US Politics, December 2019: Profound procedural deficiencies

Bolton probably wouldn't mind roasting Trump's gizzard, but he won't do it unless his ass is completely covered by legal compulsion all tied up with a ribbon. Then he can say the nasty Democrats forced him to eviscerate Trump. Because he knows doing it voluntarily would burn all his bridges and he'd like to weasel his way back into future administrations.

^^^

personally I find all the hand-wringing about how Dems have handled impeachment ridiculous. First the left were all pissed that Pelosi wasn't moving fast enough, now they're pissed that after she did jump on it she didn't manage to pry any support out of the racist mouthbreathing no-info voters that comprise the GOP and their representatives. Let's be clear here: there's pretty much *nothing* the Democrats (or Trump, for that matter) could do at this point - either procedurally, rhetorically or politically - that would make anybody cross party lines on impeachment. No amount of evidence or publicity stunts or impassioned speeches is going to crack McConnell and the GOP base's grip on the party. This process has driven that home. The GOP will never, ever ditch Trump. And since they control the Senate, it's a foregone conclusion that this isn't going to remove him from office. And since it's a foregone conclusion people are starting to pay less attention/not care about it.

I don't think this is a good outcome, but it's pretty much the only outcome that was possible.

you can't rule when you're in the minority, that's just a fact. all you can do is obstruct.

that salon piece sucks ass

the worst thing about this is that Trump now knows he has carte blanche to completely ratfuck the 2020 election and he definitely will do his best

I think about this "lesson" fairly often, seems apropos re: everyone that was screaming for impeachment over the summer:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EJKZhfxYMLw/UeJhmE89JNI/AAAAAAAAKBQ/GntxWROivxA/s1600/cerebus_066_throwing_babies2.jpg

By the way, can we stop pretending that whatever Hunter Biden was doing in Ukraine was fine and squeaky-clean and totally above board? That’s all a parenthesis, of course, and there’s no evidence that his dad was directly involved, even if the optics were kind of un-good. But Hunter was getting paid a one-percenter salary to do absolutely nothing because he was the vice president’s son. If you are truly committed to constructing that as “well, he didn’t do anything wrong,” you're either a shameless party hack or you've been thoroughly gaslit by end-stage capitalism. Probably both.

no one has said this

skimmed the Salon piece, don't see any obvious suckitude.

no reason not to put as much of the Grifter's malfeasance into impeachment, except whatever the Blue Dogs are calling themselves these days won't stand for it.

Pelosi is very obviously a typical Dem hack, that's how she got her job. (look at her lousy drug bill)

yr posts are more like Trump tweets every day

a couple more exclamation points and yr done

yours are more like Trump turds bwahaaa you fell into that one pal

skimmed the Salon piece, don't see any obvious suckitude

First warning sign: It was published on Salon.

Bolton probably wouldn't mind roasting Trump's gizzard, but he won't do it unless his ass is completely covered by legal compulsion all tied up with a ribbon. Then he can say the nasty Democrats forced him to eviscerate Trump. Because he knows doing it voluntarily would burn all his bridges and he'd like to weasel his way back into future administrations.

object lesson works better with the page before included Shakey

"We have a situation where we're looking very strongly at sinks and showers, and other elements of bathrooms," Trump says.

"People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once." pic.twitter.com/asDjGxuFts

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 6, 2019

the odd thing about it is how serious he is! if he delivered the whole thing in a mocking parody voice, it could just be seen as a really long joke about toilets. not the cutting edge, but pretty good for trump. but he's so serious! but not in the nathan fielder dumb serious way, just in the dumb dumb serious way

Trump thinks that poor flushing in a toilet is connected to water pressure? Not in any of the ordinary toilets for home installation I have ever seen. Those flush from a filled tank of water, which then refills after the toilet has flushed. All that could be accomplished with higher water pressure would be refilling the tank faster.

Obviously, a man who was born rich and has never done any low-fi plumbing at home is unlikely to know such stuff, but you'd think someone would explain it to him. Actually, I'm guessing someone tried to, but he didn't listen.

it's a situation where they're also looking very strongly at other elements of bathrooms as well, though

the president has no clothes

and has to flush about a dozen times, many are saying

We just don't have worthy turds

"it's not you, sir. it's EPA's terrible regulations on water pressure for toilets. we will look into it. very strongly."

