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

[worstblogever]

Here's a full rundown of last night's debate, blow by blow (this will take two posts):

• Came out and was audibly sniffling in between his responses at the microphone (which is terribly ironic after the hell he and his campaign gave poor sickly Hillary Clinton for getting pneumonia only two weeks prior). He also was jittery, twitchy, and could not stand still, leading many, including former DNC Chair Howard Dean to speculate if he had been using cocaine (a high energy guy, that Donald).
• Trump, in total, interrupted Hillary Clinton over 51 times.
• During discussion about job creation, Trump repeated his lie that Ford was sending American jobs to Mexico, and got fact-checked by Ford Motor Company, itself.
• Trump claimed jobs were leaving Ohio and Michigan in the thousands. Fact checkers note that unemployment is 4.7% and 4.5%, respectively in those two states, lower than the national average.
• Trump also blamed Hillary Clinton’s husband for signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), calling it the worst trade deal the U.S. ever signed (which is most certainly hyperbole, if not false, especially because American jobs boomed during the 1990s in the wake of its signing). Please note, as well that NAFTA was signed on December 17th, 1992 by President George H.W. Bush, and not Bill Clinton, who was still president-elect at the time.
• Trump took exception to Hillary Clinton pointing out that he got $14 million in loans from his father, Fred Trump, to start his empire, and only got a “small loan” to start out. