US Politics, December 2019: Profound procedural deficiencies

DEEZ faux NUTS

Trump says that, under the precedent being set by the Democrats, in the future someone is going to pick an orange out of the refrigerator and not like it and therefore decide to impeach the president.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 3, 2019

orange man bad?

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/trump-pushed-hard-for-company-owned-by-gop-donor-to-get-400-million-contract-it-just-did-despite-not-meeting-standards/

For months President Donald Trump has “personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” to award a lucrative Defense Dept. contract to build a portion of his wall on the Southern border to a construction company owned by a GOP donor. On Monday, despite reports that the North Dakota company, Fisher Sand and Gravel, did not meet Defense Dept. standards and has a history of tax and environmental violations, the DoD awarded Fisher the $400 million contract, The Washington Post reports.

Trump reportedly has been so active in pushing for Fisher to be awarded the contract that at one point on Fox News the president told Sean Hannity his administration was dealing with the company’s owner, and declared the company had been “recommended strongly by a great new senator, Kevin Cramer.”

That Senator, Republican Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, has also been pushing for Fisher Sand and Gravel to get the contract despite its owner, Tommy Fisher, being a donor to Senator Cramer, The Independent reports.

President Trump has seen Tommy Fisher advocate for the contract in his multiple appearances on Fox News, the president’s favorite cable news channel.

“In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps,” The Washington Post reported in May. “The push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials.”

Tommy Fisher has ties to former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince, ex-GOP congressman Tom Tancredo and former Kansas GOP secretary of state Kris Kobach. Bannon and Kobach have worked for Trump, Prince is the brother of Eduction Secretary betsy DeVos.

In an August report on Trump’s “brazen” corruption The Nation described the four men as “an all-star cast of grifters and white nationalists.”

“Tommy Fisher and his wife gave more than $10,000 — the maximum allowable contribution — to Cramer in 2018 as he ran for Senate, campaign finance records show. Fisher was Cramer’s guest at Trump’s State of the Union speech in February that year, and the CEO said he shook the president’s hand afterward,” The Washington Post notes, adding that “Trump backed Cramer last year in his campaign to unseat Democrat Heidi Heitkamp.”

A 2017 report from NBC affiliate 12 News (video below) states the city of Phoenix “filed 467 criminal charges” against Fisher Sand and Gravel, along with “2000 city and county violations.”

so like this would absolutely be an impeachable offense under any Democratic president right

Oh don't be silly, Republicans wouldn't require as high a threshold.

someone will pick an orange out of a refrigerator and not like it

His supporters love Trump because 'he's the only politician who tells them the truth'.

Fun fact: despite sharing a skin color with the well-known citrus fruit, Donald Trump has never actually come into physical contact with an orange!

or any fruits except Elton John

Well, maybe if the orange was hollowed out and inside there was a thumb drive full of evidence of criminal activity by the president, and the person who grabbed it was all "WHAT THE FUCK?! Why is there nothing decent in the white house ...to eat?" And they kick off impeachment proceedings out of pure hanger. I get it.

Was it really a smart move for the GOP to release their impeachment memo first? Sometimes being first helps control a narrative with the general public, who tend to focus more on the initial statement and look at rebuttals with sour grapes.

Idk that it makes as much sense here - it's manna for Republicans, but six of the last seven polls released that included Independents and asked participants were asked if they supported impeaching trump had a plurality of Independent voters supporting it. By a small margin, nonetheless, but those are the people who require convincing and so far they've done poorly. Not sure that a preemptive "nothing to see here" will be as effective as their stupid "release the memo" campaign was.

Giving the Dems the last word might backfire (hopefully).

They don't have a real defense, so it probably doesn't matter

yeah the GOP has no play here besides endless conspiracy theorizing and straight up saying "he did it, so what, get over it"

Wow. These are Rudy Giuliani’s phone calls the day Marie Yovanovitch was removed from her post.

That the Intel Committee got access to phone logs of the president’s personal defense attorney is just stunning. #housereport pic.twitter.com/lWF9nEb7OX

— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) December 3, 2019

imagine being "-1"

That DJTJ or Eric, right?

mmm, detention savings opportunities

McKinsey and Co., the international consultants, were deeply involved in helping the Trump administration figure out how to crack down on illegal immigration, new documents show. Copublishing with @propbulica https://t.co/atwFN6dJ7k

— Kim Murphy (@kimmurphy) December 3, 2019

I often look for detention savings opportunities at Target!

house intel committee report is out

.@JustinTrudeau, @EmmanuelMacron, @BorisJohnson and other VIPs shared a few words at a Buckingham Palace reception Tuesday. No one mentions @realDonaldTrump by name, but they seem to be discussing his lengthy impromptu press conferences from earlier in the day. (Video: Host Pool) pic.twitter.com/dVgj48rpOP

— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) December 3, 2019

someone's head is going to explode when he sees this

hey has he golfed yet?

^ inquiring minds want to know!

Newsweek article says he golfed on Thanksgiving

It's what the Pilgrims would have wanted!

That Newsweek reporter got fired for that story!

I don't know, it's not like anyone in that video admitted to sexual assault or something terrible, no one could ever recover from that

free roger stone!

