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

[Tami]

Neil deGrasse Tyson warns 'scientifically illiterate' electorate

Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, Neil deGrasse Tyson joins Ari Melber to discuss when the military has a higher duty than Presidential orders and the historic importance of science and technology for National Security. Tyson also comments on the consequences of an “under-informed” electorate, noting that the “unraveling of an informed Democracy” occurs when those in power think “the wrong things about objective truths”.

[aja_christopher]

I thought he said he was in Jersey watching the Muslims cheer the towers coming down on 9/11. Oh well, that must have been later in the day.

How to win the Republican Nomination:

[aja_christopher]

How to win the Democratic Nomination:

[aja_christopher]

Republican leadership in action.

------
"As Trump embraces more tariffs, U.S. business readies public fight"

"After months of waging a behind-the-scenes war against President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs that have escalated far beyond what business groups once imagined, more than 60 U.S. industry groups are launching a coalition on Wednesday to take the fight public. Emergence of the group, Americans for Free Trade, comes after Trump has warmed to the use of tariffs, implementing billions of dollars worth in an effort to use them as a threat to win concessions or in the belief they will create U.S. jobs.

“A lot of other interest groups thought they wouldn’t go this long or go this deep, but the layering effect (of tariffs) has finally gotten everyone to say: ‘Enough is enough,’” said Nicole Vasilaros, the top lobbyist for the National Marine Manufacturers Association, whose members are weighing laying off workers after seeing costs rise as much as 35 percent.

Trump has imposed 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, mostly industrial machinery and intermediate electronics parts such as semiconductors. A pending $200 billion list would extend further into consumer goods, and the threat of an additional $267 billion would basically cover every Chinese export to the United States. China has threatened retaliation, which could include action against U.S. companies operating there. Washington has demanded that Beijing better protect American intellectual property, cut its U.S. trade surplus, allow U.S. companies greater access to its markets and roll back its high-technology industrial subsidy programs.

The business coalition includes groups representing some of the nation’s largest companies. Among them, the American Petroleum Institute, which represents the largest refiners like Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents companies like Target Corp and Autozone Inc.

“There has been a lot of work that has been going on over the last eight months to try to persuade the president and the administration that tariffs are not going to work. Our view is that it’s not too late,” said Dean Garfield, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Microsoft Corp, Google owner Alphabet Inc and Apple Inc.

While Trump threatened tariffs on the campaign trail and ended America’s participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership, a large multinational trade pact, few observers took his threat seriously. Trump has since demonstrated he is serious on tariffs, ramping up the attacks on China, threatening car import levies and pushing for a more pro-American North American Free Trade Agreement, even at the risk of killing the three-country pact.

The coalition grew out of weekly meetings featuring industries organized by the National Retail Federation (NRF), whose members include Amazon.com, Macy’s Inc and Walmart Inc.

“This is almost every sector of the American economy involved,” said David French, the top lobbyist for the NRF.

The group will target Republican members of Congress in five states - Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee. While not engaging in electioneering ahead of Nov. 6 elections where control of Congress is at stake, it will urge constituents to discuss the trade issue with lawmakers. The group plans to expand that effort to a dozen states by the end of the year.

Members of Congress have failed to slow Trump’s protectionist march and few have been willing to speak publicly for fear of arousing the ire of Trump and the Republican base. The coalition hopes to push Republican lawmakers to press Trump to abandon tariffs by convincing him that his trade policy could undo his tax and deregulation push.

“The sugar high of the lower taxes and the reduced rules that have fueled the stock market since the president was elected are in jeopardy,” said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association, whose members include IBM Corp and Facebook Inc. He warned that some of his members were considering layoffs.

“It’s been this kind of slow build that got worse and worse and worse. I don’t think anybody in D.C. saw this coming.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1LS0B6

[aja_christopher]

More Republican leadership in action.

