All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[worstblogever]

Pentagon Chief Says Trump Ordered End To Disciplinary Process Against Navy SEAL

Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher was convicted of posing in a photo with the corpse of an Iraqi teenager. What I don't understand is what prompted Trump to get involved in this mess from the get go.

I thought I heard a report come across the chyron on MSNBC regarding the dismissal of the Navy Secretary that Trump is pardoning these war criminals because he expects them to go on the campaign trail with them.

No good veteran with respect for the uniform wants to endorse Cadet Bone Spurs at this point. No active duty soldier can. However, if Trump can leverage the war criminals by pardoning them, and then playing up their "victim" status for the fact that they were charged, he's going to have soldiers made into "heroes" by conservative media (aka white nationalists with a platform who felt they "did nothing wrong" for killing minorities overseas).

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I thought I heard a report come across the chyron on MSNBC regarding the dismissal of the Navy Secretary that Trump is pardoning these war criminals because he expects them to go on the campaign trail with them.

No good veteran with respect for the uniform wants to endorse Cadet Bone Spurs at this point. No active duty soldier can. However, if Trump can leverage the war criminals by pardoning them, and then playing up their "victim" status for the fact that they were charged, he's going to have soldiers made into "heroes" by conservative media (aka white nationalists with a platform who felt they "did nothing wrong" for killing minorities overseas).

You could be right, and that brings up this question: If Eddie Gallagher had been black, Latino or (GASP!), of Muslim descent, would Trump have gone out of his way to defend him? I think we know the answer to that.

[worstblogever]

You could be right, and that brings up this question: If Eddie Gallagher had been black, Latino or (GASP!), of Muslim descent, would Trump have gone out of his way to defend him? I think we know the answer to that.

He wanted to help A$AP Rocky, but only because he thought it would prove to African American voters that he wasn't racist. (That's not how it works.)

[worstblogever]

On this day in both 2014, in 2015, 2016, 2017, and in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted its first two profiles of Ira Hansen, of the Nevada House of Representatives, who was quickly forced out of being Speaker of the Nevada House after people actually realized he had a staggering history of making outrageously ugly comments… including his time as a radio talk-show host where he made anti-Semitic remarks, made sexist arguments against women in the military, advocated for a “masturbation tax”, and that he once said the Oklahoma City Bombing was a “false flag” attack that the Clinton administration was actually responsible for. He also writes columns from an office with a Confederate flag hanging on the wall, slanders Martin Luther King Dr.’s legacy, refers to President Obama as a “negro”, a term he’s fond of, makes arguments as to Hispanics and African Americans of being of lower intelligence than whites, and blames illegal immigrants for tuberculosis cases without any evidence to support that racist claim. Hansen’s bigotry also expands to gays, as he likes to conflate homosexuality with child abuse, including him blaming the abuse of children by Catholic priests on gays. Of course, when Hansen’s past as an author and talk-radio figure came back to force him to pass and not accept his role has Nevada House Speaker, he gave a non-apology apology where he said his remarks were only being “taken out of context”. What can’t be taken out of context is Hansen’s staunch pro-gun attitude, his support for transphobic bathroom laws, or the fact that he mentioned President Eisenhower’s “Project Wetback” as a model for what the United States should implement to handle undocumented immigrants (without remembering how deadly that campaign proved for those Mexicans, with up to 88 deaths resulting in a single day.

And, wouldn’t you know it, even though Ira Hansen is a pretty clear racist and a bit of a paranoid conspiracy theorist, he managed to be re-elected to a fourth term in the 2016 elections by having the benefit of running unopposed. In 2018, his plans are to divide and conquer, as he has decided to make a run for Nevada State Senate to replace the retiring Don Gustavson, and Ira’s wife Alexis ran for his seat in the Nevada House. Ira won to enter the Nevada State Senate with 60% of the vote, and Alexis managed to pull down 70% to join him in the Nevada State Assembly.

That means Hansen won’t be up for re-election until 2022, and in the meantime, Hansen has continued being an extremist, voting against expanding background checks on firearm purchases, and even for measures as modest as increasing the minimum wage in Nevada during the greatest period of income inequality in our nation in a century.

Oh, and he popped off on the floor of the Nevada State Senate on an anti-choice rant where he compared abortion to slavery:

”Abortion is in effect the 20th century version of 19th century slavery.”

Nevermind that it’s twenty years into the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, he just compared abortion to slavery, which fits into the sorts of views he expressed on his radio talk show but claimed were “taken out of context”. The sooner Nevada is rid of this moron and his wife from the legislature, the better off the state will be.

[Tami]

Tucker Carlson: Why do I care what’s going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And I’m serious, why do I care? And why shouldn’t I root for Russia, which I am

Twitter Link with video

[InformationGeek]

Keeps sinking lower and lower...

In this clip; for the 100 year anniversary of Women Suffrage; President BigBrain asks why the centennial coin...Ahh **** it

Hear it for yourself.

"Curious why wasn't it done a long time ago? And also, I guess the answer to that is because now I'm president, we get things done." https://t.co/f92KDPY6QX

[Tami]

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

Internet trolls don’t troll. Not the professionals at least. Professional trolls don’t go on social media to antagonize liberals or belittle conservatives. They are not narrow minded, drunk or angry. They don’t lack basic English language skills. They certainly aren’t “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,” as the president once put it. Your stereotypical trolls do exist on social media, but the amateurs aren’t a threat to Western democracy.

Professional trolls, on the other hand, are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand them — and take them seriously.

