Political Randomness

[Max Peck]

Perhaps there truly is a Trump tweet for every occasion.

Weiner is gone, Spitzer is gone - next will be lightweight A.G. Eric Schneiderman. Is he a crook? Wait and see, worse than Spitzer or Weiner

A broken clock and all that.

He probably had inside information because...he was an active participant when it happened. This is like Weinstein tweeting about Drumpf being guilty of assault. Sure, it might be true, but one scumbag calling out another scumbag doesn't redeem the first scumbag.

In this case, Drumpf is the first scumbag.

What if at least two of the women separately consulted with a particular lawyer, who convinced them not to report their allegations to the police, because reasons. And then that lawyer discussed their allegations with a third party, who took the information to Trump, resulting in that lawyer being in communication with Cohen. Would any of that be weird?

[GreenGoo]

Totally normal and reasonable.

[LordMortis]

Perhaps there truly is a Trump tweet for every occasion.

Weiner is gone, Spitzer is gone - next will be lightweight A.G. Eric Schneiderman. Is he a crook? Wait and see, worse than Spitzer or Weiner

A broken clock and all that.

He probably had inside information because...he was an active participant when it happened. This is like Weinstein tweeting about Drumpf being guilty of assault. Sure, it might be true, but one scumbag calling out another scumbag doesn't redeem the first scumbag.

In this case, Drumpf is the first scumbag.

What if at least two of the women separately consulted with a particular lawyer, who convinced them not to report their allegations to the police, because reasons. And then that lawyer discussed their allegations with a third party, who took the information to Trump, resulting in that lawyer being in communication with Cohen. Would any of that be weird?

That should be funny and outrage filled at the same time, screamed from the rooftops in normal time. But you know short of firing Mueller, they've won or dancing in the streets when they sock it to Fake News if Trump is "Extending my Presidency" (beyond two terms) because "No, I'm not looking to do it. Unless you want to do it, that's OK." It's just eye roll worthy. Yep, that's Trump and yep, Rip will continue to publish the former as evidence of Deep State hypocrisy and take pride in the later, mentally parallel barring it into further displaying Trump's ability to navigate and a win a crooked game, MAGA.

[Rip]

So I am taking it you guys don't support the privacy of these women and their right to keep privileged communications with counsel private?

[Max Peck]

So I am taking it you guys don't support the privacy of these women and their right to keep privileged communications with counsel private?

Did anyone say that? I must have missed it.

It's just a weird coincidence that two otherwise unrelated people both end up with the same shady two-bit attorney who counsels them not to take their story to the police because the corrupt Powers That Be® will prevent justice from being had but then tells their story to a third party who tells it to Trump who tells it to Cohen who coordinates in some manner with his fellow attorney and then they all sit on it until it is strategically opportune to knock a highly visible Trump opponent out of the running for an upcoming election.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know whether attorney-client privilege applies if the communications are material to a conspiracy to commit blackmail, or any other crime for that matter? Asking for a friend.

[Unagi]

it's called attorney client privilege

edit: (not to Max)

[Holman]

Philadelphia. I spent half the day working the polls in support of my wife, who is running for a Democratic State Committee position.

It's a primary in an off-year election, plus we had thunderstorms with a tornado watch in the traditionally busiest part of the voting day, but the polls have closed and it appears that turnout was exceptionally high in this Blue city: almost 200,000 compared to 2014's 165,000.

And if I remember correctly, 2014 was already a high-interest race featuring a hotly contested primary choice for governor.

[Holman]

Our good PA governor Tom Wolf is unopposed in the primary, but the Lieutenant Governor is up in the air.

The incumbent Lt. Gov. is kind of bad, and tonight it looks like they're calling it for challenger John Fetterman, whose style is superbly badass:



Not that style really matters, of course. In addition to looking like a 6-foot-8 biker, Fetterman is mayor of an economically depressed PA town and a serious progressive, and he's also a Harvard grad. We've met him. I voted for him.

[Kraken]

Philadelphia. I spent half the day working the polls in support of my wife, who is running for a Democratic State Committee position.

Did she win?

[Holman]

Philadelphia. I spent half the day working the polls in support of my wife, who is running for a Democratic State Committee position.

Did she win?

Alas, no. But she did very well for a rookie.

[Rip]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... lis-218367

[GreenGoo]

I'll take one for the team.

It's an article about the normalisation of video games, specifically that some members of Congress play them and are willing to admit it.

[Isgrimnur]

Thank you.

[Rip]

They take politics seriously in Louisiana.

https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/ ... 615455002/

State Rep. Stuart Bishop and state Sen. Norby Chabert got into a fist fight at a downtown Baton Rouge bar Tuesday night in a dispute over legislation.

I actually know Stuart Bishop.

[Holman]

They take politics seriously in Louisiana.

https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/ ... 615455002/

State Rep. Stuart Bishop and state Sen. Norby Chabert got into a fist fight at a downtown Baton Rouge bar Tuesday night in a dispute over legislation.

I actually know Stuart Bishop.

Don't go drinking with him!

[Rip]

http://wach.com/news/nation-world/timmo ... -otherwise



This is why good cops should have no problem with body cams.

