All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[BeastieRunner]

Even if the whistle blower complaint turns out to be false, it's a felony to impede or otherwise slow down or withhold a whistle blower complaint.

It's Nixon all over again. The coverup will more than likely be the actual crime. I'd bet on it.

[Mister Mets]

Lemme guess, Kid Jackboot (Stephen Miller) wrote that speech. That sounds like the sort of ridiculous **** the administration's resident Nazi would spew out of his piehole.

Stephen Miller is Jewish, and doens't hide his ancestry.https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.pre...ment-1.7547113

But it doesn't work. In both government and the private sector, offering more money doesn't get the best people. It just gets greedy people who run things into the ground just for their own short term gain.

I don't think anyone joins congress because they really want the salary. People I disagree with, like AOC, could probably make a lot more money elsewhere. With her talents and passion, she could certainly be a talking head on some liberal network without selling her soul. And if she were willing to sell her soul, she could be a spokeswoman for Phillip Morris.

One of the impressive aspects of the 2018 Democratic freshmen was how many had good positions in the Obama administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/u...istration.html

We want to make it worthwhile to these people to seek elected office. This doesn't mean we should offer movie star-level salaries for members of Congress, but I don't think the current combination of salary and benefits is too high.

Its being practical not pessimistic. There is a reason Pelosi was being cautious. And she was right. But, this Ukraine thing and the changing story and the clear implication he was literally withholding aid until they agreed to investigate Biden....I mean.

That's why I think the smart thing is do your investigation but all Democratic surrogates have to help educate. They have to keep harping on the endgame that GOP controlled Senate will NEVER impeach. It doesn't matter what they find. This is being done because one party still believes in the Constitution and doing its duty regardless of GOP just being the arm of trump. Fox News will be harping on the new Witch Hunt until this is over or the election. Democrats have to fight the misinformation and expectations or it looks terrible.

Pelosi's been pretty smart about how she handled impeachment talk. She always left the opportunity to go if there's new evidence or new activities.

And Nate Silver summed it up well. She's leaving some off-ramps for Democrats if the story doesn't match expectations, or persuade the public.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Re: the Nazis being "leftist" stuff. I think these far right nutjobs that spout this nonsense rely on people being ignorant of history, which in many cases is more accurate than we like to think. I mean, Nazis put millions of Jews, Roma, and people with disabilities to death in concentration camps. They were trying to create a pure race by brute force and they were also eliminating any opposing parties by murder. Among those that were purged were union leaders, and socialists or communists who disagreed with Hitler and his party.

It's scary how the word 'socialist' is all it takes to manipulate the far right into thinking Nazis were lefties.

[numberthirty]

Even if the whistle blower complaint turns out to be false, it's a felony to impede or otherwise slow down or withhold a whistle blower complaint.

It's Nixon all over again. The coverup will more than likely be the actual crime. I'd bet on it.

If it's a felony or not is almost beside the point. Just that the Executive Branch said "No." as plainly as it did is where Congress should put it's foot down.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Stephen Miller is Jewish, and doens't hide his ancestry.https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.pre...ment-1.7547113

So what, even Hitler had Jews fighting in his army.

[worstblogever]

OH WBE! Get a load of the balls on this guy!

Jesus Christ. Texas Republicans.

The GOP are lemmings, ready to run off a cliff for Donald. F***ing. Trump. Like, flash back five years ago, and would you have predicted they would be this fanatically loyal to anyone, but of all people...


They really did go insane.

[worstblogever]

So what, even Hitler had Jews fighting in his army.

And I'm pretty sure Mets has impotently wielded the "Ahem, I'll have you know Stephen Miller is Jewish, so he can't be a White Nationalist or Neo-Nazi" argument at least twice, and it's as lame every time.

[Godzilla2099]

A huge blunder, At the very least she should have waited until Winter or even Spring so it would be ongoing with the General Election Campaign. This decision will bring ruin to everything, mark my words.

I agree. Monumental blunder. Doing this just guaranteed the election for that maniac.

[Mister Mets]

And I'm pretty sure Mets has impotently wielded the "Ahem, I'll have you know Stephen Miller is Jewish, so he can't be a White Nationalist or Neo-Nazi" argument at least twice, and it's as lame every time.

The argument was that Trump saying the future belongs to patriots and not globalists was equivalent to Trump saying the future doesn't belong to Jews, and that the "resident Nazi" Miller was probably responsible for that.

Miller's Jewish ancestry is relevant to the insinuation that something Trump said is meant to be an antisemitic dog whistle, and that a particular policy adviser was responsible for that portion of a speech.

It does also represent a problem in discourse when you're referring to people as Nazis who don't try to revive the ideology of the Nazi party and aren't planning to participate in genocide of entire classes of their fellow countrymen.

[worstblogever]

The argument was that Trump saying the future belongs to patriots and not globalists was code for Trump saying the future doesn't belong to Jews, and that the resident Nazi Miller was probably responsible for that.

Miller's Jewish ancestry is relevant to the insinuation that something Trump said is meant to be an antisemitic dog whistle, and that a particular policy adviser was responsible for that portion of a speech.

And here's an article noting that Stephen Miller uses the term "globalists" as well as "cosmopolitan" as coded rhetoric far back as 2017. Here's one from 2018.

You may now take that weak sauce elsewhere.

[numberthirty]

Why do News anchors and reporters waste their energy talking to Congressional Republicans? Chuck Todd is talking to Senator John Kennedy, at least they seem to be having a good time of it.

Twitter Link

.@SenJohnKennedy is insisting to @chucktodd that "if you're going to be fair, you're going to have to investigate everybody" meaning Trump & Biden. He's wrong - FBI investigates when there's reason to believe a crime occurred. As to Biden, it's just a smear. There's no beef.

Twitter Link

WATCH: Chuck Todd asks Republican Senator John Kennedy why the president went to Ukraine instead of the FBI to investigate Joe Biden #mtpdaily

@SenJohnKennedy: "You don't know whether the FBI has been contacted or not."

On that...

Let's be real for a minute. Right now, you have a situation where we think that the Executive Branch isn't up to snuff when it comes to policing itself.

Knowing that, people seem to have decided that this is the only time that has ever been the case.

While I don't think that there are any bright red flags when it comes to former Vice President Biden and his son, to say that it is a "Smear" and that there is "No Beef" there is kind of a joke. It's not like any sort of a serious investigation has happened and cleared them.

[Tendrin]

To those thinking this is a blunder:

An impeachment inquiry is not an article of impeachment.

Trump has committed clear, impeachable offenses and the Ukraine story is extremely unsettling. No call transcript from the White House can be actually trusted and the reports are not looking great.

As for Stephen Miller, his Jewish background in no way shelters him. We'd have to close our eyes and ears to what he's been doing and saying for a long time now to do so, and he's hardly be the first man with a Jewish background to employ antisemitism to his own political ends.

[Tendrin]

Relatedly: https://twitter.com/aaronblake/statu...883857921?s=21

[numberthirty]

From the "Illinois" corner...

- https://abc7chicago.com/politics/fbi...doval/5565655/

State Senator Martin Sandoval offices, home raided by FBI

[JCAll]

Relatedly: https://twitter.com/aaronblake/statu...883857921?s=21

Are they trying to make Rudy Trump's Oliver North?