US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[benjipwns]

[etiolate]

I was about to post that.

hello darkness my old friend...

[thehunter116]

https://twitter.com/RobertMaguire_/status/941715143150526465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.rawgit.com%2Fs9e%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fmaster%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html%23941715143150526465

Too real. 

[Skullfuckers Anonymous]

Oops

Please let the record show that none of the nominees have blogged in support of the KKK.

[recursivelyenumerable]

when the antitrust hipsters get into power I hope they just ban the MCU outright. 

[thisismyusername]

https://twitter.com/MattOswaltVA/status/941444005266460672

(Image removed from quote.)

I mean, she ain't wrong...?

[REDPILLALPH ABIGCOCK]

superhero films are a utility like water or the internet

[Nola]

The problem is, that number that's being floated "65% or 75% of Republicans favor Net Neutrality when they're explained what it is" is key. Because that means they're informed on the issue.

Most Republicans are not informed on the issues, or if they are, get their information from Fox. Once this becomes an actual election issue and the misinformation campaign gets going, NN support among the GOP is going to drop like a stone. I just feel it in my bones. Republican voters choose what's worse for themselves every time, outside of possibly gun stuff.

I think you are definitely right to an extent. I think with enough work the propaganda arms can swing those opinions some more. I just think it is ultimately not the sort of wedge issue they ever come up ahead on. Even with Republicans. There just is not a large constituency that is going to get really impassioned about protecting cable monopolies and their predatory practices. But it absolutely seems to impassion people on the other side.

It will certainly help that I suspect what will happen is that the toxicity of the moment is going to make ISP's hesitate for now from doing anything drastic, which of course will prompt the righties to point and call the outrage much ado about nothing. And that will honestly be a harder message to counter. Since if I had to guess, the initial sort of fuckery will be the stuff that on the surface appears consumer friendly. Like Comcast signing a deal with Netflix so that their apps don't count against your data. Which on the surface the Fox News blowhards will be able to whip up as evidence of the innovation of the free market. When it's really more of a stalking horse for the further erosion of the fair playing field the internet thrives on. But that is objectively a harder argument to make to the average laymen.

[Pwnz]

My internet went out for 2 minutes earlier today after months of uptime. I bet these cunts are already rolling out firmware updates to throttle.

[team filler]

conservatives will start caring once they can no longer stream porn for free. They'll lead the fight after that.

[Joe Molotov]

conservatives will start caring once they can no longer stream porn for free. They'll lead the fight after that.

Bipartisan “issue”

[benjipwns]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/12/15/black-conservatives-reel-after-manigault-resigns/Tt3kXLzan1BuwpCMroMzqM/story.html

Manigault, a fiery former reality television star, was often a divisive personal figure within the administration, and would get into personal spats with colleagues and reporters. But officials close to the White House have also said she used her personal relationship with the president to advocate for greater inclusion of minority voices and organizations.

That voice is now gone.

“She was the one bringing black folks to the table,” said Caldwell. “That was her great benefit.”

Caldwell said that Manigault had “great influence” with Trump from her long relationship with him well before he was involved with politics, and it began with Trump’s reality television show, “The Apprentice.” Manigault was “not barred by the traditional role that staffers have with any president,” Caldwell said.

Manigault had several signature issues during her time in the White House, including supporting historically black colleges and universities and protecting Haitian immigrants, according to people familiar with her role. It also included behind-the-scenes advocacy for more racial diversity among new hires in the administration.

One example is Earl Matthews, a black, Harvard-trained lawyer whom Manigault pushed to be the Army’s general counsel.

When Trump was criticized for not adequately condemning white supremacists in Charlottesville in August, it was Manigault who relayed the concerns of black staffers, officials said. She also advocated for Haitian immigrants to be spared deportation under the temporary protected status program.

“I appreciated the fact that she started and tried to be a voice for black organizations,” Caldwell said.

But Manigault’s rapid ascension to the senior levels of the White House was always a point of controversy, even in the country’s small, close-knit circle of black conservatives. Some felt she was emblematic of an administration that valued personal relationships over expertise and that her penchant for drama weighed the administration down.

Before becoming famous on “The Apprentice,” Manigault served in the Clinton administration and had publicly embraced liberal views. She left the Democratic Party when Trump announced his run for president, and was formally brought to the White House as the director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison.

