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

[Malvolio]

"It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. It’s not challenging political correctness… that’s just not knowing what you’re talking about."

That's a quote from President Barack Obama's commencement speech this weekend at Rutgers University.

[Tendrin]

Jesus Christ.,

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...atants-840550/

ep. Duncan S. Hunter (R-CA) told a crowd at a border event this weekend that while he served as a Marine, he took photos of the bodies of dead combatants. Hunter, who appeared at the event with his former congressman father, admitted to this while defending Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who is accused of taking photos with the body of a slain combatant, but also of killing innocent, unarmed people. Hunter served in the United States Marine Corps in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Eddie did one bad thing that I’m guilty of too — taking a picture of the body and saying something stupid,” Hunter said, according to the Times of San Diego. He admitted to taking photos but said he did not share them or post them on social media. “But a lot of my peers… have done the exact same thing,” he said.

[Tendrin]

But on a side note the Chernobyl series does look fascinating.

Funnily enough one of the big writers involved is Ted Cruz's arch enemy and former college room mate, Craig Mazin.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Jesus Christ.,

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...atants-840550/

And when pissed off enemies capture and kill American soldiers, then pose with the bodies for pictures for all to see like this ******* had done, I wonder how he'll respond? Shitstains like Hunter and Gallagher should be prosecuted and imprisoned for their heinous actions.

====================

Hogan Gidley: Would Be Nice If Trump Had ‘Complicit, Compliant Media’ As Democrats Do

The White House spokesman argued the press unfairly covered Trump’s decision to walk out of a meeting with Democrats last week. Newsflash: Trump does, you moron, it's called Faux News!

**********

GOP Lawmaker Knocks Trump For ‘Taking A Shot At Biden While Praising A Dictator’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger hits Trump for siding with Kim Jong Un in a bizarre weekend tweet. Look for Kinzinger to be attacked by Trump for his comments, provided his lemmings haven't already done so. Meanwhile....

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Trump And Kim Jong Un ‘Agree In Their Assessment’ Of Joe Biden, Sarah Sanders Says

The president “is essentially siding with a murderous, authoritarian dictator,” NBC’s Chuck Todd told the White House press secretary. And, of course, Baghdad Betty is fully onboard with that. Disgusting!

**********

Afghan War Veteran Pete Buttigieg Slams Trump Over Draft Deferment

The 2020 presidential hopeful called Trump’s medical deferment for bone spurs “an assault on the honor of this country.” The more I hear from Mayor Pete, the more I like.

**********

A Top House Republican On Origins Of FBI’s Russia Investigation: ‘It Could Well Be Treason’

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, echoing Trump, claimed the probe’s genesis “sounds an awful lot like a coup.” Right. Gotcha. Whatever you say, Liz. To quote the esteemed Bugs Bunny, wotta maroon!

[Tami]

Life expectancy in the US: You're most likely to live a long life in Hawaii and California

Just an interesting bi of trivia. Then there is this.

American life expectancy has dropped again. Here’s why

[Tami]

Chris Wallace Owns Lindsey Graham With Clip Of Him Lashing Clinton Over Subpoenas

Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday with the lawmaker’s own words captured on video lashing the president for ignoring a congressional subpoena. But he was talking about Bill Clinton — not Donald Trump.

Graham also insisted at the time that ignoring a subpoena was an impeachable offense.

Wallace told Graham on Sunday: “You call all of what’s going on here in Washington a political circus, but you took a different view back when you were leading the impeachment effort against Bill Clinton back in the late ’90s. At that time you said that any president — and you talk specifically about Clinton and Richard Nixon — who defied Congress when it came to subpoenas was in danger of impeachment.”

In the 1998 clip, Graham angrily fumed in comments directed at Clinton: “You’re becoming the judge and jury. It is not your job to tell us what we need. It is your job to comply with things we need to provide oversight over you.”

At the time, Graham was a member of the House of Representatives and was leading the impeachment effort against Clinton.

Wallace piped up: “Question: Why is it an impeachable offense for Clinton or Nixon back then to ignore congressional subpoenas, but it’s OK for President Trump to do now?”

Graham said the difference between the cases is that the investigative report by special counsel Robert Mueller is the “final word on this for me.”

That's not much of an answer. It's a cop out.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Chris Wallace Owns Lindsey Graham With Clip Of Him Lashing Clinton Over Subpoenas



That's not much of an answer. It's a cop out.

