Reddit Politics Summary Saturday Jan 6th 18

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This is a digest of the top posts on reddit/r/politics over the last 24 hours.
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Trump: My winning presidency 'on first try' shows 'genius....and a very stable genius at that'

(30784) (comments)

• Questions surrounding Trump's fitness for office have intensified after the release of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," by author Michael Wolff. The book contains explosive claims, including doubts among Trump’s senior aides about his mental fitness for office.

Trump says on Twitter he is a 'very stable genius'

(5663) (comments)

• The tome triggered an acrimonious and highly public split between Trump and Steve Bannon, who was ousted last year from the White House from his perch as one of the president's most trusted lieutenants. Since excerpts were published earlier this week, author Michael Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," has sent shockwaves through the political world.
• "Fire and Fury" relies heavily on anecdotes and private conversations that Wolff wrote he believes are true — but in many instances are either contradictory or unverified.

Donald Trump suggests he wants US law to limit free speech in wake of publication of explosive new book

(5329) (comments)

• The book has caused a storm of controversy and has left the president facing questions about his mental state, with quotes in Fire and Fury suggesting that even those close to Mr Trump had questioned his capability. Early on Saturday, Mr Trump wrote a string of messages on Twitter where he rejected such claims, saying he was a "very stable genius" whose two greatest assets are his "mental stability and being, like, really smart".
• Mr Trump also called Mr Wolff a "fraud" and the book "a complete work of fiction", saying that "he doesn't know me at all" and said that he had not been interviewed in the White House as Mr Wolff has said.
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan were also present for the two days of talks, with the Republican party facing a year where they will also battle to keep control of the US Congress in November elections.

Donald Trump ‘Chronically Unfaithful’ To Melania Trump, “Fire and Fury’ Book Claims

(4868) (comments)

• The author claims Trump called Melania a "trophy wife" and took pleasure in bedding the wives of his friends.
• In short, it's irresponsible and yet another 'journalist' looking to profit off the Trump family and this administration," said Melania’s communications director.

Trump boasts that he’s like really smart and a very stable genius amid questions over his mental fitness

(3041) (comments)

• Wolff said he spent a total of three hours talking with Trump during the campaign and after Trump became president, but White House aides said Wolff spoke to Trump only once by phone for about five to seven minutes after he assumed office.
• Wolff paints the picture of a president who is unfit for the job and aides who come to fear Trump is not capable of, or interested in, processing information and making important decisions.
• White House aides have mounted an all-out attack on the book since it was first reported on Wednesday, calling it "fiction" and a "complete fantasy." And Trump's lawyers sent cease-and-desist letters to Wolff and his publisher demanding they not release the book.

You're Not NeverTrump Unless You're NeverRyan and NeverMcConnell

(3029) (comments)

• It was about how this was the week in which all the smoke cleared, and all the wires were revealed, and all the illusions dispelled, and all we were left with was the simple, terrifying fact that the President* of the United States is a half-senile old fool whose own people don’t think is up to the job of selling apples from a steam-grate, let alone running the Executive branch of an established democracy. It also was about the shameful cowardice and dereliction of duty on the part of the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, the members of which would rather destroy the lives of the poor and unfortunate than undertake their constitutional duty of reining in a White House gone completely mad.
• I put Michael Schmidt’s Friday morning scoop together with the revelations from Michael Wolff’s sensational book and determined, rather loudly, that we are governed by people who, if they do not fit the constitutional definition of being traitors, are behaving like traitors in all but name. I hung some bright lights on the fact that, just in the last week, Republicans have called for investigations into Hillary Rodham Clinton, James Comey, Huma Abedin, and Jerry Brown, none of whom have done anything except inconvenience the grifter-in-chief and his worthless spalpeens.
• Not long ago, the Republicans defending the president* committed themselves to a line of defense that depended vitally on the FISA warrant issued against the Trump campaign having been prompted by the now-famous—and largely substantiated—"Steele dossier." They then broke a lot of rock trying to convince people a) that the dossier was a fake, and that b) it was a Democratic plant in the first place.

Americans Haven’t Been This Poor and Indebted in Decades

(2945) (comments)

• One of the lesser oddities of the Trump era is that the president and his party have managed to achieve historic levels of unpopularity — even as the unemployment rate has fallen to a decade low, and the stock market has soared to all-time highs.
• This is largely a testament to the extraordinary toxicity of Donald Trump’s persona, and the heinous unpopularity of his party’s policy priorities.
• As I’ve previously noted, we’re living through the weakest recovery in postwar history — one that’s left the prime-age labor-force-participation rate near decade lows, underemployment above pre-recession levels, and wage growth too tepid to compensate for mounting household debt.

Colbert: Trump 'accidentally started a national book club' for 'Fire and Fury'

(2569) (comments)

• Author Michael Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," quickly sold out in Washington, D.C., and became the No. The book's publisher had expedited its release date to accommodate for high demand after excerpts were published in New York Magazine.

We tested the effects of hiding downvotes in r/politics. Here's what we learned

(1012) (comments)

• Working on a short timeline and expecting the platform to change reddit’s design any day, we assembled a quick pilot study that we hoped would offer further evidence on the question, even if it wouldn’t provide a conclusive answer. From July 31st through September 7th, we tested this idea by using a CSS rule to hide reddit's comment downvote button on randomly assigned days and looking for systematic differences.
• Based on this research, I can say that hiding downvotes does not appear to have had any of the substantial benefits or disastrous outcomes that people expected.
• First off, I don't think people are likely going to fail to upvote a comment they passionately agree with, or downvote a comment they passionately disagree with.

Saturday Morning Political Cartoon Thread

(172) (comments)

• Some organizations he funds also incite riots and murder." There's not a single crime, even in this lunatic's biased opinion. E: Not to mention, his description of George Soros is actually more true of the Kochs than Soros. "The leftist billionaire donated hefty sums to Hillary’s campaign and to the Clinton Foundation. He also donated big money to anti-Trump protest organizations.