This is so dumb. Everyone knows there are at least six Californias:
South Oregon
Bundyland
Basically Europe
Real America If There Weren't Quite So Many Brown People
SJWtopia ("Ess Jay Double Utopia")
The Gift
American Politics thread: No Nazis Allowed
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A News Dump from WTF Just Happened Today: https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/01/17/day-363/
Steve Bannon cited executive privilege and refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee yesterday. House investigators in both parties were outraged by his refusal, leading the committee to subpoena Bannon on the spot, vowing to force him to answer their questions about Russian interference in the 2016 election.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/16/steve-bannon-congress-testimony-subpoena-341492
Bannon didn't respond to House Intelligence questions because the White House directed not to. During his testimony, Bannon's attorney relayed questions in real time to the White House asking if his client could answer the questions. Bannon was instructed not to discuss his work on the transition or in the White House. White House officials believed they had an agreement with the Committee to limit questions to the presidential campaign. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, called the "gag order" an "audacious" move by the White House.
https://apnews.com/c103dc352c604ae29b442bbec4cc9106
Bannon struck a deal with Robert Mueller to be interviewed by prosecutors instead of testifying before the grand jury. A source close to Bannon said he will cooperate with the special counsel and that "Mueller will hear everything Bannon has to say."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/17/politics/bannon-mueller-strike-deal/index.html
Robert Mueller's probe would continue in the event of a government shutdown. Employees in the special counsel office are exempt from furlough and would continue their work, despite a potential lack of appropriations. The government is set to shutdown Friday night if lawmakers are unable to agree on a spending bill.
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/16/politics/justice-department-special-counsel-shutdown/index.html
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to review an order to restart DACA. A federal judge ordered that previous beneficiaries of DACA must be allowed to renew their status in the program, but the government is not be required to accept new applications. The Justice Department also appealed a related decision, which imposed a nationwide stop on the Trump administration's decision to end the program until the case can be heard.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/politics/trump-administration-daca-appeal-supreme-court.html
Three-quarters of the National Parks Service advisory panel resigned in frustration.*Nine out of 12 members abruptly quit, citing frustration that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them or hold a single meeting last year. All of the members who resigned had terms that were set to expire in May.
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Still amazing to me how they're screwing up the National Parks Service. It's one of the things everyone likes!
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Still amazing to me how they're screwing up the National Parks Service. It's one of the things everyone likes!
Not if you're a mining executive.
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I was cautiously optimistic about Zinke being a decent Secretary of the Interior but he's quietly been among the most insidious members of the cabinet.
He and Pruitt are the two I'd most like to see removed from office after Cheetofingers.
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Investigators Are Scrutinizing Newly Uncovered Payments By The Russian Embassy
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Oh sheeeit. Bannon has flipped.
He's struck a deal with Mueller to avoid a grand jury trial.
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Oh sheeeit. Bannon has flipped.
He's struck a deal with Mueller to avoid a grand jury trial.
Wouldn't be quite so sure about that. His silence with House Intel (and the fact that he's using the same lawyer as McGahn) makes me skeptical. But on the bright side, Bannon is such a leaker that I wouldn't doubt he's got all kinds of dirty laundry that'll pop out.
Kushner should be very, very nervous, at the very least.
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Wouldn't be quite so sure about that. His silence with House Intel (and the fact that he's using the same lawyer as McGahn) makes me skeptical. But on the bright side, Bannon is such a leaker that I wouldn't doubt he's got all kinds of dirty laundry that'll pop out.
Kushner should be very, very nervous, at the very least.
That's the thing. If he testifies in front of grand jury, he doesn't get to have a lawyer present.
And the rules of evidence allow much more evidence than is allowed at a criminal trial.
Plus has to say everything under oath… So any lies or contradictions there get him in trouble. And he obviously knows stuff.Testifying to a grand jury is bad for him. He took the office line and cited executive privilege, but now he's trapped from having done that.
