US Politics, December 2019: Profound procedural deficiencies

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Incredible pic.twitter.com/n8Wh2Cbrqe

— Andrew Perez (@andrewperezdc) December 11, 2019

ah olivia wilde, who gives what appears to be an actually libelous portrayal of the news media in the new eastwood film, exactly who i would like to see asking the tough questions about the media.

it's almost as if GOP voters' opinions have no basis in fact

xps

I don't really blame Wilde for that but yeah, I did a bit of an eyebrow raise myself

as a guy who has been on calls all day trying to figure out how his insurance has just increased by $130 a month in 2020 and how he can get financial assistance to help with his physical therapy post surgery, I'd like to say that 43% of republicans can use my toilet bowl as a water cooler

I dunno, I can totally see why GOP voters would be satisfied with the cost of health care, now that Obamacare has been repealed and Trump fixed all the problems, lowered costs of medicine, deported all the immigrants and cut everyone off from welfare, and so on. Like, what else is there to complain about? Problem solved. Asshole Again in 2020, etc.

the naming of the FBI investigation Crossfire Hurricane seems really corny

Calling it Locomotive Breath would have been pretty bitchin, tho

Trump: Pardons Multiple War Criminals

Bevin: Hold My Beer.

https://www.kentuckynewera.com/news/article_c1a31eec-1c5f-11ea-b560-f7ed0ba79bdf.html

As one of his final acts in office, former Gov. Matt Bevin commuted the sentence of Dayton Jones to time served by executive order. The executive order gives no reason for the commutation.

...

According to New Era archives, Jones pleaded guilty Aug. 22, 2016, to first-degree sodomy, first-degree wanton endangerment and first-degree distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. In November 2016, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with no possibility of probation and a lifetime requirement to register as a sex offender upon release.

chill greta, chill

i hope his mouth caves in on itself

At least he didn’t make a pun equating her name to a place in nobility. That would have been horrific!

Do it https://t.co/WgntNWG1ca

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) December 12, 2019

this is hardly the most important thing here, but I do wish pundits would settle on some appropriate descriptors for Greta. she can be a teenage girl or a minor but Trump's behavior is sufficiently monstrous without having to label her as a "young child" or something that makes it sound like she's 8 years old. she's 16.

Older Than Barron!

I do still think that's a legit equivalency after right-wing media had a collective meltdown over a witness having the temerity to even invoke the young princeling's name.

yeah but barron hasn't CHOSEN to be in the public eye &c &c blah blah fart noise

I'm just surprised Barron is younger. I had thought he was 15 or 16 by now.

Mitch McConnell could flog Barron in the street and it wouldn't be as objectionable as a libruhl uttering his name.

good morning!

16 is young. Maybe a more vulnerable age than a younger child—she shouldn’t be harassed by the President of the United States that’s for sure.

Did i mention on ilx before that i hate Trump

It's not just her chronological age. She's also autistic.

The President shouldn't really be harassing anyone who isn't an enemy of the state.

Did i mention on ilx before that i hate Trump

― treeship., Thursday, December 12, 2019 10:54 AM

you know my hatred for the these ridiculous fucking ashole in congress is by far greater than anything i feel for that idiot blob.

My ire is definitely becoming more diffuse to include those who have enabled and continued to enable his slow devolution into the worst human on earth. I mean people don't become this awful in a bubble but rather because they're rewarded and praised for their flagrantly antisocial behavior instead of getting put in the hospital every time they open their fetid cakehole.

I thought he started at about the worst person ever and hasnow devolved to the same position.
THough I guess McConnell may be running him some competition.
BUt yeah it's the enablers I could do without.
Couldn't somebody just create a safe space, some little pocket universe somewhere where they could go off and be utterly deplorable without having a direct effect on the rest of the planet.

I mean the deck was certainly stacked against him ever developing any conscience or character, but a lifetime of sycophants responding with starry-eyed enthusiasm when he shits on their loafers has served only to transform him into a being composed of pure id.

So the republicans are basically on a repeat loop then?
Or is what they're saying today any different to what they've tried to say before.