Pfft! That’s not an answer at all if you ask me. It’s absolutely shameful and pathetic how nutsacks like Graham ragged on Trump, if not flat out hated him in the beginning, then went over to the dark side to relentlessly kiss his orange ass the next. I’m no political animal, but I’ve never known any president who’s garnered so much out of control sycophantic behavior from people than Trump. It’s both startling, and more than a little frightening.

[Farealmer]

There are certainly many more racist incidents in America, because the population is much more diverse and so there are many more opportunities for conflicts to arise. The legal system in America is dysfunctional not because Americans are especially cruel or sadistic, but because white people have this existential fear that one day minorities will occupy positions of power and start enacting policies that serve our interests rather than reserving all the gains for whites exclusively. This is not something Europeans will ever have to worry about, all the white extinction hysteria aside.

And this is not to say that I think all Europeans are like these closet racists who just pretend to be tolerant but still have their SS uniforms stashed away just in the case the savages get too uppity. I'm just saying that the demographics of Europe mean that there are generally fewer situations where your typical white European will have to choose between upholding their principles of equality and openness, and serving their personal socioeconomic interests, a dilemma that most Americans encounter on a daily basis.

About that.
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news...0fb869c803e6e3

[Mister Mets]

Conservatives always make this giant leap between liberalism/Democratic Socialism and Totalitarianism/Communism. It’s the all or nothing view point we see so often. No left learning politician has ever called for the end of capitalism. Things like wanting a livable wage and equal rights for women, minorities, LGBT, etc does not equate to a dictatorship.

History has shown that Communism doesn’t work. The last stage of Communism before the supposed utopian society is totalitarianism and you can never get past that stage. But not wanting laissez faire capitalism doesn’t mean we hate the concept of capitalism. We need the free market but we’d also like workers rights to go along with that. “Running the country like a business” is incredibly stupid because the only reason companies give their employees any rights or benefits is because the government makes them.

But on a side note the Chernobyl series does look fascinating.

Some on the left had to call for an end to capitalism. It's a position some people do hold, and they tend not to be free-markets type.

Margaret Thatcher was an abomination.

There was a lot of upside to her administration. Average earnings increased significantly, while inflation (a major problem in the 70s when the conservative party took over) was greatly reduced.

There was a massive increase in productivity following union reforms (national agreements had previously been undermined by local leaders) and the privatisation of industry was largely seen as a good thing.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-...st-thatcherism

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...n-8566596.html

Homeopathy is pure bunk. but our health insurance also pays for some questionable therapies. Still France.....

As for glyphosate. Yes a recent study said that, other recent studies have said it is cancer causing, and the WHO has said it is. I don't think we have something definitive here art all.
This action by France is nowhere on par with what they did with Homeopathy.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/01/healt...afe/index.html

There's a distinction between what some health insurance companies cover and what they're mandated to cover.

It's one thing if Blue Cross adds questionable therapies to its plans to get more customers; they shouldn't be mandated to do so by the state, which is the situation in France.

"It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. It’s not challenging political correctness… that’s just not knowing what you’re talking about."

That's a quote from President Barack Obama's commencement speech this weekend at Rutgers University.

This gets messy. I agree on the need to know what we're talking about in political discourse, but there are downsides to keeping out large chunks of the population from the conversation (This is not a partisan issue as there's ignorance on both sides; see how few Americans can name a single Supreme Court justice.)

Life expectancy in the US: You're most likely to live a long life in Hawaii and California

Just an interesting bi of trivia. Then there is this.

American life expectancy has dropped again. Here’s why

This has been a major problem for a few years. It had been going on in particular communities before, but it got so bad it's affected the national average in 2015 (the statistics became public in late 2016.)

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...s-report-finds

[Mister Mets]

In other news, the New York Times continues its spotlight on the military's investigations into UFO sightings.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/u...nytimesscience

The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds.

“These things would be out there all day,” said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years, and who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress. “Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we’d expect.”

In late 2014, a Super Hornet pilot had a near collision with one of the objects, and an official mishap report was filed. Some of the incidents were videotaped, including one taken by a plane’s camera in early 2015 that shows an object zooming over the ocean waves as pilots question what they are watching.

“Wow, what is that, man?” one exclaims. “Look at it fly!”

No one in the Defense Department is saying that the objects were extraterrestrial, and experts emphasize that earthly explanations can generally be found for such incidents. Lieutenant Graves and four other Navy pilots, who said in interviews with The New York Times that they saw the objects in 2014 and 2015 in training maneuvers from Virginia to Florida off the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, make no assertions of their provenance.

But the objects have gotten the attention of the Navy, which earlier this year sent out new classified guidance for how to report what the military calls unexplained aerial phenomena, or unidentified flying objects.

