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

[Wakeneuron]

Where are the United Nations in regards to the crisis on the border and with people dying trying to get across?

Some migrants are coming from Guatemala and the UN's indirect involvement has increased the flow of migrants from Guatemala and into the United States. In 2006 the UN and Guatemala signed the International Commission against Impunity agreement which was the first of its kind in history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...y_in_Guatemala
This commision was designed to fight corruption in Guatemala but it has made the Guatemalan government and economy very unstable after the commision took down numerous political figures including Guatemala's President in 2015. He's now in prison waiting for trial. The current President of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, as blocked the CICIG's commisioner Velasquez from returning to Guatemala after he made a short trip to New York.

Those opposing the CICIG cite selective prosecution, witness and/or evidence tampering, political persecution and an invasion of national sovereignty.

Those in favor laud the CICIG's investigative capabilities.

For me personally I'm kind of shock that the UN is involved in this way. I wonder if they could get involve in US politics if the Democrats ask? Maybe that's their plan?

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Dale Mensing, a Bob Jones University graduate and grocery clerk who challenged Jared Huffman for his seat to represent California’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014. His campaign ads were primarily YouTube videos of Mensing in the woods, claiming the Affordable Care Act was created to start attacks on the freedom of religion, or was a violation of the Bill of Rights. In others he warned of Common Core education as “One World Order education concepts”. Not surprisingly, Mensing lost the election by 50 points, and will likely never run for office again.

In 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward , who in 2016 was the latest in a long line of nut-jobs we’ve profiled who decided to challenge Senator John McCaifor his seat to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate, and she lost in 2018 as well running for the seat formerly held by Sen. Jeff Flakepol. For starters, Ward was running a osteopathic clinic in Lake Havasu City back in 2009, and not particularly well. She sold her practice to a company named NorthCountry. That included the clinic, employees and all, and her buyout was paid for with… half a million dollars in Obama Stimulus Funds that came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But she tells all her prospective voters she HATES Obamacare, go figure, while she laughs all the way to the bank. As a state legislator in Arizona, Kelli Ward hosted a town hall meeting with her constituents to discuss the threat of… CHEMTRAILS. That’s only one of conspiracies she touts, and appearing on the radio talk shows of every right-wing paranoid conspiracy theorist lunatic who will host her. Back in 2013, she co-sponsored Arizona’s attempts to reject the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Treaty, and spoke on the floor of the Arizona legislature about how she believes it is tricking rural Americans into moving back into metropolitan centers and cities. Ward has appeared on the radio show of a local Arizona conspiracy nut named Luca Zanna, where Ward chatted about mysterious helicopters that had been spotted in Arizona, finding agreement how Common Core standards were turning children into “slaves”, as well as the prospect of martial law, or the possibility of a foreign power sending troops to subdue American citizens. Kelli Ward made a trip up to the Cliven Bundy Ranch to hang out with him and the Oathkeepers in 2014, and she described the armed standoff where domestic terrorists had assault rifles pointed at federal agents from the Bureau of Land Management as a “family friendly” event. After Cliven Bundy made his comments “about the negro”, Ward tried downplaying her visit to see the would-be hero turned racist domestic terrorist, but noting Bundy had a “1st Amendment right” to his remarks. She also actually did an interview in 2014 with self-described conspiracy theorist and fellow Bundy supporter Pete Santilli, who called John McCain “a domestic enemy”, and brought up both Chemtrails and 9/11 Trutherism during their talk. Remember when Donald Sterling still owned the Los Angeles Clippers, and after decades of racist remarks and lawsuits over racial discrimination against Sterling, he was caught on tape making racist remarksabout African Americans? The NBA voted to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, and most people felt it was because the league didn’t need anyone that racist as part of their day-to-day operations. Well, Kelli Ward, for whatever reason, came running to Donald Sterling’s defense, saying that forcing him to lose his team in such a manner created a “slippery slope”, and promised the public that she would “fight for free speech”. Kelli Ward also received a 2016 endorsement from Nohl Rosenthe leader of a group of racist protesters who are pro-police, taunting Black Lives Matter protesters with Confederate flags, or the time Rosen participated an armed protest with assault rifles of a Phoenix mosque (where they talked about the possibility of having a “Draw Muhammed” contest). While most assumed Ward would distance herself from a bigoted crank like Rosen… she re-Tweeted his endorsement. Then you do a little bit of checking and find out… Ward has spoken at some of Rosen’s “Back the Badge” rallies that defend police violence (especially the times against minorities). And that sort of mentality jibes with Mother Jones’ other reporting, that when asked about her position on birthright citizenship at a local GOP gathering in September 2014, she responded by making a thumbs-down gesture and blowing a raspberry, stating that it had been "misinterpreted for years" and that immigrants shouldn't be able to stay just because they "create a child." (Which isn’t how birthright citizenship works.) In radio interviews, Ward has fear-mongered in the worst possible ways, warning that "polio-like illnesses" are spreading "throughout the country as the federal government shipped all of these illegal immigrants all across the country without properly treating them for health and wellness, and they're exposing our kids, our families, to things that we should never have to be exposed to." (Remember, now, we’re talking about a woman with medical training…) Establishing that Ward is off her rocker seems like an open and shut at this point, but we’ll note she also was a co-sponsor of extremist Arizona Republicans attempts to make gold and silver legal tender as one of her first priorities as a legislator, as well as voted for both an attempt to nullify federal firearm laws, and voted for Arizona’s attempt at passing a “religious freedom” law to prevent same sex marriage back in 2013. So to sum up, she frequents the company of bigots, is supported by leaders of hate rallies, says unfounded things about immigrants, tries making conspiracy theories into actual policy, and only seems to mention the importance of the First Amendment when someone says something really racist. Perhaps then, it should come as little surprise that she has spoken at Trump events and praised Cheeto Jesus himself, Donald Trump. At this point, the GOP fighting to keep Ward out of state-wide elections isn’t a secret, and she’s been left desperate enough to tout “endorsements” from fake news sites that her own campaign manages. Fox News, of course, has decided to put their thumb on the scale for her where they can, since she’s a Trump loyalist, and allowed her to lie about asylum seekers at the border, and claim that criminals were “using children” to help get across the border, trying to defend the highly controversial “family separation” policy instituted by the Trump administration like you’d expect a woman palling around with paranoid white nationalists would. As such, we’ll retire her profile at this time (even though we think she's going to run unsuccessfully again in 2020) and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 763-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Carl Nett

