US Politics, October 2018: next week will be even longer

btw here's an example of the sort of Giant Brain Genious that is common in these parts:

I remember hearing those exact words during the run-up to Prop 13 in California in 1978. Fucking hell, nothing has changed.

Tomás P. Regalado then told Mother Jones that the videos were removed from the broadcaster’s website when the news organization approached him about the content.

In his statement, Regalado merely said that the story did not have “balance” and should have had additional sources.

“Judicial Watch is a good source, but having said that, it should not have been the only source. The two part series was not precise and did not have on the record sources to balance the story,” Regaldo told Mother Jones. “To be fair and to show that we in the new administration are committed to journalistic integrity, the stories have been pulled out of the digital page, not because we want to hide anything, but because we want to be transparent if we say that the story did not have the required balance, then it should not be on the air.”

ladies and gents, the former mayor of the City of Miami.

@HeerJeet: Two days after the worst anti-Semitic massacre ever on American soil, the Vice President appears at an event with group whose main purpose is to proselytize to Jews & convert them to Christianity.

Rabbi Loren Jacobs of Messianic synagogue Shema Yisrael offers prayer before VP Pence speaks at Michigan campaign event: "God of Abraham ... God and Father of my Lord and Savior Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah...hate inspired shooting in synagogue in Pittsburgh"https://t.co/tRwFvBTjYE pic.twitter.com/u6JJCfdhgj

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) October 29, 2018

notably, it was one of the leaders of Judicial Watch who just got banned from Fox/Fox Business after referring to the "Soros-occupied State Department", a direct reference to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
― Karl Malone, Monday, October 29, 2018 8:24 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this man is employed as adjunct faculty at George Mason University, teaching journalism and law to their students:
https://communication.gmu.edu/people/cfarrel7

i encourage you to very politely and firmly, under your own names of course, contact his department chair and the university's president and explain what Mr. Farrell and his organization, Judicial Watch, have been up to in terms of spreading anti-semitic propaganda.

to find contact info for those folks:
president: https://president.gmu.edu/contact/
dep't chair: https://communication.gmu.edu/contact

re: theories about trump's approval rating, i subscribe to the occam's razor theory that when something else is in the news it goes up, but when he is in the news it goes down.

he's been in the news every single day for about 3 years now. his approval rating should be at 0.

this would be just for the mysterious people who cause his approval rating to fluctuate between the high-30s to mid-40s

yeah, this theory also helps to understand why there was a "kavanaugh effect" on trump's ratings, despite the fact that kavanaugh is extremely unpopular.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department will deploy at least 5,200 active-duty troops to the southern border by the end of this week to help harden security there, officials announced on Monday, part of an election-season response by President Trump to hold off a group of Central American migrants moving north through Mexico.

An initial group of 800 soldiers already is heading to Texas from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, according to Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, the commander of the United States Northern Command.

The deployment is the first piece of a multistage approach that Mr. Trump has been considering for several weeks, and which also is expected to include executive action to bar entry to Central Americans, including for those seeking asylum.

“We will not allow a large group to enter the United States in an unsafe and unlawful manner,” said Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

uh, good, so how about you process their requests for asylum as you would any other day? maybe make sure you bring in lots of extra staff, instead of soldiers, to handle the increased applications that day?

lol they got a Jew for Jesus, obviously xps

according to this analysis by some rando who occasionally includes #basta in his tweets, these are the top sponsors for Fox News for the 3rd quarter of 2018:

https://i.imgur.com/TEjB008.png

i place zero faith in this analysis or methodology. but, assuming it was even close to correct, would it be that difficult to not give money to any of these corporations? many of them are in industries with plenty of other competitors.

Shep Smith on the migrant caravan: "There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about." pic.twitter.com/4dLmPuZem0

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) October 29, 2018

how does this guy still have a job

Easy! He's FOX's insurance/assurance that they're not a right wing front organization. Shep has the most secure job in the building.

yup

I dunno how he lives with himself tbh

there are probably a lot of people watching that think he's part of a conspiracy, too. good to keep a conspiracy guy on to keep drawing those viewers

(I know I know he sleeps soundly on a giant pile of money etc.)

