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

[Mister Mets]

Now I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember someone saying that folks opposing interracial marriage had all died out somewhere on these forums.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/geo...posed-to-live/

These people raise their children to believe as they do, or else you wouldn't see so many younger racists at rallies like Charlottesville.

You could use the search function for the forums to know for sure.

Mets, constantly asking these kinds of questions about Trump -- and your fellow Republicans -- when you can easily can find the answers yourself on Google in less than ten seconds, is purposefully ignorant at best and openly dishonest at worst.

Meanwhile, people of color are suffering directly while you "debate" and try to pretend that Trump and the Republican party aren't responsible for the recent rise of racist rhetoric and action in and across this nation.

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"A short history of all the times Donald Trump has retweeted or engaged with white nationalist Twitter accounts"

https://www.indy100.com/article/dona...er-kkk-8830011

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"On a Wednesday night in June 2015, a 21-year-old white man walked into a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and gunned down nine black parishioners taking part in a weekly Bible study group. Dylann Storm Roof sat quietly with the group for about an hour before taking out his Glock pistol and firing 70 rounds, stopping five times to reload. Court testimony revealed that during the shooting Roof said, “Y’all are raping our white women. Y’all are taking over the world.”

How this horrific violence came to take place traces back to a particularly destructive idea, one as old as the United States itself and rooted in the country’s white supremacy: that black men are a physical threat to white people. The narrative that black men are inherently violent and prone to rape white women, as Roof said during his rampage, has been prevalent for centuries. This idea has served as the primary justification for the need to oppress black people to protect the common — meaning white — good.

Roof saw himself as a victim standing up for oppressed whites, not as an aggressor. He had a racist “awakening” spurred by online research he did about the 2012 murder of the black high-school student Trayvon Martin. As he wrote in his manifesto, the Martin killing “prompted me to type in the words ‘black on white crime’ into Google, and I have never been the same since that day.”

Roof’s internet search quickly led him to the website of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that claims to document an ignored war against whites being waged by violent black people. Google led Roof down a rabbit hole of hate, leaping from one hate site to the next, many filled with “evidence” that black people are pillaging, raping and murdering white people.

“There were pages and pages of these brutal black on White murders,” Roof wrote in his manifesto. “I was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very wrong. How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored.”

It’s not surprising that a fragile-minded young man who swallowed hate material whole came to see this so-called problem of black-on-white crime as something he had to personally confront. But the resonance of these ideas goes much deeper, infecting the thinking of many prominent people, including public policymakers to this day.

Take then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, who in November 2015 tweeted an image that originated from a neo-Nazi account that made exactly the same point as the hate sites Roof was reading. Filled with bogus crime statistics, the graphic Trump tweeted supposedly showed that black people are uniquely violent. The Washington Post found that the data in Trump’s tweet to be false.



This image, tweeted by then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump on Nov. 22, 2015, originated from a neo-Nazi account. It displays bogus crime statistics.

One of the most exaggerated statistics was about the number of white people killed by other white people. Trump’s tweet claimed the number was 16 percent, while the FBI’s data shows it is 82 percent. The tweet also asserted that 81 percent of whites are killed by black people; the FBI number is 15 percent.

As the Post concluded, “Trump cast blacks as the primary killers of whites, but the exact opposite is true. By overwhelming percentages, whites tend to kill other whites. Similarly, blacks tend to kill other blacks.

These trends have been observed for decades.”

https://www.splcenter.org/20180614/b...ck-white-crime

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...icide-victims/

I'm sticking with the specific goal-posts WBE and jetengine had set.

It's difficult to research the points behind jetengine's point because I'm not one hundred percent sure what he meant. "Trump tweets white nationistic rgetoric and white nationalist groups." I get the idea that he tweets white nationalist rhetoric, which wasn't WBE's original point, but I'm not still not sure what it means to tweet white nationalist groups. Does it mean he retweets their members knowingly? Does it mean he tweets at them specifically? Does it mean he promotes specific groups?

