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

[InformationGeek]

PIRRO: "Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?"

TRUMP: "I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked... If you read the article, you’ll find they had nothing... It’s called the failing New York Times for a reason..." (then pivots to Comey)

He couldn't say no. Hmmmm...

[Tendrin]

Buckle up, folks.

The Trump administration's National Security Council sought military options to strike Iran last September after a group aligned with Tehran fired mortars near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The newspaper reported that national security adviser John Bolton asked the Pentagon for military options in the aftermath of the mortar strikes, which did not hit the embassy or injure anyone. The Pentagon reportedly complied with Bolton's request, though it's unclear if a serious plan was developed or if President Trump was aware of the request.
“We continue to review the status of our personnel following attempted attacks on our embassy in Baghdad and our Basra consulate, and we will consider a full range of options to preserve their safety and our interests,” Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told the Journal.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4...ke-iran-report

[Mister Mets]

Former Obama housing secretary Julian Castro joins 2020 campaign. His only government experience was a cabinet secretary and a town mayor.

Of course Herbert Hoover's only political experience was US Secretary of Commerce, which is an appointed office, not elected by the people.

In fairness, San Antonio isn't a town. It's the seventh most populated city in the United States, and has more residents than New Hampshire or Maine.

A specific problem with the qualifications of a former mayor is that the mayor doesn't do a whole lot. The city manager had most of the power, although mayors have increased their share lately.

https://therivardreport.com/is-scull...-on-the-mayor/

Man, come on.

You have a bunch of folks on this board say that it was Comey that cost HRC the election. If anything like that was the case, Sanders clearly didn't "Help Destroy..." HRC's chances.

Either they were wrong about Comey costing her the elections, or your premise is incredibly flawed.

It can't be both at the same time.

Given how close the election was, it could be argued that a lot of things tipped Trump over.

"Rashida Tlaib's profanity got 5 times more cable coverage than Steve King"

"Rep. Rashida Tlaib's (D-Mich.) profanity about impeaching President Trump received five times more coverage on cable news than Rep. Steve King's (R-Iowa) questioning of why white supremacy is considered offensive, according to data collected by the liberal non-profit Media Matters for America.

Details: Tlaib's call to "impeach the mother***er" got more than two-and-a-half hours of air time from MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, 24 hours after the comment was made. The bulk of the coverage came from Fox News, which devoted 52 minutes to Tlaib. King's comments on white supremacy received less than 30 minutes of cable news time from the same three outlets in the first 24 hours.

Fox News covered it for 42 seconds."

https://www.axios.com/cable-news-ras...21072a5d6.html

There are other factors here. Tlaib is a new face, so she's going to get covered more than someone who is known to be a shitheel.

There is also universal condemnation of what King said on the right. There's more disagreement about whether what Tliab said was wrong, so the debate is worthier of coverage.

First former head of state weighing in on this massive scandal:

Estonians have many reasons to worry about Russian aggression.

[aja_christopher]

There are other factors here. Tlaib is a new face, so she's going to get covered more than someone who is known to be a shitheel.

There is also universal condemnation of what King said on the right. There's more disagreement about whether what Tliab said was wrong, so the debate is worthier of coverage.

If there were "universal condemnation" of King's actual white supremacist sentiment on the "right", then he wouldn't be a long-standing Republican Senator. The reality is that Steve King -- like Donald Trump -- simply says openly what many Republicans are thinking.

The only reason there is any "condemnation" whatsoever is because King is finally being held accountable for his racist politics and -- like Trump -- Republicans are only concerned in so much as it might hurt their chances at re-election.

Paul Ryan has already made it clear that even when "textbook racism" is in play, Republicans need to stay united and support one another.

Of course he jumped ship shortly afterwards, which speaks volumes about said party as well.

Everyone from Colin Powell to Michael Steele to Geraldo Rivera to Tim Scott have called out Republicans for their racism, Mets so let's not got trying to pretend Republicans suddenly have "seen the light" with regards to said behavior, especially when they just elected Trump to the White House and continue to both protect and enable his openly racist policies on an almost daily basis.

[4saken1]

Man, come on.

You have a bunch of folks on this board say that it was Comey that cost HRC the election. If anything like that was the case, Sanders clearly didn't "Help Destroy..." HRC's chances.

Either they were wrong about Comey costing her the elections, or your premise is incredibly flawed.

It can't be both at the same time.

Actually, yes they can! This is why Republicans don't rely on a single silver bullet to win elections, they throw a bunch of shit against the wall and see what happens.

Lemme throw a situation out with made up numbers and you tell me which one caused Hillary to lose in it - Let's say the Comey bombshell caused 0.9% of Hillary voters to stay home. Butthurt Berniebros who decided to vote for Stein instead made up 0.7%. The people who listened to the bullshit argument that 'Both sides are just as bad' and made up their minds before the Comey statement just stayed home on Election Day comprised of 0.8% of the votes Hillary needed to win. In this scenario, if Hillary had 1.5% less votes than she needed to win, which one of these factors was at fault? Answer - ALL OF THEM!

Unfortunately, there are plenty of other factors besides Third Parties and voter apathy as well that Republicans rely on to help them win Elections, like voter disenfranchisement, the Electoral College, gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, etc. In most cases, none of these singlehandedly hands them Elections, but combined they do!