[Paingod]

http://wach.com/news/nation-world/timmo ... -otherwise

This is why good cops should have no problem with body cams.

Nevermind 'Good Cops' - this is why bodycams should be mandatory for every cop - beyond protecting people from abusive action by the police, they protect the police from abuse by the public. Evidence all the way around keeps everyone safe.

Maybe in another 10 years they'll be so ubiquitous that no one will question it and there will be real, serious penalties for failing to activate them or turning them off. Rapid change, compared to how long change generally takes throughout history.

[LawBeefaroni]

http://wach.com/news/nation-world/timmo ... -otherwise



This is why good cops should have no problem with body cams.

Chicago alderman.

[Sepiche]

Good lord, this election season is going to be nuts.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ ... n-bathroom

A Republican House candidate running in California’s 44th District filmed herself on Tuesday following a trans woman into a public bathroom and demanding to know why she was there.

Jazmina Saavedra, a “Latinos for Trump” spokeswoman who’s looking to unseat Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), streamed the incident via Facebook Live while at a Denny’s.

“I’m trying to use the ladies’ room right now,” Saavedra told viewers as she entered the bathroom. “And there is a man here saying that he’s a lady.”

She then pointed the camera at the cubicle and asked, “Why are you using the ladies’ bathroom?”

“Okay first off, you’re harassing me,” the woman responded. “I’m just using the restroom.”

“No, you’re invading my privacy because I’m a woman and I deserve to use the ladies’ room,” Saavedra said.

The woman asked incredulously, “I’m in the toilet, how am I invading your privacy?”

I mean, who could think of a better way to win over moderate Californians than harassing and filming a trans woman in the bathroom?

[Paingod]

Good lord, this election season is going to be nuts.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ ... n-bathroom

A Republican House candidate

Full stop. No further explanation needed. No expectation of sanity, rhyme, or reason. The GOP seems to have become the lunatic party. Even if it only seems that way because they're so under the microscope, it's still very very bad.

[Isgrimnur]

Farm bill fails

The House rejected a $867 billion farm bill on Friday — after spending days negotiating with key conservatives in an attempt to pass the bill without the support of Democrats.

The vote was 198-213. Every Democrat voted against the measure, as did 30 Republicans. Many of the GOP lawmakers are members of the House Freedom Caucus and voted no after failing to get concessions on spending and a future vote on immigration in exchange for their support.
...
The failure was an embarrassment for House leaders, who tried to pressure their members to fall in line on the farm legislation. Leaders promised conservatives a chance to vote on a hard-line immigration bill in the coming weeks, but that did not satisfy the influential bloc.

Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said leaders believed they had the votes for the farm policy, but conservatives chose to wreak havoc anyway.
...
The Freedom Caucus had extra leverage in the talks because most Democrats oppose this farm bill because of changes to food stamps.

The farm bill is generally known as the biggest safety net for millions of farmers across the country. But it also includes the Supplemental Nutrition Program — known as SNAP or food stamps. Last year, 40 million people used the program, totaling about $70 billion in spending.

Republicans and Trump want strict work requirements for people who receive those benefits, a plan Democrats reject. That left House leaders searching for conservative votes.

But conservatives oppose the amount of spending on SNAP in the bill.

[Kraken]

US births hit 30-year low

The birthrate fell for nearly every group of women of reproductive age in the U.S. in 2017, reflecting a sharp drop that saw the fewest newborns since 1987, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were 3,853,472 births in the U.S. in 2017 — "down 2 percent from 2016 and the lowest number in 30 years," the CDC said.

The general fertility rate sank to a record low of 60.2 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 — a 3 percent drop from 2016, the CDC said in its tally of provisional data for the year.

The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate – the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers.

"The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971," according to the report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Wait. How come our population keeps growing, then?

The numbers seem to correspond with what the Census Bureau and others have been predicting for years: America's population growth will increasingly depend on immigrants

Ah, there's the politics for you. Also: births usually surge during economic booms. Why not now? Proposed explanations include overall insecurity, snake people's lifestyle decisions, and (especially) stagnant incomes. This boom doesn't encourage breeding among the 90% who scarcely benefit from it.

[tjg_marantz]

Farm bill fails

The House rejected a $867 billion farm bill on Friday — after spending days negotiating with key conservatives in an attempt to pass the bill without the support of Democrats.

The vote was 198-213. Every Democrat voted against the measure, as did 30 Republicans. Many of the GOP lawmakers are members of the House Freedom Caucus and voted no after failing to get concessions on spending and a future vote on immigration in exchange for their support.
...
The failure was an embarrassment for House leaders, who tried to pressure their members to fall in line on the farm legislation. Leaders promised conservatives a chance to vote on a hard-line immigration bill in the coming weeks, but that did not satisfy the influential bloc.

Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said leaders believed they had the votes for the farm policy, but conservatives chose to wreak havoc anyway.
...
The Freedom Caucus had extra leverage in the talks because most Democrats oppose this farm bill because of changes to food stamps.

The farm bill is generally known as the biggest safety net for millions of farmers across the country. But it also includes the Supplemental Nutrition Program — known as SNAP or food stamps. Last year, 40 million people used the program, totaling about $70 billion in spending.

