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

[Tazirai]

smh

[numberthirty]

Figured as much.

Study: Hillary Clinton Ran One of the Worst Campaigns in Years

A new study by the Wesleyan Media Project has found that the 2016 presidential campaign run by Hillary Clinton is without a doubt one of the worst-run political operations in years.

Interestingly, the directors of the study dispute the argument that “advertising doesn’t matter” in elections. Clinton’s failure to advertise in certain key states, they argue, was the biggest reason for her defeat by Donald Trump.

The study also backs the view that Clinton’s focus on identity politics and emphasis on condemning her opposition contributed to a campaign message devoid of substance with no clear message on policy.

https://heatst.com/politics/study-hi...igns-in-years/

Well, yeah...

You didn't really need a study to see that.

[Kevinroc]

https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/839665918754099200

"Trump told Tea Party groups at WH if GOP health care plan dies, he will let Obamacare fail and let Dems take the blame, I'm told."

Trump is a moron. But his base is so stupid they'd actually believe him.

[numberthirty]

I certainly do find myself wondering exactly what goes through this guy's head when he's just having a ham sandwich at home alone.

A gentle breeze?

Quite possibly.

I just find this particular guy a very interesting question mark. While I think I have an idea why many of the other players are actually in the game, I'm just about baffled when it comes to him.

[jeanvaljean]

Two big developments in the Russiagate scandal:

An associate of an ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort is suspected of connections to Russian intelligence.

U.S. and Ukrainian authorities have expressed interest in the activities of a Kiev-based operative with suspected ties to Russian intelligence who consulted regularly with Paul Manafort last year while Manafort was running Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The operative, Konstantin Kilimnik, came under scrutiny from officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department partly because of at least two trips he took to the U.S. during the presidential campaign, according to three international political operatives familiar with the agencies’ interest in Kilimnik.

And... boom:
Roger Stone communicated directly with "Guccifer 2.0"

MARCH 8--In the months before Election Day, a longtime confidante and political consultant for Donald Trump was in contact with the Russian hacking group that U.S. intelligence officials have accused of illegally breaching the Democratic National Committee’s computer system and the e-mail accounts of Hillary Clinton campaign officials in a bid to aid Trump, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The contact between Roger Stone, the Trump associate, and the Russian influence operation came via private messages exchanged on Twitter, according to a source. Stone’s contact was with “Guccifer 2.0,” an online persona that U.S. officials say was created by Russian government officials to distribute and publicize material stolen during hacks of the DNC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Gmail accounts used by Clinton staffers like John Podesta, the campaign's chairman

[worstblogever]

And... boom:
Roger Stone communicated directly with "Guccifer 2.0"

It's officially Watergate 2.0, then... but it's worse. While the original Watergate saw Nixon's "Dirty Tricks" team break into the DNC for a burglary to steal information then try and pay for a cover-up...
Version 2.0 features a gang of incompetents work in tandem with a HOSTILE FOREIGN NATION to us to instead hack into the DNC and steal information and then blunder about trying to cover it up.


It's not a question of if impeachment is coming, but when all the evidence is concrete and conclusive enough that they're going to prison for it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Quite possibly.

I just find this particular guy a very interesting question mark. While I think I have an idea why many of the other players are actually in the game, I'm just about baffled when it comes to him.

Perhaps because Dr. Don't Know is a loyal drone who'll politely nod and say "Yes, massah! Whatever you say, massah!" to Trump and won't disobey him. Just a guess.

**********

Jeff Sessions Likely Met Russian Ambassador A Third Time

The attorney general initially denied any contact with the Russians, then later admitted to just two meetings. My, my! What a sneaky bastard.

**********

E.P.A. Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics

These assholes are going to kill us all. Slowly.

**********

GOP House Chair Tells Sean Spicer To Mind His Own Business On Obamacare Repeal

“I would encourage Mr. Spicer if he’s going to start talking about my business to give me a darn call.” Ooooooh! I can feel the tension in the air!

**********

How To Lose Your ‘Presidential Pivot’ In Seven Days

A week ago, the media praised Donald Trump for being a changed man. He spent the next seven days changing back. That's because Trump can't suppress being a dickhead. He can't help himself.

[worstblogever]

On this date in both 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Ritch Workman, from the Florida House of Representatives, who was once featured on The Colbert Report because of his dedication to try and get the Sunshine State’s ban on dwarf-tossing lifted. He also complained that Florida’s history school textbooks featured a “pro-Islam bias” because it had 36 pages dedicated to Muslim civilizations around the world, and “sugar-coated” atrocities he feels practitioners of the religion committed that were omitted. Workman’s “smaller government” principles also have seen him vote to drug test welfare recipients and ban same sex marriage. He also would like to say he’s pro-life, which would be reflected by his extreme stance on abortion, but it’s a bit of a double standard as “pro-life” when he also supports the death penalty. Workman was busy trying to protect "family values" in 2016, by trying to prevent same-sex couples from adopting children, but his hypocrisy was exposed when he was revealed in a hack of Ashley Madison's adultery website to himself have had an account there.

Mercifully, Ritch Workman came up against term limits in 2016 and is no longer in office. We can only hope this is the last time we have to bring him up.

[Shining Trapezohedron]

Two big developments in the Russiagate scandal:

An associate of an ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort is suspected of connections to Russian intelligence.



