US Politics, February 2018: Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots

sigh.....

A spokesman for Nunes responded to Schiff's letter by calling it an "increasingly strange attempt to thwart publication of the memo," saying changes were made that were "minor edits to the memo, including grammatical fixes and two edits requested by the FBI and by the Minority themselves."
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"The vote to release the memo was absolutely procedurally sound, and in accordance with House and Committee rules," Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said. "To suggest otherwise is a bizarre distraction from the abuses detailed in the memo, which the public will hopefully soon be able to read for themselves."

But senior Democratic committee official disputed that characterization of the alterations to the memo and said they did not resolve the factual problems that have been raised by the FBI or Justice Department.

"The changes are not cosmetic and almost all of them are unrelated to concerns about sensitive information. Instead, they try to water down some of the Majority's assertions," the official said. "While the Minority has continually pointed out flaws in the majority document, we have not requested any changes because we feel the whole document is fundamentally flawed."

good thread title

If Hope Hicks does down what 25 year olds will be left to run the government

BARRON

in case you were wondering, Trump's claim that his SOTU got the "highest ratings ever recorded", is in fact not true

Is there a website compiling the Trump utterances which are factually accurate? Or is it not worth creating a website featuring so little content?

good mourning!

#SOTU TV Viewers:
2018: 45.6M
2017: 47.7M*
2016: 31.3M
2015: 31.7M
2014: 33.3M
2013: 33.5M
2012: 37.8M
2011: 42.8M
2010: 48.0M
2009: 52.4M*
2008: 37.5M
2007: 45.5M
2006: 41.7M
2005: 38.4M
2004: 43.4M
2003: 62.1M
1993: 66.9M* (largest TV audience)

*Not an official SOTU pic.twitter.com/OZlUHmGQp4

— Fox News Research (@FoxNewsResearch) February 1, 2018

I don't know what's stranger, that Fox News is fact-checking Trump or that every speech that beat his was somehow "not an official SOTU"

2003 and 2010 don't have an asterix

oh. then, the first one I guess

"not an official SOTU" = the speeches delivered by new presidents to joint sessions of Congress; hence why they happened in 2017, 2009, and 1993 (and presumably 2001 etc)

People want to hear the first statements by new presidents, then their interest drops off. Trump will never beat these ratings.

sad

so we're really not gonna sanction russia (!) for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election?

not to defend the dorks at all, but my understanding is that they are already being sanctioned, just not getting extra sanctions. And the sanctions have not been lifted.

People want to hear the first statements by new presidents, then their interest drops off. Trump will never beat these ratings.

Nobody tell Two Scoops why W in 2003 was so high then.

Harold & Kumar have the answer to that iirc.

so we're really not gonna sanction russia (!) for interfering in the 2016 US presidential election?

sanctions mostly hurt ordinary citizens and shouldn't be encouraged imho

https://www.worldfinance.com/special-reports/the-impact-of-economic-sanctions

i'm worried about sanctions the Yam regime are putting on we the people

Why, the penny drops!

Mark Meadows says he's talked w/ Dems about how the border wall is offensive to some Latinos & now wants to make sure we "secure our border without sending a bad message"

— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) February 1, 2018

I thought the whole point of the wall was to offend Latinos.

File under "news shocking to nobody":

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/01/politics/nunes-memo-donald-trump/index.html

lol even NAPOLITANO is concerned

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/371794-fox-news-napolitano-if-nunes-changed-memo-to-satisfy-political-needs-innocent

i don't understand what's so bad about the white house co-authoring a congressional memo that casts aspersions on an investigation into the white house's obstruction of justice when it comes to investigating conspiracy with a foreign adversary to interfere with an american election. aren't both sides bad?

there are some very fine people on both sides

Have there been any indications that Mueller is investigating Nunes? Because I can't help but wonder what he's getting out of all of this.

a tugjob

People want to hear the first statements by new presidents, then their interest drops off. Trump will never beat these ratings.

Which is why he's considering not running for reelection, but resigning and then running again. So he'll be a new president again. All about ratings, baby.

make sure we "secure our border without sending a bad message"

Maybe paint some pictures of tacos and other Mexican stuff on the wall?

I heard about a Chinese restaurant that became a Mexican restaurant, but they liked the art, so they painted sombreros on the pandas on the window.

https://i.imgur.com/J4bFtuY.jpg

Just a suggestion.

if he resigns, he'll prob get huge ratings.

WH saying Trump has read the memo; not sure how that's possible unless it's been converted into a book-on-tape

It's a picture book with his photo on every other page to keep him focused. 'There I am again!'

Did Putin sign off on the memo, y/n?

apparently the memo is only 4 pages, which is 3 pages longer than Trump's attention span. but maybe he did it in chunks.

