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

[Tazirai]

Or ask someone who's not dead because of Obamacare.

Oh wait. You can. That's me.

Obamacare saved a buncha of people including me for a couple of years when I couldn't get it under my work.
Now the next step is to protect everybody.

[Tazirai]

The media are mocking Trump's actions at the G-7 conference, but it will play well domestically. American workers despise these trade agreements, which have devastated their lives. He could win re-election by campaigning against them and doing nothing else.

Actually, I think this will play well among his base. They will interpret it as, "Look at those foreigners trying to gang up on our President! Look at Trump bravely defying them!!"

His base of Deplorables are not deep thinkers. Sadly they make up the majority of his support. They aren't hurt by this. They look at the same picture the world does and see Trump as looking BIGLY AWESOME AND YUGE!!!
The world sees a child, his base will see leaders standing around Trump, not the other way around.

[Tazirai]

G7 conference stuff:

John McCain Tells Allies: Americans Stand With You Even If Trump Doesn’t

Justin Trudeau To Trump: Canada ‘Will Not Be Pushed Around’

Trump Threatens To End Trade With United States’ Closest Allies

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Trump: I’ll Know In 1 Minute If North Korean Talks Are Going Well By ‘My Touch, My Feel’

“That’s what I do,” he tells reporters when asked how he’ll size up Kim Jong Un. What the **** is this ****? Is Trump going to grope Kim to figure out how the talks are going? Seriously?

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Trump’s Intel Chief Warns Of Upcoming Kremlin Election Interference

While president stumps for Russia on G7. Things that make you go HMMMMMMMMMMM!

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The Trump Administration Would Rather Release A Man It Says Is A Terrorist Than Defend His Imprisonment

The government appears eager to avoid a court battle over whether a 2001 military force authorization applies to ISIS. That whole thing sounds fishy.

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ICE Deserves Every Bit Of Our Contempt

McCain may be a warhawk 100%, but he's never been one to just back American actions because we're American and dammit by default awesome.
So him doing this is a sharp rebuke against dolt 45.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

No it's totally one of those photos where your personal bias is going to shape it more. If you are already inclined to dislike Trump you see a room full of adults standing firm over a petulant child. If you already are inclined to like him, you see Trump sitting smug and relaxed in a room full of bureaucrats. It's a political Rorschach test.

[Tazirai]

You make no sense. It is a simple fact that Bernie will NOT and cannot win if he doesn't have Democratic support. There are not enough of the voting populace that will overcome Trump AND the real Democratic nominee period.

That's just reality that is not a threat. It is like voting for Jill Stein in 2016. You know she wont win. You throw your vote away. Which you have every right to do obviously. At least operate in reality and admit it. Everyone that does not vote, or throws them away for a "principal" WILL help elect trump. That's how it works.

Until that fundamental reality changes and enough people vote that we actually can have a viable third party then you get what you get. And we all loose except, the 1% maybe, white supremacists, China, and Russia.



Ending Republican control of the government should be the goal of ANYONE who is not freaking insane. Especially now that Trumpism has taken over the GOP. They all kowtow and bootlick make excuses for ever moronic move he makes until they decide to get out of office or not run for re election. Then they start speaking up.

It makes perfect sense. The Democrats cannot and will not win without former Democrats and Independents. We outnumber both parties. So no, it's not like voting for Stein. Republicans need us less, but Democrats NEED Independents to vote for them. That's just fact.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Who gives a **** about his base. They are maybe 30% of voters and did not get him elected. That was the idiots who didn't think through what a giant, corrupt, incompetent a-hole he is. And from the looks of the special elections so far, his base can't elect anybody.

When you can do whatever you want and 30% of the voting block will still come out in large numbers to support you that is power. That means you probably never lose a primary and no misstep will take you out of a race. That's a danger to whoever runs against him. It means you can never put him away truly.

If they didn't exist he wouldn't have made it out of the primaries and any one of his scandals would have ended his candidacy.

