All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

A Former Fox News Executive Divides Americans Using Russian Tactics

SAN FRANCISCO — At first glance, the websites Conservative Edition News and Liberal Edition News have only one thing in common: Both have been carefully curated to inflame America’s culture wars.

Conservative Edition News is a repository of stories guaranteed to infuriate the American right. Its recent headlines include “Austin sex-ed curriculum teaches kids how to obtain an abortion” and “HuffPost writer considers Christianity ‘dangerous.’”

On Liberal Edition News, readers are fed a steady diet of content guaranteed to drive liberal voters further left or to wring a visceral response from moderates. One recent story singled out an Italian youth soccer coach who called Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, a “whore.”

The sites are the work of Ken LaCorte, the former Fox News executive who was accused of killing a story about President Trump’s affair with Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress, before the 2016 election.

[Tami]

BREAKING: State Department releases Ukraine documents to American Oversight

Documents show links between Pompeo, Giuliani, Oval Office

FOIA to the Rescue, Documents that were being held from House are released.

[Malvolio]

Stop me if you've heard this one... Steve King retweeted a European white nationalist.

This one praises Hitler and denies the Holocaust happened.

The GOP still has not called on him to resign. This has been going on for what, five or six years now?

What gets me about some of these Holocaust deniers is how they say it didn't happen, but they wish that it did. Why not just admit that it happened and that you're glad it did? It would be just as despicable, but at least it would be honest.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

FOIA to the Rescue, Documents that were being held from House are released.

Gonna be a good weekend too. And they dropped on a weekend where Republicans are forced to hear all weekend about them. Yep...gonna be a fun Monday.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Gonna be fun if Mitch decides to continue the game of not wanting to seriously look at impeaching Donald Trump. Ok here is what we have...

- Very credible witnesses who have all backed the story.

- A phone call (the 2nd one) Trump won't release as he comically released the 1st call. A fact everyone has said no one wanted that call since.

- Proof by Hill who supplied it to House over evidence Trump is tied into Putin.


And now we have the State Department basically being forced to finally turn over documents proving everything these witnesses said was true.


So pretty much if it was in debate about Trump's actions and you could try to discredit witnesses...the very State Department itself has documented proof of it all now.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Giuliani Crony Can Detail Nunes’ Meeting With Ex-Ukraine Official To Get Biden Dirt: Report

Lev Parnas’s lawyer says he’s willing to tell Congress that GOP Rep. Devin Nunes went to Vienna to talk to the prosecutor who was ousted over corruption issues. Looks like the scumbags are turning on one another. GOOD!

**********

Women And Immigrants, Demeaned By Trump, Take Center Stage At Impeachment

If the president is averse to strong women challenging him, he had a very bad week. Couldn't agree with that more!

**********

John Bolton Hints He’s Ready To Spill His ‘Backstory’ On White House Departure

Trump’s former national security adviser claimed that the White House had previously “suppressed” his Twitter account. Given that Johnny Warhawk is peddling a book and doesn't want to give away any juicy tidbits, I'll believe that when it happens.

**********

Trump’s Lawyers Argue Like They’re Defending King Donald I

The president cannot be prosecuted and should not be sued or impeached, according to his legal teams. Once again, that's not how this works, that's not how any of this works.

**********

Trump Blames Kellyanne Conway For Turning Husband Into ‘Total Whack Job’

The president told “Fox & Friends” that she must have “done some bad things” to George Conway “because that guy is crazy.” So, Trump insults Sewer Rat Barbie's husband by saying SHE drove him 'round the bend. Will she say nothing about that? Of course she won't!

[worstblogever]

Keep going lower... we clearly haven't hit bottom. Speaking of which, how is the Trump profile going WBE?