I dunno how he lives with himself tbh

― Οὖτις, Monday,

http://gawker.com/shepard-smith-tells-waitress-get-my-fucking-drink-1449482969

Gawker Was A Good Website

can't say I miss Gawker

gawker is going to be pissed off when they find out

check out this extremely normal nonchalant correction

Charles Payne: "One of our guests said some of the people in the caravan may have diseases like leprosy and TB. Well, we want to say we have no way of independently confirming this."

The guest also said the migrants/asylum seekers have smallpox, which is impossible and a lie. pic.twitter.com/c7yqPjiz2I

— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) October 29, 2018

someone finally tried this defense huh

The lawyers for a racist Trump fan who plotted to kill Muslims in 2016 wants the judge to show leniency because he was whipped up into a state of irrational fear by the rhetoric of Trump, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. https://t.co/jy00FeDSiR

— Paul Blumenthal d/b/a James McMorgans LLC (@PaulBlu) October 29, 2018

Being an African-American Fox commentator must be....I don't even know. How do these folks look in the mirror every morning? Do their families talk to them? Are they donating their salaries to the NAACP? I can't even.

Also, LEPROSY?!?

(Which does connect to Jesus, Christianity, irony, etc.)

also, violent response to lepers seeking asylum has been proven to be self-defeating in john carpenter's "the fog"

worst john carpenter movie of his classic era, but i take your point.

if anyone in that caravan had smallpox that crew would never make it to the border

I dunno how he lives with himself tbh

― Οὖτις, Monday, October 29, 2018 5:36 PM (three hours ago)

he's doing god's work imo

people do still get leprosy btw tho obv the speculation is just that

Smith is right that the troops-on-the-border shit is a cynical ploy one week before the election to mobilize the voter base

They might as well just start claiming zombies are ambling to the border, its about as believable and useless.

Obviously you are not aware of the extensive preparations many Americans have taken in case of Zombie Apocalypse.

I'm not making that up.

Loooollll

I heard @realDonaldTrump ran home to @FoxNews to lie about me. But as my grandmother told me — never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it. So ignore him and vote, Florida!

— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) October 30, 2018

Trump eyeing executive order to end citizenship for children born in U.S. to noncitizens

I guess it makes sense that a piece of shit is composed of shit all the way down to its very core, but it's still just a little flabbergasting to see layer after layer after layer of shit revealed with seemingly no end.

Backdate that Executive Order to cover noncitizens born from 1606 onwards tbh

Another case where he says something that he has no intent of doing because his followers are so stupid that they'll misremember that he actually did it later.

He can’t actually revoke that, since it’s constitutional, right?

Right. He claims he can get around thst via EO but...he's wrong.

Pure electioneering nonsense that will have no effect except on clicks.

total transparent attempt to whoop up the fucking idiot followers of his but it's still infuriating nonetheless

if the GOP wins the House and enough state legislatures, they could propose it as a constitutional amendment

can't do it by executive order, but it doesn't mean he can't try. not sure how even a corrupt supreme court could overturn the language in the constitution or the 14th (it's not vague), but anything is possible in kavanaugh kountry

When will you media types lean to ignore Trump's nonsense and stick to the major issues at hand. You don't have to take the bait every time.

— Keith Beacham (@stoicdread) October 30, 2018

I guess it's that thing where people are now killing or attempting to kill people on the explicit basis of Trump's nonsense that makes it a little hard to ignore altogether.

Also, bullshit on the NYT for publishing whether it's "unclear" he can override the Fourteenth Amendment. No. It's not unclear. It's perfectly clear.

As in all things, we have to consider all sides of the issue, both factual and imaginary.

It was also perfectly clear in the 1860s what the Fourteenth Amendment would encompass – its opponent voted against it precisely because they thought their whiteness was endangered!

*opponents