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

[Tendrin]

Crossing our fingers more will follow that lead.

What GOP senators are no on him already?

[numberthirty]

What GOP senators are no on him already?

Yeah.

Felt more like "Reply Hazy, Try Again" or "Better Not Tell You Now".

[Mecegirl]

There was recent discussion about Trump's dad's arrest in the 1920s.

Honestly, I hadn't considered that a backlash against Trump's Pocahontas comments might be informed by Trump's outrageous and ridiculous claims against Obama, in the sense that it makes his comments seem immediately suspect. There's no point to arguing from authority when it comes to Trump (IE- using the fact that he says something to justify its validity) so my understanding of Warren's background isn't based on that at all. It's based on the fact-checkers.

Your, or anyone's, understanding of Warren's background ain't got nothing to do with her policies tho. It also doesn't explain why Trump keeps bringing it up instead of what he doesn't like about her policy positions.

The idea that Trump's dad might be in the KKK isn't what I meant by heritage...But sure let's roll with it. Considering that Trump himself holds racist views,and those racist views do effect his policies, digging into what his father may have done would explain how he attained said racist views.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Democrats Line Up Against Supreme Court Pick Brett Kavanaugh: ‘He Can’t Be Trusted’

“President Trump has put reproductive rights and freedoms and health care protections for millions of Americans on the judicial chopping block.” Meanwhile....

**********

Mitch McConnell To Democrats: Treat Trump’s SCOTUS Pick ‘Fairly’

This is the same guy who denied a hearing and a vote to President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's funny, Mitch! You should do stand-up! You're a natural!

**********

California Prosecutor Suspended After Vile Attack On Maxine Waters

“You would think someone would have shot this b***h by now,” one Facebook comment from his account read. That guy (the prosecutor) should've been fired.

**********

Judge Rejects Trump Administration’s Plan To Allow Long-Term Detention Of Migrant Kids

She turned down a motion to suspend a requirement of the Flores settlement to allow the government to keep kids in detention alongside their parents. Back to you, Dolt45.

**********

Moron Harangues Woman In Park For Wearing Puerto Rico Shirt In America

Cook County officer who did nothing as confrontation continued is being investigated. This whole business is revolting. More of Trump's xenophobia at work.

[Tendrin]

My prediction is that Murkowski and Collins will vote for him after he assures them he 'values precedent'. Roe won't get overturned directly, but the GOP will continue making it all but impossible to get an abortion, and we will lose the Supreme Court for 20-30 years and there will be no switch in time that'll save nine this time.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

More of the heinous effect of Trump's toxic xenophobia at work:

91-year-old man beaten with brick, told 'go back to your own country'

Tears glistened on the black and purple bruises covering 91-year-old Rodolfo Rodriguez's face as he described being attacked by a group of people while going for a walk on the Fourth of July.

"I can't walk anymore," Rodriguez said in Spanish. "I'm in so much pain."

He'll be turning 92 in September, Rodriguez said, and he's never been hurt like this before, in a life working the fields with cattle and corn.

Rodriguez said he was walking to a nearby park on Wednesday when he passed a woman and a little girl. Without warning, the woman assaulted him, he said, hitting him with a concrete block and enlisting a group of men to join in beating him.

"I didn't even bump into her kid," Rodriguez said. "I just passed her and she pushed me and she hit me until she was done."

Misbel Borjas was driving by when she saw the woman hitting Rodriguez repeatedly in the head with a concrete block, she said.

"I heard her saying, go back to your country, go back to Mexico," she told CNN by phone. "When I tried to videotape her with my cell phone, she threw that same concrete block, tried to hit my car."

Police are looking for the woman and four men seen in Borjas' video, Robinson told KTLA.