NOt really watched hearings like this before so I'm new to this strike the last word thing. & not sure what it exactly refers to beyond Republicans wanting to talk even more BS and Dems trying to explain what should be obvious.

They've been on a repeat loop for 39 years

Holder going after Barr directly in the WaPo opinion pages. Seems kind of unprecedented (also meaningless outside of beltway punditry)

Couldn't somebody just create a safe space, some little pocket universe somewhere where they could go off and be utterly deplorable without having a direct effect on the rest of the planet.

That would be grand but unfortunately they clearly enjoy being able to affect the rest of the planet in monstrous ways. It's how they get their jollies.

Back in the Mesozoic era when I was a student of philosophy, there was a concept called the pleasure-monster: an evil sadistic being who got astronomical levels of happiness out of torturing innocent puppies, fluffy bunnies, precocious children, etc. If you like, you can imagine the pleasure-monster as simultaneously very deluded: he's actually on an otherwise uninhabited planet. He only IMAGINES that he's torturing innocent children, fluffy puppies, precocious bunnies, etc. Either way. You get the idea.

IIRC this was intended as a critique of consequentialism and, by extension, utilitarianism: if you're using "pleasure vs. pain" as a measure of moral worth, simply construct a thought experiment in which doing clearly horrible things creates tremendous levels of pleasure for someone, and see if the consequentialist still endorses consequences as the only measure of moral value.

In college it seemed a hyperbolic, potentially silly hypothetical.

Now? Not so much.

I've been thinking of the scenario where Trump loses the election and then... refuses to fade into the background, continues to serve as leader of the GOP (cuz who else do they have, really?), and then just runs again in 2024. The odds that he will just fade into the background and not be a huge media figure/shit-stirrer seem p low.

Otm. He'll be on Fox News as a consultant

I fear the Obi Wan scenario

holy shit -- Rep. Hank Johnson just went there in response to Rep. Gaetz poking at Hunter Biden's reported drug use: “I don't know what members, if any, have had problems with substance abuse, been busted in DUIs... If i did, I wouldn't raise it against anyone on this committee." pic.twitter.com/6kixChgvvF

— j.d. durkin (@jiveDurkey) December 12, 2019

Otm. He'll be on Fox News as a consultant

― master of nuggets (Neanderthal),

his family had plans to start trumpTV after he lost the 2016 election, but unfortunately for the universe, he "won". i assume after he's out of office he'll take the worst 1/10th of Fox and use that as his foundation for nu-TrumpTV

Whatever he does (if he lives so long) will be based on making carloads of money while doing the least actual work he can.

i assume trumpTV's will be the first major media outlet to feature a human face as a logo, so trump can literally be on tv all of the time on his favorite station

xp

honestly i think he would work very hard if it was trumptv. that seems like something he'd actually care about

lol @ the notion of Donald Trump being in any kind of functional state if by some miracle he survives another four years.

Which doesn't mean he wouldn't still run (and possibly win) as an inert, wheezing sack of festering flesh being wheeled from appearance to appearance in his gold-plated hospital bed, but still.

they're gonna build him a giant robot and stick him in the belly, krang-style
http://resources.nobleknight.com/Catalog/Images/900/900/0/1/0/WZKTMNTHC031.jpg

he may be all of those things in 4 years, but he'll be on tv. siri, i know i disabled you and you can't hear me through my typing, but set a reminder 4 years from now to revisit this set of posts and check-in on the status of trump's flesh

Okay KARL MALONE... calendar reminder set for four years to... CHECK IN ON FRESH RUMP

goddammit siri

I've simply run out of "fuck yous." But I guess I say that weekly.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-greta-thunberg-time-person-of-the-year-2019-a9243726.html?fbclid=IwAR0HD6G5uw-MaloifyPJ_Ay600sJmkhw2E3KQBPlR-eNIG5qpfgZEfDproc

truly he is the little bitchiest of little bitches

He's an utter coward, just like every bully that ever existed.

The odds that he will just fade into the background and not be a huge media figure/shit-stirrer seem p low.