Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?

[Cait]

I would caution people from getting too pumped up on this.

There's a rather large number of people who have to live on that stuff and who seem to think this is an overreaction. Too far and it's just bait for "liberal elitists" (I mean, don't get me wrong, it's fucking stupid and the claims that Trump did this as some kind of masterstroke is giving him entirely too much credit... but there's definitely some instinctive intent behind it). Nate Silver actually tweeted that he thought he'd have loved it if he was a college kid still.

Also, it actually turned out to be a hit. College kids love junk as a general rule, but these ones have a nutritionist - so they don't normally get any of this stuff! That meant this turned into a legit treat for them and they chowed down like champs. Or as one player said “I mean you’re not just gonna NOT eat the Big Macs stacked in a pile right?”

I guess you could call the whole affair a... nothingburger.

Man, ain't nobody who thinks fast food that's been sitting out at room temperature for two hours is "chowing down like champs". There've been some fake posts saying one or another of the athletes was down for it, but they've all been debunked, including that 'quote'.

[Thad]

Nah, it's more that there's a lot of piling on from the usual sources and a lot of people are saying "Hey... I like McDonalds/eat McDonalds all the time." which creates a dumb (but real) sense of sympathy. It plays to the crowd he wants it to play with and gets the "elitists" who always make fun of him to do it again.

Ain't nobody who's trying to decide whether or not to vote to reelect Trump in 2020 whose decision will hinge on this shit.

Anybody who uses something this trivial to justify their support for Trump is a person who was going to support him one way or another, is just self-aware enough to be ashamed of it, and is grasping for justification.

See also: every idiot who's ever said "well now I am voting for him, because you were mean to me on the Internet."

[Mongrel]

There've been some fake posts saying one or another of the athletes was down for it, but they've all been debunked, including that 'quote'.

You're thinking of the quote from the QB, which was certainly bullshitted into a Republican talking point because of course it was. But his original line wasn't exactly that he hated it:

No, Trevor Lawrence never said the following:

“President Trump got all our favorite foods, it was the best meal we ever had. Then we go see the coastal elite media trashing it for not being organic vegan. We’re football players, not bloggers. This was a perfect blue collar party.”

Instead, the Clemson freshman quarterback said of the White House celebration of the Tigers' College Football Playoff national championship (via TMZ Sports):

"It was awesome. We had McDonald’s and everything. It was good!”

The one I was referring to was from a different player, on their real, verified Twitter account:



And it referred to this also-real picture of said player somehow, against all odds, enjoying himself eating McDonalds (dude is clearly thinking of taking a third, lol):



I mean, maybe there've been some players who hated it, or who thought it was bullshit, but they haven't spoken up yet. So I'm not going to just assume there some simmering silent majority of college bros who hate fast food so much they won't even enjoy it occasionally.

[Mongrel]

Nah, it's more that there's a lot of piling on from the usual sources and a lot of people are saying "Hey... I like McDonalds/eat McDonalds all the time." which creates a dumb (but real) sense of sympathy. It plays to the crowd he wants it to play with and gets the "elitists" who always make fun of him to do it again.

Ain't nobody who's trying to decide whether or not to vote to reelect Trump in 2020 whose decision will hinge on this shit.

Anybody who uses something this trivial to justify their support for Trump is a person who was going to support him one way or another, is just self-aware enough to be ashamed of it, and is grasping for justification.

See also: every idiot who's ever said "well now I am voting for him, because you were mean to me on the Internet."

Well obviously. I don't think anyone was claiming this was going to change minds. This is a shore-up-the-base play that keeps the antagonism hot, because Trump revels in that conflict.

[Brantly B.]

tldr it was an attempt at a distraction from the shutdown and that's not really obvious because it's sometimes hard to think at such a lizard brain level as to actually believe "I served sweet and sour sauce in a priceless gravy dish" is going to pull the public's attention away from the fact that they are currently being used as hostages for more than a couple of tweets.

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

tldr it was an attempt at a distraction from the shutdown and that's not really obvious because it's sometimes hard to think at such a lizard brain level as to actually believe "I served sweet and sour sauce in a priceless gravy dish" is going to pull the public's attention away from the fact that they are currently being used as hostages for more than a couple of tweets.

We are on our second page of talking about it. How many posts have we spent on the shutdown?

[Z%rø]

BuzzFeed is reporting that Trump explicitly and directed Cohen to lie to congress.

Problem is, it's still just only Buzzfeed reporting it with no corroborating documents or info yet.

[Mongrel]

BuzzFeed is reporting that Trump explicitly and directed Cohen to lie to congress.

Problem is, it's still just only Buzzfeed reporting it with no corroborating documents or info yet.

Buzzfeed has actually gotten pretty good at this whole "journalism" thing, so I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand. But yeah I wouldn't take it as-is until some actual evidence is shown.

[Z%rø]

Yes, Buzzfeed and Buzzfeed News are two different entities of differing qualities. However I'd probably say the same thing if it was just one large publication saying it and everyone else saying "That Publication is saying it"

[Z%rø]

Mueller's office disputes BuzzFeed report that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress

[Mongrel]

Mueller's office disputes BuzzFeed report that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress

Very interesting choice of words by Mueller.

It's possible that the whole thing is a phony story sold to gullible reporters by an inside man who was possibly paid for info. At this point I'm pretty sure that Buzzfeed's reporters believe the story, but that hardly means it's true. But it's also possible that Mueller needs to discredit Buzzfeed's story to keep Trump from firing him or going nuclear last stand before all the chess pieces are in place, and so is using the presence of minor inaccuracies to dismiss the story.

Either way, there's now plenty of room for anyone to believe whatever they'd like to believe. OOH THE SUSPENSE

[Z%rø]

The problem I have with this whole ordeal is that by throwing that out there for no other reason than fucking clicks they have given The_Dipshits ammunition for "Fake news."

[Blossom]

I mean, the article is by a Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist. It's probably not just something thrown out for clicks.

[Z%rø]

I cannot fathom another reason why you would publish such an article in this political climate, even if you believe your source(s) to be telling the truth. To be the first to break the news? There is no political figure that will be moved by this, and there is no more public support to whip up doing this. If anything it causes more damage than good, because the investigators cannot confirm nor deny that it is true.

[Mongrel]

A journalist's duty is to inform. Ruat caelum.

[Brantly B.]

Nobody considers that Mueller might be the one lying.

[Mongrel]

Nobody considers that Mueller might be the one lying.

My first thought was that he's only telling the truth based on a technicality.

Like I said, "Not accurate" is a very deliberately ambiguous choice of words.



Incidentally, Ziro's current avatar is eerily on-topic at the moment.

[Thad]

So remember how last year Trump rejected the compromise where Democrats offered $25 billion in wall funding in exchange for extending DACA?

Yesterday he offered to extend DACA in exchange for $5.7 billion in wall funding.

After the courts ruled that he can't eliminate DACA, and one day after the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.

There are people who think this man is good at making deals.

[Thad]