All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[SquirrelMan]

I am sure all the Republicans who were russian, I'm sorry, rushing to give heightened security to Kavanaugh a few months ago will do the same for DA Bragg now?

Suspicious package with powdery white substance found at Manhattan DA’s office: police

[Mister Mets]

I keep hearing how significant numbers of Democrats don't want Biden to run for reelection in 2024. But I don't hear about any Democrats willing to run in his place. So how is Biden supposed to step down if no one else in his Party wants the job?

There's a difference between wanting to be President and being willing to run against an incumbent from your own party.

If Biden announces tomorrow that he's not going to seek another term, Kamala Harris will be the overwhelming favorite for the nomination, and there is the sense that she's unimpressive, that she is to Democrats what Mike Pence was to Republicans.

If Harris and Biden were to announce that neither will seek the presidential nomination, I suspect we'd quickly have a few major contenders. Under those circumstances, Elizabeth Warren, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Gretchen Whitmer, Amy Klobuchar and a few others would likely consider runs.

[Mister Mets]

Here’s a hypothetical situation: With the legal walls closing in on Trump and a possible indictment looming, would he throw Melania and/or the brats under the nearest Greyhound to save his orange ass, or would they roll over on him first if they fear being backstabbed?

Another hypothetical situation: A neighbor who hates Trump predicted he’ll flee the country rather than go on trial if he’s indicted. Could that scenario happen?

It depends on the case.

From what we know so far, the New York case is weak. The statute of limitations expired (there may be workarounds) and it requires funds to be used to cover up a felony, and in this case Trump had not been prosecuted for a felony (this was a violation of federal law so it would be up to the Justice Department to file felony charges; it's not essential for felony charges to be filed but it would be useful.) There is some precedent with the prosecution of John Edwards over a similar problem a few years back (he used campaign funds to hush up the mother of his child) although that ended in a hung jury.

https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/qa...p-in-new-york/

It's possible that Bragg found something else, or that Trump is baited into something stupid. I think it would be hard to prosecute him for incitement, but his death & destruction comments are unhinged even for him. Grand jury investigations are really secretive, so the speculation could all end up being in the wrong direction.

The Fulton County case (investigating calls to Georgia officials to reject election results under what he knew to be pretext) is likely strongest. I don't think he believes the Justice Department would prosecute him for rhetoric regarding January 6, although it's really hard to imagine what this guy thinks. There is also the mishandling documents investigation.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/11649...investigations

Not mentioned in the article is anything to do with E. Jean Caroll's rape allegations, although that's currently a civil trial (if anyone can prove he perjured himself, that would be easy ground for prosecutors.)

I don't see Trump fleeing the country, although I would personally be happy with that result. Where would he flee to?

[Kirby101]

Since he has been working for Putin all these years, I am sure he would get a warm welcome in Moscow.

[skyvolt2000]

The bill that is NOT needed because what it suggests already happens in the schools.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ct/ar-AA192iSV

House Republicans narrowly passed the Parents Bill of Rights Act on Friday, sending the proposal along to the Senate, where it is highly unlikely to receive a vote.

H.R. 5 passed in a 213-208 vote Friday morning, with five Republicans -- Reps. Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Matt Gaetz, Mike Lawler and Matt Rosendale -- joining all Democrats to vote against the measure. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., the bill's sponsor, shook hands and fist bumped rejoicing members upon the bill's passage.

Backers of the bill say H.R. 5 has five core principles: Parents have the right to know what their children are being taught, to be heard, to see the school budget and spending, to protect their children's privacy and to keep their children safe.

1) The school curriculum is online at the state level's website.
2) Teacher's lesson plans are ALWAYS available to review be it online or in person.
3) School budgets are on the district website and board agendas as it has to be approve EVERY year.

The bill would require schools to publish educational materials such as catalogs of books kept in libraries and course curricula. Other provisions establish parental rights to request meeting with educators, address school board meetings and review district budgets.

We call this Parent Teacher Association AKA the PTA.
We have meeting parents to review the school budgets and school board meeting are REQUIRED by law to have public meeting and open forum to discuss the budget.

Letlow, a former educator, had over 70 co-sponsors originally, including McCarthy.

At the college level where they don't do that.


