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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Memo: Trump’s Mueller problems deepen, worrying allies

President Trump's problems are deepening after a dramatic week in the Robert Mueller probe, and even his allies are worried about what might come next.

Trump has become increasingly enraged about the special counsel's probe after a week in which his former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and affirmed his full cooperation with Mueller.

Mueller also stepped away from a cooperation agreement with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, accusing Manafort of lying. And the author and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi publicized a draft plea agreement with Mueller, even as he rejected that deal.

"It is something that has again taken the president way off message, and it creates a sense of political doom or disaster," said one Republican strategist with ties to the White House. "It's hard to tell what you're dealing with - until you actually have charges."

Another GOP operative had an even pithier summation: "Darkness falling," the source said.

Beyond last week's developments, there are several other potential pitfalls that worry Trump allies.

One is the relentlessness and secrecy with which Mueller works, a pattern that causes new developments to land like no-warning bombshells.

Another is the possibility of the Trump family coming under increasing focus - the new legal filings in the Cohen case describe him talking about the project with unspecified "family members."

A third factor is the incoming Congress where, in January, Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives, with the ability to set the agenda and subpoena witnesses.

Referring to the new Democratic-led House, the GOP strategist with White House ties said: "It's a huge problem. I don't think [Trump] really understands what is coming at him until it does. He is used to dealing with the reality of what the message is today but not the reality of what things will be like a few months ahead."

[norj]

Nigeria's President Buhari denies clone rumors: 'This is the real me'

Ignorant fools! He's obviously a Skrull.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Maybe I didn't pay much attention, busy as I was watching anime, college football and NFL football, but it seemed to me that Trump didn't much in the way of rage tweeting over the weekend. Could the passing of George H.W. Bush kept Trump's Twitter thumbs inactive, save for the tribute he released (and I suspect he DIDN'T write) out of respect for our 41st president? With tributes, accolades and memories of President Bush flowing non-stop over the weekend and into the new week, how long before the egomaniacal Trump gets fed up with not being the center of attention which he mistakenly believes is his God given right as occupant of the Oval Office and tweets out something abysmally stupid about either Mr. Bush, his family or tries to steer the country's focus back on him because he hates being in someone else's shadow?

Another question: Watching all the coverage of President Bush, does Trump wonder how he'll be remembered by the country years from now after the Grim Reaper taps him on the shoulder and says "Time's up"? Will there be an incredible outpouring of fondness and emotion like with President Bush, or will he be reviled because of his repugnant nature, of how he divided the country, allowed racism and white nationalism to run rampant, of how he shunned longtime allies while embracing strongmen and dictators?

[ed2962]

Maybe I didn't pay much attention, busy as I was watching anime, college football and NFL football, but it seemed to me that Trump didn't much in the way of rage tweeting over the weekend. Could the passing of George H.W. Bush kept Trump's Twitter thumbs inactive, save for the tribute he released (and I suspect he DIDN'T write) out of respect for our 41st president? With tributes, accolades and memories of President Bush flowing non-stop over the weekend and into the new week, how long before the egomaniacal Trump gets fed up with not being the center of attention which he mistakenly believes is his God given right as occupant of the Oval Office and tweets out something abysmally stupid about either Mr. Bush, his family or tries to steer the country's focus back on him because he hates being in someone else's shadow?

Another question: Watching all the coverage of President Bush, does Trump wonder how he'll be remembered by the country years from now after the Grim Reaper taps him on the shoulder and says "Time's up"? Will there be an incredible outpouring of fondness and emotion like with President Bush, or will he be reviled because of his repugnant nature, of how he divided the country, allowed racism and white nationalism to run rampant, of how he shunned longtime allies while embracing strongmen and dictators?

Long term history will judge him this way, but when he initially passes? His fans will praise him as an outsider who came along at the right to shake things up and tell it like it is. He made America great again by bringing back jobs and getting tough with foreign leaders who tried to get America to accept bad deals.

[ed2962]

By the way...

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Hell be remembered as a person for the vile **** he said. As a President, honestly he’ll probably be viewed as one of the least effective Presidents in history who benefitted from a decent economy

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Long term history will judge him this way, but when he initially passes? His fans will praise him as an outsider who came along at the right to shake things up and tell it like it is. He made America great again by bringing back jobs and getting tough with foreign leaders who tried to get America to accept bad deals.

And we're supposed to trust Trump's judgment on what constitutes a good deal or a bad deal, given how everything he's touched in the business world turned to ****, including his own casinos which went belly up on his watch?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A victim of #MeToo?

'Baby It's Cold Outside' banned by Cleveland radio station

“I really can’t stay,” intones one half of the ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ duet — and it seems one Cleveland radio station agrees with the sentiment.

WDOK Christmas 102.1 in Cleveland, Ohio pulled the song from its 24-hour Christmas rotation this week, citing listener complaints, according to local Fox 8 news.

The song, first penned by Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls) in 1944 as a duet for him to sing with his wife at parties. Loesser later sold the song to MGM for use in 1949’s Neptune’s Daughter, in which the song plays seriously between Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban, and gender-swapped for humor between Betty Garrett and Red Skelton. In the years since, the duet has become an enduring holiday classic, sung by everyone from Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart to Michael Bublé and Idina Menzel to Chris Colfer and Darren Criss on an episode of Glee.

Over the last several years, many have called the song “date-rapey” in reference to the lyrics “Say, what’s in this drink?” The song details a back-and-forth, traditionally between a man and a woman, where the man tries to convince a woman to stay the night despite her continued protests, saying, “The answer is no.”

