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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In first post elections speech Netanyahu refuses to concede. blames the media for biased coverage.

This is very eerie because we know this is exactly what Trump will do if he loses.

Yeah, but with ten times more controversy and madness. Maybe this is hyperbole, but I could imagine Trump refusing to leave the White House if he loses, barricades himself inside the Oval Office and has to be physically removed from the building by the Secret Service with the entire world watching.

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Donald Trump Sparks Anger With ‘Crass’ Comments About Cokie Roberts

“I never met her. She never treated me nicely. But I would like to wish her family well. She was a professional and I respect professionals...Never treated me well, but I certainly respect her as a professional.”

Just when you thought Trump couldn't possibly sink any lower, he finds new depths to plumb. But wait, there's more....

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Trump Says Homeless Californians Are Ruining Cities’ ‘Prestige’

The president, who seemed unconcerned about homeless people themselves, said “we’ll be doing something about it.” Yeah, something like what's happening at the border. Speaking of what's going on down there....

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Over 100 Migrant Mothers And Children Sue Trump Administration Over Virtual Asylum Ban

“What we’re challenging is the haphazard lack of legal procedure. There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” the plaintiffs’ attorney said.

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GOP Senators Call For Response To Saudi Attack, Pointing Finger At Iran

“If it’s very clearly a smoking gun, I don’t think you can have something that just goes unanswered,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Tuesday. Well, let the Saudis do the answering, the U.S. military is NOT their private army to use as cannon fodder.

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Laura Ingraham Trolls Sean Hannity On Live TV: ‘Is That The White House Speaking, Or You?’

The Fox News hosts have a passive-aggressive exchange over Trump coverage. Oh, this is hilarious!

[worstblogever]

That approach is more realpolitik than pro-life, to be honest.

What specifically articulated immigration policy are you advocating for?

The one you obviously paid no attention to last week that was being discussed in a Congressional hearing.

“In my point of view, I think that deporting sick kids like me, it will be a legal homicide,” Sanchez, 16, told lawmakers on Wednesday.

So, yeah, GREAT PRO-LIFE PARTY YOU GOT THERE, Mets. Keep fretting about zygotes while your party gets actual children killed.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from California’s 48th Congressional District, Dana Rohrabacher, a man who seemingly has yet to read a conspiracy theory he doesn’t like. Amongst his favorites are the theories that the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was carried out by Muslims, and not domestic terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, that RFK actually had multiple assassins and not just Sirhan Sirhan trying to kill him (Rohrbacher is believed to have visited Sirhan in prison disguised in drag to ask him about it), that Google was using their search engine to hide “the truth” presented in Dinesh D’Souza’s documentaries, and that President Obama left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other men to die in Benghazi purposefully during the attacks to help guarantee he’d win the 2012 elections (because that’s the sort of thing that wins votes?). On top of that, Rohrabacher is a renowned figure who stands against the theory of man-made climate change, instead blaming the phenomenon on “dinosaur flatulence”, and welcomed the impending 2013 Government Shutdown by going on CNN while believed to be gleefully drunk from celebrating the failure of his party to compromise and, y’know, govern. Can you think of anything that’s a worse look for a political party anywhere in the world than looking on the bright side of an ISIS terror attack? Because on June 10th, 2017, Rohrabacher, on video, is shown talking about how it was “a good thing” that the Islamic State carried out a terror attack on the Iranian parliament in Tehran, and that maybe the United States should consider working WITH them. He didn’t exactly back off of these remarks, either, releasing a statement where he claimed ISIS was “no better” than the Iranian regime. Days later, Rohrabacher, somehow a member of the House Science Space and Technology Committee, was listening to testimony from NASA scientist Kevin Farley regarding Mars, and he took the time to ask if there was a possibility of ancient civilizations having existed on Mars. No, we're serious, ROHRABACHER ASKED THAT.

