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

[Jack Dracula]

You just undercut and trivialise them. Though that would also require the removal of lobbying and money in your government

Campaign finance reform would solve 90% of the problems with our government and, by extention our society though, since both sides benefit from PACs and mega-donors, it's not at the top of either parties list of necessary changes.

Yeah, we are a country that was by design intended to benefit rich white men, from the very start.

And this would be the reason why.

[Lammasu]

Trump is kind of like a Dark Lord of Ravenloft, where he is given all the power he wants but it ends up making him miserable.

[Surf]

Campaign finance reform would solve 90% of the problems with our government and, by extention our society though, since both sides benefit from PACs and mega-donors, it's not at the top of either parties list of necessary changes.

I can't say 90% would be solved, basic greed wants his due but this is not far off. I've heard the numbers were even higher at some estimates per our local FOX affiliate but this mid-term cycle set spending records most of which on local TV. As someone living in Indianapolis we got slammed with Braun/Donnelly ads and I always check the end to see which body paid for this and realized there are so many PACs out there. Can you imagine what a third of that would do elsewhere? It's staggering.

The Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) announces that total spending on political advertisements on local broadcast television in 2018 has set an all-time record for a midterm cycle, and any previous election cycle, based upon Kantar Media/CMAG’s latest figures.“Campaigns, PACs and other entities spent over $3 billion dollars on local broadcast television advertising in the 2018 midterm cycle,” commented TVB President & CEO, Steve Lanzano. “There is no doubt that local broadcast TV delivers for political campaigns. Candidates continue to derive tangible, winning results from local broadcast television. Tuesday’s dominant reliance on TV, over all other media platforms, demonstrates that voters rely on local broadcast TV to inform their voting decisions.”
“2018 was uncertain in every way; the volatility this cycle was unprecedented,” said Kyle Roberts, President and CEO of Advertising Analytics. “It’s why we saw candidates and campaigns go back to what is tried and true: if you use TV, it reaches voters and they listen. TV works.”
Advertising Analytics reports local broadcast TV increased more than 100 percent from the 2014 cycle. Advertising Analytics also reports that three out of four dollars spent on traditional media went to local broadcast television.

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/po...v-ads-midterms

[Iron Maiden]

Trump is at it again. He's still in a foul mood about the midterms and having to face the press afterwards. Today on the White House lawn he talked with the press briefly before heading to France. The subject about his contentious press conference came up and now he's insulting April Ryan (American Radio Network)

Of course, he brought up Jim Acosta too

"He is a very unprofessional guy," Trump said of Acosta. "Whether it was me or Ronald Reagan or anybody else, he would have done the same thing. Look, I don't think he's a smart person, but he's got a loud voice."

Then he brought up April Ryan

"The same thing with April Ryan," Trump said. "I watch her get up. I mean, you talk about somebody that's a loser. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. She gets publicity and then she gets a pay raise or a contract with, I think, CNN. But she's very nasty."

He sounds like a 12 year old but then that's insulting to 12 year olds.

[Mister Mets]

Stop making excuses for their evil, lying asses mets. It's easy to rule out. If it was incompetence they would have corrected themselves immediately and reinstated Acosta. Instead they remained the fascists they are.

I'm not making excuses for everyone. I cited a potential explanation from a mainstream news outlet that does not have a reputation for being right-wing.

Whether they should have corrected themselves immediately (yes they should have, and they have an unfortunate habit of not doing this) is a different argument than whether they used evidence they knew to be faked.

Its a system over 200 years old thats been patched multiple times long after it should have been scrapped.

What fixes are necessary, and who should have the power to come up with the new system?

And let's not forget the first native American and two Muslims elected to Congress.

Two Native American women were elected to Congress.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/polit...men/index.html

The race was called a little later in the day for Deb Haaland of New Mexico.

[kidfresh512]

Trump is at it again. He's still in a foul mood about the midterms and having to face the press afterwards. Today on the White House lawn he talked with the press briefly before heading to France. The subject about his contentious press conference came up and now he's insulting April Ryan (American Radio Network)

Of course, he brought up Jim Acosta too


Then he brought up April Ryan



He sounds like a 12 year old but then that's insulting to 12 year olds.

