The September 2019 US Politics Thread is great Great GREAT GR8

There is a NYT op piece today about richies flocking to the Dems, don't know who wrote it

This is why the NSC—and the entire national security apparatus created in *1947*—needs to be subject to congressional oversight and eventually abolished and replaced. https://t.co/Z8x8TUhRmi

— Daniel Bessner (@dbessner) September 18, 2019

cool, a hostage negotiator as the NSA. on one hand, taking a hostage is trump's signature negotiation move (i.e., threatening more tariffs on mexico unless they agreed to help prevent endangered migrant families from seeking safe haven in the united states). it's also the standard tactic of the republican party (government shutdowns, debt ceilings, etc).

of course, i assume o'brien's expertise is in resolving hostage negotiations, not creating them on a worldwide scale. i also imagine that things could tense between o'brien and trump because the latter truly believes himself to be the world's greatest negotiator even though he shits his pants in public on a daily basis

https://www.thefader.com/2019/09/18/donald-trump-asap-rocky-hostage-envoy-robert-obrien-national-security-advisor

apparently o'brien was played a prominent the recent crisis in Sweden, which took A$AP Rocky hostage

prominent ^role^

Sweden demanded a helicopter and a mixtape verse

Has Rocky commented about what happened in Sweden? Is he ok being racist Trump's pet project to woo some young people?

fwiu he has (pointedly?) said nothing about trump's "role" in the events at all

Scott subsequently found it “embarrassing” to tell Jared Kushner they’d had no meaningful contact with Rocky after his release, scuttling plans for a call between Kushner and the rapper. Eventually, Rocky’s manager stopped “returning our text messages” altogether. “All he had to do was do a two-minute call to say thank you,” Scott told Yahoo of the snub. “Rocky hasn’t even called us and said, ‘Hey, man, thank you guys. I appreciate it,’ in private. Just in private.”

Good. Thank you for that.

All he had to do was not a goddamn thing.

"Just in private and then we would've told everybody he did it and he couldn't deny it because we'd have recorded it."

i'm sure rocky will give trump a ringing endorsement as $oon as possible

ok Rocky, just sign this NDA and then call this number at 2:00 pm to provide 2 minutes of positive feedbcack on how we resolved your hostage crisis

Press 1 for great, press 2 for the best ...

thank you Rocky, very cool!

you love to see it etc
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/461924-internal-poll-shows-kobach-trailing-democrat-in-kansas-senate-race

Eurgh. To quote myself...

Imagine even slightly willingly wanting to be in THIS room. cc @dick_nixon https://t.co/dt7eY7NQxI pic.twitter.com/a8dlsbZUlu

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) September 18, 2019

It is a pretty good restaurant tbh

^^^ Ripert, at least when he's there and cooking, is hard to beat.

I see the STATES' RIGHTS!!!! people are at it again with Trump wanting to take away California's ability to set mileage standards. Such a principled group of people.

i thought the consensus on bolton was that he'd be ostracized from the republican world a la Bannon? seems to be doing just fine

California's waiver is literally written into the Clean Air Act, there's no way this holds up in court.

xp

starting to think the “states rights” people really only cared about segregation, abortion and something something health insurance aCrOsS sTaTe LiNeS

This is not a states' rights argument! The Clean Air Act is a federal law, there's 40 years of precedent, the auto industry *wants* CA's standards, etc.

haha yeah it's not appease the auto industry it's all about the oil companies

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/16/oil-industry-electric-car-1729429

yeah this battle is essentially between utilities and the oil industry over that sweet, sweet car $$$$

so apparently Trump is floating a memo supporting the Toomey-Manchin gun background check bill (which is pretty good tbh) w Senate GOP to test the waters. NRA already banging on against it, of course.

The proposal, which Trump himself has yet to endorse, was received coolly among Senate Republicans on Wednesday as the administration circulated it on Capitol Hill.

Similar to the stalled proposal from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), it would expand background checks to all advertised commercial sales, including gun shows, closing what gun control advocates have deemed the “gun show loophole.”

Many Republicans have said they want to see what Trump is willing to endorse before saying what they would consider backing.