Welcome to the 763rd original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Carl Nett, who lost in an attempt to get elected to the Kentucky state legislature in 2014, and in 2019, was a candidate to be the Secretary of State of Kentucky. Nett, however, decidedly crossed a line during the build-up to the 2018 elections, harming his own reputation by making a threat towards longtime Democratic Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth.

Rep. Yarmuth posted a picture of himself wearing an “F” pin, which he revealed was his pride in knowing that “F” is the lifetime rating the NRA gave him. Nett, a former law enforcement officer and Secret Service agent, posted on Twitter that Yarmuth should, “move it over a bit, I was trained center mass”, indicating he wanted to shoot him, or have him shot square in the chest. Nett deleted the post, but not before it was seen, screen-captured, and sent to the FBI to investigate. He ended up apologizing, but his reputation was already damaged.

Not that he seems to have a good idea of what a good reputation looks like, as Nett not only insisted that he has the nickname “Trump”, but he threatened to sue the state of Kentucky if they didn’t include that nickname for him on the ballot in 2019, only to have a judge laugh his frivolous lawsuit out of court.


Nett finished fourth among four candidates for the GOP Primary, getting only 13% of the vote. We’re wondering how many cracks he’s going to take at getting elected to office, but so far, even with his resume with the military and intelligence community, he hasn’t been able to pull it off. But threatening to shoot sitting politicians is decidedly not a good look.

[aja_christopher]

[Deleted.]

[worstblogever]

'Help': Photos show hundreds of migrants squashed into cells, appealing for assistance

Pictures from DHS itself back up everything that's been reported so far. For all the right wing pundits trashing Dems condemning this shit show.

88 grown men in a cell for 41? Where is the money per inmate being spent at?

The 1% folks, the Republican shareholders of the private prison companies billing taxpayers for $775 per inmate, per day.

Which is the reality of all of this. We, the taxpayers, are being billed for "for profit human rights violations". That rank-and-file Republicans like, because they either aren't smart enough to realize that they're paying for this, or, they're racist, and realize that their money is being spent on tormenting people of color and they LIKE that (These would be the folks screaming at Democrats touring the facilities and calling them "traitors".

In any scenario, it does not paint a positive picture of members of the GOP. The same folks who had Glenn Beck and Alex Jones feeding them lies about Obama locking them all up in FEMA camps are sitting back while their politicians are doing exactly that, because at least it's not "them".