How am I supposed to keep up with this madness?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Leslie Gibson, a 2018 candidate for the Maine House of Representatives, specifically District 57. Gibson, who had spent years on social media ranting about immigration and wetting his pants about how his 2nd Amendment rights were “under attack by liberals” was on the ballot unopposed through March of 2018, when he went and made himself notorious by reacting to the mass shooting at Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, by attacking the victims on Twitter for having the nerve to speak out about the need for gun control only days after the shooting, taking particular focus on Emma Gonzalez (who Gibson tried claiming shouldn’t be counted as a victim because of the distance to the shooter when the attack started) and David Hogg, calling the former a “skinhead lesbian” and the latter a “bald-faced liar”. The Parkland kids, though, ain’t nothin’ to be f***ed with. David Hogg responded with a call for anyone willing to run against Leslie Gibson on Twitter, and immediately a candidate appeared in the form of Eryn Gilchist, inspired to run for office because you just shouldn’t let ***holes run unopposed. The Maine GOP started making noise about rushing out another candidate against Gibson, and he took a hint and dropped out of the race less than a week after his grotesque words hit the internet. He has not resurfaced in politics since.



On this day in both 2014, in 2015, 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Steve Scheffler, a member of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition and the 2016 Republican National Committee who is one of the key driving forces behind the GOP’s endless campaign against LGBTQ rights and same sex marriage. In effect, when Republican presidential campaigns go through Iowa every four years, their road to the nomination goes through him, no detours. Any perceived “moderate” stance on gay rights is a death sentence in a candidate, and Scheffler is the judge and executioner who carries it out. Scheffler, who once worked on the 1988 presidential campaign of Pat Robertson, publicly admonished John McCain for having the nerve to have an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres Show, warned the legalization of gay marriage in Iowa would make Des Moines “the homosexual capital of the Mid-West”. Scheffler also made it a point to block gay Republican candidate Fred Karger from participating in GOP debates, and with the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, claims there are scientific studies that gay men only live to an average age of 47, that gay conversion therapy works, and that if social conservatives win the culture wars, it will result in an endgame where Jesus returns to Earth. Steve Scheffler served again on the GOP’s Platform Committee in 2016. You may have heard something about that platform, the one that was the most extreme party platform on social issues the GOP has ever put forth, including opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest, requiring the Bible to be taught in public high schools.

Since we last checked in on Steve Scheffler, he has outright said that he conflates his religion and his politics completely, saying that progressive Christians “Don’t preach the gospel. They preach a social doctrine of whatever fits their personal agenda.” He has spent most of the past several years also trying to cement Donald Trump as the GOP’s 2020 nominee for president, with no other options, which could be a real disaster as public impeachment hearings are under way that might, y’know, hurt his chances at re-election if not get him impeached.

We already are wondering what bigotry this homophobic fossil insists be included in the 2020 Republican National Party Platform. Especially if the candidate at the top of the ticket ends up being Mike Pence by default.

[Mecegirl]

Just saw clips of that Fox and Friends phone call. I do hope they are happy with what they have created.

[Tami]

Just saw clips of that Fox and Friends phone call. I do hope they are happy with what they have created.

The 58 most bananas lines from Donald Trump's Friday 'Fox & Friends' interview

1. "They were spying on my campaign and it went right up to the top and everybody knows it and now we're going to find out."

In which Trump repeats a debunked claim that the FBI was "spying" on his campaign and then President Barack Obama ordered it. There is zero evidence to support that charge. What did happen -- as far as we know -- is that as part of the FBI's counterintelligence operation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, it did obtain a FISA warrant to wiretap then-Trump foreign policy aide Carter Page's phone. Also: Away we go!

[Tami]

This is freaky. It's tragic enough that something happened to him, but that no one was able to find out about it for three years?


Navy veteran found in his apartment had been dead for 3 years

The mother of a Navy veteran is seeking answers after her son's body was discovered in his Texas apartment where officials said he had been dead for three years.

The remains of Ronald Wayne White, 54, were recovered Nov. 12, from the DeSoto Town Center Apartments in suburban Dallas.

White had been dead "for an extended period of time, up to when he was last known alive three years ago," the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office said in a statement.

White's mother, Doris Stevens, said she last spoke to her son in November 2016. White was a defense contractor and traveled the world in that role, she said.