With Mueller its private, but recorded. So its probably something akin to a plea deal, if not an actual one. And if Mueller isn't satisfied, he goes back to the grand jury.
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lol
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So many obvious jokes…
like
On Thursday, the WSJ Editorial Board subs in for the NYT Editorial Board.
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I look forward to the Times running a bunch of "BUT BOTH SIDES" articles in response to people being rightfully annoyed with them over this.
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I'm going to see how many they skim out of the letters the Daily News gets.
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@Cyan:
I'm going to see how many they skim out of the letters the Daily News gets.
Do you know how many times I've read a "I am canceling my subscription, you've gone too far in insulting Trump!" letter?
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Funny/sad part of the Fake News War for me is how much the Trumpkins target NYT/CNN, which are both-sides-centrist (with an overall leftist lean) to the point of it being to their detriment. I mean, CNN was paying Corey @#$ing Lewandowski for a while.
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Do you know how many times I've read a "I am canceling my subscription, you've gone too far in insulting Trump!" letter?
Probably not as much as.
"He was elected president so all you haters have to give him respect".
"Give him a chance he's only been president "whatever period of time".
"He's not dividing us like Obama was".
"Posts meme of whatever they claim Trump has done that he hasn't actually done".
"But Hillary".
"Can't you see people are getting tired of the elites telling them what to do (goes into poorly researched, sometimes transphobic/homophobic, I'm a libertarian may or may not have voted for Trump/Pro Bernie" rant".
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Funny/sad part of the Fake News War for me is how much the Trumpkins target NYT/CNN, which are both-sides-centrist (with an overall leftist lean) to the point of it being to their detriment. I mean, CNN was paying Corey @#$ing Lewandowski for a while.
They were paying lynching apologist Jeffrey Lord.
While the NYT's regular columns are a variety of Never Trump Republicans ranging from the slightly kooky to the Bret Stephens. And Maureen Dowd's weekly Clinton obsession.
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Probably not as much as.
"He was elected president so all you haters have to give him respect".
"Give him a chance he's only been president "whatever period of time".
"He's not dividing us like Obama was".
"Posts meme of whatever they claim Trump has done that he hasn't actually done".
"But Hillary".
"Can't you see people are getting tired of the elites telling them what to do (goes into poorly researched, sometimes transphobic/homophobic, I'm a libertarian may or may not have voted for Trump/Pro Bernie" rant".
to the bolded, yes.
I swear someone once said "Obama was the worst/most divisive/most corrupt" and I was like what?! Like that isn't even objectively true. Harding, Jackson, Grant, Hoover, like hate Obama all you want, saying he's the worst is completely asinine. -
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1F62KO
I'm am in shock
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_1. The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claimed on the day of President Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover.
2. ABC News' Brian Ross CHOKES and sends markets in a downward spiral with false report.
3. CNN FALSELY reported that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J. Trump, Jr. had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.
4. TIME FALSELY reported that President Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office.
5. Washington Post FALSELY reported the President’s massive sold-out rally in Pensacola, Florida was empty. Dishonest reporter showed picture of empty arena HOURS before crowd started pouring in.
6. CNN FALSELY edited a video to make it appear President Trump defiantly overfed fish during a visit with the Japanese prime minister. Japanese prime minister actually led the way with the feeding.
7. CNN FALSELY reported about Anthony Scaramucci’s meeting with a Russian, but retracted it due to a “significant breakdown in process.”
8. Newsweek FALSELY reported that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake President Trump’s hand
9. CNN FALSELY reported that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim that he was told he is not under investigation.
10. The New York Times FALSELY claimed on the front page that the Trump administration had hidden a climate report.
11. And last, but not least: "RUSSIA COLLUSION!" Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!_
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We should keep this list handy when we put his body on trial for treason, postmortem, like Oliver Cromwell.
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Just by spending five minutes searching the things on that list I can already tell that everything here that was in any way actually incorrect was admitted to be a mistake and corrected by whoever put it out. But apparently the news media should be perfect, just like the president is, so there is clearly an evil agenda at play here to make Trump, who never does or would do anything incompetent, disrespectful, or racist, look bad.
