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

[Tendrin]

Donaldson issued the responses after House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) subpoenaed her, along with former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, for testimony and documents in May as part of the panel’s probe into possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.
Across the responses, Donaldson replied with the same boilerplate statement that the White House had asserted that the subject of the response was confidential.
“The White House has directed that I not respond to this question because of the constitutionally-based Executive Branch confidentiality interests that are implicated,” the statement reads.

No obstruction here, no sir. Nothing to hide at all.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckra...use-transcript

[jetengine]

Pelosi is wrong to diminish the value of social media. But Pelosi is right fucking on with what she said about advocacy versus getting something done. The small wing of far left progressives don't have to like it, but reality is that they are a small voice with little or no power in Congress.

I'd argue that social media is a cesspool frankly, as her twitter post proves. The amount of bile and insanity posted there is frankly horrible.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Obamacare Is Going Back On Trial, With Insurance For 20 Million At Stake

The Republican lawsuit hasn’t gotten a lot of attention lately, but it should. Remember, folks! Trump is still on his personal jihad to kill Barack Obama's signature legislation, if but for no other reason than because he hates America's first black president, and that he has NO PLAN to replace the ACA and doesn't care to come up with one.

**********

British Government Stands By Ambassador After Leaked Criticism Of Trump

British ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch had lambasted the Trump administration as “inept” and “incompetent” in leaked diplomatic messages. Well, why deny what everyone KNOWS is the truth about Trump's White House?

**********

Nancy Pelosi Doesn’t Know Who The Democratic Party Is Anymore

She’s undermining her own caucus. Pelosi appears to NOT be doing a good job of leading at present. On top of that, her "Get off my lawn!" bitching at the likes of AOC who's both under the skin of conservatives and in their heads (delightfully so I might add) isn't helping matters any.

**********

Major Takeaways From The Jeffrey Epstein Indictment And Bail Memo

The billionaire money manager was charged with child sex trafficking on Monday. I felt dirty just READING all that! To call Epstein scum is an insult to scum.

**********

Fox News Cuts Into Trump Speech To Deliver A Brutal Real-Time Fact Check

Shepard Smith interrupted the president’s environmental event to deliver some news for the White House. Ooooooh! Brutal! No wonder Trump is pissed with his personal propaganda network! HA!

**********

Mick Jagger Mocks Trump’s Revolutionary War Airports Blunder At Massachusetts Concert

If only the Redcoats had held on to those airports, “the whole thing might have gone differently for us,” the rocker goofed. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[worstblogever]

During the opening piece on The Rachel Maddow Show, the first person that was interviewed pointed out that Trump apparently bounced Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for making a pass at someone's daughter.

"someone's" daughter.

It was probably Ivanka, and Trump operates on a "I saw her first" mentality.

[numberthirty]

**********

Nancy Pelosi Doesn’t Know Who The Democratic Party Is Anymore

She’s undermining her own caucus. Pelosi appears to NOT be doing a good job of leading at present. On top of that, her "Get off my lawn!" bitching at the likes of AOC who's both under the skin of conservatives and in their heads (delightfully so I might add) isn't helping matters any.

**********

From the article...

According to Pelosi, the opposition from Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley didn’t matter, because Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and Pressley don’t matter. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”

Nintety-five Democrats voted against the border bill Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent over from the Senate, which Pelosi chose not to amend. Some of Pelosi’s top lieutenants voted nay. The progressive freshmen were not isolated and alone. They spoke for 40 percent of the caucus.

[Mecegirl]

"someone's" daughter.

It was probably Ivanka, and Trump operates on a "I saw her first" mentality.

I have to wonder what constitutes as a pass in his mind? This is the guy who made remarks about Paris Hilton's attractiveness when she was 12 on Howard Stern's show. He then followed up with basically saying that he wasn't interested in pursuing a relationship with her when she was 12 because he's not into that and more into 25 year olds. And he admitted to watching her sex tape. Being generous I'd say he's the "stalk her until she turns legal" type. So is looking okay? Is making comments about their looks okay? But actually going for it isn't? Still a creeper either way.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

"someone's" daughter.

It was probably Ivanka, and Trump operates on a "I saw her first" mentality.

