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

[Tuck]

Yeah, that's not what I rolled my eyes about, but you do you.

That said, Kusanagi has the right of it on that part. Merchants of hate don't get to claim they were just there for the money. As Vonnegut says:

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

Ironically, the main character in Mother Night was actually on the right side, but the book argues his work as a double agent was still damaging.

[Kirby101]

W oversaw the worst Recession since the Great Depression

The biggest foreign policy blunder besides Vietnam

Ignored warning signs that led to the greatest attack on US soil outside of Pearl Harbor.

His tax cuts led to an increased wealth in equality

Trump’s an ******* and is ineffective, but nobody will likely ever outdo the harm W did to the country

His tax cuts for the wealthy turned a budget surplus into a deficit.

[Tami]

This video is of Jimmy taken in Baghdad two weeks after his deportation. I’m sharing with permission from Jimmy’s lawyers. Jimmy has been in the US since he was 6mo old—he was born in a refugee camp in Greece to Iraqi Christian parents. RIP

Twitter Link

The Trump Administration sent a man who had lived in America since he was a child to his death.

“Aldaoud said in the video that he had been homeless, vomiting because of a lack of access to insulin and unable to speak the language in Iraq.”

Twitter Link

Iraqi man dies after Trump administration deports him

A 41-year-old Detroit man deported to Iraq in June died Tuesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and two people close to the man’s family.

The man, Jimmy Aldaoud, spent most of his life in the U.S., but was swept up in President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement efforts.

How much different is this than what happened in El Paso? One life or many, the ideology is the same as is the cruelty.

I'm an American, but I'm an American who wants this to stop. Mass shootings, killing children by putting them in cages and treating them like animals, deporting Americans to foreign countries where they have no family, no income, no way of surviving, how much longer do we have to put up with this?

[Tami]

Montana Man Who Assaulted Boy Over National Anthem Believed He Was Following Trump's Orders, Attorney Says

A 39-year-old Montana man charged with assaulting a 13-year-old boy for not taking his hat off during the national anthem believed he was acting on orders from President Donald Trump, his attorney said.

The defense attorney for Superior, Montana, resident Curt Brockway told the Missoulian his client previously suffered a traumatic brain injury and that was a factor when Brockway allegedly choke-slammed the young teen boy into the ground, fracturing his skull. The boy was flown by air ambulance across state lines to a Spokane, Washington children's hospital for treatment after the alleged August 3 assault at the Mineral County fairgrounds.

Attorney Lance Jasper, who is representing Brockway, a U.S. Army veteran, told the Missoulian Wednesday that Trump's "rhetoric" directly influenced the alleged unprovoked assault on the boy last Saturday.

"His commander in chief is telling people that if they kneel, they should be fired, or if they burn a flag, they should be punished," Jasper told the Missoulian newspaper's Seaborn Larson Wednesday. "He certainly didn't understand it was a crime."

Witnesses told KPAX-TV earlier this week they saw Brockway pick the boy up and slam him into the ground.

"There was a little boy lying on the ground, he was bleeding out of his ears, seizing on the ground, just not coherent," said witness Taylor Hennick. Brockway tried to justify his seemingly unprovoked actions to stunned bystanders, with Hennick telling the Missoulian, "He said [the boy] was disrespecting the national anthem so he had every right to do that."

[BeastieRunner]

Montana Man Who Assaulted Boy Over National Anthem Believed He Was Following Trump's Orders, Attorney Says

Did you see that the witness testimony states the child was putting his hat on after the anthem was over, did not see that the Honor Guard was walking off, so that's why he attacked the child? And that he was yelling, "I wish you was a n***** ors a s****!"? And that he told 5-7 bystanders Trump told him to do it? And that they are moving to classify this as a hate crime?

That's 4 in a week for our white nationalist POTUS.

[TriggerWarning]

W oversaw the worst Recession since the Great Depression

The biggest foreign policy blunder besides Vietnam

Ignored warning signs that led to the greatest attack on US soil outside of Pearl Harbor.

His tax cuts led to an increased wealth in equality

Trump’s an ******* and is ineffective, but nobody will likely ever outdo the harm W did to the country

I hate Dumbya but not everything you mention was his fault or solely his fault.

The recession was a dual whammy caused by the dot com bubble bursting and economic policies of the 90's. Then it was further demolished by the economic impact of 9/11. The economy is like a giant ship, it takes time to turn and you don't really see the effects of changes immediately.

Not sure which foreign policy blunder your referring to as he made a lot but if your talking about the invasion of Iraq I do absolutely agree. I think that was a wag the dog event as he needed a win against a name brand villain since we hadn't caught Osama Bin Laden yet. Plus his poll numbers were sinking due to the recession and back then in the days after 9/11 all you had to do was say "war on terror" and everyone was supposed to rise in stand of patriotism and support the president.