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lol
Exactly how many times are they going to do these redneck safari exhibitions and get called out for them.
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Feels like we're missing the key fun part of the Fakies: they were announced out of nowhere like they'd be a big production, delayed for "overwhelming interest," then put out with little notice looking like a skeevy AlterNet blog post on a dead website.
It's so quintessentially this administration.
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To be fair, the fish feeding thing actually was an intentionally edited out of context fake and was a terrible thing purely because it does lend credibility to his crappy "everything is fake" narrative.
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@No:
Just by spending five minutes searching the things on that list I can already tell that everything here that was in any way actually incorrect was admitted to be a mistake and corrected by whoever put it out. But apparently the news media should be perfect, just like the president is, so there is clearly an evil agenda at play here to make Trump, who never does or would do anything incompetent, disrespectful, or racist, look bad.
Yep. Unfortunately, a lot of people see admitting a mistake as an "Aha!" when learning how to admit mistakes or changing your point of view based on new (reliable) information is a good thing.
And yeah. There are some left news that's genuinely just shitty click bait. Reminds me of when people try to take certain people on twitter as news sources when they have a very unreliable history.
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For example, not loving the recent truther focus on Trump's medical records. Might be some there there, but what's the point? Accomplishes nothing in the short or long term except maybe bragging rights down the road.
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The medical records just reinforce my belief that Trump will be dead by 2020.
In other news, David Simon will be making a miniseries out of The Plot Against America, one of the two books that properly foreshadow the situation we're in.
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Well, it's like… you can just look at him and tell he's not in the excellent shape they're claiming. And he's 71, so no one is expecting him to be in the peak of health.
So if they're lying about that, the questions is... why? Just to make the obvious lie of he's in fantastic shape? Or to actually hide legit bad news. Especially in this case, given the questions about his mental health and fitness to actually govern, there are legit medical questions to want to know honest answers to, and a flippant "he is in miraculous excellent health of a 23 year old and there are zero problems for the next 80 years" seems like a really bad dodge of an important couple questions.
Given that historically we have things like Wilson's wife running the country after his stroke, not advertising the extent of Roosevelt's polio. and hiding Reagan's Alzheimer's, there is some precedent to pretending the president is in better shape than are for the sake of country.
So, saying "the president is in good shape" in spite of that obviously being untrue isn't a huge issue in and of itself... aside from the mental thing, and covering that up IS a problem if there's any issue there. and we need to 25th amendment him out ASAP Otherwise that in particular is such a non issue it shouldn't be focused on either way (aside from maybe knowing the likely timetable for constitutional crisis or President Pence).The real problem is that it also applies to things like tax returns and collusion. How much is fib purely for the sake of appearances and ego, and how much is hiding actual bad stuff?
And when the entire administration is basically nothing but lies? He can lie about his crowd sizes, (ego) or Obama wiretapping, (distraction) or global warming (stupidity) and those can be proven false (to anyone willing to actually look at evidence.) But other stuff, that affects our relations with other countries or the environment or tax code or education or wars or nukes.... not so much.
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I'm fully on board with the idea that there's been some fudging with the numbers and data to present a better portrait of the President because it's theoretically in the country's best interest. Problem is, if we're now at the point where we're discarding factual statements from a doctor (who was also, we should note, Obama's doctor) because it doesn't match our assumptions, well, it's not that far removed from the birther controversy.
Still think the most fruitful path when it comes to critiquing Trump is how little respect he has for his voters and how little he really cares about the things he said he'd care about. There's been legitimate erosion of his support throughout his term [though with a slight and concerning rebound in the past month because, well, what the hell, I don't know why], and that's where we have to get if anything's going to change. I mean, it's incredibly clear he's impeachable and removable already, but that still has to transpire in the realm of politicians who will always work in their own best interest, unfortunately.