[aja_christopher]

The 1% folks, the Republican shareholders of the private prison companies billing taxpayers for $775 per inmate, per day.

Which is the reality of all of this. We, the taxpayers, are being billed for "for profit human rights violations". That rank-and-file Republicans like, because they either aren't smart enough to realize that they're paying for this, or, they're racist, and realize that their money is being spent on tormenting people of color and they LIKE that (These would be the folks screaming at Democrats touring the facilities and calling them "traitors".

Maybe Mets can work it out and tell us what the total "costs" are for treating people like animals and separating children from families while simultaneously dodging discussing the "costs" of Republican tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and lead to both record deficits and global recessions.

----
"The Trump administration said before the tax bill passed that any addition to the deficit would be paid for by economic growth.

“We think we can pay for the entire tax cut through growth over the cycle,” former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC in November 2017.

Republicans in Congress made the same argument. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said at the time that “The bottom line is we will be able to fill any deficit hole with additional revenues.”

If they had paid attention to several estimates published around the bill’s passage, the fact that the bill, which largely focused on tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, actually lowered federal revenue would not have been a surprise.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in December 2017 that the bill would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. Trump’s own Treasury Department acknowledged a $1 trillion budget hit even with wildly optimistic assumptions of economic growth. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in May 2018 that the law would add $1.9 trillion over the same period when taking into account $600 billion in debt service costs and a projected $550 billion increase in tax revenue.

“There’s going to be a hundred estimates,” Brady said when he was asked about the CBO estimate, and said he was more optimistic than that.

“The reforms I think in the tax reform area is something I think will even pay off more over time. I still think the best is yet to come.”

Ten years ago, Rep. Brady was not so sanguine. Shortly before President Barack Obama came into office amid the global financial collapse, he introduced a bill that would place an annual spending cap on the federal budget and eliminate agencies wholesale. He argued that these cuts were needed to avoid a situation where future generations will be in an inescapable financial hole.

“We are at a crisis point and Congress just continues to spend like there’s no tomorrow,” Brady said in a press release on January 9, 2009. “Unless we act now to get our financial house in order, families will face higher tax burdens and our grandchildren will find themselves in a deep hole they can never climb out of.”

Ten years later, the nation’s deficit continues to grow, despite the thriving economy trumpeted by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.

“The federal budget deficit was $738 billion for the first eight months of fiscal year 2019, the CBO estimates, $206 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year,” said the most recent CBO budget review.

And a recent report by the Congressional Research Service found that the tax bill did not prompt any economic growth that was not already underway from years before Trump came into office. The main effect has been to allow corporations to further enrich their wealthy shareholders, with little benefit to most working Americans."

https://thinkprogress.org/kevin-brad...-149f49bd7895/

[Mister Mets]

Maybe Mets can work it out and tell us what the total "costs" are for treating people like animals and separating children from families while simultaneously dodging discussing the "costs" of Republican tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and lead to both record deficits and global recessions.

----
"The Trump administration said before the tax bill passed that any addition to the deficit would be paid for by economic growth.

“We think we can pay for the entire tax cut through growth over the cycle,” former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC in November 2017.

Republicans in Congress made the same argument. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) said at the time that “The bottom line is we will be able to fill any deficit hole with additional revenues.”

If they had paid attention to several estimates published around the bill’s passage, the fact that the bill, which largely focused on tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, actually lowered federal revenue would not have been a surprise.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in December 2017 that the bill would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. Trump’s own Treasury Department acknowledged a $1 trillion budget hit even with wildly optimistic assumptions of economic growth. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in May 2018 that the law would add $1.9 trillion over the same period when taking into account $600 billion in debt service costs and a projected $550 billion increase in tax revenue.

“There’s going to be a hundred estimates,” Brady said when he was asked about the CBO estimate, and said he was more optimistic than that.

“The reforms I think in the tax reform area is something I think will even pay off more over time. I still think the best is yet to come.”

Ten years ago, Rep. Brady was not so sanguine. Shortly before President Barack Obama came into office amid the global financial collapse, he introduced a bill that would place an annual spending cap on the federal budget and eliminate agencies wholesale. He argued that these cuts were needed to avoid a situation where future generations will be in an inescapable financial hole.

“We are at a crisis point and Congress just continues to spend like there’s no tomorrow,” Brady said in a press release on January 9, 2009. “Unless we act now to get our financial house in order, families will face higher tax burdens and our grandchildren will find themselves in a deep hole they can never climb out of.”

