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

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Yeah, Mecegirl, you're a known campaign killer! Digging up dirt and shoveling it in the faces of the hopeful! Why, Mecegirl? Why?

[Tendrin]

I'm not stupid, the only reason you want to know who I support is so you can dig up dirt on whoever I say, rather than responding to the actual point I am trying to make, which is why people are insisting that candidates who support policies that the majority of Americans support supposedly have no chance of winning.

Like when Bernie Sanders was leading in polls vs. Trump by double digits but people told me not to vote for him because he was a Socialist with no name recognition.

So that's a yes, keep talking in circles.

[catbellysqueezer]

So that's a yes, keep talking in circles.

You guys would know about circles, making sure progressives will never win by telling everyone they shouldn't vote for them because they will never win.

[Mecegirl]

Yeah, Mecegirl, you're a known campaign killer! Digging up dirt and shoveling it in the faces of the hopeful! Why, Mecegirl? Why?

Oh darn! My evil plot has been found out!

I'm not stupid, the only reason you want to know who I support is so you can dig up dirt on whoever I say, rather than responding to the actual point I am trying to make, which is why people are insisting that candidates who support policies that the majority of Americans support supposedly have no chance of winning.

Like when Bernie Sanders was leading in polls vs. Trump by double digits but people told me not to vote for him because he was a Socialist with no name recognition.

Real talk. We don't know **** about each other. So I'd appreciate it if you had such arguments with the people who hurt you and not me. Bernie wasn't my pick but I had no problem with his supporters during the primaries and would have happily voted for him in the general had he won. According to your misconceptions I shouldn't have backed Stacy Abrams instead of Stacy Evans. Evans was alright but I didn't see the need to scrape and beg for conservative voters. Basically do the same things Democrats have done in Georgia for the last few decades. The same thing that has not worked. Abrams has an overall plan to encourage left leaning voters and register new voters. To not run away from the progressive agenda and to actually talk about issues.Thankfully Abrams won the primary, she may not win the general cuz Georgia is backwards as ****, and may not be ready to vote in a Black female Democratic Governor. But her run will leave a mark.

Realer talk. Unless the person you support has been in the news I probably don't know of them. There are zillions of candidates out there. But you know yourself the best. If you have a habit of picking stinkers to the point that you expect people to rag on you over your choices...Then maybe don't pick a stinker? We are all adults here. I'm not gonna baby you. If your candidate sucks then they suck. Do better.

[Tami]

John Brennan: President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash

When Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s internal security service, told me during an early August 2016 phone call that Russia wasn’t interfering in our presidential election, I knew he was lying. Over the previous several years I had grown weary of Mr. Bortnikov’s denials of Russia’s perfidy — about its mistreatment of American diplomats and citizens in Moscow, its repeated failure to adhere to cease-fire agreements in Syria and its paramilitary intervention in eastern Ukraine, to name just a few issues.

When I warned Mr. Bortnikov that Russian interference in our election was intolerable and would roil United States-Russia relations for many years, he denied Russian involvement in any election, in America or elsewhere, with a feigned sincerity that I had heard many times before. President Vladimir Putin of Russia reiterated those denials numerous times over the past two years, often to Donald Trump’s seeming approval.

Russian denials are, in a word, hogwash.

Before, during and after its now infamous meddling in our last presidential election, Russia practiced the art of shaping political events abroad through its well-honed active measures program, which employs an array of technical capabilities, information operations and old-fashioned human intelligence spycraft. Electoral politics in Western democracies presents an especially inviting target, as a variety of politicians, political parties, media outlets, think tanks and influencers are readily manipulated, wittingly and unwittingly, or even bought outright by Russian intelligence operatives. The very freedoms and liberties that liberal Western democracies cherish and that autocracies fear have been exploited by Russian intelligence services not only to collect sensitive information but also to distribute propaganda and disinformation, increasingly via the growing number of social media platforms.