President Trump on @JustinTrudeau: "He's two-faced."

Full video here: https://t.co/6R701KZDiU pic.twitter.com/tarJJZbgO1

— CSPAN (@cspan) December 4, 2019

tfw you unintentionally make the funniest insult you'll ever manage

lol

Countdown to US declaration of war with Canada in 3...2...

House Judiciary Committee Democrats met behind closed doors for six hours on Tuesday for a private preparation session ahead of the panel’s official overtaking of the impeachment inquiry Wednesday. And the committee’s chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) used the prep time to offer some candid reassurance to his caucus.

“I’m not going to take any shit,” he said, according to Politico. The remark made some lawmakers in the room straighten up in their seats, people in the room told Politico.

Politico described the meeting as a “dress rehearsal” for the upcoming hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee room, where the Intelligence Committee held all of its hearings in that space. The committee held a mock hearing and ex-staffers were brought in to play the role of Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Doug Collins (R-GA) and other aggressive minority members of the committee.

Committee members reportedly feel confident in their approach and Nadler’s leadership, heading into their first big hearing on Wednesday, but some lawmakers privately told Politico there is some concern in the caucus about Nadler’s approach and demeanor, a fear that Republicans plan to seize on Wednesday. As Playbook reported Tuesday, Judiciary Committee Republicans feel that Nadler will be easier to rattle than House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) because he often relies on notes for much of his statements and questioning.

in the weeks/months between the mueller report and the impeachment hearings, schiff was much, much more impressive than nadler, anywhere i heard or saw them. don't fuck this up, tough guy nadler

I figure Nadler's doing his impression of Chevy Chase's impression of De Niro in Taxi Driver because he knows he fucked up. Schiff impressed the hell out of me; I thought he'd be the wuss.

jeez, nadler's already getting rattled by "MR BIGGS"

the less time he spends talking, the better

the weird thing about nadler is that he seems like he's directly out of the watergate hearings. i don't get that same feeling from other people of his age.

i know it's to be expected, but there's some really demoralizing about listening to an expert on constitutional law calmly and thoroughly explain why the president must be impeached for about 5 minutes, followed immediately by a parliamentary bullshit stalling question leading to some vote on tabling some motion leading to a request for a roll call leading to a 21-17 vote to confirm that the motion will be tabled

yeah i def can't tune into this crap today

it is the house committee equivalent of a flamingo thrusting its head deep into the sand in the middle of an animal town meeting about how the flamingo never does the dishes

Don’t forget this resistance grifter/congressman sucks

When @POTUS travels outside our country, he represents us to the world. We are all Americans. We should wish him well and want him to succeed. Basic courtesies should be extended to the American President and First Lady. What Princess Anne did was unnecessary and disrespectful. https://t.co/cwOR0hG8iP

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 4, 2019

ewww, wtf ted lieu? i thought he was alright

Can you possibly get your tongue any further up there, Ted? Give 'er a go. See what you can do.

Trump caught on hot mic talking about Trudeau and his scrapping of news conf per pool reporter @betsy_klein - “Oh, and then you know what they'll say. He didn't do a press conference. He didn't do a press conference. That was funny when I said the guy's two-faced, you know that.”

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 4, 2019

All particulars about the Choad-in-Chief aside, entreaties to show respect for someone who's done precisely nothing to earn anyone's respect is one of the most efficient means of eliciting a 'STFFU,YFF' from yers truly.

Ted lieu is very much a centrist democrat whose critique is basically “this is not normal”

i.e. MSNBCs m.o.

I'm not sure what apparent obvious takeaway I'm supposed to understand from that Princess Anne thing I'm continually sick of people trying very hard to squeeze reality show drama out of innocuous moments or facial expressions/body language part #3220965 in a series

All I know is that Trump's head looks like a testicle wearing a wig so I don't begrudge anyone looking askance at his nutsack-faced self

My god if your nutsack looks like Trump-face hie thee to an apothecary posthaste

Where did I say he looked like MY nutsack? That is an affront to my lovely scrotum

Scrotus

This is the day that they cannot spoil
The birthing day of the princess royal
So let's celebrate the living span
Of our lovely Annie-ann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oe37TgK_9k

or starve the beast, strip it for parts, sell to amazon for pennies where amazon cuts the workforce, etc.

dude, trump is gonna figure out how to financialize/griftify the post office with banking, and simultaneously make it a tool for fleecing the poors and workings. read me now believe me later.

That’s essentially the Canadian approach. Having lived here awhile the idea of getting mail on Saturday seems weird to me now. Of course cutting Sat likely means cutting jobs

Uh xpost

Telling the USPS to privatize itself and actually completing the follow-through are two very different things

As I’ve said before, these idiots have none of the skills

is treeship with a period at the end of his name a Fake Treeship?

i still believe

it's very strange that he's the resilient centrist, seemingly

You know that old Woody Allen line about 80% of life being showing up? It applies here.

Giuliani's answer to being asked if he'd testify at the impeachment trial is completely insane pic.twitter.com/8BMjVy4r9A

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 1, 2020

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

lol glass of scotch in his hand, hny rudy

January thread?

US Politics, January 2020. Because we hate ourselves.

done

Would have suggested "Jesus, Treeship" for title but there's still time.