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

[Tendrin]

I'm beginning to think that the FBI might be a little angry with the GOP.

[Carabas]

I'm beginning to think that the FBI might be a little angry with the GOP.

And I suppose they may also feel somewhat responsible for handing him his victory on a silver platter...

[Tendrin]

And I suppose they may also feel somewhat responsible for handing him his victory on a silver platter...

I feel like some of the scalps they're claiming are intended as messages. I mean, we're talking about an organization founded by J. Edgar Hoover.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

When all else fails on the day Manafort and Cohen get their tickets punched to the big house, go back to the old standby of attacking Hillary Clinton:

Sean Hannity Melts Down About Hillary Clinton On Day Manafort, Cohen Become Felons

Crowd Chants ‘Lock Her Up’ The Day Trump’s Former Aides Are Convicted Of Felonies

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When words come back to haunt you....BIG time:

Michael Cohen’s Old Tweet About Hillary Clinton In Prison Isn’t Aging Well

Lindsey Graham’s Old Comments About Impeachment Come Back To Haunt Him

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Watergate Prosecutor Hits Trump: ‘The President Is An Unindicted Co-Conspirator’

Nick Akerman said lawyer Michael Cohen’s deal means the president is in hot water. That goes without saying.

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More Russian Hacking Uncovered Ahead Of Midterms — This Time Targeting Conservatives

Microsoft described it as an effort to “disrupt democracy.” Hmm! I wonder how the GOP will react to that?

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Twitter Users Crack Up At Rudy Giuliani’s Reaction To Manafort, Cohen Verdicts

One Twitter user thinks the Space Force figures into this. Oh, but of course. This one's my favorite:

[catbellysqueezer]

I came back because this survey came up as an ad on another site. If you guys do care about universal health care and living wages maybe you can let them know:

https://my.democrats.org/page/s/issu...h_sum18-native

Peace!

[JackDaw]

Well according to BBC this morning a serving President can't be arrested. Can see arguments for that...but deep down always feel its a mistake to allow anybody to be above the law.

But I assume without that protection it wouldn't be too long before police would be outside Whitehouse, with the Donald inside saying "Come and get me, copper".

[InformationGeek]

Yesterday for Trump was an extra bit frustrating...

Wyoming state Treasurer Mark Gordon won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday, defeating Trump-backed businessman and political donor Foster Friess.

President Donald Trump waded into the race late, tweeting in support of Friess early on Election Day. Friess’ defeat capped a day of political misfortune for Trump, who was implicated in a conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws by former attorney Michael Cohen and saw former campaign chairman Paul Manafort convicted of fraud before Gordon snapped the president’s recent streak of picking winners in Republican governor’s primaries around the country.

[worstblogever]

Yesterday for Trump was an extra bit frustrating...

Oh thank goodness. Foster Friess has a profile in the works, and is another one of those people I have lined up that I hope and pray never actually gets in office.

[worstblogever]

It was three years ago on this date that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published our original profile of Cliff Stearns, a twelve-term Florida Congressman who at one point during the debate over the Zadroga Bill that would provide medical coverage for 9/11 first responders, suggested that those American heroes should have to first go through background checks to assure they weren’t on a terror watch list before they could get coverage. He was also accused of offering someone a bribe to drop out of a primary, along with a variety of other ethics violations, voiced his suspicions about President Obama’s birth certificate, and led the GOP charge in their 2011 attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. In the 2012 elections, during the primary for his House seat, Stearns underestimated Tea Party candidate Ted Yoho, got upset, and thus ended up going into an early retirement, being given a fond send-off from Republicans at the 2012 RNC.



It was on this date in 2015, 2016, and 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" shared our profiles of the U.S. House Representative from California’s 25th Congressional District, Steven Knight, who prior to being elected to Congress as a California State Senator, campaigned hard to keep the Confederate flag being sold at gift shops in the state (in spite of California not being a part of the Confederacy), showed a fervent need to uphold California’s ban on bilingual education, cast a vote against a ban on gay conversion therapy, and that he was also a supporter of Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ban in California, completing a hat trick of bigotry to be on the wrong side of African-Americans, Hispanics AND the LGBT community. Knight was also against workers’ rights, and even simple ideas like raising the minimum wage. Since arriving in Washington, Rep. Knight has been a consistent conservative vote, particularly anti-abortion legislation, supporting such laws regardless of if they attempt to redefine rape and incest, and voting for a ban on abortion at 20 weeks. We did mention how narrowly Knight was elected, and that his seat is considered vulnerable in the 2016 elections from both the left, and right, because of his reaction to anti-amnesty immigration protesters who showed up at his office on April 21st, 2015. One of the protesters shook Rep. Knight’s hand, and accused him of lying, saying he researched Knight’s vote on HR 240, and that he had “voted for amnesty for immigrants”. Now, that might not be the most nuanced interpretation of Knight’s vote (considering that the alternative was to defund the Department of Homeland Security). But perhaps the best way to respond would not have been Rep. Knight’s response, which was, “If you touch me again, I’ll drop your ass.”

Go figure, threatening to beat up your own constituents will not endear you to them.

