The August 2019 US Politics Thread is dumb (stupid}

Gina Ortiz Jones is running again. I know because I gave her $200 last time and she called me and told me she was running again about a month ago and can she have another $200. It is insane to me that talking to idiots like me is the main time-sink of even elected reps.

Huge deal and consistent with rumblings that while Texas EVs are probably still not in play the state legislature might be (big deal for eg abortion rights). And tx23 is one of the few remaining plausibly flippable congressional seats in the country.

Also look at these fucken idiots. They’ll probably end up working as internal lobbyists for the same tech company

https://youtu.be/UtBZSn-Be1w

this seems cool and good and will definitely only be used for entirely legal and legitimate purposes

The US military is conducting wide area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.

Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.

The balloons are carrying high tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.

Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

morning!

Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

lol

yeah i didn't laugh when i saw that

what the fuck

Again, how do you engage with the world in this fashion for 70+ years without someone eventually putting you in the hospital.

Hire only the best security

how dare you be so callous towards the man singlehandedly curing childhood cancer

he's probably not even gonna do it now, because you're all so unfair to him

If Trump found a cure for cancer today he'd just tease us with it until after the election

cure for cancer is KFC and libtears, you're welcome

I'm going to have a surveillance balloon probably drifting over and maybe crashing into my house, awesome

Pink Floyd in town?

So Ratcliffe got Harriet Miers-ized

Too bad!

DonaldJTrumpJr appears to no longer follow @QueefTornado. (This bot cannot tell if this was an unfollow, suspension or block.)

— Trump Alert (@TrumpsAlert) August 2, 2019

It seems that the follower has become the master.

Huckabee writing jokes for the pres now?

A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019

It's either Huckabee or Gene Shalit

this is honestly a great tactic

Sending our condolences to the President! 🤣 https://t.co/ZMHGbkqJwa

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 2, 2019

Question, inspired by the current tariff wars with China: I remember a few years ago hearing a lot about how China owned billions of dollars worth of our debt, and all they had to do if they wanted to basically fist-fuck us to death was call in those chips. Is that no longer the case? What ever happened with that?

Post QE, its clear the Fed would prop up the bond market.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/connecticut-man-who-calls-himself-hitler-reincarnated-charged-with-threats-to-murder-entire-daycare-center/

*clicks link*
*feels bad about thinking "well that's kinda what i expected him to look like"*

if Rocky (or at least someone in the asap crew... ferg probably?) doesn't write a verse telling trump to fuck off and mind his own business i dunno
anyways rip nipsey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZ5e94QnWk

If I'm understanding correctly, Sweden doesn't have a cash bail system and they release most people that aren't deemed dangerous until their court date

At least Joseph Goebbels spared us his children. https://t.co/a9jHVXHtIu

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) August 3, 2019

how droll

this piece of shit fell down

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/04/politics/mitch-mcconnell-shoulder-fracture-kentucky-home/index.html

who knew he had a skeleton

thoughts and prayers

the nation mourns

He should try again and keep trying until he manages to cave in that gelatinous noggin.

mitch’s outside patio is antifa

(hats off too to mcconnell’s comms director for the moronic ‘outdoor patio’ like he’s trying to distinguish it from those famous indoor patios we all own, use and enjoy)

your covered verandahs and whatnot

Aaron Sorkin is a disease. https://t.co/s2Vgh4fKeh

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) August 4, 2019

totally agree. always good to find common ground.

Every remotely swing-district GOP House member in Texas is resigning, indicating they think they face an brutally unfavorable state electorate in 2020, and O'Rourke still won't chuck his Presidential campaign and declare against Cornyn.

I'm not sold on the idea that Beto is the sole Democrat who could possibly fare well in that race. Why not support one of the candidates who are running?

The people who have declared so far are all fairly lame. Chris Bell is a charisma-vacuum, the vet is trying too hard to suck up the Republicans, and the Houston city councilwoman is...a Houston city councilwoman.

Cornyn was tweeting in June about Hispanics invading Texas.

"suck up to"

Beto's already done an unreal amount of ground work for a Texas Senate race, my opinion of him plummeted when he declared for president. Get the fuck over yourself, Beto. Just run against Cornyn already. I assume he like every other Dem presidential hopeful has access to internal polling that shows whoever the Dem candidate for president is has a total lock on winning the race, which is why all these sub-Beeblebrox egomaniac jags insist on crowding the field.

I'm not sold on the idea that Beto is the sole Democrat who could possibly fare well in that race. Why not support one of the candidates who are running?

He’s not the sole candidate, but he has goodwill & name recognition rn that will play better if he drops out IN ORDER TO REPRESENT HIS STATE, than if he takes another swing as a twice-failed candidate later

Wrapping up an out-of-sight weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., President Donald Trump said Sunday that “perhaps” more needs to be done with respect to gun control. “Hate has no place in our country and we’re going to take care of it,” Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One to return to Washington, D.C.

