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

[Carabas]

I'm only going to say this one more time, and if you don't want to look at it factually, tough ****. Go pester other people because I did not vote correctly in your opinion.

Trump got 56.9% of Indiana's popular vote in 2016.

Hillary got 37.9%. All other candidates (Stein, Johnson, any write-in candidate) got 5.2%.

Assuming all the "protest voters" had, in your ideal state of mind, voted for Hillary, she would have still been crushed by a margin of 56.9% to 43.1%, and since the popular vote doesn't win elections in this country (unfortunately), my vote was still thrown away because I'm not an Evangelical Protestant who only cares about guns and banning abortions in the Mississippi of the Midwest. Only four counties voted Hillary.

Numbers don't lie in this situation.

You're forgetting that quite a lot of protest votes went to Trump. Far more than to all of the third party candidates combined, probably.

[Dalak]

And another user ignored.

Don't have time for lecturing on what an idiot I was because I didn't vote correctly and therefore I'm disqualified from engaging in discussions.

Again; go after people who didn't vote at all.

Personally I've bitched at everyone I know who didn't vote, and you can quote me saying that if half the people who think their vote didn't count actually voted the whole political map would be vastly different on more than one occasion in the last thread. I also live in a red state that went for Trump but voted for Clinton in the general, regardless of the fact that I still don't like her personally. Thus I bitch at everyone who voted for Trump and anyone other than Clinton who wasn't Trump as she was the best chance we had to avoid him once she got the nomination.

Rather than talk about why you didn't vote Clinton though I'm interested in why you voted specifically for Johnson - What about him made you think "This guy deserves to be my president"?

[Mecegirl]

The Daily podcast had an episode on the debate over Nancy Pelosi this morning.

https://www.nytimes.com/podcasts/the-daily

[BeastieRunner]

Manafort Trial Updates:

Judge Ellis is signaling the jury expects to reach a verdict this afternoon on Manafort.

Jury asked for sentencing ranges.

Judge indicated the pauses were for a medical condition and that will not be unsealed (possibly because it was a juror).

Jurors asked for the sealed portions to be unsealed immediately after the verdict. Judge affirmed.

Judge stated some names will be redacted as to not taint another case.

Judge agreed to give the media the filed motions requesting sealed discussions and records from the trial be made public. Also the names and addresses of jurors and alternates will be made public.

Judge: “A thirsty press is essential to a free country.”

Judge indicated one seal will remain till Team Mueller requests it to be opened.

[Dalak]

Judge indicated one seal will remain till Team Mueller requests it to be opened.

. . . don't worry, I can sea myself out.

[BeastieRunner]

. . . don't worry, I can sea myself out.

Haha! I thought we'd get a rose joke first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_sealing

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump cancels military parade, blames D.C. officials for high cost

No surprise Caramel Caligula blamed others for this messterpiece that should never have been given life. Here's something from this piece that made me arch an eyebrow like Spock:

The estimate for the parade had risen substantially since Trump's announcement in February when White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told Congress the price could be between $10 million and $30 million.

The cost was initially reported as $12 million, and was based on the cost of the victory parade held in the capital after the 1991 Gulf War, said the official. The Washington Post estimated the cost of the 1991 victory parade as $8 million.

A defense official told NBC News on Thursday the internal estimate of the cost of the parade rose to $25 million after adjusting for inflation. But that estimate did not take into account expenses borne by other federal agencies and some non-military line items.

I bolded that sentence for a reason. The rocket scientists in Trump's White House based his ego stroking farce on estimates that were TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OLD. Christ on a crutch, these boneheads could literally **** up a wet dream.

[Jack Dracula]

How many people on here arguing against him would not support a Democrat if the single issue they didn’t support was abortion or gay marriage? My guess is quite a few.

I would vote for the person because I have enough intelligence to figure out that nothing will happen if the Dems can't take back Congress. Not just the one thing that I want, but nothing good anyone either Progressives or Mainstream Democrats want.
In fact life will actually get much, much worse for just about all of us.

[Mister Ferro]

[InformationGeek]

In weird/Trump news, the president seemed to have gotten into argument over Apocalypse Now.... with Vietnam Vets.

According to Suebsaeng’s sources, the meeting between Trump and several Vietnam veterans was arranged by estranged former aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who at the time served as a liaison between the president and veterans’ organizations.


During the meeting, a dispute broke out over whether Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now” used napalm or Agent Orange against Vietcong forces. Apparently, Trump falsely believed that it was Agent Orange that U.S. forces used against the enemy, despite the fact that the movie’s single most famous line is Duvall’s character saying, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

“Multiple people — including Vietnam War veterans — chimed in to inform the president that the Apocalypse Now set piece he was talking about showcased the U.S. military using napalm, not Agent Orange,” Suebsaeng reports. “Trump refused to accept that he was mistaken and proceeded to say things like, ‘no, I think it’s that stuff from that movie.'”

One veteran who was present at the meeting described it to Suebsaeng as “really f*cking weird.”

[Kirby101]

In weird/Trump news, the president seemed to have gotten into argument over Apocalypse Now.... with Vietnam Vets.

Agent Orange thinks it was Agent Orange? Of course it wasn't, he is truly a muddle headed dolt who has no grasp on the concept of truth.



This is just a movie, but the same thinking is going to crash the Economy (he doesn't understand tariffs) or cause a war.

[Kirby101]

This is what Agent Orange looked like. In case there could be any confusion.

[Ragged Maw]

The white fratboyness of that post is blinding. Lemme get my shades!

As far as I can tell, he’s remained classy here on this thread, opposing political leanings or not.

[JCAll]

Don't have time for lecturing on what an idiot I was because I didn't vote correctly and therefore I'm disqualified from engaging in discussions.

I like discussion. It it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd honestly like to know what drew you to Johnson as a candidate, and what others could do to garner such support in future election cycles.

[JCAll]

The responses in this thread have made me even less likely to vote for a Democrat. It's like they have all their posts pre-screened by Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

That's not fair, a lot of people here were vocally against DWS and were glad when she was replaced. She did her job poorly for far too long.