US Politics April 2019 Thread: 'I find that pretty hard to believe'

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (1109 of them)

the role seth abramson was was born to play

person industrial complex (voodoo chili), Friday, 19 April 2019 18:51 (five years ago) link

Hoyer is my representative because he’s a gerrymandering little fuck and I plan on calling his office and harassing him as much as I can without getting arrested

Heez, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:08 (five years ago) link

I just saw my first piece about how bad the Mueller report is ... for Obama. Didn't read it, but can't imagine there aren't more coming, because of course.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:21 (five years ago) link

yep but hey let's just wait around and see what the voters think about after a year and a half of this shit

(•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 19 April 2019 19:24 (five years ago) link

I suppose the reason the Dems should hammer hard is that if they don't the GOP will fill the void with bullshit.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:26 (five years ago) link

xpost that's on CNN right? started reading it, stopped, but the point it made was slightly true, which was that Obama could have been more forceful on Russia than telling Putin to cut it out in 2016. Not sure if it mentions what a shit show that would have been for Obama though as it would have looked like his administration was interfering in the election on Clinton's behalf, which you know is what the Trump campaign would have screamed. Lose/lose situation for the Obama admin.

akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:28 (five years ago) link

mitch mcconnell forcefully intervened to delay and weaken the obama administration's response to Putin's election meddling, as it was happening, before the election

these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone), Friday, 19 April 2019 19:29 (five years ago) link

written by some Bush/Mitch dude, so fuck it.

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:30 (five years ago) link

Speaking of people who are not Donald Trump, but are still absolutely human garbage:

Rep. Matt Gaetz hires ex-White House aide ousted for white nationalist ties

Rep. Matt Gaetz — one of President Donald Trump’s most avid supporters in Congress — has hired a former White House speechwriter who was forced out last year amid scrutiny over his ties to white nationalists.

The Florida Republican announced Friday that former Trump administration aide, Darren Beattie, will join his Capitol Hill office.

“Very proud to have the talented Dr. Darren Beattie helping our team as a Special Advisor for Speechwriting. Welcome on board!” Gaetz tweeted Friday.

Beattie was fired from the White House in August 2018 after reports that he had delivered remarks at a 2016 conference, dubbed an “active hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, alongside a well-known white nationalist, Richard Spencer.

shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, 19 April 2019 19:32 (five years ago) link

As for Pete's graphics: those are cool and I really like them. Best campaign graphics since Obama's. But I don't think design won Obama's campaign for him and it won't win Pete's for him either. I'm leaning heavily toward him for many reasons not only hooked to stated policy, some of them important (I think it's very important to have a gay candidate with so much support) and some of them irrational (I just like a guy who likes Ulysses, ok?), but that doesn't mean I don't want firm policies from him. I do. He needs to start outlining what all of them are.

akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:43 (five years ago) link

but like John Mulaney's bit about Trump/Horse loose in the hospital, there's a part of me that is lazy and would like to go back to not worrying about the presidency because the person in the office is smart and seems good at their job.

akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:44 (five years ago) link

sorry I think this was meant for the dem candidate thread. see I'm all confused now.

akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 19:46 (five years ago) link

The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 19, 2019

niiiiiiice

𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 19 April 2019 20:23 (five years ago) link

president liz <33333

be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Friday, 19 April 2019 20:24 (five years ago) link

booming post girl!

(•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 19 April 2019 20:40 (five years ago) link

Disappointed that the Mueller Report has not confirmed my hypothesis that Trump appears in public wearing an overcoat so often because he's gotten too fat to fit into a lot of his suit jackets

— The Discourse Lover (@Trillburne) April 19, 2019

𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 19 April 2019 21:03 (five years ago) link

the kind of cowed, insecure, oh-no-how-will-it-look posture that typifies Dem leadership was exemplified by Obama pulling punches on original Russia intel. It backfired because OF COURSE IT DID.

