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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Sorry, I'll try harder to phrase things in a suitably condescending manner without potholing to Sarcasm Mode.
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/06/07/day-504/
Day 504: Acid-wash.
1/ Rudy Giuliani to Stormy Daniels: "I don't respect a porn star the way I respect a career women or a women of substance." Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, called Giuliani an "absolute, disgusting pig" and demanded Trump fire him "immediately." He added that "it doesn't matter what a women's profession is. It has nothing to do with their credibility or whether they should be respected." Giuliani defended his statement, saying: "I don't have to undermine her credibility. She's done it by lying." (NBC News / ABC News / CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/politics/michael-avenatti-rudy-giuliani-comments/index.html
2/ The Justice Department will brief lawmakers next week about the FBI's use of an informant in connection with its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The new offer is a concession to Republican demands for more information about the probe. The Justice Department and FBI "are prepared to brief members on certain questions specifically raised by the speaker and other members" and allow lawmakers "to review certain supporting documents that were made available during the prior briefing." Democrats are concerned that the briefings could allow Trump's legal team with access to sensitive details of the investigation. (Washington Post / CNBC)
3/ Sean Hannity suggested that witnesses in the Robert Mueller probe "follow Hillary Clinton's lead" by destroying their personal phones before handing them over to prosecutors. Hannity told witnesses to "delete all your emails and then acid-wash your emails and hard drives on the phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer to little itsy bitsy pieces." Hand them over to Mueller, Hannity continued, "and say, Hillary Rodham Clinton, this is equal justice under the law." Hannity later insisted that he was kidding. (The Hill / Business Insider)
4/ Colin Kaepernick's lawyers plan to subpoena Trump and Pence as part of his collusion case against the NFL in an attempt to gain information about Trump's political involvement with NFL owners. One of Kaepernick's attorneys recently claimed that an unnamed NFL owner admitted under oath during a deposition that he decided not to offer Kaepernick a contract after Trump called for the firing of players who refused to stand for the national anthem. (Yahoo! Sports / USA Today / Axios)
5/ Trump's new national security adviser has not had a Cabinet-level National Security Council meeting on North Korea after two months on the job. In April, Trump blamed John Bolton for derailing the upcoming summit with North Korea after Bolton said the U.S. would make no concessions unless North Korea denuclearized. Trump instead has driven the preparation for the summit almost exclusively on his own, consulting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/07/trump-bolton-north-korea-630362
6/ France and Germany won't sign the joint G7 statement without major concessions from the U.S. on tariffs, the Iran nuclear deal, and the Paris climate accord. The joint statement details a range of policy issues that all leaders of the G7 group agree with. French president Emmanuel Macron urged the other members of the G7 to stand up to the U.S. over Trump's decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs against the European Union, Canada, and Mexico. The G7 summit is scheduled for June 8-9 in Quebec. (Bloomberg / Politico)
U.S. Renewable energy companies shelved more than $2.5 billion in renewable energy projects following Trump's tariff on imported solar panels. (Reuters)
poll/ 48% of voters say they're more likely to back a congressional candidate who promises to serve as a check on Trump. 53% say they're less likely to vote for a candidate who supports Trump on most issues. (NBC News)
Dept. of Swamp Things.
