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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Consider yourself fortunate, I suppose, that he isn't giving direct orders to your president.

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"Putin must be smiling as he watches Trump carry out his agenda"

"Every day, it seems, brings another load of disturbing information about President Donald Trump's interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A few days ago, we learned that Trump's behavior was so troubling that the FBI opened a counter-intelligence investigation to find out if Trump was working, "on behalf of Russia against American interests." The probe merged with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, so we don't know what Mueller may have concluded.

More recently, we discovered that Trump has held five face-to-face meetings with Putin for which he made sure there was no written record, not even for his own top staff to review, going as far as confiscating the notes from his interpreter and warning him not to repeat a word of what he heard. Details from those meetings are even more troubling.

Trump spent two hours talking with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in July 2017 on the day he found out the US media were about to reveal explosive information that top Trump campaign figures met in 2016 with a Kremlin-linked lawyer at Trump Tower. The next day, on the flight home, Trump dictated a misleading email about what his campaign staff discussed with the Russians.

On top of this soaring mountain of tectonically suspicious behavior, we learned that Trump has repeatedly told his aides he wants to pull the US out of NATO, a move so drastic, and so clearly beneficial to Russia, that it must rank far, far above Putin's wildest dreams. It would essentially destroy NATO, with incalculably dangerous consequences, at a steep cost to the United States..."



https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/opini...tis/index.html

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans continue looking the other way and keeping slient while Trump carries on these shenanigans. Either from fear of the Orange Menace, or because they're slurping Russian rubles like he probably is.

[aja_christopher]

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans continue looking the other way and keeping slient while Trump carries on these shenanigans. Either from fear of the Orange Menace, or because they're slurping Russian rubles like he probably is.

Like I said in an earlier post, it will be interesting to see just how far they'll go to cover for him.

It was the same with Bush, and since then, they've only gotten worse.

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"Lindsey Graham says Trump's Syria statements emboldened ISIS"

"Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that he is concerned President Donald Trump's statements about Syria have emboldened ISIS and called on the President to rethink his decision to withdraw US troops from the country after the terror group claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion that killed US service members in the city of Manbij.

Graham, who was a harsh critic of Trump's plans to bring home US troops from Syria when the decision was announced last month, interrupted the confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee William Barr to weigh in on the attack.

"My concern, by the statements made by President Trump, is that you set in motion enthusiasm by the enemy we're fighting. You make people we're trying to help wonder about us. And as they get bolder, the people we're trying to help are going to get more uncertain. I saw this in Iraq. And I'm now seeing it in Syria," he said..."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/16/polit...ump/index.html

[Kevinroc]

Poll: Trump Approval Down, Slips With Base

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/68553...lips-with-base

While the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, President Trump's approval rating is down, and there are cracks showing with his base.

A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds Trump's approval rating down and his disapproval rating up from a month ago. He currently stands at 39 percent approve, 53 disapprove — a 7-point net change from December when his rating was 42 percent approve, 49 percent disapprove.

And the movement has come from within key portions of his base. He is:

Down significantly among suburban men, a net-positive approval rating of 51-to-39 percent to a net-negative of 42 percent approve, 48 percent disapprove. That's a net change of down 18 percentage points;
Down a net of 13 points among white evangelicals, from 73-to-17 percent approve to 66-to-23 percent approve;
Down a net of 10 points among Republicans, from 90-to-7 percent approve to 83-to-10 percent;
Down marginally among white men without a college degree, from 56-to-34 percent approve to 50-to-35 percent approve, a net change downward of 7 points.

[jetengine]

Putin can smile as much as he likes, his nation will fall into chaos within a month of his death and then the West will shred it economically.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Damnable quote by Cohen

"Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, said on Thursday he paid a firm to manipulate online polling data "at the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump."

"As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging," Cohen wrote on Twitter on Thursday, "what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it."

But I'm sure the far right will continue to blindly follow trump.

[Tami]

Putin can smile as much as he likes, his nation will fall into chaos within a month of his death and then the West will shred it economically.

All of his remaining Oligarchs will be fighting among themselves, or grabbing as much of their wealth as possible and running away. It will be much like the Ukraine and other countries where dictators were toppled.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Damnable quote by Cohen

"Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, said on Thursday he paid a firm to manipulate online polling data "at the direction of and for the sole benefit of" Trump."



But I'm sure the far right will continue to blindly follow trump.

Well, it's either that, or admit they had been wrong to support Trump in the first place, and to them, that's a bridge too far. I have no doubt right wingers will find a way to spin that revelation to where it makes Caramel Caligula look like a hero.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Putin can smile as much as he likes, his nation will fall into chaos within a month of his death and then the West will shred it economically.

Perhaps. But then, Putin's successor (and let's not kid ourselves, there's no doubt he has one) might be an even worse strongman than Vlad. Then there's the not so little matter of the country's nuclear arsenal, who gets control of that after Vlad shuffles off this mortal coil? Putin's successor? The government? The military?

[Starter Set]

The after Putin phase is sure going to be a critical time for Russia. One thing Putin sure isn't is stupid, i can't imagine that this subject hasn't already crossed his mind and that he hasn't already started to shape his successor.

[Tendrin]

The after Putin phase is sure going to be a critical time for Russia. One thing Putin sure isn't is stupid, i can't imagine that this subject hasn't already crossed his mind and that he hasn't already started to shape his successor.

You'd be surprised. Many authoritarians like Putin don't.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

You'd be surprised. Many authoritarians like Putin don't.

That they're indestructible and will live forever? I suppose Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi thought that way (and were proven wrong, of course), and maybe Kim Jong Un does. But, I suspect Putin is a whole lot smarter than that and, like Batman, has all sorts of contingency plans in place to cover everything from injury, illness to assassination attempts.

[jetengine]

The issue with making a successor is they often want their role NOW or end up being incompetent.

[Starter Set]

You'd be surprised. Many authoritarians like Putin don't.

Like him or not, but he has always been quite the patriot. He knows that once he's gone his country is going to face a challenge with the vultures at the door and of course from inside.

The man is only 66 though. The coffin is maybe not a priority just right now lol. But that's an interesting question no doubt.

[Dalak]

Trump administration separated thousands more migrants than previously known

"More children over a longer period of time" were separated at the border than commonly known, an investigator with the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general told reporters Thursday morning. "How many more children were separated is unknown, by us and HHS."

The report sheds new light on the Trump administration’s controversial efforts to deter border crossings by separating migrant families. House Democrats who’ve condemned the separations as inhumane have vowed to investigate the administration’s handling of the policy and its health effects on separated children.

The first separations began in 2017 and were seen as a trial balloon for the “zero-tolerance” policy announced by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May 2018, an HHS official told POLITICO.

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Immigration rights groups have long faulted the administration for undercounting the number of separated children. An Amnesty International report in October 2018 concluded that about 8,000 “family units” — a term inconsistently applied by the border patrol to individuals as well as families — were separated at the border across 2017 and 2018.

A reminder of why letting Trump/Pense/Whichever 'Modern Republican' stay in the WH in 2020 is unacceptable.

[Tendrin]

The issue with making a successor is they often want their role NOW or end up being incompetent.

This is one of the reasons authoritarians don't groom a successor. It's essentially undermining yourself, in some ways, and most of them are too afraid to do so. Putin may not be, but we'll see.