US Politics, May 2020 — I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.

If Pelosi is just a human abacus, perhaps the Democrats should consider stronger leadership.

I totally would. Who are the candidates?

I don't want a speaker who agrees with me -- that's not her job. I want a speaker who responds to constituent prodding.

Adlai Stevenson

Impeach fucker again, plz

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/16/857334790/president-trump-removes-state-department-inspector-general-steve-linick

Amash is out.

After much reflection, I’ve concluded that circumstances don’t lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year, and therefore I will not be a candidate.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 16, 2020

I think it's good on the whole he is not running for President, but I have to admit that, as a non-libertarian, I see Amash as vastly smarter and more principled than most people who call themselves by that name, so I hope he stays high-profile because it will make other people who identify as libertarians be better and smarter.

It took him "much reflection" to reach that conclusion? The idea that maybe he's a bit slow on the uptake doesn't begin to cover it.

"I'm running"

"Hey you shouldn't"

"Wow, I never thought of it that way! Good lookin' out!"

One Easy Way for People Who Identify as Libertarians to be Better and Smarter (Number One Will Surprise You!)

It took him "much reflection" to reach that conclusion? The idea that maybe he's a bit slow on the uptake doesn't begin to cover it.

― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, May

It's PR boilerplate.

Surprised he didn't invoke his family in some way.

True libertarians don't have families. Children are nothing but takers.

Children are known as "Secondary Income Providers"

Having finished Tim Alberta's pretty good Trump book an hour ago, I summarized Amash as one of DC's few honest men about policies that kill people.

including those that kill indirectly?

no, directly.

He's sincere about who benefits from lower taxes.

I liked Don Lemon's line last week about Obama living in Trump's head rent-free. That head will be exploding for the next day or two.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/05/16/politics/barack-obama-commencement-speech-2020-hbcu/index.html

Peter Navarro was on with George Stephanopoulos this morning. When Stephanopoulos tried to pin him down on, uh, "Obamagate," Navarro mentioned Hunter Biden getting a billion dollars from the Chinese. Stephanopoulos said that wasn't true. Navarro: "Be that as it may..." That's a pretty good segue.

one. BILLION. DOLLARS.

wtf?

I thought I might have misquoted, but they put the transcripts online:

STEPHANOPOULOS: The vice president had an op-ed in USA Today in January, he warned in February, all through the month of February the president, President Trump, was praising President Xi of China. He was saying he trusted President Xi of China. He was saying President Xi of China was being transparent, that's why Vice President Biden says that the president was downplaying the threat from China.

NAVARRO: Yeah, well Joe Biden's has got 40 years of sucking up to the Chinese, including the eight years as vice president. And we know about the billion dollars that his son took from the Chinese.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's just not factual, sir. That is not a fact. He did not take a billion dollars from the Chinese.

NAVARRO: Went into that hedge fund.

Be that as it may, I do think this election is going to be a referendum in many ways on China.

That last line is a big clue to how the Trump campaign thinks it can leverage xenophobia by linking the pandemic, the economic fallout, and bogus Biden scandals all to China in one big murky conspiratorial package, sold to the voters via a tangled web of bold lies soon backed away from, innuendoes, and rumor-seeding, that nobody can unravel.

Aka...OBAMAGATE!

the Hunter Biden billion dollar claim has been floating around since the Ukraine stuff broke. It's utterly absurd, and I'm surprised there hasn't been stronger pushback on it.

It's the same problem with a lot of this stuff - how do you pushback on stuff that's just completely made up but psychopaths keep repeating?

you don't, cos these aren't the people you could ever possibly reach

If they made it up re: someone else, there's a 99.9% chance they themselves or somebody close on their side is guilty of it.

I mean, both Ivanka and Kush have their fingers in a lot of Chinese pies.

Sounds delicious, tbh

he . . . does?

Yes, he's an unlikeable jerk.

But he's an unlikeable jerk that gets stuff done.https://t.co/R4sAOEDw6t

— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) May 18, 2020

bad stuff

That offal triggered a discussion in the Trump reelection thread.

BREAKING: President Trump says he is taking hydroxychloriquine and has been doing so for weeks. @CBSNews #Covid_19

— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) May 18, 2020

Asked what evidence there is that hydroxychloroquine has a preventative impact, Trump says, "Here's my evidence: I get a lot of positive calls about it."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 18, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OggA5iJOzJQ

i'm told that only fox is showing this, and

"I cannot stress this enough: this will kill you," says Fox anchor

he's probably lying, but how cool would it be if he isn't?

My fantasy scenario always involved a Big Mac-induced coronary episode or more recently just death by ‘rona, but Big T overdosing on a quack miracle cure would be like a million chef’s kisses

i also assume he's lying. but hey, nice to have some new fresh hope of his possible death!!

wtf is chris cilizza talking about

“Oh, Donald,” Melania said, “we could have had such a damned good time drinking this together."

Ahead was a Secret Service man in a black suit standing guard. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Melania against me, spilling my glass of hydroxychloroquine.

“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

honestly I think it's impossible that the President of the United States could be taking some quack miracle cure that's literally killing people but then again I remind myself of who he's surrounding himself with

pretty sure the people he surrounds himself with want him to die too

that cillizza piece is not compelling

chris cilizza is a fucking scourge, his MO is trying to make obvious claims sound revelatory or some shit. I hate him.

I hope he is taking it and he has both a fucking heart attack and he gets COVID

(trump that is, not Cilizza, but he can too)

I'd have to double-check, but in 2016, I'm pretty sure that if you posted anything on here that even intimated for a second that Trump could win, both the writer and the piece would immediately be ridiculed out of existence. Things have really changed. When I posted that piece earlier, I really didn't think it would lead to an extended discussion on Chris Cillizza.

Trump's "a lot of doctors take it"(hydroxychloriquine) is such a throwback to cigarette ads from the Mad Men era...the first season, before such ads became illegal.

Hydroxychloroquine. It's toasted.

Perfect!