On Thursday, the president wished her good luck in future endeavors.

“I like Omarosa,” Trump said. “I think Omarosa is a good person.”

[benjipwns]

 

[Pwnz]

My internet went out for 2 minutes earlier today after months of uptime. I bet these cunts are already rolling out firmware updates to throttle.

After this, my internet went out for good. Had to call AT&T and the fiber box in my house (not modem) glitched during an update. They reset it, but admitted rolling out updates to something so low level as a motherboard BIOS update. I'm 99% sure they're already rolling out long ago developed changes to throttle.

[HardcoreRetro]

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/12/15/black-conservatives-reel-after-manigault-resigns/Tt3kXLzan1BuwpCMroMzqM/story.html

Gee, now that she's gone I guess there's nothing to stop Donnie from being racist anymore. Oh noes.

[Makai]

NBC paid off producer who accused Chris Matthews of harassment, report says

hype

[shosta]

Firing Chris Matthews is an assault on the working class.

[Nola]

Soooo what is the over/under on Trump firing Mueller before January?

Between the allegations today, the slandering of the FBI, the ever escalating and now near exclusive strategy of leveling character attacks at Mueller's team by the Trump lawyers, and the rumblings around the echo chambers of "something big" coming soon and Mueller getting his comeuppance, it is feeling like Trump's people are priming the pump harder than they ever have to justify to the public taking the steps needed to remove Mueller.

[shosta]

Completely impossible. It's just a nonsense escalation fantasy created by the histrionic types.

[etiolate]

Man I don't want to hear about Chris Matthews sex life.

At a certain point, the pubic deserves not to hear about the crotch based blueprints of desk chair ferengi.

[shosta]

How dare you. Chris Matthews isn't a J**.

[Nola]

Completely impossible. It's just a nonsense escalation fantasy created by the histrionic types.

I mean its not, and it was a fairly light-hearted musing, but ok Mr. Passive Aggressive.

[Mandark]

Completely impossible. It's just a nonsense escalation fantasy created by the histrionic types.

I'd bet against it but dude already fired the head of the FBI over this, so.

[Phoenix Dark]

I'd bet against it happening this month, and perhaps next month as well. It's such a stupid move. Granted Trump has made nearly every stupid move available to him but this feels different. Firing Mueller runs the risk of mass protests, but more importantly runs the risk of him being appointed Special Prosecuter by the senate, at which point Trump and anyone who has done dirt with him in the last 20-30 years is fucked. We've seen this play out before (Whitewater to Lewinsky).

They have no legal argument, they aren't even complaining to a judge over this. The legality of Mueller'a actions are pretty fucking firm. These are .gov emails during the transition, not when Trump was president. They are public record and officials are warned about this. Where is the crime? The play here is basically to let Fox whip Republican constituents into a frenzy and hope this influences law makers. But I'm not sold that Ryan or McConnell just say meh whatever if Trump fires the 1-4 people required to fire Mueller. Or worse yet if he doesn't get his way and has federal agents remove Mueller from a building.

Assuming Trump's team lied because they assumed the emails were deleted, they would all be guilty of obstruction. Especially Kushner. Perhaps Mueller going after Kushner will be the last straw. We'll see.

[Mandark]

alright let's get a constitutional crisis up in this bitch

Now you're just trying to get in the newsfeed.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

newsfeed pls

[close]

[agrajag]

"Completely impossible"

[CatsCatsCats]

Clearly the ufo news is them priming us in case Donnie spills the beans

[shosta]

Trump would have to be lobotomized to do something as astronomically stupid as firing the special prosecutor who was appointed specifically because he fired the director of the FBI. It is unfathomable, even given Trump's CV.

[archie4208]

Trump would have to be lobotomized to do something as astronomically stupid as firing the special prosecutor who was appointed specifically because he fired the director of the FBI. It is unfathomable, even given Trump's CV.

So what you're saying is that it will happen. 

[shosta]

I'm saying if it happens I'm donating $2700 to Kid Rock's Senate campaign.

[Nola]

Trump would have to be lobotomized to do something as astronomically stupid as firing the special prosecutor who was appointed specifically because he fired the director of the FBI. It is unfathomable, even given Trump's CV.

We are talking about the same Donald Trump right? The guy that not just fired the head of the FBI investigating his campaign, but went on NBC and essentially told America he did it to obstruct justice? Who get's his first daily briefings from Fox and Friends and his nightcap from his routine calls to Hannity?

