in the way.

"There are many political appointees in the VA that believe that we are moving in the wrong direction or weren't moving fast enough towards privatizing the VA," he said. "I think that it's essential for national security and for the country that we honor our commitment by having a strong VA. I was not against reforming VA, but I was against privatization."

Those political forces may be responsible for why Shulkin says he wasn't allowed to speak out to defend himself against an ethics controversy that he says was overhyped and intended to weaken him.

"This was completely mischaracterized," Shulkin said, defending himself. "There was nothing improper about this trip, and I was not allowed to put up an official statement or to even respond to this by the White House. I think this was really just being used in a political context to try to make sure that I wasn't as effective as a leader moving forward."

wow i can't believe it never occurred to me to have a fantasy cabinet that would at least add a little risibility to this nonsense

it'd be dreadful if the people concerned were saving the worst stuff for a month of mounting horrors steadily released in the leadup to November

― startled macropod (MatthewK), Thursday, 29 March 2018 06:21 (seven hours ago) Permalink

OPPO DUMP 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO (or should that be POOGALOO?)

I do occasionally wonder if anyone's sitting on nuclear-grade news with the intention of a strategic bomb drop in the election season. I don't even know what would count as 'nuclear-grade' at this point, though. Video of Trump parading around in a suit made of human skin? Yaaaaaaaawn.

I regret to inform you that the lady who did a Nazi salute on national TV is at it again

David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.) https://t.co/wflA4hWHXY

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 28, 2018

this is disturbing, but also somewhat amusing in that it opens up a window to a parallel universe where ordinary kids' college decisions are as scrutinized as a five-star athlete's

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZdso6IW4AA3Owm.jpg

why is TIME running photos of horny toads

All children in so-called sanctuary cities will be designated crisis actors and subjected to televised wedgies, swirlies, etc.

that is one of the least flattering photographs i've ever seen. combo of retouching it to make him look like an evil asshole (he didn't need any help) and him making a weirdass face that doesn't even resemble his resting face

honestly i'd rather they just go all the way and depict him in an inner circle of hell, being ripped apart by satan on a frozen plane

palpatine’s conversion is going well and proceeds apace xp

https://us-east-1.tchyn.io/snopes-production/uploads/2015/05/beck.jpg?resize=620,351

The mental/spiritual/ideological rot of the GOP is perfectly encapsulated in that Ingraham tweet. And the Sessions photo is basically the physical manifestation of that tweet. We don't really need to conjure up some fanciful spectre of demons from hell when they walk among us.

meanwhile the POTUS literally thinks "Amazon free shipping" means the UPS ships it for free at taxpayer expense

He probably is pulling a Randy from South Park and thinks UPS is a govt run agency

Amazon uses USPS

And UPS,FedEx, and LaserShip, and Amazon's own courier service, and other regional courier services

right but prez beef is he thinks Amazon is exploiting the post office

And they're shipping it all the way from the Amazon! Which is, like, somewhere far away, I think. That has to be expensive!

lol

when in fact it's making USPS money xp

I wonder how many Nigerian princes Trump has given money to.

Bezos has the money to buy Trumps soul

Does his base use Amazon? Maybe thats how he finally loses them.

"Keep your govt hands off my free 2 day shipping!"

you will pry this 36-pack of Keurig k cups from my cold dead hands

I'm sure the bulk of Trump's base uses Amazon extensively. And if Trump decides to go all-in on an Amazon attack, I'm equally sure that we will soon see his base incoherently turn on the service that they extensively use.

I mean fuck Bezos and all but don't put any more of dude's already underpaid employees out of work.

I keep wishing very hard that Trump will engage in a tweetstorm on how un-American and awful food and water and shelter are.

the sucking USPS was on life support before Amazon got big

Yea they floated ending Saturday delivery for that reason

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-lost-53-billion-in-one-day-because-trump-has-op-1824173276

The debate over whether Amazon is screwing the post office is complicated and there’s long been an argument it actually saved the USPS by increasing the number of packages shipped. The introduction of email wiped out 40 percent of the post office’s business on first-class mail since 2000. The increase in package deliveries brought more business to the Postal Service and it even added Sunday delivery for Amazon packages to keep up with demand. But analysts have argued that Amazon is getting a sweetheart deal and the government is essentially subsidizing its shipping. A Citigroup report concluded that the price of shipping at USPS would have to go up an average of $1.41 per package in 2018 to truly cover the cost of delivery. But the postal service has a long list of other issues that contribute to its financial problems. And Amazon is looking to use its enormous capital to start its own delivery service, so we’ll likely see how the USPS does without it in the near future.

ps lol

As for Amazon’s tax bill, it’s true that it effectively paid no taxes in 2017, but it did pay hundreds of millions in taxes over the course of the previous three years. Its SEC filings credited stock-based deductions and Trump’s tax cut plan that includes a loophole for some companies to postpone their tax liability until next year when rates will be more favorable.

RIP USPS

as if i needed another reason to not watch the Roseanne show ugh

USPS should start offering low-cost banking services, it would actually benefit working people and as a sweet bonus it would infuriate conservatives.

This guy.

.@NorahODonnell: [Cohen] took out a home equity loan to pay off Stormy Daniels?

Schwartz: To get the money quickly.@GayleKing: Does that make sense to you?

Schwartz: Would I do that? No. For an outside client, it’s a different relationship.https://t.co/FYdlcHAKyr pic.twitter.com/XoEx5pLOtE

— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 29, 2018