All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[Tazirai]

As a person who has lived in several foreign countries with Japan being the place I lived the longest at six years, this video is how American White Supremacy spreads by the like of Trump, and why Americans and Democrats need to do better. Yuta is a cool guy, but his racist friend Nobita...

This isn't about American Politics directly, but a good idea of how some of the world views our problems.

[Tazirai]

Let's see what happens this fall.

[Malvolio]

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinio...ism-ncna877886






We've all known this for a while. It's the racism. It's /always/ been the racism.

Well, that and the desire to "see liberals cry."

[TakoM]

Some news which properly didn't across the Atlantic

New elections loom in Italy amid calls for Mattarella to be impeached

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ist-government

If you ask me I would start with the impeachment sooner then later what he has done is under democratic principles wrong also he isn't neutral as he supposed to be.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Rudy Giuliani Admits White House Is Trying To Discredit Russia Investigation

“It is for public opinion,” the Trump lawyer said of the near-daily attacks on the probe. Once again, why go through all these shenanigans if Trump is innocent? Meanwhile....

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Ex-CIA Chief Says Trump Will ‘Throw Anything At The Wall’ To Hurt Mueller Probe

Trump is trying to “delegitimize the Mueller investigation,” Michael Hayden said. And doing one hell of a determined job of it too.

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Ivanka Trump Posts Cuddle Pic With Son, Twitter Reminds Her Of Missing Migrant Kids

Probably not the best time to tweet that photo. Ms. Complicit either doesn't know what's going on with those missing kids, or doesn't give a shit. My money's on the latter.

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Chelsea Clinton: Trump Degrades ‘What It Means To Be An American’

The 38-year-old philanthropist didn’t hold back in her interview with The Guardian. Sadly, Trump isn't solely to blame, gotta add the millions who voted for him, and craven Republicans in Congress who unfailingly enable him and otherwise kiss his orange ass.

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Retired English Teacher Corrects Trump-Signed Letter, Gives It Near-Failing Grade

“If it had been written in high school, I’d give it a D.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Texas school shooting victim family sues attacker's parents

The family of one of the students killed in a Texas high school shooting filed a lawsuit against the alleged gunman's parents, claiming the shooter's father didn't properly secure the weapons and were negligent in entrusting him with firearms.

Authorities charged Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student Santa Fe High School, with capital murder in the May 18 attack that killed eight students and two substitute teachers. Investigators said Pagourtzis used a shotgun and pistol belonging to his father that had been kept in a closet.

Texas law states that guns can't be made accessible to children under 17, with exceptions such as hunting or when under parent supervision. Parents can be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and $4,000 in fines if the child fires the weapon and causes serious injury or death.

Christopher Stone and Rosie Yanas, whose son Chris Stone, 17, was killed, filed a lawsuit in Galveston County on Thursday. Stone's funeral was Friday.

I wonder if the NRA will come to the rescue of Pagourtzis' parents, or leave them high and dry?

[Dalak]

A little diversion to something that's fascinated me my entire life: Sharks.

Great White Sharks Have A Secret 'Cafe,' And They Led Scientists Right To It

TL;DR - They tracked a bunch of Great Whites going somewhere off the coast to a place we'd assumed was an aquatic 'desert' with little to no life and lo-and-behold there was a ton of it and the Sharks led us to it. Also Great White genders act differently when it comes to hunting behavior too.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Texas school shooting victim family sues attacker's parents



I wonder if the NRA will come to the rescue of Pagourtzis' parents, or leave them high and dry?

im all for this

all of the families of those killed should sue

[Mister Mets]

- Mets, folks have said she is a good candidate in this thread. I could quote those posts.

- As for "In Any Way Qualified...", I'm sure there was someone there saying this when women(heck, people) who went on to do some good in politics were running for their first office. Not calling you a sexist. Just saying that if we waited for forward thinking people to be "Qualified", we'd probably be waiting longer than we should be to actually move things in the right direction.

