All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Can NATO just kick Turkey out? Are they really that necessary at this point?

It very well be the end result, but I doubt it's going to easy to do.

[norj]

Can NATO just kick Turkey out? Are they really that necessary at this point?

If you want control of the Black Sea then yes.

[Michael Watkins]

I always thought Sen. Joe Lieberman looked like Droopy Dog.

William Barr looks more like Mr. Toad from "Wind in the Willows" to me.

i kind of think that Donald resembles a toad, actually; especially around the eyes. ...but i also kind of see it in Rudy Gulliani.

[Tami]

Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats

Last year, just before Halloween, Lewis Lukens, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in London, visited a pair of English universities where he spoke about the importance of international cooperation, beseeching students not to “swipe left” on the historic “special relationship” between the U.K. and America. The speeches were—according to a copy of the remarks that Lukens provided to GQ—fairly anodyne, reprising all the things Americans and Brits had learned from each other, all the ways we’ve helped each other over the years, disagreements notwithstanding. At the time, things between the two countries had been strained—in part because President Trump had attacked British leaders, including Prime Minister Theresa May and London Mayor Sadiq Khan—but Lukens, the second-most-senior American diplomat to the United Kingdom, had a request for the students who had gathered to see him: “Don’t write off the special relationship.”

A week later, Lukens says, his boss, the U.S. ambassador Woody Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and a Trump political appointee, told him that he was done, firing Lukens from his post seven months ahead of when he was scheduled to leave for a new assignment. After nearly 30 years as a foreign service officer, his State Department career was over. The reason? Lukens says he had unwittingly committed a fatal error in his speech: He had mentioned former president Barack Obama.

[Tami]

Murphy looks to avoid Christie model as he becomes DGA chairman

JERSEY CITY, N. J. — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, set to take over this week as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, may ignore one of the traditional roles of the post: hitting the road to support fellow gubernatorial candidates.

Murphy, in a phone interview Monday, said he plans to stick to fundraising and strategy. He says he doesn't want to make the same mistake his predecessor Chris Christie did. Christie suffered low approval ratings in the Garden State as he led the Republican Governors Association.

Murphy will ascend to the chairmanship with 11 state governors' offices up for election next year, including four — Delaware, Montana, North Carolina and Washington — with Democratic incumbents. Montana, where incumbent Steve Bullock has hit the term limit, has the only open seat out of the 11, one that is widely considered a toss-up that could consume a big chunk of the DGA’s attention.

Murphy, who was the Democratic National Committee finance chairman when former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was chairman, said a part of him pines for Dean's "50-state strategy" of making Democrats competitive in states that normally vote Republican, but said he doesn't expect to follow that model leading the governors group.

As DNC finance chair from 2006 to 2009, Murphy helped implement Dean’s strategy, which called for putting resources into every state no matter how unlikely Democratic victory seemed. Murphy says he still appreciates that approach, though he also wants to be a realist.

[Tami]

From Twitter, Trump rambling nonsense as usual.

TRUMP: "Climate change is very important to me. I've done many environmental impact statements over my life and I believe very strongly in very, very crystal clear, clean water and clean air. That's a big part of climate change."

Twitter Link with Video

[Tami]

Pinterest's algorithm promoted anti-Trudeau propaganda during election

Most of us think about Pinterest as the place to go for recipes and craft inspiration, but a new analysis suggests the platform may have been an important source of extreme, hyperpartisan political content during the federal election, much of which was promoted by the platform’s own algorithm.

The analysis, conducted by researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL), found that after clicking just one anti-Trudeau post on Pinterest, the platform’s algorithm quickly steered users into a far-right ecosystem flooded with disinformation, conspiracy theories and inflammatory memes.

Users didn’t have to “like,” share or save a single post for the algorithm to start recommending far-right propaganda; they simply had to click on one partisan meme, and the algorithm took care of the rest.

The study concludes that, through its algorithm, “Pinterest may contribute to the dissemination of extremist memes as recommended popular items on its app.”

[jetengine]

Most big social media platforms are now just new venues for digital fake news and anti Democratic propaganda

[Malvolio]

Ummmmm... this... this is... this is... siiiiiiigh.

Sounds like two old men whining about how things were so much better in the "good old days."

[Tami]

Wow, Kamala Harris dropping out of Presidential race. Not all that happy about it.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Looks like Harris dropped out. Interesting because she was polling 5th/6th (Bloomberg knocked her down to 6th recently). Still too many in this race. If she see's it as non viable, there's too many below her still in

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Wow, Kamala Harris dropping out of Presidential race. Not all that happy about it.

She read the tea leaves and knew it was a lost cause. Her biggest issue is that she was fighting for the "alternative to Biden" lane of a candidate centrist liked but was young and exciting for the rest of the electorate. Once Tulsi hit her in the second debate she stayed doormant the rest of the summer and fall and now Buttegieg is firmly entrenched in the spot she wanted. Bloomberg also just came in and jumped her in most polls nationally.

I outlined earlier in this thread, but there is no real pathway for her anymore. Barring several major collapses, the stage is set for who is going to be in the fight for the first few primaries and she's not one of them. The last few weeks seemed a bit like a "nothing left to lose" tour.

She's not the only one who is in that position. She's smart enough to not waste her own time.

[PaulBullion]

Debate of all white people coming up. Wheee!

[PaulBullion]

What's your relationship with your grandparents like, if you know them?

[PaulBullion]

Impeachment report: Mike Pence implicated as ‘either knowledgeable of or active participant’ in scheme