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

[Iron Maiden]

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Trump Limply Defends Acosta’s Handling Of Sex Abuse Case: ‘Seems Like A Long Time Ago’

The president claims he didn’t know his labor secretary once made a secret plea deal with billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein and kept it secret from the victims. Look for Acosta to suddenly resign, probably claiming that he wants to "spend more time with his family". If there's one thing Trump hates most, it's being embarrassed by his underlings, and this situation is a real mess.

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Ahhh.. and there is a link between Trump and Epstein from Trump's partying days. There's that woman that claimed that she was raped by both Epstein and Trump when she was just a teenager. And she then went off the grid a couple of years ago. She did go as far as working with lawyer Epstein. Maybe this is why Trump doesn't want to say to much about Acosta at this point.


Epstein has partied with a lot of important people, and the Clintons were among them, and this may be just the tip of the iceberg. Alan Dershowitz name has cropped up in the case the case of a then- teenaged Virgina Roberts who alleged she was being groomed as a sex slave. Part of her claim was that Dershowitz had sex with her. Let's say, what if Acosta made this special deal for Epstein to protect the powerful friends of Epstein?

[Tami]

JUST UPLOADED: In sentencing memo, MUELLER accuses MANAFORT of "bold" crimes, "some of which were committed while under a spotlight due to his work as the campaign chairman &, later, while he was on bail from this Court."

Twitter Link PDF Link to Court Document

[Tazirai]

Watch the Full Video of Sen. Feinstein’s Exchange With Young Green Activists Before You Judge Her

It all looks pretty bad for the senator. But before you jump to conclusions, be sure to watch the full video of the encounter. Sure, the cringe-worthy moments are still there like the one when she tells a young woman she “should run for the Senate” if she’s so sure about what she’s talking about. But suddenly things don’t look so terrible for the senator from California who appears to recognize straight away that children are being used as political pawns. Feinstein could have just smiled and nodded for the camera. Instead, she decided to challenge the children into thinking like legislators and what could realistically pass Congress in the current political climate.

[Tazirai]

Open letter to Sen. Feinstein regarding No Fossil Fuel Money pledge

February 22, 2019

Dear Senator Feinstein,

On behalf of the dozen organizations active in the No Fossil Fuel Money coalition, representing millions of supporters, we write to demand that you live up to your pledge to “prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits.”

On February 24, 2018, you signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge in person at the California Democratic Party’s Environmental Caucus meeting in San Diego, California.

The No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, as you know, states the following: “I pledge to not take contributions from the oil, gas, and coal industry and instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits.”

As articulated on the website, “[t]aking the pledge means that a politician or candidate’s campaign will adopt a policy to not knowingly accept any contributions over $200 from the PACs, executives, or front groups of fossil fuel companies — companies whose primary business is the extraction, processing, distribution, or sale of oil, gas, or coal.”

We’ve recently learned that during your 2018 Senatorial campaign, after signing the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, you accepted at least two major contributions that are in clear violation of this pledge:

On June 5, 2018, a $5000 contribution from the Tesoro Petroleum Corporation Political Action Committee.
On September 4, 2018, a $2500 contribution from the Phillips 66 Political Action Committee.

Oil Change Us Twitter 20hours
Sen. Dianne Feinstein - California Open Secrets

[Tazirai]

Watch the Today show interview newly elected Mayor Bernie Sanders in 1981
“Face it, you don’t find too many socialists in elected office in this country.”

VERMONT SOCIALIST PLANS MAYORALTY WITH BIAS TOWARD POOR
By MICHAEL KNIGHT MARCH 8, 1981

Olive branches and soothing balm seemed in order, and so Bernie Sanders, a 39-year-old, self-styled Socialist from Flatbush who surprised Vermont on Tuesday by narrowly being elected Mayor of its largest city, was being careful to sound conciliatory.

''I'm not going to war with the city's financial and business community and I know that there is little I can do from City Hall to accomplish my dreams for society,'' said Mr. Sanders, whose election runs counter to both this state's native conservatism and the nation's trend toward the political right.

Nonetheless, he plans to run the city with the aid of a steering committee of poor people, labor unions and other representatives of what he calls the ''disenfranchised''; to push for enactment of some form of tenants' rights or rent control measure; to tax or otherwise receive city revenues from the numerous tax-exempt educational and medical institutions here, and to investigate the morale problems of the city's Police Department.

And he said that he intended to run a city government marked by a distinct bias toward the poor. ''We're coming in with a definite class analysis and a belief that the trickle-down theory of economic growth, the 'what's good for General Motors is good for America' theory, doesn't work,'' he said today.

[Tazirai]

Warren: Native Americans should be 'part of the conversation' on reparations

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Friday that Native Americans should be “part of the conversation” on reparations, The Washington Post reported.

Warren, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, made the remarks to about 900 supporters at New Hampshire's annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner.

Warren is so far the only 2020 candidate to float the notion of reparations for Native Americans.