The context of the comment about how most folks think Cynthia Nixon is a good candidate isn't about this board, but about whether Hillary Clinton made a mistake to endorse someone else.

The point as phrased wasn't about why Hillary Clinton lacked the wisdom of some of the people in this discussion, but about why she took a stand against someone "most folks agree is a good candidate." For the description to be true, Cynthia Nixon would need the approval of half of voters.

Cuomo leads Nixon in terms of support and approval.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.3883407

Most folks aren't ready to give an opinion of either kind on Nixon.

Also nevermind the post I made about WHY he won, and not the "He's the right kind of Politician for West Virginia." Trope so many of you keep pushing out there.

Paula Jean had NO advertising form any mainstream outlets. She spent 600k to his millions, she had ZERO support from Party Democrats, and STILL took 30% of the vote with only grassroots support.

Next time she'll not only have the name recognition but a background in politics to get even more of the vote.

Also, Manchin is probably going to lose the election, because he's a reliable vote for Republicans.

But yeah let's keep these lefty are too left for Places trope running, and wonder why people don't show up to vote for Establishment types or get excited and vote just to get it out of the way, because they know nothing will change or change with many of you guys favorite word "Incrementally"

If Manchin loses it's because the state is increasingly conservative, not because an environmental activist/ single mother of four would be expected to do better.

A big chunk of her showing might be that the Manchin campaign didn't think it was worth going scorched Earth against her.

Seriously, this guy is one of the best reasons not to do what folks have been talking about.

It depends on what you want.

The main argument against Mike Lee from the left isn't that he fails to push for his policies effectively, but that he pushes for the wrong policies. So what the left might want is their own Mike Lee.

[TheInvisibleMan]

rumors that Melania has moved back to NYC "for the foreseeable future" with the kid

[Malvolio]

The reason that Hillary Clinton supports Andrew Cuomo and not Cynthia Nixon is that the Clintons and the Cuomos have been friends for years. Clinton won't abandon a friend even if she agrees with the proposed policies of another candidate.

[Tami]

The reason that Hillary Clinton supports Andrew Cuomo and not Cynthia Nixon is that the Clintons and the Cuomos have been friends for years. Clinton won't abandon a friend even if she agrees with the proposed policies of another candidate.

As a private citizen, she has a right to support whichever candidate she chooses. Just as the people of NY have a right to chose who they want in office. Right now, however, I am glad I am not a New Yorker. NJ got the Governor we need right now, and we are on the fast track to putting more Democrats in government. I'm staying out of NY local and state elections. As long as the governor is a Democrat, I'm fine with whomever wins.

[worstblogever]

It was three years ago we had a profile of Niger Innis, a former Congressional candidate for Nevada's 3rd District who is a frequent quest on FOX News and the national spokesman of the one-time civil rights group CORE, that Niger's dad Roy Innis turned into a black nationalist group that bizarrely would support the re-election of Richard Nixon, and has aligned itself with Republican conservatives and big business for the past 40 years to speak on their behalf and explain why they're totally not racist, against all evidence to the contrary (selling out big for paychecks). Say for example, during the 2012 presidential campaign, Niger Innis claimed that CNN and MSNBC were racist for reporting Herman Cain's long track record of sexual harassment and portraying him as a "oversexed Mandingo". On behalf of energy comapnies at speaking engagments, Innis has claimed the "War on the Poor" is actually being led by environmentalists, and not industry, and has simultaneously attacked food stamps being issued to the needy because it's akin to "the scraps from Massa's table". Innis also defended the racist remarks of Cliven Bundy in 2014, and has declared all gun control measures racist in their motivation. After the deaths of several young African American men in recent years by police officers in highly publicized incidents often caught on video, downplayed a system rife with police brutality and instead said the real problem was "black on black crime". After only receiving 33% of the vote in the 2014 GOP Primary for the U.S. House seat he was running for, he immediately began crying foul due to election fraud, and demanded a complete audit of the election. We're going to go ahead and guess Niger Innis won't be winning office any time soon, even if he runs again.

