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

it's so sad the Democrats won't sell out all of their ideals in their entirety for a compromised deal that helps a few thousand people who have been unfairly put at risk by the GOP and their idiot president by agreeing to a set of ridiculous ideas, including a border wall and stricter immigration laws, that hurt many times more people, for some ephemeral symbolic gain even though the bulk of the political benefits go to the GOP. Not that the GOP is being political, because they are not. Not at all.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/02/donald-trump-foreign-policy-analysis-dangerous-216202

"Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!"

"a friendly solution"??? fwiw, when the United States threatened an oil embargo on Japan in the 1930s, the Japanese government saw that as no different than threatening them with war, which prompted them to plan and execute the Pearl Harbor attack.

president biff is just mad china wont do his homework for him anymore so its time to fite

He gets all his negotiating advice from The Sopranos

DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President!

Fairly accurate, considering Trump's understanding of "falling in love" is "grudgingly allowing Trump to fuck you repeatedly, having no better viable option for the time being"

in the year....two thous^aaaaaaaand^

sorry, can't stop reading that quote in the Conan O'Brien "Year 2000" style, with the addition of ridiculously overemphasized finger square quotes for "falling in love"

Thank you @realDonaldTrump for preventing US commercial airlines from crashing in 2017. Your active participation monitoring the flight patterns and safety regulations was greatly appreciated. In 2018 could you please turn your efforts toward preventing wildfires and hurricanes? https://t.co/yYq49PzZpX

— Bryan Cranston (@BryanCranston) January 2, 2018

orrin hatch out

thank you for that excellent news

Franken resignation official

deets, NYT

Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, plans to announce on Tuesday he will retire at the end of the year, rebuffing the pleas of President Trump to seek an eighth term and paving the way for Mitt Romney to run for the seat. Mr. Hatch intends to announce his decision Tuesday afternoon via a video announcement, according to two Republican officials briefed on the plans.

Mr. Hatch, 83, was under heavy pressure from Mr. Trump to seek re-election and block Mr. Romney, who has been harshly critical of the president. But Mr. Hatch, who emerged as one of the president’s most avid loyalists in the Senate, decided to retire after discussing the matter with his family over the holidays. The veteran senator was also facing harsh poll numbers in Utah, where 75 percent of voters indicated in a survey last fall that they did not want him to run again.

Revenge of The Romney!

escape, hatch

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/583edb39ca6f7ee00ec2921d/master/pass/mitt%20romney%20donald%20trump%20dinner.jpg

Orrin should do nothing but post about weed for the rest of the year.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201603/can-you-spot-10-signs-childish-adult🕸

that trump/romney pic is iconic

You misspelled 'nightmarish' but that's okay and here's why.

https://punditfromanotherplanet.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/twin-peaks-trump-romney.jpg?w=590&h=393

trump's face in that pic has always reminded me of

http://www.mtv.com/shared/promoimages/bands/p/primus/video_stills/wynonas_big_brown_beaver/640x480.jpg

The prospect of Senator Mitt Romney is a big blow to Trump. It'll be yet another Republican senator who will say mean things about him, while still voting for everything on his agenda

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 2, 2018

xp -- I was thinking nightmare Aphex Twin

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep. Bill Shuster to retire, spend final year working with Trump on massive infrastructure bill https://t.co/XlYyXha5jh pic.twitter.com/bmWWXwEV2f

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 2, 2018

what does a Utah Democrat look like, anyway?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201603/can-you-spot-10-signs-childish-adult🕸

POLL

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, January 2, 2018 2:35 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Please do

what does a Utah Democrat look like, anyway?

Kinda like Mo Udall I'd think -- Mormon, pro-environment, wholesome family, that kinda thing

Or like a lesbian private detective.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Biskupski

escape, hatch

― Newb Sybok (Doctor Casino)

This needs to be the bottom right caption of an Onion Kelley cartoon.

orrin hatch, welcome to the resistance

someone get that man a safety pin stat

but Hatch loves Trump – he's better than Reagan.

Reporter: “Can you tell me the biggest single thing the president has accomplished for the American people during his time on the golf course?”

Sarah Sanders: “Developing deeper and better relationships with members of Congress” pic.twitter.com/iNPitqut3x

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) January 2, 2018

In the American Embassy in Paris this morning, I noticed that they still haven’t put up a picture of Tillerson in the usual SOS spot, where the Kerry portrait had been in the better old days. As ever the staff remains courteous and efficient, showing that Trump’s effects haven’t spread this far yet.

Here's Mitt Romney with a bird on his head :) pic.twitter.com/YpOA0cg30a

— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) January 2, 2018

here's Mitt Romney, after a rowdy weekend in Vegas.

properly reddened

i'm skeptical of the times' framing of hatch quitting as substantially 'about' mitt's comeback, or that he even has one

who will be 3rd in line for the presidency when hatch goes?

? still paul ryan

VP, ryan, then ? i mean

who will be the new president pro tem

oh it's elected, who knows then. obviously it's unlikely to be significant, just thinking if ryan goes next year

http://www.4president.us/websites/2000/2000w/hatch2000.jpg

lol let me think about ordinal numbers for a second

i don't know

The way succession works is that the next person moves up

It’s a decrementing loop, it doesn’t stop because N-X isn’t populated

Sheesh

So if I understand you correctly, Ryan leaves and Romney automatically becomes president whether he even runs for Hatch's seat, am I right?

Yes, and Prince Harry is the new veep.

no i don't mean "who is next when there's temporarily no president pro tem?" i mean "who would replace hatch as president pro tem of the senate (and be 3rd in line in the last two years of the trump administration)?"

I don't know how big a revelation this is, but I kind of feel like his tweet could have been "BREAKING: I wrote a letter."

god, things keep unraveling. wtf

nu thred plz

it's still January for 90 more minutes here

The Hill are the first I've seen run anything about the Schiff tweet, so peruse for updates: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/371756-schiff-accuses-nunes-of-sending-trump-edited-memo

parting shot:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2mww3o9.png

http://is2.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Video/v4/ef/c3/25/efc32551-778b-79bb-0500-d5dee6138873/source/1200x630bb.jpg

haha whoa

FWIW rumor mill on Twitter is hitting some interesting overdrives. Guess we'll see.

Go on...

Eh. No way to predict anything so better to just wait on word.

i mean just link it

Devin Nunes' pee tape edit now features HRC.

he made it on jibjab

Meantime, useful Mariotti thread

1/ Today the @nytimes published this piece discussing Mueller’s interest in the highly misleading statement crafted by Trump and his aides about the Trump Tower meeting. https://t.co/47MXCVjBmp

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) February 1, 2018

Go on...

Keep in mind, no one knows anything and nothing matters anymore anyway, but I've come across everything from rumors of Wray resigning in protest to accusations that Nunes forged Schiff's signature (?) to unnamed sources in the intelligence community ominously if enigmatically predicting that "shit is about to get real."

Not to mention that in the afore linked Times story you've got that former Trump cat Corallo explicitly stating he thought Hope Hicks was obstructing justice.

tbf, shit hasn't been real for over a year now...

Seriously, I could go for a little reality.

actually it's been extremely real

It's been ... something.

Why do I get the impression that the Mueller investigation has the WH staff as jumpy and upset as a sackful of cats?

Trump likes to grab cats.

they'll be fine i think

to be continued...

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