And... boom:
Roger Stone communicated directly with "Guccifer 2.0"

I got to add to it. (thanks to Hothamboy)

And this is huge:

Per Rachael Maddow
https://youtu.be/rx2y0iyr1mQ

https://youtu.be/JXKWmlM2_Vw

Trump Campaign Changed Ukraine Platform, Lied About It

The Trump campaign went out of its way to dramatically alter the Republican Party’s official position on Ukraine—against the wishes of GOP hawks and despite senior Trump aide Paul Manafort’s insistence that they weren’t involved.

he move, first reported by The Washington Post, alienated Republicans who have made up the party’s foreign policy base for decades, and indicates that the Trump campaign has a particular interest in Ukraine, where Manafort had previously worked for a pro-Putin leader.

Manafort said on NBC’s Meet the Press this past weekend that the change in language on Ukraine “absolutely did not come from the Trump campaign.”

But this account is contradicted by four sources in the room, both for and against the language.

“Some staff from the Trump campaign came in and… came back with some language that softened the platform,” Brakey told The Daily Beast. “They didn’t intervene in the platform in most cases. But in that case they had some wisdom to say that maybe we don’t want to be calling… for very, very clear aggressive acts of war against Russia.”

“They substantively changed it,” added Washington, D.C., delegate Rachel Hoff, who was present during the meeting. “It absolutely was my understanding that it was Trump staff.”

Meanwhile, records for the meeting seem to have disappeared. A co-chair for the national security platform subcommittee told The Daily Beast that the minutes for the meeting have been discarded. The Republican National Committee had no comment when asked whether this was standard procedure for all the subcommittees.

During the meeting, pro-Cruz delegate Diana Denman proposed language that called for “providing lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine.

“They were over sitting in chairs at the side of the room,” Denman said of two men who said they working for the Trump campaign, one of whom was Gordon. “When I read my amendment, they got up and walked over and talked to the co-chairmen and they read it. That’s when I was told that it was going to be tabled.”

When the language came back up, after consultation with Trump’s staff—and in direct contradiction to Manafort’s insistence to the contrary—the section called merely for “appropriate assistance” to Ukraine.

That change in wording was particularly controversial, given Manafort’s ties to the country. Manafort has previously worked for pro-Putin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced out of the country due to popular demonstrations. Putin subsequently annexed Crimea and encouraged an ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-about-it.html


Campaign adviser changes story and now contradicts Trump, says Donald ordered Ukraine change at RNC

Donald Trump is having a very, very bad week. As reports emerge that several of his key advisers, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, met with the Russians the week of the RNC convention, one former adviser has now publicly changed his story to contradict his former boss. Members of the Trump campaign interfered with an RNC delegate proposal to attach language to the official Republican Party platform that would back Ukraine, militarily and otherwise, if Russia tried to invade. You can read the backstory here. It was the only issue the Trump campaign intervened on while delegates were voting on the party’s platform. In a July 31, 2016, interview with George Stephanopoulos, less than two weeks after the push to remove the Ukraine language, Trump said he had absolutely nothing to do with the Ukraine change.

Fast forward to today and the news that Jeff Sessions, Carter Page, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner and J.D. Gordon all met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on several occasions. Both before and after the election, including the week that the Ukraine language was changed in the RNC platform (which was curiously only days before the hacked DNC emails were released). It seems there were few members of Trump’s close circle who didn’t meet with Sergey Kislyak.

According to CNN's Jim Acosta, however, Gordon said that at the RNC he and others "advocated for the GOP platform to include language against arming Ukrainians against pro-Russian rebels" because "this was in line with Trump's views, expressed at a March national security meeting at the unfinished Trump hotel" in Washington, DC.

http://dailykos.com/story/2017/3/3/1...-change-at-RNC

So, the GOP has been forced to change their road in regards to Russia, by Pro-President Donald Putin.

Can he be put on trial for Treason yet?

KremlinGate is the gift that keeps on giving, and the GOP is helping with both hands.

[jeanvaljean]

What are they, 12??

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I got to add to it. (thanks to Hothamboy)

And this is huge:

Per Rachael Maddow
https://youtu.be/rx2y0iyr1mQ

https://youtu.be/JXKWmlM2_Vw

Trump Campaign Changed Ukraine Platform, Lied About It







http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-about-it.html


Campaign adviser changes story and now contradicts Trump, says Donald ordered Ukraine change at RNC






http://dailykos.com/story/2017/3/3/1...-change-at-RNC

So, the GOP has been forced to change their road in regards to Russia, by Pro-President Donald Putin.

Can he be put on trial for Treason yet?

KremlinGate is the gift that keeps on giving, and the GOP is helping with both hands.

Yeah, this has morphed into quite the unholy mess. I can't see how Trump and company can spin this clusterfuck in their favor.

What are they, 12??

In a word----yes.

[ImprobableQuestion]

It's not a question of if impeachment is coming, but when all the evidence is concrete and conclusive enough that they're going to prison for it.

Dude, stop. Just stop. No one is going to prison for this. No one ever will. The GOP are all criminals, they won't eat on one another.

[Tami]

Dude, stop. Just stop. No one is going to prison for this. No one ever will. The GOP are all criminals, they won't eat on one another.

There is no honor among thieves. When it gets hot enough, someone is going to cut a deal or change their tune in hopes of deflecting attention away from themselves via throwing someone else under the bus.

[JBatmanFan05]

Dude, stop. Just stop. No one is going to prison for this. No one ever will.

ImprobableQuestion, dude, stop. Just stop. You're spoiling their dreams and fantasies of the end of this "nightmare," this outrage.

[Panfoot]

ImprobableQuestion, dude, stop. Just stop. You're spoiling their dreams and fantasies of the end of this "nightmare," this outrage.

Yes, yes, everything is going just fine comrade!