Two years ago today, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Mike Pape, a candidate for the U.S. House seat for Kentucky's 1st Congressional District being vacated by the retiring Rep. Ed Whitfield in 2016. Pape's first campaign ad which showed three supposed Mexican illegal immigrants bumbling across the border, but stopping to talk, in English, about how they needed to do whatever they could to stop Mike Pape from winning office, because he'd help build a wall between Mexico and the United States, and make life too tough for them. Pape didnt' limit his xenophobia to Mexicans, though, as he not only embraced Trump's ideas for the border wall, but called for a halt to accepting Syrian refugees. Scratch that, he called to a halt completely from immigrants from "countries who sponsor terror", which we're pretty sure would only apply to Muslim countries and forget about Ireland's past. Pape's issue stances also include support for mandatory minimum sentencing for crimes and the death penalty while being staunchly "pro-life", his opposition to same-sex marriage, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and other conservative staples. The only thing that could ever be considered in any way moderate about him is that he acknowledges climate change is man-made, but he still didn't want any regulation to prevent it from getting worse). Pape ended up losing spectacularly in the primary for Kentucky's 1st District on May 17th, pulling down but 23% of the vote. He has not re-emerged since.

One year ago today, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Robert Bentley, who was forced to resign from office in disgrace when Comey fired the top cop in Alabama, who dropped a dime to the media about Bentley cheating on his wife of 50 years on his way out the door, saying he was near Bentley once when he dropped his phone, and it had a sexually explicit text on it directed towards a Governor’s aide on it. Audio quickly surfaced of Gov. Bentley making sexual comments on the phone towards his mistress... and that recording was made by Mrs. Bentley, who confronted the governor about the affair in front of their adult children before filing for divorce. It's only a surprise that it took SO LONG for news of the affair to come out, after all, Bentley would answer the door to his hotel rooms while travelling in his boxers, expecting the aide to be on the other side, only to give random unfortunate souls and eyeful. It would not simply remain a family matter, because in an added twist, Bentley used government resources to carry out the affair and cover it up, which is grounds for impeachment, which opportunistic Republicans in Alabama were more than willing to do. The Alabama state Attorney General, Luther Strange, was in charge of the investigation into any wrongdoing during that time, but in a brazen bit of corruption, Bentley appointed him to be the next Senator from Alabama once Sen. Jeff Sessions was narrowly appointed to be the next U.S. Attorney General. Anyway, on April 9th, 2017, Bentley resigned in disgrace after taking a plea deal to accept punishment of only misdemeanors and refunding money to the state to avoid jail time. Bentley's actual time as governor was filled with several embarrassing moments, such as the time he gave a speech on MLK Day in 2011, always a great opportunity for Alabama Governors to distance themselves from the shameful past it had during the era of George Wallace. Well, for whatever reason, Bentley used the speech to downplay racial division, but chose to try to start religious divisions by saying, "So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother." On immigration? Well, in September of 2011, Bentley signed HB 56 one of the more draconian anti-immigration bills in the country into law, sparking a Justice Department review... and only after a Mercedes-Benz executive got arrested under that piece of legislation did Bentley and Alabama Republicans scramble back to the drawing board to amend it to prevent it from infringing upon immigrants who weren't... y'know... not white. Bentley was staunchly anti-abortion signing harsh anti-choice legislation that aimed at closing the majority of, if not all of the abortion clinics in Alabama. Gov. Bentley was also part of the GOP's efforts to disenfranchise voters with stricter Voter ID requirements, and even moved to close DMV offices where new IDs could be acquired... predominantly in parts of Alabama where the population leans... y'know, the not-white parts of the state. Bentley’s legacy is tainted, and his career is over, so we'll move on and start profiling a different wacky Republican on this date instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 673-30, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Michael Williams

Welcome to the 677th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today, we’ll be profiling Georgia State Senator Michael E. Williams, who was elected to his first term in office back in 2014. After being the first Republican politician in Georgia to endorse uber-racist presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 elections, in 2018 elections, Williams has opted to not run for a second term in the Georgia State Senate, instead opting to aim much higher early in his career, thinking he has an outside chance at becoming the next Governor of Georgia. There are already several signs as to why that was a mortifying thought for the people of Georgia prior to the GOP Primary for that race.

