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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Honestly I feel like the biggest reason for Democrats not to get dragged too far into Stormy Daniels is that GOP and the trump base don't care. And Democrats and independents already knew trump was sleazy. We all saw the Access Hollywood Tape. We heard the accounts of the Miss universe pageant dressing room perving etc. He was married and cheated on his wives we knew that. He supported an accused pedophile for god sake in Alabama. All of that would have utterly destroyed anyone else. If Obama had been married more than once or had credible affair rumors he wouldnt have even been elected. That stuff bounces off trump. It's news worthy, it goes to defining his duplicity, and character faults but that's it.

If anything, people actually APPRECIATE those faults in Trump. By their warped reasoning, those flaws make him out to be a regular Joe in their eyes, even if Trump wouldn't so much as piss on a regular Joe if he were on fire. Yeah, focusing on the sleazy stuff is a nonstarter, Republicans will continue to defend Trump because they need him to stay in power, and his supporters will follow him off a cliff, so nothing will change on that front.

[kidfresh512]

If anything, people actually APPRECIATE those faults in Trump. By their warped reasoning, those flaws make him out to be a regular Joe in their eyes, even if Trump wouldn't so much as piss on a regular Joe if he were on fire. Yeah, focusing on the sleazy stuff is a nonstarter, Republicans will continue to defend Trump because they need him to stay in power, and his supporters will follow him off a cliff, so nothing will change on that front.

They figure if they can get another Right wing Supreme court judge or 2 plant seeds to end abortion and other "evils" in the future then it was worth it to lie in the mud with trump. All the racist, sexist, chaos, abuse of power, pissing off our allies. Emboldening Russia, letting China and Russia slide into the leadership gaps we give up on the world stage. Is a great tradeoff in the end

The trump supporters i have to listen too at work who just suddenly think what people do in their bedrooms is their business. Its hilarious. The gay marriage debate it was all MORALITY, the bible! SIN. But adultery now, sex scandal cover ups...oh who cares that's private between he and Melania!

[aja_christopher]

More sanctions coming:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/polit...ing/index.html

And so are those tax returns Trump promised to release after they were done being "audited".

As always with taking the Trump administration at it's word -- let's just wait and see what happens.

Meanwhile, your chosen leader is taking us to "war" with the EU and other nations in a move even other Republicans deem as both unnecessary and foolish.

-----
"Trump’s Top Intelligence Officials Contradict Him on Russian Meddling"

"The country’s leading intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia intends to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections. But they wouldn’t discuss in an open setting what the U.S. intelligence community is doing to stop it—or how it could be combatted without the support of the White House.

“There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations,” Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, said during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual worldwide-threats hearing on Tuesday.

“We have seen Russian activity and intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle,” CIA Director Mike Pompeo said later. Other top intelligence officials, including the FBI Director Chris Wray, agreed.

The director of the National Security Agency, Mike Rogers, emphasized that steps should be taken “to ensure the American people that their vote is sanctioned and not manipulated in any way,” and Coats advocated for as much transparency as possible.

“We need to inform the American public that this is real … and that we are not going to allow some Russian to tell us how we’re going to vote,” Coats said. “There needs to be a national cry for that.”

That national cry, however, won’t begin with the intelligence community and is unlikely to emanate from the White House. According to Wray, Trump has shown little if any interest in disrupting Russian election interference in 2018 and beyond. His administration declined to implement new sanctions on Russia earlier this month that were aimed at punishing Moscow for its meddling in 2016 and deterring Putin from trying again.

Trump signed a new sanctions bill into law last summer only reluctantly, calling the legislation “seriously flawed” and complaining that it “encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate." He’s called the Russia investigation a “Democrat hoax” even as his own appointees—including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who warned just last week that the U.S. is ill-prepared to deal with future attacks by Russia on our elections—have continued to raise alarms about Moscow’s ongoing interference.

General Michael Hayden, the former head of both the CIA and NSA, said it makes “all the difference in the world” whether or not the president shows interest in, and a commitment to, deterring the Russian interference.

John Sipher, a former chief of station for the CIA who served for 28 years in Russia, Europe, and Asia, told me that the intelligence community will continue to be focused on Russia’s threat “no matter what the White House says or doesn’t say.

Ultimately, though, it will be up to Trump to implement meaningful changes."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...ctions/553256/

[Iron Maiden]

Re: Russian sanctions. Trump is truly an f***ing moron

Honestly I'd rather Democrats protect my rights to play whatever video games I want as well as pushing Trump on the serious issues. Instead of worrying about Trump's nailing a porn star he paid off.

Agreed. The post above mine is what should make people examine why they should ever vote Trump again even for dog catcher.

It was only important when they didn't know if she was paid off with campaign funds but Cohen is the one left holding the bag on that 130 thousand. Grifter that he is, it's been said that Trump hasn't paid him back yet.

And it also once again proves the rampant hypocrisy in politics but in this election cycle, the GOP are the champs. It's really laugable that all these Bible thumpers look the other way.