That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. When it comes to predators like Trump and Epstein, if it has boobs (and for Epstein, is underage) they'll move on it like a bitch.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Randy Terrill, a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives with ties to FAIR, an organization classified as an anti-immigrant hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center who repeatedly submitted unconstitutional legislation to make English the official language of the state, and to end Spanish-language driver's tests in the state, describing it as "slowly rolling down the welcome mat for illegals" because as he told the Wall Street Journal "Latin Americans will not assimilate like previous waves of immigrants". The rest of his legislative record included not just anti-abortion support and stricter Voter ID votes, but also his submission of Oklahoma's legendary attempted (and unnecessary) ban on Sharia Law. Don't lose sleep over a crazy bigot like this being in office, because Terrill was caught trying to bribe a Democratic State Senator to not run for office so an ally could run against her unopposed, and went to prison for it.

In both 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of the former U.S. House Representative from South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, Mick Mulvaney, who appeared in Washington in the 2010 Tea Party Wave after making a career as a state legislator who would sponsor bills to require medically unnecessary ultrasounds before abortions, define marriage as only existing between a man and a woman, and strict anti-immigration restrictions. Rep. Mulvaney was not really a person worth noting until right around the time he voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, when over the course of two weeks, he made headlines with two bizarre quotes that made people wonder if the stress of the job was getting to him. The first being a Newsmax interview where he claimed he eavesdropped on a phone call between Speaker Boehner and President Obama about discussions to negotiate the budget, and to raise the debt ceiling, where he said that Obama was “acting like a girlfriend I had in high school who called me to tell me she was giving me the silent treatment”. Well, Mulvaney followed that up by, after not voting to re-open the government, he made an outrageous claim that money was set aside in the new budget… for Ugandan Warlord Joseph Kony and his “Lord’s Resistance Army” rebel group that is infamous for kidnapping children and turning them either into soldiers or sex slaves. Why in the HELL any money would be given to them… in any event, Mulvaney’s communications director took the blame, saying that the statement was because of a “typo” on her part. What slip of the keys made her somehow type out twenty incorrect characters, or what Mulvaney had actually meant, of course, they neglected to say. Now, it would make sense for someone who had such an epic political blunder as the GOP did with the 2013 Government Shutdown to not repeat it. Mick Mulvaney, however, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and he was so adamant about cutting funding to Planned Parenthood after the “sting” videos released by the Center for Medical that Mulvaney was the leader of the group of 28 Republicans who signed a letter to threaten ANOTHER government shutdown to force the point. It’s amazing that someone could be that much of an extremist that the fact that Mulvaney’s also a climate change denier is and afterthought. After all, he’s much more noteworthy for voting against disaster relief funding for Hurricane Sandy, every attempt the GOP has made to repeal the Affordable Care Act, against raising the debt ceiling, and issued a press release with some revisionist history where he commended Senate Republicans for refusing to hold confirmation hearings for Judge Merrick Garland as a nominee to the Supreme Court, lying in it an saying “the right should fall as it has for 200 years… to the incoming president.” Well, we might not be profiling Mick Mulvaney after this year, as he’s no longer an elected politician… shortly after the 2016 Elections, he was named Donald Trump’s Budget Director. And frankly, that has led to a comedy of errors. Like how Mick came out and tried defending the Trump budget cutting all funding to Meals on Wheels because it was one of those programs “not showing any results” (The lack of people starving because of it would disagree with that, you utter mother***er). He’s also begun making the habit of not just ignoring facts when it comes to climate change, but with anyone presenting any kind of facts, like when he disputed the CBO gave their score to the House