Trump

[FlameBlade]

All the children whose the surname is Schiff must be having a miserable day today.

Presidents are supposed to lead by example.

[WillyGilligan]

Fair point on the fire locations. The misstatement was more about "raking the floor", which is what a lot of the people I'm seeing have locked onto.

Do we currently have evidence that FEMA is working against Trump's orders? Is it the system working despite him, or is he doing the normal thing while sending out nasty tweets? What I'm seeing is Trump saying crappy things, while still sending in assistance. And I do not intend to defend what he is saying. I am pointing out that his tweetstorm attacks have the effect of drawing people to focus on the wrong things. He doesn't act presidential, he's not going to act presidential, and it looks to me like a lot of the people that don't like him wouldn't let up if he suddenly became the most presidential guy to come out of central casting. He's a reality show president, and his tweets are there to goose the ratings. I want this particular media circus to end, but I don't think it's going to happen the way we're going. The news will signal-boost his tweets as long as they get ratings and a chance to attack him, and it takes time from actual journalism on his actions.

Separating children from parents at the border deserved outrage. Sending troops to the border in an obvious political stunt, imo, deserved condemnation. There are indications that North Korea is just stalling on denuclearization, and people are angry that he was mean to California. I don't know if ignoring his tweets will make him stop, but I think he knows that the press doesn't want to give up the ratings they get from talking about them.

And yes, he's attacking the electoral system with unsubstanitated claims of voter fraud. Democrats are doing the same with gerrymandering and voter suppression. For example, Stacey Abrams called her opponent legal, but not legitimate. That undermines faith in the system.

He's attacking the press, and the press is making it easy. The entire situation with Jim Acosta was a complete clown show, starting with Acosta's grandstanding, and the White House claiming that their intern was Acost-ed was even more ridiculous. And I'm not even sure I blame Acosta. I'd prefer if the media was a little more above reproach, but I can see why at least a few reporters are going to fight fire with fire.

[Mike]

[Phoebe]

I sat on my hands, I did, but I am just fed up with this type of thing. Trump and Zinke and the rest of their megalomaniac cronies who live for greed in an utterly fact-free world are absolutely, definitively blaming what is happening in California on the actions of liberals and environmentalists, because they want to spin this terrible fire season into a win for their policy objectives like selling off federal land, letting their wealthy friends exploit the federal land for private profit, logging the federal land, and so on. I am not going to defend this point of view because it has been in the news DAILY SINCE OCTOBER. This is not about tweets, this is about what they are actually doing to fuck up the environment even worse. So when I ask, are people cool with that, I mean are you cool with doing dumb shit to fuck up the environment for the sake of pure, raw greed for $$$ no matter what terrible consequences are wrought? Because if you're cool with Trump right now, that's what you're cool with. It's pretty simple.

I realize what's happening there has complex causes, and maybe for that reason the level of outrage relative should be lower than, say, kids in detention camps or kissing the ass of murderous dictators around the world (Saudis only the latest in a long line!) or using our troops for an election stunt on the border, or violating every ethics rule left and right in a naked grasp for personal enrichment via public office, or the constant stream of LIES LIES LIES every day, or the total opposite-ville nonsense that goes on every day with respect to climate change.... pick your favorite. But I am pissed about all of this, have been the whole time, and yeah, I'm pretty fucking outraged that people are completely cool with having a moron in charge who just wants to line his pockets while stealing their money, and they're too stupid to notice or care, apparently because FETUSES and we need to own the libs and lock her up and scary to be a white minority and stuff when you're a bigot. SO sorry.

[Phoebe]

I missed this comment:
"Democrats are doing the same with gerrymandering and voter suppression. For example, Stacey Abrams called her opponent legal, but not legitimate. That undermines faith in the system."

No. What undermines faith in the system is when a man is elected because he controlled the circumstances of his own election and disqualified thousands of his opponent's voters. Are you trying to suggest this didn't just happen? It is unbelievable to me that one of the greatest assaults on our actual democracy since the Jim Crow era happened, for real, and you want to make it some kind of partisan footsie issue where one side destroys democracy and the other side complains about it too much!

[bralbovsky]

What she said, and more.

[mimekiller]

So like 100 percent she's running right?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... CMP=twt_gu

[Tahlvin]

No idea who made this image, but it's really disturbing:

[mimekiller]

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/nancy-pe ... atic-party

[Mike]

[mimekiller]

That presenting people the same old same old and hoping Trump hate will win the day in 2020 is foolish.

[Phoebe]

Things looking pretty crazy right now. What can you say? Republicans have chosen to lie down in this bed with him and never get up from it again, and I just don't want them to take us all down with them.

[Tahlvin]

So if Trump goes to jail, will he have a Secret Service detail in there with him?

[bralbovsky]

Secret Service protection has evolved from its original treasury functions. Congress has been expanding and specifying how protection is offered and to whom.
Fundamentally, congress could decide to withdraw that protection as a response to felonious behavior.

As a side note, though I'm getting ahead of myself here, the manner and location of the funeral services is largely left to the family of the deceased, hence no state funeral for Nixon. Apparently family's choice (input from leaders at the time?)

That offer is also a product of congressional action, and could theoretically be altered.

[mimekiller]

The stuff that happened in American politics today is simply insane - and will change everything

[FlameBlade]

Seems like we are now in "if we're guilty, then so what?" phase.

[Mike]

"It looks like those clowns in Congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns"

"Heh heh. How does he keep up with the news like that?"

[Phoebe]

Did something new happen today? Give me the thumbnail version?

[Phoebe]

The only news seems to be the Russian operative in the NRA which we already knew about a long time ago. And that Republican Senators aren't concerned, because they will tolerate almost anything imaginable that allows them to retain control.

My Evangelical Christian cousins are very sure that any moment the indictments of all the pedophiles in politics will be coming down the pipe to imprison almost every known Democrat. Global climate change a Chinese hoax. So that's encouraging reason for optimism about our polity.

[Mike]

Sorry to send you on a goose chase. Mime made a joke by stating that something extreme happened that changes everything. The joke is that it is said by someone pretty much every day.

I repeated the joke as it was originally told on The Simpsons.