At the risk of stating the obvious, the July 2019 US Politics Thread is horse-sh*t

The House moves fast. It's full of rubes and you never get much done. The Senate moves slowly. It's full of fat rich bores, and you never get much done. https://t.co/XDQL3Vg9j8

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) July 8, 2019

there aren't many fat senators these days

apparently trump is set to deliver a speech on "America's Environmental Leadership" today

That's a good one Karl, tell me another.

I think he means Trump will be giving a speech about how great his hotels are while literally standing on America's Environmental Leadership

He said the forest floor is too dirty and some of the leaves are 20 years old.

Make America Rake Again

You're saying Trump is a rakist?

good morning!

is the epstein thing gonna be like the panama/paradise papers where in any functioning political system it would have brought down countless elites but since we live on planet earth everyone will be shocked and appalled and kinda shrug and move on? i imagine he will actually go to jail but the fantasized destruction of trump/clinton etc will of course not happen

yeah it's absolutely gonna go down like the panama papers, or perhaps more accurately not go down at all - too many powerful people are involved, and taking them down would require dismantling too many deeply entrenched power structures

News: President Clinton has issued a statement on Jeffrey Epstein pic.twitter.com/LlTZC8j6pv

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 8, 2019

well, i'm convinced

easily refuted lie

xposts Remember when that one neighborhood kid would constantly change the rules of whatever game you were playing in his favor because it's his backyard and his ball? It's like that. Justice only ever gets done when he follows the trail of candy bars into your own backyard and plummets into the deadfall you spent all weekend digging.

Clinton statement carefully avoids use of "is"

pelosi does good

.@SecretaryAcosta must step down. As US Attorney, he engaged in an unconscionable agreement w/ Jeffrey Epstein kept secret from courageous, young victims preventing them from seeking justice. This was known by @POTUS when he appointed him to the cabinet. #AcostaResign

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 9, 2019

ross perot is dead

worst lenny kravitz single

Lol

thx to forbes for focusing on the real issue with epstein

https://preview.redd.it/yz70higdz9931.jpg?width=720&auto=webp&s=62f0ce0a0d0717d642a8bd1848f2a04465690039

v good stuff

Jeffrey Epstein, the onetime money manager and a registered sex offender, was arrested on sex trafficking charges on Saturday. As news of the arrest ricocheted across the media landscape, many outlets referred to Epstein—mistakenly—as a billionaire.

“Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Due In Court To Face Sex Charges,” read a CNN chyron. “Jeffrey Epstein, Billionaire Long Accused of Molesting Minors, Is Charged,” said the New York Times.

Forbes has never included Epstein, 66, in its rankings of the World’s Billionaires, since there is scant proof he holds a ten-figure fortune. As we wrote in 2010, “The source of his wealth—a money management firm in the U.S. Virgin Islands—generates no public records, nor has his client list ever been released.”

ross perot is dead

Can I finish, can I finish--can I finish?

(he finished)

epstein's wealth is newsworthy because there is strong circumstantial evidence he got it by blackmail

Desperate times...

The crimes committed by Epstein are horrific, and I am pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence.

— Secretary Acosta (@SecretaryAcosta) July 9, 2019

The White House already considering dumping him?

Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s standing in the Trump administration was in peril even before the indictment of Jeffrey Epstein cast a fresh spotlight on the former prosecutor’s role in a decade-old plea deal for the financier, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Corporate lobbyists and some White House officials have grown frustrated that Acosta hasn’t moved fast enough on deregulation and other business-friendly initiatives, the people said. No decision has been made on Acosta’s future in the administration, they added, though two people said that his time is short.