Having worked closely with the F.B.I. over many years on counterintelligence investigations, I was well aware of Russia’s ability to work surreptitiously within the United States, cultivating relationships with individuals who wield actual or potential power. Like Mr. Bortnikov, these Russian operatives and agents are well trained in the art of deception. They troll political, business and cultural waters in search of gullible or unprincipled individuals who become pliant in the hands of their Russian puppet masters. Too often, those puppets are found.

[Tami]

Trump Staffer Tried to Recruit Lobbyists for Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich

In the time since the election, a little-known Trump campaign staffer named Daniel Gelbinovich reached out to a number of Washington lobbyists with an eyebrow-raising ask: to shield a Putin ally from U.S. sanctions.

Two lobbyists—speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter—told The Daily Beast that Gelbinovich approached them and told them he was trying to help Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch worth more than $11 billion, find a lobbyist to help keep him from being added to the Treasury Department’s sanctions list.

Gelbinovich confirmed this reporting.

“I approached the lobbyists on behalf of a private equity firm that requested outreach for this type of work,” he said in an email to The Daily Beast. “The firm claimed that this outreach was on behalf of the individual you mentioned. I do not have a direct connection to Mr. Abramovich myself.”

Gelbinovich’s claims to have worked on behalf of Abramovich, if true, are another piece of the web of connections between Trump World and powerful Russians. And that web is already thick: Besides President Trump’s much-vaunted personal friendliness with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, Trump and his allies have a long history of doing business with Russian power players. His daughter is longtime friends with Abramovich’s former partner; his commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, invested in a shipping firm linked to Putin’s judo partner, who is under U.S. sanctions, according to The New York Times; and Trump himself teamed up with oligarch Aras Agalarov to put on the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

My point was that there were enough people who didn't like either the mainstream democrats or the mainstream republican party so they voted for the TV star who no one ( including himself) thought would win. These were protest votes and people taking a stand against "political correctness." Not votes for actual policies. Also keep in mind that a lot of conservatives stayed home election night too. It wasn't just "progressives" being too pure...

The ironic part about conservatives having withheld their ballots is that I'm guessing they knew (or at least suspected) Trump was unfit to be president and could take the country down some dangerous roads if elected. However, the alternative was Hillary Clinton whom those right wingers wouldn't so much as spit on if she were on fire, never mind vote for because A) she was Hillary Clinton, and B) she was a Democrat, and since outsiders like Jill Stein were non-entities, they basically said "Screw it, I'm not voting". I wonder what's going through the minds of those conservatives today, having seen their concerns about Trump manifested into reality, would they have put country ahead of partisanship and voted for Clinton, or was their hatred for her simply to great to overcome? I guess we'll never know.

[Kirby101]

You guys keep saying you all would love to vote progressive if they had a chance to win, but every one of you right now is actively trying to make sure they never do have a chance by telling people they have to vote for whatever slop they've got with a D behind their name and calling everyone who does vote for progressives an idiot.

You are fighting against the thing you claim to support.

No, we are saying support and vote for whoever you want in the primary, there were quite a few more progressive candidates who won this year. Then work for them in the general election. But when a Democrat that wins the Primary doesn't meet your purity test and you vote 3rd Party, you are handed the Republicans a victory. As happened in 2000 and 2016.

You are the one making sure things go in the wrong direction.

[Tendrin]

You guys would know about circles, making sure progressives will never win by telling everyone they shouldn't vote for them because they will never win.

Apparently, it's also 'declare people said things they never said'.

I voted for Benrie in the primary and vote for a raft of progressive leaning candidates in every primary. My Senator are pretty solid guys in Wyden and Merkley, and I have a pretty solid, if imperfect, governor along with a decent congressman.

Nobody is saying 'don't support progressives' if they win their primaries, nor saying 'don't vote for them in the general'. We've been over this, but apparently, it needs to be stated again.

