The September 2019 US Politics Thread is great Great GREAT GR8

shakey did you check? 3/5 of these races are competitive.

ok a democrat is not taking mike conaway's seat in midland or flores's in waco, but.

will hurd's district tx-23 is i think literally the most vulnerable republican seat in congress. he won by a few hundred votes in 2018. they're absolutely going to lose it to gine ortiz-jones who was already raised over $1m for 2020 (more than any other democratic congressional challenger iirc).

ken marchant won his district by 33% in 2014, but 17% in 2016 and 3% (!) in 2018.

pete olson won by 35% in 2014, then ran unopposed in 2016, then won by 5% in 2018.

blue wave papi

wendy davis of the really long filibuster fame is running for my district (tx-21) currently held by cruz pustule chip roy and previously by actual historical villain lamar smith.

lots of interesting stuff in this, still reading. but

During a meeting with Bush in May 2008, the vice president sparred with Robert Gates, the defense secretary, over the wisdom of a strike against Iran. Gates argued that a military move against Iran by the United States or Israel would strengthen radical factions in the Iranian government and rally the country behind the Iranian regime. Gates said that Olmert should be told in the most direct terms that Israel should not launch a unilateral attack. Cheney disagreed on every point, saying that a strike on Iran was necessary and that at minimum the White House should enable Israel to act. Gates recalled Cheney’s thinking in his memoir: Twenty years on, “if there was a nuclear-armed Iran, people would say the Bush administration could have stopped it.”

That same month, Bush arrived in Jerusalem for his last visit to Israel as president. Olmert hoped to get American and Israeli spies to share more intelligence about Iran, and he used a private meeting at his residence to make his case. When the aides had cleared the room, according to an official who was familiar with the conversation, Olmert moved in to seal the deal. “Come, let’s open the books and be transparent with each other,” he said. Bush agreed, a decision that led to far greater intelligence cooperation between American and Israeli spy services — a “total mutual striptease” in the words of one of Olmert’s former aides. This cooperation would culminate in the Olympic Games operation, which deployed sophisticated computer malware, including the Stuxnet virus, to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities. This was one path forward to containing Iran.

But Bush was also made keenly aware of the other path. One night during his visit, Olmert invited him for a dinner at his residence with the members of his national security cabinet, including Barak, the defense minister, who like Cheney had taken an increasingly hawkish position on Iran during internal discussions. As Olmert tells the story, he and Bush walked alone into a side lounge after the dinner. As the two men relaxed in leather armchairs, Olmert smoking a cigar, the prime minister told Bush that Barak was waiting and wanted an audience.

Bush was reluctant, according to Olmert. “I understand that it is politically important for you to let him in,” Olmert recalls Bush explaining, “but you know my position on the Iran issue. I am unequivocally against an attack.”

thank you bush? jfc

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/magazine/iran-strike-israel-america.html

shit, the best part was right after that

Olmert persisted. Bush eventually relented, and soon Barak was in the room, smoking a cigar and sipping a whiskey. He delivered a comprehensive lecture about the Iran threat. Finally, Bush cut him off. “He banged on the table like this,” Olmert recalls, “and he said: ‘General Barak, do you know what no means? No is no.”’

Barak, for his part, remembers much about the affair differently, including Bush’s reaction. In Barak’s version, when he finished making his case to the American president, Bush turned to Olmert but pointed a finger directly at Barak. “This guy scares the living shit out of me,” Barak recalls him saying. (A spokesman for Bush says the former president does not recall either of these conversations.)

jfc

Alabama was going to be hit or grazed, and then Hurricane Dorian took a different path (up along the East Coast). The Fake News knows this very well. That’s why they’re the Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2019

pres still mad that he doesn't get to go to Alabama to throw paper towels at people

Stop trying to make Alabama happen

https://twitter.com/mark_novata/status/1169347613214302208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1169347613214302208&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fheavy.com%2Fnews%2F2019%2F09%2Fsharpie-sharpiegate-trending-trump-memes%2F

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDpbdLHWkAAFppi?format=jpg&name=900x900

All it would take is one CNN reporter saying something like, 'Mr. President, your Democratic opponents strongly assert that you can't possibly be smart or tough or rich enough to chug an entire bottle of drain cleaner in one sitting. How would you respond to that?'. We got Steve King to drink out of a toilet so, y'know, dare to dream?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDpbdLHWkAAFppi?format=jpg&name=900x900

Crap, sorry.

http://www.hrwiki.org/w/images/5/57/Ab-Abber_2000.png

Conaway by 61 pts, Flores by 15, Olson won by almost 5, and Marchant by 3. imo Hurd is really the only gimme for Dems in that group of Texans, given that he won last time by less than half a point, in a District with demographics that are tilting towards Dems.

many xps

oh I see caek already got there, sorry

https://twitter.com/francismmaxwell/status/1169427713230159872

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the very best of #Sharpiegate !! This sh*t had me wheezing! pic.twitter.com/IYsZU39aOQ

— Francis Maxwell (@francismmaxwell) September 5, 2019

how many tweets from him today about this storm fuck up? this dude is worse than any spoiled brat child i've ever come across.

he had one job, as the president of the united states. to give an accurate weather forecast

Via press release from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

President Trump is violating the Constitution by making money off of his lavish, ritzy resort properties, ultimately prioritizing his profits over the interests of the American people. First, Trump suggested holding the G7 Summit at his Doral golf resort in Florida.