Williams’ voting record is hardly encouraging, what with votes for “religious freedom” bills to allow discrimination towards LGBTQ citizens, a bill to allow adoption agencies to reject potential adoptees for “religious reasons” like their sexual orientation, his vote for a bill to legalize the concealed carry of firearms on university campuses, and of course, his vote for a bill to make English the official language of the state of Georgia, an idea that the Supreme Court has acknowledged as unconstitutional as far back as 1999.

No, our bigger concern is the four times Michael Williams has turned up on our radar during his campaign for governor. The first time he distinguished himself as being a concern was in June of 2017, when he appeared at an anti-Sharia Law rally being held in the name of paranoid Islamophobia by the anti-Muslim hate group, ACT for America, where he was more than willing to pose with the Georgia Security Force 3% Militia, who just so happen to be a hate group with dual interests, intersecting as not just rabid anti-Islamic nuts who infamously protested a mosque being built in Newton County, and also were not long prior holding a in defense of Confederate monuments. They’re a nice intersection of hate, and Williams was more than happy to pose with them for a photo where they were flashing white supremacist signs. It was only after the Southern Poverty Law Center and the media took note of their friendly little meeting that Williams’ spokesman gave the meager defense that he thought the militant racists were just “pro-gun supporters”.

So Williams went to an Anti-Islam rally and hung out with Neo-Confederates… but it’s not like he’s staunchly defending Confederate monuments himself or anyth- oh, whoops, he has, on live television, such as in August of 2017 when he was outraged at the thought of monuments being defaced, blaming it on Antifa, and falling all over himself in outrage that anyone would want to blast the face off of Stone Mountatin Georgia.

As you might expect, a guy who was comfortable chilling out with a militia group packing assault rifles might be, Williams also has quite the hard-on for guns, himself. Enough so that only a few weeks after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, that was carried out by way of using bump stocks to make the guns used fully automatic, that Michael Williams announced that he would be raffling off bump stocks at one of his campaign rallies.

And it was only three months ago that Williams went on CNN to defend his criticisms of Delta Airlines, after it decided to end a discount partnership with the NRA following the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. Williams began outright lying around this time to say that Delta was still clearly acting on partisan lines because it offered discounts to employees of Planned Parenthood. On air, anchor Brianna Keilar called him out for making an untrue statement, and he doubled down, defending his lie because he and other GOP State Senators in Georgia “looked it up on Google” and then spent a couple days arguing with Keilar on Twitter, claiming that he’d defended his statement.

As of a few days ago, Williams was trying to drum up support by touting his idea to solve our immigration crisis with a “deportation bus” that would catch, per the painted on sign on its windows, “murderers, rapists, kidnappers, child molestors, and other criminals”. Yes, because this bigot also can’t spell. And doesn’t understand that buses are quite large, slow, and would be easy for any suspected illegal immigrants to evade, but “YEEHAW, he’s gonna catch ‘em all like they’re the Pokey-mon.” In a relieving turn of events, Youtube banned Williams from using their website for violating the terms of service because hey, that's some racist s***.

The only poll we’ve seen in the GOP Primary for Governor of Georgia has Michael Williams polling at about 4%, at best in third place for the nomination. Mercifully, by this time next year, he might be out of elected office.

[PaulBullion]

Also, Manchin is probably going to lose the election, because he's a reliable vote for Republicans.

First poll after the primaries has him 13 points ahead of his GOP challenger, but you do you.