So, let's recap: a woman and four men ganged up on a NINETY-TWO year old man and beat him senseless while that deranged bitch said "Go back to your country, go back to Mexico". As it is, it's a miracle that poor man wasn't killed, given his age and the severity of the attack. Now, I want all the Trump lovers in this forum to justify this madness if you can, because his overt hatred of minorities, especially Hispanics, and near endless rhetoric demonizing them at almost every turn was certainly a factor behind this brutal and monstrous attack. I don't even want to consider the likelihood that Trump's campaign of hate against Hispanics might well have put a bullseye on their backs, giving lunatics like that woman an excuse to attack people with brown skin for no good reason. This makes me worry that one day, I might be walking down a street, minding my own business when I'm suddenly bushwhacked by some racist fuckwad who shouts at me, "Go back to your country, go back to Africa!" If anyone thinks that can't happen, you're either naïve or delusional.

[aja_christopher]

This whole post makes me wonder why you even come into this thread.

The argument that "Obama should have reached across the aisle more" speaks volumes about the level of rhetorical disconnect here -- had Obama tried to reach any further across the aisle during his tenure, he would have had to re-register himself as a Republican while still in office.



McConnell said it himself: the Republican goal from the start was to make Obama a one-term president -- not to engage in "bipartisanship".

Meanwhile, our current "president" continues to support dictators and despots over American ideals, while the Republicans for the most part continue to look the other way and pretend that it isn't happening -- many seem more concerned that Hillary might run again than that the head Republican in office is using the power of the presidency to help Putin achieve his goals.

At what point do the Republicans in power put a stop to this kind of behavior -- before or after the Russians help them to steal another election?

The answer is in the question: they won't because apparently many seem to think that betraying the values of America is fine, so long as it helps your party win in the end.

-----
"During a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, President Donald Trump reportedly sought to ease Putin's concerns that White House officials were trying to block a conversation between the two.

After Putin mentioned that White House officials were trying to interfere, a person with direct knowledge of the conversation said that Trump told to Putin, "Those are stupid people; you shouldn't listen to them," The New York Times reported Monday.

At the time, Trump ignored his national security advisers and congratulated Putin on what was widely believed to be a sham reelection victory. Trump had received a briefing with the instruction, "DO NOT CONGRATULATE."

Trump had also invited Putin to the White House, which would be the first such visit since 2005, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said to Russian journalists in April.

Trump has long admired Putin, and believes the US and Russia can be allies, according to multiple reports on his attitude toward Putin and his regime. The news about Trump's interaction with Putin comes ahead of a scheduled NATO summit in Brussels on Tuesday, and a planned one-on-one meeting with Putin in Finland next week.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia described Trump's desire to make nice with Russia as "very problematic."

"This administration seems to treat our allies as adversaries, and treat our adversaries, or potential adversaries, like their friends," Warner said to CNN on Monday. "[Trump] doesn't at least seem to reflect that what we share in common with our NATO allies is not only a common defense alliance, but we have a shared belief in rule of law. We have a shared belief in democracy."

"Mr. Putin represents none of those values," Warner said. "Yet you see out of the president, constant acclaim."

In addition to straining ties with NATO countries, Trump floated the idea of allowing Russia back into the Group of 7. In 2014, Russia's membership in what was formerly the G8 was revoked after it annexed Crimea.

"Russia should be in this meeting," Trump said in June. "They should let Russia come back in, because we should have Russia at the negotiating table."

This approach to diplomacy with Russia has foreign policy experts worried, particularly after Russia still stands accused of meddling with the 2016 US presidential election and being suspected of carrying out a deadly nerve-agent attack in the UK.

"In normal times, a president of the United States would rally the allies, develop a unified approach, and go with a strengthened hand to negotiations with the president of Russia, rather than reducing his own leverage" former NATO deputy secretary general Alexander Vershbow said to The Times.

SEE ALSO: Trump reportedly gave out his personal cell phone number to world leaders and US officials 'had no idea' he was making calls..."


http://www.businessinsider.com/trump...-stupid-2018-7

[aja_christopher]

Let it be known -- America will not go down without a fight.

-----
"Judge rejects Trump request to alter agreement on release of immigrant kids"

"A federal judge has turned down President Donald Trump's request to alter a decades-old legal settlement to allow long-term detention of children who entered the U.S. illegally with their parents.

Los Angeles-based U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee dismissed as "tortured" the Trump administration's legal argument to get out from under the so-called Flores consent decree agreed to in 1997, dictating that children in immigration detention not be held more than 20 days...