I'll fully admit that I've made typos and unintentionally vague comments in the past, so I'm not claiming that my posts have always been clearer.

The idea that Trump is a white nationalist is a bit fringe. As far as I know, we don't have newspaper editorial boards outright saying it, and it isn't the stated position of the majority of Democratic members of Congress. Some of you have come to this conclusion, and will look at incidents through that lens, so when there's a discussion of a specific situation, you'll see it as something that reinforces an existing view, rather than something worth analyzing in isolation.

Trump has made 5,804 tweets, not including the stuff that he deleted. So some bad comments are inevitable. Granted, his retweets of White GenocideTM and Non-Dildod Goyim (the one with the BS crime stats) are pretty bad.

(1) I'd argue that The President of the United States retweeting any point put out by anyone serves to lend some level of credence to the individual and validation to any other point that individual has posted. What's more it communicates a certain level of tacit consent and approval of that individuals beliefs.

(2) Since when are we conflating professionalism with suspicious behaviour? Trump is an outlier who says whatever pops into his head and the fact that no one in the GOP seems to want to hold him accountable seems more suspicious to me than any whataboutism concerning Hillary Clinton. When the President of the United States tweets or says something, especially if it's related to the economy or foreign relations it has a direct impact on worldwide financial markets. For that reason alone he should've had his twitter membership revoked when it became clear that he wasn't willing to edit his tweets. Why no one in Congress or the Senate has suggested that remains a mystery to me.

1) It certainly is tacit approval for the tweet, but it's not necessarily indicative of agreement with everything the person has ever said. This can set a bad precedent if we can accept that anyone who openly agrees with Ta-Nehisi Coates is an atheist who supports reparations.

2) Trump's on one extreme but a politician implying that a comment that went through ten drafts through twelve advisers represents their unvarnished views is still being quite dishonest, and it's fair to ask what might be so wrong with their actual first impressions on the issues.

[Kusanagi]

Another day, another school shooting. Luckily no confirmed deaths but some in critical condition.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/us/co...ing/index.html

Better get that "'No way to prevent this,' says only nation where this regularly happens" Onion article ready, also those pre-prepared "thoughts and prayers" tweets.

[Darkspellmaster]

Well, unfortunately, a lot of the boomers weren't really in it for the politics; they were only in it for the sex.

I think people drastically overstate the freelove and antiestablishment movement. Boomers are also the generation that embraced Gordon Gecko as a hero and cemented the idea of 80s corporatism and material excess.

You know that's actually really interesting because when I ask some of the older students at my college who are of that age group they tend to see themself as more anti establishment than the newer generations. One even told me we dont protest enough in the right way, whatever that means.

[Darkspellmaster]

Another day, another school shooting. Luckily no confirmed deaths but some in critical condition.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/us/co...ing/index.html

Better get that "'No way to prevent this,' says only nation where this regularly happens" Onion article ready, also those pre-prepared "thoughts and prayers" tweets.

Bet you damn near anything that the two asses that did this were obsessed with Columbine and wanted to pull that off. It's way to close to the school and just after the anniversary to be a coincidence.

[kidfresh512]

NYTimes got 10 years of trumps tax returns from 85-94

Times Investigation
Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures
Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses

[mathew101281]

I guess people in Georgia don’t know a lot about catholics
https://www.latinorebels.com/2019/05/07/wsbtv/

[Malvolio]

You know that's actually really interesting because when I ask some of the older students at my college who are of that age group they tend to see themself as more anti establishment than the newer generations. One even told me we dont protest enough in the right way, whatever that means.

It takes a special kind of person to still be in college at the age of the average baby boomer. They're not really representative of their age group.

[numberthirty]

NYTimes got 10 years of trumps tax returns from 85-94

Times Investigation
Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures
Show Over $1 Billion in Business Losses

Don't know what to think about this.

On the one hand, you have this narrative on the news that these numbers are the curtain getting pulled back on the Wizard.