GOP’s healthcare bill, and reported it would leave 24 million people without health insurance who are currently covered. That’s earned him the criticism of the previous four directors of the CBO. Remember, this is the White House’s budget director being slammed by past four heads of the Congressional Budget Office. We’re not even warming up, here. Mulvaney is such an ideological twit that as the Trump agenda began failing in the middle of 2017, he already began talking about how Congressional Republicans should stage a government shutdown again. Except this time… THE GOP ARE IN CONTROL OF THE HOUSE, SENATE, AND WHITE HOUSE. Think about that. And then think about how someone this incompetent could be PROMOTED to be the new acting White House Chief of Staff. The Republican Party has forgotten how to govern so much that it’s threatening itself with closing down because it can’t make a decision about what direction to lead the country. We are only hoping that this is the last job in government that Mick Mulvaney ever holds in government, and when the Trump administration reaches its overdue ending, he gets swept out with the rest of the trash, never to be heard from again. we'll move on and start profiling a different wacky Republican on this date instead.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled the former U.S. Senator from Alabama, Luther Strange, who served seven months as an interim Senator after serving six years as the Attorney General of Alabama. And, a myriad of CSGOPOTD f***-ups from Alabama are linked to both Strange’s rise and fall. Strange was never supposed to win in the GOP Primary to become Alabama AG, not in 2006 when he lost, but especially when he tried to upset Troy King during the 2010 elections. But the man he faced off against that year, Troy King, was rumored to have been caught by his wife banging a 24 year old college intern who was a homecoming… king… from Troy University, so… Troy King allegedly was cheating on his wife with the king of Troy. That made GOP voters balk at King, and support Strange. Six years go by, and Luther Strange is trucking along in the seedy world of Alabama politics when Governor Robert Bentley gets busted in his own sex scandal when he was shtupping a top aide, and she definitely was on the state payroll. So Luther Strange was going to serve as the man who would indict Bentley and determine what charges were appropriate for his corruption scandal. So when Senator Jeff Sessions was appointed Attorney General, all of a sudden, Gov. Bentley thought that Luther Strange would make the finest goddamned Senator ever, which in no way made anyone think it seemed like he was bribing the A.G. for some leniency. Even with all the commentary about how incredibly screwed up this arrangement was, Luther Strange became the tallest senator in American history at six-foot-nine, and was around to vote for Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court Justice and to rubber stamp any other Trump appointee. So… yes. Luther Strange’s ascendance was due to all sorts of folks trying to slip the salami to underlings they were also the bosses of. Could his downfall get any seedier? Well, his chief fundraiser was being investigated by the feds for a bribery scandal. Just a reminder about how Strange was upset in the special election to hold onto that U.S. Senate seat by Roy Moore, who was known at the time to be an anti-Semitic, terribly homophobic, terribly racist lunatic who was twice kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court and was pulling out revolvers at campaign rallies and riding a horse to the polls (badly). Yes, Luther Strange lost to that guy, and then all the women who Roy Moore hit on as teens and the members of the police department and local community who were aware Moore was a pedophile were like, “Hey, maybe this guy shouldn’t be a Senator, y’know?”. Luther Strange lost to that guy. As far as Strange just being a corrupt tool that fell ass-backwards onto the U.S. Senate, he also used the power he had as Alabama Attorney General to try and block the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling on same sex marriage, and tried protecting ExxonMobil in a lawsuit when it was discovered the oil company did everything it could to conceal investigations into climate change. Strange is currently out of office, and at 65, tainted by scandals and humiliated by a loss in an election to an insane, bigoted pedophile, it’s unlikely that he gets a second chance for his political career. As such, we’re going to retire his profile at this time, and go ahead and take a look at a different kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 765-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Neal Tapio