Stevens, 70, said she grew concerned about her son in February 2017, as the two never went months without speaking. If he was in the United States, they would speak at least once a week and if he was out of the country, he would check in with her once or twice a month, she said.

By April 2017, when she could not reach him on his birthday, she said she knew something was wrong. Voicemail messages to his phone went unanswered, she said.

Stevens said she called the Glenn Heights and Dallas police departments to file a missing person report.

"They asked how old my son was and I told them and they said, 'You can't make a missing person report for a grown up,'" she said.

[Malvolio]

Giuliani Crony Can Detail Nunes’ Meeting With Ex-Ukraine Official To Get Biden Dirt: Report

Lev Parnas’s lawyer says he’s willing to tell Congress that GOP Rep. Devin Nunes went to Vienna to talk to the prosecutor who was ousted over corruption issues. Looks like the scumbags are turning on one another. GOOD!

**********

Women And Immigrants, Demeaned By Trump, Take Center Stage At Impeachment

If the president is averse to strong women challenging him, he had a very bad week. Couldn't agree with that more!

**********

John Bolton Hints He’s Ready To Spill His ‘Backstory’ On White House Departure

Trump’s former national security adviser claimed that the White House had previously “suppressed” his Twitter account. Given that Johnny Warhawk is peddling a book and doesn't want to give away any juicy tidbits, I'll believe that when it happens.

**********

Trump’s Lawyers Argue Like They’re Defending King Donald I

The president cannot be prosecuted and should not be sued or impeached, according to his legal teams. Once again, that's not how this works, that's not how any of this works.

**********

Trump Blames Kellyanne Conway For Turning Husband Into ‘Total Whack Job’

The president told “Fox & Friends” that she must have “done some bad things” to George Conway “because that guy is crazy.” So, Trump insults Sewer Rat Barbie's husband by saying SHE drove him 'round the bend. Will she say nothing about that? Of course she won't!

If Trump ever admitted to being insane, he would probably blame it on Ivana, Marla and Melania.

[Astral Disaster]

This is freaky. It's tragic enough that something happened to him, but that no one was able to find out about it for three years?


Navy veteran found in his apartment had been dead for 3 years

Wow, and the thing about not being able to file a missing person report on an adult seems off, especially being a family member, I'd think there's at the very least a waiting period between the time a person is reported missing and when a report can be filed, but it's Dallas PD and I know I've read and heard things from friends living in DFW about police "irregularities". Guess rent was set up to be paid automatically through his bank account and he had no contact with people outside of his mother. I've joked that something like this will likely be my fate, though it probably wouldn't drag out for three years, neighbors would eventually start complaining about the lawn, lol!

[Iron Maiden]

I caught part of that call it and it was like even the Three Stooges of Fox in the Morning wanted that call to end. He made a total jackass out of himself. I Watched maybe for 5 minutes and had to turn it off when he bragged about how he made a star out of GOP NY representative Stefanik. Then he went on about how he had made a lot of stars, going back to the Apprentice show. Talked about Kelly Anne Conway making her husband crazy or something.

It's been know for a while now that Trump stays holed up in his part of the White House until late morning. He's up tweeting at all hours, he watches Fox news, spends some time getting his orange spray on tan and arranges that rat's nest he calls hair and sprays it with hair spray so his bald spots don't show. And yesterday he had nothing better to do that indulge himself on the phone on national TV. This is why he barely reads any of the reports or notes that he was given by staff members.

[Iron Maiden]

This is freaky. It's tragic enough that something happened to him, but that no one was able to find out about it for three years?


Navy veteran found in his apartment had been dead for 3 years

I don't know what kind of police departments they are running in Texas but you certainly can file a missing person report on an adult here in Indiana. Tragically, many of them end of badly like this. Just had one the other day where the family reported their adult daughter missing. She was found shot to death inside of one of Gary, Indiana's closed and abandoned schools. She was foolish enough to meet some young teens on FB that were going to sell her some marijuana. Sometimes the police just do a what they call a wellness check on adults. Many times this is for seniors that live alone. But you can ask for one if it is an adult that hasn't been heard from.