US Politics March 2019: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled”

enh fuckit let’s just hand control of the government over to skynet at this point why not xp

https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1PlKQyaneAvKE

It's true that, if the country at large does not endorse impeachment, then pursuing it will only cause a reaction by a majority of voters against the Democrats in 2020. Pursuing investigations, otoh, does not carry the same dangers as continuing straight to impeachment proceedings.

I'm actually with Pelosi on this. Impeachment qua impeachment is way too charged. Far better to just investigate and investigate and investigate and report the results of those investigations and keep a running tally of all of it in easy-for-even-morons-to-understand form so every Democrat running for office, from the local level on up, can run on the platform "Donald Trump is a criminal and a shambling mountain of garbage in vaguely human form - vote Democrat in 2020."

Either that, or hire a disgruntled ex-military sniper to camp out in the woods near Mar-a-Lago. I'm good with either one.

Impeachment is not removal -- the Senate ain't moving an inch on removal. It doesn't mean you don't investigate. Plus, she's the speaker. She can change her mind.

Yeah seriously. I have friends whining and it's like hmm...do I publicly as Speaker indicate impeachment is coming or a high possibility when the House investigation just launched and Mueller report is forthcoming? Where AT BEST both investigations miraculously present open and shut cases and somehow the GOP discovers scruples.

Or, more likely, the narrative that the House investigation has already made its conclusion and is looking for confirmation bias facts only, which could disengage some indie voters, plus be a PR nightmare for her with her leftist supporters if she has to reverse course.

Why choose the option of zero flexibility which only placates your base and leaves you no room to maneuver? She's just preventing cheap, easy sound bytes. Lesser ranking reps have more latitude to be reckless than she does.

The most annoying thing is the press changing her quite cutting statement - "he's just not worth it" - to "[impeachment is] just not worth it".

I've no doubt Pelosi has read Laurence Tribe's To End a Presidency (review in The Atlantic). I haven't read the book, but the review offers a really chilling reason why impeachment isn't worth it (at least until Trump becomes an immanent risk of nuclear conflict): like or not, an impeachment campaign risks a widespread outbreak of right-wing extremist terrorism, or worse. Quotes from Tribe:

Well-justified calls to impeach the president can simultaneously empower him, harm his political opponents, and make his removal from office less likely … Because removing a truly determined tyrant may unleash havoc, the risks of impeaching a president are apt to be most extreme precisely when ending his tenure is most necessary.

Many Americans who voted for Trump view themselves as belonging to a victimized, disenfranchised class that has finally discovered its champion. For some of them, Trump’s appeal is less what he will accomplish programmatically than whom he will attack personally. Were Trump removed from office by political elites in Washington, DC—even based on clear evidence that he had grossly abused power—some of his supporters would surely view the decision as an illegitimate coup. Indeed, some right-wing leaders have already denounced the campaign to remove Trump as a prelude to civil war. This rhetoric, too, escapes reality and indulges pernicious tendencies toward apocalyptic thinking about the impeachment power.

That argument is making a weird (and unsupported by evidence to date) assumption that the right-wing extremist terrorism isn't coming anyway.

there's an argument that trump is the ideal candidate to run against in 2020

That's what they said in 2016

good lord the past few years have been fucked up

That's what they said in 2016

In 2016 voters could only theorize what a Trump presidency would look like. He encouraged them to project whatever wishes and desires they wanted onto him with his many outlandish promises about "winning", bringing back industrial and manufacturing jobs, inflicting pain on CHI-NUH, providing everyone with great cheap medical insurance, making Mexico pay for a border wall, etc. Like any good con, the marks were willing, even eager, to be conned.

Now they've opened the package and have seen what's inside. Not every Trump voter from 2016 is happy about his record so far. For example, there are a lot of farmers in the Midwest who aren't stupid and see exactly how much his policies are costing them, down to the dollar. He's not a blank projection screen any more.

But, I think it's a mistake to see the 2020 election as a simple yes-no referendum on Trump. There will be another major party candidate to compare him to and most 2016 Trump voters are conditioned to view ANY democratic opponent with a jaundiced eye. As of today, he would easily claim more than 40% of the vote against anyone the democrats nominate. It will still be a battle. It won't be the Triumph of the Left.