The only way that memo could be read by him would be tweeting it at him in 400 character parts. Or print it on his toilet paper for, y'know, when he's tweeting.

Trump: (mutters to self while slowly scanning memo with a pained expression) Devin, what's this word?
Nunes: That's 'collusion', Mr. President.
Trump: 'Collusion', right, right. (continues muttering) What about this one?
Nunes: The word is 'FBI'.
Trump: And that one?
Nunes: That's your name, Mr. President.

Trump: Okay, I've seen that one before. And this word?
Nunes: That's a smear of steak sauce, sir. It's all over your hands.
Trump: But what word is it?

This is about what I would figure, making it even more of a muddle:

DEVELOPING: The White House has agreed to some redactions in the FISA memo at the FBI’s request, per multiple WH officials.

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) February 1, 2018

i hope everyone just takes a deep breath and remembers how careless that crooked nasty woman was with classified information

The redactions are only going to set off the monkey house all the louder.

Well, exactly. As well as making a short and apparently contextless memo even shorter.

i hope something exciting happens soon... trump bores me

I'm sure Trump's followers will accept, with their trademarked grace and quiet dignity, the FBI-requested redactions in this memo about the FBI's conspiracy to destroy America.

i hope something exciting happens soon

famous last words

Pres. Trump says Sen. Orrin Hatch told him he was a better president than Washington and Lincoln

— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) February 1, 2018

Exciting!

lol if anyone would remember those dudes it would be Hatch

I'm all for free speech but anyone who makes a claim like that in seriousness should be jailed for life.

Or, in this case, immediately stripped of his Senatorship, at the absolute least.

He wss high when he said it

in completely unrelated and very cool news

47 counties in WV have now shut down school tomorrow, and it’s rising quickly. this is a *huge* deal, looks like the teachers may stay #55strong pic.twitter.com/Z8GrobPCj9

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

I'm confused, I thought the gov caved and offered $5/hour raises, and that there was a mandatory cool-down day off. Guess not?

yes, I have the same question

Jesus Christ the news channels don't know whether "white lies" are lies.

I think the 6 people in the last 229 years of the executive branch who *acknowledged* the thing runs on lies have all had to resign.

thirded

since a lot of people are replying asking why the strike is back on, this thread has a couple good articles from today explaining https://t.co/bgcd0YwkpV

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

OK, looks like workers are pissed at the union leaders for settling:

After Tuesday’s post-6 p.m. proposal by Gov. Jim Justice and union leaders to end the strike Thursday went over like a lead balloon with many school employees, it was clear by Wednesday evening that workers were not unified in believing they should return to work.

As of 8:30 p.m., announcements had come that public schools would continue to be closed Thursday in at least 34 counties. More were expected.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/education/teachers-continue-protests-at-capitol-blast-proposal-to-end-strike/article_d824f764-2c6f-51ac-bf00-68f1873ca2a6.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/west-virginia-teacher-strike-might-not-be-over-yet_us_5a970a85e4b0e6a5230453f0

The arrangement Justice rolled out would give teachers and other school personnel a five percent raise, and workers employed by the state a three percent raise. Although it marked progress from the meager wage increases earlier proposed by Justice, the deal did not placate strikers’ bigger concerns over the state employee health care program.

Justice said the state would temporarily freeze employee costs under the program, known as the Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA), while a task force was set up to develop a long-term fix to rising premiums and co-pays. But many striking employees apparently don’t trust the issue will be resolved, and fear increased health costs could wipe away their raises.

well I'm temp-banned from Twitter now for telling a Trumpxtian they should have been aborted. bleh.

Is this story being covered anywhere, cable news, papers? Not a peep on the front page of the Times or WaPo.

Well the Twitter ban hardly seems to rise to the level of national important. Check the metro section tomorrow?

the VA strike merited only like 2 mins on MSNBC, apparently.

lol caek

other notable non-Russiagate news I'm not seeing much about

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/28/yemen-saudi-arabia-war-us-support-senator-push-to-end

I doubt Florida educators could even pull this off again because the current economic and political environment is very different but remembering this event in my state's history: http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/teachers/50-years-ago-Florida-teachers-walked-off-their-jobs-Today-s-union-leaders-are-inspired_165549681

my elementary/middle/high school teaching friends in FL are currently at their wit's end with the state of education in FL and the shooting has many of them rethinking their career.

while you’re here, this is an informative thread on what’s happening internally https://t.co/LzPOw7910g

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

(btw if you're not already following alex press for yr US labour organizing developments, you should be)

I watched the footage of the press conference on the Yemen resolution. I don't know what chance it has but I'm glad this is at least being brought to the Senate floor, and in a multi-party way.

all 55 counties closed, apparently

and jefferson's closed, per facebook. #55strong - these teachers deserve all your support and solidarity! media folks, cover this tyvm