[Tami]

Americans blame Trump and GOP much more than Democrats for shutdown, Post-ABC poll finds

By a wide margin, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than congressional Democrats for the now record-breaking government shutdown, and most reject the president’s assertion that there is an illegal-immigration crisis on the southern border, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Support for building a wall on the border, which is the principal sticking point in the stalemate between the president and Democrats, has increased over the past year. Today, 42 percent say they support a wall, up from 34 percent last January. A slight majority of Americans (54 percent) oppose the idea, down from 63 percent a year ago.

The increase in support is sharpest among Republicans, whose backing for Trump’s long-standing campaign promise jumped 16 points in the past year, from 71 percent to 87 percent. Not only has GOP support increased, it has also hardened. Today, 70 percent of Republicans say they strongly support the wall, an increase of 12 points since January 2018.

[aja_christopher]

King was Trump before Trump was cool (with Republicans).

Fortunately for King, racism was always cool with the Republican party -- even Lincoln was a white supremacist.

"Lincoln said "your race are suffering, in my judgment, the greatest wrong inflicted on any people...but on this broad continent, not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours."

Frederick Douglass condemned the President's remarks. "No sincere wish to improve the condition of the oppressed has dictated" his words, Douglass wrote. “It expresses merely the desire to get rid of them, and reminds one of the politeness with which a man might try to bow out of his house some troublesome creditor or the witness of some old guilt."

-----



"Before Trump, Steve King Set the Agenda for the Wall and Anti-Immigrant Politics"

"Years before President Trump forced a government shutdown over a border wall, triggering a momentous test of wills in Washington, Representative Steve King of Iowa took to the House floor to show off a model of a 12-foot border wall he had designed.

And long before Mr. Trump demonized immigrants — accusing Mexico of exporting criminals and calling for an end to birthright citizenship — Mr. King turned those views into talking points, with his use of misleading data about victims of undocumented immigrants and demeaning remarks about Latinos.

Immigration is Mr. Trump’s go-to issue, his surest connection to his most faithful supporters, and his prime-time address on Tuesday night underscored his willingness to use fear and misleading statements to appeal to voters — just as he did with warnings about a migrant caravan before the midterm elections.

The Republican Party hadn’t always intended to go this route: Officials tried for years to come up with broad-based immigration reform that would appeal to growing numbers of Latino voters. But Mr. Trump’s preoccupation with the wall and anti-immigrant politics reflects how he has embraced the once-fringe views of Mr. King, who has used racist language in the past, promotes neo-Nazis on Twitter and was recently denounced by one Republican leader as a white supremacist.

With the federal government in a third week of paralysis over a border wall, Mr. Trump’s positions are a reminder of how Mr. King’s ideology and his language maligning undocumented residents helped shape the Republican message in 2016 and 2018 and define Mr. Trump’s agenda and prospects for re-election. Mr. King may have been ostracized by some Republicans over his racist remarks and extremist ties, but as much of the nation debates immigration, his views now carry substantial influence on the right..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/u...tion-wall.html

[Tami]

Sen. Ted Cruz defends Trump's record on Russia as 'tougher' than Obama's

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz defended President Donald Trump Sunday amid reports that are raising new questions about the president's relationship with Russia, insisting that Trump's record shows he has been "tougher" on the U.S. adversary than past presidents.

When asked about The New York Times report that broke Friday — which says Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey triggered a counterintelligence investigation into whether the president was wittingly or unwittingly working to benefit Russia — the Texas Republican said the focus on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation is a Washington-centric fascination.

"When you get outside the Beltway, I don't see anyone concerned about this at all," he said.

"If you compare objectively, President Trump's policies to Russia compared to President Obama's policies to Russia — by any measure, President Obama was much easier, was much more gentler on Russia," Cruz said.

[Ragged Maw]

Americans blame Trump and GOP much more than Democrats for shutdown, Post-ABC poll finds

SEE? This is what I was getting at in my last post! Even if Trump tries to heap the blame on Democrats somehow, he still pretty much bragged to high heaven on media outlets about being able to play the "shutdown" card in order to get his wall made in the first place. Now again, how much does he care about getting re-elected?

[wjowski]

At this point all Pelosi and Schumer need to do is carry around a voice-clip of Trump saying he'd gladly take responsibility for the shutdown every time they're questioned by reporters.

[Iron Maiden]

.....and the fifty zillion times he said Mexico was going to pay for the wall.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

SEE? This is what I was getting at in my last post! Even if Trump tries to heap the blame on Democrats somehow, he still pretty much bragged to high heaven on media outlets about being able to play the "shutdown" card in order to get his wall made in the first place. Now again, how much does he care about getting re-elected?

Your guess is as good as mine. However, Trump still has support among Republican voters who are still demanding the wall and won’t accept anything less. As long as Trump has his base who’ll have his back come hell or high water, he’ll stick to his guns, ignore polls (unless they’re on Faux News) and continue holding federal workers hostage.

[Kirby101]

The US should not negotiate with foreign agent hostage takers.

[PaulBullion]

Estonians have many reasons to worry about Russian aggression.

So do we, Metshusala, so do we.

[SquirrelMan]

Who's gonna tell Jon?