Oh and let me tell yall a secret.....

We do all this and guess what??? PARENTS do not show up for meetings and some try to do everything in the sun to NOT come to the schools or board meetings.

It's funny to see the GOP in the comment section just blame Democrats, Biden and black people yet when someone tries to educate them on the FACTS-they get shot down.

[AnakinFlair]

I keep hearing how significant numbers of Democrats don't want Biden to run for reelection in 2024. But I don't hear about any Democrats willing to run in his place. So how is Biden supposed to step down if no one else in his Party wants the job?

The GOP is a circus.

"Anyone wanting to run could try and talk with Biden and get his backing rather than run to oppose him" - perhaps that has already happened in the background and we just don't know about it?

Not because he's doing a bad job or anything like that, but due to age I'd like to see Biden step down and endorse another candidate. I've mentioned before that I think both Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer would be terrific candidates, the latter having the advantage of being from the Midwest.

The problem with Biden saying he won't run again is that he immediately becomes a lame-duck President, and it might make it even harder to get his agenda passed.

[shooshoomanjoe]

The bill that is NOT needed because what it suggests already happens in the schools.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ct/ar-AA192iSV





1) The school curriculum is online at the state level's website.
2) Teacher's lesson plans are ALWAYS available to review be it online or in person.
3) School budgets are on the district website and board agendas as it has to be approve EVERY year.



We call this Parent Teacher Association AKA the PTA.
We have meeting parents to review the school budgets and school board meeting are REQUIRED by law to have public meeting and open forum to discuss the budget.



At the college level where they don't do that.


Oh and let me tell yall a secret.....

We do all this and guess what??? PARENTS do not show up for meetings and some try to do everything in the sun to NOT come to the schools or board meetings.

It's funny to see the GOP in the comment section just blame Democrats, Biden and black people yet when someone tries to educate them on the FACTS-they get shot down.

I think there's something in that bill about parents being informed if a trans student is in a school sport. Anyway, I'm surprised Matt Gaetz voted against this bill.

[Mister Mets]

The problem with Biden saying he won't run again is that he immediately becomes a lame-duck President, and it might make it even harder to get his agenda passed.

So he ends up running in order to start a full term as President after his 82nd birthday?

The main problem for a primary is that the alternative is likely to do worse. Because he stuck himself with Kamala Harris.

[Malvolio]

Too early still, I'm sure we'll get a slew of dems, later this year, announcing they'll run for office.

I don't think so, unless Biden announces that he won't run, as LBJ did in the run-up to the 1968 election. But there weren't primaries back then. The party voted among the announced candidates at the convention . With the Iowa Caucuses next January, Biden would have to step down no later than September. I really don't see that happening.

[worstblogever]

I think there's something in that bill about parents being informed if a trans student is in a school sport. Anyway, I'm surprised Matt Gaetz voted against this bill.

He probably was opposed because he couldn't get an amendment on it to let him be the one to expect young girls' genitals to confirm their biological gender.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for Colorado’s 4th District, Ken Buck, who in his original profile, we noted was forced to resign in disgrace from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado in 2001, and in 2005, while working at the Weld, Colorado District Attorney’s office, he would seize the tax information of five thousand people in a raid on a tax service, getting the office sued by the public for violating their constitutional rights by seizing their personal information. Buck is also noted for being terribly misogynist, not just because he supports Personhood legislation or thinks rape and incest victims should be forced to carry any fetus they might end up pregnant with to term… in a 2010 failed campaign for U.S. Senate he stated his superiority because he didn’t “wear high heels”, and because in 2005, while a prosecutor, he refused to charge a rapist who confessed to forcing himself on his victim while drunk with rape because, as he put it, it was simply “a case of buyer’s remorse” from the victim. Adding to that disgusting moment, Buck also is a Birther conspiracy theorist, a climate change denier, and has compared homosexuality to alcoholism (the latter of which is of course classified as a disease), as well as comparing pregnancy to cancer. Buck has also argued against the United States housing Syrian refugees because, no lie, "BENGHAZI". Which is remarkable that he's blaming something that happened in Libya four years ago on people fleeing a country hundreds of miles away for their lives.