[kidfresh512]

A Quiet Exodus: Why Blacks Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches

I found this article very illuminating in terms of the tangible, actual effects that the Evangelicals are seeing. In the overt support of trump despite the depth of his lack of character.
the overt racism, hate, pandering to the worst of alt right.

The kind of willful ignoring of racial issues inside these churches, that are holding them back from greater integration. The strange acceptance of trump regardless that his actions and words should be anathema to a follower of the Bible as I understand it.

[Joker]

I heard an interview on NPR the other day with a life long democrat, who's now a full on Trump supporter.

She's out trying to convert anyone who will listen. She's, I mean, apparently a life long democrat, but it boiled down to immigration. She just wants all the immigrants out. Dreamers need to go back where they come from. She didn't sound much like a democrat, to me.

It was really disgusting. I had to turn it off after a few minutes, honestly.

[TheInvisibleMan]

I heard an interview on NPR the other day with a life long democrat, who's now a full on Trump supporter.

She's out trying to convert anyone who will listen. She's, I mean, apparently a life long democrat, but it boiled down to immigration. She just wants all the immigrants out. Dreamers need to go back where they come from. She didn't sound much like a democrat, to me.

It was really disgusting. I had to turn it off after a few minutes, honestly.

im seeing a lot of people one would consider left or left of center and they have a really hard stance on immigration, DACA, the wall

I find it odd

especially the ones that are like "no path to citizenship for anyone...just kick them all out"

[Joker]

Yeah, I don't get it. This was my first real exposure to that stance from a supposed "democrat".

I mean, I've seen the people that voted Trump simply because they hated Hilary for whatever reason.
I've seen the super hard core anti-immigration folks, but hadn't yet seen someone become a republican because of it.

It's pretty gross, to be honest. I mean, not even factoring in the fact that her family were immigrants.

Just some old white lady hating on brown folks for being brown.

[Tami]

im seeing a lot of people one would consider left or left of center and they have a really hard stance on immigration, DACA, the wall

I find it odd

especially the ones that are like "no path to citizenship for anyone...just kick them all out"

Who gave those people the keys to North America? Why do they think they own it? Most of us are just tenants who haven't paid the landlords yet.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A Quiet Exodus: Why Blacks Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches

I found this article very illuminating in terms of the tangible, actual effects that the Evangelicals are seeing. In the overt support of trump despite the depth of his lack of character.
the overt racism, hate, pandering to the worst of alt right.

The kind of willful ignoring of racial issues inside these churches, that are holding them back from greater integration. The strange acceptance of trump regardless that his actions and words should be anathema to a follower of the Bible as I understand it.

Evangelicals sold their souls for that long cherished chance at getting Roe v. Wade killed, which was what Trump promised if he were elected. To the bible thumpers, that's all they care about, it doesn't matter that Trump is a first class scumbag, as long as he could manage to make abortion illegal (any such law won't stop the practice of course, but that's neither here nor there), they'll gleefully turn a blind eye to his litany of faults. So, is it any wonder blacks want out because church leaders embraced the country's biggest racist and misogynist?

I heard an interview on NPR the other day with a life long democrat, who's now a full on Trump supporter.

She's out trying to convert anyone who will listen. She's, I mean, apparently a life long democrat, but it boiled down to immigration. She just wants all the immigrants out. Dreamers need to go back where they come from. She didn't sound much like a democrat, to me.

It was really disgusting. I had to turn it off after a few minutes, honestly.

When you take into consideration that we're ALL immigrants in one form or another, the stance of this woman is not only repulsive, but hypocritical to boot.

[PaulBullion]

They aren't just outside the stadium now, I think the goalposts have switched continents.

Pluto called and asked it it's a planet again now that #30 moved ALL the goal posts there.

[PaulBullion]

No one is claiming that there is not a potential handful out there.

He says about his own post, where he didn't just made the word "one" bigger than the other words, he gave it a flashy color, made it throb and sprayed glitter all over it on his own screen.

If there ever has been a more dishonest post been made on this thread, I have not seen it. Congratulations.

[KOSLOX]

im seeing a lot of people one would consider left or left of center and they have a really hard stance on immigration, DACA, the wall

I find it odd

especially the ones that are like "no path to citizenship for anyone...just kick them all out"

Really? I've never confused being generally progressive with being completely anti-racist. I've seen too many conditional "allies" to believe that.

Lots and lots of people talk a good game until you're buying a house in *their* neighborhoods or dating their children.

[Joker]

That **** doesn't surprise me. I've had to call out friends for saying super racist ****. They didn't think it was racist, because they thought it was true, ya know?

Like, "look at that group of young black men over there... you know they're up to no good." Which wasn't racist to them, because they knew they were up to no good. They were just stating facts.

It blew my mind the first time.

[Jack Dracula]

Who gave those people the keys to North America? Why do they think they own it? Most of us are just tenants who haven't paid the landlords yet.

Practically all of us are the direct result of chain migration.