Ten years later, the nation’s deficit continues to grow, despite the thriving economy trumpeted by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.

“The federal budget deficit was $738 billion for the first eight months of fiscal year 2019, the CBO estimates, $206 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year,” said the most recent CBO budget review.

And a recent report by the Congressional Research Service found that the tax bill did not prompt any economic growth that was not already underway from years before Trump came into office. The main effect has been to allow corporations to further enrich their wealthy shareholders, with little benefit to most working Americans."

https://thinkprogress.org/kevin-brad...-149f49bd7895/

If you have a question you could ask me directly, instead of referencing me in a comment to someone else.

Where are the United Nations in regards to the crisis on the border and with people dying trying to get across?

Some migrants are coming from Guatemala and the UN's indirect involvement has increased the flow of migrants from Guatemala and into the United States. In 2006 the UN and Guatemala signed the International Commission against Impunity agreement which was the first of its kind in history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...y_in_Guatemala
This commision was designed to fight corruption in Guatemala but it has made the Guatemalan government and economy very unstable after the commision took down numerous political figures including Guatemala's President in 2015. He's now in prison waiting for trial. The current President of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, as blocked the CICIG's commisioner Velasquez from returning to Guatemala after he made a short trip to New York.

Those opposing the CICIG cite selective prosecution, witness and/or evidence tampering, political persecution and an invasion of national sovereignty.

Those in favor laud the CICIG's investigative capabilities.

For me personally I'm kind of shock that the UN is involved in this way. I wonder if they could get involve in US politics if the Democrats ask? Maybe that's their plan?

If the UN were inclined to get involved, it would probably not go over very well in a domestic political context. Trump can spin it as an international organization telling the US what to do, while it is refusing to get involved in the wrongdoings of other countries.

The UN is very unlikely to get involved in a major way because other countries also have strict border control policies, and don't want the argument that they should allow more people in to their own countries.

[kidfresh512]

Justice Department Reverses Course on Citizenship Question on Census, Citing Trump’s Orders

A day after pledging that the 2020 census would not ask respondents about their citizenship, the Justice Department reversed course on Wednesday and said it was hunting for a way to restore the question on orders from President Trump.
Officials told a federal judge in Maryland that they thought there would be a way to still add the question, despite printing deadlines, and that they would ask the Supreme Court to send the case to district court with instructions to remedy the situation.
President Trump had been frustrated with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for mishandling the White House’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, according to an administration official, and said on Wednesday that he was “absolutely moving forward” with plans to add it despite a Supreme Court decision last week rejecting the move.

What a disorganized mess this entire administration is. One day we are doing this, the next no trump tweeted he doesn't want that he does want to find a way to discriminate still!

[aja_christopher]

If you have a question you could ask me directly, instead of referencing me in a comment to someone else.

I don't have a question since I already know the answer -- it's called hypocrisy.

If it wasn't you'd be complaining about the "costs" of Republican tax cuts that do little more for our country than cause record deficits and lead to recessions.

Not to mention the cost of the Republican initiated Iraq War that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, over a trillion dollars, and our good reputation.

Instead, you're defending that same party as it separates children from their families as a "deterrent" and denies them proper medical care.

You still haven't bothered explaining why you're comfortable supporting a party that is attempting to subvert our democracy by allowing for criminal Russian election interference in our elections and actively restricting the voting rights of "minority" American citizens.

I don't have any questions, Mets and I've already told you what I believe the answer is -- vote the lying, corrupt Republican party out of office.

-----
""Iraq War Costs U.S. More Than $2 trillion: Study"

"The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest..."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-i...92D0PG20130314

-----
"Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Will Cost $1.5 Trillion"

"According to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), today's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will add $1.51 trillion to the debt, before accounting for interest or possible gimmicks. This cost would likely be enough to cause debt to exceed the size of the economy by 2028 – bad news for the nation's fiscal and economic future.

Of the $1.5 trillion cost, roughly $1 trillion comes from business tax cuts. Individual tax cuts make up another $300 billion, and the ultimate repeal of the estate tax accounts for the remaining $200 billion."

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/tax-cut-a...st-15-trillion

[worstblogever]

After all the dickery around Trump's military parade...

Weather forecast for tomorrow in DC is thunderstorms. Which could negate a flyover altogether. Fireworks might be less impressive if it's too wet. Crowds of GOP loyalists given tickets by the RNC might be forced to hide at the Trump hotel (which is his entire game here, to make this a way to bilk money out of the RNC illegally at what "isn't a campaign event" that has folks like Shaub ready to file a lawsuit).

