All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[shooshoomanjoe]

trump supporters were expecting an exciting report this Monday. Looks like it's going to be a flop!

Report will clear FBI of misdeeds in Russia investigation

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has determined that political bias did not influence the federal investigation of potential links between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016, according to people familiar with the matter, countering White House claims of deliberate partisan influence.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who will release his long-anticipated report Monday, also found that the FBI had enough evidence to justify obtaining a foreign intelligence warrant in 2016 to conduct secret surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser who had multiple contacts with Russian officials, the people said.


The report’s findings are expected to effectively reject or dismiss the most explosive allegations from President Donald Trump and his allies — that FBI officials and agents broke rules and laws in their pursuit of evidence, and deliberately sought to derail Trump’s candidacy.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Trump campaign runs misleading anti-impeachment Facebook ads

I guess the trump/Zuckerberg meeting was to green light this.

[Malvolio]

Ah what....?



Twitter Link with video

News flash, Donnie Dum-Dum: In a number of states? Yeah, that number is 50.

[Tami]

A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow

I was going to write a column about Wednesday’s impeachment hearing, about the way it once again showcased the two non-overlapping realities into which American politics has split. But then I caught up on another hearing that took place on Wednesday, this one in a Moscow court. A twenty-one-year-old university student named Yegor Zhukov stood accused of “extremism,” for posting YouTube videos in which he talked about nonviolent protest, his campaign for a seat on the Moscow City Council, and different approaches to political power. In his most recent video, recorded four months ago, he suggested that “madmen” like Vladimir Putin view power as an end in itself, while political activists view it as an instrument of common action. In many of his vlog entries, Zhukov is seated against the backdrop of the Gadsden flag—“Don’t Tread on Me”—which appears to hang in his bedroom in his parents’ apartment. The prosecutor had asked for four years of prison time for Zhukov. On Friday, a Moscow court sentenced Zhukov to three years’ probation—an unusually light punishment probably explained by the public response to Zhukov’s speech, which several Russian media outlets dared to publish. Hundreds of people gathered in front of the courthouse on the day of the sentencing. As a condition of his probation, Zhukov is banned from posting to the Internet. The judge also ordered that the flag, which was confiscated by police, be destroyed.

“This court hearing is concerned primarily with words and their meaning. We have discussed specific sentences, the subtleties of phrasing, different possible interpretations, and I hope that we have succeeded at showing to the honorable court that I am not an extremist, either from the point of view of linguistics or from the point of view of common sense. But now I would like to talk about a few things that are more basic than the meaning of words. I would like to talk about why I did the things I did, especially since the court expert offered his opinion on this. I would like to talk about my deep and true motives. The things that have motivated me to take up politics. The reasons why, among other things, I recorded videos for my blog."

[Tami]

'Weary' retiring rep says growing number in Congress no longer 'believe in compromise'

Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., said one of the reasons for his announced retirement from the House of Representatives is that a growing number of Republicans and Democrats in Congress "simply don't believe in compromise, don't believe even in principled compromises" anymore.

In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press with Chuck Todd" to be broadcast Sunday, the four-term representative of a district that includes the Washington state capital, Olympia, also said he will "go to my grave not understanding how some of my colleagues could simply turn the other way and overlook the president's behavior and his misdeeds."

"My soul

[Malvolio]

'Weary' retiring rep says growing number in Congress no longer 'believe in compromise'

So he doesn't understand how some of his colleagues turn the other way and overlook Trump's behavior? Is he stupid? I mean, I don't like it any more than he does, but it's pretty easy to see why they do it. Trump's behavior provides them cover for their own shenanigans. Anyone who says he doesn't understand is either lying or willfully ignorant.

[Kirby101]

'Weary' retiring rep says growing number in Congress no longer 'believe in compromise'

It's always the Dems that need to compromise. When the GOP had both houses, Repubs like him never asked his colleagues to compromise. They just pushed through their agenda and judges.

[Jack Dracula]

So he doesn't understand how some of his colleagues turn the other way and overlook Trump's behavior? Is he stupid? I mean, I don't like it any more than he does, but it's pretty easy to see why they do it. Trump's behavior provides them cover for their own shenanigans. Anyone who says he doesn't understand is either lying or willfully ignorant.

[JCAll]

'Weary' retiring rep says growing number in Congress no longer 'believe in compromise'

Quite some time ago, one of the conservative posters on here ask if Climate Change means so much to the Democrats are they willing to trade Gay Rights to the GOP to get it.
Since that happened, I haven't believed in compromise either.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ah what....?



Twitter Link with video

Every time Donnie Dumbass opens his mouth, he proves beyond any shadow of doubt that the Missing Link does indeed exist.