Mick Mulvaney fired all 25 members of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's advisory board days after some of the members criticized his leadership as acting director of the watchdog agency. The CFPB plans to revamp the Consumer Advisory Board in the fall by hiring all new members. "The outspoken members of the Consumer Advisory Board seem more concerned about protecting their taxpayer funded junkets to Washington, D.C., and being wined and dined by the Bureau than protecting consumers," said a spokesperson for the agency. (Washington Post)
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the U.S. has signed a deal with Chinese telecom giant ZTE to end the crippling sanctions against the company. The deal includes a $1 billion penalty against ZTE and requires that U.S-chosen compliance officers be placed inside the company. ZTE will also be required to change its board of directors and executive team within 30 days. (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/07/commerce-secretary-wilbur-ross-the-us-strikes-a-deal-with-zte.html
A U.S. district judge ordered the EPA to provide documents used by Scott Pruitt to claim that human behavior is not a "primary contributor" to climate change. (Scientific American / The Hill)
The White House asked Scott Pruitt to stop visiting a West Wing restaurant. Pruitt has complained that EPA doesn't have a cafeteria of its own or private dining quarters. (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/06/pruitt-white-house-lunch-603350
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I don't agree with the constant doom-and-gloom refrain nor the bashing of Feinstein after her rather Curb-Stomp Battle primary win, but I do agree with the article's point that funding Republican candidates, no matter how horrible they are, is a fucking disaster for the Democratic party. As recent events have proven, there are no candidates too horrible for a Republican voter to pick, up to and including unashamed pedophiles and actual Nazis. So what if a race is between two Dem candidates; that's an excellent opportunity to redirect some of that advertising money, as well as running the clean, friendly campaign everyone allegedly wants to see more of.
Trump isn't doing adequate, or any really, preparation for the North Korea summit.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/politics/donald-trump-north-korea-attitude/index.html
He's about to make Kim look good....
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.![]()
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Now would be an excellent time for our Prime Minister to actually do a thing and stand with France and Germany on the tariffs. I think even the rabid Brexiteers would leave their feathers unruffled on this one.
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Re: Democrats, I'm sure they will do a very good job winning elections when the other side puts up literal neo-nazis, but even if they win the presidency in 2020 I doubt they're going to bring particularly radical change once they get there. The Republican Party and the European Right have both got used to their opponents doing pretty much exactly what they do but nicer and with more compromise, I suspect they'll fracture completely before they allow themselves to be dragged back to the Eisenhower turf, and the Democrats don't have the cohesion or the mental equipment to make that happen because after thirty years of neoliberalism they and the wider population is almost as freaked out about socialist ideas as the Right.
This is part of a wider worry I have about current politics. The only thing the left is doing at the moment in most countries is teaming up with the centrists and sometimes the centre-right to act as a giant blocking coalition to stop the nazis, racists and crazies getting to power or doing stuff like Brexit, which leaves them permanently on the defensive. These one-party races look like a good situation for an entire campaign of nothing but policy education, but instead they're spending money on their opposition.
I for one have no intention of accepting your defeatist irrationality, there is zero reason to believe any of this and your Democrat bashing is completely unsupported by an actual evidence or logic.
This is just a terrible post that has no connection to reality.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangYeah we're not in 2001 anymore, the Democratic Party hasn't been neoliberal in quite awhile (by any actual definition of neoliberal that isn't a slur to mean "moderate or establishment person I don't like").
edited 7th Jun '18 1:33:47 PM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangTennessee hardware store has "No Gays Allowed" sign up.
TBH I don't expect even a Blue Tsunami to bring "radical change" to the country. I do expect them to do things like reinstate safety regulations, promote health care, and stop persecuting refugees.
... Actually on that last note, what is the likelihood that the UN could charge Trump or someone like the head of ICE for human rights violations and/or war crimes for the intentional separation of children from their parents?note alsonote
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - SilaswA headline from Wa Po
Someone's getting employee of the month again.
Putin's not entirely wrong, though. Trump's presidency has convinced me that Europe does need to show less deference to the US, and generally needs to stop relying on its financial and military alliance with America. Europe's leaders can't act like their interests are always going to align with America when one of America's two ruling parties has integrated Trump's views to such an extent.
edited 7th Jun '18 2:35:49 PM by DrDougsh
Well, with the UN America has a lot of power within it, and the UN itself has a pretty bad track record. Plus, the Republican party itself doesn't have a lot of faith in the UN.
Leviticus 19:34I will absolutely admit that the Democrats have been getting better and I'd much rather see them in power than the alternative, maybe I sounded rather more vitriolic than I meant to. I'm still rather skeptical about their capability to get any of that stuff done rather than fold to calls for bipartisanship and compromise, as well as their sudden change of heart when a lot of them have been in congress for these last few decades and raised a distinct lack of hue and cry at "the end of welfare as we know it" or taking huge piles of money from corporations in campaign donations until comparatively recently.
