US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

America needs a new foreign policy

If we were all implanted with subcutaneous nukes at birth then no one would use nukes because if they did it would be a chain reaction of little nuclear explosions that would mutually-assured destroy all of us.

Simon, the most likely cause of nuclear war always has been and always will be tragic mistake or systems malfunction, the more countries have nukes the more likely that becomes

Re Trey Gowdy: the Hill article I read said that a judicial seat in the 4th Circuit court opened up the day before his announcement, so maybe that's his plan.

ums I replied to you in the other thread

in conclusion, Grey Towdy

bengowdy :(

On Tuesday, for the first time in 80 years, the Senate confirmed a judicial nominee over the objections of a home-state senator.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/371453-senate-confirms-trump-nominee-despite-missing-blue-slip

feels like we've hit some sort of inflection point, seems like the media is now focusing disproportionately on $5 bonus checks, Trump's "gentler, bipartisan" approach, and what could possibly be in the Nunes memo, while stories about him trying to fire Mueller and raw dogging porn stars have basically dropped out of the news cycle. Meanwhile his approval rating is ticking up, the GOP is within striking distance on the generic ballot, and everything seems to be set in place for full-on voter suppression for midterms, while the Dems just shamble along aimlessly, committing to nothing except "lol Trump bad". I'm uh...starting to get a bad feeling

Yeah, nascent totalitarianism will do that to a body.

I kinda understand where the media's coming from, tbf. Trump will probably only approve a limited number of state-run outlets so they need to start making their overtures now.

(In case it's unclear, I think we're nearing a point of no return, or rather a point where the only possibility of something resembling a return is a legitimate revolution.)

i love y'all but the news itself is depressing enough without doomsaying

i may be Too Tired for a revolution, down to die like a dog tho

^^^ yes, this, x1000

Oh, yeah, I'm over the revolution hill. Getting my affairs in order as we speak.

like we've got several people from the Trump admin already arrested and Ryan & the GOP's only response has been "investigate the FBI". even as the President steadfastly refuses to implement the sanctions Congress nearly unanimously voted for against the country he's been accused of colluding with. meanwhile the President's SOTU speech is 90% made up of GOP/White Nationalist talking points and he gets overwhelming praise for being "bipartisan". I uh...don't think we can go back to 2016 anymore

Like, do I think everyone in the US is going to be rounded up and genocided? No. Do I think life in the US has probably reached peak cushiness? Probably so.

this is why I enjoy the fact that DSA has an electoral plank but does a bunch of other outreach/serve the people/community-building shit as well - reform AND revolution, baby xxp

Yes, I think there's still a lot of positive and constructive energy to be expended locally. And I think it's going to be increasingly necessary in the years to come. If you need some hope and optimism, that's where to look for it. Nationally, things are just going to go further down the shitter.

If we were all implanted with subcutaneous nukes at birth then no one would use nukes because if they did it would be a chain reaction of little nuclear explosions that would mutually-assured destroy all of us.

blockchain reaction

the Dems just shamble along aimlessly

"advantaged- / privilegedly", parents tenured / stock owners // hey don't rock the boat of your inheritance // too bad "some people" are shafted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

JUST IN: Congressional Budget Office has issued a report advising Congress to consider raising the debt ceiling earlier than anticipated to account for the revenue loss brought upon by the GOP tax legislation.

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) January 31, 2018

lol

winning!

chuds: clearly the deep state trying to undermine trump's triumphs

GOP: "sure seems that way" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

don't worry they've got a plan to get it all back

The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep cuts to funding in the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72% in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by WaPo. https://t.co/AGCRYvYUkd

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 31, 2018

Sorry for the drivers family, but that is some next level irony with the GOP having a literal train wreck hitting a garbage truck. Proof positive that life is stranger than fiction.

Whomp whomp

BREAKING: Peter Strzok, the FBI agent accused by GOP of having "treasonous" anti-Trump bias, supported re-opening the Clinton email investigation in fall 2016 and helped write the letter (signed by Comey) that was released days before the election. https://t.co/RkOIkZ2x6W

— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) January 31, 2018

thanatoids roam the red state plains

yeah but emails

we really are living in a machine learning simulation aren't we

god everything is so fucking dumb and terrible

Can’t remember if we mentioned this here too but I’ve seen it expressed about the intense irony of people who worships all cops as troops wanting to purge the FBI.

Like it was a distinction born from only watching the cliche of 1,000 cop shows where the Feds show up to take over the case and get all the glory, like some Agents Johnson in Die Hard shit.

