All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[GOLGO 13]

NRA's got a lot of 'splaining to do.

The National Russian Association is infested with Republicans.

[Michael Watkins]

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-je...r-anne-1256878

I watch nothing on fox. LOL but apparently this guy's mom let him have it.

i'm kind of surprised that he has a mother. still remember his cringe-y Chinatown people on the street interviews.

[Jack Dracula]

Maria Butina pleads guilty Thursday to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July 2017.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.999cd1a8c5ab


I can't wait for this Russian business to be over.

I assume this womans mission was to infiltrate the NRA and coerce higher-ups to accept "donations" from her superiors in exchange for directing political pressure wherever the Russians desired.
It makes me wonder what other organizations the Russians have infiltrated. I doubt they stopped with the NRA.

[Kirby101]

NRA's got a lot of 'splaining to do.

Why does the NRA continue to exist after being unmasked as a conduit for Russian money to effect our elections. Acorn was ended after one shady video. Do Conservative organization get a pass where progressive ones don't?

[PaulBullion]

Why does the NRA continue to exist after being unmasked as a conduit for Russian money to effect our elections. Acorn was ended after one shady video. Do Conservative organization get a pass where progressive ones don't?

Yes.

....................

[BeastieRunner]

Why does the NRA continue to exist after being unmasked as a conduit for Russian money to effect our elections. Acorn was ended after one shady video. Do Conservative organization get a pass where progressive ones don't?

Damn man, you went straight to the jugular.

My guess would be, "The rules apply to you but not us."

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Why does the NRA continue to exist after being unmasked as a conduit for Russian money to effect our elections. Acorn was ended after one shady video. Do Conservative organization get a pass where progressive ones don't?

Pretty much. The NRA still has a strong lobby in Washington with who knows how many politicians from both sides of aisle (but mostly Republicans) in their back pocket to keep themselves afloat in the halls of power. Just an opinion.

[GOLGO 13]

Pretty much. The NRA still has a strong lobby in Washington with who knows how many politicians from both sides of aisle (but mostly Republicans) in their back pocket to keep themselves afloat in the halls of power. Just an opinion.

St. Mueller is gonna find out who took that nasty Russian money. Then somebody needs to look at what if any actions they took on behalf of the Russian govt/sanctions.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Analysis: A ‘loud gong’: National Enquirer’s surprise deal could imperil Trump

The National Enquirer’s parent company has agreed to tell prosecutors everything it knows about Donald Trump — and it might know a lot.

In a court document released Wednesday, the tabloid publisher, American Media Inc., admitted to coordinating a hush-money payment with Trump’s 2016 campaign, reversing two years of denials. The confession came as part of an immunity agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, made public shortly after Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison over charges of tax fraud, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.

But the disclosure might just be scratching the surface. Based on court documents and a plethora of media reports, Trump and his aides have worked for years with the tabloid to kill incriminating stories. AMI’s CEO David Pecker also had a decades-long copacetic friendship with Trump.

Legal experts say that could mean more legal peril for Trump, who has already been implicated in directing Cohen to work with the National Enquirer during the 2016 campaign to pay women in exchange for their silence about alleged affairs.

The immunity deal, said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor from Northern Virginia, “is a huge red flag and loud gong against the president.”

[Gray Lensman]

Pretty much. The NRA still has a strong lobby in Washington with who knows how many politicians from both sides of aisle (but mostly Republicans) in their back pocket to keep themselves afloat in the halls of power. Just an opinion.

I think it is more due to the relative power the NRA has as opposed to ACORN. One is a very old group that politicians used to live in mortal fear of angering (and one side still pretty much does) and the other was a young group without any serious clout.

Although I'm pretty sure the current tribalistic mentality of 'nothing we do is wrong, everything you do is' exacerbates it. The NRA was dug in by itself, the current climate means it is entrenched.

[BeastieRunner]

So, yesterday with the latest Mueller releases, Cohen sentencing, and the second spy taking a plea deal ... the real estate portion, the Manafort/Jared/Junior collusion portion, and the Russian loan portions of the Steele Dossier were proven true.

That leaves the leverage portion, 2016 election influence portion, the pee pee tape, and the proxy wars portions unresolved.

So much for a fake dossier.

[Iron Maiden]

You mean WWE style nonsense. WWF (World Wildlife Fund) style negotiations would be a good thing.

Ooops .....you're right. fixed it.

[InformationGeek]

Well this is just pure evil. Just simply evil and despicable on every level. I will hear no argument saying otherwise cause there is none.




From MSNBC for a different site discussing this in a less sarcastic manner:

Federal authorities have arrested 170 immigrants who came forward seeking to sponsor migrant children in government custody, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

ICE said Tuesday that the arrests were of immigrants suspected of being in the United States illegally and took place from early July to November. They were the result of background checks conducted on potential sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children placed under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Nearly two thirds of those arrested — 109 in total — had no criminal record, the agency said. Another 61 of those arrested did have criminal records, but ICE did not specify the crimes and said it could not break down convictions by violent and nonviolent offenses.

The arrests follow a move by President Donald Trump's administration earlier this year that allowed immigration authorities to examine the criminal background and legal status of anyone who steps forward to sponsor unaccompanied migrant children — usually parents or close relatives already in the U.S. — as well as any other adults living in their home.

That rule allowed ICE to collect biometric data, including fingerprints, of the sponsors as well as other adults in the home.

Just under 80 percent of people screened by ICE during the sponsorship process showed results that they were not in the country legally, the agency said.

The number of arrests was first reported Monday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Advocates are worried that the rule would lead to arrests of people coming forward and leave a growing number of children in government shelters or foster care.

[Dalak]

More Russian News: Russia had a dancing man in a robot suit shill their tech sector

https://news.sky.com/story/russias-s...stume-11579376

As the "machine" danced on stage, a presenter had said: "At the forum there's the opportunity to see state-of-the-art robots. Boris the Robot has already learned to dance, and not badly at that."

In the report, the robot also appeared to speak in a metallic voice as lights flashed on its face in different colours, saying: "I'm good at maths but now I want to study art and musical composition."

But images shared online from backstage at the event clearly showed a human inside a robot outfit, through a gap between a bodysuit and a headpiece.

Bloggers found the Robot Show website where the suit, identical to the one shown in the news clip, can be purchased.

[JCAll]

More Russian News: Russia had a dancing man in a robot suit shill their tech sector

https://news.sky.com/story/russias-s...stume-11579376

Have we checked the President to make sure he isn't a Russian robot wearing a human suit?