I like their platform, I have less confidence in their ability to deliver on more than small sections of it given everything Obama did has essentially been rolled up and thrown out in two years, and not because Trump is particularly libertarian. Neoliberalism in the economic "Washington Consensus" sense is still hanging on grimly, I've been listening to a lot of economics talk in the last few weeks so I forgot that it turned into a rather more vague epithet in politics.
Trump tweet dump for the last week (there's a lot)
5/31
The corrupt Mainstream Media is working overtime not to mention the infiltration of people, Spies (Informants), into my campaign! Surveillance much?
Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true!
FAIR TRADE!
6/1
Why aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show? A total double standard but that’s O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!
Canada has treated our Agricultural business and Farmers very poorly for a very long period of time. Highly restrictive on Trade! They must open their markets and take down their trade barriers! They report a really high surplus on trade with us. Do Timber & Lumber in U.S.?
6/2
....“$17 million spent, it’s a scam Investigation. Americans are being worked. We now know there was Russian collusion, with Russians and the Democrats. The Mueller team is stacked with anti-Trumpers, who actually represented Clinton people (& gave $’s to Crooked H).” Dan Bongino
There was No Collusion with Russia (except by the Democrats). When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end? So bad for our Country. Is the Special Counsel/Justice Department leaking my lawyers letters to the Fake News Media? Should be looking at Dems corruption instead?
The United States must, at long last, be treated fairly on Trade. If we charge a country ZERO to sell their goods, and they charge us 25, 50 or even 100 percent to sell ours, it is UNFAIR and can no longer be tolerated. That is not Free or Fair Trade, it is Stupid Trade!
Why is it that the Wall Street Journal, though well meaning, never mentions the unfairness of the Tariffs routinely charged against the U.S. by other countries, or the many Billions of Dollars that the Tariffs we are now charging are, and will be, pouring into U.S. coffers?
When you’re almost 800 Billion Dollars a year down on Trade, you can’t lose a Trade War! The U.S. has been ripped off by other countries for years on Trade, time to get smart! [[quoteblock]]
Same day, but this one is kind of weird(er)
[[quoteblock]]
Mattis Accuses Beijing of ‘Intimidation and Coercion’ in South China Sea [1]
Very surprised that China would be doing this?
6/3
As only one of two people left who could become President, why wouldn’t the FBI or Department of “Justice” have told me that they were secretly investigating Paul Manafort (on charges that were 10 years old and had been previously dropped) during my campaign? Should have told me! ....Paul Manafort came into the campaign very late and was with us for a short period of time (he represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole & many others over the years), but we should have been told that Comey and the boys were doing a number on him, and he wouldn’t have been hired!
Mark Penn “Why are there people from the Clinton Foundation on the Mueller Staff? Why is there an Independent Counsel? To go after people and their families for unrelated offenses...Constitution was set up to prevent this...Stormtrooper tactics almost.” A disgrace!
NBC/WSJ poll: Trump's support has gotten deeper — but not broader
Basically, the groups that already loved Trump love him more than ever, but that doesn't translate into better prospects for the GOP during the mid-terms. Also the pro-Dem groups have become more pro-Dem and still have much higher enthusiasm.
I recall something around this time last year that was talking about how you shouldn't mistake the consistent Republican support for Trump as meaning that his behavior isn't changing minds. The idea, IIRC, was that even though polls consistently show a high Republican support, that doesn't mean he isn't losing support.
Rather, Trump regretters and Republicans who never wanted him in the first place are ragequitting the party. The polls don't include Republicans who stop supporting him because most of those people stop identifying as Republican entirely.
I suspect they're referring to more of that.
edited 7th Jun '18 3:27:37 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

So today the Trump administration formally decided that it's perfectly fine for every American consumer to be ripped off
by eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I guess technically it still exists, if you can say that about an organization with 0 employees. Full article text
And of course despite doing pretty well in a lot of primaries, Democrats are poised to seize defeat from the jaws of victory
because something-something-Feinstein's-not-liberal-enough. Full article text
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw