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

[PaulBullion]

While I get that it's truly newsworthy, why screw things up for folks who have managed to still remain blissfully unaware of the guy?

Every time someone has him on, I feel like it should come with a "Sorry. This is actually newsworthy." apology.

He seems to have been involved in the vast Right Wing/Russian conspiracy to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency and destabilize the Western World by installing chaos turd Trump. I think that makes him somewhat newsworthy.

[numberthirty]

He seems to have been involved in the vast Right Wing/Russian conspiracy to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency and destabilize the Western World by installing chaos turd Trump. I think that makes him somewhat newsworthy.

That would explain the "Actually..." being in the proposed apology...

The guy being on the "Newsworthy..." spectrum doesn't make him any less of a kook to have to listen to. He makes everyone to his left in the above clip look like they are the straight man in some sort of oddball comedy bit.

See here:

Mossad? ha ha anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

[Kal-El Summers]

*groans loudly*

[PaulBullion]

*groans loudly*

[Mecegirl]

*groans loudly*

I mean I guess he thinks that you could just flash your state id before cutting a deal.

[PaulBullion]

Florida Man resigns as Secretary of State in Record time

[Tazirai]

Portraying the MAGA Teens as Victims Is an Extension of Native American Erasure

As soon as the jarring video made international news, an organized media campaign quickly spun the story — turning the jeering Covington Catholic High School students into victims. And concern from both liberal and conservative media outlets shifted from confronting the issue of Indigenous erasure — why were Native people marching in D.C. in the first place? — to defending the innocence of white youth.

Although disgusting, it’s not surprising. And, in perhaps the biggest shame, this pervasive counternarrative quickly wiped the hopeful signs of the weekend out of the national conversation.

[Tazirai]

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND DEFENDS FILIBUSTER: “IF YOU DON’T HAVE 60 VOTES YET, IT JUST MEANS YOU HAVEN’T DONE ENOUGH ADVOCACY”

WITH PROGRESSIVE MOMENTUM building ahead of 2020, the range of bold agenda items a new Democrat-controlled government might work toward continues to expand. Most recently, a “Green New Deal” has joined free public college, “Medicare for All,” and a significant hike in the minimum wage as likely policy priorities. Early polls show that essentially any Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump would top him in a head-to-head contest.

“As president, would you push — hopefully — Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to get rid of the filibuster so you could pass something like ‘Medicare for All’ or a Green New deal?” Favreau asked.

Gillibrand, who is running as one of the more progressive candidates in the 2020 presidential race, demurred, an indication that the push to abolish the filibuster has a long way to go.

“The filibuster is mostly gone now, so it barely exists,” she said, going on to defend 60-vote threshold as a good thing because it forces the two parties to work together.

“I think it’s useful to bring people together, and I don’t mind that you have to get 60 votes for cloture” she said, using a procedural term for overcoming a filibuster and ending debate on the Senate floor. “That’s not an unreasonable goal, because if people don’t feel like you’re done with debate, and that they haven’t been heard enough, maybe you should debate a little more. And I think government only works when people who care deeply stand up and fight for what they believe in, and know how important their voices are; and so if you’re not able to get 60 votes on something, it just means you haven’t worked hard enough, talking to enough people and trying to listen to their concerns and then coming up with a solution that they can support. And so I’m not afraid of it one way or the other.”

[Tazirai]

Japan's commercial whaling to start in July for the first time in 31 years >.<

Japan halted commercial whaling in line with a moratorium adopted in 1982 by the IWC. Since 1987, it has hunted whales for what it claims is research, a practice criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling. The association’s ship took part in this research.

Following its withdrawal from the IWC, Japan will hunt whales in adjacent waters and within its exclusive economic zone, but not in the Antarctic Ocean, where it has carried out the so-called scientific whaling.

[Tazirai]

On CNBC, Commerce Secretary Ross downplays effect of government shutdown: "I don't really quite understand" why federal employees need food banks
Wilbur Ross on federal employees facing hardships: "There's no real reason why they shouldn't be able to get a loan"

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN (CO-ANCHOR): Mr. Secretary, I wanted to come back for just a moment to the U.S. government shutdown. While here in Davos, I interviewed Alex Karp. He's the CEO of Palantir, a major government contractor in the United States, working on behalf of the Pentagon and the Defense Department. He said that the government shutdown, he believed, was terribly damaging to the brand of our country. Do you believe that?

WILBUR ROSS (SECRETARY OF COMMERCE): I think that's a great deal of hyperbole. We've had shutdowns before, albeit for not such a long period as we've been thus far. But put it in perspective. You're talking about 800,000 workers, and while I feel sorry for the individuals that have hardship cases, 800,000 workers, if they never got their pay, which is not the case, they will eventually get it, but if they never got it, you're talking about a third of a percent on our GDP, so it's not like it's a gigantic number overall --

ROSS SORKIN: Mr. Secretary, but -- Mr. Secretary, there are reports that there are some federal workers who are going to homeless shelters to get food.

ROSS: Well, I know they are, and I don't really quite understand why because, as I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say, borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are, in effect, federally guaranteed. So, the 30 days of pay that some people will be out, there's no real reason why they shouldn't be able to get a loan against it.

[BeastieRunner]

Koch's just announced they will not back a GOP candidate in 2020. So no money from them for 2020. That's a huge blow ...

[Mister Mets]

Koch's just announced they will not back a GOP candidate in 2020. So no money from them for 2020. That's a huge blow ...

They're saying they won't back Trump for President, but could back Republican candidates for other offices. It's the same thing they did in 2016.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...lection-report

[numberthirty]

Yep.

The idea that they would completely get out of the game was/is incredibly unlikely in addition to making almost no sense.

From the article...

Spokesman James Davis told The Post the network plans to make a “significant investment to support policy champions in Senate, House and state races, build broad-based policy coalitions, and to launch a major new initiative to fight poverty in America.”

“This is where we can make the biggest difference for millions of Americans," he said.

[wjowski]

CSGOPOTD alum Richard K Jones calls for 'unity'.



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...cid=spartanntp

Bush should be in jail, not mending fences.

[numberthirty]

One other thing on the Kochs not backing Trump...

If you take a second to think it over, that is probably the least of his problems. So many ways that he is taking a hatchet to his own chances that Koch money probably won't doom or greatly benefit his odds.