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

wow that’s quite the media blackout.

i’m also surprised that as a member of the AFT i haven’t heard about it from them

it’s ~sO wEirD~ what the librul lamestream media determines is newsworthy

*is and is not

i do recall now seeing a cnn article about it but the headline (“these teachers packed a lunch for their students” or something like that) didn’t actually clue me in to what was going on

here’s the same story w much better headline

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/26/us/iyw-striking-teachers-feed-students-trnd/index.html

Trump is hopping mad tonight. In a bad place. I think when we do the tick tocks we’ll find this was a moment where he said “F it.” (Though I think this one is still very TBD, and I assume at *some point* tonight John Kelly will locate the steering wheel again.) https://t.co/FxiHlvh4t6

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 1, 2018

I'll be in my bunk-er

Even better!

Steel and aluminum tariffs could be announced by Trump on Thursday, but White House and industry sources still say there's a lot of back and forth on this. w/ @AndrewRestuccia https://t.co/htUoukO1qG

— Adam Behsudi (@ABehsudi) March 1, 2018

Lots of back and forth (mainly because senior White House officials were learning about it for the first time by reading the Washington Post.) https://t.co/NM0Hjk5Z8l

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 1, 2018

I don't know why, but I'm not shocked by the Hicks resignation.

Would I be shocked to find out that Hicks is and always has been a mole inside the Trump organization/campaign/administration? I'm not sure I'd be shocked by that either.

what would it take to shock you, besides a cattle prod

A purportedly progressive individual's voice of support for acts in contravention of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_against_Torture?

I don't know that I'd be shocked by any resignation from the Trump administration. It may be triggered by a variety of circumstances depending on the person in question, but most will eventually heed the siren call of self-preservation.

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/24/5d/d2/245dd2b5469f46f2a822cbdf2ac9d087--renault-population.jpg

I guess everyone is otm and that no resignation should be surprising. At this point it seems pretty clear that no matter what a person is hired to do for Trump, if they stay long enough they will 1) be named Director of Communications and 2) be forced to lie about the collusions.

collusion? no collusion

51% of Americans now support Trump's tax cuts. The primary reason: the media mindlessly repeating GOP-allied corporations "000 Bonus!" stories for three months. https://t.co/Vb1gHGvoLi pic.twitter.com/QOmBsbjaxM

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 1, 2018

Mnuchin: Well, you must seem to have a bias because you're using the words "engineered," so you obviously think that it was the policy the policies were created. Again, what I would say is we fundamentally believe that we will have economic growth and again, 35 basis points is the break even. And we're already seeing this. By the way, we're seeing companies give millions and millions of workers bonuses all as a result of this. And for people who are getting these thousand-dollar bonuses, these are not crumbs.

Ryssdal: Absolutely not, and I'm not going to imply that at all. You said 4 million workers in this economy?

Mnuchin: Four and a half million.

Ryssdal: Four and a half million have gotten one-time bonuses.

Mnuchin: Yes.

Ryssdal: So this is a labor pool of 155 million people, sir.

Mnuchin: So are you, tell me, are you, for those four and a half million workers —

Ryssdal: So my question is —

Mnuchin: in one month. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. Four and a half million workers have already seen this impact.

Ryssdal: By some estimates —

Mnuchin: I understand you're doing the math.

Ryssdal: No. So the Americans for Tax Reform say plus or minus, 86 companies have given wage increases, 250 companies have given one-time bonuses, and I guess the question is, what would you rather have? Would you rather have a one-time bonus or a consistent wage increase over the next couple of years?

Mnuchin: We fundamentally believe that there will be wage increases going through to the workers.

Ryssdal: Why do you believe that?

Because there are implied scare quotes around 'fundamentally believe'. Because they neither 'fundamentally believe' that nor do they care.

I've maintained a fundamental belief in trickle-down economics for decades. It's totally going to pay off one day, for sure.

i don't know who this ryssdal is but i like the cut of her (his?) jib

it just occurred to me that deep-learned AIs would be a vast improvement over pretty much every American broadcast journalist going - not even joking really

I always have such a hard time trying to figure out exactly what kind of lizard Mnuchin resembles.

https://www.marketplace.org/people/kai-ryssdal

xps

ah! duh

Time for a new thread, yes?

US Politics, March 2018: “Is it dirthole?” she asked. Close, but not quite.
US Politics, March 2018: That's a big deal. That's a big deal.
US Politics, March 2018: what would it take to shock you, besides a cattle prod
US Politics, March 2018: elderly, myopic and bumbling

suggested title: Why do people leave the White House for good?

haha love it

yes

Excellent.

I was gonna go with US Politics, March 2018: No Hope, but I like the why do people leave title.