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

[Tami]

I doubt anything will come from Mueller tomorrow.

If all that comes is him confirming the contents of the report, that alone might be enough.

[InformationGeek]

A Trump campaign adviser for 2020. Says so much.

Jenna Ellis Rives, a Trump 2020 campaign advisory board member, says that minimum wage hikes are "unamerican" and that the minimum wage should be $0.

[Tendrin]

A Trump campaign adviser for 2020. Says so much.

Also, while talking about AOC, Trump flashed the 'ok' symbol today.

Super awesome white nationalist president stuff!

[Tendrin]

The avoidance of talking about your Party's position on immigration is astonishing.
And blaming the Dems for things like not helping Dreamers is living in Bizaro World.

I had a good chortle at 'unlike most Dems'.

[Kirby101]

I had a good chortle at 'unlike most Dems'.

I know, I guess we never hear Republicans wanting to end immigration or rounding up people here to send them back. Juat a Dem thing I guess.

[jetengine]

Also, while talking about AOC, Trump flashed the 'ok' symbol today.

Super awesome white nationalist president stuff!

I heard that that particular thing (the ok symbol being a white nationalist thing) was bullshit fabricated by 4chan and leaked to the MSM to showcase how gullible they are as well as the usual "4chan like to be horrible and laugh" meanwhile its all irrelevant since through osmosis it'll become a White Nationalist thing.

[numberthirty]

I doubt anything will come from Mueller tomorrow.

If all that comes is him confirming the contents of the report, that alone might be enough.

Enough to do what?

[Tendrin]

I heard that that particular thing (the ok symbol being a white nationalist thing) was bullshit fabricated by 4chan and leaked to the MSM to showcase how gullible they are as well as the usual "4chan like to be horrible and laugh" meanwhile its all irrelevant since through osmosis it'll become a White Nationalist thing.

It's already happened. And ironic Nazis are still just Nazis.

[worstblogever]

It seems the GOP's failure to quarantine continues to accelerate... Ted Cruz is trying to declare "antifa" a terrorist organization, has it pointed out that white nationalists and the KKK have caused way more deaths, and people begin circulating photos of him with leaders of militia groups like the OathKeepers (who yes, were at the 2013 Shutdown rally Cruz led), and now, Ted Cruz is chillin' with the Proud Boys.

In far better news, the 9/11 First Responders healthcare is now permanent. Take a look at John Stewart's s*** eating grin as Mitch McConnell walks by him, defeated, in the capitol:

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It seems the GOP's failure to quarantine continues to accelerate... Ted Cruz is trying to declare "antifa" a terrorist organization, has it pointed out that white nationalists and the KKK have caused way more deaths, and people begin circulating photos of him with leaders of militia groups like the OathKeepers (who yes, were at the 2013 Shutdown rally Cruz led), and now, Ted Cruz is chillin' with the Proud Boys.

In far better news, the 9/11 First Responders healthcare is now permanent. Take a look at John Stewart's s*** eating grin as Mitch McConnell walks by him, defeated, in the capitol:

Would've been more fitting if Jon flashed Turtle Boy the one-finger salute!

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

Beto O’Rourke: Trump In North Carolina ‘Was Almost An Impromptu Nuremberg Rally’

The 2020 hopeful slammed Trump for inciting “violence against people based on the color of their skin.” And I fear that violence is literally right around the corner. Meanwhile, speaking of Caramel Caligula....

**********

Trump’s Day With Young Republicans Was Full Of Racism And Lies

The president, speaking at the Turning Point USA summit, repeatedly lied and claimed that four minority congresswomen used the slur “evil Jews.” Young Republicans, the 21st century version of the Hitler Youth whom Trump is brainwashing.

**********

Here’s Where 2020 Candidates Stand On Abolishing The Debt Ceiling

The next president could face another debt ceiling crisis if Republicans decide to hold it hostage as they did during President Barack Obama’s tenure. If a Democrat wins the presidency, but are unable to claim the Senate, you can bet the mortgage there will be obstruction by the GOP.