At a hearing in the San Diego case Monday, Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian said the federal government is likely to have only about half the young children separated under the former Trump policy reunited with their parents by a court-ordered deadline Tuesday. She said 102 children under 5 years old were separated and 54 of them should be reunited by Tuesday. The judge in that case, Dana Sabraw, set another hearing for Tuesday to get explanations for why the remainder of the children couldn't be returned on time.

Sabraw has ordered older children reunited with their parents by July 26."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...hildren-704019

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Some GOOD news for a change: Just got an alert saying ALL those Thai kids and their coach have been rescued from that cave.

[worstblogever]

Trump baby blimp is 'biggest ever insult to a sitting president', Nigel Farage claims

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsl...ims/ar-AAzEMlw


"Nigel Farage has branded plans to let an "angry baby" Trump blimp fly over London during his forthcoming visit "the biggest insult to a sitting US president ever".

Meanwhile, in Germany...

[worstblogever]

Two years ago today, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Robert Hurt, who served three terms in office after riding the 2010 Tea Party Wave to Congress to represent Virginia’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hurt fit the mold of a lot of Republicans, believing that life begins at conception (he voted consistently for anti-choice legislation, including both GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood), while still being "pro-life" enough to want to put criminals to death. He was counter-productive enough to our country functioning to see him vote against raising the debt ceiling, and to vote not just for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the time came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. On immigration, he was far enough to the right to back Arizona's SB1070 law that allowed for racial profiling of "suspected illegal immigrants", and wanted marriage defined as being between one man and one woman. Perhaps his most disturbing policy stance, though, was on climate change, where Hurt expressed his belief that there was a "Climategate", and that climatologists are purposely selling the populace a false bill of goods on their studies. Of course, lying about the other side of a debate's true intent in the worst ways truly became Robert Hurt's calling card after President Obama spoke following the mass shooting in San Bernadino, California, calling for Americans to treat Muslims with respect, because two members of their faith should not be representative of our opinions of an entire religion (similar to remarks President Bush made in the wake of 9/11). Rep. Hurt, however, got on conservative talk radio to gripe about it, misrepresenting those remarks to claim that President Obama "is more concerned with the premise that America is 'racist' than fighting terrorism". He retired after three terms in office.

One year ago today, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Vicki Dooling, a one-term Nevada Assemblywoman who found her way into office in the 2014 elections that were very kind to the GOP, winning an upset in a district that normally leans Democratic, near Las Vegas, making a campaign promise to “help repeal the ACA”, which showed a fundamental lack of understanding of basic civics in our country because state legislators can’t overturn a federal law. Where Vicki Dooling stood out in particular to us was her sudden interest in the issue of public bathroom usage by transgendered citizens, which led her in March of 2015 to sponsor AB 375, an attempt on limiting citizens to using the bathrooms of the “biological condition of being male or female as determined at birth based on physical differences or, if necessary, at the chromosomal level.” Dooling didn’t campaign on that, heck, she didn’t even WRITE that bill, she submitted it on behalf of an out-of-state lobbyist, one Karen England of California, who has her own long, long history of dedicated attempts at curtailing LGBT rights. Now, this might come as shocking, but the city of Las Vegas itself isn’t exactly the place to start picking a fight with LGBT citizens, and Dooling might have realized she bet on a losing horse, since she wouldn’t be interviewed by most media outlets about AB 375 after she dropped it on the floor of the Nevada Assembly like the putrid turd of a bill that it was. She did, however, try to rally her cause in a space friendlier to her, with reporters from the Christian Examiner, saying, "Parents are coming to me, very concerned about the safety of all students, safety from the bullying that goes on no matter how we try to stop it, safety from all issues. Every kid needs that safety. We want all kids to have the same rights." Look, the fact that Dooling not only submitted this bill, but then tried defending it because parents are concerned about “bullying”… who do you THINK is typically bullied, Vicki, if not the transgendered kids? For f***’s sake… The bill failed to advance in the Nevada Assembly on April 21st, 2015, even after Karen England herself showed up from out of state to argue in favor of it on Dooling’s behalf. Well, that and Dooling’s attempt to read into the record a letter from an “unnamed physician” who may or may not have been a doctor, and may or may not have had the same handwriting as Vicki Dooling. We’ll see if she changes her mind and makes another run for office at some point in the future, but for now, Nevada seems like they’ll be better off without her representing District 41.