Since we last covered Ken Buck, he’s defended the highly controversial AR-15 assault rifle, justifying its use for killing small animals like “raccoons and foxes” in March of 2018, only days after one was used to commit mass-murder at Parkland High School in Florida. He also literally trying normalizing scenes of carnage like this, saying they “happen all the time”. Classy. He also has claimed that he saw “not a shred of evidence” that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 election, which doesn’t exactly jive with what Robert Mueller has revealed, or the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed.

Colorado’s 4th District has a +13 Republican lean, and in most years, that would keep Ken Buck plenty safe. In 2018? Well, he’s probably safe, but considering Conor Lamb just flipped a Pennsylvania district that Donald Trump won by 20 points and the GOP usually wins by even more than that…

but considering he has faced down constituents at volatile town halls where he’s been raucously booed and heckled, that he actually penned an editorial in July of 2017 where he wrote “The Republican Party is dead” because Donald Trump was president, and dodges scheduled interviews with the press, we’re surprised he has yet to consider retirement like so many of his colleagues did. Instead, he ran for a fourth term, had a constituent arrested for leaving him a message critical of Buck for doing nothing about the Trump administration’s “family separation” policy outside his office in sidewalk chalk.

As 2020 approached, Ken Buck seems to have calculated that his best take for winning re-election to another term was to make a veiled death threat at Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke for believing that gun control might actually work.

[worstblogever]

His voting record the past few years:

• July 12th, 2019: Buck is one of 12 Republicans who vote against the re-authorization of the Zadroga Act to provide healthcare to 9/11 First Responders.
• October 23rd, 2019: Buck is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”. He was supposedly upset that he didn’t get to participate in the hearings, which is a lie, because Buck just chose to not show up for them.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Buck ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• April 23rd, 2020: Rep. Buck is one of 4 Republicans who vote against the Coronavirus stimulus bill in the House.
• May 15th, 2020: Buck votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• December 10th, 2020: Buck signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
• January 6th, 2021: Ken Buck doesn’t even bother to come to the Floor to vote to certify the electoral college results after the attack, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Buck votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Ken Buck votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Buck votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Buck votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Ken Buck votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Buck votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Buck is one of 172 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 19th, 2021: Rep. Buck votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Ken Buck votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Ken Buck votes against HR 6833, refusing to continue to support our allies in Ukraine against a Russian invasion.
• May 18th, 2022: Ken Buck is one of 192 Republicans who votes against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
• May 18th, 2022: Rep. Buck votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
• May 19th, 2022: Buck votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
• July 15th, 2022: Ken Buck votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcement by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
• July 13th, 2022: Buck votes against the Honoring Our PACT Act, to provide healthcare to veterans affected by toxic burn pits while serving in the War on Terror that leave them more susceptible to forms of cancer.
• July 19th, 2022: Rep. Buck is one of 157 Republicans who vote against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
• July 21st, 2022: Buck is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
• July 28th, 2022: In a move that shows he doesn’t care about optics, Ken Buck is one of 19 Republicans who vote against a bill aimed at preventing human trafficking.
• September 29th, 2022: Ken Buck is one of 49 Republicans who vote against HR 8888, the Food Security for All Veterans Act.
• December 1st, 2022: Rep. Buck is one of 90 Republicans who vote against HR 6878, meaning he is perfectly fine with pregnant women in prison being placed in solitary confinement while claiming to be “pro-life”.
• December 6th, 2022: Buck, embracing the GOP’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment votes against HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.
• December 21st, 2022: Ken Buck doesn't even bother to show up to vote for a bill created to aid the survivors of child abuse, which shows you how much the GOP truly care about stopping “groomers”.

With the extreme partisan lean of his district, Ken Buck won re-election in 2022 with 60% of the vote. He continues to only serve himself as he ever has, especially since reaching office in 2014… A decade. This corrupt bastard has been re-elected for a decade.

[CaptainEurope]

It depends on the case.

