All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[SquirrelMan]

Next step, somebody is gonna say Biden should not say things that can be taken out of context.

[Tendrin]

Next step, somebody is gonna say Biden should not say things that can be taken out of context.

I'll give you about 30 seconds before someone comes in and rattles about how its all 'unforced errors' and so on.

[SquirrelMan]

I'll give you about 30 seconds before someone comes in and rattles about how its all 'unforced errors' and so on.

Meanwhile, their candidate based his political ideals on and honeymooned in a dictatorship that put dissidents in gulags, invaded several smaller countries, suppressed minorities at every chance and had an entire penal code that made the Crime Bill look like a parking ticket and ... crickets.

[Tami]

Speaking of concentration camps:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...documents.html



As a result, we now have millions of people in concentration camps in China, with escalating horror stories from them, as always happens. We can rest assured that whatever we /think/ is going on, the reality of it will be worse -- and the fact that no international pressure has been (or probably can be easily applied to a state with the economic clout of China) simply means that these methods will be exported to other authoritarian leaning nations, as we're now seeing with a general suggesting that the area that was undergoing the longest internet blackout globally should have mass internment.

(I should add that India's supreme court recently declared that the blackout should end and that restrictions are easing as of the 15th of January.)

Under Trump, the US can't get it's own act together. How can it possibly do anything about what is happening in other countries?

[Tami]

Starr Chamber: The Sequel

Trump is once more doing his part to energize women voters. On Friday, we learned that the president will get help from Starr and Dershowitz for the impeachment trial in the Senate.

The Starr chamber was a shameful period of American history, with the prissy Puritan independent counsel hounding and virtually jailing Monica Lewinsky and producing hundreds of pages of panting, bodice-ripping prose that read more like bad erotica than a federal report, rife with lurid passages about breasts, stains and genitalia. Like the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale and other Pharisaic Holy Rollers before him, the prosecutor who read the Bible and sang hymns when he jogged became fixated on sex in an unhealthy, warped way.

Even Trump was appalled. “Starr’s a freak,” the bloviating builder told me back in 1999. “I bet he’s got something in his closet.” In other interviews, he called Starr “a lunatic,” “a disaster” and “off his rocker,” and expressed sympathy for Hillary having to stand by her man when he was “being lambasted by this crazy Ken Starr, who is a total wacko.”

Starr, who once clutched his pearls over Bill Clinton’s sexual high jinks, is now going to bat for President “Access Hollywood.” After playing an avenging Javert about foreplay in the Oval, Starr will now do his utmost to prove that a real abuse of power undermining Congress and American foreign policy is piffle.

In 2007, he defended Jeffrey Epstein. By 2016, Starr was being ousted as president of Baptist Baylor University for failing to protect women and looking the other way when football players were accused and sometimes convicted of sexual assaults. In other words, he’s a complete partisan hack who doesn’t give a damn about sexual assault.

[Tami]

Cut off from family, unable to travel: how US sanctions punish Iranian Americans

Following the US assassination of a top Iranian general earlier this month and Iranian airstrikes against US military bases in Iraq, Donald Trump once again imposed biting sanctions against the regime in Tehran. To Iranian Americans, many of whom have lived under sanctions in Iran or have family members there suffering through economic hardship, the fresh round of penalties is a painful reminder of the collateral consequences of escalating conflict.

Iranian Americans across the United States told the Guardian about their worries for their family members and friends affected by US sanctions. And they spoke of the ways the policies affect their own lives, work and communities in the US. “I was raised under sanctions my entire life,” said Nazanin Asadi, 34, who left Iran for California in 2014 and now works as a law clerk in Orange county. “After moving to the US permanently, I can’t believe the sanctions and these laws are still chasing me … I don’t want my community to suffer.”

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for North Carolina’s 8th District, Richard Hudson, who is one of the Birthers among the Republican caucus, having once told an assembled crowd that “President Obama is hiding something about his birth certificate”, and called for legislation to investigate it. Hudson also not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the vote came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. He also took part in the 2014 GOP efforts to stir up fears over Ebola, calling for both a travel ban, and writing an official letter to blame the outbreak on President Obama. Hudson also voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, and during debate about the SNAP food stamp program, called for drug testing on welfare recipients to be implemented nationally (since it’s done so well failing as a practice at the state level). Richard Hudson has been quite the conspiracy theory lover in his first few years in the House, already demanding answers about Benghazi, the non-scandal that was the “IRS Scandal”, and trying to cut funding towards the implementation of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 treaty. During the GOP's faux-outrage over the Planned Parenthood "sting" videos supplied by the Center for Medical Progress that were proven to be edited to mislead the public, Hudson not only voted to defund the organization, but boldly proclaimed himself as believing that life begins at conception. While Congress was mostly quiet through a tumultuous 2016 election campaign (and with some of the fewest working days in Congressional history), Rep. Hudson spent most of the year demonizing the Environmental Protection Agency, including trying to block any restrictions they might place on Motorsports events, playing up this fight to the folks in his district whose passion for NASCAR surpass the needs of the planet itself. In July when he decided to target employees of the EPA by filing an amendment into their funding that would prevent any of their employees from flying on an airplane as a part of their job (like to places to conduct investigations of wrongdoing by anyone, y'know, ignoring EPA standards and polluting) as well as restricting any of these criminal enforcement employees from owning a gun they might need to do their jobs.

