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

[PaulBullion]

It's SO MINDBOGGLING how they can pretend that NK is something other than an oppressive shithole from which no one escapes, unscarred...

It's a whole new horseshoe, with them and Trump seeing the beautiful sides to North Korea.

[PaulBullion]

The Glenn Greenwald left, ladies and gentlemen.

I don't watch Tucker Carlson's show, so I don't get exposed to Greenwald much.

[PaulBullion]

AP: Trump 2020 working with ex-Cambridge Analytica staffers

Go with what worked in the past, I guess.

A company run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm brought down by a scandal over how it obtained Facebook users’ private data, has quietly been working for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort, The Associated Press has learned.

The AP confirmed that at least four former Cambridge Analytica employees are affiliated with Data Propria, a new company specializing in voter and consumer targeting work similar to Cambridge Analytica’s efforts before its collapse. The company’s former head of product, Matt Oczkowski, leads the new firm, which also includes Cambridge Analytica’s former chief data scientist.

Fun game: Pronounce "Data Propria" with a Russian accent.

[numberthirty]

Still not even sure what to think about this one.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Christian Leaders To Jeff Sessions: The Bible Does Not Justify Separating Families

“It goes against pretty much the entire Bible in the ethos of Jesus, and it’s deeply un-Christian.” Good to see Christian leaders slam the Krooked Keebler Elf for what he said.

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Donald Trump Really Wishes He Were A Dictator

Trump can’t stop gushing over the obsequious treatment North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gets in his country. Once again, with feeling, boys and girls....but, her emails! I want Trump lovers in this forum (JBatmanFan, come on down!) to justify this absolutely abhorrent behavior from the President of the United States!

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2,000 Kids Separated From Parents Under Trump Border Crackdown

The Trump administration is under intense scrutiny over its current “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal border-crossing. Scrutiny? There should be screaming and shouting and ranting and raving over this barbaric practice. Meanwhile....

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The United States’ Long History Of Separating Families Of Color

The disturbing practice is as old as slavery. And disgusting as well.

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EPA Moves To Replace Obama-Era Rule Protecting Drinking Water For 117 Million

Scott Pruitt revoked the Clean Water Rule, which clarified what bodies of water could be federally protected, last year. Pardon me for sounding dense, but exactly what the flying fuck is the Environmental PROTECTION Agency protecting?

[PaulBullion]

One thing these internal documents show very clearly is that *of course* this is a new policy intentionally undertaken by the Trump admin. It's actually called the "prosecution initiative."

https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/stat...33813064228866

[worstblogever]

Well according to a news article from ABC today , Republicans and Democrats did agree on one thing. The separation of children from families and being thrown in a warehouse HAS TO END NOW. Republicans want a bill passed to end it and Trump at 1st refused being an idiot as he said that the bill would be too moderate. But hours later after being told he was being a colossal moron , changed his mind and will sign a bill if it gets there.

As much as the Evangelical wing of the GOP were willing to turn a blind eye to Trump's adultery, boasting about sexual assault, peeping on teen beauty pageant contestants, running a hoax charity, foul language, and general incompetence in all Biblical matters... the separation of migrant families is FINALLY the straw that's breaking their back. I saw Franklin Graham is even demanding a stop to the practice, and if there ever is a Kool-Aid drinker among the Prosperity Jesus folks... well, he'd be one.

[worstblogever]

It was three years ago we shared our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Henry Rayhons, who after racking up an impressive record as a staunch social conservative, hit the news wire with a story that made people feel a little more uncomfortable watching “The Notebook”. See, Rayhons’ wife was convalescing with dementia in a local nursing home, and after multiple advisements for him to not continue a sexual relationship with his wife because she would be too confused to consent (including having her doctor force Mr. Rayhons to sign a waiver that he understood that ship had sailed), Rayhons still went ahead and gave his wife a conjugal visit, and was reported for it by her roommate to staff. He was acquitted after an emotionally grueling trial, but it’s pretty hard to continue a political career after a news story like that. As such, we’ll just deem it as still “the most depressing episode of Law & Order: SVU ever”.


In both 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the current U.S. House Representative from Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District, Frank Lucas, who in 2013, floated his own paranoid bit of fiction when in a radio interview, he claimed that the Obama administration was “leading a conspiracy to buy up all the bullets so they’re not available to us”. At the point Rep. Lucas was wetting his pants at the thought of this sinister takeover, the theory had already been debunked not just by the administration, but by the NRA (who you’d think would be the first to cry foul). Lucas was not content just to push this as a theory, actually trying to legislate based off of it to ban any federal agency outside of the Pentagon from buying ammunition (it didn’t pass, because, y’know, crazy talk). That was, of course, when he wasn't working supporters up into a lather on his own website about "the truth about Benghazi" for years after the attack took place.

