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

Trump supporters in desiring a modern civil war shockah

I hate it, but I just saw Pelosi called them "xenophobic comments" and it's real tiring how point-missing she is

I think you can't understand "a bunch of House Democrats/staffers think AOC is making them look bad and should shut up" without remembering that they have cable news on in their offices 24/7 and are deeply brain poisoned by it

— Michael T Sweeney (@mtsw) July 14, 2019

I heard someone say that Dem Congressmen/staffers are under the delusion that their worthless bills would be getting more attention if AOC was not always tweeting stuff

Pelosi's comments about how they're "Twitter famous" or whatever still piss me off, as though we don't currently have a president who tweeted his way to the White House

Meanwhile, Trump's doubling down on the "Radical Left Congresswomen" this morning just reinforces a.) how deliberate a strategy this is and b.) how much the 2020 race is going to be nothing but unvarnished racist/sexist chest thumping, and how ugly it will be. It's gonna make 2016 Trump look tame.

that's all he has to go with at this point other than the economy being what it is .

Yeah, it's how he dominates the cycle. He says something shocking, then what he says becomes news for a couple of days, and all the idiot press keeps hounding people for comment. If someone doesn't comment then it's "omg, Pelosi mum on Trump racism!" And then if you do comment, it's almost pointless, because Trump doesn't give a shit and will just move on to his next mouth fart. The only way to win is to not say anything, which for both the press and politicians is practically impossible. Or change the subject, which takes some savvy that press and politicians often lack. "Yeah, he's racist, but we can talk about that some other time, because thousands of people are being held in cages and health care is once again on the chopping block and no one wants that."

"The only way to win"...man, fuck that, this isn't a game for immigrants or kids of immigrants. This is worth fighting independent of the politics "game".

Well, yeah. Obviously. But I'd like to know how Trump winning election will help any of those victims of his policies.

Building consensus against thinking that citizens should "go back to their own country" is what matters. Electoral politics are a consequence of that consensus, not the goal in themselves.

I don't even know what you mean by consensus. He is not a popular president. His policies are not popular. They are not driven by consensus. They are driven exclusively by his power.

It's not consensus so much as a redefining of The Center such that now as Americans we define "keeping children well fed and bathed in pens" as the center.

meanwhile, some of the frogs started to notice that the water around them had been simmering for quite some time

in other dumb news, it is very obvious that trump's way out on his obviously racist tweets about the squad (sorry, i don't like the name but i don't like typing all four of their names out either) is going to be that he wasn't referring to them, that he never said their names, and that the news is fake

So did anybody actually go to one of these lights for liberty things or was that strictly for Balloon Juice commenters

"I never told them to go back to their country, I asked them make a temporary visit and then to come back"

though Trump doesn't need "a way out", he's gonna double down like he always does. his mouthpieces are definitely gonna use lines like this one though

"i meant go back to the US cities they came from. Also Sister Souljah happened to Clinton. DOUBLE STANDARD?"

oh looks like he's already tweeted that those congresswomen are the real foul-mouthed racists

so did Lindsey Graham

Calling racists out on their racism is racist. Checkmate, racists.

So did anybody actually go to one of these lights for liberty things

my partner did! i haven't had a chance to ask about it yet.

i've been traveling so i'm just catching up on the news. apparently the raids were delayed because the whole country knew about them in advance

"i meant go back to the US cities they came from. Also Sister Souljah happened to Clinton. DOUBLE STANDARD?"

― Fuck Trump, cops, and the CBP (Neanderthal),

you're already correct about the first half of that.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) insisted on Monday that President Donald Trump’s racist tirade about “progressive congresswomen” going back to where they came from was, in fact, not racist.

During a radio interview on WBAL NewsNow, host Bryan Nehman asked Harris if he believed Trump’s rant about the congresswomen was racist.

“No, they’re not. They’re obviously not racist,” Harris said. “But again, when anyone disagrees with someone now, you call them a racist and this is no exception.”

“Why’s it not racist when you say ‘Go back to where you came from’ when they’re Americans?” asked Nehman.

“Look, ask the President what he meant by it but clearly it’s not a racist comment,” the GOP lawmaker replied. “He could’ve meant go back to the district they came from, to the neighborhood they came from.”

Nehman asked incredulously, “Do you really believe he was talking about the district they came from?”

“Absolutely,” Harris said.

in the 2018 election, Harris beat his Democratic opponent in MD's first district, 60% to 38%.

