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

he's just found out it's continuing, which is not what he was told by his lawyers

what an asshole

Was listening to Slate's Watergate podcast in the bath this morning and thinking about how, even if the worst of all the collusion, etc, rumours are true, Trump and his cronies will still probably never see jail for their crimes. And how the Repubs are still desperate to see Hillary behind bars, even though she did nothing.

― "Taste's very strange!" (stevie), Wednesday, January 10, 2018 9:49 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, yeah. Just so we're clear, I'll be surprised if anyone in Trump's circle will do one minute of jail time.

same, except shocked.

isso out?

ISSA RETIRING, per local media. https://t.co/4GZ1PbONz1 This rumor has been bouncing around all morning….

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 10, 2018

trump is asking around about how he can get tiffany sent to jail

niiiiiiiiiceeee xp

He is right that Russia and the rest of the world are laughing at the stupidity we are witnessing in the US - the Oprah for President thing being the custard pie in the face.

You've all heard that CA has 7 GOP congressmen sitting in Clinton districts. 2 of them have now retired in a roughly 24-hour span.

— Taniel (@Taniel) January 10, 2018

5 remain: Denham (#CA10), Valadao (#CA21), Knight (#CA25), Walters (#CA45), & Rohrabacher (#CA48).

All voted for AHCA; all but Rohrabacher voted for CA-slamming tax bill.

— Taniel (@Taniel) January 10, 2018

Meanwhile, for you poll-followers: since mid-December, POTUS's approval has been quietly but pretty steadily inching up. 538 has him now at 54.6% disapproval to 39.3% approval. That's utterly terrible compared to any previous President and still doesn't bode well for the GOP at midterms, but it's worth noting, as these are his best numbers since late September.

the more he golfs, the better his polls

I assume the internal polls these retiring guys are getting are absolutely brutal

H to the Issa

Issa barely held onto his seat in 2016 and it's pretty clear the Trump era is not playing well in CA. Don't need a weatherman...

putting aside the general opportunity to add his seat to the Dem column, fucking HOORAY for the retirement of Issa. what a supreme asshole that guy is

Doc, yes but he's "inching up" from a historic low net (-21 on the RCP average shown here).

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

He's had some temporary upward periods before, but the overall picture doesn't change much. Possibly the current rebound is due to positive feelings rank-and-file GOPers have about the tax bill. Most people hated that bill, of course, but its passage temporarily quelled the storyline of "gang who couldn't shoot straight" that was fed by many LOL GOP FAIL moments on the Hill. Now, when asked "where's the winning?", GOP folks can say that Gorsuch and the tax bill constitute "winning" from their perspective.

Personally, I'd like to see things go back to an ever-more-negative slope post-Wolff/"stable genius." Not because the Wolff book is perfectly factual or because it changes a lot of minds. But because from now on, all Trump's infantile outbursts will create a confirmation loop. Every time he acts like a toddler it strengthens the message "ah, so he IS a toddler."

that low bar

To be clear, this literally happened. I am not exaggerating for effect. pic.twitter.com/pSotUXK3bW

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 10, 2018

@mattyglesias
Yesterday, professional journalists praised Donald Trump for remembering the names of members of congress who were *sitting around a table with name placards in front of them*

xposts to YMP - not disputing any of that - see my "that's still utterly terrible and doesn't bode well" comments. just figured since i've previously come forward to note continuing dips in the line, it's fair to acknowledge when it goes up for something more than a day or two. and indeed it opens the question of what might be motivating those 2 out of 100 statistical human stand-ins to switch their vote. tax bill business seems plausible enough - plenty of repubs getting what they want and back to being ready to write off all his monstrosities as a sideshow to "getting the job done."

The fact that you observed him controlling his bladder for a very impressive fifteen minute stretch doesn't mean he didn't wet himself immediately before and immediately after your encounter.

sometimes ya just gotta site back and take it all in with a sense of wonder about what a fuckin dipshit this guy is, it's just amazing

rich kid affirmative action in action. let's cut some more taxes and entitlements ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i can still never get used to the fact that ~35% of americans are totally fine with their president casually threatening nuclear war multiple times in the same month. for me, that alone would be a dealbreaker for me on any president, but what do i know.

btw, i heard a very conveniently timed report on NPR this morning that an organization (Open Doors, I think) has determined that North Korea is the most oppressive place in the world for Christians. which, hey, i believe that, but you know that report (or a 1-page version of it with lots of pictures) is heading straight to the oval office, most likely as a key discussion point in the debate on whether or not to initiate global nuclear war.

on that same note, South Korea is apparently crediting the threats as what re-started the talks? so fuckin scary.

xpost TBF, you're assuming that the 35% of Americans you describe don't live in a complete news-/politics-free bubble. I don't know what percentage of that percentage they comprise, but I know that they exist.

