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

[Theleviathan]

To every American, my question is, do you feel comfortable being critical of the political party you are affiliated with or with politicians and other members of your party?

I get the feeling that Mets is giving the impression (correctly or not) that he is unwilling to be self-party critical. But to those who debate him, are you also willing to be self-party critical?

I think we are all mature enough, or should be mature enough, to realize that no person or party is perfect.

However, to downplay or ignore or deflect from what is going on with Trump and his administration is understandably perplexing and likely to draw the ire of many. Some Republicans are able to stand apart from the pack and speak freely and critically. Others seem to find it impossible to do so.

Not all transgressions are equal, some are far worse than others.

I think it's more important to be willing to consider that being a Democrat or anything else can involve having a spectrum of different ideas. One of the charges I often get is that "Oh, you're a liberal" or "Oh, you're a conservative" the second one of my positions or arguments doesn't fit the neat and tidy doctrine of either ideology. As if anything other than lock-step agreement is a mortal sin and makes my ideas or contributions worthy of dismissal immediately.

It's more the willingness to be self-critical in the face of ideas that may present themselves different than your own formulation. You don't have to agree, of course, but it wouldn't hurt to consider that someone can agree with you for other reasons. Or someone might agree with you 90% of the time and that 10% is worth hearing out rather than declaring it enough to dismiss. Our blind loyalties are really more to our ideas, the parties just try to pawn themselves off as being in line with one or the other.

[Malvolio]

Pretty sure you mean Former Speaker of the House. Former is very important because it means we don't have to see him around as much anymore.



Meanwhile, with other jackasses, we turn to Texas with Greg Abbott!



Because clearly there is no better thing to be working on than this.

Former is also important because it means he no longer has subpoena power.

[Tami]

Internal drug company emails show indifference to opioid epidemic

In May 2008, as the opioid epidemic was raging in America, a representative of the nation’s largest manufacturer of opioid pain pills sent an email to a client at a wholesale drug distributor in Ohio.

Victor Borelli, a national account manager for Mallinckrodt, told Steve Cochrane, the vice president of sales for KeySource Medical, to check his inventories and “[i]f you are low, order more. If you are okay, order a little more, Capesce?”

Then Borelli joked, “destroy this email. . .Is that really possible? Oh Well. . .”

Previously, Borelli used the phrase “ship, ship, ship” to describe his job.

Follow The Post’s investigation of the opioid epidemic

Since 2016, The Washington Post has been investigating the opioid epidemic that has ravaged communities and claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people nationwide since 1996.

This week, a previously unreleased Drug Enforcement Administration database that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — from manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — was made public. It was disclosed as part a civil action brought by nearly 2,000 cities, towns and counties alleging nearly two dozen drug companies conspired to saturate the nation with opioids. The database is a virtual road map to the epidemic.

Drilling into the DEA’s pain pill database

For the first time, a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — by manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — has been made public.

The Washington Post sifted through nearly 380 million transactions from 2006 through 2012 that are detailed in the DEA’s database and analyzed shipments of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, which account for three-quarters of the total opioid pill shipments to pharmacies. The Post is making this data available at the county and state levels in order to help the public understand the impact of years of prescription pill shipments on their communities.

[numberthirty]

While this is a rather small step in the right direction, it is still worth a mention.

- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ng/1775352001/

4 Chicago cops fired for allegedly covering up fatal shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald

[Robotman]

Miss Michigan winner stripped of title over offensive posts

She’ll have a job at Fox News in no time.

[BeastieRunner]

George Nader has been rounded up again for sex trafficking in relation to Epstein and using Blackwater as a trafficking agent.

His investigation was separate but apparently connected now.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/19/pol....google.com%2F

https://nypost.com/2019/07/19/key-wi...cking-charges/

https://www.politico.com/blogs/under...graphy-1422642

All children under 13. Also 4 TBs of child porn were seized.

He also has asked to meet with Mueller to change to a plea deal.