Also:

This profile of “blue-collar voters” looks at just one family, whose primary breadwinner is the chief of surgery at a hospital outside Pittsburgh. https://t.co/028Qh4Hv8Z

— Seth Masket (@smotus) January 31, 2018

Donald Trump is still the man to these blue-collar voters https://t.co/H5MsYVOM1Y pic.twitter.com/8nynJkJz4h

— New York Post (@nypost) January 31, 2018

Aaaand the actual article in the Opinion section:

https://nypost.com/2018/01/31/donald-trump-is-still-the-man-to-these-blue-collar-voters/

Donald Trump is still the man to this Pennsylvania home
-
[...]
Both Tony, 54, and Michelle, 41, voted for Trump is 2016. Tony is a grandson of immigrants and a highly regarded chief of surgery at a suburban Pittsburgh hospital. Michelle went to Carnegie Mellon University, is a breast cancer survivor and director of operations at the Ripepi home, driving the kids to piano lessons, tennis and hockey games and practices while also helping with her husband’s practice.

They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar. upper-middle-class exurb whose vote most pollsters missed in their calculations on who would support Trump in 2016...

blue collar should not mean racist but

director of operations at the Ripepi home

God I hate capitalism

lol otm

I think it’s more that, even at the NY Post, every editor/journo involved with a Trump Safari is so deeply embedded in believing and reinforcing the idea that “trump supporter” = white = rural = working class/bluecollar that exurban upper-middle class white folks get shoved into that category, too.

Again, it just seems emblematic of the complete inability of professional media folks to possibly comprehend that politics is something other than a set of behaviors and decorum and cultural leanings.

So they can’t handle the fact that they could share identities with someone who could think so differently that they have to cast the other as this most alien of things. Trump supporters _have_ to be this alien crowd living in the alien conditions of another state and another economic level.

And the problem is that media coverage is the only way most folks see the world, so these bullshit ideas infect the consumers of this shit who reinforce it thru posting complaints against Them.

(Yeah this shit ain’t new, cue the Gramsci/Althusser/DeBord/Jameson/Žižek)

They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb They are the upper-middle-class suburban voters who live in a blue-collar upper-middle-class exurb

i suspect the framing owes as much to flyover-country stereotyping as it does to trump-voter stereotyping. to the ny post, all of western pennsylvania is by definition blue collar

Nunes catches Dems by surprise by saying DOJ and FBI are under “investigation” by House Intel and should not be briefing them on the memo. “And I would urge my colleagues to vote no, we are not going to be briefed by people that are under investigation by this committee."

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 31, 2018

feel like when the movie gets made Nunes is gonna be the most implausible character of all

An amusement

Some background on the lawyer who drafted the Nunes memo, Kash Patel: He got benchslapped with an "order of ineptitude" by a federal judge in Houston in February 2016 for wasting taxpayer money and being "one more nonessential employee from Washington" https://t.co/QsZ4LmgbJ6

— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 31, 2018

Ethnography reports of voters are just like reflections of reflections of reflections of abstractions; but like kingfish said, these stories influence how people see the world, strengthening tribal bonds and cartoonish ideas about the “other,” so reality becomes as stupid as journalism.

How safe is his seat?

(Nunes)

The Post describes the courtroom incident as “a Texas-size bollocking over proper attire, wasting taxpayer money and spying for the bureaucrats in Washington.”

The lawyer, Kashyap Patel, had arrived in court after flying to Houston from Tajikstan. “What is your role in this?” Hughes asked when Patel entered the courtroom. Patel responded that he was a member of the trial team.

“You’re not a member of the trial team,” Hughes said. “It’s been going on for a month or so and you haven’t been here, have you?”

Nunes is Central Valley GOP, so safer than most. But there are signs the hometown crowd is getting tired of him a bit. Still, assume he'll be reelected unless he melts down on live TV (which I could see).

An American paper used the term ‘bollocking’?

A two page document from today, meantime, that suggests much:

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4364040/1-31-18-Flynn-Status-Report.pdf

Two comments on Twitter about it:

Mueller's office and lawyers for Michael Flynn want more time, per new filing:

"Due to the status of the Special Counsel's investigation, the parties do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time."

That wouldn't appear to be consistent with the view that Flynn didn't have much to offer to Mueller and that's all Mueller could get him on.

Probable interpretation: "They're desperate to find something but they got nothing! Need to keep looking... So desperate! Sad!"

Per Mariotti

The sentencing of Papadopoulos and Flynn won't occur until any trial of any person who they're cooperating against is completed. That could take years. https://t.co/F1Z5sGW4iJ

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 31, 2018

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/donald-trump-rod-rosenstein-december-meeting/index.html