Yes signs were missed under his watch but also under Clinton's. Clinton by the way is the one who had the chance to take out Osama years before 9/11 and chose not to.

Agree that his tax cuts only helped the rich.

[PaulBullion]

His tax cuts for the wealthy turned a budget surplus into a deficit.

And how much exactly is equality worth in wealth?

[Gray Lensman]

And how much exactly is equality worth in wealth?

I'd suggest asking the Romanovs or the Bourbons, but, well, you can't.

[InformationGeek]

Well everyone keeps getting shot death, so why bother giving anyone education?!

Senate Republicans are looking to pay for Trump's border wall in part by diverting about $5 billion in health and education funds, according to Roll Call.

Also, capitalism continues on.

Instead of letting their children choose a plastic backpack covered in Hello Kitty or Spider-Man, some parents are purchasing bags that double as shields in case kids get caught in gunfire.

[BeastieRunner]

Trump Is Not a Cosmic 404 Error.

"All Trump did was give Republicans a permission slip to fully unleash their conservative id, which was always rotten in its bones."

"There’s a reason that “you can keep your insurance” has become an effective one-liner against Medicare for All, even though it makes NO goddamn sense. It posits that M4A is scary because you might have to fill out a few forms to possibly ensure that the rest of your life is free of worry from medical bills. GASP! Imagine such an uneven trade. You might even have to pay a little more in taxes just so you don’t have to pay thousands in premiums and deductibles! Terrifying ****! Paperwork is so awful in health care right now that insurance companies, and the candidates they buttress, can frighten voters by using the monstrous bureaucracy they’ve created to warn people off of accepting any residual bureaucracy that might be required for government-provided coverage. This grift was around long before Trump became self-appointed Holy American Emperor, and it won’t go away when he does."

"To assume that the current president’s reign is some kind of cosmic 404 error that can be wiped away via a simple reboot demonstrates a cowardly and lazy reluctance to move forward, to see pre-Trump America as something to ruthlessly evaluate and improve upon, rather than as a shelter to return to."

There's other great points in there, too.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Pete Sessions, the U.S. House Representative from Texas' 32nd Congressional District, and somehow still only the second s***tiest person to hold the surname Sessions in American government. In our first look at Rep. Sessions, we identified him as a man perpetually under investigation for ethics investigations, who as the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee would assure the “party of family values” would meet annually in Las Vegas to see burlesque shows for entertainment, but then was OUTRAGED when Janet Jackson’s nipple fell out at the Super Bowl halftime show. In news stories you only wish were made up, we also talked about how Sessions once missed the ceremony to take his oath to uphold the Constitution because he was too busy attending a fundraiser, and how he was the one who helped orchestrate the 2013 Government Shutdown as a head of the House Rules Committee.

In our 2015 follow up on what hijinks Pete Sessions had gotten up to, we added his continued extremist voting record, as well as how he had accused the Obama Administration and Democrats of being “accountable for murders everyday committed by illegal immigrants” that they release (that aren’t actually happening), and how he reacted to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on the Affordable Care Act by saying that they had decided that “words do not matter” for upholding the flimsy challenge presented in King vs. Burwell. In March of 2016 Pete Sessions decided it’s a great time to introduce legislation “recognizing magic as a rare and valuable art form and national treasure confirming that he believes in magic more than he does climate change (and he’s produced more legislation to acknowledge it). After House Republicans in ruin any chance of passing funding for the prevention of the Zika Virus by repeatedly inserting “poison pill” legislation, if not far underfunding the cost estimates to successfully prevent the disease, Rep. Sessions said that it was proof that the House was running properly (Note: He still considers himself a champion of the unborn).

And, after the tragic mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Pete Sessions tries to invalidate that the shooter was motivated by resentment towards gays, and instead lied to try and change the narrative, claiming, The Pulse wasn’t “even a gay club. It was a young person’s club. They were Latinos”. (Someone might want to tell Rep. Sessions that young people or Latino people can also be gay. Oh, and that the Pulse is actually a gay nightclub, it clearly says so on their website and was founded as such in the memory of a gay man who died of AIDS.)

Sessions faced no Democratic challenger in the 2016 elections, and coasted to earning an eighth term in office with 71% of the vote against the scarecrows put out by the Libertarian and Green Parties, respectively. But, After fourteen-plus years of Pete Sessions’ bulls***, it seems that maybe even a red district like Texas’ 32nd has decided they’re fed up with him. At a March 2017 town hall, Sessions was mercilessly heckled and jeered by the audience, who were chanting “PETE MUST GO”. He didn’t make matters much better when he during his discussion of Trumpcare that he tried a unique method for calming them down… patronizing:

"I understand why you're so frustrated. You don't know how to listen."

Actually, Pete, the problem might be that you’re not listening to your constituents, what with voting for a healthcare bill that only 20% of the country or less think is a good idea. Whether or not all the boos from that town hall translate to the polls in November of 2018, though… well… Texas’ 32nd Congressional District sits within reach for the right kind of Democratic challenger, with only a +5 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. But did Pete Sessions end up with someone badass enough to take him down?

