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

oops, prob for the best that the image didn't post

The Towel Rack Strikes Again!

https://frinkiac.com/video/S07E07/8b5cIagPuV8wSUIrPGxCEoumsSw=.gif

BMI is a bullshit stat. Trump is an out of shape idiot and the president.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/sanders-defends-trump-as-not-racist-citing-apprentice-tv-role

“Frankly, if the critics of the president were who he said he was, why did NBC give him a show for a decade on TV?” Sanders said Tuesday.

ahh so that's what Jay Cutler's ass looks like

Woke Axl Rose is still something to contemplate.

What defies law and common sense is Jeff Sessions himself.

— Axl Rose (@axlrose) January 17, 2018

sick sad world we live in

we don't need no civil war

Jackson describes Trump as “very sharp” and “very articulate when he speaks to me.”

Trump say hi to me

The rundown: In 2017, Democrats running in special elections performed, on average, 10% better than Clinton and 7% better than Obama.

In the first four specials of 2018, Dems performed **21%** better than Clinton and 13% better than Obama. 🌊🌊🌊 https://t.co/qSfxkNzxUU

— James Lambert (@hellofasandwich) January 17, 2018

axl hates sessions and has been speaking out against him for a while

Meanwhile:
“Four in 10 Republicans consider accurate news stories that cast a politician or political group in a negative light to always be “fake news.””

and other distressing shit
https://knightfoundation.org/reports/american-views-trust-media-and-democracy

Are the fake news awards actually going to happen

They have been downgraded to a 'potential event'

the fake news awards are... fake news?

trump gettin' meta

Waiting for the tweet denouncing the fake news organizations who are disseminating the fake news that he ever even announced a Fake News Awards.

And then watching Trump get violently ripped apart by the breach in spacetime created by his comprehensive dismantling of reality.

lots of Woke #Resistance types (on twitter, not so much here) making fun of the president for being fat, great job everyone

Meanwhile the political acumen of Erick Erickson:

Democrats seem to continually overplay their hand on immigration. If Republicans offer a plan to keep DACA recipients in the country and the Democrats still shut down the government, it could re-energize a Republican base that is starting to get tired. It could also push some fence sitters away from the Democrats.

This is a fight worth having. The GOP is probably not going to offer a harsh deal on DACA because there is a strong consensus led by the President that the DACA recipients should be allowed to stay in exchange for border security. If that's the deal and the Democrats balk at it, shut down the government and make the case that the Democrats are putting illegal aliens and lax borders ahead of the national interest.

Personally, I tend to always favor a government shutdown. People need to remember they can survive without the federal government. As Democrats have rediscovered federalism, now they can realize a Washington inconsequential to their lives is a good thing.

New details this morning: FBI agents showed up at Bannon’s DC home last week.https://t.co/nT6bYCpPDS

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 17, 2018

Also this story about how Wolff played the White House is grimly amusing

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/how-author-wolff-got-into-trump-s-white-house-for-tell-all-book

What was that a few days (months? years?) ago with Bannon boasting we will never see him hiring a lawyer or testifying?

presumably the interaction between the fbi agents and bannon were like a larp of the x-files episodes with eugene tooms

dammit i meant flukeman i fucked this up i'm sorry guys shit goddammit fuck

I think you're just conflating the various monsters of the week that were modeled after Bannon. I'm sure he also roosts in a nest he's constructed from newspaper strips and his own bile.

From that Bloomberg piece Ned linked:

Author Michael Wolff’s pitch to the White House to win cooperation for his book included a working title that signaled a sympathetic view, a counter-narrative to a slew of negative news stories early in Donald Trump’s presidency.

He called it “The Great Transition: The First 100 Days of the Trump Administration.” And in part due to that title, Wolff was able to exploit an inexperienced White House staff who mistakenly believed they could shape the book to the president’s liking.

Nearly everyone who spoke with Wolff thought someone else in the White House had approved their participation. And it appears that not a single person in a position of authority to halt cooperation with the book -- including Trump himself -- raised any red flags, despite Wolff’s well documented history. His previous work included a critical book on Trump confidant Rupert Murdoch, the Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. co-chairman.

...

Wolff’s entree began with Trump himself, who phoned the author in early February to compliment him on a CNN appearance in which Wolff criticized media coverage of the new president.

Wolff told Trump during the call that he wanted to write a book on the president’s first 100 days in office. Many people want to write books about me, Trump replied -- talk to my staff. Aides Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks listened to Wolff’s pitch in a West Wing meeting the next day, but were noncommittal.

Several aides said Hicks later informally endorsed talking with Wolff as long as they made “positive” comments for the book, which they said Wolff told them would counter the media’s unfair narrative.

It wasn’t until late August that alarm bells were raised in the White House -- when Hicks, Jared Kushner and their allies realized that fellow aides who had spoken with Wolff, especially Bannon, may have provided damaging anecdotes about them.

not worrying at all that senior white house figures can be so easily duped by the most simple flattery and so disinclined to do any background checking on the flatterer

worth recalling wolff's quote from a little while back

I remember when the Murdoch book came out and Murdoch's guy [former News Corp. marketing and corporate affairs exec] Gary Ginsberg, called me, furious, and said, "What is this? The book is all about him!" I said, "It's a biography." And Ginsberg says, "But it's so personal." That's when I realized, these guys don't just not read books — they don't know what books are.

Jeff Flake set to make some kind of anti-trump speech on the senate floor

well that oughtta take care of trump once and for all

Flake the Trump Slayer

I'dxask what the over/under would be about Trump tweeting about "Frosted Flake", but a nickname like that is too clever for him.

AP "reviewed hundreds of pages of depositions taken of Trump in the past decade":

"The transcripts reveal a witness who is by turns voluble, giving expansive answers far beyond the questions asked; boastful, using unrelated queries to expound on his wealth or popularity; unapologetic, swift to defend incendiary comments or criticized actions; and occasionally combative, once deriding a lawyer for 'very stupid' questions."

xpost should just post a gif of himself brushing brushing his shoulders off

Jeff Cornflake xxp

really don't think Corey Booker throwing Weiner-style tantrums on camera is gonna help anything

how? nobody cares either way imo

so the associated press reviewed hundreds of pages of trump depositions and found that trump be trumpin'

guys I think this trump guy might be a bit of a piece of work!

AP should interview some Trump supporters, see what they think.

Been seeing Farenthold's byline so infrequently these days that I assume he is deep in something, or writing a book, but this remains the standard bearer for the Trump is a Liar storyline:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/trump-lies/

fuck!! CNN in the background with voters from Ohio praising trump's bullshit and eating up the lies on immigrants taking ALL their jobs!!

"he says stuff like real americans,i like that, I want may country back" xp

my*

(bitcoin babies right now getting a lot not-richer)

psyched for everyone save native americans to self-deport

New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

fUCK THIS FUCKING NARRATIVE IS SO INFURIATING .

and of course completely untrue

be interested to know exactly how many individuals have been convicted of terrorism-related charges in this stat he's citing

https://qz.com/1180762/trumps-dhs-and-doj-are-overcounting-foreign-born-terrorists/