Trump, July 2017: Tweet more

meanwhile, in successful Trumpist murder news:

Estimates of civilian deaths from airstrikes range from the hundreds to the tens of thousands. Although the US government says that it has killed 603 civilians in airstrikes since the start of military operations in 2014, the monitoring group Airwars estimates that airstrikes have killed at least 4,500 civilians, including nearly 1,000 children.

Some of the strikes have been horrific. One attack in Mosul last March killed at least 100 civilians and injured countless more. “Dozens of Iraqi civilians, some of them still alive and calling out for help, were buried for days under the rubble of their homes in western Mosul after American-led airstrikes flattened almost an entire city block,” The New York Times reported.

Officials in Washington deny any wrongdoing. They insist that they are taking every precaution to protect civilians. They also argue that they are not intentionally killing civilians, despite the fact that President Trump promised during his presidential campaign to go after civilians. When it comes to terrorists, “you have to take out their families,” Trump said.

https://thewire.in/161612/rising-collateral-civilian-deaths-iraq-syria/

More o' that locker room talk.
Pray tell, what hangs beneath?
Thine eyes do search the unseen tail that wags the dog.
-Yeats

Some popes are better than others
some popes are better than others
some popes' mothers
are better than other popes' mothers
- Morrissey

They insist that they are taking every precaution to protect civilians.

It is in the nature of bombs dropped from airplanes to kill indiscriminately wherever they land, so that it quite possible that all the precautions against killing civilians that are compatible with dropping high explosives on cities really are being taken, as claimed. It's just that once you've committed to dropping them, those tacked-on precautions are going to have very little practical value when the bomb detonates.

Everybody should watch Eye In The Sky imho

Everybody should watch Eye In The Sky imho

― El Tomboto, Friday, July 28, 2017 1:32 PM (four seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dammit *looks up Alan Parsons Project*

looking at foooooollls

Pool: Scaramucci passed press on his way off AF1. Again asked for comment He said: "Come on, that was not fair. You know that was not fair."

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) July 28, 2017

Of the various stories re last night, this might have the best details, or perhaps the most bibulous.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/wait-for-the-show-high-drama-and-low-voices-in-a-long-weird-night-at-the-capitol/2017/07/28/21895652-7364-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html?utm_term=.0e3905138ac5

Before the theatrics began early Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) sneaked off to his hideaway office off the floor of the Senate. With its vaulted ceilings, plush furniture and an unbeatable view of the Washington Monument, this was a place of respite for the longest-serving senator, a quiet escape he liked to share with his colleagues on late nights like these.

“This late, I don’t think we’ll be serving cocktails,” the Vermont Democrat said as he sat in a cream-colored armchair. “Well, they can have them if they’d like.”

--

Leahy might have been ambivalent about late-night cocktails, but a bottle of Jim Beam had mysteriously appeared atop the microwave in the press gallery.

“Break in case of an emergency,” a harried scribe said as he scurried by.

“This is nuclear-grade bonkers,” Murphy shouted into a Senate chamber. Nearby, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) used his pinky to pick emergency Chinese food from his teeth. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) scowled as he read a pile of papers, and Enzi poked a stubby finger at his smartphone. For all of Murphy’s sense of drama, nobody was really listening in the chamber, but nobody ever does.

front page of fox news is wild right now

Retaining loyalty!

Here's one Republican Senate aide's thoughts from last night after the skinny repeal vote failed: https://t.co/og3OgkiPyn pic.twitter.com/fvefxfVACv

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) July 28, 2017

Oh man, some of the details in that story

But it remains hard to gauge exactly where that effort might stand, because typically chatty senators weren't up for twilight talks with reporters. Some were even on the verge of tears, such as Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), who walked silently back to his office after the bill went down.

Cry harder ya dipshit.

mmm Republican tears

I didnt know soulless robots could cry

just leaking oil

nothing sadder than being denied the opportunity to kill millions of your own citizens

Cornyn's been such a dull clod on Twitter these past few months on this, either smarmy or fake-outraged. Good to see him realize it was all for nothing.

McConnell sounded like a jilted prom queen last night. It was amazing. So glad I was awake and had my tape recorder going. Fuck it was so good

How much of this sadness is tied to failing to achieve their aims and how much of it is tied to contemplating the ramifications of their failure on their positions in the Senate?

10%/90%

both lmao

I don't buy the 'blame trump' thing for health care failing. the constant chaos out of the trump admin was one of the only reasons republicans could get this close to throwing a wrench into our health care system with a furtive late night vote on a shitty bill.

the underlying problem is that the gop has no good ideas for health care. which is why they should stop talking about it. it was a good subject for them when obama was in office, it's not a good subject when you have to own it.

