@TimStone oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

Mnuchin and Navarro going at it, fun times

Cohen is uh, not having a great day

Cotton and the outgoing head of ICE make the short list

And Rick Perry for some reason

@TimStone *looks at ever growing list of people he's fired and then replaced*

Just...incredible

@TimStone love to hire the best people

He says "they never used it, is the main thing. They never used it. They rejected it"

Narrator: You may be wondering, "What did they reject?" Stay tuned to find out!

do people think collusion is like a magic spell that you cast?

and the russians like delivered a scroll and trump went "nah"

I mean even in that scenario we're left wondering why they never bothered to mention this odd string of affairs to anyone!

@TimStone who knew that it was illegal

I also want to know what sort of information Giuliani got from some Germans

(he was just reaching for some other nationality I guess for emphasis but that seems like an odd choice)

@TimStone magnifique

@TimStone love to drain swamps by accepting inappropriately expensive gifts

It's extra funny because "protest leaving" for tickets you didn't even technically pay for is chef's kiss

> The gifts do not violate ethics rules, as most gifts to the vice president are not subject to the federal gift ban.

wut

Yeah, the President and Vice President can accept pretty much any gift

Unless that gift is a bribe, which like, 🤷

but i thought presidential gifts were owned by the govt on behalf of the people and went to the smithsonian or something

Only from foreign countries

Which feels sorta like a random distinction but idk

@TimStone he is the worst lawyer ever

even if you know about your clients dirty secrets, your supposed to keep shut about it. not go TV and blurt it out

has he done it on Hannity's show yet, or the shows Trump advocates as not being fake news?

A lawyer is supposed to know their clients dirty secrets, they even have special privileges so they can keep their mouth shut about them

One the one hand we don't have forced service, on the other hand advertising death like that seems like a symptom of an unhealthy society

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT

imagine being a public affairs officer in any branch of the military

lmao

some colonel had to sign off on this

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahaaha

oh what fun

Hmm, avenatti is apparently threatening to sue media outlets? lawandcrime.com/opinion/…

That's not cool

Lawyers: They're Often Bad!

Infrastructure Weak

Is trump refusing to do anything that doesn't involve a) him riding fire trucks or b) every highway being renamed to trump road?

@TimStone Damn, that is a gorgeous picture of an A-10

A-10s are rad as hell and probably my second favourite plane, but seriously, what the hell

Reminds me of Jesus-juking, honestly.

"jesus-juking"?

Inserting (preferred topic) into completely unrelated conversation

I can't see the whole page because UD is blocked at work, but the Google snippet is very much on the right track

"When some [wardog] brings [A-10s] into an argument or conversation out of nowhere."

@ToxicFrog Second? Get out

What's your first?

@SaintWacko SR-71 supremacy 4 lyfe

@ToxicFrog Ooh, okay, that's fair

How do you feel about the Valkyrie?

That wasn't what I copied at all, wtf?

I'm not sure if this is in any way meaningful but it has energetic sports music so

@SaintWacko the XB-70? Meh. Kind of generic delta-wing design, never made it out of the prototype phase, and as a bomber is inherently less cool than either the SR-71 or the A-10.

@ToxicFrog The wingtips were novel, though, and it was fast

Although I do like the flying tankiness of the A-10

I like the Russian Hind for the same reason

Fair point on the VG wingtips, those were neat.

OTOH the SR-71 had variable-geometry engines and fuselage :P

@ToxicFrog Hm, I knew about the engines, but what changes on the fuselage?

Also

@SaintWacko the SR-71 fuselage is kind of loose and sloppy at rest; as it approaches supersonic flight, atmospheric heating causes the fuselage plates to expand and fit perfectly together

@ToxicFrog Ah, okay, that makes sense

But yeah, while I was in NYC I visited the Intrepid Museum, which has an SR-71 on the deck :D

Also, while we're talking about cool aircraft

Has it been mentioned in here yet that Trump has apparently been buying and selling stock while in the WH?

@Fluttershy Ffs

@SaintWacko I'll take that as a no.

@Fluttershy I wonder how much stock he dumped before announcing the tariffs...

@Fluttershy if so I missed it, but I am 100% unsurprised by this

Insider trading at a global level

If you're not grifting you're not trying.

Somebody's gotta get that paper, might as well be Trump.