It's a combination of fervent support, a Republican Party who plays all or nothing team politics, a divided Democratic Party, an electorate where the one's who are engaged are often the most desperate and the rest are disengaged, and in all truth a misjudgment by the mainstream media about what voter cared about.

[Malvolio]

They may, but it's the neutral eye on that shot that I think about. A seated individual never looks like the stronger one in a group setting, unless they're elevated on a throne. It's emphasized in theatre, to ensure the audience's eyes play to those who are standing. Also, from left to right, because our eyes are trained to read from left to right. It's also why the WWE always traditionally puts the "face" on the left in promo shots for matches, and the heel on the right.

That's because English and most other western languages are read from left to right. But what about when the WWE went to Saudi Arabia recently, where the language is read right to left? Did they know enough to put the faces on the right and the heels on the left in their promos for that event?

[Jack Dracula]

Besides trade agreements that drag them through the mud, other thing American workers hate is porous borders. Now why is that, you ask? It's because almost everyone who crosses the border illegally is laborer, who if he can will work under the table to avoid detection by the authorities. This makes them much cheaper for Americans to hire.

Is Trump's border wall a silly idea? Sure it is. But contrast it with Hillary Clinton's dream of "a Western Hemisphere without borders."

Was Trump smart enough to think of doing that? No. It was Bannon's idea. And it just might work again in 2020.

In the 2016 election you had Hillary, with along with Slick Willie had pushed through trade agreements that blasted millions of Americans out the middle class, and who wanted to merge the United States economically with Latin America, versus Trump. Yet Hillary, the party establishment and the news media still have no clue as to why she lost. "It was Russia!" they cry. "No, wait, it was Comey!"

Instead of enjoying her remaining golden years in a retirement community, the desiccated Nancy Pelosi was even stupid enough to shut down Congress recently to defend illegal immigration, putting her weird facial tics on display in a filibuster for hours.

Yes, the Democrats are just going to double down on what got them into this mess. Watch them.

Those people who hate porous borders don't understand that all that cheap labor is what's keeping their cost of living so low. They're blinded by their fear of brown people.

NAFTA was a somewhat failed attempt to both curb the illegal immigration problem by creating opportunities in Latin America and maintain a low cost of living for people in the U.S. by taking advantage of the cheaper labor in those countries. Over time it might also have helped to stabilize some Latin-American governments because a higher standard of living for common people translates into a more educated populace, which translates, in theory, to more stable, less corrupt governments. That is, if you can prevent the emergence of an oligarchy. (I'm looking at you Russia)
Not only was NAFTA based on the principal of "a high tide raises all boats", but it was also an attempt to create a partnership like the E.U., which would convert the western continents into a economic bloc capable of influencing and countering other powerful economic blocs like OPEC. or the then emerging powerhouse that is now the Chinese economy.
What f-ed up the plan was the greed of U.S. corporations. Instead of taking the profits created from using the cheaper Mexican labor pool to create more opportunities for growth in both countries, they chose to increase returns to their investors through higher dividends and buy-backs and poured money into the tech bubble while also laying off American tech workers in favor of cheaper labor in Asia.

[kidfresh512]

It makes perfect sense. The Democrats cannot and will not win without former Democrats and Independents. We outnumber both parties. So no, it's not like voting for Stein. Republicans need us less, but Democrats NEED Independents to vote for them. That's just fact.

We are agreeing with each other in different ways here. If Bernie ran Independent as you suggest. Trump would win. We agree Democrats need progressive wing that would be tempted to vote for him and they need Independents and even moderate republicans in some states that are fed up with Trump's BS.

The point is it is LOSE LOSE for anyone but Trump if Democrats and independents who want him gone and get all GOP out infight.

Will you get single payer as long as GOP are in control of everything? NO you never will. Will we make any progress on gun control at all as long as GOP are in control? Not if the NRA who heavily pays them to halt any talk has anything to say about it.