What we /are/ saying is 'be practical in the general if your preferred candidate doesn't win a primary'. If a progressive I like wins the primary, I vote for them. If a more conservative dem I don't like wins the primary, I vote for them. I don't vote Green because the Green party is a joke party. I don't abstain from voting because there are vulnerable people who are likely to be disproportionately hurt by a Republican winning the election as opposed to things simply not improving fast enough.

Be practical, bear in mind our common interests, and don't piss away gains made because you'd prefer the perfect candidate you think you're entitled to.

[worstblogever]

On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled former New York Congressman Michael Grimm, who was sentenced to eight months in prison for 20 separate charges of fraud in running the New York health food restaurant Healthalicious, which was a decidedly sore subject considering when asked about it by a reporter in Washington, at one point, Rep. Grimm threatened to throw the guy off a balcony and “break him like a boy”. With those two factors alone (not that there weren't others), Grimm's political career seemed like it was over. But alas, Michael Grimm decided upon being released from prison to try and reclaim his old Congressional seat from Daniel Donovan. Grimm went right back to his old tricks, being slapped with an ethics complaint for having a former Trump campaign staffer working on his election campaign for free (that’s a no-no), trying to claim Dan Donovan offered to speak to Donald Trump and get him a presidential pardon if he dropped out of the race, and that baseless desperation meant he would go on to lose to Donovan by about a 2 to 1 margin. We think (and hope) this time he’s really gone for good.




In both 2016, and in 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented our original profile of the U.S. House Representative for New York’s 11th Congressional District, Dan Donovan, which is pretty remarkable considering Dan Donovan ditched out on the debates for the election in 2014, and was the district attorney who dragged his feet when tasked with bringing charges against the police officers who were caught on camera using a banned chokehold to attempt to subdue Eric Garner for the crime of selling loose cigarettes, and managed to choke him to death. In spite of digging in for police brutality, and going with the cowardly choice to let the death of Garner stand uncharged, Donovan earned the right to fulfill the role of being Staten Island's newest douchebag in Congress. Of course, looking the other way is something Donovan developed a bit of a reputation for, what with discussions as far back as 2010 in the Village Voice documented how he often failed to act against members of the Genovese crime family, when they operated illegal enterprises virtually right under his nose.

And wouldn't you know it? Once he got to Washington, D.C., Donovan has racked up a completely partisan record, trying to defund Planned Parenthood, pass 20-week abortion bans, restrict the relocation of refugees fleeing Syria, and an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He hasn’t changed much in his second term in office:

• March 28th, 2017: Rep. Donovan votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses. Well, so much for privacy.
• June 8th, 2017: Donovan votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Donovan votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Daniel Donovan votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Donovan and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.

New York's 11th District only has a +2 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index and pundits wondered how Democrats have not managed to wrest the last bastion Republicans hold in New York City away from the GOP. Especially because critics have been not disavowing Donald Trump, who most New Yorkers are quite familiar with. But he’s not stupid, he knows he doesn’t have enough of a gerrymander carved out in his district and thus voted against the American Healthcare Act, one of only a handful of House Republicans who thought kicking 24 million Americans off their health insurance might have repercussions. That’s probably at least part of the reason that Michael Grimm, fresh out of prison, decided to challenge Dan Donovan for his seat in the U.S. Congress, because he wasn’t “Trump enough”. And, Grimm went with a strategy you won’t see used in many political races, because people who went to prison usually don’t mount comebacks. Grimm started put by pointing out that Donovan got his domestic partner’s son out of going to jail on heroin charges, and then when that still didn’t help him enough in the polls, started trying to claim Dan Donovan offered to speak to Donald Trump and get him a presidential pardon if he dropped out of the race, and that baseless desperation meant Grimm would go on to lose to Donovan by about a 2 to 1 margin. However, any primary challenge still means that an incumbent has to spend effort, energy, and campaign cash in a primary.