On the other hand, I just have a tough time just going with the idea that any of the numbers this guy has presented at any point are on the level. What makes this set of numbers the one that folks shouldn't second guess?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Says Trump May Try To Keep Robert Mueller From Testifying

Trump tweeted this weekend that the special counsel shouldn’t speak to Congress, catching his attorney general off guard. So, what is Dolt45 afraid Mueller might say? Meanwhile....

**********

Nancy Pelosi Warns ‘Trump Is Goading Us To Impeach Him’

The House speaker said the president is “taunting” lawmakers in an effort to “solidify his base.” And that has to be grinding Pelosi's gears since she's on record saying she doesn't want to go the impeachment route, but Trump looks to be forcing her hand.

**********

‘Case Closed’ On The Mueller Report? Some Republicans Say Not So Fast.

Not every GOP lawmaker agrees with Sen. Mitch McConnell that it’s time to move on from the special counsel’s investigation. WHAAAAAAT? Republicans going against Turtle Boy? I'm shocked! Say it ain't so!

**********

‘BIGGEST LOSER’: Twitter Users Taunt Trump After Tax Documents Show Huge Losses

The president reportedly lost more than $1 billion in a 10-year period and his critics aren’t going to let him forget it. And to that, I say....GOOD! Clearly Trump is pure **** when it comes to being a businessman since he bankrupted casinos for god's sake!

**********

Border Militiaman Allegedly Advocated Putting Immigrants ‘In A Gas Chamber’

Armando Gonzalez is one of the United Constitutional Patriots militiamen accused of detaining hundreds of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Hmm! Charming fellow.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Glenn McConnell, a former South Carolina State Senator and Lieutenant Governor who left office in 2014 to become the President of Charleston University after almost two decades of people noticing he was a big Neo-Confederate supporter. Whether it was running a store with his brother that sold Team Gray paraphernalia, going on Nightline in 1999 to make comments in support of keeping the Stars & Bars at the state capitol, and keeping an active membership it the Sons of Confederate Veterans, McConnell couldn’t stop getting all lathered up over the Confederacy. Perhaps the most shocking display of McConnell's defense of a rebellion fought in support of slavery were photos that surfaced of him at a party where he was wearing a general's uniform, and posing for photos with African American actors were paid to portray slaves working at the plantation home where the party was taking place. McConnell retired as president of the University of Charleston in 2018, during a tenure that featured protests against his hire in the first place.

It was on this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Karen Davis, a 2014 candidate to represent California's 9th Congressional District, and former clerk for Stanislaus County. As a Stanislaus County Clerk back in the 1990s, she became a symbol of bravery for public officials, during a time when several anti-government anti-tax extremists, the Juris Christian Assembly, began harassing state employees. An Oregon man, Roger Steiner, was actually arrested and sent to prison for 18 years for sending her death threats, including bullets in her mailbox and a simulated bomb under her car, before she was actually physically assaulted back in 1994. But Karen Davis did not retreat from politics, even writing a novel about her experiences, "The Terrorist in My Garage". Steiner, meanwhile, maintained his innocence for two decades. Mind you, producing that book led to Davis' career as a clerk ending, as she had created a job to net her son a paycheck, and having her secretary, on the clock, helping write it for her, and using government FedEx accounts to ship copies to Hollywood producers, hoping it would be made into a movie. As Davis was making some noise about running for Congress, when suddenly, she received more death threats in the mail, against both herself and her husband. She harkened back to her experience in such matters, talking tough about how she wouldn't be intimidated, and that if she backed down she'd be "letting the terrorists win". Well, even with Davis on the ballot, it wouldn't matter, as she finished fourth among four candidates in the blanket primary. Except for one detail... investigators thought it strange that the threats she received were labelled "white bitch", which she said was what Steiner called her during her 1994 attack. She indicated to investigators that she felt it was Steiner, again... until finally, investigators realized her story didn't add up, and they submitted Davis to a polygraph, which she failed. She finally admitted to sending the death threats to herself, likely to stir up sympathy for her campaign for office. Now, not only is her first report of a crime to authorities bogus, but her 1994 assault accusations against Roger Steiner, who served 18 years of a 22 year sentence, are highly in doubt. Steiner, now 77 and unable to leave Fresno because he's still on probation, is seeking to have his conviction overturned, and if it is, he could likely sue the state of California for being wrongly imprisoned on the word on Karen Davis, who now seems pretty unelectable, what with lying to send an innocent man to prison for almost two decades.