**********

It’s The Poorest State, But In Trump’s Head, West Virginia Is The Best Off – Thanks To Him

The president says the state is “producing record setting numbers.” In fact, it has the lowest median income in the U.S. and one of the highest poverty rates. Of course Trump will say that's fake news. Truth has zero place in his warped world.

**********

Angry Orchard ‘Extremely Embarrassed’ Over Customer’s Complaint Of Racial Profiling

A black man proposing to his girlfriend at the upstate New York brewery was interrupted by white security guards accusing him of stealing, the bride-to-be said. Now we have....PROPOSING WHILE BLACK! This **** has got to stop!

[worstblogever]

In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State of Kansas and a member of the Republican Party's Platform Committee in both 2012 and 2016. In our first profile, we pointed out how Kobach wrote Arizona’s legal racial profiling law, SB 1070, and who not coincidentally has ties to the anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, is a Birther, and also has the nasty habit of trying to convince people that the LGBT community are working to promote pedophilia. In our second report on Kobach, he had further spread the myth of free "Obamaphones" being handed out (there's a government program to get phones to poor households, but it was instituted by President Reagan to help people offer a phone number to potential employers and get hired and off of welfare). Kobach also has warned against Latino voters forming a "socialist voting block" and didn't think it beyond the realm of possibility that President Obama would stop having African-Americans prosecuted for committing crimes. Kobach has claimed his critics are akin to the "class enemies" of China during its cultural revolution, so we guess we're in that boat now, too. Kobach was appallingly racist enough to become an immigration advisor to the Donald Trump campaign, and continued his xenophobic crusade with him, every step of the way.

In October of 2015, Kobach spoke at a "writer's workshop" event for the Social Contract Press, a publication that often prints articles for white nationalists, and a month later, was echoing conspiracy theories started on Alex Jones’ InfoWars to claim that massive voter fraud takes place using same day voter registration and schemes with "voting buses" and used his own conservative talk radio to ask guests if President Obama was "putting his finger on the scale in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood or the radical Islamists." Speaking of Kobach’s relationship with Obama, we already knew Kobach was a Birther, but he decided to call back to it in April of 2016, saying that perhaps the reason President Obama opposes proof of citizenship laws is because "he's not a citizen". By June of 2016: Kobach raved about anti-Trump protests in New Mexico, suggesting that immigration protesters and people testifying in front of state legislators should be "rounded up" (because that doesn’t sound scary, at all). When the 2016 Republican National Convention rolled around, Kobach was dragging the GOP into its most bigoted era in modern history, making sure that Trump's proposed Border Wall in it. Kobach rode the election of Donald Trump to the White House, continuing to lay seeds of anti-immigrant fears into the ear of a guy who’s already pretty receptive to them. From day one, Kobach wanted to change the way voting rights in our country, because of course he wanted to in order to make sure Democrats could never, ever win. He spent most of the transition trying to get Trump to agree to creating a Muslim registry, a horrifying prospect with all sorts of bad historic parallels as well as “extreme vetting” of all immigrants because we know was an idea because Kobach carelessly allowed his agenda to be revealed by walking in with it out in plain view because he’s a wanker too dumb to invest in a manila folder (they’re too dark a shade of brown for him to hold, of course).

For months, Kobach has continued lying his ass off at a frantic and disgusting pace, insisting we need new Voter ID laws even though his own studies disprove that. And yet, he’ll try and convince the public that Donald Trump isn’t lying when he claims Hillary Clinton received 3-5 million illegal votes, or that “a significant number of refugees will become terrorists” (HINT: They won’t, and there’s no evidence to think such a thing would come to pass.) Kris Kobach is now on the legal record, known to be a liar, as he was fined for misleading a Kansas court and refusing to disclose a previous Trump memo. Maybe his reputation as a disingenuous extremist is the reason why when Trump let him created a new “voter fraud commission”, that 44 states (and counting) told him they would not be cooperating with requests to reveal voter information at the risk of revealing the personal details of voters. Hell, even the Secretary of State of Mississippi… hardly the most liberal of individuals… even the Secretary of State of Mississippi told Kobach he could go jump in the Gulf of Mexico with a stupid request like that. But Kobach’s end goals are still working just by requesting that voter information, as some people have begun calling about deregistering for fear that their personal information could fall into the hands of hackers. Kobach and his office responded to online criticism from individuals who said not to do it and give over their personal info in the form of responding by doxxing those critics.