Anyway, Lucas found his way into office in a special election prior to the 1994 mid-terms to replace Glenn English, and his upset victory for the GOP was considered to be a sign of the "Red Wave" to come in the '94 mid-terms. And, for the past 23 years, as his district has been gerrymandered to be more and more conservative (currently it sits at a “mere” +26 Republican lean), he's grown bolder and bolder in his conservative agenda, having voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, a constitutional amendment to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act (which repeals key parts of the Glass-Steagall Financial Regulation Act, and opened the door for big banks to create the 2007 Sub-Prime Mortgage Housing Crisis), the Iraq War Resolution, the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, and was a co-sponsor for a bill to create a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in 2006. Through most of the past decade, he’s voted against the Equal Pay Bill, the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, denying health insurance to millions of children, against ENDA (allowing the continued discrimination of LGBT citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace), against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBT citizens against Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, against increased regulations on offshore oil rigs after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and against the DREAM Act, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". He has twice voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against the new version of the Violence Against Women Act, voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown and after 16 days, voted to keep the government closed. He’s also repeatedly voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, voted to try and stop Syrian Refugees from being resettled in our country, and voted to try and prevent the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty from being enacted because… well, conspiracy theories, I suppose.

This past year, Lucas didn’t just ignore scientific experts on climate change, but dismissed a World Health Organization report linking pesticides made by the manufacturer Monsanto, such as Roundup, as causing higher risk for cancer, calling it “shoddy work”. Big surprise, he receives donations to his campaign coffers from Monsanto.

Rep. Lucas’ voting record gets uglier by the day:

• February 16th, 2017: Lucas votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Frank Lucas votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• May 4th, 2017: Lucas votes for the House GOP's healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), post-partum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Lucas would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Frank Lucas votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Lucas votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Frank Lucas votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Lucas and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.

Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District has a mere +26 Republican lean, per the Cook Partisan Voting Index, thus why he won re-election in 2016 by over forty points. In 2018, he yet again faces no primary challenger, and will face off against one of two Democratic candidates, Frankie Robbins or Murray Thibodeaux. Considering that at his last town hall, Rep. Lucas was quoted as not just saying he would vote for the vanity project and waste of taxpayer dollars that is Donald Trump’s border wall, but that Trump was "the reason I turned Republican. I want a businessman in there. I'm sick of the politicians", it seems like he’s cast his lot with Cheeto Mussolini. No matter how disastrous the downfall of Trump might be, though, his district is so red, that unless Lucas retires or sees a primary challenger who attacks him on his loyalty to the most corrupt president in American history, he’s regrettably not going to be leaving Washington anytime soon.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

As much as the Evangelical wing of the GOP were willing to turn a blind eye to Trump's adultery, boasting about sexual assault, peeping on teen beauty pageant contestants, running a hoax charity, foul language, and general incompetence in all Biblical matters... the separation of migrant families is FINALLY the straw that's breaking their back. I saw Franklin Graham is even demanding a stop to the practice, and if there ever is a Kool-Aid drinker among the Prosperity Jesus folks... well, he'd be one.

I think that not even the evangelicals could handle or put up with the Bible being perverted by Trump and his henchmen (namely the Krooked Keebler Elf and Baghdad Betty) to justify tearing children away from their parents. Suffice it to say the Abominable Administration miscalculated just how far they could push their loathsome policies and not face repercussions.

[Mister Mets]

Or hadn't voted for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein or Mitt Romney's wife.

They all share a small part of the blame for children in concentration camps on American soil.

This may be self-serving but I view the Johnson and Ann Romney voters differently than the Stein voters.

Stein voters were going to be politically closer to Hillary than to Trump, so that support was less excusable, especially in swing states (granted, voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine and Minnesota might not have known that these were going to be among the closest states.) Stein voters were also a much smaller percentage of the population, as she got a third of the vote Johnson did.

Conservatives who didn't like Trump weren't given a reason to support a mediocre Democratic candidate for President, even if the Republican candidate was terrible, especially when Democrats went with their more progressive platform ever. After Democrats and the media helped Trump become the nominee, skeptical Republicans aren't going to support the Democrats, who have largely viewed Trump as an opportunity rather than a crisis. There hasn't been a willingness to give anything up in order to decrease his power, but there is the expectation that Republicans should become Democrats. There's a similar argument that's been popping up that if Jeff Flake, Susan Collins and Bob Corker were really opposed to Trump they would flip control of the Senate to Schumer and the Democrats. Under this logic, they're supposed to put opposition to Trump over all of their political beliefs, but Democrats wouldn't have to consider any such bargain.

