US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

The more I read about the Ukraine thing and Barr's global adventures in pursuit of the REAL hackers, the more it all seems like a case of high-on-their-own-supply. Right-wing media bullshit is only useful and effective if you remember that it is a means of obfuscation and confusion to bog down your enemies, not an actual source of real-world information. It appears that the White House has gone off on a fantasy adventure in pursuit of things that their own intelligence agencies have told them over and over just don't exist. But Trump and Giuliani and maybe Barr too all seem to think it's real, so they're off chasing that instead of whatever nefarious scheme they should actually be pursuing to further their ends, and now he's getting impeached because of it.

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore." He continued "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

(the "aide" in this passage is Karl Rove)

xpost yeah, all they really needed was a few investigations opened in foreign countries so they could yell about Democrat corruption and biased Witch hunts, but they got caught because they are so so dumb

I used to believe in the "Trump doesn't actually want to be president" theory, and indeed it seems he dislikes most of the day-to-day duties, or really anything that isn't one of his idiot chud rallies - BUT being President means everyone's talking about him all the time and that a bunch of people have to listen when he speaks, so yes he absolutely is going to run in 2020 and will throw a crazy fit if he loses (or if he wins)

Me too. I thought he'd last six months because he had no interest in actually doing the job. I did not take into account he could just keep on campaigning and nobody would ever make him do the job.

I saw an article that described Trump as a "replacement level Fox News viewer" and that about covers it. Even if he wasn't the subject of their coverage, he'd be soaking in 8-10 hours of it a day.

It remains to be seen whether the entire Republican party and news media is ready to get in lockstep with the message that actually it's good to ask foreign countries to investigate totally made up scandals for political gain. I doubt they'll waste much time getting there though.

why accept that message when they can just go with "that's not what happened" as the strategy? no quid pro quo. totally legit conversation. every president does it, etc

The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right.

oops, forgot to delete the last two sentences, which are from a different era when conservatives were still capable of thinking and acting independently

I just hear folks talking like he'll disappear completely in January of 2021 or something. Won't happen, he'll still be dominating every single press cycle for years to come and that thought depresses me.

I disagree with this. If there's one thing the institutional GOP is good at (and Fox News is part of the institutional GOP) it's the memory hole. George W. Bush was fucking GONE the day he lost the election. I do actually believe that, if Trump blows the election, the entire RW apparatus will instantly pivot to "Nikki Haley is the one we liked all along, we need a stiff dose of civility to free us from crazy-eyes Marxist divisive President Warren" or whatever.

So no, no despair. Beating Trump in 2020 will make the United States instantly and substantially better. I truly believe that.

(But also, taking advantage of the current dirty, compromised state of the GOP, while Trump is still its figurehead, to win some Senate races and governorships ('sup, Laura Kelly) and STATE LEGISLATURES this year and next)

do you all really think the cult of TrUmP is importantly different than the cult of "W"?

I mean, I lived in stupid kansass for half of little Bush's reign and have spent only a week in the usa during the current idiot's time, but for those of you who were adults during the ~mission accomplished~ years, does the GOP solicit a deeper fealty now?

I disagree with this. If there's one thing the institutional GOP is good at (and Fox News is part of the institutional GOP) it's the memory hole. George W. Bush was fucking GONE the day he lost the election.

yes

GWB didn't (technically) lose any elections; I know you meant "slinked out of office"

There are some similarities. The buildup to the Iraq invasion was a similar inept sleight of hand where data critical of the existence of WMDs was shut down as essentially "fake news"

Main diff is he was nowhere near as ascerbic towards the press so they helped him with his spin.

The George W. Bush Mind Wipe Project began in 2007. I've never seen a president disappear so abruptly after goddamn ubiquity.

the great thing about the breitbart poll image is that it indicates trump himself voted in it

("return to poll")

yes, but you have to vote in the poll in order to see the very scientific results

It looks like the Department of Justice will intervene in a fight between President Trump and the Manhattan District Attorney over the president’s tax returns https://t.co/jzRNcMwEXq

— POLITICO (@politico) October 1, 2019

The Trump call suggested he has conflated three separate ideas (that Ukraine was acting against him, that Crowdstrike had an inherent pre-existing bias and that the DNC server was never analysed by the FBI) into one easily disproved conspiracy theory (that Crowdstrike has the DNC server hidden in Ukraine). Idk whether that says more about Trump’s inability to process information than it does about his broader team’s ability to come up with consistent attack lines.