Our update for 2019 on Richard Hudson will include simply this moment… one of his first votes in Congress back in 2013 was to vote against Disaster Relief for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. We thought at the time that it seemed like there would be some hypocrisy coming on that vote, because after all, North Carolina, where Rep. Hudson is from, frequently is impacted by hurricane damage. And so it was that after Hurricane Florence, that he quite predictably wrote letters to Donald Trump to beg for him to allocate disaster relief to his district. Because of course this hypocritical little s*** did.

Richard Hudson has failed to host a single town hall since the 2016 elections with his constituents, but has made time to have several closed-door meetings with donors. With a +8 advantage his district gave him in 2016 will be enough to fend off any Democratic challenger that he might see. He managed to win re-election with 55% of the vote in 2018.

• January 22nd, 2019: Hudson cannot be arsed to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Hudson voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Hudson votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Hudson votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Richard Hudson is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Hudson votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Hudson votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Richard Hudson votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• December 3rd, 2019: Richard Hudson is one of 71 Republicans who vote against House Resolution 546, which stated disapproval of any attempt to readmit the Russian federation back into the G7 and make it the G8.
• December 19th, 2019: Richard Hudson votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of glaring evidence of abuse of power.

Richard Hudson is already prepping his 2020 campaign, which involved having to return money he collected from an indicted North Carolina businessman who was funneling money to members of Congress for political favors. Specifically, that businessman, Greg Lindberg, routed money from a local’s veteran’s charity to Hudson’s campaign rather than donating it to, y’know, the veterans’ families that the money was intended for.

Once upon a time, being associated with such a scandal could be the ruin of a candidate, but these days, the public are jaded enough to not care (and they should). We’ll see if North Carolina’s 8th is still leaning as far conservative as it has been in 2020, as the entire GOP digs in and supports government corruption from the top down.
 

[worstblogever]

By the by, former US Congressman and CSGOPOTD Chris Collins was given a 2 year prison sentence yesterday for all the insider trading he did while in office.

Just wanted to remind everyone of one of those hanging plot threads about Republican criminals.

[aja_christopher]

That's honestly going to be one of the most interesting parts of how the fall breaks down.

While Democrats will obviously be able to make an "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?..." case to some of the voters that put Trump's win together in 2016, it would seem that some parts of minority/working class white communities are going to be doing a little bit better financially than they were when he took office.

If it's not plant workers whose jobs went away or farmers, will they vote "D" if they did just a bit better under Trump?

Democrats and "progressives" are already fighting an uphill battle to defeat Trump in an election where the economy is still strong.

Realistically speaking, the election is Trump's to lose, especially if the "left" can't get it's act together before the general election.

One can only imagine how unhinged he might become if he both survives impeachment and wins re-election.

[Tami]

Twitter, Microsoft, and other companies call for an end to Trump’s rule to keep out low-income immigrants

Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and dozens of other tech companies are calling for an end to a new rule that places restrictions on low-income immigrants entering or living in the US.

The companies signed on to an amicus brief filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Thursday, against the administration’s public charge rule, which would establish a test for whether immigrants are likely to use public benefits in the US like food stamps or Medicaid. If so, immigration agents would be able to deny their right to legally enter or live in the US. The rule has been blocked from implementation by state lawsuits.

In the brief, which calls the rule an “arbitrary, capricious and unconscionable” regulation, the companies argue that it would slow down their ability to hire crucial employees by tacking on additional requirements and paperwork to the already lengthy immigration process.

---------

CDC to screen at three US airports for signs of new virus from China

(CNN)More than 100 staffers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are being deployed to three US airports to check passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, for fever and other symptoms of a mysterious new virus that's killed two and infected dozens in China, the CDC announced Friday.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Democrats and "progressives" are already fighting an uphill battle to defeat Trump in an election where the economy is still strong.

Realistically speaking, the election is Trump's to lose, especially if the "left" can't get it's act together before the general election.

One can only imagine how unhinged he might become if he both survives impeachment and wins re-election.

The issue with Trump is the economy. Most people aren't politically engaged and the only thing they care about is if they feel like the economy is doing well. If you just go by conventional politics, this is a layup for Trump. Incumbant with a strong economy going against a likely split party.

Like 2016, the question is if Trump being such an anomaly as a politician will make a difference against conventional political theory.

[Tami]

(1,3) .@BernieSanders
is now putting out misleading videos on the positions of other candidates, such as @JoeBiden
on social security. As he wants to revisit past decisions of others, Bernie it is time for you to deal with your past decisions as well.

Twitter Thread Link

[Billy Batson]

Sleepy Joe and his dementia
FACT CHECK: JOE BIDEN HAS ADVOCATED CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY FOR 40 YEARS

[PaulBullion]

Oh great, we're getting our "facts" from The Intercept now.

[PaulBullion]

Lordy, there's tapes.

Report: Lev Parnas Handed Over Tapes of Trump and Giuliani to the House Intelligence Committee