[Kal-El Summers]

Only plea deal he'd get from me is "Give us everything and you won't get passed around like a fleshlight in gen pop."

[numberthirty]

George Nader has been rounded up again for sex trafficking in relation to Epstein and using Blackwater as a trafficking agent.

His investigation was separate but apparently connected now.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/19/pol....google.com%2F

https://nypost.com/2019/07/19/key-wi...cking-charges/

https://www.politico.com/blogs/under...graphy-1422642

All children under 13. Also 4 TBs of child porn were seized.

He also has asked to meet with Mueller to change to a plea deal.

The Mueller who no longer has a staff?

[SquirrelMan]

George Nader has been rounded up again for sex trafficking in relation to Epstein and using Blackwater as a trafficking agent.

His investigation was separate but apparently connected now.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/19/pol....google.com%2F

https://nypost.com/2019/07/19/key-wi...cking-charges/

https://www.politico.com/blogs/under...graphy-1422642

All children under 13. Also 4 TBs of child porn were seized.

He also has asked to meet with Mueller to change to a plea deal.

According to right wing Twitter, this makes Democrats look bad because:

1. Nader was a witness in the Mueller invetigation.
2. Bill Clinton knows another guy also called George Nader.

I wish I were making this up.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Hellish Heat Grips Half The Country

The current wave of sweltering temperatures and humidity is a preview of life in a warming world. But, climate change deniers (like Dolt45 for instance) will scoff at that claim while frying like bacon.

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Trump Lies About Congresswomen Of Color Referring To ‘Evil Jews’

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar have never made the comments the president claims they have. It's amazing Trump continues getting away with his lies, and that Republicans refuse to call him out for same.

**********

Ignoring Donald Trump’s Racism Will Not Make It Go Away

Remember when people tried to convince themselves it was all about economic anxiety? Bernie Sanders blithely continues along that track, ignoring the obvious. Meanwhile....

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Rep. Elijah Cummings Says Racists Told Him To ‘Go Back,’ Too

“We were taunted. Stones were thrown at us. Bottles,” the congressman recalled. “And they totally said the same words.” Yes, words that hurt anyone who's a person of color.

**********

Geraldo Rivera Can’t Make ‘Fox & Friends’ Hosts See That Trump Tweets Are Racist

“This is their country, they’re citizens of the United States!” the Fox News journalist exclaimed of the four Democratic congresswomen the president attacked. Don't know why Rivera even tried as that was a lost cause from jump.

[Tami]

I'm not a big fan of Rivera's, not even close, but seriously why does he stay at Fox? At what point does this insanity drive him, and others like him, away?

[PaulBullion]

I'm not a big fan of Rivera's, not even close, but seriously why does he stay at Fox? At what point does this insanity drive him, and others like him, away?

I'm guessing it's the only network that still lets him cosplay as a serious journalist.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

i'm guessing it's the only network that still lets him cosplay as a serious journalist.

Brain. Bleach!

[Tami]

Hong Kong actor Simon Yam stabbed at promotional event in southern China

BEIJING - Hong Kong actor Simon Yam was stabbed in the stomach while appearing on stage for a promotional event in southern China on Saturday.

A man ran onto the stage and stabbed and slashed the veteran actor, video broadcast on local media showed.

“We are extremely shocked by this incident,” Yam’s management company said Saturday evening in a statement released on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

The 64-year-old Yam was at a promotional event in southern Guangdong province’s Zhongshan City when he was stabbed in the stomach and slashed on his right hand, the company said.

Yam received treatment at a local hospital and his wounds are not life-threatening, the local Huoju Development Zone police said in a statement.

The actor has 234 film and TV credits, according to IMDB, including an appearance as a crime lord in the 2003 adventure movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life.”

[Spike-X]

Meanwhile, with other jackasses, we turn to Texas with Greg Abbott!

Texas protects religious bigotry.

Fixed it for him.