I can’t imagine Trump disappearing in 2021, not with 90% approval from Republicans. Already more and more right-wing media is pushing the narrative that he’s a victim of a coup attempt by the deep state because he’s so devoted to battling corruption - QAnon but a little less goofy. If he loses it will be all due to the deep state, the Democrat will be an illegitimate president no matter the margin of victory.

that's going to happen no matter what

we've been through all this before, both on ILX and also in real life. even before the 2016 election, trump was pushing the line that he was cheated out of a victory. and afterward, when he was farting all over the chairs of the oval office with every breath, he couldn't stop talking about how millions of votes had been stolen from him. no matter what happens, whether the margins are razor-thin or a blowout, whether he "wins" or loses, trump will say he was cheated and take that to the grave, and he'll have uncountable people who believe him. they will probably have their own tv network for this (like NRAtv, but tackier)

xp

sleeve said it more concisely :)

Trump will be in the news long after he is gone - from the presidency, and from the earth.

Fascist Elvis

are you loathsome tonight

it's not even 2pm

it's crime o'clock somewhere

the Department of Justice will intervene in a fight between President Trump and the Manhattan District Attorney

Impeach Bill Barr.

seriously, he is quickly elevating himself to supervillain status

same with pompeo

here's one basic thing i'm struggling with right now. i do believe that the republican senate won't vote to convict trump. i've come to accept this. but now, it's becoming clear (to me at least) that barr and pompeo deserve to go down for this as well. will the republican senate prevent them from being impeached as well? the result of that would be devastating, i think, for this country. seeing not just trump wiggle his way out of it once again, but also an expanding group of fucking goons. but would the republicans ever split their impeachment vote between trump (not guilty) and barr/pompeo(guilty)? it's hard to imagine that, either. all of the outcomes seem either unlikely or unthinkable

GWB didn't (technically) lose any elections; I know you meant "slinked out of office"

oops yeah, sorry, my mind created a locus of satisfaction where none existed

when you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way, Karl

> locus of satisfaction

new board title

is. but now, it's becoming clear (to me at least) that barr and pompeo deserve to go down for this as well. will the republican senate prevent them from being impeached as well? the result of that would be devastating, i think, for this country. seeing not just trump wiggle his way out of it once again, but also an expanding group of fucking goons.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/24/bush-pardons-iran-contra-felons-dec-24-1992-1072042

powerful people getting away with shit is nothing new, but the scale of the current thing is something not seen since watergate, and perhaps surpassing it.

trying to imagine Trump declining to show up at conventions so he won't hurt the GOP candidate like GWB

He's defeating corruption by becoming corruption

Like Jesus

well played

I think Trump loves attention so much that he will demand to speak at GOP conventions after leaving office (and no one will dare stop him for fear of the red hatters).

And he will repeat his performance in the Roy Moore campaign - place one smarmy tentacle around the next R nominee. And when he or she loses, immediately claim that he or she was a weak candidate who wasn't Trumpy enough.

also after losing in 2020 he will spend the next three years teasing another run for President

Hopefully from a jail cell

It’s wild to me how people crawled over my 60 mins interview with a fine-toothed comb to find any word or reason to claim I’m unfit for the job, yet here Kevin McCarthy (the GOP Leader!) is a bumbling, sloppy, dishonest mess & his mediocrity is accepted as a matter of course. https://t.co/zx7qlhW9dh

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 30, 2019

YES

Damn!

hard bigotry of high expectations

the way mccarthy says 'the defense of what?' and thinks he's clever

the phrase "snake-filled moats" just popped up on my NYT alerts
welcome to 2019 i guess

Bolded in the original.

"They hate me, but most of all they hate YOU, Bob." for November title.

He's all yours, Alfred...

Trump, Lifelong New Yorker, Declares Himself a Resident of Florida

He came of age in Queens, built Trump Tower, starred in “The Apprentice,” bankrupted his businesses six times, and drew cheering crowds and angry protesters to Fifth Avenue after his election. Through it all, President Trump — rich, bombastic and to many Americans the epitome of a New Yorker — was intertwined with the city he called his lifelong home.

No longer.

In late September, Mr. Trump changed his primary residence from Manhattan to Palm Beach, Fla., according to documents filed with the Palm Beach County Circuit Court. Melania Trump, the first lady, also changed her residence to Palm Beach in an identical document.