Like, what kind of narrative do they continue to imagine will fill the void every time they fail to assert their own?

But no reason to expect anything different w/r/t impeachment

d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 19 April 2019 21:51 (five years ago) link

Go Liz!

Hopefully this will pull some other candidates along

d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 19 April 2019 21:52 (five years ago) link

joseph fucking smith what a dip

A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Chooglin (will), Friday, 19 April 2019 22:32 (five years ago) link

it’s better than nothing

d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 19 April 2019 22:36 (five years ago) link

That's great of Romney but what's he going to do about it? Primary Trump, or leave the GOP, or support impeachment...do something other than complain.

akm, Friday, 19 April 2019 22:37 (five years ago) link

the answer as always is sweet fuck-all

Simon H., Friday, 19 April 2019 22:41 (five years ago) link

-Bob Dylan

Got your butt drank (Neanderthal), Friday, 19 April 2019 22:45 (five years ago) link

If he wags his finger sternly enough I'm sure Trump will feel duly chastened.

i'm finally getting a chance to read the mueller report. decided to skip straight to vol 2, and i'm only about 20 pages in. i don't know how anyone could read this and not think he's guilty as hell, but no one's going to actually read it. i keep thinking of the mom in the 6th sense when everyone figures out she's been poisoning her own kid and they stare at her in horror. but in the world we live in, the proof is in a report instead of a VHS, and no one's going to read it

these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone), Saturday, 20 April 2019 00:47 (four years ago) link

I skimmed it a bit and it doesn't really offer anything super new as far as I can tell? All the links between his people and Russians with links to the Russian gov have been reported on. Obviously all written down in one big report it looks v damning but there's also no proof of any crime by trump - which will be the take away for his fans.

findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 20 April 2019 00:55 (four years ago) link

How keystone cops his people are is v funny. Papadopolous telling a foreign diplomat that the trump campaign had been told by the Russians that they had dirt on Clinton and that person then going to the fbi 😂

findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 20 April 2019 00:57 (four years ago) link

but there's also no proof of any crime by trump

this isn't true, though. there's plenty of it (read the executive summary of vol 2). the key is that approach, by design, could NOT find that the president had committed crimes. just check out these bits from the intro, where they "describe the considerations that guided our obstruction-of-justice investigation":

https://i.imgur.com/QunL3us.png

https://i.imgur.com/62l8JnG.png

these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:03 (four years ago) link

Mueller: "we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes."

world: "mueller did not find that the President committed crimes!"

https://i.imgur.com/pBcY7eN.png

these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:06 (four years ago) link

Oh yeah wrt obstruction sure.but we also knew that right? E.g. reports of him asking if he could fire Mueller etc.

findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:08 (four years ago) link

These were all things previously spun as "fake news" and usually from anonymous sources and are now confirmed as legit.

The "i'm fucked" thing was new

Got your butt drank (Neanderthal), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:09 (four years ago) link

Plus it sounded more like telling - not asking - ppl to fire him and they just didn’t

Heez, Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:11 (four years ago) link

Xp. Yes and now they're spun as "Mueller report did not find proof of criminal activity" and the status quo remains.the only hope that it'll have any effect is the other investigations that are ongoing

findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:11 (four years ago) link

It's basically the Saturday Night Massacre if Robert Bork had said "fuck you, Dick!"

Xpost right wing media and talking heads were going to say that even if the report was a snuff film. The reaction by idiots to the report shouldn't be the rubric the report is judged by.

Also it's not that he found no proof, it's that he found insufficient proof and he started with the assumption that you can't indict a sitting President and worked backwards from there

Got your butt drank (Neanderthal), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:14 (four years ago) link

I mean when the Barr summary was all we had, Trump and co never left message that he was exonerated and he even offered kind words to Mueller.

That he's now resumed throwing a shitfit over the report means he's reacting because even an idiot like him can smell that the narrative is shifting.