Trump said he will make a statement Monday on the two mass shootings over the weekend and what can be done in response.

Trump said he has also spoken with Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray about the mass violence. He said his statement will be at around 10 a.m. on Monday.

Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying....

Tweet was going down an interesting path until the follow up

....this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!

"Let us be more racist and we might (won't) tighten gun laws a bit"

But we all knew whose fault it would really be

News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!

Meant as a threat obv

I couldn't decide whether his 'solution' was gonna entail increased persecution of non-whites or like declaring Antifa a terrorist organization. Whichever way it went, I knew it would be incoherent and unhelpful, so bravo.

The only way to stop this needless gun violence is more tariffs on China.

i was about the post the same thing; I had one brief moment of hope this morning seeing "trump pushing for background checks" and then i saw this shit.

Shakey's devotion to Grancy's political 'genius' is inspiring

“groovy Nancy”?

was wondering who 'Grancy' was

I love her too

She is obviously calculating that a failed impeachment would hurt her party's chances of regaining power, but the problem is that inaction by democrats allows Senators of the other party to duck responsibility for their votes and the consequent catastrophic legacy to the future of the US republic. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Most of these arguments for not impeaching (for political reasons) fail to consider the effect of a televised, months-long trial detailing all thee crimes/transgressions—and the political advantage to having R's vote *not* to convict. Make them excuse the guy in writing, officially.

A failure to impeach certainly won't help in trying to swing the senate.

Televised months-long trials don't work anymore in our atomized viewing culture.

It doesn't mean I will get no satisfaction, nor that the Dems shouldn't press their advantage.

can you imagine how bad the democratic leadership will be at running a televised months long trial?

lol “televised”

This revolution will not be podcasted

the consequent catastrophic legacy to the future of the US republic

I agree with this entirely, ignoring for the moment that it almost certainly has no future.

He acted like a spy during the G7?

https://www.insider.com/spies-react-trump-g7-summit-russian-asset-2019-8

Ugh this is so dumb.

https://www.insider.com/aoc-defends-right-to-block-twitter-users-who-harass-her-2019-8

Following this from July 9th
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-blocking-twitter-followers-discriminatory-us-court-ruling-2019-7

Strikes me as a stupid court ruling.

Trump, like AOC, is using a personal, pre-public service Twitter account, which is more akin to a personal bulletin board than the official office, or for that matter the public square. I could better understand the ruling if it pertained to staffed @POTUS or @NY14thRep official accounts. My speech rights don't imply an obligation that others pay attention, nor do they give me rights to prank call, send obscene or threatening messages, etc.

Plus, I would find Twitter utterly useless if I couldn't block more noxious users, like Trump.

No one understands the 1st Amendment, do they

(If you disagree with my statement, you will be in violation of my 1st Amendment rights.)

public figures should be allowed to turn off comments.

If we maintain the spirit of this assertion, I have to assume, say, that Mitch McConnell is required by the 1st Amendment to remain seated in that restaurant until everyone is done telling him what a piece of shit he is, no matter how little of his dessert is left.

I think that's just his ass, though

here are a couple from back in Washington

https://i.imgur.com/cz9XCHi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/igu5DDk.jpg

President Hurricane

Looking like our great South Carolina could get hit MUCH harder than first thought. Georgia and North Carolina also. It’s moving around and very hard to predict, except that it is one of the biggest and strongest (and really wide) that we have seen in decades. Be safe!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2019

"I hereby order South Carolina to Be Safe!"

continuing to contemplate his ability to handle public appearances: he was meant to be attending WWII commemorations in Poland this weekend, and cancelled the trip on the grounds that he needed to monitor the Hurricane Dorian situation (thank you, Mr President). He flew to Camp David yesterday, but today got choppered ($) to a Trump golf course ($$$) in Virgina.

White House spoxcreature says that he has a person on the trip specifically updating him every hour, on the links, about the hurricane.

President Big Boy was up early and excited about his party day. In two hours before his flight, he tweeted or retweeted 52 separate posts of significant national intent. The retweets were almost certainly by handled by Scavino, or a sub-scavino in an office in DC, but let's have a look at what Mr "I Know Words" himself chose to inform constituents preparing for a natural disaster:

Thank you Kevin. Great things are happening at the Border!

(Sen. Kevin Cramer, ND, went to inspect a concentration camp.)

Great job Thom!

(Sen. Thom Tillis, NC, has failed to die for the 59th year in a row.)

One of the greats!

