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

I mean, there are clips of Trump dressed like a hayseed singing the Green Acres theme. Is it the first thing I think of? Sometimes!

My first thought actually was <how have we gotten to the place where a twenty-something model is being interrogated by a special counsel w/r/t counterintelligence matters>

This is my first thought, and second, and last one, all the time. America is p fucked, so yeah! But that's not an excuse to objectify a woman.

I mean, there are clips of Trump dressed like a hayseed singing the Green Acres theme. Is it the first thing I think of? Sometimes!

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, March 1, 2018 12:06 AM (one second ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, ok, but this is a terrible analogy and I'm p sure you realize this. Women and men aren't equal yet. Not by a long shot. Don't get me wrong: Hicks deserves every hassle she gets. Let it be for the right reasons though. Body-shaming is not one of them.

Also it must be terrible to think of Trump dressed like a hayseed tbh

I don't know that posting a photo (particularly a photo of someone else) was necessary, but on a broader level I think there's value in pointing out how wildly unqualified many of those in Trump's circle are. I don't believe that pointing out that Hope Hicks likely has more experience as a model than she does working in government is necessarily an attack on her as a woman.

Give Jared this: he'll always have his bathing suit shots.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 23:06 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Google Images isn't making it easier to post photos in the last two weeks :(

Isn't it already completely obvious - especially on ILX - how wildly unqualified Trump's circle of clowns is? Does that really need repeating? If anything it's not hammered on enough that the US has a donkey for president. Still feels wrong to see someone going for a google images grab of a Victoria Secret model just to shame a woman. He sure as hell wouldn't have done the same if it had been a man (despite the weak "Brownie" retort).

I get it, get that I'm not welcome here, annoying to here from a furrnurr. You lot have got enough to deal with already. I do, however, think it's completely wrong to shame Hicks for being a *woman*. Shame her for everything else, you can pick any reason you like! There's loads. But objectifying her is just so nagl, so wrong.

Carry on i'm out good luck USA etc.

xp there's plug-ins solving that problem already!

you're right

it was a terrible post

Great!

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/12/26/16/3BA415A400000578-0-image-m-51_1482771011040.jpg

ew. the Mets

Good times

“Trump has derisively referred to Sessions as ‘Mr. Magoo,’ a cartoon character who is elderly, myopic and bumbling.” https://t.co/f3LI52YQLU

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 1, 2018

I get it, get that I'm not welcome here

Great Scott, LBI, you couldn't be more wrong there. Just because Hadrian wouldn't admit to a mistake and doubled down is not a reflection of your welcome here.

Posting an (incorrect) image and saying "she was a model" in text are completely different messages. You identified the difference properly, while Hadrian refused to understand the difference.

If one has to go it's not LBI imo

ffs

nobody has to go just own up and move on

EXCEPT HOPE

NO HOPE FOR TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

No hope no cash no well you know

once we had hope and jobs etc xp loool

Hadrian -

so nm your White House Press Secretary is *not* a swimsuit model w/ no professional experience outside the fashion world?

Press secretary and communications director are different jobs btw. Sanders is press secretary. Hicks is/was communications director.

I get it, get that I'm not welcome here, annoying to here from a furrnurr.
...
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, February 28, 2018

^not otm

what were her titles working for Ivanka and then pre president Trump?

this is quite the molehill

Wow, shit going crazy over there. New York Times reporting that Kushner got a whole bunch of big loans after meeting with the loners at the White House. Washington Post reporting that Mueller is looking into obstructin' Donald Trump trying to fire Jeff Sessions last July, which might explain why Trump didn't pull the trigger then.

what's gonna be on Trump's secret tape

As I like to note, not a single thing has yet managed to move the needle the other direction. Each week, each day, everything just looks worse and worse for these clowns, never once the opposite. It's really quite incredible.

his approval ratings have been reverting to the mean again too. not all the way back in all polls yet but he hit 60% disapproval in one poll earlier this week.

fun fact related to trump telling Toomey and Manchin that they were afraid of the NRA earlier today. they were the co-sponsors of the 2013 background check bill that failed in the senate, 54-46. 4 democrats voted against that bill - heitcamp, baucus, begich, and pryor, all of whom were worried about their upcoming 2014 elections.

If one has to go it's not LBI imo
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, February 28, 2018 7:42 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

carne, guys ffs I get it. I apologized. It would be nice to be rebuked w/o having my motives impugned.

The terrible irony in all this is that Hope Hicks participates in and tacitly endorses a group of people and an organization which makes its bones on objectifying women, I meant this to be implicit in what was evidently a ham-handed photographic critique. Jeez.

hidden messages in 2 hrs... you fuckers are like sharks after chum

Jesus H. what ISN'T happening today

Scoop: Mueller’s team is asking about comments made by Hope Hicks about Russian contacts to the NYT, a former Trump campaign official who has spoken to Special Counsel’s office tells CNN.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 1, 2018

NEW: Two companies that had White House meetings with Jared Kushner later lent his businesses over 500 million dollars. An incredible story. https://t.co/q60W2O0oac

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 1, 2018

As for the cronies:

Mnuchin asks UCLA not to post video of students booing him https://t.co/h0CR9vA6K1 pic.twitter.com/SDa8Duhrfn

— The Hill (@thehill) March 1, 2018

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/9690277603194961

Sorry that second one should be

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oversight-committee-asks-ben-carson-explain-purchase-31000/story?id=53428229&cid=social_twitter_tw

Maggie Haberman finds a new way to embody the term "useful idiot" every day.

The timing is clearly going to raise questions. But the fact that non-reporters believe their partisan analysis over actual reporting is a facet of the whole fake news problem in the first place https://t.co/fMN7AOrf36

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 28, 2018

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.