......To be serious for a second, there comes a point where you back a dog into the corner and the only option left is to bite.

It was astronomically stupid for Nixon to go on a firing spree until he found someone willing to fire the special prosecutor. He did it anyways, because the other option was to allow an investigation increasingly closing in on him to continue. Nixon likely calculated it would be worse for him to allow the tapes to get into the prosecutors hands than taking the chance from the fallout from firing him.

 Is there shit in those emails or in the subsequent interviews where they assumed Mueller did not have those emails that is incriminating enough to make the president or his team draw a similar cost/benefit calculus? IDK, I suspect no, but if there is something that gets the president past that threshold, and confident enough in their smear campaign, I think Trump has shown the capacity to go to great lengths for self-preservation.

[kingv]

Trump would have to be lobotomized to do something as astronomically stupid as firing the special prosecutor who was appointed specifically because he fired the director of the FBI. It is unfathomable, even given Trump's CV.

You’re giving him far more credit than he deserves.

[shosta]

If there were such a calculation that would need to be made, I'd agree with you, but you already know how I feel about this investigation. I guess, as usual, this comes down to whether you believe in the existence of the conspiracy.

[agrajag]

Trump is so dumb he would incriminate himself with obstruction even if he committed no crime in the first place. He's already proven that. Of course he's dumb enough to fire Mueller.

[bluemax]

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/942146451026608128

[Nola]

If there were such a calculation that would need to be made, I'd agree with you, but you already know how I feel about this investigation. I guess, as usual, this comes down to whether you believe in the existence of the conspiracy.

I don't think you have to believe one way or another TBH.

As it stands there is a lot of gaps in the public record and bizarre behavior that has followed or been married to those gaps. Not just about the campaign and potential collusion, but his financial entanglements just on the perimeter of the core investigation, which tea leaves point to having at least somewhat gotten swallowed up in Mueller's investigation.

Like I don't know what Trump's people said to Mueller when they thought he didn't have their transition emails. I don't know what the Flynn deal will bring to bear. I don't know what is in those emails. I don't know exactly what has prompted the Trump team to start drastically intensifying their defamation strategy toward Mueller's team. I have some suspicions, but I also have some doubts.

I'm not ready to throw my lot in on any belief yet, but I think there is more than enough public evidence around Trump and the issues he is potentially facing to keep open the possibility that the investigation could reach that precipice.

[bluemax]

plz dont post that conspiracy bullshit here

But it has instructions!

[agrajag]

Trump logic: "this investigation is bad for my image, I need to put an end to it." It's as simple as that. If you're still under the illusion that he is some brilliant tactician, I don't know what to tell you 

[kingv]

Trump logic: "this investigation is bad for my image, I need to put an end to it." It's as simple as that. If you're still under the illusion that he is some brilliant tactician, I don't know what to tell you 

If you believe he is completely innocent, The he tried to obstruct an investigation into a non-crime that he didn’t commit. This shouldn’t make you feel like he’s unlikely to try to fire Mueller.

[agrajag]

Trump logic: "this investigation is bad for my image, I need to put an end to it." It's as simple as that. If you're still under the illusion that he is some brilliant tactician, I don't know what to tell you 

If you believe he is completely innocent, The he tried to obstruct an investigation into a non-crime that he didn’t commit. This shouldn’t make you feel like he’s unlikely to try to fire Mueller.

That's exactly my point.

[MIMIC]

I don't think Trump will fire Mueller (or rather put things in motion to fire him), but Trump is really stupid and just doesn't give a fuck. So who knows. All I know is we have at least a little over two more years of this guy

(aka 3 years )

[etiolate]

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/942517617369153538

I wouldn't put it past Trump to start those rumors just so he can deny them and mock the press once more.

[Phoenix Dark]

Dunno what's more laughable, people posting Seth Abramson threads of taking Trump's words at face value.

[curly]

Trump has probably brought up firing Mueller at some point but his aides talked him out of it. With how impulsive he is, I would be surprised if he hadn't at least considered it.

[bluemax]

Dunno what's more laughable, people posting Seth Abramson threads of taking Trump's words at face value.

I admit to being ignorant about Abramson, but I figured if I linked it you guys would tell me if it was total bunk or not. I generally roll my eyes at anyone who does a tweet thread to begin with.