Got your butt drank (Neanderthal), Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:16 (four years ago) link

oh my god Romney

"I'm sickened by the President's dishonesty and willingness to sell out his country. Thank God he got away with it."

frogbs, Saturday, 20 April 2019 01:37 (four years ago) link

Although folks seem to like waving it to the crowds like a letter guaranteeing Peace In Our Time, it's pretty obvious that the "I'm fucked" quote refers to the fact that he expects the investigation to completely hamstring his agenda as President, rather than being a tacit admission of guilt. Hard to imagine 2-scoops expecting he would have to suffer consequences for his actions under any circumstances.

an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, 20 April 2019 02:44 (four years ago) link

does trump have an "agenda as president"?

not being flip, I just don't know what that would be. His agenda seems limited to agitating and inflaming his base in order to play the hero and enrich himself.

d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, 20 April 2019 03:08 (four years ago) link

And by 'agenda' I assume you mean 'sitting around in his underwear and screaming at the tv for 2/3 of any given day'. Which, thankfully, proved to he relatively unhampered by the investigation.

He’s happily carrying out McConnell and the Federalist Society agenda of putting young rightwing extremists on the Federal courts, and he’s doing his best to make $ for himself and fellow rich people, and to ease regulation on his corporate buddies.

curmudgeon, Saturday, 20 April 2019 04:09 (four years ago) link

“what can my cuntery do for me?”

estela, Saturday, 20 April 2019 04:36 (four years ago) link

<3

Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 20 April 2019 04:49 (four years ago) link

His agenda is personal enrichment.

Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Saturday, 20 April 2019 05:21 (four years ago) link

Lol estela

Vinnie, Saturday, 20 April 2019 07:44 (four years ago) link

Is Rosenstein firmly committed to being on the wrong side fo history? I thought he was teh protector of this report being researched for the last 2 years so why is he palling with the people trying to suppress it.

Stevolende, Saturday, 20 April 2019 09:16 (four years ago) link

I dunno! You could ask him and let us know - 📞 +1 (202) 514-2000

blokes you can't rust (sic), Saturday, 20 April 2019 10:46 (four years ago) link

oh really more self congratulatory wank, no wonder i tend to ignore you

Stevolende, Saturday, 20 April 2019 10:50 (four years ago) link

i know it's pointless to mention this, but seriously, anyone who says the mueller report indicates that the president did not obstruct justice did not read the report. it is impossible to read the report, or read the conclusions of someone who faithfully read the report, and come to that conclusion. the report's section on obstruction (vol 2, literally half of the report) shows over and over and over again exactly how he obstructed justice.

it is driving me nuts. it isn't just the predictable rightwing reaction ("total exoneration", head in the sand/fingers in the ears). relatively well-meaning people are also getting this, frankly, COMPLETELY WRONG.

the most commonly held view on all of this (afaict) is something like "they came up with some evidence on obstruction of justice but it wasn't enough to come to a clear conclusion." that is the shorthand, NPR-style 15-second update on the matter, and also one that i see and hear dejected trump-haters spouting as well. again - that is COMPLETELY WRONG. if you hear or watch people presenting that view - they did not repeat the report. it is not a matter of interpretation or bias. it is just wrong. please, if you hold that view, take a solid 45 minutes out of your day and read the introduction to Vol 2, and skim through the factual section.

the 2+2=5 is very very strong in the world today, it is bewildering

these are not all of the possible side effects (Karl Malone), Saturday, 20 April 2019 16:50 (four years ago) link

The accurate summary is "they came up with all kinds of evidence of obstruction of justice, but since a sitting president can't be indicted, they decided not to make a flat 'he obstructed justice' statement, instead choosing to leave it in the hands of a feckless, cowardly, and hopelessly partisan Congress and hope for the best."

shared unit of analysis (unperson), Saturday, 20 April 2019 16:53 (four years ago) link


This thread has been locked by an administrator

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.