“I think it’s a part of the conversation,” she said when asked whether they should receive some kind of relief. “I think it’s an important part of the conversation,” she added, according to the Post.

Asked to explain her position on reparations, Warren offered few details but pointed to America's "ugly history" of racism and pointed to her bill to address housing discrimination against black Americans, the paper reported.

“America has an ugly history of racism,” Warren told attendees, according to the paper. “We need to confront it head-on. And we need to talk about the right way to address it and make change.”

“I have a housing bill that talks about more recent forms of discrimination which we also need to address head-on,” she continued.

[Tazirai]

Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad

My friends, brothers & sisters in arms, lives and limbs lost. Millions of innocent children, women, men, dead. AQ strengthened. Trillion$. Millions of immigrants. Countries destroyed — But @MeghanMcCain neocons/neolibs quest to save countries by destroying them just gets stronger

12:58 PM - 22 Feb 2019

[Tazirai]

Dem strategist says Clinton ‘absolutely’ has a role to play in 2020

Democratic strategist Jennifer Holdsworth said Friday that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “absolutely” will have a role in the 2020 elections and will act as a “surrogate” for whoever becomes the party’s nominee.

“She should not stay away — she absolutely has a role, she will be a surrogate for whoever the eventual nominee is,” Holdsworth told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Jamal Simmons during a panel discussion on “Rising.”

Holdsworth, who is the senior vice president of issues management at MWWPR Public Affairs, emphasized that Clinton may have lost the 2016 election but she still has a lot of wisdom to offer.

“She has an absolute fount of knowledge that she’s going to give all of these candidates and tell them the pitfalls that they should watch out for, but also we have to remember this was a woman who won the popular [vote by] 3 million votes,” the Democratic strategist told HillTV.

Holdsworth added that she hopes the former secretary of State will continue to meet with Democratic hopefuls — "except" for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), her chief rival in the 2016 Democratic primary.

[jetengine]

The alternative is letting third world dictators gas their people for giggles. Americas problem is ignoring that when you knock a country down you need to pick it up again.

[Tazirai]

United Methodist Church To Debate LGBTQ Clergy And Same-Sex Weddings

The topic has become increasingly contentious in recent years, as more United Methodist clergy have come out as gay. United Methodists are among the last mainline Protestant denominations to address the issue, and some worry it could cause a major rift in the church.

"It's a little nerve wracking for a group of people you don't really know to make a decision about you," said Daron Smith, who's gay and a lifelong United Methodist in St. Louis.

This weekend, more than 860 delegates from across the world will convene for a four-day conference, where they'll debate and likely vote on one of three proposals.

One would allow same-sex weddings and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy — while also giving church conferences outside the U.S. the power to prohibit these practices.

[Tazirai]

[Tazirai]

Justice Democrats Helped Make Ocasio-Cortez. They’re Already Eyeing Their Next Targets.

WASHINGTON — Less than a month into the 116th Congress, Sean McElwee, the liberal co-founder of Data for Progress, rattled off a list of sitting Democratic House members who should face a primary from the left, his exposition punctuated with dismissive expletives.

There was Representative Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts, a moderate, perennial primary target who voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010; Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, who raised money for a Republican House incumbent last year as a popular Democratic challenger was closing in; Representative Daniel Lipinski, an old-school Chicago-area politician who has voted against gay marriage and tried to sink Obamacare; and Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has clashed with one of the highest-profile liberal freshmen, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Mr. McElwee, a pollster and political adviser, has floated all of those names to Justice Democrats, a small grass-roots organization that burst onto the political scene last year after coordinating Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning primary defeat of Joseph Crowley of New York, the No. 4 Democrat in the House at the time.

“These are a lot of ideological contests for the soul of the Democratic Party,” Mr. McElwee said.

So far, Justice Democrats has publicly confirmed its intent on only one primary challenge — against Mr. Cuellar, who infuriated the left when he raised money for Representative John Carter as the Democratic challenger, M.J. Hegar, was gaining traction.

But more are coming, and the organization’s ambitions to replace more centrist Democrats with liberal candidates have inspired other clusters of insurgency — and pushed progressive policies to the forefront of the liberal agenda. The conflicts — both generational and ideological — burst into the open again on Friday when children with the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate-change advocacy group, pressed Senator Dianne Feinstein, a moderate California Democrat, to embrace the so-called Green New Deal in an extended confrontation that instantly went viral.

[Mister Mets]

Sanders is getting a post announcement bump.

A new poll shows him with 27 percent in New Hampshire, more than enough for first place, even with Biden in the race.

http://emersonpolling.com/2019/02/23...n-sen-shaheen/

[numberthirty]

R. Kelly had to hand in his passport and is out on bail. He is facing charges that could put him away for 7 years.

While the rest of it is strictly "Rumor Mill", it seems like that seven could be the tip of the iceberg. Some of the usual names are saying that there are existing investigations outside of what might get him the seven years.

Edit:

Caught a bit about his bond hearing on the late news. Unless I misheard what was said, they were talking seventy years and not just seven.

[Tazirai]