[Trent Dole]

TIME FOR SOME GAME THEORY 1/420

[Nola]

Dunno what's more laughable, people posting Seth Abramson threads of taking Trump's words at face value.

I admit to being ignorant about Abramson, but I figured if I linked it you guys would tell me if it was total bunk or not. I generally roll my eyes at anyone who does a tweet thread to begin with.

I don't think he is incorrect on the process of how Trump could go about firing Mueller. That all seems to be knowledge that is readily available. The larger implications he mentions are things many people have spoken about if a situation arises where Trump does pull a Nixon and Republicans, well, act like Republicans. So I don't really see anything wrong with the substance of his argument here? With that said, I gave up somewhere around 18/32 or whatever.

I think Abramson is just a guy that plays amateur sleuth too recklessly and has barreled into conspiracy territory regularly. That plus the clickbait headline + Follow the thread 1/42.

[Phoenix Dark]

IIRC Abramson is one of those dudes involved in fictional journalism or whatever it's called. HA Goodman is another one. He presumably makes good points here or there but from what I've seen/read he goes too far and just makes shit up. Like embellishing various things about true stories, to the point it becomes more of his story than the real story.

[shosta]

EXPERIMENTAL
JOURNALISM

[benjipwns]

someone decided to make a segment doing everything they could to encapsulate cable news in ten minutes or less:


*using video from alt right channel because only HD one with the full segment*

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Tucker Carlson has been defeated for split screen smug face making, Robert McDowell new split screen champion

[close]

[benjipwns]

OPPO DROPPO:

The top congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has set its sights on the Green Party and its nominee, Jill Stein.

Dennis Trainor Jr., who worked for the Stein campaign from January to August of 2015, says Stein contacted him on Friday saying the Senate Intelligence Committee had requested that the campaign comply with a document search.

Trainor, who served as the campaign’s communications director and acting manager during that time, told BuzzFeed News that he was informed of the committee’s request because during his time on the campaign, his personal cell phone was “a primary point of contact” for those looking to reach Stein or the campaign. That included producers from RT News, the Russian state-funded media company, who booked Stein for several appearances, Trainor said.

“Then I was told by Jill just to wait for further instructions,” Trainor said, adding that he was told the campaign would contact him in the next week with instructions, presumably from the Senate Intelligence Committee, for executing the document search, including precise search terms. That has not happened yet, Trainor said.

When asked Monday what the committee was looking for from the Stein campaign, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the committee’s chairman, responded, "collusion with the Russians." Burr said that the committee is "just starting" its work investigating two campaigns, but did not elaborate.

Stein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trainor, who has done on-and-off work for Stein since formally leaving the campaign in 2015, said he is inclined to cooperate with the committee’s request but wants to first seek legal counsel. He said he believes Stein plans to comply as well and post the documents on her own website “in an effort to show complete transparency and kind of wage her own war against [...] what I imagine she thinks is an overblown investigation into collusion.”

Hillary Clinton's 2016 Director of Rapid Response is on the case:
https://twitter.com/Zac_Petkanas/status/942880616357486592

https://twitter.com/Zac_Petkanas/status/942904186945056768

And this other Clinton adviser released a bombshell back in September that seems to confirm exactly what Jack tried to warn us about and all we did was make fun of his Verrit codes:
https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/906340798307979264

[agrajag]

Sanders/Warren 2020

[kingv]

I sort of like Kamala from what little I currently know about her. I bet she has some crazy skeletons in her closet as a former prosecutor, though.

[Mandark]

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/943164320749379585

[TakingBackSunday]

Cool let’s go ahead and pass it then

[Mandark]

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/943170720317788161


UPDATE

[ToxicAdam]

That WA train derailment is going to be a finger-pointing bonanza.

You had the engineer going 50 mph over the speed limit on a set of tracks that could have had speed governors installed (preventing human error) but Amtrak kept delaying their installation for years.

[shosta]

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/943170720317788161


UPDATE

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/943180810059993088
Watch a bunch of bullshit. Those are just a bunch of random numbers, of course nobody's going to know them off the top of their head. Imagine you're a legislator and you're in twelve meetings a day and some punk ass bitch asks you to rattle off the first 12 digits of pi. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning. Gotcha shit like this is the most annoying sound in the universe.

[Mandark]

actually they are not random