From what we know so far, the New York case is weak. The statute of limitations expired (there may be workarounds) and it requires funds to be used to cover up a felony, and in this case Trump had not been prosecuted for a felony (this was a violation of federal law so it would be up to the Justice Department to file felony charges; it's not essential for felony charges to be filed but it would be useful.) There is some precedent with the prosecution of John Edwards over a similar problem a few years back (he used campaign funds to hush up the mother of his child) although that ended in a hung jury.

https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/qa...p-in-new-york/

It's possible that Bragg found something else, or that Trump is baited into something stupid. I think it would be hard to prosecute him for incitement, but his death & destruction comments are unhinged even for him. Grand jury investigations are really secretive, so the speculation could all end up being in the wrong direction.

The Fulton County case (investigating calls to Georgia officials to reject election results under what he knew to be pretext) is likely strongest. I don't think he believes the Justice Department would prosecute him for rhetoric regarding January 6, although it's really hard to imagine what this guy thinks. There is also the mishandling documents investigation.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/11649...investigations

Not mentioned in the article is anything to do with E. Jean Caroll's rape allegations, although that's currently a civil trial (if anyone can prove he perjured himself, that would be easy ground for prosecutors.)

I don't see Trump fleeing the country, although I would personally be happy with that result. Where would he flee to?

I saw an analyst on CBS saying that the Mar-A-Lago documents case is the easiest to prove, easier than Fulton County.

How many lawyers is Trumo currently keeping busy? Is he paying them all?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The bill that is NOT needed because what it suggests already happens in the schools.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ct/ar-AA192iSV





1) The school curriculum is online at the state level's website.
2) Teacher's lesson plans are ALWAYS available to review be it online or in person.
3) School budgets are on the district website and board agendas as it has to be approve EVERY year.



We call this Parent Teacher Association AKA the PTA.
We have meeting parents to review the school budgets and school board meeting are REQUIRED by law to have public meeting and open forum to discuss the budget.



At the college level where they don't do that.


Oh and let me tell yall a secret.....

We do all this and guess what??? PARENTS do not show up for meetings and some try to do everything in the sun to NOT come to the schools or board meetings.

It's funny to see the GOP in the comment section just blame Democrats, Biden and black people yet when someone tries to educate them on the FACTS-they get shot down.

A classic example of a solution in search of a problem.

[CaptainEurope]

A few weeks after German journalists wrote about an independent Ukrainian group likely being behind the Nord Stream attack, sources from Denmark now provide evidence that this was a "false flag" operation and Russia was actually behind it.

The Russian Navy is believed to have operated a mini-submarine at the Nord Stream sites days before the explosions.

The patrol boat "Nymfen" of the Royal Danish Navy unexpectedly left Rødbyhavn at 7:50 p.m. and set course for Bornholm. More precisely: to the spot that would become known only five days later as the scene of the Nord Stream sabotage. Something there was obviously in need of an urgent inspection.

When the ship reached its destination on the morning of September 22, it was soon joined by Swedish military forces by sea and air. The course of one of the Swedish pursuers in the coming days: the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad at the Baltic Sea.


Presumably, the patrol boats were chasing Russian military vessels. As t-online learned from sources in the security community, a unit of the Russian navy is said to have operated under strict shielding in the area of the later crime scene. It is said the unit operated "like a ghost" by for example not transmitting its position data. The ships would have had the necessary equipment to place explosive devices at the pipelines. Publicly available data indicate the information as accurate.

The Russian Navy's activities in the days leading up to the explosions could be an important lead in a mysterious criminal case: the attack on gas pipelines in the midst of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. At the same time it calls into question some theories about other possible culprits that have caused a worldwide stir in recent weeks.


One of them was: The U.S. was the mastermind behind the Nord Stream sabotage. But many details of the report by Seymour Hersh have since been refuted. Most recently, however, a joint investigation by ARD, SWR and "Die Zeit" and also a report by "New York Times" brought a different sequence of events into play: The German Federal Prosecutor was following the tracks of a possibly pro-Ukrainian group that could have carried out the attacks with a sailing yacht named "Andromeda" and two divers. In fact, the German Federal Criminal Police Office searched the suspicious boat.


However, the theory of a terrorist sailing trip on a private Ukrainian mission has experts shaking their heads. It is not very plausible, they say. There is a lot to be said for a "false flag operation“, such as for tracks to be found and to conceal the real perpetrators. Most likely, submarines or underwater drones were used, hundreds of kilograms of military explosives. All this speaks for a state actor.