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

[worstblogever]

Deutsche Bank Does Not Have Trump’s Tax Returns, Court Says

Methinks investigators are about to get a warrant, because that sounds like some bulls*** that they conveniently "lost" them.

Like, you'd think they would have said they didn't have them in prior court hearings when they were fighting to not release them.

[Tami]

Methinks investigators are about to get a warrant, because that sounds like some bulls*** that they conveniently "lost" them.

Like, you'd think they would have said they didn't have them in prior court hearings when they were fighting to not release them.

A warrant isn't going to help if, where they lost them was the shredder.

[Gray Lensman]

A warrant isn't going to help if, where they lost them was the shredder.

It will let them prosecute the people behind losing them though.

[worstblogever]

A warrant isn't going to help if, where they lost them was the shredder.

Digital records are a bit harder to "lose" than things were back in the Iran Contra days.

[Tami]

Three-Stooges-2019.jpg

Rudy's Law Firm

[Gray Lensman]

Three-Stooges-2019.jpg

Rudy's Law Firm

A less comical version of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe.

[Tami]

I tweaked it, I think this might look better

Three-Stooges-v2.jpg

[Tami]

Edited out

[kidfresh512]

Props to CNN for doing the #EqualityTownhall with all the democratic candidates tonight. Even the protests highlighted the passion and fight for inclusiveness of the Democratic field. Partnering with the Human Rights campaign we got to see see and hear issues that this administration and the GOP wouldn't even think about.

Hell at the same time every Democratic candidate was answering questions and concerns of LGBTQ community members trump was hosting another hate rally.

Overall I think a lot of the candidates did well. Kamala found this easy as she has been a LGBTQ ally before it was popular. She was easily able to translate and relate I thought to issues and show that she has action and experience with fighting for LGBTQ rights.

Elizabeth Warren did well I thought. Her shade towards Betsy DeVos was a "yasssss" moment.

Beto did well with the LGBT Immigrant question I thought and he was able to speak on violence to black trans women and specifically name the victims.

Which leads to the protests. I actually felt like they were appropriate and it shows the passion of the LGBTQ community. That passion is what got us Stonewall and the long fight towards gay marriage. And that same passion you saw from protesters was raw and real. And I thought the candidates and Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper who had some of the biggest protest moments handled them well. Anderson with Pete Buttigeg both highlighted the importance and historical significance of protest and were vocal about security handling them with care despite the protest that trans lives matter.

I felt like Don lemon handled Blossom's protest of black trans women and men not getting to ask the candidates questions was important and I think Don handled it well giving her the mic back.

[worstblogever]

The one embarrassing part of the CNN Town Hall on LGBTQ issues came from, who else... Joe Biden, who reminisced about when LGBTQ issues would bring up talk about "gay, gay bathhouses" and "round the clock sex".

The question he dropped those sound bites on was about racial disparities in HIV treatment. So... yeah, way to bring up the gay bathhouse stigma on that, Joe. Outstanding job.

(Biden still > Trump, but clearly not the best Dem in the field.)

[jetengine]

I still dont get how America thinks a guy like Biden (so clearly out of touch with the modern world) is a deffo for nomination.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump: I Don’t Know The Giuliani Associates, But I Might Have A Picture With Them

The president does have pictures with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were arrested on federal campaign finance charges while trying to leave the country. Yo, Donnie! BUSTED!



Meanwhile....

**********

Rudy Giuliani Planned Vienna Trip 1 Day After Arrested Associates Were Headed There: Report

The two associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, face charges of violating campaign finance laws. Hmm! Looks like Rantin' Rudy might be in a spot of bother.

**********

Former Watergate Prosecutors Say Trump Should Be Impeached

The group drew clear parallels between the current president and Richard Nixon in a Washington Post op-ed. When all is said and done, Trump could well end up being a worse crook than Nixon ever was.

**********

How Trump Used The U.S. Government To Chase Conspiracy Theories

The president has enlisted parts of the U.S. government and key allies in the pursuit of unproven or disproven conspiracy theories, some incubated in the dark corners of the internet. Or the fevered minds of talking heads on Faux News.

**********

Tulsi Gabbard Says She Might Skip The Democratic Debate

The fourth-term representative from Hawaii released a video vaguely accusing the media and the Democratic Party of conspiring against her. And nothing of value will be missed by her absence.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

I still dont get how America thinks a guy like Biden (so clearly out of touch with the modern world) is a deffo for nomination.

Because America sucks.

[ed2962]

I still dont get how America thinks a guy like Biden (so clearly out of touch with the modern world) is a deffo for nomination.

"America" doesn't, the DNC does.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of John Shimkus, the U.S. House Representative from Illinois’ 15th Congressional District, one of the dumbest deniers of climate change on Capitol Hill, who actually cites a promise that God made to Noah in the Book of Genesis as proof against the phenomenon, and wants to eliminate carbon dioxide restrictions from the EPA, viewing it as “taking away plant food from the atmosphere”. He also compared IRS commissioner Lois Lerner to “the Republic of Korea”, which is actually SOUTH Korea while grilling her in hearings about the IRS scandal. John Shimkus is such a class act that he got up and walked out in the middle of President Obama speaking to a joint session of Congress about healthcare reform back in 2009, but sadly, came back to work after that.

Shimkus returned to the House in 2016 after defeating fellow CSGOPOTD Kyle McCarter in the Republican primary for his seat, and then didn’t have to face a Democrat in the general election. He made some headlines during the current session of Congress back in March of 2017, when during debate on a potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act, he decided to dig in and complain about why men should be required to pay for prenatal care on insurance plans. Credit to Democratic Rep. Michael Doyle, for responding, "There's no such thing as a-la-carte insurance, John”, with the right amount of subtext that indicated Congressman Shimkus was being a misogynistic douche without actually saying it.

Shimkus hasn’t hosted town hall since 2016, and is presumably still spending money from his political PAC on wine tastings, while in a time when any myriad of more pressing issues should be dealt with, discussing a matter important to only the wealthiest of Americans… repealing the estate tax (while our deficit is already in the $20 trillion range). His district remains far and away the most conservative in all of Illinois, with a +21 Republican lean, and he thus won re-election in 2018 with 71% of the vote, so the could return to Washington, and do things like this:

• January 22nd, 2019: Shimkus can’t be arsed to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Shimkus voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: John Shimkus votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Shimkus votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• May 17th, 2019: Shimkus votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Shimkus votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: John Shimkus can’t be bothered to vote against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.

And, we have some great news… John Shimkus has found being in the minority party (and will be for some time) so bothersome that he’s opted to retire at the end of his current term in 2020. And wouldn't you know it, just as he's decided to make himself scarce... he's also developed a spine and became one of the first Republicans to pronounce they were abandoning their support for Donald Trump during the impeachment inquiry.

Let's hope that his desire to reject Individual-One is contagious, as is his desire to get lost, because we'd love to see a lot of other Republicans do either, or both.