, host Bryan Nehman asked Harris if he believed Trump’s rant about the congresswomen was racist.

jesus fucking christ will people stop this shit? Assume he's a racist and put him on the spot. "How do you defend the president's stupid, racist tweet?"

seriously, why even imply the possibility of ambiguity here

many people have offered up defenses A, B, C, and D for what is said to be a racially divisive remark by the president. which of those do you support, and do you have any new ideas for why he didn't do anything wrong?

NYT notifications on my phone:

"President Trump's insult against congresswomen showed that when it comes to race, he plays with fire like no other, our correspodent writes."

"Today is Amazon Prime Day. Here's how to avoid getting sucked into buying gear you'll regret"

https://i.imgur.com/TcaBctV.jpg

remember when AOC said straight up that Trump was racist and Anderson Cooper's reaction was "how can you say that??"

Do you, a thoroughly-unobjective person who is ideologically aligned with the subject of inquiry and who will thusly twist himself in as many rhetorical knots as possible in concocting a response which is both butthurtedly hyperdefensive and disingenuous as fuck, believe that the president said something racist?

the pellucid analysis of Peter Baker

And now we go to the chairman of the Republicans are not Racist Committee for Free Tradw for comment

love that the response of some GOP folks like brit hume is basically 'the real tragedy is people calling other people racists'

Have any 'moderate' Republicans condemned yesterday's trio of racist tweets? Be it only in sheepish terms?

Will Hurd and one other guy, apparently. that's it so far.

the only black Republican in the House xp

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) on Monday became the first GOP lawmaker to publicly condemn recent tweets from President Trump as “racist.” Speaking to CNN host Christiane Amanpour, Hurd not only said Trump’s tweets were “racist” and “xenophobic,” but also labeled them “inaccurate.”

“The four women he is referring to are actually citizens of the United States, three of the four were born here,” Hurd said. “It’s also a behavior thats unbecoming of the leader of the free world.”

OH Rep Mike Turner said it was racist and Trump should apologize

Have any 'moderate' Republicans condemned yesterday's trio of racist tweets? Be it only in sheepish terms?

susan collins weighed in with a principled, courageous take:

Susan Collins weighs in: “the President’s tweet that some Members of Congress should go back to the ‘places from which they came’ was way over the line, and he should take that down.” pic.twitter.com/NKRaZPx3iB

— Emily Cochrane (@ESCochrane) July 15, 2019

way over the line man

Take that down, you naughty man.

the interesting part about the first 2/3 of her statement, which focuses on all the things on "the far left" that she disagrees with, is that it implies that her opinion on the views of the far left has anything to do with whether or not it's right or wrong to say racist things

Verily, she will be remembered as a valiant dissident.

well, Susan Collins responded, I'm satisfied.

"Delete your acc... well, not your account, just that one problematic tweet."

although i prefer bicycles to scooters and think it's generally much cooler to ride a skateboard than a scooter, even though i've never been on a scooter, and i haven't had any experience with the scooter-share pilot program going in my city, i must say that it is wrong for your dog to be shitting all over thanksgiving dinner

HOORRAY!!!! THE CONSCIENCE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WEIGHS IN

Trump did not name who he was attacking in Sunday's tirade but earlier this week he referenced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when the President was defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Asked Monday who he's talking about, Trump said: "You can guess."

he's such a fucking chickenshit

While whatever a man and a woman choose to do within the boundaries of holy matrimony is entirely up to them, I find it difficult to reconcile President Trump's assertion that Melania was screaming "Do it Donald" as opposed to "Don't do it Donald," (which is what the tape certainly appears to show) and must vigorously disagree with the President's decision to shave his wife's head on the front lawn of the White House. Nevertheless, Speaker Pelosi's demands that the First Lady should be properly attended to while she is chained to the stairs are offensive in their suggestion that our President is an inattentive husband. President Trump claims the tarp over her is extremely comfortable and Ms Trump has made no effort to move it; it doesn't take a genius to understand that this personal matter is being played for political gain. I urge our colleagues across the aisles to take a long hard look at themselves and question why they feel continually compelled to demand that the first lady needs water when the tarp clearly collects the morning dew to be funneled through the mouth-size hole at its center. This is just the sort of witch hunt the American people are all too tired of.

Responding to this one tweet as if it's an unfortunate outlier is like tutting about the crudely-rendered dick spraypainted on your mailbox by the miscreant who's spent the last few years methodically destroying and otherwise defiling your home.