Get Rich or Die Tryin

fuckin

cool

one hundred sixty two

Look everyone is super cool with living in the police state as long as the other side isn't pulling the strings

See what you really need to be concerned about is faux shows of force, not the actual every day ones that you might encounter

@Unionhawk Yes this is garbage.

@MadScientist They should stop snorting dirt.

@Unionhawk Damn I really wish I could star this

@MadScientist This is... incredible

I'm not going to click it, but what are they claiming? Erosion?

@puzzlepiece87 yes

@puzzlepiece87 Also people literally throwing rocks in the sea.

+1 for it being comically bad, -1M for repeating what your corporate masters told you to

@Arperum Ah so it's really our fault here in this room. We've ordered so many people into the sea that we caused the sea level to rise.

@puzzlepiece87 I wonder how many people by now actually believe what they're saying and how many are just desperately trying to justify their kickbacks

@SaintWacko So few people in Congress have science backgrounds that I'm sure some are literally persuadable rather than moneybags persuadable, if it came down to it.

haspel confirmed

love to resist

To be fair there wasn't much resisting of torture from 2008-2016 either

"We'll just stop doing it somewhat and not clean up the stains, probably won't come back to bite us"

trying to find the actual vote but it's not up?

an HOUR?

senate dot gov pls

@puzzlepiece87 just sweeping it under the rug seems to be the consensus on all sides on how to handle it. As far as I know nobody was ever punished, and everyone hides behind the "it wasn't declared illegal then" excuse. And then there are still people that actively advocate torture

come on I wanted to post notable votes

but NOO

ok, on cloture: For: Donnelly, Heitkamp, Manchin, Nelson, Shaheen, Warner. Against: Paul, Jones. Abstain/Absent: Young, McCain

@MadScientist And people who participated have since been promoted

@MadScientist "Wasn't illegal then because we haven't signed treaties that everyone else has"

I assume the actual confirmation will go along precisely the same lines

@puzzlepiece87 more like "wasn't illegal because we had evil lawyers back then"

doug jones welcome to the resistance

There was an interesting chapter in Comey's book about Ashcroft and the authorization of surveillance. The Bush administration, and especially Cheney and his people pushed the DoJ to authorize the stuff, but the later DoJ people said the earlier approvals were just outright wrong and not legally justified. I assume the torture stuff was handled in a similar way, with bad legal arguments

I mean they just handwaved it as "it's just enhanced interrogation not torture"

handwave

both

@Unionhawk wtf

@Ave yep

so the argument "we were told it was legal" simply ínfuriates me. Hiring unethical lawyers doesn't absolve your from any responsibility

add Flake to the list of no votes on confirmation, and Young to the list of yes votes

final score 54-45

jeff flake, rand paul, welcome

@Unionhawk this is just horrible, it's not funny at all

@Unionhawk welcome to 2002 i guess

nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/17/opinion/sunday/…

@quartata I like that it's just so transparently trying to be that while also being a particularly atrocious display of the prison industrial complex

@Unionhawk BRRRRRT

lol Candace O going full Alex Jones, amazing

@Ash Right? What the fuck

> Gov. Jerry Brown is refusing to allow advanced DNA testing that might finally resolve the question of who committed the murders, even though Cooper’s defense would pay for it. Brown refuses to allow even advanced testing of the blond or brown hairs that were found in the victims’ hands.

So, I should try to find more context about what his reasoning is...

but based solely on this...

I'm quite prepared to say this man should spend the rest of his life in prison for corruption charges and attempted murder

Because that's some pure power abusing bullshit right there

> But none of this ultimately mattered to the sheriff’s office after deputies made what they thought was a breakthrough discovery: A 25-year-old black man convicted of burglary had escaped from a minimum-security Chino prison by walking through a fence.

@Wipqozn Racism is alive and well.

@Frank No frank racism is dead. At least it is according to all those Race Realists!

@Wipqozn Race Realists are racists.

No like actually, that'a a term people use, and it's horrific

@Frank Yes

@Wipqozn I thought you were joking. That's actually a term they use?

@Frank Yeah

Horrific is the right term.

Usually alongside some statistics they've twisted and taken out of context from questionable sources

It's a way for them to support their viewpoint without criticism or denunciation of their actions.

Pretty much

It's like the red pill, and incel (I wish I had never learned that word) groups.

Also the more I read the story the more fucked up it goes.