It's kind of amazing that this is happening at all, and Senate GOP is obviously looking for cover from Trump. If he bucked the NRA (which, tbh, I don't expect at all) how many of them would follow? That would be a crazy political test, lead to possible major schism in the party: those who will follow Trump wherever, and those who would see him as a traitor and a political liability.

looks like a classic "wedge issue" scenario tbh

That would be a crazy political test, lead to possible major schism in the party

all over fucking BACKGROUND CHECKS. unbelievable. i mean, i believe it. but you know what i mean. pathetic.

well, yeah

And McConnell def won't bring this to the floor unless the large majority of GOP Senators support it which, let's face it, is not at all likely.

The Manchin Toomey "commercial sale" thing doesn't make any sense to me - the entire deal with being able to sell as an individual at gun shows or on whatever the gun Craigslist is is that you're not doing it commercially, which requires a federal firearms license. (The ATF prosecuted some people in the past for running gun dealerships in all but name at gun shows.) It reads like a loophole you could drive a tank through.

It's the dumbest hill to die on for the NRA anyway, it's free money for gun dealers (who can collect $25 for doing the paperwork and phone call) and a boon to the gun manufacturers who fund the NRA-ILA (who don't make any money off trading in used guns).

haha yeah it's not appease the auto industry it's all about the oil companies

and hey if you can own the libs while you're at it

The proposal, which Trump himself has yet to endorse, was received coolly among Senate Republicans on Wednesday as the administration circulated it on Capitol Hill. . . . Many Republicans have said they want to see what Trump is willing to endorse before saying what they would consider backing.

wow, lead from behind much

Trump’s communications with foreign leader are part of whistleblower complaint that spurred standoff between spy chief and Congress, former officials say

The whistleblower complaint that has triggered a tense showdown between the U.S. intelligence community and Congress involves President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

It was not immediately clear which foreign leader Trump was speaking with or what he pledged to deliver, but his direct involvement in the matter has not been previously disclosed. It raises new questions about the president’s handling of sensitive information and may further strain his relationship with U.S. spy agencies. One former official said the communication was a phone call.

Gap continues to widen between Trump and intelligence community on key issues

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a lawyer representing the whistleblower declined to comment.

Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that the complaint was credible and troubling enough to be considered a matter of “urgent concern,” a legal threshold that requires notification of congressional oversight committees.

But acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to share details about Trump’s alleged transgression with lawmakers, touching off a legal and political dispute that has spilled into public and prompted speculation that the spy chief is improperly protecting the president.

The dispute is expected to escalate Thursday when Atkinson is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee in a classified session closed to the public. The hearing is the latest move by committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) to compel U.S. intelligence officials to disclose the full details of the whistleblower complaint to Congress.

so disturbing

acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire

Anyone surprised that this man was a political appointee of Trump?

Kinda disturbing there haven’t been more whistleblowers - I’m sure he’s said compromising shit a hundred times by now

Pretty amusing and-what-universe-is-this? tweet:

Thank you! pic.twitter.com/hScbURTzMJ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2019

raises new questions about the president’s handling

ah, the raising of questions

he's in Area 51% already? xp

One final point. The Post article is sourced to “two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.” That’s odd. This only happened about a month ago. Former officials shouldn’t really know anything about this unless somehow they were in the loop and retired like last week or something. That’s not totally implausible as people seem to be being pushed out of the ODNI in the wake of Coats’ departure. But it sounds (and this is just speculation based on news experience) that this information is being pushed out into the public realm using ex-officials as intermediaries. In other words, people on the inside think something is wrong and they’re using go-betweens with high level clearances to get the information public. Again, this last point is speculation. But I think it’s a logical surmise.

It sounds like something pretty serious is up here.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-whistleblower-complaint-is-about-trump

it sounds like he's increasingly isolated and some people are worried

Neil Stephenson on Mike Pompeo in NYT

The Ed McMahon of American foreign policy

not worth the link really but lol

That was at one of his rallies. xxxxxp

The Ed McMahon of American foreign policy

Yessssss!!!