A conservative commentator noticed the trend of the mainstream media talking more about aliens.

https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/...aliens-lately/

And there are lots of jokes on twitter about how we need to hope that aliens don't show up asking to meet our leader until after the next election.

[kidfresh512]

Jesus Christ.,

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...atants-840550/

And this is exactly why it is a terrible message to pardon people who have done it. Just because this guy "got away with it" and he says his peers have as well. Shouldn't make it ok. They represent our country and our values to the world. It should NEVER be ok to do these type things, and then the president of the country even entertaining a pardon for this behavior speaks for ALL Americans to the world.

Its disgusting.

[Kirby101]

In other news, the New York Times continues its spotlight on the military's investigations into UFO sightings.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/26/u...nytimesscience



A conservative commentator noticed the trend of the mainstream media talking more about aliens.

https://hotair.com/archives/2019/02/...aliens-lately/

And there are lots of jokes on twitter about how we need to hope that aliens don't show up asking to meet our leader until after the next election.

UFOs do not = Aliens. There is ZERO evidence for alien visitation. It's a giant leap with nothing to back it up.

[Kirby101]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-...st-thatcherism

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...n-8566596.html

Yes and no.

https://www.josharcher.uk/blog/why-m...cher-is-hated/

[Tami]

President Donald Trump set to commandeer July 4 festivities in nation's capital

The president's event would be in addition to the extensive Fourth of July festivities that already take place each year in the nation's capital and include a major fireworks show, a parade and a concert on the lawn of the Capitol that provides a live soundtrack to the show in the night's sky.

While details of the president's event have yet to be finalized, the White House is facing pushback over the security, logistical and financial strains a presidential event would add on a day where additional security protocols already are in place for the hundreds of thousands expected to flock to the Mall to picnic and watch fireworks.

In addition to a presidential address, the administration has ordered that the location of the fireworks display be moved. A source familiar with planning said there have also been talks about adding additional military elements to the regular Fourth of July parade, while the president's orders for a separate, grand military parade remain on perpetual delay.

But even as the administration said it's been engaged in months of planning for the event, with Interior Secretary David Bernhardt spearheading the effort, a source familiar told ABC News it remains to be seen if the president will get his way on all of the proposed changes.

There are particular concerns about trying to pull off an event at the Lincoln Memorial, the president's preferred location, because of the challenges in securing the president at that site and because of the impact it would have on the flow of crowds trying to access the Mall, according to the source. Conversations within the administration are ongoing as staffers weigh how to find the most feasible way to satisfy the president's wishes while minimizing the disruption to the public, with some preferring he not leave the White House at all.

[Mister Mets]

Writing for the New York Times, Steve Rattner, counseler to the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, notes economic tailwinds benefit Trump in 2020.

The economy invariably ranks among the top issues on the minds of voters in presidential elections. At the moment, it appears to offer President Trump a meaningful tailwind.

But how big is that tailwind? Fortunately, economists have worked hard to develop models for predicting election outcomes, and according to one of the best of these, it should be quite large.

One of the first — and perhaps still the best — of these models was created by Ray Fair, a professor at Yale. He found that the growth rates of gross domestic product and inflation have been the two most important economic predictors — but he also found that incumbency was also an important determinant of presidential election outcomes.

Other models come to the same conclusion.

Three analysts who set up and look at predictive models say President Donald Trump is likely to win reelection in 2020. The secret? A combination of favorable economic data as well as the normal advantage that incumbents enjoy, according to Steven Rattner, a counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration.

In a column for the New York Times, Rattner notes that “one of the best” models to predict election outcomes makes clear that Trump is likely to receive a significant tailwind from the economy. Ray Fair, a professor at Yale, has come up with a model that takes into account GDP growth rates, inflation, and incumbency and has been quite accurate in previous cycles. In 2016, for example, the model accurately predicted a victory for Trump although it overestimated his share of the popular vote. According to that model, Trump’s vote share should be as high as 56.1 percent in the next election, although in reality the divisiveness of the candidate means the actual number won’t be as high.

Fair isn’t the only modeler to see Trump with a clear advantage in 2020. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics analyzed 12 models and found that Trump comes out on top in all of them. Donald Luskin of Trend Macrolytics analyzed the Electoral College and came to the same conclusion.

This isn't to say he's guaranteed to win reelection, or even favored to win. Rattner noted that Trump consistently underperformed models predicting how a typical Republican candidate would do.

But at the very least Trump winning again remains a significant possibility. Democrats can't take his defeat as a foregone conclusion. We may be stuck with him for a while.