OH. HELL. YEAH. Colin Allred… pull up a chair. Make no mistake, football is one of the biggest pillars of Texas life, and Allred was a four year starter for the Baylor Bears who went on to play in the NFL for the Tennessee Titans. But maybe you’re thinking that makes him just some slab of beef that Team Blue is running? You would be so, so wrong. Allred is also a law school graduate from the University of California-Berkley who specializes in civil rights law who worked in both the Obama White House, for Julian Castro, and the U.S. Attorney’s office.

And we were ecstatic to watch on Election Night 2018 when results were coming in, and Republican Congressmen were sent packing, and among their number? Pete Sessions’ dumb ass, as he only got 45% of the vote against Allred. We’re glad to see the door shut on Pete Sessions’ career, and wish him the finest of “GOOD RIDDANCE” salutes on his way out.

[Gray Lensman]

Trump Is Not a Cosmic 404 Error.

"All Trump did was give Republicans a permission slip to fully unleash their conservative id, which was always rotten in its bones."

"There’s a reason that “you can keep your insurance” has become an effective one-liner against Medicare for All, even though it makes NO goddamn sense. It posits that M4A is scary because you might have to fill out a few forms to possibly ensure that the rest of your life is free of worry from medical bills. GASP! Imagine such an uneven trade. You might even have to pay a little more in taxes just so you don’t have to pay thousands in premiums and deductibles! Terrifying ****! Paperwork is so awful in health care right now that insurance companies, and the candidates they buttress, can frighten voters by using the monstrous bureaucracy they’ve created to warn people off of accepting any residual bureaucracy that might be required for government-provided coverage. This grift was around long before Trump became self-appointed Holy American Emperor, and it won’t go away when he does."

"To assume that the current president’s reign is some kind of cosmic 404 error that can be wiped away via a simple reboot demonstrates a cowardly and lazy reluctance to move forward, to see pre-Trump America as something to ruthlessly evaluate and improve upon, rather than as a shelter to return to."

There's other great points in there, too.

I watched Extra Credits a while back, and this reminds me of their take on Dune - it serves partly as a warning against bad leaders, who they used 3 examples of. The first and third were actually Leto and Paul (the 'All Style and No Substance' leader and the religious populist respectively) but it was their take on Baron Harkonnen that struck me. He was the guy who gave people under him permission to be their worst selves. Who told them it was ok to be an addict, to be cruel, to take everything and leave nothing behind for anyone else to live on. I keep thinking of that take again and again whenever I hear Trump talk.

[Kirby101]

I hate Dumbya but not everything you mention was his fault or solely his fault.

The recession was a dual whammy caused by the dot com bubble bursting and economic policies of the 90's. Then it was further demolished by the economic impact of 9/11. The economy is like a giant ship, it takes time to turn and you don't really see the effects of changes immediately.

I believe we are talking about the crash of '08, which lead to the biggest downturn since the Great depression. (the earlier recession was minor). That was all GWB, ignoring the Housing Bubble and the shenanigans going on in Wall Street with Credit Defaults and Leveraging.

Yes signs were missed under his watch but also under Clinton's. Clinton by the way is the one who had the chance to take out Osama years before 9/11 and chose not to.

Not so clear cut.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-claim-twitter

"Clinton did, in one sense, miss a shot at bin Laden. There were several instances in the late 1990s when intelligence suggested the presence of the al-Qaida chief on the ground in Afghanistan. On each occasion, concerns about collateral damage – 300 people in a mosque, children, a Gulf prince – meant a cruise missile attack was called off. On another occasion, in September 2000, a drone pilot thought he had identified the al-Qaida leader on the ground. The only problem? US drones were unarmed at the time.

Perhaps the best opportunity to get hold of Bin Laden came in 1996 when he was expelled from Sudan, which was trying to win favour with Washington. The terror chief was a low priority for the US at the time, officials wavered over what to do – and he was allowed to travel to Afghanistan."

But then Clinton warned Bush how dire the threat was, and Bush/Cheney ignored it. Cheney headed the terrorism task force, which met once, in Sept. of 2000. AG Ashcroft retasked the DOJ away from terrorism...to fight porn. We know now how much they ignores that first 9 months in office.

Clinton made mistakes, but this crap is all on Bush.

[wjowski]

I haven't even scratched the surface with Bush. Billions of dollars in military spending disappeared into vapor with no accounting of where it went, low-key acceptance of torture as official military policy, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, and that's not even getting into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

[worstblogever]

I haven't even scratched the surface with Bush. Billions of dollars in military spending disappeared into vapor with no accounting of where it went, low-key acceptance of torture as official military policy, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, and that's not even getting into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Alberto Gonzales. Scooter Libby. Harriet Miers as a Supreme Court nominee... It's quite a list.