Each of the Trumps filed a “declaration of domicile” saying that the Mar-a-Lago Club, Mr. Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, will be their permanent residence.

“If I maintain another place or places of abode in some other state or states, I hereby declare that my above-described residence and abode in the State of Florida constitutes my predominant and principal home, and I intend to continue it permanently as such,” reads the document that Mr. Trump filed.

“I formerly resided at 721 Fifth Avenue,” the document says, referring to Trump Tower, which has been his primary residence since he moved into the skyscraper off 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan in 1983.

An attachment lists his “other places of abode” as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address for the White House, and his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he spends warm-weather weekends and a few weeks every summer.

Since becoming president, Mr. Trump has spent 99 days at Mar-a-Lago compared with 20 days at Trump Tower, according to NBC News. Although Mr. Trump ran his presidential transition from Trump Tower and some aides had expected him to spend many weekends there in his Louis XIV-style triplex on the 58th floor, his presence created traffic headaches for New Yorkers and logistical and security challenges for the Secret Service.

White House officials declined to say why Mr. Trump changed his primary residence, but a person close to the president said the reasons were primarily for tax purposes.

The person also said that Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in New York, was infuriated by a lawsuit filed by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, seeking the president’s tax returns, which Mr. Trump has not released. Changing his residence to Florida is not expected to have any effect on the lawsuit.

places of abode

I wanna hear him stumble over this phrase.

Due to the greater number of winnable electoral votes...

...but a person close to the president said the reasons were primarily for tax fraud purposes.

Fixed!

Oh please oh please oh please...

A defiant President Trump signaled he will not cooperate with the Democratic Party's impeachment proceedings, insisting his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "a good call" and that he might read it aloud to Americans so they can see his point.

“This is over a phone call that is a good call,” Trump, sitting behind the Resolute Desk, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. "At some point, I’m going to sit down, perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call, because people have to hear it. When you read it, it’s a straight call.”

Trump spoke at a key moment in his presidency, with the Democrats preparing for a new, public phase in their effort to impeach Trump. Hours earlier, a bitterly divided House of Representatives had endorsed the impeachment inquiry, setting out rules for a process that is almost certain to overshadow much of the 2020 election.

But even after the vote, the president said he had no intention of taking part in the proceedings. Asked whether he would cooperate with the impeachment proceedings by honoring document requests and subpoenas, Trump responded: “You are setting a terrible precedent for other presidents,” he said.

...in a free-ranging, 80-minute conversation in the Oval Office with Washington Examiner reporters and editors, he insisted charges were nothing compared with those lodged against three other presidents to face impeachment.

“Everybody knows I did nothing wrong,” he said. “Bill Clinton did things wrong; Richard Nixon did things wrong. I won’t go back to (Andrew) Johnson because that was a little before my time," he said. "But they did things wrong. I did nothing wrong.”

trump would have loved andrew johnson

You will never be one of us, you fuck.

-Florida Man

At some point, I’m going to sit down, perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call

please please please please please oh god please

Caption this. 😳

(Official White House Photo by Joyce Boghosian) pic.twitter.com/RXfleq362C

— Minh Ngo (@minhtngo) November 1, 2019

xpost c'mon, it would just be another phony edited transcript right? like his contention is that people just haven't read the wonderful summary of his perfect phone call, and if they did they would see it was one of the most beautiful calls ever made.

Will it have sex sounds like his imitation of those texts? He should totally recreate the phone call, doing both voices, with sex sounds.

xp Moments after the discontinuation of McNuggets hot mustard sauce

that photo--it's like Trump has become the orb

L'orb c'est moi

very cool theocracy u have there

Hands on a Soft Body

what do you win?

Are Christians okay?

rarely afaict

That picture was from a few years ago, wasn't it?

Yes, all of those people died shortly after making physical contact with President Trump.

US Politics, November 2019: These people are truly sick.

i mean, if you can call being absorbed into the throbbing mass of gelatinous flesh that humans call donald j trump 'dying', then sure xp

has this bimbo ever told the truth?

Having called around some, reassured in my judgment that those House Republicans open to voting for impeachment simply decided to stick with the party yesterday, and to save their dissent for the real vote. No point telegraphing the jail break to the prison guards ahead of time.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 1, 2019

Hie thee to the nov thred but I think he has had a few weirdly accurate tweets recently? It was presented with some grand statesman smarm, sure

US Politics, November 2019: These people are truly sick.