[worstblogever]

It was three years ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile about former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whose endless wave of “clueless rich guy” gaffes in the 2012 campaign just kept coming at a rapid fire pace only equaled perhaps by his staggering ability to act like fact-checkers weren’t paying attention, and take being mendacious while running for national office to a whole new level (at least, until he got upped by the 2016 GOP standard bearer). Whether it was his comments about “the 47 percent”, that “Corporations are people, my friend”, the revelation that he and his wife took a $77,000 tax-write off on a prancing show horse named “Rafalca”, talking about going on a road trip with his dog strapped to the roof of a car in a carrier, admitting he was “not concerned about the very poor”, that Michigan’s “trees being just the right height”, feuding with British politicians about their preparations for the London Olympics, or arguing with the CEO of Jeep-Chrysler about whether or not he was closing one of his company’s own Ohio factories… Mitt was especially full of it. Trying to lie about President Obama’s remarks following the attacks in Benghazi as “an act of terror” in a debate, of course, led to the legendary, “Please proceed…” moment, to let Mitt lose the last gasp of momentum he was trying to snag going into the election. And of course, there was the legendary election night where Mitt and his family stood dumbfounded as the election results came in and they lost, because they actually had staffers “unskewing” the polls, internally, and was forced to throw together a concession speech, because he hadn’t prepared one.

Mitt Romney supposedly had retired from politics but tipped his hand that he was coming back into the fray upon the announcement that Sen. Orrin Hatch was finally going to retire when his “location” on Twitter changed back to Utah (classic carpetbagging move) in January of 2018, one of the several places around the country where Romney has a home. Six weeks later, Romney made it official and announced he was in the race. Now, we’ll note that publicly, Mitt Romney has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump as a member of the GOP, going all the way back to March of 2016. He’s not shy about saying he’s going to serve as a check on Trump’s power, and fill a much needed void in the leadership of the Republican Party standing up to Trump.

Uh huh. Mitt already tried pretending during the primary for Senate that he was more of a hawk than Donald Trump on immigration. Unless Mitt believes in not just locking asylum-seeking kids in cages, but poking them with sharp sticks through the bars, that seems like another Mitt campaign lie. And for “standing up” to Trump, Romney’s already predicted a Trump win in 2020.

We’ve already covered, at length, Mitt Romney’s willingness to tell lies. He’s going to verbally say things like that, and when the time comes to vote for Supreme Court justices who might overturn Roe v. Wade, or votes to try and make tax breaks for the richest Americans permanent, he’s still going to vote for them, no questions asked. If you think the guy who made Romneycare in Massachusetts a thing will help save the Affordable Care Act nationally, don’t be so sure, after Mitt spent the 2012 campaign pretending it didn’t exist. And, every time Romney comes in and tries to lecture Donald Trump on his immorality, YET he comes off more like Ned Flanders trying to give the business to Homer Simpson. Rather than win over Republican voters and make them wake up to Trump’s cruelty, he somehow makes them only love the bastard even more. Can Mitt stand up to a bully that he publicly got humiliated by for applying for being a member of his cabinet only to be shunned? We saw the awkward dinner photos, Mitt, you don’t exactly look like you’re making Trump squirm there, quite the opposite. At best, he’ll talk about how disappointed he is when Trump uses foul language like “s***hole countries” and that’s something Mitt can’t take as a Mormon, no sir.

Mitt Romney’s legend in Utah was more than enough to allow him to defeat GOP state legislator Mike Kennedy in the 2018 Primary for U.S. Senate, winning by almost 50 points. He’s not going to save the Republican Party from itself. He failed to help it course correct as their standard-bearer in 2012, when he was willing to make Birther jokes himself. He’s too square to be hip. Be ready more for him to embarrass himself than save the day.