Knight barely survived in 2016 against Democrat Bryan Caforio to get a second term in office, only garnering 53% of the vote, which is right about what the Republican lean is in his district. He apparently would still like to test the limits of what sorts of s***tiness you can get away with while serving in a swing district:

• February 16th, 2017: Knight 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: Steven Knight 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. Knight votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses.
• May 4th, 2017: Knight 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), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Knight 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: Steven Knight 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.
• October 3rd, 2017: Knight 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: Steven Knight 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: Knight 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.

After all of those votes, Steven Knight has seen protesters turn up outside of his offices, as well as at town halls he’s hosted where his constituents brought the heat over his AHCA vote and votes on broadband policies. Steven Knight will yet again be considered one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in 2018, and his seat could easily flip blue for the first time since 1993. The hope for Democrats to see that happen lies in Katie Hill, who defeated Bryan Caforio in the Democratic Primary for the seat, after being the strongest fundraiser of any candidate in the field, including Knight. She also has an advantage on volunteers, and social media presence, as well as a district that is trending more Democratic all the time.

We’re hoping that Steven Knight is sent packing in November, and that Capitol Hill gets a Congresswoman Hill.

[InformationGeek]

For those curious, someone kept track of the Trump Rally last night. Besides the whole lock her up stuff...

A man tells Trump he loves him. Trump responds, "It's a guy, but I love you too."

Trump repeats his ludicrously inaccurate monologue about how coal is "indestructible" and you "can do whatever you want" to it, unlike windmills and other kinds of energy, which are not indestructible.

Trump on West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who is tall and hefty: "He is the largest, most beautiful man."

After Jim Justice finishes speaking, Trump says, not trying to be funny, that Justice is "6-foot-11." Justice is 6-foot-7.

"He's a big man. He's ALL man," Trump says.

Trump says he would campaign more but is held back by the Secret Service, because there are so many Secret Service agents. He says he might make "a few trips without them." (.............)

Trump falsely claims that Florida Republican governor primary candidate Ron DeSantis "was at 3" per cent before Trump endorsed him. Trump's endorsement has clearly helped DeSantis, but he wasn't below the mid-teens in any poll.

Trump: "The Democrats want to turn America into one big fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens. And honestly they're more protective of aliens, criminal aliens, than they are of the people."

Trump chides "fake news," then the Russia "witch hunt." He says, "Where is the collusion?...You know, they're still looking for collusion! Find some collusion!"

Trump segues from illegal-immigrant crime to Chicago crime: "If you want to save ICE, if you want to protect our border and our border patrol, if you want to stop this craziness of sanctuary cities - take a look at Chicago, how about the mayor of Chicago? It's like a war zone."

Trump boasts of abandoning the Paris Accord. He adds, "What's a more beautiful name than 'the Paris Accord?'" He then suggests a West Virginia Accord.

Trump falsely: "We've got the cleanest country in the planet right now. There's nobody cleaner than us."

Trump on himself and "the elite": "I'm smarter than they are. I have many much more beautiful homes than they do. I have a better apartment at the top of Fifth Avenue. Why the hell are they 'the elite?' ...To me, I'm insulted."

[ZombieHavoc]

Anyone who thinks Trump is not one of the elite is a moron.

Also, re: a sitting president being unable to be arrested...I don't think the people who put this country together really knew what they were doing. At all.

[Kirby101]

Anyone who thinks Trump is not one of the elite is a moron.

Also, re: a sitting president being unable to be arrested...I don't think the people who put this country together really knew what they were doing. At all.

They didn't foresee that the Congress would be run by cowards.

[ZombieHavoc]

They didn't foresee that the Congress would be run by cowards.

True. Giving one person unchecked power of a country is crazy. I know **** was different then, but still. And I don't think they had any lofty expectations about the nature of mankind, what with the policy of importing and owning and enslaving people of other races and all. And the slaughter of the people who occupied this land first. And all the war, killing, rape and torture that had gone down in basically every other country prior to America's birth.

Hm, maybe they knew exactly what they were doing.

Anyone ever see that Masters of Horror episode 'The Washingtonians'?

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Which, I imagine, Manafort and his legal team would want to avoid. Wonder what the plea deal will be...this is better than Law & Order...

More so it might just be better as insurance for Mueller’s team. He’ll probably try an appeal and maybe they get a plea deal as with the threat of tacking on the additional charges. You know a deal that involves giving people up. He’s on the hot seat now.

Also it might be worth it just to hold on to them now in the case of a retrial and getting a situation where some judge makes the sentences concurrent so they are meaningless. It’s always better to hold onto a few bullets if you can

[Tami]

More so it might just be better as insurance for Mueller’s team. He’ll probably try an appeal and maybe they get a plea deal as with the threat of tacking on the additional charges. You know a deal that involves giving people up. He’s on the hot seat now.

Also it might be worth it just to hold on to them now in the case of a retrial and getting a situation where some judge makes the sentences concurrent so they are meaningless. It’s always better to hold onto a few bullets if you can

Rumor [and it's only a rumor] is that Trump may be considering Pardoning Manafort.