Welcome to the 765th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing former South Dakota State Senator Neal Tapio, who was first elected in 2016 while running unopposed while simultaneously running the Donald Trump campaign’s operations in South Dakota. He made a name for himself by criticizing higher-ranking Republicans like Sen. John Thune and Gov. Dennis Daugaard for “inadequately supporting Donald Trump” and doing his damnedest to connect violent extremism and Islam in the public eye. Tapio thought that he had all the momentum in the world to seek higher office in 2018, and wanted to move into the void created by Kevin Cramer abandoning his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for South Dakota’s “At Large” district to make a run for Senate. And thus, with his dedication to Donald Trump and hatred of Islam being the bedrock of his political profile, Tapio apparently thought, “How can I further act like a white nationalist?” That would be the only explanation we could come up with why in South Dakota of all places, that Tapio would call for the abolition of Native American reservations, and start blaming crime rates in South Dakota on Native Americans.

Seriously, it’s the South Dakota equivalent of the Trump strategy, save for the lack of an escalator, and instead of “Mexicans are rapists”, it was, “Native Americans cause crime”.

During the 2018 campaign, while serving in the South Dakota State Senate, Neal Tapio continued to further his anti-Muslim rhetoric, defending not just the Trump administration’s attempt to ban all Muslims from traveling to the United States, but to call for any refugees from the Middle East to be blocked from resettling within South Dakota. By January of 2018, Tapio went full bore bigot, screaming at a planned interfaith gathering in the state capitol as it went on:

“I don’t like being called a racist. If you don’t have the freedom to leave a religion, is there a freedom of religion? …That’s the question we have to asks ourselves as a state. When 14 Islamic countries kill you for leaving Islam, don’t you think we would want to keep those people out?”

Only ten days later, Tapio was straightaway arguing that the freedom of religion protected for Americans by the First Amendment of the Constitution did not apply to Muslims. And, all the while, Tapio was attacking the media for “unfairly” making bigoted or Islamophobic remarks.

Thankfully, Tapio was still trailing in the GOP Primary to become the next Congressman from South Dakota, but what made sure he wouldn’t mount a last minute surge was when audio emerged of him wistfully hoping for a terrorist attack to help his chances:

“There will be one more terrorist attack between now and then and I will be the, just by the Trump effect, I will be the candidate.”

Further audio also revealed that Tapio thought of certain portions of the U.S. military stationed in the Middle East as “mercenaries for Saudi Arabia”:

”We both agree that we wouldn’t want our kids to serve in the military even with Trump as president. You just are giving up your life to be mercenaries for Saudi Arabia”.

Neal Tapio ended up finishing third out of three candidates, netting just 22% of the vote in the 2018 GOP Primary for South Dakota’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is now out of office entirely. We can only hope that this intolerant douche-canoe losing $300,000 that he self-funded his campaign on is a permanent setback for all his political ambitions.

[numberthirty]

Big Pharma: 1 Trump: 0

- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ds/1680242001/

Judge strikes down Trump administration's bid to require drug companies to list prices in TV ads

[Theleviathan]

I'd argue that social media is a cesspool frankly, as her twitter post proves. The amount of bile and insanity posted there is frankly horrible.

I meant value in terms of outreach. I completely agree with you on this.

[kidfresh512]

Tom Steyer Will Run for President and Plans to Spend $100 Million on His Bid

Tom Steyer, the former hedge fund investor turned impeachment activist, announced on Tuesday that he would challenge President Trump in 2020, reversing a previous decision not to enter the race.

In a video announcing his candidacy, Mr. Steyer positioned himself as a populist outsider, railing against corporate interests that he described as holding too much sway over the political system.

“Americans are deeply disappointed and hurt by the way they’re treated by what they think is the power elite in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Steyer said in the video. “And that goes across party lines and it goes across geography.”

Included in the video were images of men who, Mr. Steyer seemed to imply, represented the excesses of corruption and greed, including Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s incarcerated former adviser; Bernard Madoff, the notorious Ponzi schemer; and Jeffrey Epstein, the investor who was indicted this week on charges of sex trafficking.

Blech. Would prefer he just fund Democratic rivals to Republicans in Senate races or something. No one wants another Billionaire with no governing experience at all even if he does want Trump impeached.

He will serve to muddy the field I don't think its necessary he wont get the Democratic nomination and if he ran independently with his 100 million it would only help Trump and dilute the Democratic pool.

[Mister Mets]

Things have gotten calmer in the West Bank, as pocketbook issues take priority over protests.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/w...s-economy.html

The Palestinian Authority also does not generally encourage direct confrontation with Israel. Its security coordination with Israel, a pillar of the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s, not only helps prevent attacks against Israel but also helps the authority suppress its militant Islamic rivals.

“It’s very hard to have a culture of resistance if, from the very top, the entire system and leadership is premised on cooperation with the military,” said Nathan Thrall, who leads the International Crisis Group’s Israeli-Palestinian project.

West Bank Palestinians also look at Gaza, where the past year of protests along the boundary fence have taken an enormous toll, with scores killed by Israeli forces but have done little to improve conditions.