One this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Mike Fair, who served two decades on the South Carolina State Senate, from 1996-2016, and back in 1998, he made an unsuccessful bid at running for Congress in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. After two decades in office, Mike Fair went bonkers starting in 2014, and was fighting the culture wars against everyone and anyone without any level of patience to actually prepare an appropriate response. In January of 2014, as an investigative report was released that South Carolina’s prison system was neglectful enough of mentally ill prisoners that it was being faced with legal action over the abuses. Mike Fair is the head of the Corrections and Penology Committee in the South Carolina State Senate, and responded to this revelation by saying he "didn't know that we had a problem with any particular aspect of mistreating or not treating inmates who have a diagnosis of mental illness". And that is remarkable, because about a decade earlier, Mike Fair was the chair of a Task Force whose findings were that the mentally ill in South Carolina’s prisons were facing terrible conditions. After a ruling from Judge Michael Baxley found that inmates had died because of a lack of basic care in South Carolina’s prisons, there obviously was going to be a discussion on how to fix the problem held by the Committee on Corrections and Penology… except that Mike Fair literally opened that meeting by trying to silence everyone and forbid them from discussing Judge Baxley’s findings. A month later, in February 2014, Fair started making headlines because he was opposing teaching standards for teaching evolution in school, holding up the process at almost the last minute. This was not uncommon, however, as Fair had argued as a Creationist against teaching natural selection in schools as far back as 2005. But it really was two months later in April 2014 that Mike Fair went off the deep end in his opposition to evolution… an 8 year old girl by the name of Olivia McConnell had petitioned to the South Carolina State legislature that she thought it would be a nice nod to the history of South Carolina if they would name the Colombian Wooly Mammoth as the official state fossil of South Carolina. And a bill got submitted on behalf of her teacher and class by one of the state legislators, to teach the kids how government works. The lesson they got, however, was less than inspiring. That would be because Mike Fair decided to try and litigate his fight over evolution again, and felt this “Colombian Wooly Mammoth” bill should be fought tooth and nail, because it was attacking his belief in Creationism by being older than he thought the Earth was. The rest of the Republicans in the South Carolina State Senate realized it’s bad optics to be a d*** to an 8 year old bill and dropped the Creationist language that Fair had added. Only two weeks after that in April, Fair was teaming up with CSGOPOTD alumni Lee Bright and freaking out about a play being performed at the University of South Carolina Upstate titled “How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less”, calling it a “recruitment tool” and comparing those performing the play to “skinheads and radical Islam” looking to bring others into the fold. Almost a full year went by before Mike Fair made the papers again, this time in April of 2016, when he actually tried following the disastrous lead of North Carolina to pass transphobic bathroom legislation, co-sponsoring a bill on a bathroom ban submitted by his buddy Lee Bright. It fortunately went nowhere, but true to form, Fair would take out his frustration on the dreaded left in America soon thereafter. An LGBT advocate named Caleb Laieski, who was actually invited to the White House in 2011, frequently writes letters to state legislators asking them to consider having their states submit and pass legislation to ban the practice of “gay conversion therapy”, because of that nagging little detail where international groups are beginning to consider it a human rights abuse. Well, rather than respond politely with a “this would not pass muster in our legislature at this time”, or just choosing to not respond at all, Mike Fair sent a letter back to Laieski where he called him “warped”, “sick”, and “shameful”. Charming, right? Well, we’d like to say that all of these sorts of moments were Mike Fair’s undoing in that primary race, but it seems much more likely that the people of South Carolina were just tired of voting the same gasbags into office, and went with someone new instead. After all, it’s not like the rest of the Republicans in South Carolina are catching any flack for anti-choice votes, pushing for voter-disenfranchising Voter ID laws, attempts at trying to nullify the Affordable Care Act, or trying to legalize carrying firearms in bars. Mike Fair had all that, and more, in his own voting record, though, adding to our own concerns about him. Fair was torpedoed in the GOP Primary for his seat in the South Carolina State Senate by William Timmons in 2016.