Rohrabacher also managed to get some attention just this past week when video of him emerged from February 2018, being interviewed by Voice of America China, in what was supposed to be a message to the audience about our government acknowledging Chinese New Year. And, lo and behold, Dana Rohrabacher is enough of an insane, racist idjit that he started talking about how he believes the racist trope about Chinese people eat dogs. Seriously, click on that link, and look at the still image of the interviewer’s face when he says that.

His love of those conspiracy theories, idiocy on science, and that he speaks glowingly of Vladimir Putin going back to when they hung out in a pub in Russia and were arm-wrestling back in the 1990s, and it came up in the news a few times lately as it was noted that Donald Trump also seemed to have a weird crush on the Russian dictator, and that the 2016 Trump campaign worked in tandem with Russia to interfere in our elections. In fact, as Congress began to learn that Russia was meddling in the first place, audio leaked of a private meeting where among others, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy were present, and the latter actually volunteered his belief to the group that “There’s two people I think Putin pays, Rohrabacher and Trump. Swear to God.” The room then bursts into laughter, before Paul Ryan asks everyone to keep the topic being discussed on the mum and to keep the chat within the family (which people listened to him for less than a year). Many people would shrug this off as just a bunch of “joking” among Republicans, but really, Dana Rohrabacher spent most of the summer of 2017 demonstrating how much of a loose cannon that’s going to be a liability for the GOP. How much so? Strap yourselves in, s*** is about to get real enough that you'll ask yourself how this can be real life.

And, big surprise… immediately after the joint press conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Dana Rohrabacher was one of the first people to come running to Donald Trump’s defense, and contradict the American intelligence community to claim that the Russians never hacked the 2016 election. Just to be consistent, a few days after that interview, Rohrabacher was ferociously criticizing the indictment of Maria Butina, the Russian spy caught trying to help her country, on behalf of Russian oligarchs, infiltrate the NRA and the Republican Party (and who did so rather easily). Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that Rohrabacher actually met with Butina in 2015. Hmmm…

[worstblogever]

Rohrabacher has also been left scrambling to cover his links to Russia in the 2016 election, including having to pay back donations his charity had received from a guy you may have heard of for being a Russian pawn named Paul Manafort.

“HOLY F***” would be a good reaction to this moment, but not even a month would go by before Rohrabacher was at it again, taking to the floor of the House to defend Donald Trump Jr. for having a meeting at Trump Tower with Russian spies who were promising him information damaging to Hillary Clinton as part of Vladimir Putin’s plan to see Donald Trump elected president, claiming that “it’s not illegal to receive information from someone” (HINT: IT IS UNDER THIS CIRCUMSTANCE FOR SURE, DANA). Making Rohrabacher look even more insane than he is, speaking to an empty chamber, is the fact he was then followed at this idiotic GOP Open Mic Night by both Louis Gohmert and Steve King, who also voiced defenses of Trump, Jr., before having the topic wander into a discussion of blocking payment for medical treatments for transgender members of our military.

He still wasn’t done. For whatever reason, Rep. Rohrabacher took it upon himself to fly to London in August 2017, and meet with Julian Assange, from Wikileaks. Because Rohrabacher is claiming that Assange has new revelations about the Russians’ DNC hack, and that he wants to set up a “rendezvous” between the international criminal and Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the FBI are investigating election hacking from the 2018 election, where Hans Keirstead the third-place finisher to Rohrabacher and his main challenger, Harley Rouda, lost out on the top-two primary by only 125 votes. And Keirstead was the victim of cyberattacks, supposedly orchestrated by who else… Russia.

