US Politics December 2018: ~very legal and very cool~

Yeah I went to the source and regretted it

I'm kinda all for this demonization of AOC. Gives her a loudspeaker, and distracts the wingnuts from calumnies against anyone running in 2020.

Yeah, GOP is gonna be so far gone by 2020 they'll wind up doing a fair bit of our campaigning for us. '(Democratic candidate) is on record as someone who cares about you and wants to improve your life. Can we afford four years with (Democratic candidate) in the White House? Vote (Republican who proudly urinated on a homeless man in front of news cameras) in 2020!'

#draftloganpaulGOP2020

So does anyone know if this criminal justice reform bill is any good or what?

Yeah, GOP is gonna be so far gone by 2020

just hear to remind us there's actually no bottom and when you think there's a bottom, a few years later it's like the john birch society or nazis are back.

The most-publicized provisions, such as greater judicial discretion during sentencing, seem like an improvement over current law. How well-suited it might be to reduce the shocking over-representation of minorities in prison remains to be seen.

Details, details.

“A newly obtained document shows President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite his attorney Rudy Giuliani claiming on Sunday the document was never signed.” https://t.co/UdEf1vfqGQ

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) December 19, 2018

"I signed it with the wrong hand!"

There is one difference between Trump and every other right-wing leader of the past 100 years.

He doesn't want to lead. He wants everyone to follow him though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JRQMD7rmEk

Well, good morning!

big if true

We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

He should go over there and wander around by himself for a little while to show us how safe things are now.

Gee, I wonder how Russia would feel about the US withdrawing from Syria

I’m all for gtfo Syria, but do it as part of a larger plan of peace coordinated with other countries and with international support, not as some unilateral dumbass tweet that we’ll later learn was not discussed with key members of Congress, administration, and Jared

tweet makes me wonder what he was doing in Syria before the Trump presidency

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

Looking for future mistresses/wives, iirc.

"do they still have -- whattayacallit -- harems there?"

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

― j., Wednesday, December 19, 2018

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMOOOOOAH

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOWI3ODY4YmYtNDlkZi00MDk0LWJmNzgtYjg3M2RjMWMzMjQyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjA3NDg2Mzg@._V1_.jpg

Lindsey Graham on Trump’s Syria move: “If these media reports are true, it will be an Obama-like mistake made by the Trump Administration. While American patience in confronting radical Islam may wane, the radical Islamists’ passion to kill Americans and our allies never wavers.”

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2018

A relief that Huckleberry still places a premium on killing brown lives over loyalty to Trump.

I had wondered how Rania Khalek would react to this

1/ Even when the US withdraws from areas it is occupying it finds a stupid way to do it.

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) December 19, 2018

xp he never really changed and never really will

love to spend a trillion+ dollars 'protecting' americans from terrorists because they killed a fraction of those killed by guns domestically

hotel deal

golf course

dental plan

― j., Wednesday, December 19, 2018 10:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lisa needs braces

IS claimed an attack in Raqqa 30 minutes ago, but okay pic.twitter.com/wzYWJ4t8to

— Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) December 19, 2018

Hillary did it

Trump probably just killed Aaron Turner

if ISIS is on the wane (and it seems to be but what do I know, I onlyu know what the news reports and they've shifted focus elsewhere) it's likely due to other forces, not the US. Syria though is almost certainly still a motherfucking shitshow and Assad is still in power and I assume Trump loves him.

There was a phone call between Trump and Ergodan on Friday, possibly to encourage Ergodan to go easy on the Saudi prince MBS. Trump got a sale of $3.5 B in Patriot air-defense missles, Ergodan got a noncommital willingness to extradite opposition cleric Gulen, and a go-ahead for Turks to move against the Kurd held parts of Eastern Syria (which were under US military protection).