------
""Federal deficit soars 32 percent to $895B"



http://thehill.com/policy/finance/40...ercent-to-895b

[Iron Maiden]

The voters never learn.... The GOP cripples us with debt while making the wealthy even more wealthy....and then the Democrats have to get us out of it.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Breaking: Trump admin took millions from FEMA for ICE detentions



After the disastrous response to Hurricanes Maria and Harvey, after the disastrous situation created by the Trump Adminstration's 'Zero Tolerance' Policy in which children were taken from their parents, the Trump Adminsitration has foudn a way to make both even worse.

They took nearly 10 million from FEMA, money needed to deal with the aftermath of Hurricanes like Florence, and is giving it to ICE to build Internment camps for immigrant families. Internment camps like those used for Japanese Americans during WWII.

I await the Trump supporters defense of this one as well. Man alive they gotta spend time defending terrible horse **** daily.

[JCAll]

Sooo.... yeah.

Ya know, if we could convince the President that protecting the polar ice caps was really about letting ICE "cap" brown people, we might be able to get the funding to turn around global warming.
But that would require teaching the idiot slang, and I don't think he's smart enough to learn anything.

[JCAll]

I await the Trump supporters defense of this one as well. Man alive they gotta spend time defending terrible horse **** daily.

"How could he have known there would be hurricanes during hurricane season."
"Illegal children kill more people than hurricanes."
"I really don't care, do you?"
Etc, etc, etc...

[PaulBullion]

Chris Pappas, an openly gay member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, won the Democratic primary for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, beating back Maura Sullivan, an Iraq War veteran and former Obama administration official, as well as Levi Sanders, who had not been endorsed by his father Bernie.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Breaking: Trump admin took millions from FEMA for ICE detentions



After the disastrous response to Hurricanes Maria and Harvey, after the disastrous situation created by the Trump Adminstration's 'Zero Tolerance' Policy in which children were taken from their parents, the Trump Adminsitration has foudn a way to make both even worse.

They took nearly 10 million from FEMA, money needed to deal with the aftermath of Hurricanes like Florence, and is giving it to ICE to build Internment camps for immigrant families. Internment camps like those used for Japanese Americans during WWII.

Can't say I'm at all surprised. After the Carolinas and Virginia are demolished by Florence (though I pray that doesn't happen), Trump had BETTER step up to the plate with a hell of a lot more than paper towels. His administration has already dropped the ball twice and that's unacceptable, I fear third paltry response is in the offing.

====================

6 Years Ago, North Carolina Chose To Ignore Rising Sea Levels. This Week It Braces For Disaster.

Confronted with Hurricane Florence, North Carolina prepares for a state of emergency.

**********

Twitter Users Torch Trump Over Fist-Pumping, Thumb-Raising 9/11 Commemoration

The president’s commemoration of a national tragedy began with an arrival that was less than solemn. Well, what can you expect from a man-child who lacks so much as one iota of empathy?



Meanwhile....

**********

Twitter Eviscerates Trump For Extremely Minimal ‘17 Years’ 9/11 Tweet

The president noted it’s been 17 years since 9/11. OK then. I for one am elated our president knows basic math.

**********

Bob Woodward Says ‘Key’ Trump Official Told Him New Book Is ‘1,000-Percent Correct’

The famed reporter said the unnamed official phoned him after passages from “Fear: Trump in the White House” began leaking last week. can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

**********


Ron DeSantis’ Choice Of A Latina Running Mate Is A Pathetic Pandering Attempt

In the wake of Andrew Gillum’s historic victory in Florida’s Democratic primary last month, Ron DeSantis (President Donald Trump’s hand-picked successor to Republican Rick Scott) is pandering to weary Latino voters by recruiting State Rep. Jeanette Nuñez as his running mate in his bid to become Florida’s 46th governor.

This tactic ― putting a Latino candidate on the ticket ― is a favorite and familiar tactic of Republicans to deceive voters on the cruelty of their agenda and distract them from their extremist positions.

Nuñez is a Cuban-American and Miami native who has served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives. Throughout her time in public service as a state legislator, Nuñez, a Republican, has repeatedly been a reasonable voice among the extremists of her party. She consistently stood up to her colleagues whenever attempts to pass legislation targeting immigrant communities came before the state house, and her thorough understanding of how Florida’s diverse population contributes to the state’s economy has earned her a rapport with immigration advocates.