And yet, there’s STILL more. Eariler in September of 2017, Rohrabacher began calling for the House Intelligence Committee to host hearings on “the Clinton/Russia connection”. You’re not seeing things, Dana Rohrabacher is insisting that the real story that everyone is missing is that Russia was working through the Clinton Foundation to help Hillary win the election by hacking her own party, and releasing as much damaging information as they could online about her. Dana Rohrabacher also gave a bats*** interview to the San Francisco Chronicle where, as he made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, proceeded to explain how the events that unfolded in Charlottesville, Virginia and the terror attack carried out by a white supremacist there were actually a false flag operation set up by liberals and Democrats who are loyal to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Rohrabacher also provided some unintentional entertainment in July 2018, as he was featured as one of a group of Republicans who were duped by comedian Sasha Baren Cohen to be recorded advocating for a promotional campaign to sell firearms to toddlers.

Now, one of the things we’ve been keeping track of in our updates on members of Congress is how their town halls went in 2017. Interesting thing about Dana Rohrabacher… he decided to not host one. Well, maybe that would just look cowardly, but when you see reports that Rohrabacher accused constituents showing up at his office in his district asking him to host one of “political thuggery, pure and simple”, and labeling them “enemies of democracy”:

“Though the protesters think of themselves as idealists, they engaged in political thuggery, pure and simple. These people do not want, as they’ve claimed, to hold a town hall meeting with me. These are unruly activists on whom the lessons of civility and democratic participation have been lost. These holier-than-thou obstructionists will be held responsible for this outrageous assault. They are exposing themselves for what they are — enemies of American self-government and democracy.”

His relationship with his constituents has devolved to the point where, quite literally, Rep. Rohrabacher has called the police on activists for daring to call his office and ask him questions. There was also the moment in May of 2018 where Rohrabacher argued in favor of housing discrimination against the LGBTQ community, losing endorsements from the National Association of Realtors, who weren’t down with that homophobic bulls***.

California’s 48th Congressional District, for the record, has only a +4 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and that was not enough to save him from Harley Rouda, who mercifully put an end to Dana Rohrabacher’s madness as a part of the 2018 Blue Wave. After decades of supporting the legalization of marijuana, Rohrabacher has moved on to become a board member of BudTrader, referred to as “the Craiglist of weed”. We hope the primary side-effect of cannabis making you a tad lethargic will also make sure he isn’t motivated to ever mount a political comeback.

[Mister Mets]

In first post elections speech Netanyahu refuses to concede. blames the media for biased coverage.

This is very eerie because we know this is exactly what Trump will do if he loses.

Neither Netanyahu or his opponent have a clear parliamentary majority so there's nothing to concede yet. It'll likely come down to negotiations with the minor parties.

[Tami]

This devastating back-to-school ad is designed to shock parents into action

“This year my mom got me the perfect bag for back to school,” one middle-school-aged boy tells the camera as he proudly pulls his backpack from a locker in what appears to be a typically upbeat and direct back-to-school commercial. “These colorful binders help me stay organized,” adds another girl, who is smiling as she sits behind a classroom desk.

There’s cheery music and plenty of smiles. But when a third kid sitting in the library touts how good his chunky headphones are for studying and pops them on, he misses hearing the sounds of other kids screaming as someone threatening enters the room.

That’s because this commercial isn’t actually for back-to-school gear. It’s a clever, dark, and powerful PSA from the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, which is trying to jar parents into seeking out more information on how to recognize the signs of impending violence before it happens.

[Tami]

FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT

The National Climate Assessment

The Global Change Research Act of 1990 mandates that the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) deliver a report to Congress and the President no less than every four years that “1) integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program…; 2) analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and 3) analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years.”1

The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) fulfills that mandate in two volumes. This report, Volume II, draws on the foundational science described in Volume I, the Climate Science Special Report (CSSR).2 Volume II focuses on the human welfare, societal, and environmental elements of climate change and variability for 10 regions and 18 national topics, with particular attention paid to observed and projected risks, impacts, consideration of risk reduction, and implications under different mitigation pathways. Where possible, NCA4 Volume II provides examples of actions underway in communities across the United States to reduce the risks associated with climate change, increase resilience, and improve livelihoods.

