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

tbh there's every possibility that carter page is such a colossal bumblefuck that he's managed to accidentally pledge allegiance to numerous foreign powers without realising it

the zero mostel of international espionage

Alert me when he finally confesses he tweets from the can.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, January 29, 2018 1

Doesn't everyone!

prince alfred from a can

i forgot to give Alfred his DSA membership form when I saw him the other night

I'm sure the Guggenheim thought they were insulting him, but I think Trump might've been genuinely touched that they opted to send him a new gilded tweeting throne rather than some dumb dusty painting by a no-name has-been.

Alert me when he finally confesses he tweets from the can.

Face it, he tweets and shits in the bed. EXECUTIVE TIME.

evacuative time

Donald "John" Trump

can we not bring "bars" into the conversation plz

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

too late, every time somebody mentions the president i have a pavlovian desire to visit one

even if the president of the united states blows off today's sanctions deadline, i'll blame hillary / obama / the deep state

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/28/trump-russia-sanctions-deadline-373106

#MRGA

Alert me when he finally confesses he tweets from the can.

As the PRESIDENT I have the authority to tweet from ANY place and believe me I do. The Oval Office, the Executive Washroom, Air Force One, I can Make America Great Again from anywhere. Jobs!

God help us all, but

Donnie 3-flush

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen is retiring. There's been a Frelinghuysen in NJ politics since before there was a NJ, basically. This is BIG. (Also, he's the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.)

Thx Karl, I was eating

DUMPLINGS!?

trumplings shurely

It seems like by 'drain the swamp' Trump really meant 'empty the pool' (Caddyshack style)

The House casualty list is, shall we say, unbalanced... pic.twitter.com/FwVJ7Vh6mJ

— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) January 29, 2018

thread has gone into the shitter

Maybe the Feb. thread can be less scatological

Only if Trump steps down.

you mean abdicates "the throne"?

If by "abdicates" you mean "dies on" a la Elvis, yes.

hey, i haven't said anything intensely negative in a couple minutes! i better throw this thought into the mix:

many of these extra seats that the democrats might pick up this year will be tough to hold in future elections, especially once trump is out of the picture. that includes seats that might normally be a toss-up but will lean blue this year because of what a colossal disaster trump is, and especially the ones that would normally be safe red seats but could end up as a democratic gain due to trump and the usual republican miscues (e.g. nominating someone like todd akin)

the difficulty of holding onto seats for democrats in red-leaning areas is nothing new, but /snipped out a bunch of tiresome shit about gerrymandering that we all already know. basically we're fucked

that was a dumb post, sorry. here's something useful, a useful timeline for those of us who sometimes have trouble keeping track of all this shit: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/evidence-mueller-possible-obstruction-case-against-trump

the usual republican miscues (e.g. nominating someone like todd akin)

Missouri is like "hold my beer":

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/courtlandsykes-attackon-feminists_us_5a6a7ad3e4b01fbbefb05da8

(To be fair, Sykes is not the nominee and likely won't be; the sitting attorney general is also running so don't get your hopes up for a full Akin Moment. But still.)

Revealing quote from @SenSchumer: "We believe strongly in the dreamers, but we can't just let that occupy the whole stage… We have to fight for middle class." https://t.co/kxL3vg4aa9

— Eli Yokley (@eyokley) January 29, 2018

it's revealing that Schumer still thinks it's 1994

BREAKING: Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Director & a frequent Trump target, stepping down.

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 29, 2018

I assume Mueller will be next

many of these extra seats that the democrats might pick up this year will be tough to hold in future elections, especially once trump is out of the picture. that includes seats that might normally be a toss-up but will lean blue this year because of what a colossal disaster trump is, and especially the ones that would normally be safe red seats but could end up as a democratic gain due to trump and the usual republican miscues (e.g. nominating someone like todd akin)

I mean, there'll be some redistricting in 2010, so hopefully they can win enough seats to make a fairer map and mitigate this

McCabe's departure is no surprise -- he was going to retire in March anyway and, from what I'm seeing, he's cashing in some sick leave so he can do that early while still hitting the 20 year mark in March. That said, timing etc.

What's likely to happen as a result I wonder

I mean, there'll be some redistricting in 2010, so hopefully they can win enough seats to make a fairer map and mitigate this

in 2020, obv

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen is retiring. There's been a Frelinghuysen in NJ politics since before there was a NJ, basically. This is BIG. (Also, he's the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.)

― grawlix (unperson)

hail! hail! the country's risin'

I mean, there'll be some redistricting in 2010, so hopefully they can win enough seats to make a fairer map and mitigate this

i kind of started to get into this above but deleted it because i don't know how to express it more concisely or persuasively. but what the hell, it's the internet! so

that's the problem, though, in terms of creating a real solution to the problem. democrats can take some seats in 2018/20 and then redraw the district maps so they're not getting fucked over across the country. and in some cases, they'll overstep notions of fairness and draw them in a way that favors democrats, and suddenly republicans will take up the torch against gerrymandering. and on and on until we all die. but if there was ever a time to propose real reform and fair elections, it would be now, years ahead of the time when it would actually be implemented. you can't do it after a democrat wave election because republicans will perceive that talk of "fair elections" and "reform" actually means "solidifying the democratic majority". i think you'd have to build popular support and craft the legislation years ahead of time, and schedule it for implementation in the semi-distant future (say, pass the law in 2019 and it would go into effect for the 2024 elections, or whatever) to quell those criticisms. but here we are, at the time when lawmakers should be doing those things, at a PERFECT time when there's already a bunch of talk about the integrity of our elections (russia) and a growing popular understanding (particularly on the left) of all the election mechanisms that are deeply unfair and undemocratic, and it's not happening.

after the mid-term, if there's another high stakes shutdown showdown and the democrats have a majority in the house, i hope they muster some courage and make election reform their key demand (assuming trump doesn't take almost a million kids hostage again by threatening to deport them)

I disagree with Karl. Incumbents are incumbents. And the 2020 census.

i don't understand why we can't all agree that a computer should draw the districts

Same reason we can't all agree that self-driving cars are safer than human drivers.

We should resistrict GOP congressmen where they're easier to bomb imo

Wut

‘The West Wing’ Cast Denounced Donald Trump with an ‘All The President’s Men’ Live Reading

Donations benefited the Society for Professional Journalists, and fellow sponsors included the Los Angeles Press Club and the American Civil Liberties Union. Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell of Los Angeles’ 13th District hosted

Um, that’s all the event did? A donations-accepted thing?

sounds almost like it was perpetrated by self-congratulatory jellyfish

As a Member of the House Judiciary Committee, I read the partisan, classified Nunes House Intel memo. I can't talk about it. However, here's an analogy.

Remember Geraldo Rivera and the infamous Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults? It's like that, but Geraldo Rivera has more integrity.

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 29, 2018

later dudes off to google geraldo and al capone's vaults

somebody get the Be-Sharps back together. now, what rhymes with "memo"?

ian, it was a great moiment in TV

Oh shit. I rushed over to my neighbors house after school to watch geraldo enter the vault. That was a cultural event.

god i love a good al capone's vault reference

sad i missed it. :(