Republicans and Trump want strict work requirements for people who receive those benefits, a plan Democrats reject. That left House leaders searching for conservative votes.

But conservatives oppose the amount of spending on SNAP in the bill.

Fuck bipartisanship.

[Chaz]

I'm sure this will turn out to be the fault of those lousy Dems.

[Skinypupy]

It’s important to note that the Freedom Caucus Republicans who voted against the bill did so because they felt it wasn’t punitive enough to people receiving SNAP assistance.

[Isgrimnur]

Georgia

Michael Williams will have to get his hashbrown casserole somewhere else.

Williams, a Georgia Republican state senator and gubernatorial candidate, has been taking a “deportation bus” to campaign rallies across the state. But on Thursday, Cracker Barrel and several other restaurants where the bus is scheduled to stop told The Daily Beast that Williams’ campaign isn’t welcome.

The news came the same day the bus broke down — a setback Williams’ campaign manager blamed on the left.

The bus is painted with slogans like “Follow me to Mexico” and “Danger! Murderers, rapists, child molestors [sic], and other criminals on board.” In a video for his tour, which YouTube briefly took down Wednesday for violating its hate speech policy, Williams promises to “fill this bus with illegals to send them back to where they came from.”
...
Also on Thursday, the bus broke down on the side of Interstate 75 in Calhoun, Georgia, when water got into its fuel tank. It’s been repaired, the campaign said on Twitter, in a statement that blamed leftist protesters for the mechanical problems.

“We certainly would not blame this on ANTIFA [anti-fascist activists] or others who are openly plotting to damage or destroy the bus. We know the left would never stoop to such a pathetic low,” the statement read.

Before tweeting out the statement, Williams sent several tweets that appeared to show threats he received after the bus gained national media attention this week.

[Daehawk]

Trump welcomed 'Melanie' home from the hospital. Ya he misspelled her name. You'd think with all the money he paid for her he could remember her name.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/19/politics ... index.html

[GreenGoo]

It’s important to note that the Freedom Caucus Republicans who voted against the bill did so because they felt it wasn’t punitive enough to people receiving SNAP assistance.

The only reason they took so long to butcher Obamacare is that they weren't butchering it enough for the Freedom Caucus.

[hepcat]

Trump welcomed 'Melanie' home from the hospital. Ya he misspelled her name. You'd think with all the money he paid for her he could remember her name.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/19/politics ... index.html

Let’s be fair. Do you remember the name of the waiter at the last restaurant you ate in? The D can’t be bothered with remembering the name of every trophy wife he marries, for God’s sake. That's like asking him to remember who Tiffany is.

[Max Peck]

[GreenGoo]

You would think he would have added it to his dictionary by now, although I agree that auto-correct is almost certainly what happened here.

[Chaz]

He doesn't need to add it to the dictionary when he either refers to her as "my current wife" or "number three."

[hepcat]

He usually just refers to her as “dependent” once a year.

[Unagi]

I'm sure this is what happened:

On Trump's own phone, I am sure Melania would not have been auto-corrected into Melanie.

When someone else writes the message on Trump's behalf, on their own device, that's when the auto-correct kicked in and made it Melanie.

[El Guapo]

This is only quasi-related, but I saw this on the twitter feed of David French (National Review writer), and found it very amusing:

[LordMortis]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... house-lawn

[Isgrimnur]

Oregon

North Bend High School principal Bill Lucero and school resource officer Jason Griggs are being removed from their jobs in the district's settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. The firings come after complaints from former and current students, including Liv Funk and Hailey Smith, about suffering anti-LGBTQ harassment and discrimination from classmates and administration.
...
In public letters published on ACLU of Oregon's website, Funk and Smith say they were subject to repeated verbal, and at times physical, abuse by fellow students. When they brought these complaints to school administrators, they say they were either ignored or harassed further.

"The discrimination wasn't an isolated incident and it didn't just come from students," Smith writes. "When I told the principal that my civics teacher called me out in front of the whole class and said same-sex marriage was 'pretty much the same thing' as marrying a dog, the principal told me 'everybody has the right to their own opinion.' The next day, the teacher apologized, but as I walked away, he said 'don't go marrying your dog.'"

Funk adds that she was once attacked by two classmates outside the school. The boys allegedly yelled things like "I fucking hate homos" at Funk before hitting her twice with a skateboard.

When she tried to report the incident, Funk says Griggs, the resource officer told her, "being gay was a choice, and it was against his religion."

"He said he had homosexual friends," she adds, "but because I was an open homosexual, I was going to hell."
...
North Bend High School has been under scrutiny since April, when the ODE launched an investigation into the district's possible anti-discrimination law violations, including making students read Bible passages as punishment.

[El Guapo]

[Carpet_pissr]

Jesus, talk about Monday morning quarterbacking. You think it's easy murdering people?! That shit is HARD. Plus, someone has to do it...that's what leaders do...they step up and do the murdering all day long because no one else wants that job.

[stessier]

Clear evidence of how hard it is was his weight loss after executing his uncle with antiaircraft guns and flame throwers.