[aja_christopher]

"Behind President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on European allies is a deeper neglect of the transatlantic relationship: Unfilled positions, truncated meetings, missed or crossed signals and confusion over basic policies. Aides to the U.S. president insist that Trump’s disputes with Europe are part of a long history disagreements between leaders who, in the end, are inextricably bound together by deeper shared interests and values. Churchill and Roosevelt. Johnson and de Gaulle. Kohl and Reagan. Each relationship had frictions and stumbles, only to yield to a stronger Western alliance.

But as they braced for Trump to barrel into Europe this week with visits to NATO and Britain and a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, senior officials from more than a dozen countries, most of them steeped in decades of experience with the transatlantic relationship, insisted that the breaches under this administration go well beyond the types of policy disagreements of the past. They spoke to POLITICO largely on condition of anonymity out of fear of worsening the situation, or re-directing Trump’s ire at their own capitals, which each have different interests and priorities in Washington. Despite those differences, they voiced a consistent message of concern: pointing less to Trump’s rhetoric than to a more organic breach of collaboration, a collapse of institutions and, most worrisome them, the obliteration of any sense of predictability.

For instance, for more than a year and a half into a four-year term, dozens of positions crucial to the transatlantic relationship remained vacant, leaving their European counterparts stranded and grasping for interlocutors, on everything from trade policy to Russian sanctions. One senior American diplomat in Brussels said European officials, desperate for lines of communication — and thrown off balance by the churn in the White House — had pleaded for more visits by members of Congress, especially Republicans.

Only at the end of June did the Senate finally confirm Gordon Sondland, a hotel magnate and longtime Republican Party fundraiser, as ambassador to the EU and he just took up the post on Monday. The most prominent envoy Trump has sent — Richard Grenell in Germany — has stirred controversy by seeming to threaten to meddle in European politics, telling the right-wing news site Breitbart: “I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders."

Several key European ambassadorships remain unfilled, including in Ireland, which is at the center of the sensitive negotiations over Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, and Poland, which is in a fierce battle with Brussels over alleged rule-of-law violations. This month, Trump finally nominated an ambassador to Albania, days after a crucial EU summit where leaders decided to postpone membership talks with the strategic Balkan nation for at least a year.

Trump has still not appointed U.S. envoys to numerous United Nations institutions in Europe, nor to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has a crucial role monitoring the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador in Estonia, a career diplomat, announced he was retiring, partly in response to Trump's negative comments about the EU. The disarray has had a direct effect on the delicate process of setting agendas for transatlantic meetings – some of which, such as a NATO leaders’ meeting in 2017, were foreshortened for lack of an agenda – and others, like the recent disastrous G-7 summit in Quebec, collapsed for what many Europeans regarded as the inability of any of Trump’s aides and advisers to make policy commitments on behalf of the president ahead of such conclaves...

Now, after 18 months of trying — and failing — to flatter, cajole, and convince Trump that Europe and the U.S. are still on the same side, European leaders say they have all but given up. They had tried to distract Trump with ceremony, even altered the formats and discussions of international summits to adjust for his limited patience and infamously short attention span, only to see Trump step up his rhetorical attacks on the EU, escalate his belligerent trade policies, and even intercede aggressively in their domestic politics.

As Trump prepares to barnstorm into Europe for the NATO summit, a state visit to Britain and a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, European leaders have adopted a new strategy, hoping to contain conflicts and wait Trump out.

Now, even as the Europeans try to avoid further blow-ups, they are eagerly pursuing policies that stand to rewrite the international order but in ways that undercut American leadership rather than reinforce it..."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...n-putin-706138

[GindyPosts]

This whole post makes me wonder why you even come into this thread.

"We don't want immigrants because immigrants will vote for the other guys" is pretty dumb justification for tightened border security. Ironically, that's the same logic preventing the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico from attaining statehood while encouraging Texas & California to break up.

[worstblogever]

Oh, by the by, CSGOPOTD just hit its fourth anniversary, so there's that.