(Sen. Johnny Isakson, GA [twitter bio: "Keep comments family friendly."], is peacing the fuck out of his job to suck a pension from the taxpayer teat instead.

Nobody works harder or smarter than Joni!

(Sen. Joni Ernst, IA, is conducting town halls.)

An amazing guy, respected by all!

Work on farm Fri. Burning piles of brush WindyFire got out of control. Thank God for good naber He help get undr control PantsBurnLegWound

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) April 11, 2009

Nobody knows more about Healthcare than John. Great guy!

(Sen. John Barrasso, WY, may or may not know how to spell "health care.")

Cory is doing a Great job for Colorado!

(Sen. Cory Gardner, CO, met with three farmers for a productive discussion on improving mental health access and cutting "burdensome federal regulations to keep rural Colorado thriving." Not clear whether the mental health access will be achieved through burdensom federal regulations, and if so, how soon they can be cut.)

“The IG found that James Comey leaked Classified Documents to his attorneys, which can be (is) a violation of the Espionage Act. This is consistent with all the lies that Comey has been spreading. @GreggJarrett @ByronYork @LouDobbs

This does not appear to, even with the parenthetical removed on the assumption that it is helpful editorialising added by the president, be a quote from any source. (This tweet is followed by five retweets, including one by the president's daughter from two weeks ago) Either he is continuing to quote a source, or possibly he is actively leaking a classified report, which can be - heck, I have it on good authority, is - a violation of the Espionage Act.

While Madeleine Westerhout has a fully enforceable confidentiality agreement, she is a very good person and I don’t think there would ever be reason to use it. She called me yesterday to apologize, had a bad night. I fully understood and forgave her! I love Tiffany, doing great!

The president is openly threatening to prosecute his personal assistant Director Of Operations, whom he fired yesterday for saying things that 100% of the universe know to be true, unless she keeps omerta. Nonetheless, he is grateful to have been reminded of his fat daughter's name.

...Yes, I am currently suing various people for violating their confidentiality agreements. Disgusting and foul mouthed Omarosa is one. I gave her every break, despite the fact that she was despised by everyone, and she went for some cheap money from a book. Numerous others also!

Really, be a shame if something... happened to you. Maybe don't draw any attention. Regardless, black people are worse.

A great team, working hard!

Trump stole $155 million in disaster relief funding from the disaster relief agency a month ago in order to fund concentration camps. Here is a photo of one of them reading a briefing from a hurricane expert about the hurricane that is approaching the US, while the other three people in the room ignore him and text their friends.

I was right about Comey, CROOKED COP!

The president is probably addressing his attorney general, who has just entered the room, but whose name the president has forgotten?

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, which is happening, and then, KEEP AMERICA GREAT!

Make that which is currently in progress, begin.

Looking like our great South Carolina could get hit MUCH harder than first thought. Georgia and North Carolina also. It’s moving around and very hard to predict, except that it is one of the biggest and strongest (and really wide) that we have seen in decades. Be safe!

The president's golf pants have been let out again.

Dan will be GREAT!

The Great State of North Carolina has EARLY VOTING for a very important Congressional (Ninth) race. Please vote early (now), or on Election Day, September 10th, for Dan Bishop, a great guy. His opponent wants Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities & is weak on Crime, Military & Vets!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019

Has anyone noticed that the top shows on @foxnews
and cable ratings are those that are Fair (or great) to your favorite President, me! Congratulations to @seanhannity
for being the number one show on Cable Television!

Tucker Carlson has recently slightly overtaken Rachel Maddow in overall viewers. Hannity and Carlson's share of 18-49 viewers is 1/3 that of teenagers playing football, or the Jersey Shore reunion show where The Situation goes to jail.

lol i love those grassley tweets

great post sic

i'm sorry, i know

but yeah, out of the handful of words and phrases he relies on so heavily, "great" is the one. the one above all. it is pathetic. MAGreatA, jfc

A great team, working hard!

Trump stole $155 million in disaster relief funding from the disaster relief agency a month ago in order to fund concentration camps. Here is a photo of one of them reading a briefing from a hurricane expert about the hurricane that is approaching the US, while the other three people in the room ignore him and text their friends.

This is the one that is most enraging, somehow. Even if the three-out-of-four FEMA personnel on their phones are texting actual colleagues or w/e, the reason that he has abandoned affairs of state in order to get paid millions of dollars to cheat at an environmentally-destructive game was ostensibly to monitor the hurricane situation, and this 21-letter sentence, tossed off without regard to anything actually happening in the department or the atmosphere, is the most that this sack of hate can manage to spark out of his remaining fetid neurons after straight-up taking their operating funds away in order to pay racist scum less cowardly than himself to torture brown children.

New Thread: The September 2019 US Politics Thread is great Great GREAT GR8