And now, it’s the general election, and Dan Donovan is trying, and failing to come back to the center. He’s been endorsed by Donald Trump himself. Michael Grimm accused him of involvement in two major scandals. He’s also getting hit by his abysmal record on women’s rights in an election year where the vote isn’t just trending blue, but more women are turning out to the polls than they have in years.

So did the Democrats just find some schlub to run against Donovan? AW HELL NO. Max Rose not only has a great name, he’s a veteran of Afghanistan who during his service earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Since returning, he’s worked in healthcare and addiction services, which the latter skill set kind of makes him more than qualified to speak to an issue that voters these days really want addressed, the opioid crisis.

In other words, New York’s 11th looks like it’s going to be one of the most likely seats to flip blue in November, and we sure won’t be feeling sorry for Dan Donovan about it.

[Jack Dracula]

You guys would know about circles, making sure progressives will never win by telling everyone they shouldn't vote for them because they will never win.

What people are actually telling you is to vote for either a Democrat or Progressive candidate who has an actual chance of winning.

That is all.

[Iron Maiden]

Trump Staffer Tried to Recruit Lobbyists for Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich

Excellent story, Tami. IMO that's what this is all going to boil down too. Trump was shut out at the major financial institutions in the U.S after his near billion dollar bankruptcy. The term "The Donald Risk" was coined as a reference to his bankruptcies and failures to pay off loans. Jared was also starting to have problems related to getting financing. He and Trump have gone to Deutsche Bank for finanacing and Trump even has had problems there and struggled paying back a $640 million dollar loan with Deutsche Bank

Now here are the intesting parts from that article:

• Trump once told The New York Times he considers investigating his and his family’s finances “a red line” and “a violation”, but Mueller has not stopped looking into the Trump Organization.

• One move in particular seemed to trigger an outsized response: After multiple outlets reported that Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank’s records on Trump’s accounts, Trump reportedly attempted to fire Mueller, only to pull back when Mueller’s team told him those reporters were inaccurate. A U.S. official has, however, told Reuters that Mueller is investigating whether Deutsche Bank may have sold Trump Organization debts to sanctioned Russian banks. (Neither Deutsche Bank nor the Russian banks contacted by Reuters commented on whether such a transaction was made.)

So chances are Trump owes money to Russians...big time. And he's doing their bidding. If the pee tapes exists that would be extra insurance that he will obey.

[Tami]

Omarosa releases secret tape of Lara Trump offering her $15K/month campaign job

Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former reality TV star who became a top White House aide to President Donald Trump, on Thursday released exclusively to MSNBC a secret tape of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after she was fired from the administration.

The tape — which, according to Manigault Newman was made on December 16, 2017, just days after she left her White House job — appears to corroborate claims she made in her new book about receiving an offer from the president's re-election campaign. Manigault Newman wrote in her book that the job offer came with the condition of signing a non-disclosure agreement; she said she did not accept it.

In an interview with MSNBC's Craig Melvin following the airing of the excerpts, Manigault Newman said the recording was proof of "an attempt" by the Trump team "to buy my silence, to censor me, and to pay me off."

Asked by Melvin if she saw it as "hush money," Manigault Newman responded, "Absolutely."

"And that all the money that we raise and that pays salaries is directly from donors, small-dollar donors for the most part. So, I know you, you were making 179 at the White House. And I think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines," Trump continues. "Specifically, let me see, I haven't even added up the numbers. But we were talking about, like, 15K a month. Let me see what that adds up to. Times 12. Yeah."

"So that's $180,000. Does that sound like a fair deal for you?" Trump is heard saying.

Using political donations as 'Hush Money' is possibly illegal.

[BeastieRunner]

Omarosa releases secret tape of Lara Trump offering her $15K/month campaign job






Using political donations as 'Hush Money' is possibly illegal.

Not possibly illegal. Totally illegal.

[Jack Dracula]

Omarosa releases secret tape of Lara Trump offering her $15K/month campaign job






Using political donations as 'Hush Money' is possibly illegal.

I suspect their main objective was to get her signature on the NDA.