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

Rick Wilson otm about McCabe’s forthcoming book deal and television road show

Anyway fwiw my point was a computer was used to draw the gerrymandered districts after the 2010 census; having a computer do a thing solves nothing, it just does what people tell it to do, really fast

Smart move, president dummy, upgrading this bs to prime coverage 24 hours before your stupid speech.

Those State of the Uniom tickets will be going for so much cash on eBay. Like the upside down plane stamp, or the mispressing of Duran Duran's "Uniom of the Snake" single.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/618058703044939776/TJgFq010_400x400.jpg

"Rick Wilson otm"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqvXquqTwoU

oh shit I just watched that w/ daughter this weekend! Sad song.

i only want to say
if there is a way
take this Trump
away from us

The guy who wrote this is a former vice admiral in the Navy, director of the Defense Nuclear Agency and vice president at Bechtel. It's always good to remember that at least 50% of US national security elites are functionally insane. https://t.co/NFiwyg0pHs pic.twitter.com/XcXWX8kWun

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) January 29, 2018

First, and most important, bring science back into DOE and DOD. President Trump must immediately terminate the moratorium on underground nuclear testing. It will take decades to recover, and we must start now. It may take five years and cost two billion dollars just to conduct out first nuclear test in Nevada.

DOE’s testing is urgently needed to ensure that the nine types of weapons in our stockpile are still reliable and effective. They must carry us for decades. We must design, test, and produce low-yield weapons. We must conduct advanced research and testing toward pure fusion weapons. We must test better earth-penetrating weapons — our adversaries are going deep underground. We must test and design advanced replacements for our over-age stockpile weapons. Russia’s and China’s hypersonic nuclear missiles require our testing nuclear warheads for missile defense.

DOD must immediately re-establish the Defense Nuclear Agency to rebuild the essential military science of nuclear weapons effects throughout DOD by underground testing for battlefield survivability in Nevada.

Finally, President Trump must terminate the moratorium on nuclear testing as the headline of America's Nuclear Posture Review, a final version of which will be published in the weeks ahead.

http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/370901-only-trump-can-restore-americas-ability-to-win-a-nuclear-war

BEFORE YOU CAN SAY BLASTOFF!

Anyway fwiw my point was a computer was used to draw the gerrymandered districts after the 2010 census; having a computer do a thing solves nothing, it just does what people tell it to do, really fast

― El Tomboto, Monday, January 29, 2018 2:40 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xkmag/gerrymandering-algorithms

iow the argument isn't "let computers draw districts", but "let computers fix gerrymandering problem"

those algorithms embed the preferences and assumptions of their creators. their output will favor one party over another, so the choice to use them is ipso facto political. agreed upon metrics of gerrymandering and unelected redistricting commisions (such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Citizens_Redistricting_Commission in every state) are a better solution.

some senators about to do some huffing and puffing

The Trump admin has notified Congress that last year’s bipartisan Russia sanctions bill is serving as a “deterrent” and as such, specific sanctions aren’t needed at this time. From a State Dept spox: pic.twitter.com/rwkd6Vzh66

— Elana Schor (@eschor) January 29, 2018

jesus christ

Adam Schiff debriefing press on House Intel meeting:

House R's voted yes on releasing the Devin Nunes memo, "no" on releasing minority memo
House R's have unilaterally opened investigation into FBI

Can we safely say we are now having the "Consitutional crisis" everyone has feared?

seems like today was Bad!

While Congressional inaction is indeed a bad thing, keep in mind that dozens of congressmen and senators and investigators are privy to all sorts of stuff, so nothing is going to get buried if it is truly incriminating.

ME: We need a political party that will stand for universal health care, free housing, and an end to the carceral state
DEMOCRATS: What about a Kennedy that looks like Ron Weasley

— Gore Vidal Sassoon (@JimmyJazz1968) January 29, 2018

The name Kennedy is triggering Berniecrats & the Left

Why?

— Poll Cat (@gato_danger) January 29, 2018

I'm opposed to any political dynasty. It's just a cult of personality and ignores policy goals

— Gore Vidal Sassoon (@JimmyJazz1968) January 29, 2018

xp but Josh this isn't inaction, it's a deliberate, proactive effort to reach into DOJ and FBI and disrupt a criminal investigation. (I stopped counting on the congressional committees to do anything a long time ago.)

xpost These people would have pushed FDR out of the party.

I've kinda just given up hope at this point cos if this O'Keefian power play works on the general population, idk if I'll still be living here in 5 years anyway.

when things I thought weren't going to be happening anytime soon like legalizing gay marriage came to fruition, I thought to myself "oh we'll get blowback for this I'm sure", didn't realize it would be being held hostage by a 30 million strong pseudo-Christian cult.