As a U.S. attorney in South Florida in 2008, Acosta brokered a plea agreement in secret with Epstein that allowed him to escape serious punishment for earlier allegations of sexual misconduct. Acosta’s dealings with Epstein are under renewed scrutiny after federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Epstein on Monday with sex trafficking and conspiracy.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/acosta-s-standing-in-white-house-was-eroding-even-before-epstein

not sure how much mileage anyone can get from Trump speaking of Epstein and his taste for young women in glowing terms but obv if Obama said it he'd already have been impeached

Corporate lobbyists and some White House officials have grown frustrated that Acosta hasn’t moved fast enough on deregulation and other business-friendly initiatives, the people said

he just wasn't doing a good enough job at representing everything his own agency is supposed to protect us from

Obama said it he'd already have been impeached

obama would have been impeached several thousand times by now, if he did what trump did

nah Republicans would be too concerned about blowback lolololol

So 45 is going to war on my hometown for stopping recitation of the pledge of allegiance before city council meetings, is it?

Make it make sense, argh...

stuff like that plays well to a good chunk of his base

jeez, there sure is a lot of news about the rampant corruption of the trump administration, could it be possible that even a small fraction of these things are actually real and aren't fake ne--**PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IS UNDER ATTACK** **sprints toward bright colors and moving objects*

on his first day, bannon probably handed him a list of 20 such "issues" that could be used as emergency distractions

anyone involved with forcing people to say the pledge of allegiance should be embarrassed

people who force children to say it should embarrassed and publicly shamed

and then forced to recite whatever bullshit pledge i come up with, on the spot

a toledo salamanca?

it's a sword -- a very rare sword.

is it worth much?

only about a million bucks.

*whistles*

Ross Perot was a champion for veterans' rights and ahead of his time on disastrous trade policies. During his campaign, he explained, in depth, how he would address our national problems and spurred serious discussion. Ross Perot was a one-of-a kind American. He will be missed. pic.twitter.com/qXukirfwcL

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 9, 2019

i had missed this fun tidbit about john kelly:

And when I say close ties, we’re talking about personal rewards as well as campaign contributions. A couple of months ago John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, joined the board of Caliburn International, which runs the infamous Homestead detention center for migrant children.

(from krugman's latest column)

I think it's entirely possible that Clinton, dirty as he is, had no involvement in anything skeegy with Epstein. It's entirely possible Trump didn't either. But this looks worse for Trump since he commented publicly years ago about how much he and Epstein both like beautiful women and mentioned Epstein liking the young ones, plus he was already accused of a rape here.

"epstein's wealth is newsworthy because there is strong circumstantial evidence he got it by blackmail"

yeah there are serious questions about how this guy was so fucking wealthy given that no one seems to have done any business with him.

xp

fwiw, bill clinton was also accused of rape:

https://www.vox.com/2016/1/6/10722580/bill-clinton-juanita-broaddrick

I just realized Ross Perot died and it wasn't an early Thursday pelosi whatever and who fucking cares. Get a grip people.

I know clinton was accused of rape, he just wasn't accused of rape in the context of Epstein, and Trump was.

the blackmail thing is wild because, like, that's a whole lot of blackmail to be able to live like that

also suggests that he will completely flip if there's anything that implicates literally anyone else

Trump was also accused of barging into the dressing room of the teen beauty pageant he held, hoping see a little flesh, I presume.

trump's accusation in this from 2016 was a very direct and explicit claim that he raped a 16 year old at Epstein's, and then that case just completely vanished. Lawyer said she received death threats. Now, who knows; maybe it was an opportunistic claim; maybe it wasn't. People are saying though! People are saying!

XP ^^Think he bragged about that, actually.

i mean it's probably just common or garden global offshore corruption, but you don't have to be a qanon person to think about blackmail in this situation.

I think about that 2016 accusation a lot, and how something like that would have sank nearly anyone else's bid for public office. Especially since her claim lines up with so many "Trump raped me" stories.

Turns out that every single one of the 24+ women who have accused trump of sexual misconduct are lying. Just like Christine Blasey Ford, although in that case she wasn’t lying about being assaulted, she just wasn’t remembering the past correctly