I also agree the 25th Amendment should be in play, but it won't be. For that matter, I've yet to see a good accounting of what happens if the 25th Amendment is invoked and it fails. I can only imagine.
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[though with a slight and concerning rebound in the past month because, well, what the hell, I don't know why]
Good economic numbers and the tax cut brought some libertarian suburbanites home.
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Who all is looking forward to a good combo gov't shutdown/Trump's penis news-cycle tomorrow?!
This is a dumb time to be alive.
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Today's dump from https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/01/18/day-364/
Trump will back a short-term funding legislation after causing confusion on Twitter. Hours earlier Trump tweeted: "CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!" By calling for a separate, long-term extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program, Trump contradicted the Republican legislative strategy with less than 48 hours before a shutdown. The Republican proposal included a six-year extension of CHIP as part of their short-term spending bill, which would fund the government through February 16.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/18/government-shutdown-2018-trump-republicans-345532
In the event of a shutdown, Mitch McConnell plans to keep the Senate in session and stage a series of votes. They're intended to place blame for the shutdown on 10 Democratic senators, who are up for reelection this fall in states won by Donald Trump in 2016. McConnell called the Senate Democrats plan "irresponsible" for being "willing to shut down the government and the Children's Health Insurance Program because they have yet to conclude a deal on DACA."
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/18/government-shutdown-2018-mitch-mcconnell-345662
Trump contradicted John Kelly's statements about the proposed border wall, saying "The Wall is the Wall" and his plan "has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it." Yesterday, Kelly said that the U.S. would never actually build a physical wall along the entire U.S. border with Mexico. Trump recently said that the wall would be funded by Mexico "indirectly through NAFTA."
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/369484-trump-the-wall-has-never-changed-or-evolved
The Trump administration is finalizing its infrastructure plan, which it hopes will encourage more than $1 trillion in state, local, and private financing to build and repair bridges, highways, and other infrastructure. Trump is expected to preview parts of the plan on January 30th during his State of the Union address.
Ty Cobb said Trump is "very eager" to talk to Robert Mueller. Trump's personal lawyer hopes to wrap up the Russia investigation as quickly as possible and expects the investigation to end in the next four to six weeks.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/369485-lawyer-trump-very-eager-to-talk-to-special-counsel
The White House's top lawyer may have a conflict of interest. Don McGahn was personally involved in instructing Steve Bannon about what questions he shouldn't answer from the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. He is also a witness to events under investigation by both Congress and Robert Mueller.
The FBI is investigating whether a Russian banker illegally funneled money to the NRA in order to help Trump win the presidency. Alexander Torshin is the deputy governor of Russia's central bank and has a close relationship with Putin. Torshin spoke with Trump Jr. during an NRA gala in May 2016, when Trump won the NRA's presidential endorsement. The NRA spent $30 million to support Trump in the 2016 election – three times what they devoted to Mitt Romney in 2012.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article195231139.html
53% of Americans see Trump's first year as a failure. 61% believe Trump has divided the country.
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/18/578639915/majority-of-americans-see-trumps-first-year-as-a-failure
Notables:
Trump released his 2017 Fake News Awards.
https://gop.com/the-highly-anticipated-2017-fake-news-awards/
Hundreds of Yelp reviewers have been giving the Trump International Hotel in Washington one-star reviews, describing the property as a "shithole."
Haitians will no longer be eligible to receive temporary agricultural and seasonal work visas. The decision by the White House removes Haiti from the list of countries that are eligible for H-2A and H-2B visas.
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/17/politics/haiti-temporary-visas/index.html
Mick Mulvaney requested no additional funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The bureau has $177 million in the bank. Last quarter the CFPB asked for $217.1 million and it required $86.6 million the quarter before that.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/18/mulvaney-funding-consumer-bureau-cordray-345495
The Trump administration will protect health workers who oppose abortions or sex-change operations based on religious or moral objections. Officials want people to report discrimination to the new conscience and religious freedom division of the office for civil rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/us/health-care-office-abortion-contraception.html
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Good ol Mitch McConnel insisting Democrats shutting down the government is irresponsible but some how ignoring the last two times Republicans shut down the government for trite reasons.