But I don't think I've rooted for rain on the 4th. This is a first.

[Robotman]

After all the dickery around Trump's military parade...

Weather forecast for tomorrow in DC is thunderstorms. Which could negate a flyover altogether. Fireworks might be less impressive if it's too wet. Crowds of GOP loyalists given tickets by the RNC might be forced to hide at the Trump hotel (which is his entire game here, to make this a way to bilk money out of the RNC illegally at what "isn't a campaign event" that has folks like Shaub ready to file a lawsuit).

But I don't think I've rooted for rain on the 4th. This is a first.

Ha! I love it. Maybe those bible thumpers will take it as a sign that they really are backing an evil man. Nah.

[numberthirty]

Couldn't not think of Caddyshack once I heard what the chances of rain wound up being.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

After all the dickery around Trump's military parade...

Weather forecast for tomorrow in DC is thunderstorms. Which could negate a flyover altogether. Fireworks might be less impressive if it's too wet. Crowds of GOP loyalists given tickets by the RNC might be forced to hide at the Trump hotel (which is his entire game here, to make this a way to bilk money out of the RNC illegally at what "isn't a campaign event" that has folks like Shaub ready to file a lawsuit).

But I don't think I've rooted for rain on the 4th. This is a first.

Hell, I’ll do a goddamn rain dance if it’ll help dampen things tomorrow. By the by, I’ve heard the White House is refusing to divulge just how much Trump’s colossal ego stroke is going to cost taxpayers. Can’t say I’m surprised. When Dolt45 proposed this mess in 2018, the cost was quoted at $92 million, forcing him to cancel it, a year later, god only knows what the price tag is going to end up being.

[Tami]

Russia Warns U.S. Politicians Against Blaming It for Anything During 2020 Race

A senior Russian diplomat has sent a pre-emptive warning to U.S. lawmakers ahead of the 2020 presidential election, suggesting that repeated allegations of Kremlin meddling could seriously damage relations between the two countries.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov suggested that accusations of Russian meddling in past American elections are baseless, despite ample evidence uncovered by investigators to the contrary.

Ryabkov made his remarks while addressing the International Valdai Discussion Club, state news agency Tass reported. The organization was established to "promote dialogue between Russian and international intellectual elite," according to its website.

Ryabkov told attendees that the "overall situation around Russia—the relations of Russia with the U.S.—are not improving."

[Wakeneuron]

I don't know how true it is but today someone made a comment on breitbart.com that says that Trump can order the census forms to be printed with the question and the Supreme Court can't do anything about it.

Also Trump can suspend habeas corpus and use the military to round up the invaders and deport them. But of course this would seem harsh and the media would have a field day if Trump label the migrants invaders. But president Lincoln did it in 1863 but he didn't have to deal with the internet and 24/7 media coverage back then.

Imo the Democrats are the ones most responsible for the crisis on the border. When Bill Clinton signed NAFTA alot of the manufacturing jobs went to Mexico. And when those manufacturing jobs left small, rural towns their economy was devastated and they had to do something to feel the void. And what they came up with are private prisons and detention centers. But the kick is that when these private prisons were built they imprisoned 80 percent of the local residents in the community where the prison was built. And of course most were Black. And the detention centers are built to house the migrants who are lured to America for jobs. My heart really do go out to those migrants who end up in those detention centers when all they wanted was a job. But Bill Clinton lured them here along with some Republicans of course to fill up beds and boost the economy of rural towns devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs...

But there is hope. Private/Public Partnerships is a good way to fill the economic void once those private prisons goes away because over time a number of them had closed. A Privated/Public partnership was something rapper Nipsey Hussle tried to accomplished in Compton, California thanks to Trump's investment in Urban communities. But because Private Prisons provide good jobs for African Americans the political will is not often there to close them down. This is why more private/public partnerships are needed to show people a better way.

[Tendrin]

I don't know how true it is but today someone made a comment on breitbart.com that says that Trump can order the census forms to be printed with the question and the Supreme Court can't do anything about it.

Also Trump can suspend habeas corpus and use the military to round up the invaders and deport them. But of course this would seem harsh and the media would have a field day if Trump label the migrants invaders. But president Lincoln did it in 1863 but he didn't have to deal with the internet and 24/7 media coverage back then.

There are no words for the level of facepalm you just created with this post.