Hey Mr President don’t do this please

John Bolton Remains Leading Candidate to Replace H. R. McMaster, my latest in @TheNatlInterest https://t.co/GJxgoMhRKu

— Curt Mills (@CurtMills) January 29, 2018

swimming in an inner orbit, eh

I feel like this memo bullshit s a new level of fucked up. But I can only assume it’s going to get so much worse.

I’m assuming the minority memo will be leaked

i can't for the life of me figure out why i'm supposed to care about this memo one way or the other

like i get that it's being played up as vindication for right wing fever dreams but what's the corollary will im not really following

"This memo is going to be a bunch of scary-sounding allegations that can't be debunked without leaking classified information. Fox News will run with it, Trump will fire Rosenstein, whoever replaces Rosenstein will fire Mueller (or, worse, will quietly kill/neuter Mueller's investigation), and the GOP will do nothing. And all the Dems will be able to do is complain about how they can't release the full story."

Whomp whomp

https://www.thedailybeast.com/julian-assange-thought-he-was-messaging-sean-hannity-when-he-offered-news-on-democrat-investigating-trump-russia/

John Bolton at the UN would def either turn it all to Duck Soup or accelerate our doom. Maybe both!

Gee, my sympathies for you:

Spicer: I regret embarrassing myself and my family https://t.co/cIqZqZH4jn pic.twitter.com/5UwxVrgkr0

— The Hill (@thehill) January 30, 2018

ned that hannity story is nuts!

To put it mildly.

Just to refresh, the sanctions against Russia that the President refused to sign were passed in the senate 98-2 and in the house 419-3

yeah and we've already done enough damage to our relationship with our dear friend russia so it's time to just drop it, okay?

no to defend what is clearly Trump trying to delay something he doesn't want to do, but the actual legislation itself has an allowance for postponement written into it. It isn't quite the same as him refusing to obey the legislation. From the article on The Hill:

"The 2017 legislation allows President Trump to postpone imposing sanctions on people or entities if he determines they are largely scaling back their transactions with Russia's defense or intelligence sectors, as long as he notifies the appropriate congressional committees at least every 180 days that they are seeing such progress."

trump's gonna fire mueller during the state of the union tomorrow night, isn't he

I know it seems kind of reductive and sophomoric to say "oh, President of the United States is a Russian stooge" but for real the President of the United States is actually a Russian stooge. Like, this is really happening.

Can you say kompromat? I knew you could.

this could be insane. i hope not.

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be “extraordinarily reckless,” voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate.

The vote, made along party lines, threw fuel on an already fiery partisan conflict over the investigations into Russia’s brazen meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Republicans invoked a power never before used by the secretive committee to effectively declassify the memo that they had compiled. It was an extraordinary maneuver, cheered on by President Trump, who has repeatedly dismissed the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt” and a sham.

on the news sources most of us rely on, i'm guessing they'll just report on the memo and the fallout. but i don't really have a good sense of how it will go down on the right. part of me is stressed the fuck out that this is going to be #benghazi bullshit all over again

and not only is he really a russian stooge (for whatever reason: debt, kompromat, the kochs and tillerson worked out an oil deal with putin, who knows?), the republicans are using their congressional majority to cover up treason, while the russian stooge defies the conclusions of the FBI, the CIA, the dutch government, and whoever else, successfully delaying coming to terms with russia having meddled in our and other NATO countries' recent elections. we are in the upside down, the sunken place. joseph mccarthy must be spinning in his grave

xpost

karl, pierce as usual has sharp sight

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15917140/will-trump-fire-mueller/

i mean,

There is no known precedent for the Republicans’ action. Though House rules allow the Intelligence Committee to vote to disclose classified information if it is deemed to be in the public interest, the rule is not thought to have ever been used. Typically, lawmakers wishing to make public secretive information classified by the executive branch spend months, if not years, fighting with the White House and the intelligence community over what they can release.

wtf

it's not trump that even worries me right now, it's the house republicans. they are all in on fighting for trump, and starting a war with the justice department and the fbi to do it

despite flat income my tax return seems lower this year! where is my little richerness

need to figure out some deductions over here

I'm having...trouble finishing that Hannity/Assange story, i.e. I'm sick to my stomach.

Pierce ha

Carter Page, the Zelig of international ratfucking

"Russian spies gave up Carter Page while being bugged by the FBI. Page was a known Russian stooge. FBI warrants to watch him have been issued ever since by Rod Rosenstein. Now that Page is Trump's lackey, those warrants have ended, and the GOP is trying to get rid of the last man above Mueller, Rosenstein, by claiming 'He was watching our good man, Page! LOCK HIM UP', and the stooges eat it up.

"Meanwhile, our government has been compromised. Welcome to Amerika."

"trump's gonna fire mueller during the state of the union tomorrow night, isn't he"

Well I suppose it is the sweeps week version of The Presidential Apprentice, so I say it is possible.

Today has a real "end of Empire Strikes Back" feel. A lot of awful stuff suggesting awful things happened yesterday, huh?