It seems the station received a call complaining the song is inappropriate in 2018, and after a listener poll on the WDOK website supported this sentiment, they decided to ban the song from their Christmas radio play. “People might say, ‘oh, enough with that #MeToo,’ but if you really put that aside and listen to the lyrics, it’s not something I would want my daughter to be in that kind of a situation,” midday host Desiray told Cleveland’s Fox 8. “The tune might be catchy, but let’s maybe not promote that sort of an idea.”

Irony is abundant. Here we have people complaining about a song that's only heard for ONE month out of every year. Meanwhile, where's the hue and cry and outrage over "Every Breath You Take" by The Police which was said to have been about stalking? And yet, hardly a WEEK goes by, each and every month of the year that I don't hear that song at least once on my local classic rock station. Shouldn't this song be targeted as well?

[Tuck]

A victim of #MeToo?

'Baby It's Cold Outside' banned by Cleveland radio station



Irony is abundant. Here we have people complaining about a song that's only heard for ONE month out of every year. Meanwhile, where's the hue and cry and outrage over "Every Breath You Take" by The Police which was said to have been about stalking? And yet, hardly a WEEK goes by, each and every month of the year that I don't hear that song at least once on my local classic rock station. Shouldn't this song be targeted as well?

People play Every Breath You Take at weddings. They don't know what they're listening to. Same goes for U2's One.

[Gray Lensman]

People play Every Breath You Take at weddings. They don't know what they're listening to. Same goes for U2's One.

Ans Sarah Mclachlan's Possession counts as well. The song sounds like sex, but the words are apparently based on letters written to her by a stalker (who actually sued her for plagiarism. He lost.).

[Malvolio]

A victim of #MeToo?

'Baby It's Cold Outside' banned by Cleveland radio station



Irony is abundant. Here we have people complaining about a song that's only heard for ONE month out of every year. Meanwhile, where's the hue and cry and outrage over "Every Breath You Take" by The Police which was said to have been about stalking? And yet, hardly a WEEK goes by, each and every month of the year that I don't hear that song at least once on my local classic rock station. Shouldn't this song be targeted as well?

And it's not even really a Christmas song. I mean, it doesn't mention Santa or Jesus, or any holiday at all. It's all about snow and cold weather, which happen more in the two months after Christmas, if you really think about it.

That said, the lyrics are really sexist, but then so are the lyrics of a lot of songs. Take, for instance, the Beatles song "Run For Your Life." If a young artist today wrote those lyrics, he'd get roasted alive on social media.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And it's not even really a Christmas song. I mean, it doesn't mention Santa or Jesus, or any holiday at all. It's all about snow and cold weather, which happen more in the two months after Christmas, if you really think about it.

That said, the lyrics are really sexist, but then so are the lyrics of a lot of songs. Take, for instance, the Beatles song "Run For Your Life." If a young artist today wrote those lyrics, he'd get roasted alive on social media.

The same goes for "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". No one could get away with lyrics like those today either.

[Powerboy]

A victim of #MeToo?

'Baby It's Cold Outside' banned by Cleveland radio station



Irony is abundant. Here we have people complaining about a song that's only heard for ONE month out of every year. Meanwhile, where's the hue and cry and outrage over "Every Breath You Take" by The Police which was said to have been about stalking? And yet, hardly a WEEK goes by, each and every month of the year that I don't hear that song at least once on my local classic rock station. Shouldn't this song be targeted as well?

I find stuff like that to be in the category of "Choose your battles wisely". Yes, some of the lyrics are probably inappropriate even knowing the context that it was a husband and wife duet originally. But I already suspect what Right oriented sites and people I know on Facebook that are to the Right would be saying if they knew about this, that's it's the Left politically correct thought police. In other words, there's a valid objection to the song but I suspect there are more people for whom it makes the Left look trivial and that they won't be satisfied until everything they personally don't like is banned.

Here's something I find interesting though. Take it as you will. Years ago, I was on a Buffy forum. While most threads were about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there was a forum for political discussion. From time to time, people would get suspended or banned for things they said when things got heated. The people on the forum tended to be liberal.

One of the Conservatives on the board noticed that every single person that had ever been suspended or banned was a Conservative and then copied and pasted a slew of remarks from liberals every bit as bad as anything a conservative ever said in terms of insults. One of the moderators posted a statement.

He explained that the moderators really tried to avoid the Politics forum because they knew things would get heated there in the natural course of argument. The only time they ever read the forum was when someone hit the Complaint button about someone's post. Then they would come in, read the post and issue a warning. Repeat offenders would be suspended. Continual remarks would eventually earn a banning.

But the moderator explained that the reason conservatives got warnings, suspensions and bans was because it was always liberals who filed complaints about something a conservative said. In the entire history of the forum spanning seven years and more, no conservative ever filed a complaint about what a liberal said to them. It was always a liberal complaining that a conservative said something that they didn't like.

Take that as you will. I'm a liberal but I find I have no counter argument of any worth when conservatives post things like a photo of Clint Eastwood with a caption that reads, "I wish people would grow some armor and stop being so g*dd**ned over-sensitive" or when they say that liberals won't be satisfied until everything they don't like is eliminated from public discourse.

In the case of the song, I suspect the results might be surprising if they did a questionnaire of how many people do want the song to play.

[worstblogever]

Got one for WBE here.

https://thinkprogress.org/oklahoma-l...-32a127b24a83/

Oh, he's already in the queue. But thanks.

[worstblogever]

By most metrics race relations are getting better, and there are fewer racists than ever before.

Anti-Semitic attacks are up. Anti-Islamic attacks are up. African Americans are still being gunned down by police without repercussion. Oh, and things like this keep happening:



If you think things are improving, you're on something. Or have a habit of making excuses for white nationalism over the past few months. Or both.