Increasingly, Mr. Thrall said, “West Bankers are aspiring to middle-class life with mortgages and car payments.”

Few see the point in risking their stability, however tenuous, for an abstract goal. Many have taken bank loans to marry, or to buy homes or cars, and in the West Bank a default or bad check can land one in prison.

“People have started talking more about their economic situation than resistance,” said Muhammad Abu Latifa, a resident of the Kalandia refugee camp who spent seven years in jail after he and two friends stabbed an Israeli civilian in a Jerusalem suburb when he was 17.

Now 26 and a student of political science and international relations at Birzeit, Mr. Abu Latifa said he was glad his Israeli victim survived the attack. He criticized the Palestinian Authority for its involvement in monopolies that he said kept prices rising in the West Bank and for nepotism, saying the good public service jobs went to people with connections.

Those problems, he said, along with the unpopular security cooperation, make many youths feel like “they have to confront the Palestinian Authority before the Israelis.”

The change in atmosphere is tangible, with tension and violence subsumed by relative calm and consumerism.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Tom Steyer Will Run for President and Plans to Spend $100 Million on His Bid



Blech. Would prefer he just fund Democratic rivals to Republicans in Senate races or something. No one wants another Billionaire with no governing experience at all even if he does want Trump impeached.

He will serve to muddy the field I don't think its necessary he wont get the Democratic nomination and if he ran independently with his 100 million it would only help Trump and dilute the Democratic pool.

I'd say it's a mite late for Steyer to join what's still a very crowded race, what with one debate already in the books and another coming at the end of the month, with no guarantee he'll be invited to attend. While I have no business telling anyone how to spend their money, especially someone as loaded as Steyer, in my opinion, he's flushing that $100 million right down the drain on what figures to be a failed attempt at the presidency when that money could be better spent supporting Democratic candidates across the board. What I also find irksome, if not troubling, is that Steyer's claim to be running as an outsider sounds a hell of a lot like what Trump said when he announced his candidacy, and we've seen how that movie is playing out. I for one have zero need for a sequel, even if Steyer is on the side of the angels, figuratively speaking of course.

Addendum: This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't care, there should be an amendment immediately enacted that states any candidate running for president have, at bare minimum, five years verifiable experience in politics, either as a mayor, senator, congressman, governor, current or former member of the Executive Branch, along with a solid understanding of the Constitution and how it works. I'm sick and tired of ego driven fat cats with fat bankrolls like Steyer or Andrew Yang, or clowns like that author (who's name once again eludes me) thinking they can just waltz in off the goddamn street without clue one as to how government works, and by bullshitting enough voters, pull off a miracle (or an all-time monstrous con) and become president like Trump had. Short and sweet: that nonsense needs to fucking stop.

[Iron Maiden]

I'd say it's a mite late for Steyer to join what's still a very crowded race, what with one debate already in the books and another coming at the end of the month, with no guarantee he'll be invited to attend. While I have no business telling anyone how to spend their money, especially someone as loaded as Steyer, in my opinion, he's flushing that $100 million right down the drain on what figures to be a failed attempt at the presidency when that money could be better spent supporting Democratic candidates across the board. What I also find irksome, if not troubling, is that Steyer's claim to be running as an outsider sounds a hell of a lot like what Trump said when he announced his candidacy, and we've seen how that movie is playing out. I for one have zero need for a sequel, even if Steyer is on the side of the angels, figuratively speaking of course.

Addendum: This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't care, there should be an amendment immediately enacted that states any candidate running for president have, at bare minimum, five years verifiable experience in politics, either as a mayor, senator, congressman, governor, current or former member of the Executive Branch, along with a solid understanding of the Constitution and how it works. I'm sick and tired of ego driven fat cats with fat bankrolls like Steyer or Andrew Yang, or clowns like that author (who's name once again eludes me) thinking they can just waltz in off the goddamn street without clue one as to how government works, and by bullshitting enough voters, pull off a miracle (or an all-time monstrous con) and become president like Trump had. Short and sweet: that nonsense needs to fucking stop.

I'd like to think the people would vet the candidates for themselves....but the Trump happened. This is a result of a communications company like Fox spoon feeding **** to their zombie viewers.