On August 22, 2019, @IamTyraJackson received almost 290,000 likes on Twitter for a single tweet. Put in perspective, the typical tweet President Trump sends to his 67 million followers gets about 100,000 likes. That viral tweet by @IamTyraJackson was innocent: an uplifting pair of images of former pro football player Warrick Dunn and a description of his inspiring charity work building houses for single mothers. For an anonymous account that had only existed for only a few months, “Tyra” knew her audience well. Warrick’s former coach, Tony Dungy, retweeted it, as did the rapper and producer Chuck D. Hundreds of thousands of real users viewed Tyra’s tweet and connected with its message. For “Tyra,” however, inspiring messages like this were a tool for a very different purpose.

The purpose of the Tyra account, we believe, was not to spread heartwarming messages to Americans. Rather, the tweet about Warrick Dunn was really a Trojan horse to gain followers in a larger plan by a foreign adversary. We think this because we believe @IamTyraJackson was an account operated by the successors to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted the IRA for waging a massive information war during the 2016 U.S. election. Since then, the IRA seems to have been subsumed into Russia’s Federal News Agency, but its work continues. In the case of @IamTyraJackson, the IRA’s goal was two-fold: Grow an audience in part through heartwarming, inspiring messages, and use that following to spread messages promoting division, distrust, and doubt.

[Tendrin]

Hey, WBE. Here's something super awesome for your final Bevin profile.

https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1199272307384037377

Holy hell. Kentucky’s Republican Gov. Matt Bevin just pardoned a man convicted in 2001 of raping his 6 year-old stepdaughter.

The man was found guilty of 3 counts of sodomy in the first degree and 2 counts of sexual abuse in the first degree. Bevin commuted his life sentence.

As Caroline Orr goes on to say:

A reminder that Bevin was the same guy who condemned schoolteachers in the state for going on strike last year, saying it would lead to unattended students getting sexually assaulted.

I wish I could say I was sure it would be your final profile of him, but well, with todays' GOP who knows?

[Tami]

Lawyer for Navy SEAL accused of war crimes also works for Trump Organization

Washington (CNN)An attorney for Navy SEAL chief Edward "Eddie" Gallagher also represents the Trump Organization, CNN has learned, just days after reports surfaced indicating the President is considering pardoning Gallagher of charges that could constitute war crimes.

Gallagher faces a slew of accusations connected to violations of military law while he was deployed to the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2017, including premeditated murder in the stabbing death of an injured person in Iraq. He has pleaded not guilty.

Trump Organization lawyer Marc Mukasey started working on the case in recent months, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, a former business partner of Trump ally and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, also is helping with Gallagher's case. Kerik, who once served three years in federal prison for charges including tax fraud and lying to officials, was nominated as homeland security secretary by President George W. Bush but withdrew from consideration due to potential tax violations.

He has regularly appeared on Fox News as a surrogate for the President.

[worstblogever]

Hey, WBE. Here's something super awesome for your final Bevin profile.

https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1199272307384037377



As Caroline Orr goes on to say:

I wish I could say I was sure it would be your final profile of him, but well, with todays' GOP who knows?

Jesus. F***ing. Christ.

[Tendrin]

Jesus. F***ing. Christ.

... yeah. yeah.

[Tami]

:eyebrow raise:

Bloomberg’s 2020 Pollster Dumps His Ukrainian Oligarch Client

Mike Bloomberg’s presidential pollster has ended his years-long representation of a Ukrainian oligarch briefly scrutinized by U.S. law enforcement during its investigation into Russian election-meddling.

Pollster and pundit Doug Schoen told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that he has signed on to work on the former New York mayor’s 2020 Democratic presidential bid. In anticipation of that role, he said, he terminated a contract with billionaire investor Victor Pinchuk.

“As soon as Mayor Bloomberg made it clear that he would be formally announcing his candidacy,” Schoen said via text, “I terminated my professional relationship with Mr Pinchuk and filed the [Foreign Agents Registration Act] termination you referenced.”

Schoen’s work with Bloomberg predated his formal launch this past Sunday. An aide to the one-time mayor said that Schoen had done polling for them in anticipation of a presidential announcement in addition to his three successful mayoral runs.

Schoen did not answer directly when asked if he’d dropped any other clients in anticipation of Bloomberg’s White House run, or whether he felt that Pinchuk represented any unique political liability. “My central focus is and will be Mayor Bloomberg's campaign. And I am doing that happily, willingly, and with great enthusiasm,” he said. “Thank you very much for your questions.”

[Malvolio]

I thought I heard a report come across the chyron on MSNBC regarding the dismissal of the Navy Secretary that Trump is pardoning these war criminals because he expects them to go on the campaign trail with them.

No good veteran with respect for the uniform wants to endorse Cadet Bone Spurs at this point. No active duty soldier can. However, if Trump can leverage the war criminals by pardoning them, and then playing up their "victim" status for the fact that they were charged, he's going to have soldiers made into "heroes" by conservative media (aka white nationalists with a platform who felt they "did nothing wrong" for killing minorities overseas).

Conservative media is already making the guy a hero. Several right-wing radio hosts have said as much. It's probably where Trump got the idea to pardon him in the first place.

[Iron Maiden]

Conservative media is already making the guy a hero. Several right-wing radio hosts have said as much. It's probably where Trump got the idea to pardon him in the first place.

So they like guys who stand over the dead body of a 12 year old like he's some deer kill? smh It's soldiers like him that provide recruits for ISIS

[worstblogever]

Conservative media is already making the guy a hero. Several right-wing radio hosts have said as much. It's probably where Trump got the idea to pardon him in the first place.

Gallagher's lawyer is also a lawyer for the Trump Foundation.

He probably offered a discount to Eric and Don Jr. if they would get his dad to help out his client.