[aja_christopher]

Conservatives who didn't like Trump weren't given a reason to support a mediocre Democratic candidate for President, even if the Republican candidate was terrible.

The "reason" is because Trump is a sexist, racist, adulterous, torture-supporting liar who is currently doing his best to ruin our international reputation and drive our country into a ditch with gigantic unsubsidized tax cuts and an impending trade war, and that's exactly what many Republican voters wanted to see in office -- the fact that Paul Ryan directly stated that his party has more in common with Trump's principles than with Hillary's speaks volumes about the party in question.

Republican voters CHOSE Trump over every other Republican candidate and then elected him into the presidency -- each and every one of them had the "choice" not to vote for him but did so anyway.

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"Sometimes you have to leave your policy behind and say that I can't support this candidate who says harmful things and encourages hate. But apparently this Republican party isn't up to that and instead will continue to make these 'disavowal' statements that mean nothing when you continue to endorse. But it's unsurprising considering that more traditional Republicans have echoed similar statements just in less explicit terms. Either the GOP doesn't have any type of moral backbone, or they are pandering with these disavowals and actually agree with his sentiments.

Either way, Trump is a monster they can only blame themselves for."

[Mister Mets]

The "reason" is because Trump is a sexist, racist, adulterous, torture-supporting liar who is currently doing his best to ruin our international reputation and drive our country into a ditch with his impending trade war -- the fact that Paul Ryan directly stated that his party has more in common with Trump's principles than with Hillary's speaks volumes about the party in question.

Republicans CHOSE Trump over every other Republican candidate and then elected him into the presidency, and each and every one of them had the "choice" not to vote for him, but did so anyway.

A majority of Republicans did back another candidate in the primaries. When it came time for the general election, the Romney Republicans had limited choices, including a terrible Republican nominee whose stated policies were closer to their own, and a mediocre Democratic nominee running on the most liberal platform ever. Many chose to signal their displeasure with a protest vote. The idea that they should be obligated to vote for a candidate who they disagree with more than any major party nominee in recent history isn't very convincing.

There would be nothing to tempt Republicans who didn't like Trump into voting for Hillary Clinton if a John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Mike Pence, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz had won the nomination. Part of the lack of appeal was due to a conscious choice by the Democrats to take advantage of a crappy opponent in order to run a campaign that doesn't restrict their ability to go for left-wing policies in a presidential administration. It was a gamble that showed they had priorities other than keeping Trump from the White House. And it helped result in Trump becoming President.

[aja_christopher]

A majority of Republicans did back another candidate in the primaries. When it came time for the general election, the Romney Republicans had limited choices, including a terrible Republican nominee whose stated policies were closer to their own, and a mediocre Democratic nominee running on the most liberal platform ever. Many chose to signal their displeasure with a protest vote. The idea that they should be obligated to vote for a candidate who they disagree with more than any major party nominee in recent history isn't very convincing.

Oh, you're not "obliged" to do anything, Mets, nor are your fellow "conservatives".

But -- again just as with "conservatives" George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfield before him -- we all now get to reap what you've sown in Trump.

[TheInvisibleMan]

A majority of Republicans did back another candidate in the primaries. When it came time for the general election, the Romney Republicans had limited choices, including a terrible Republican nominee whose stated policies were closer to their own, and a mediocre Democratic nominee running on the most liberal platform ever. Many chose to signal their displeasure with a protest vote. The idea that they should be obligated to vote for a candidate who they disagree with more than any major party nominee in recent history isn't very convincing.

There would be nothing to tempt Republicans who didn't like Trump into voting for Hillary Clinton if a John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Mike Pence, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz had won the nomination. Part of the lack of appeal was due to a conscious choice by the Democrats to take advantage of a crappy opponent in order to run a campaign that doesn't restrict their ability to go for left-wing policies in a presidential administration. It was a gamble that showed they had priorities other than keeping Trump from the White House. And it helped result in Trump becoming President.

nothing but decency

im all for making sure Trump voters regret their choice for the rest of their days

too bad we cant pull a Roslyn and blow them out the airlock

[aja_christopher]

nothing but decency

The "terrible Republican nominee" (Trump) has policies closer to their own -- I don't think decency is part of the equation.

Stop and frisk, taking children from immigrants, tax cuts for the wealthy and health care and social security cuts for the needy -- that's what's important.

(Edit: Forgot to mention shunning the Constitution and working with foreign agents to steal elections.)