I think the correct pronunciation is JI-NUH.

My God, it's not difficult. You can call for his head all you want. She can't. She does it now, they hit her with "vendetta" when the time comes.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) March 12, 2019

^ A subject where Richard M. Nixon should, of all people, know what he's talking about.

obviously not surprised at this point but it never stops being depressing how the GOP reaction to a Dem/liberal/left proposal to resolve a problem is not "We think there's a better way to fix it, which is..." but "This problem does not exist at all and you're insane for even suggesting it does." I'm not going to reprint it but in this case I'm talking about Trump signal-boosting some former Greenpeace idiot who's still out here in the year of our lord 2019 denying climate change exists. a Googled this fool's name and saw headlines where he'd referred to AOC as a "twit" so that was enough for me, fuck investigating this asshole any further.

Yeah, in keeping with their death cult status they're uninterested in solving problems which might hinder the impending eschaton.

good morning!

I haven’t been following the news much over the past few days. But I guess trump told a bunch of donors that “democrats hate Jews”? Did I get that right? Sarah sanders, when asked if it’s true that trump thinks that “democrats hate Jews”, during the first press briefing in FORTY-TWO days, said “you’ll have to ask the democrats that”.

Just now realizing that there are no democrats who are also Jews. Very supisious!!!1!

the reporter will have to ask the democrats what Trump thinks? 🤔

They call me Mr. Jexit!

anyone ready to have their morning ruined

Donald Trump takes off his hat at Mar-a-lago - forgetting he's not wearing his toupee. pic.twitter.com/CZQ2B9a66O

— Paul Lee Ticks (@PaulLeeTicks) March 11, 2019

Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2019

....needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 12, 2019

what the fuck, what has prompted this latest madness

let's talk about planes now. the pilots are flying them up too damn high. it's dangerous. I don't like it. got to make them lower

— wint (@dril) August 18, 2014

omg, trump look so much like my dad without his toupee. (although he probably looks like a lot of dads).

your dad has an unconvincing computer-generated forehead too?

pretty much.

:D

anyway, can't believe the star of one flew over ther cuckoo's nest would do this

Trump's proposed budget would steer $20,000,000 to a hospital project backed by golfer Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus lobbied Trump on the golf course in Florida. Trump personally directed HHS to earmark the funds, Politico reports. https://t.co/KcQN4gVxkK

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 12, 2019

Wonder how much tiger’s projects will get (he was on that same golf outing with Nicklaus)

That hospital's just two miles from me.

This is the most bizarre technique for blowing out birthday candles that I’ve ever witnessed. Mitt Romney is a deeply weird dude. pic.twitter.com/kLGuJawDpv

— Bradford Pearson (@BradfordPearson) March 12, 2019

oh god hairless trump ;_;

Without clicking on the link, I wonder if he uses a blow dryer.

The only explanation for those airplane tweets I can come up with is that Trump asked to fly Air Force one

Donald Trump Awards Donald Trump Trump's 20th Trump Golf Club Championship

Physically, the man looks like some sort of hideous British dessert—some sort of meringue that’s been boiled for a day inside a pair of men’s underpants and somehow tastes exactly like baloney—and stands like he’s in the middle of a windstorm. A thin rivulet of beige liquid has been leaking from his ears since at least 2014.

bologna boiled in old mayo

i've missed romneybot, glad to see he's every bit as tantalisingly almost-human as ever

Mormons aren't allowed to blow twinkies.

The airplane tweets are about boeing's planes being grounded.

Tbf that method does more or less avoid blowing your spit germs over everyone's cake. I don't hate it.

"What are you guys gonna have?" - always a classic birthday cake joke

@CBSThisMorning
.@SenJoniErnst & @SenMikeLee are unveiling a new proposal for paid family leave.

The "Cradle Act" would allow new parents to use Social Security savings to pay for time off after birth/adoption. Users would then delay their retirement to pay the money back.

paid-by-yourself family leave

Are they fucking serious

hell yeah, that's how you win the hearts and minds of voters

Do plane crashes in Africa killing all 157 people on board not get reported in the US or something?

The plane crash isn't what prompted his tweet storm. The grounding of the aircraft model involved in many countries did.