So why, and how, has Nuñez gone from an ally of immigrant and Latino communities to a lieutenant governor candidate on an unapologetically Trump-endorsed ticket?

It’s quite simple, actually: Her party needs someone to defend DeSantis’ racism and sell his Trump-inspired policies in Spanish. How else could anyone expect Latinos and immigrants to consider electing a man who has promised to bring Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda to one of the nation’s most diverse states?

By picking Nuñez as his No. 2, DeSantis is hoping to dilute his image as a Trump enabler and loyalist and instead appear as a reasonable and sensible candidate to minority voters in Florida counties like Broward and Miami-Dade.

DeSantis is so close to Trump that it’s unfortunately easy to see that his decision to recruit Nuñez is nothing more than another sad attempt by the Republican Party to cajole Latinos. After all, Nuñez is now the first Cuban-American woman to be chosen as a lieutenant governor candidate in Florida. But even this cannot mask the fact that, if elected governor, DeSantis would take the state of Florida as far right as he and his Trump-loving supporters want.

[Iron Maiden]

What I think is interesting so far about what I've heard about Woodward's book is the sources he has mined for this. I missed Woodward's appearance on Rachel Maddow's show but caught some of the highlights on Lawrence O'Donnell. He thinks that from the excerpts that were discussed is that it's fairly obvious (although maybe not to Trump yet) that his former lawyer John Dowd (who is quoted as calling Trump a f***ing liar) and Rob Porter, the fired staff secretary were interviewed are used as sources. Dowd is a bit odd because of that client/lawyer relationship & confidentiality. Nothing has been said about it but I wonder if even Omarosa was one of them since she could have tapes of a lot of meetings/encounters that no one's heard yet.

[worstblogever]

Chris Pappas, an openly gay member of the New Hampshire Executive Council, won the Democratic primary for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, beating back Maura Sullivan, an Iraq War veteran and former Obama administration official, as well as Levi Sanders, who had not been endorsed by his father Bernie.

Bernie's own kid couldn't get elected?

It's almost like Sen. Sanders isn't half the magical kingmaker that his fan club try to tell us he is.

[worstblogever]

Three years ago on this date, CSGOPOTD looked at Trey Radel, also known as “The Cocaine Congressman”, because he was busted in his home district in Florida with said Bolivian Marching Powder. As if earning that nickname weren’t enough, we also noted that Trey Radel was a big proponent of drug testing welfare recipients, because those mooches drawing government paychecks were totally spending it on drugs (meanwhile, he had a six-figure Congressional salary and was spending it on drugs). He resigned in disgrace, and has avoided politics for the better part of the past four years.



In both 2015, 2016, and 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" featured a profile of the U.S. House Representative from Virginia’s 7th District, Dave Brat, the man who upset House Minority Whip Eric Cantor in the 2014 GOP Primary for his seat, sending the incumbent packing and setting a record for toppling the highest ranking incumbent Congressman out of office in the history of the United States. Which is kind of scary, considering Brat is a Christian Reconstructionalist who cites 16th Century theologian John Calvin as an influence on his opinions of capitalism, he campaigned with ALIPAC, an anti-immigrant hate group, denies climate change and says there are scientists who say we’re undergoing “global cooling”, he disputes the separation of church and state, and claims that ISIS has already set up bases in the United States in Texas. Brat has also argued against the DREAM Act or any immigration reform, believing it would lead to “the decline of Western civilization”, and suggested that the Republicans should engineer another Government Shutdown if Planned Parenthood is not defunded.

Brat has mostly been careful about shooting his mouth off since he got into office, but still does have lapses. He called into conservative radio talk show host Sandy Rios’ show in January 2016, to rant about how President Obama made light of the GOP’s efforts to sabotage plans to provide refuge for Syrian refugees who were primarily orphans and widows, rambling in impotent rage at the implication he was cowardly (because he is):

”Last month President Obama started MOCKING Republicans and saying we were scared of orphans and widows. Well, people in the tradition know what that word means, right? That’s one of Jesus, he commands, take care of the [unintelligible, not English] the widows and orphans. Again, commands! But he is using the Christian tradition and he’s trying to bring about compassion by bonking Republicans over the head with the Bible. It’s almost a comedy routine on what compassion and love is. He’s mocking his enemies in order to compel a larger federal state using the tradition of love.”

