All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Kirby101]

This alone should be worth Impeachment. And it goes unnoticed among the daily corruption by this President. Profiting from office.

Trump Hotel Room Prices Spiked 13x Last Weekend. We Finally Know Why.

In November, we noticed a mysterious spike in the price of available rooms at Trump’s DC hotel for a Saturday night in December. The minimum cost was 13 times the average, but we couldn’t identify a reason for the spike, until photos surfaced of the Trump Victory Committee’s winter retreat at Trump’s Hotel on that exact night, which appears to have sold out much of the venue. While the least expensive room for a one-night stay at the hotel was around $500 on surrounding days, the cheapest room on December 14 was a whopping $6,719. With access to Trump, Pence, and other top officials, and a bonus invitation to the White House holiday party for donors, we no longer have to wonder why.

[JCAll]

I think Tulsi is kind of a useless politician but I agree with the sentiment. The fact that it was partisan and that half the country is split on it means that it has no teeth in the Senate and it’s really not going to sway the pendulum much.

You want a Nixon situation where it’s so overwhelming that the country is mostly united on it. Now is just politics as usual and the framing of it hurts.

Open corruption is always starkly divided between the people who want to keep doing corruption and the people who would like them to stop. Imagine reading a headline that said "Criminal says they should be allowed to do crimes; Judge has no strong opinion on the matter one way or the other". Even using the word "partisan" in this context feels like a misuse of the word.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

During the Nixon Impeachment, there was no Fox News. There was only Three News Broadcast Channels, ABC, NBC and CBS. That is the big difference. People who only watch Fox News get a skewed view of the world.

If the Senate holds a full trial, with Witnesses, it is possible that public opinion might change, maybe.

If Public Opinion changes, then maybe some Republican's opinions, especially in the Senate, might change.

That’s not going to happen.

It’s going to end in no conviction in the Senate. From their Republicans will argue he was exonerated, Democrats will argue the Senate was partisan and didn’t do its job, Republicans will argue back that the House was partisan and it will be a media war of who can sell their framing the best

[Tami]

USDA tariff tracker removes Wakanda, fictional home of Black Panther, as free trade partner

Wakanda's free trade agreement with the United States wasn't forever.

Until Wednesday afternoon, the fictional country from the popular 2018 Marvel superhero movie “Black Panther” was listed as a free trade agreement partner of the United States on the Agricultural Tariff Tracker maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru are still listed.

The USDA said they had used Wakanda when testing the system behind the tracker and had forgotten to remove Black Panther's home country.

"Over the past few weeks, the Foreign Agricultural Service staff who maintain the Tariff Tracker have been using test files to ensure that the system is running properly," Mike Illenberg, a USDA spokesman, said over email. "The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down."

Francis Tseng, a fellow at the Jain Family Institute, first noticed Wakanda listed as a trade partner Wednesday morning when researching how trade deal tariffs affect food distribution and hunger in those countries. While looking for a resource that examined existing trade deals, he came upon the USDA tariff tracker and was instantly stunned by his discovery.

[PwrdOn]

USDA tariff tracker removes Wakanda, fictional home of Black Panther, as free trade partner

As if the United States would ever allow a prosperous and technologically advanced black country to exist in reality. In no time at all we'd make up some BS excuse to sanction their economy into the ground, send in our troops under the pretense of spreading freedom and democracy, strip mine all the vibranium as fast as we could, leaving the locals to wallow in misery, and then gloat about how inferior African values were responsible for their failure.

[Powerboy]

Oh for pete's sake. It was never not going to be 'partisan' because the republicans were never going to do their job in the House. The evidence that is out there is already overwhelming. It isn't going to move his followers, because they exist in their own bubble. As they saying goes: If Nixon had had Fox News, he'd never have been impeached.s

Mitch McConnell would very much like Trump's acquittal to be seen as fait acompli. It's our job to make as much noise as possible that it shouldn't be and to hold the media and the Senate accountable as much as we can.

This. It was partisan by default because the Republicans are never going to consider the evidence. And, yes, also, if the atmosphere that exists today had existed in 1974, Nixon would also have dug in knowing the Republicans would stick with him no matter what. Nixon would have been going: "All fake news. None of it's true" regardless of the evidence and most Republicans in every day life would have supported him no matter what he did.

Republicans are often like cultists nowadays. One of the tenants of a cult is to only get your information from the cult itself, their interpretation on everything. Never look to any outside source and see what they are saying and what the evidence really is.

[Kirby101]

If i have to flush my toilet 10 or 15 times, I go see the Doctor.

[SquirrelMan]

Tulsi explains herself.



Do you not understand why its partisan?

She should get some props for being the only Republican not to vote against impeachment.

[jetengine]

Ukraine is a MUCH bigger deal then watergate. Its Watergate on an international scale. Instead of "Pay some goons to break into the oppositions HQ to steal info" its "Lean on a nation by threatening to not give it already allocated arms to defend itself from Russian military action for info about one of the possible Democratic nominees family"

[The Whovian]

As if the United States would ever allow a prosperous and technologically advanced black country to exist in reality. In no time at all we'd make up some BS excuse to sanction their economy into the ground, send in our troops under the pretense of spreading freedom and democracy, strip mine all the vibranium as fast as we could, leaving the locals to wallow in misery, and then gloat about how inferior African values were responsible for their failure.

Actually, what they would do is the same thing they are doing right now. Accusing the leaders of war crimes against their own people, which is really perpetrated by the CIA, and then going in under this guise so they can topple the regime and take their resources.

[PaulBullion]

So, how many Trump voters now believe that Hillary Clinton became president with the impeachment of the Donald?

[Malvolio]

This alone should be worth Impeachment. And it goes unnoticed among the daily corruption by this President. Profiting from office.

Trump Hotel Room Prices Spiked 13x Last Weekend. We Finally Know Why.

Trump's been in violation of the emoluments clause from day one of his presidency. I don't know why it hasn't been added to the articles of impeachment.

[Jack Dracula]

Mark Meadows says he's not running for reelection and that his work with the trump administration is 'only just beginning'.

I'm reminded of that scene from The Boys comic where Starlight has her first day with The Seven.

[Kirby101]

She should get some props for being the only Republican not to vote against impeachment.

This is a joke, right?

[Malvolio]

USDA tariff tracker removes Wakanda, fictional home of Black Panther, as free trade partner

It's getting to the point where actual news headlines are indistinguishable from The Onion.