US Politics March 2019: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled”

Ah well. Good God that is so weird.

He is a deeply weird man. It's hard to look away, but... must... not look... so hard...

(Aimless leaves computer to go make dinner.)

what book? what the fuck is he talking about? pundits should only use it? what?

perhaps his previous tweet, published just 7 minutes before that, will enlighten you:

"Virtually everything failed lawyer Michael Cohen said in his sworn testimony last week is totally contradicted in his just released manuscript for a book about me. It’s a total new love letter to “Trump” and the pols must now use it rather than his lies for sentence reduction!"

BUT THE FBI BROKE INTO HIS OFFICE

someone in the comments said it has to do with a book pitch cohen made a year ago (when he was still employed by trump), but yeah. trump is really, really dumb

Hopefully he'll die of a BDSM injury

...At one point, Cohen testified that it was true he had shopped around a book about his time with Trump, and that he ultimately turned down a $750,000 book deal. He also testified that he soured on his former employer after the president's response to violence at race-fueled riots in Charlottesville and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

In his tweets Friday morning, Trump said it was "just revealed" that Cohen penned a flattering book after those events occurred — negating Cohen's stated reason for turning on Trump.

But reporting on the book deal dates back to last year, and cites a book proposal — not a full manuscript, which Trump claimed Friday to have seen a "transcript" of. It's unclear if the book was ever written or when precisely the book proposal was shopped around, though Cohen indicated to Congress Wednesday that talks with publishers occurred "early on when I was still part of the RNC."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-attacks-cohen-over-testimony-calls-him-totally-discredited-n978076

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgXc4S-MOfQ

Jesus doesn't want Trump for a sunbeam

That whole Dale tweet thread is amazing. The speech today should also confirm that Trump wears diapers or some other body waste management device, as there's no way in hell he does anything for two hours without peeing.

XP You Think You're A Man, But You're Only A Trump

Actual photo of General Raisin Kane:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/California_Raisin_claymation.jpg

I like how he met a military guy with an obvious nickname and assumed Raisin was his given name

yeah it's a book that, I believe, wasn't even written. what a dumb dumb.

It wasn’t a book, it was a total love letter to “trump”

NEW: House judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler says "tomorrow we will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House, to the Dept. of Justice, Donald Trump Jr. ... to begin investigations" https://t.co/T5uriFOXYo #ThisWeek pic.twitter.com/OYnNw8ELjZ

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 3, 2019

has Ways & Means chair Neal been dragging his feet on Yam's taxes?

https://revolvingdoorproject.substack.com/p/revolving-door-project-reacts-to

i uh, think he's got this?
http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wamc/files/styles/medium/public/201804/114_rp_ma_1_neal_richard__1_.jpg

sorry hueg but eh

Senate has enough GOP defections to pass national emergency disapproval.

Obv gonna get vetoed and there's no veto-proof majority but at least we're making him own it

Senate has enough GOP defections to pass national emergency disapproval.

No they don't. I read the Vox article that listed the "defectors" and the list included Collins, with Rubio and Romney supposedly "on the fence." I will bet actual money that none of them are going to vote no when it finally comes down. Paul will, Murkowski might, and that'll be it, and one of those will be canceled out by Manchin voting yes.

huh? this bill is the exact type of thing Murkowski and Collins love to defect on, much like the ACA repeal bills, to appear more "middle of the road". and Manchin likes to vote the same way they do (albeit he doesn't always).

not sure why you're dismissing this so confidently.

I mean I know some of the posters ITT get boners loudly posting about how the worst possible outcome is obviously going to happen, but Murkowski/Collins have voted to buck Trump multiple times. they're opportunist bullshitters, but they're usually the two most likely to break ranks, like with his wall bill, or the ACA. especially when they know the bill is going to be vetoed by the President anyway, which absolves them of any 'responsibility'.

Murkowski's been at least consistent on that front.

Murkowski I can see voting no, and Paul too. But I expect less than nothing from Collins, never mind Romney or Rubio.

My senator Tillis actually bothered to write a whole op-Ed criticizing the declaration iirc. I mean I guess he could always still vote no but that would make the op-Ed a pretty weird flex.