Making democrats out to be the "enemy" is ridiculous when there is a VERY clear danger to us all. That is GOP and Trump control. If we cant all put the stupid **** aside and get behind that one truth we deserve to lose.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

When you can do whatever you want and 30% of the voting block will still come out in large numbers to support you that is power. That means you probably never lose a primary and no misstep will take you out of a race. That's a danger to whoever runs against him. It means you can never put him away truly.

If they didn't exist he wouldn't have made it out of the primaries and any one of his scandals would have ended his candidacy.

It's a combination of fervent support, a Republican Party who plays all or nothing team politics, a divided Democratic Party, an electorate where the one's who are engaged are often the most desperate and the rest are disengaged, and in all truth a misjudgment by the mainstream media about what voter cared about.

It’s like I’ve said, Republicans have looked the other way and haven’t said squat about Trump and all the crazy/stupid **** he’s done, and that’s out of fear because Dolt45’s followers are devoted to HIM, not the party and can’t afford to lose their support for that 2020 re-election bid.

[TheInvisibleMan]

It’s like I’ve said, Republicans have looked the other way and haven’t said squat about Trump and all the crazy/stupid **** he’s done, and that’s out of fear because Dolt45’s followers are devoted to HIM, not the party and can’t afford to lose their support for that 2020 re-election bid.

yupper

oh and some Parkland students called out DeVos visit there during an interview

she intruded on counseling sessions and was a general ghoul when she visited there

[Jack Dracula]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/10/politics/larry-kudlow-donald-trump-justin-trudeau/index.html"]CNN[/URL]

Wow "Special place in hell" for Trudeau? What a brilliantly sane administration we have. Putin actually attacked us and he didn't get a reservation in hell. He instead gets a no strings attached recommendation to rejoin the g8! China literally steals our intellectual property but they need to have sanctions lifted to help out their phone makers.

No reserved seat in hell there

Let's widen our perspective and take a look at that.
Thanks to it's extremely cheap labor pool and emerging middle class, China is staged to become an economic powerhouse in the next century and has been investing hundreds of billions of dollars into a trade and distribution network reaching extending throughout Asia and reaching into Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The U.S also owes over a trillion in debt to China from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, which if called in at the wrong moment, say during another recession like the 2008 collapse caused by the unethical practices of Mega Banks, it could knock the U.S. down to a second tier global credit risk.
Trump and the GOP have rolled back regulations governing banking practices in the U.S.
The Trans Pacific Partnership was designed to give the U.S. some measure of economic influence in Asia, which could've countered some of China's emerging power. Trump scrapped it claiming it was the "worst deal in American history".
Trump damages trade and political relations with our neighboring nations in the west and Europe and calls African nations "****-hole countries" while simultaneously kissing up to Russia and China. Trumps company has been setting up business deals in both of those countries over the past decade. He currently holds over 100 trademarks in China and Ivanka holds 13 with an additional 8 currently pending.
It's obvious that he only cares about advancing his own business interests. Making America Great Again was meaningless BS to rally his base here in the U.S. When it comes right down to it, he'd burn our house down if it would make him and his family a profit overseas.

But yes everyone, let's all sit around bitching about Bernie and Hillary....

[PaulBullion]

Fox & Friends host refers to Trump and Kim Jong Un as "two dictators" - Anthony Scaramucci doesn't bat an eye and keeps on talking. It's all coming together....

video here:
https://twitter.com/kathygriffin/sta...82471857061888

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A joke I saw on Facebook:

Breaking: Justify turns down invitation to the White House. Asked why, the Triple Crown winner said, “If I wanted to see a horse’s ass, I would’ve finished second.”

[worstblogever]

That's because English and most other western languages are read from left to right. But what about when the WWE went to Saudi Arabia recently, where the language is read right to left? Did they know enough to put the faces on the right and the heels on the left in their promos for that event?

Everything I know about Vince McMahon being clueless about a great many things says the answer to that question is absolutely "no".