This assessment was written to help inform decision-makers, utility and natural resource managers, public health officials, emergency planners, and other stakeholders by providing a thorough examination of the effects of climate change on the United States.

[Tami]

Child porn found on phone of Pennsylvania state Sen. Mike Folmer: prosecutor

YORK, Pa. – A Pennsylvania state senator has been charged with possession of child pornography, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Republican state Sen. Mike Folmer, 63, represents parts of Lebanon, Dauphin and York counties.

According to a release from Attorney General Josh Shapiro's office, Folmer was arrested Tuesday night after images of child pornography were found on his phone when police searched his home after obtaining a warrant.

The investigation began after a tip reported that an individual had uploaded an image of child pornography to the social networking website Tumblr.

Folmer was charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and criminal use of a communication facility, Shapiro said in the release.

[adkal]

An increase in abortions among African-American women will lead to less black babies. Even if the argument is that Republican policies directly contribute to higher mortality rates among African-American infants and mothers, so that this problem can be resolved with Republicans voted out of office (a conjecture I strongly disagree with) the lives saved will not be equivalent to the declining numbers that result from abortions.

There isn’t a proposal for ‘an increase in abortions among African-American women’. The proposal is to take away their options for legal abortions together with other affordable healthcare options:

an agenda dedicated, in large part, to ... criminalizing abortion and reducing affordable health-care options in states where maternal and infant mortality rates are worse than in many less developed economies, especially for black women and children.

Via the CDC link you provided, if you look at the section titled ‘Preventing Pregnancy-Related Deaths’ you’ll find the following:

Women in the United States are more likely to die from childbirth or pregnancy-related causes than other women in the developed world. More details are needed to better understand the actual causes of death, but research suggests that half of these deaths are preventable. Racial disparities persist. The risk of pregnancy-related deaths for black women is 3 to 4 times higher than those of white women.

(emphasis added)

Also note that the section also says:

A healthy pregnancy begins before conception and continues with prenatal care, along with early recognition and management of complications if they arise.

So if ‘half of these [pregnancy-related] deaths are preventable’ and the healthcare options that can (/already do) help reduce that are removed or limited, then it stands to reason that pregnancy-related deaths will increase and, with ‘pregnancy-related deaths for black women’ already being ‘3 to 4 times higher than those of white women’, there will be more pregnant black women dying.

There are around 700 pregnancy/childbirth related deaths a year. As you outlined and linked to before, more black women in the US have abortions (for a host of different reasons) than white women. However, more black women die during pregnancy and childbirth than white women. So, if you take away the healthcare options that can help in black women living through pregnancy and childbirth you increase the chances of black women dying during pregnancy and childbirth

In balance, there are effectively no lives being saved by removing healthcare options.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Child porn found on phone of Pennsylvania state Sen. Mike Folmer: prosecutor

Heard about that on my way to work this morning. Revolting to say the least.

[Malvolio]

Child porn found on phone of Pennsylvania state Sen. Mike Folmer: prosecutor

Has WBE put this piece of work in the queue?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

I don't think we need a detailed immigration policy to someone's satisfaction just for saying that we think murdering people through the current one is bad. There are several good versions of progressive immigration reform out there, none of which include the magic phrase nor are in fact 'open borders', to which are probably better than the current system.

Open borders is what the US used to have...for white people.

No surprise that immigration laws became much stricter when brown people started moving in.

US immigration policy comes down to keeping America a white majority country.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

[Dalak]

Open borders is what the US used to have...for white people.

No surprise that immigration laws became much stricter when brown people started moving in.

US immigration policy comes down to keeping America a white majority country.

If the whites weren't the right ones they were historically restricted too (Irish, Jews, etc).

[Rosa Luxemburg]

If the whites weren't the right ones they were historically restricted too (Irish, Jews, etc).

Yeah, whiteness has always been fluid.

There are people that are now considered white, when back then they weren't.