Now, the White House is walking back their previous statements that Trump personally suggested Pence stay at his Doonbeg hotel in Ireland, which would be yet another example of the President’s self-dealing.

Vice President Pence promised that their Administration would defend the Constitution and stand by a “strict constructionist” interpretation of the Constitution. Instead the Trump-Pence Administration is ignoring the text itself and selling out the Constitution to line Trump’s pockets.

Trump properties are a cesspool of corruption, a black hole for taxpayers’ money, an exploiter of immigrant labor and a national security threat with a suspected foreign spy walking the halls. Here is just some of what we know about the extent of the corruption at Trump’s properties:

Violating the Constitution, Emoluments Clause: President Trump is violating the domestic and foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution by accepting and encouraging foreign governments to pay to stay at Trump resort properties without Congressional approval. More than 200 Members of Congress are fighting in the courts to defend our Constitution and put an end Trump’s abuse of power.

STRONGLY WORDED, NANCE

When selecting a book to read to your sociopathic child, try to avoid the one suggesting that reality can be altered with a purple crayon.

lol picture of that board when he was originally briefed ! what a fucking self owning dork

https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/48648405897/

yes, but he asked the hurricane guy if he could draw on it with sharpie and the hurricane guy said he could, which means he agreed that alabama should have been in the danger zone

and by "ask" i mean he ordered the hurricane guy to respond without words

Greatest. President. Ever!

this is so fucking embarrassing

that's the best thing about it

ALL he had to do was say " i would like to apologize the the great people of Alabama, I received some bad information regarding the storm's path. thank you MAGA" but of course that makes way too much sense .

narcissism is a helluva disorder

He could have just claimed he successfully prayed it out of its path.

He could have just repeatedly jammed a fork into his eye until he eventually hit brain. It's never too late.

People who didn't live through this will never believe that any of this shit actually happened.

'FAKE NEWS' they'll say and then laugh at the way that phrase makes the old people go into convulsions.

He could have just claimed he successfully prayed it out of its path.

but if 9 mass shootings occur in the same week and trump gives putin a 20-minute shoulder massage during a press conference with a KKK flag in the background, only ~36% of american will pray for him. for a couple weeks, after which it will rebound to 41%

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDt8oHMXsAAIvdX?format=jpg&name=900x900

I was with you all the way Alabama. The Fake News Media was not! https://t.co/gO5pwahaj9

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2019

not only is this tweet a week old but it only projected AL to get 5-20 mph winds

this is so fucking stupid

I love the idea of Alabama not noticing it's not raining or windy or anything.

I hope he continues to tweet about this for the next year and a half

Hilarious how there's still this narrative that he's some sort of genius at playing the media. "Y'know, I absolutely loathe this man but you have to admit..." yadda yadda. Does the guy running nude thru town have exceptional media savvy or is the media just attracted to outrageous grotesque fools? Trump is incapable of realizing how pathetic he comes across with things like this, or by "I'm a very stable genius" type statements. Any "success" he's had vis a vis the media is accidental or literally dumb luck, just as his success in every other arena of life has been.

He is a 'genius' at least inasmuch as he feeds our obsession for stupid shit like this while more nefarious shit takes place outside the spotlight.

Which, to be clear, I don't in any way contribute to conscious calculation. It's just venal muscle memory.

yep the GOP fucking loves the fact that it gives them great cover to be on their bullshit

Hey, what happened to the caravan? It's got to be close to Chicago by now.

Chicago, Arkansas.

ON NO! Here comes the #Caravan! #Sharpiegate #SharpieTrump pic.twitter.com/r5JWsbF62n

— Science-Based afKiff (@afkiff) September 5, 2019

the conservative response to this is pretty much entirely "HAW HAW HAW the liberals sure are triggered right now!!"

need I remind you that a GOP congressman drank out of the toilet yesterday to own the libs

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/090419_wall_funding/pentagon-shifts-36b-border-barriers-delaying-30m-ft-huachuca-project/

AZ sen McSally initially said the project which is having its funds diverted to THE WALL was $30k but like budget reports are hard to understand n stuff & it's actually $30 million. I doubt this would be the tipping point for a significant number of AZ repubs to turn on Trump, but it certainly can help him in the state.

that post is some "through the looking glass" shit

you clown the other side for their idiotic talking point, and then repeat an equally spurious lefty talking point, well done

xp

nevermind that both "points" are about completely inconsequential bullshit