Paul has said he will vote no.

wait, what? or do you mean "yes"?

w the Dems

oh ok.

there are butthurt conservatives posting how he "joined the swamp" on twitter now lol

Jane Mayer’s Fox News deep dive is a doozy. Who’s surprised that Trump got debate Qs in advance? Can the guy ever stop projecting???

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house

Also enjoyed Remnick’s chat with AOC:

Ocasio-Cortez says that she has tried to keep her focus partly by avoiding watching Trump on television: “He relies and thrives on attention, and so the less attention he’s given, even if it’s just one set of eyeballs, the weaker he is.” She said that watching Trump in the House chamber at the State of the Union address made her feel “sick” and “underwhelmed.”

“He is such a small, mediocre person,” she told me. “I grew up with a real romanticism about America. I grew up in a first-generation household where your parents give up everything, and for me America was the greatest thing ever to exist. To be there on the floor of the House was beyond anything my parents would have ever dreamed of. But the person behind the podium was so unskilled. It was kind of sad.”

sorry, link https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-coming-for-your-hamburgers

Trump sez he gave FEMA the order to give Alabama "A plus treatment" after their tornadoes.

He makes disaster relief sound like fucking hotel concierge service ffs

boom...?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/trump-obstruction.html

misleading URL btw

again, so many impeachable offenses, like several a week.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/report-trump-ordered-officials-to-pressure-doj-to-intervene-against-tiem-warner-att-deal

and it's all out in the fucking open. all this stuff does is confirm what he already said and what we already knew.

Other than a big burst of posting around Cohen's testimony, it feels like the US politics threads have calmed a fair amount since the government shutdown ended. The Dems capturing the House makes Trump less relevant, except as a crash dummy. The new Congressional investigations are only at the starting line. The Green New Deal is still too shapeless and far down the road to get much more from us than general approval of the concept. M4A might have legs, but until 2021 it remains an election issue with a legislative sidebar.

This is a nice chance to take a breather and stretch.

Here, this will help raise blood pressures: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/04/omar-israel-house-democrats-1201881?fbclid=IwAR0BzBylWabRlwhrPGge11rmAV6vHKISKZoVaABeQTPJQuHLNPZuWNdn4mA

So wait, has this not been posted?

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-ny-matthew-whitaker-quits-justice-department-20190304-story.html?fbclid=IwAR2HSuSuVRcHPHIEXUXIjw8TcpTDWhRnr3qRMiMwqpuSt8DAL6owCB0e2tk&fbclid=IwAR3MzZbmDyXx1HqURQ2Ojgm1YitnrIzDcs_Hgne4bETjdiXVyIRYcwQ6ZIQ

this OTT reaction from Dems only seems to prove her point. meanwhile you've got wings of the GOP actively calling her a terrorist. great job, Dems!

like most things nowadays it just feels like bad faith all around. based solely on Omar's comments, does anyone really feel like it's necessary for Democrats to issue a congressional resolution to demonstrate they are against anti-Semitism? i don't think so, which suggests they are signalling something else, like...

questioning support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is unacceptable. (1/2)
— Rep. Juan Vargas (@RepJuanVargas) March 4, 2019

fuck these nerds. guess for the next 2 years the money i usually give to PP & ACLU is going to Omar and primary opponents of every bad faith dickhead trying to run her out of town

Rep. Juan Vargas, "As the duly-elected representative of hundreds of thousands of American citizens, I see it as my duty not to ask questions about America's foreign policy. Really. No questions at all. That's my position."

An excellent Yglesias piece summarizing what we learned from the Mayer reporting: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/4/18249847/fox-news-effect-swing-elections

Robert Mueller's office has notified Judge Amy Berman Jackson about an Instagram post from Roger Stone that could be in violation of Judge Jackson's strict gag order on Stone. https://t.co/UNp0Ux1xi1

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 4, 2019

speaking of predictable events....

Was just watching last nights John Oliver and he was discussing the story about Jared’s security clearance from what, four days ago, that has essentially vanished from the news while everyone gets worked up about Rep. Omar again. Good job media, attaboy Congress.

conrgess is gonna congress, frankly this is a media problem.

After seeing that disgusting wapo op-Ed comparing Omar to Steve King I’m inclined to agree