The GOP's good idea is to kill the old and sick and poor

the only "good" (if v flawed) idea conservatives ever had for healthcare was *ahem* the ACA

like it's this or something much much more "socialistic". you fucking idiots. take. the. win.

B-but it's called Obamacare (even though it actually isn't). That cannot stand!

lol obama is a genius

socialist is still a stigmatised word in the U.S. then I take it?

Also yeah does seem surprising that given 7 years to come up with a solution the only thing that they can come up with is kill the imperfectly-working working system.

I don't think I 'get' the Republicans at all. Democrats seem to be a little more cognitive though they seem to be making some odd choices recently.

Bernie has done a fair job of destigmatizing 'socialist' but yeah, it still flies in the face of our ruggedly-individualistic bootstrap-centric self-mythologizing.

...the ones over 40, anyway.

all the loonies one sees on Facebook rant about it re the ACA

(SEEMS PRETTY CAPITALISTIC TO ME)

yeah it's so dumb that they would savage a Heritage Foundation-penned market based solution as "ZOMG SOCIALISM". like where in the actual fuck do you go from there?

Trump speech in Long Island sounds particularly reprehensible

yeah he pulled MS-13 out of his butt the minute health care failed i guess ?

I don't buy the 'blame trump' thing for health care failing. the constant chaos out of the trump admin was one of the only reasons republicans could get this close to throwing a wrench into our health care system with a furtive late night vote on a shitty bill.

otm. I'd say the blame is on the 49 GOP Senators who voted for a terrible bill they all hoped would never become law

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/opinion/sally-yates-protect-the-justice-department-from-president-trump.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

front page of fox news is wild right now

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, July 28, 2017 1:04 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Iran. North Korea. North Korea. Iran.

The Senator is annoyed with this lack of decorum.

@realDonaldTrump I'm always happy to go to WhiteHouse to discuss w u Tell Scaramucci not to use that filthy language around me he toldmedia

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 28, 2017

ha when i checked the top story was was "republicans fight back!!!!" with pictures of clinton, comey and lynch

What dimension of the chessboard is it where you ignore people who are in power and/or an actual threat to you in favor of people who are mostly just chillin at home with a pitcher of margs?

Re: MS13, definitely culture-war chaff being thrown up as T. feels frustrated and thwarted (ditto the military transgender tweets). IMO it's not even about health care (which he doesn't understand the first thing about).

At present, I'm cautiously optimistic about the Russia investigations. Qualifying statements:
- No, I don't think it will lead to impeachment.
- No, we won't get a do-over of the election.
- No, I'm not even sure there will be anything like charges or indictments or people in jail.

However, it clearly gets under his skin that it's a thing at all, and that it doesn't just go away when he waves his Wand of President Power. Of the sucky options humanity has right now, one of the better ones is that he gets increasingly unhinged and keeps lashing out in random directions.

That said - as ever, I know that there are real people suffering at the business end of T.'s rages, and my heart aches for them. Further, the Russians can read news sites too, and so Russia and N. Korea are picking now (when everyone's presumably distracted by legislative kabuki) to act more aggressively.

But if current events accelerate Trump's cray-cray in ways that make his kind of politics increasingly unpopular and untenable, this may lead to better long-term options. Or so I continue to cautiously hope.

xpost It's like doing donuts in the front yard of that guy who irritated you at work but who quit like two years ago.

worst-case scenario is Trump nukes South Korea, which I can see happening.

Best-case scenario is Trump decides to bro down w Kim Jong Un (they have so much in common!), averting int'l crisis. I've said this before. Unfortunately I fear he's not smart enough for this tack.

worst-case scenario is Trump nukes South Korea, which I can see happening.

i can unfortunately see this happening

I'm no foreign policy expert, but I would think nuking South Korea would give North Korea pause. Also, probably solve the North Korea problem!

A bipartisan group of roughly 40 House members has been meeting quietly over the past month to explore ways to stabilize Obamacare — efforts that are expected to take on greater urgency after the shocking collapse of the Senate’s Obamacare bill early Friday morning.

“This is our window to be relevant on a very real issue that impacts our constituents,” said one Republican lawmaker in the group who requested anonymity. The negotiations among the so-called Problem Solvers caucus will resume this morning, the lawmaker said.

Seriously? Problem Solvers?

The "Doing The Job We're Supposed To Be Doing Anyway" caucus