[worstblogever]

It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Phil Covarrubias, a member of the Colorado House of Representatives elected to represent District 56 who was in his freshman term in office after being elected in 2016 with 58% of the vote. You may be wondering what someone could do in less than two years in office for CSGOPOTD to take notice of them, and trust us, Covarrubias has already made headlines in Colorado for all the wrong reasons.

It all started in March of 2017, when during a debate on the floor of the Colorado House regarding Donald Trump’s attempts at proposing a Muslim ban, Phil Covarrubias started defending one of the most shameful moments in American history, that being when the United States government placed Japanese-American citizens in internment camps during World War II.

“For anyone that has never been in combat, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and all of that was going on, there’s no time to ask questions and find out who is a citizen and who’s not. I hear people saying that we need to respect other people’s rights, and I agree with that, but what about them respecting our rights and our country and our laws?

What happened prior to [the camps] that kicked all this off? I think we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. I think we need to look at the Americans that are in fear from the terrorism and the things that we’ve seen over the last few years especially.”

After pressure from both sides of the aisle, Covarrubias apologized for trying to justify one bigoted policy by the country having incarcerated an entire race of people three quarters of a century ago. It would not, however, be the last time his mouth got him in trouble.

Because, in October of 2017, he shoved both feet in his mouth again, practically to the knee, when he posted a rant on Facebook that featured his thoughts on how “liberals are racist against Americans”, or that “Russian collusion is Hitlery Clinton and the selling of uranium”, on top of defending Donald Trump’s admitted sexual assaults of women by trying a “both sides do it” tactic aimed at Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton. It was… moronic. But it makes it easier to understand how the same man could be caught hitting “Like” a month later at conspiracy theories that the mass shooting in Southerland Springs, Texas, was carried out by Antifa.

In January of 2018, he again demonstrated a definitive case of rectal-cranial inversion (his head up his ass) on the floor of the Colorado House, this time during an abortion debate. For whatever reason, Covarrubias began comparing abortion to prostitution:

”I have another question. We’re talking about liberty and freedom—Women having the right to do whatever they want with their own body. Yet they’re not allowed to be prostitutes if they want to be prostitutes, because there’s laws around that. In fact, there are laws that prohibit women from being able to do whatever they want with their own body, only unless it’s in the case of abortion—then its okay. But we don’t talk about it when it comes to other laws pertaining to the same thing, is that correct?

Thank you Representative Humphrey and to everybody who’s stayed, who’s been here. It’s been another one of those incredible nights. I guess, you know what really bothers me, about being in this building, is the absolute hypocrisy, because the very same people who are willing to kill babies, are willing to keep murderers and rapists alive on death row, and will oppose the death punishment and willing to protect their lives.“

We are thrilled to report that Phil Covarrubias was defeated in the GOP Primary in the 2018 elections, and is now longer in office. We only can hope he remains on the outside, and doesn’t even get a peek in.
 

[KOSLOX]

You know that's actually really interesting because when I ask some of the older students at my college who are of that age group they tend to see themself as more anti establishment than the newer generations. One even told me we dont protest enough in the right way, whatever that means.

People tend to overemphasize their own merits. I'd even go so far as to say there is a cycle of the previous generation trying to ensure that it's trauma is elevated in an attempt to downplay the legacy of their own misteps.