And they have the audacity to ask for "Respect" at the White House by reporters. He doesn't respect it his damn self.

He loves calling women nasty. Seriously April Ryan is a classy respected journalist what has she ever done to deserve that from the president of the united States. Other than report the truth which he doesn't like. And be black.

[InformationGeek]

And we have Trump lashing out at another reporter. He's losing it more frequently.

And Trump today attacked another black reporter, Abby Phillip: “What a stupid question that is,” he says to her.

[BeastieRunner]

And we have Trump lashing out at another reporter. He's losing it more frequently.

He likes guys that body slam reporters ... what did you expect?

[PaulBullion]

That was two decades ago as a Congressman, he now favors funding gun violence studies.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...0TN06O20151204

Of course, it is silly to hold something against him that only got people killed 20 years ago.

#butheremails

[BeastieRunner]

Beastie's Cartoons of the Week:

[Tami]

Trump World didn’t realize the acting AG would be seen as a ‘crackpot’

It’s not a sentence one ordinarily expects to see in one of the nation’s largest and most important newspapers: “The acting attorney general of the United States is a crackpot.” And yet, that was the first sentence in the latest column from Ruth Marcus, the Washington Post’s deputy editorial page editor.

It’s a provocative assessment rooted deeply in fact. Matt Whitaker, whom Trump appointed as the nation’s chief law enforcement official this week, is a rather ridiculous choice. We are, after all, talking about a shamelessly partisan loyalist, with a strange, far-right worldview, and with close ties to a witness who’s testified in an ongoing federal investigation.

Whitaker has bashed the federal courts. He’s condemned an investigation he’s now overseeing – and won’t recuse himself from, despite calls from 18 state attorneys general. He’s already decided what the outcome of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe should be. He’s perhaps best known for having advised suspected con artists.

Complicating matters, Matthew Whitaker is the first attorney general – acting or permanent – to ever hold the position without having been confirmed to the Justice Department by the Senate. Many experts have made a very credible case that the president’s appointment of Whitaker is plainly illegal.

The bottom line is unavoidable: this “crackpot” has no business overseeing the Justice Department of a global superpower.

All of which raises the question of how the president chose Whitaker for the position in the first place

[Tami]

Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request.

What can you do to help my campaign? he asked, according to people familiar with the meeting.

[Iron Maiden]

And they have the audacity to ask for "Respect" at the White House by reporters. He doesn't respect it his damn self.

He loves calling women nasty. Seriously April Ryan is a classy respected journalist what has she ever done to deserve that from the president of the united States. Other than report the truth which he doesn't like. And be black.

His misogyny and racism are much more apparent now that he has a knot in his knickers about how the mid term results aren't to his liking. He doesn't even bother to conceal it. This is one bad tempered, spoiled man-child. His misogyny is more severe to black women and as with black people in general, he clearly believes that they are dumb, stupid or crazy. The list we know about:

Michael Cohen says Trump told him blacks are too stupid to vote for him
Again from Michael Cohen about Apprentice contestent Kwame Jackson: Said that "There’s no way I can let this black f-g win’,
Infers April Ryan is stupid
Infers Abby Phillip is stupid
Called former friend Omarosa a "dog", "low life", and "crazed"

And we have Trump lashing out at another reporter. He's losing it more frequently.

It's getting to the point where we don't know where bottom is anymore. I know it's a long shot but I think the Democrats should look into invoking the 25th amendment and see if any of the GOP would join in. Trump is drunk with power IMO.

[PaulBullion]

Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal

Now the House may actually try to hold him accountable over clear campaign finance law violations like this.

[Tami]

There is a reason why I am posting this here

Music Reviews: Barbra Streisand

It's no surprise that fervent Hillary Clinton supporter and longtime Democratic Party fundraiser Barbra Streisand doesn't think much of Donald Trump. The surprise is that the legendary singer chose to devote much of her new album, "Walls," to a series of laments about the U.S. president's policies.

Streisand never mentions the president by name, but she doesn't have to. Opening track "What's on My Mind" speaks of her dashed hopes in the current era and asks, "How did we come to this divide?" The next one, "Don't Lie to Me," is even more direct, beginning with, "Why can't you just tell me the truth? Hard to believe the things you say."