Trump probably remembers the bitter complaints when the six gallon flush toilets were replaced by the first wave of rather underpowered six liter toilets, about 4 decades ago and thinks this would still be a hot issue for his base, resenting the un-American eggheads and tree-huggers who did away with mega-toilet tanks.

"Flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once" for January title.

It's beyond parody! The President is filling his toilets full of shit and he doesn't understand why he can't make the doody go away so he held a press conference!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WfP_e3hsb4

He's very sad and concerned. So many White House toilets have been utterly obliterated.

The gold leaf just gets stripped off, like some corrosive substance is being dumped into the bowls.

i'm guessing he personally mishandled toilet complaints from residents at his father's properties

Flint still has lead in its water. jfc

Given Trump’s diet, he hasn’t had a normal shit in 70 years.

the nice thing about this clip is that you can watch it on mute and still know exactly what bullshit they're both saying

WATCH: @SenTedCruz says he believes Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. #MTP #IfItsSunday pic.twitter.com/OPAxpe6T6t

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 8, 2019

Hard to trust a man whose dad murdered JFK.

also someone who is the zodiac killer, shame

nah this is Bizarro Cruz, look at the facial hair.

#KremlinCruz has the same ring as #KremlinKennedy

I'd love to see an expose on how the cynical spreading of Russian propaganda by the GOP is undermining morale in the intelligence community. Though my understanding is that open partisanship is deeply frowned upon, its well known that the FBI was a bastion of conservative voters and the other 16 agencies probably were as well. I wonder how this open betrayal is felt, whether its shifting party identification, etc.

Still SMH about how this is the timeline in which the right is swoony over Russia and some on the left wax wistful about the institutional integrity of the FBI and CIA

(not a diss on Sanpaku, there, just general SMHness)

You don't have to like the CIA or FBI to nonetheless find it chilling when a President fires someone for investigating him, or dismisses CIA intelligence in lieu of urban legends he hears from Sean Hannity

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/473543-trump-calls-warren-pocahontas-knocks-wealth-tax

Just keep him talking about the 'wealth tax', whatever else he's on about.

(Obviously not excusing the racism but it's par for the course at this point.)

again mr Heidecker is hauntingly prescient

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LDdleGP_yY

remember when Ilhan Omar took a massive shitstorm from both sides because of that "all about the Benjamins" pun, I'm sure all those people are gonna be super outraged by Trump's suggestion here that Jews have no principles but money

Is Trump suddenly going to morph into a black Muslim woman?

Starting to think that was reeeally about something else

Xpost

The words are just value-free phonemes. All that matters is which mouth they're issuing from. We're nearing peak 'speaker >>>>> utterance' although I'm confident that we'll surpass that peak soon enough.

People are asking me what I thought of this. I read it as a confession: We're out of ideas. "Both sides" and "so divided" is all we got. https://t.co/u6gvIB0ZdE

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) December 8, 2019

i will take any opportunity to bump linda ronstadt in the us politics thread

Singer Linda Ronstadt didn’t hesitate to rip into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a State Department reception at the 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington on Saturday night, according to a Variety report Sunday.

During his first turn as the official host of the event, where honorees receive their Kennedy Center rainbow ribbons, Pompeo wondered aloud: “As I travel the world, I wonder when I will be loved,” referring to lyrics in Ronstadt’s 1975 hit “When Will I Be Loved,” according to Variety.

When Ronstadt, who is known as an ardent critic of President Trump, took the microphone to receive the honor, she took aim at Pompeo.

“I’d like to say to Mr. Pompeo, who wonders when he’ll be loved, it’s when he stops enabling Donald Trump,” Ronstadt said, according to Variety.

Variety reported that Ronstadt immediately sat down after her remark, which drew gasps, slow-building applause and cheers from the audience.

i don't want to see or hear documentation of this, because in my head it was a classic hollywood slow-clap and it's perfect

That is great but I really want to know if anyone shouted "now tell us about playing South Africa during apartheid"

^^^

That completely cut from context clip that Twitter folks were going gaga over this weekend was driving me crazy.

ouch, i didn't know that. i will take anyopportunity to learn about how linda ronstadt is a giant dumbass in the us politics thread

She was....stubborn about breaking the boycott.