[Tendrin]

https://www.justsecurity.org/66271/t...d-ukrainegate/

A months-long campaign by President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pressure the Ukraine government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s potential rival in the 2020 election, has gripped the nation’s capital. The situation escalated following the Sept. 13 revelation of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint related to a “series of events,” including a phone call between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
As these events unfold, the aim of the chronology below is to provide a useful reference for the context and timeline on Ukraine, the roles of Joe Biden and his son Hunter there, and Trump and Giuliani’s efforts to persuade Ukraine to pursue investigations against them. We attempt to present an accurate picture of events, favorable and unfavorable to the players involved. Our assessments and views of the available public information are reflected in two pieces: Viola Gienger’s “Trump and Giuliani’s Quest for Fake Ukraine ‘Dirt’ on Biden: An Explainer” and our piece “The Swiftboating of Joe Biden.”

This is a very definitive timeline of events that breaks it all down very clearly. It /also/ is a clear indication of why 'but Hunter Biden' is pure BS.

[Tendrin]

The president has dementia.

"Right now in a number of states the laws allow a baby to be born from his or her mother's womb in the 9th month. It is wrong. It has to change."

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/sta...35271611650048

I know Republicans are all about forcing women to stay pregnant but...

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Report: Naval Base Shooter Watched Shooting Videos Before Attack

A U.S. official told The Associated Press the shooter hosted a dinner party where he and others watched videos of mass shootings. How in the hell did this shitstain pass vetting? Heads need to roll over this clusterfuck.

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Reddit Suspects Russian Interference In UK

Reddit said in a statement that it has banned 61 accounts suspected of violating policies against vote manipulation. So, it's not just the U.S. being screwed with by the Ivans. Big shock, right?

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Conservative Twitter Account Exposes Lindsey Graham’s Hypocrisy Day After Day After Day

“The point is to show that associating yourself with Trump corrupts your soul,” said the creator of the “Lindsey Graham’s (fake) Conscience” account. This presupposes Grouchy Graham has a conscience, which he doesn't. Speaking of hypocrisy....

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Rachel Maddow Nails Hypocrisy Of GOP, Newt Gingrich’s New Case Against Impeachment

The MSNBC host issued a blunt reminder about how Gingrich hasn’t always been against impeaching presidents over the holidays. Do as I say, not as I do, right, Newt?

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Trump Says Rudy Giuliani Will Tell Congress About His Recent Ukraine Trip

Giuliani went to Europe last week in an effort undermine the impeachment inquiry. Rantin' Rudy is only good at undermining his boss.

[Tami]

Mike Bloomberg’s money buys him a very different kind of campaign. And it’s a big one.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — After two weeks in the presidential race, Mike Bloomberg now employs one of the largest campaign staff rosters, has spent more money on ads than all the top-polling Democrats combined and is simultaneously building out ground operations in 27 states.

But when the former New York mayor showed up to get the endorsement of Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. on Friday, only two of the 10 chairs initially placed before the lectern were occupied. When Bloomberg joked about his college years, saying he “was one of the students who made the top half of the class possible,” he was met by silence.

“You’re supposed to laugh at that, folks,” Bloomberg said to a room at the city’s African American history museum filled mostly with staff and media.

For a normal presidential campaign, such moments would be a worrying sign, a potentially viral metaphor for a struggling effort. But with the Bloomberg campaign, it is not at all clear what established rules apply, if any. Everything he is doing is so unlike what has been done for decades that it is difficult to decipher how voters will react.

[Tami]

Video Games and Online Chats Are ‘Hunting Grounds’ for Sexual Predators

Sexual predators and other bad actors have found an easy access point into the lives of young people: They are meeting them online through multiplayer video games and chat apps, making virtual connections right in their victims’ homes.

The criminals strike up a conversation and gradually build trust. Often they pose as children, confiding in their victims with false stories of hardship or self-loathing. Their goal, typically, is to dupe children into sharing sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves — which they use as blackmail for more imagery, much of it increasingly graphic and violent.

Reports of abuse are emerging with unprecedented frequency around the country, with some perpetrators grooming hundreds and even thousands of victims, according to a review of prosecutions, court records, law enforcement reports and academic studies. Games are a common target, but predators are also finding many victims on social platforms like Instagram and Kik Messenger.

The New York Times reported earlier this year that the tech industry had made only tepid efforts to combat an explosion of child sexual abuse imagery on the internet. The Times has also found that the troubled response extends to the online gaming and chat worlds, where popular and successful companies have created spaces that allow adults and children to interact, despite efforts to create some safeguards.

There are tools to detect previously identified abuse content, but scanning for new images — like those extorted in real time from young gamers — is more difficult. While a handful of products have detection systems in place, there is little incentive under the law to tackle the problem as companies are largely not held responsible for illegal content posted on their websites.

“Our society says we’re going to protect kids in the physical world, but we’ve yet to see that in the same way on the digital side,” said Steven J. Grocki, who leads the child exploitation and obscenity section at the Justice Department.

A spokesman for Discord said in a statement that the company had a “zero-tolerance policy for any illegal activity.”

“No parent should have to worry that their child is exposed to inappropriate content,” he added, “and we deeply empathize with the challenges that families face in protecting their children online.”