As for not protesting "correctly", that's asinine. The current "establishment" is the direct legacy of Boomers, using their methodology to revolt against that would be largely ineffective. The entire idea of protest is meant to be disruptive. You can't disrupt a system that already has, and you could even say developed, the antibodies to fight back.

[PwrdOn]

People tend to overemphasize their own merits. I'd even go so far as to say there is a cycle of the previous generation trying to ensure that it's trauma is elevated in an attempt to downplay the legacy of their own misteps.


As for not protesting "correctly", that's asinine. The current "establishment" is the direct legacy of Boomers, using their methodology to revolt against that would be largely ineffective. The entire idea of protest is meant to be disruptive. You can't disrupt a system that already has, and you could even say developed, the antibodies to fight back.

You definitely get the sense though that most millennial activists are ineffectual because they don't really want to upset the apple cart too much. Just being an American will make you part of the "establishment" by global standards, because you have the benefit of a military deployed around the globe to facilitate the extraction of every resource imaginable, and a restrictive immigration system designed to limit the number of people who can share in those resources. Sure, someone might label themselves a woke progressive and be anti-war and pro-immigration or whatever, but at the end of the day, it is in their economic interest to continue the system as it is rather than to make any kind of serious reform to it, and they and everyone else know that.

[KOSLOX]

You definitely get the sense though that most millennial activists are ineffectual because they don't really want to upset the apple cart too much. Just being an American will make you part of the "establishment" by global standards, because you have the benefit of a military deployed around the globe to facilitate the extraction of every resource imaginable, and a restrictive immigration system designed to limit the number of people who can share in those resources. Sure, someone might label themselves a woke progressive and be anti-war and pro-immigration or whatever, but at the end of the day, it is in their economic interest to continue the system as it is rather than to make any kind of serious reform to it, and they and everyone else know that.

I watched a pretty interesting video on Youtube the other day that suggests that the "connected world" (internet, social media, etc) actually serves to placate people and operates counter to the way most millennials and post-millennials believe it does. They cited access to global media in general going back to the cold war as means to quiet social unrest.

Essentially, feeling connected to a global community gives people either an outlet for aggression or provides escapism. When communities feel more isolated they are more prone to lash out physically.

Apparently, and I didn't know this, a lot of the much discussed "arab spring" really happened once access to the internet was shut down, so all those hashtags didn't really have much to do with anything after the initial stages.




All that said, I'm not sure what effective protest looks like in this day and age. It's very easy to "hack" a protest due to the spread of misinformation and atomized interests. I'd imagine it's still a process in development, or even a synthesis of everything that came before (which is typical). I don't think 1960s style radicalism, in itself, would be effective either since everyone already knows that playbook.

[aja_christopher]

The idea that Trump is a white nationalist is a bit fringe.

Only to you and others who benefit from denying the truth about Trump and your party as a whole, as the other article pointed out in detail.



"Plausible deniability" doesn't apply here Mets -- the guy actively defends and retweets Nazis and white supremacists.

This is absolutely an important thing to remember, and explains a lot about why Republicans are acting as they are right now.

It's about power. It's always been about power.

Money and power -- even at the cost of the rule of law and democracy itself.

Would be interesting to see what the unredacted report might have to say about the recent election contributions from the Russians to the Republican party -- which is one reason I'm sure they don't want it released to the House Democrats, much less the general public.

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"How Putin's oligarchs funneled millions into GOP campaigns"

"As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. citizens with close ties to Russia.

Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country.

An example is Len Blavatnik, a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen and one of the largest donors to GOP political action committees in the 2015-16 election cycle. Blavatnik's family emigrated to the U.S. in the late '70s from the U.S.S.R. and he returned to Russia when the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late '80s.

Data from the Federal Election Commission show that Blavatnik's campaign contributions dating back to 2009-10 were fairly balanced across party lines and relatively modest for a billionaire. During that season he contributed $53,400. His contributions increased to $135,552 in 2011-12 and to $273,600 in 2013-14, still bipartisan.

In 2015-16, everything changed. Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham..."

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/c...-gop-campaigns