Yeah, don’t you ever quote the parts of the Bible at Dave Brat that he knows but chooses to ignore out of political convenience, like the parts about helping the poor, and refugees! (You may now roll your eyes.) Speaking of which, in August of 2016, Brat went back on Rios’ show to say that even criticizing policies that solely benefit billionaires (like what little Donald Trump has pitched economically), even the mere talk of opposing those policies “undermines American values”. But Sandy Rios isn’t the only loon in conservative media who Dave Brat likes to hang out with. He also spends time with Alex Jones over at InfoWars, appearing on an episode back in June of 2016 and agreeing with Jones’ bald-faced lie that the Muslim mayor of London was instituting Sharia Law, and that President Obama and liberals had “allied with Islam”. Rep. Brat also praised the United Kingdon’s “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union, saying the now could “go back to restoring their culture” and restore “Judeo-Christian tradition”. Which is an interestingly bigoted point of view on the topic, frankly.

Rep. Brat is still as deranged as ever, as was exhibited in an interview with NBC News’ Katy Tur back in March of 2017, where during a discussion on Donald Trump’s claims that “President Obama did wire tapps on Trump Tower”, he began trying to first claim people should wait for evidence to be presented (he was corrected that James Comey said there was zero evidence), then tried claiming the White House had walked back those remarks, and then, when Tur started correcting him, he went completely insane and started volunteering conspiracy theories about the Clinton Foundation on the fly, because saying bad things about Hillary Clinton is the only reflexive response Trump supporters like Brat seem to have, and rambling about “fake news”.(Incidentally, Katy Tur is awesome.)

A few months later, Brat went on CNN, and when asked about how Donald Trump started attacking his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, Congressman Brat had an interesting take on why that was happening… he said it was the media’s fault. THEY MADE TRUMP DO IT.

[worstblogever]

Just… let’s look at this moron’s voting record before someone has a stroke trying to make sense of his paranoid ramblings:

• February 16th, 2017: Brat votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Dave Brat votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• March 28th, 2017: Rep. Brat votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses.
• May 4th, 2017: Brat votes for the House GOP's healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), post-partum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Brat would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Dave Brat 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.
• September 8th, 2017: Rep. Brat votes against Disaster Relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
• October 3rd, 2017: Brat 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: Dave Brat 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: Brat 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.

Dave Brat was not looking forward to meeting angry constituents as the new session of Congress began in January of 2017, complaining about “women are in my grill no matter where I go” to constituents who were friendlier to him. He eventually did host a one hour town hall the next month where he was mocked and jeered by those in attendance as he talked about repealing the Affordable Care Act, which would leave tens of millions of people without health insurance, partially because he only took questions submitted via note cards so his aides could pre-screen them and refused to let anyone in the audience ask them themselves. Still, he didn’t like the jeering and booing, so he hosted his next town hall with those same restrictions… at a church. And this time, they would pre-screen attendees by issuing tickets to attendees online.

All we know is, Virginia’s 7th Congressional District only has a +6 lean, and while someone reasonable like Eric Cantor would likely survive a mid-term election there after his party won the White House two years prior, Dave Brat could be booted from office when Election Day 2018 rolls around. His opponent is former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger, who is enough of a threat to Brat that he’s pulled out every dirty trick in politics you can think of, from posting fake campaign sides misrepresenting her stances on the issues, and trying to get dirt by having her CIA personnel file acquired by a conservative PAC and released to the public (in included her social security number and medical history). While this might not seem like a big deal to a lot folks… this is in a Virginia district that is home to many members of the American intelligence community, and they don’t take confidential information being politicized by idiots lightly. Expect the already volatile Dave Brat to come further unglued as the race has already been deemed a “toss up” even with that +6 advantage he should have.