U.S. immigration agents descended on dozens of 7-Eleven stores before dawn Wednesday to open employment audits and interview workers in what officials described as the largest operation against an employer under Donald Trump’s presidency.

Agents targeted about 100 stores nationwide, broadening an investigation that began with a 4-year-old case against a franchisee on New York’s Long Island. The audits could lead to criminal charges or fines over the stores’ hiring practices.

The action appears to open a new front in Trump’s sharp expansion of immigration enforcement, which has already brought a 40 percent increase in deportation arrests and plans to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico. Hardliners have been pressing for a tougher stance on employers.

Derek Benner, a top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Associated Press that Wednesday’s operation was “the first of many” and “a harbinger of what’s to come” for employers. He said there would be more employment audits and investigations, though there is no numerical goal.

https://apnews.com/cb0ef682ea534ff0b5d31e7c054a079e

Keeping the world safe from Slurpee-slingers. Priorities, man.

I think it's fair to assume that your average 7-11 employee works harder on an average day than Donald Trump ever has. FWIW.

what the fuck is this

Fascism?

plans to spend billions of dollars on a border wall with Mexico.

“on that same note, South Korea is apparently crediting the threats as what re-started the talks? so fuckin scary.”

― sleeve, Wednesday, January 10, 2018 9:36 AM (thirty-on

Supposedly this was a mistranslation/misunderstanding of what Moon said.

It's also worth noting the translator said. "Trump says he deserves credit. How much credit do you think?" Moon chuckled, and said "Yeah he deserves A LOT," sort of in an exaggerating way. People laughed too. So it wasn't like Moon out of nowhere praised Trump. Yuge difference. https://t.co/2H8SIazzDf

— Jihye Lee 이지혜 (@TheJihyeLee) January 10, 2018

unfortunately it doesn't seem like it's being reported that way

(in the US)

Only a little while before Emperor Trumpatine

getting n. korea to talk to s. korea is not that big of an accomplishment, is it? haven't they been following a pattern of periodically shutting down and restarting negotations for a while now?

maybe we should wait for them to make actual security concessions before giving trump credit?

too late

South Korea's Moon credits Trump with 'huge' contribution to North Korea talks

fuckin CNN

i don't know, here's the quote:

Moon praised Trump personally, saying he "made a huge contribution to make inter-Korean talks happen (and) I'd like to express my gratitude."

he may have also said that in an exaggerated way, but it sounds like he intended to send a positive message to trump

well good thing it's not necessary to prove trump wrong on every single thing he does in order to make a case against reelecting him!

nixon, china, etc

yeah I don't think this will help him much, but the blatant inaccuracy is so galling

GOP gonna be grooming this guy to run for Senate in 2020

An Alabama teen appeared in court today after being charged with molesting a local horse https://t.co/rApNCGzWQL pic.twitter.com/GXjS5x8wXo

— AL.com (@aldotcom) January 10, 2018

i see what you did there

Trump truly is a living, breathing second panel of the dinosaur comics, ending *everything* with an exclamation mark.

https://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/dinosaur-comic-strip.jpg

this again

“Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness so we’re going to take a strong look at that,” he told reporters as he met members of his Cabinet.

“We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,” Trump said.

cool

“We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,” Trump said.

RIP Donald Trump

i hope obama sues him for everything he's worth then, the bald flabby traitor

It would bring a certain kind of satisfaction if he actually did successfully get Congress to change libel laws... and then spent his entire post-presidential life embroiled in lawsuit after lawsuit from everybody he's ever lied about.

he's been obsessed with this for ages. classic entitled asshole constantly shocked and fuming at his aides - - - "you're telling me they're ALLOWED to say that about me?!" as a result, it's likely one of his most consistent political opinions. it's also something about which the overwhelming majority of the population does not care in the slightest.