Kris Kobach shows that his attempts at purging this country of any immigrant of color like the bigot he is have begun to make him a complete laughing stock. His “voter fraud commission” was disbanded as an abject failure in January of 2018. And, he didn’t just lose his case in court in his last attempt at voter suppression in Kansas in June of 2018, but his attempts to defend his fascist ideas were so poorly logically argued that the judge ordered him to take remedial law school courses. Ignoring that the general public now was well aware that he was a bigoted, incompetent huckster, in June 2017 Kobach announced that he’s running for Governor of Kansas. Kobach managed to win the primary, but as he lost with only 43% of the vote to Laura Kelly in Kansas, a long-time GOP bastion.

We thought we were done trying to warn the general populace about this fascist, undemocratic, racist hatemonger… but alas, this is not the year we can stop letting the name Kris Kobach exit our lips in American politics. Kris Kobach is running for U.S. Senate in 2020, hoping to fill the seat of the retiring Pat Roberts. Kansas Republicans are already criticizing him and warning that he could allow for the first Democratic Senator to come out of Kansas in over eighty years, and he’s already off to a great start, misspelling his own name on his paperwork to file to run for office. We can only hope in 2021 that Kansas and the Republican Party sever all ties to this maniac. 

[WestPhillyPunisher]

So, it's not just brown skinned people ICE hunts after....

Irishman has called Philly area home since '07, but ICE wants to send him back

Two weeks ago today, Keran Byrne was scrambling to get her three children ready for an overnight trip to a water-park resort in the Poconos. Around 8 a.m., the doorbell rang at her family’s new home in Springfield Township, Montgomery County.

With so much going on inside – mornings are never easy when you have three kids ranging in age from 4 to 13 – Keran tried to ignore it, figuring it was just a package delivery.

When the follow-up knocks grew louder and louder, the mother stopped what she was doing and went to check who was there.

Her husband Keith – a 37-year-old who moved here from Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland in 2007 – had already left the house to begin his workday at the painting company he’d started several years earlier.

When Keran opened the door, she saw a 30-something man dressed as if he could be a salesman, not one who carries a gun and a badge. In his hands, Keran quickly noticed, were her husband's car keys and mobile phone.

“I immediately thought the worst,” a sullen Keran said Tuesday, as she sat at a dining room table with a map of Ireland framed on the wall behind her, recounting how her family life has been turned upside down.

Though the message didn’t involve roadway injury or death, Keran’s worst-case suspicions weren’t far from the truth.

“He said, ‘I’m with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). We just picked up your husband. We have him. His car is at this address. He’s being detained. Here’s his keys and phone. He’s being detained. Don’t come down to the station. There’s nothing you can do there,’” she recalled. “He told me that four times, very matter of fact, but somewhat sympathetic. I was inconsolable, immediately.”

It visibly pained her to relive those moments, but she realizes that the only way Keith might walk through that door again is bringing attention to the nightmare threatening to destroy their family.

As she shared her story, Keith Byrne remained in custody at Pike County Correctional Facility some two-and-a-half hours north of their suburban home.

Despite a decade of working within the system to become an American, he could be deported to Ireland at a moment’s notice, all because of how a broken immigration system responded to a minor marijuana infraction from before Keith ever set foot in the United States and started building his American dream.

[InformationGeek]

My god... my god this is insane.

[Tami]

So, it's not just brown skinned people ICE hunts after....

Irishman has called Philly area home since '07, but ICE wants to send him back

People who cheer when this kind of thing happens to non-white immigrants don't understand that it's a downhill process. They start with a guy you don't know, then they come after your neighbor, and before you know it they are coming after you or someone in your family.

As the reports of natural born citizens being detained have proven, all you need is a tan and a somewhat foriegn sounding name to be dragged Into custody.

[worstblogever]

My god... my god this is insane.

The president's been known to be in the company of a pedophile sex trafficker and brags about sexually assaulting women...

"LET"S SEND THE KIDS TO MEET HIM! WHAT WRONG COULD COME OF THAT?"