Edit: okay three times
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_"Together, we will make America strong again.
We will make America wealthy again.
We will make America proud again.
We will make America safe again.
And, yes, together, we will make America great again."_
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http://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/trumps-inauguration-money-is-still-missing-report/
Of course money's missing look who's involved.
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There's always money in the banana stand.
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I can't think of a more fitting ending to Trump's presidency than a season of him living in Eric's attic.
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Problem is, if we're now at the point where we're discarding factual statements from a doctor (who was also, we should note, Obama's doctor) because it doesn't match our assumptions, well, it's not that far removed from the birther controversy. \
It's mostly that he has apparently grown an inch since taking the presidency and with that height happens to be exactly 1 pound under from being officially "obese".
If he were the same height as stated on his driver's license that wouldn't be the case. And I know from my own use of a scale, a person can fluctuate by several pounds depending on the day, so…
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It's mostly that he has apparently grown an inch since taking the presidency and with that height happens to be exactly 1 pound under from being officially "obese".
If he were the same height as stated on his driver's license that wouldn't be the case. And I know from my own use of a scale, a person can fluctuate by several pounds depending on the day, so…
It's not that I disagree with you, really. Just…it's a pretty easy argument to attack, since ostensibly scientific fact from a licensed practitioner is on the other side, faked or not
On other news, House Intel just released their Fusion GPS interview, so SHUTDOWN FUSION GPS SEX SCANDAL NEWS CYCLE WEEKEND COMMENCE
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With the million actual bad things he's done, I'd never bother making any deal about the vanity/security issue of saying the Pres is in better health than he actually is. That's something that affects the stock market and stuff. So, whatever.
It's just that its another in a long string of lies so it's just… one more for the pile.
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I'm fully on board with the idea that there's been some fudging with the numbers and data to present a better portrait of the President because it's theoretically in the country's best interest. Problem is, if we're now at the point where we're discarding factual statements from a doctor (who was also, we should note, Obama's doctor) because it doesn't match our assumptions, well, it's not that far removed from the birther controversy.
Except one is exceedingly plausible, and the other was insane racism you mean?
Presidential medical status isn't some holy untouchable bit of honesty by the US gov to begin with.
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Rats are jumping off a sinking ship
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/369627-trump-evangelical-board-members-unite-with-pelosi-on-daca
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Trump should start taking steroids like his buddy Vince McMahon does.
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Feign surprise as the MSM blames BOTH SIDES for the shutdown despite all branches of goverment being in Republican control.
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@Monkey:
Except one is exceedingly plausible, and the other was insane racism you mean?
Presidential medical status isn't some holy untouchable bit of honesty by the US gov to begin with.
Obviously all of that.
Just saying it feeds into right-wing bad-faith "whataboutism" and, even though the Girthers are likely right, I don't see it doing anything but feeding the usual right-wing drivel.
At this point, I don't know how to convince even the mildly-Trump-supporting folk I know that his faculties have massively diminished in the past decade (and seems to be accelerating). Best I can do is feed them full transcripts and unedited video unsullied by "the media," but still doesn't connect.
There's at least more out there about his potential dementia in the public sphere now, but seems like the few things that have impacted his general standing in marked ways are either policy [ACA repeal-and-replace, DACA, taxes] or when he's been asked to respond to a crisis [Charlottesville].
Sadly, bet the Stormy Daniels stuff over the weekend will do more than any of his numerous conflicts of interest or kleptomania have done.
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Just saying it feeds into right-wing bad-faith "whataboutism"
They will always have an intensely stupid bad faith whataboutism ready to go in any given situation. That's exactly what makes it stupid and bad faith.
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Remember how Scalia dying spawned a bunch of conspiracy theories on the right?
Now imagine the reaction from the right to Trump dropping dead from the combination of age, poor health, and super high stress after being lied to about his condition.