Bloomberg: US Backs Patriot Missile Sale to Turkey in Breakthrough
Reuters: Trump willing to look at extraditing Turkish cleric, but noncommittal
Reuters: Erdogan says Trump positive on Turkish military plan to push east in Syria
Daily Sabah: Erdoğan - Trump agreement results in US withdrawal from Syria

Poor Kurds. The YPG is the only Mid-east faction who deserves our admiration.

If Trump signs off on extradition, I hope that he shares in whatever fate he will have pointlessly condemned Gulen to suffer.

I bet the US military, esp SOCOM, is pissed about this deal. There was genuine mutual admiration with our Kurd allies, and I bet there are going to be some tearful, apologetic departures.

Meanwhile, Blind amphibian that buries its head in the sand named after US President Donald Trump

Dermophis donaldtrumpi, 10 centimetres in length and belonging to group of snakelike animals called caecilians, was recently found in Panama by a group of scientists.

What did caecilians do to deserve that

Bad enough that they can't eat gluten.

these caecilians are breaking my heart

all of this assumes that somehow trump’s tweet will translate to actual movement or policy change. Sometimes he just likes to tweet stuff without checking into how it’s done.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/19/trump-policy-domestic-violence-victims-asylum-1069107

These little victories haven't felt quite as victorious since the beer connoisseur's confirmation.

well bear in mind that they have immediate and clear impacts on actual people currently at the border, so there's that. same goes for the court rulings that delayed his muslim ban. while it was on appeal and before it was overturned, people got in and out of the country.

</debbiedowner>Right. Worth emphasizing that it is still a victory.

<debbiedowner>

xp Karl:

He's CinC. If Turks want to occupy the 20 km nearest their border, he just orders an immediate withdrawal. The 2000 green berets, forward air controllers etc. stationed with the Kurds don't have much of a logistical footprint, they can loadup and move to forward operating bases deeper in Syria within days. The heavy stuff can be left behind.

It's not like Trump has ever said a kind word about Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians etc.

that's cuz they're all losers iirc

"He's Assyrian you say? Assad's a Syrian too, so what's the problem?"

Manafort's patron Deripaska still has friends in high places:

The U.S. Treasury Department is removing Russian aluminum giant Rusal from the sanctions list https://t.co/vFRx6tk5na

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 19, 2018

Smooth move, great timing.

i'm surprised there hasn't been more chatter about the recent reveal that hackers downloaded a bunch of EU diplomatic cables over a period of 3 years, and also:

The cyberintruders also infiltrated the networks of the United Nations, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and ministries of foreign affairs and finance worldwide.

...Some of the more than 100 organizations and institutions were targeted years ago. But many were not aware of the breach until a few days ago, when some were alerted by Area 1, a firm founded by three former officials of the National Security Agency.

the hackers released the cables to the nyt, and of course there's lots of juicy stuff in there. but also seems like an issue that an insanely large number of politically-oriented organizations are dealing with this week? holy shit 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/european-diplomats-cables-hacked.html

it wasn't the hackers that released the cables to the nyt:

The cables were copied from the secure network and posted to an open internet site that the hackers set up in the course of their attack, according to Area 1, the firm that discovered the breach.

Area 1 made more than 1,100 of the hacked European Union cables available to The New York Times

love this detail:

In this case, the cables were exposed after a run-of-the-mill phishing campaign aimed at diplomats in Cyprus pierced the island nation’s systems, said Oren Falkowitz, the chief executive of Area 1.

“People talk about sophisticated hackers, but there was nothing really sophisticated about this,” Mr. Falkowitz said. After getting into the Cyprus system, the hackers had access to passwords that were needed to connect to the European Union’s entire database of exchanges.

don't let boomers check their own emails if they have access to sensitive information imo

very dumb that any of these systems are even connected to the internet

like the clinton emails hack happening because podesta is a fucking boomer idiot and their IT guy emailed back "it's ok to open" instead of "it's not ok to open" when he got an email like "PleAse mr podestt to enter password thank yous. i am bank" is a maddeningly stupid thing for history to hinge on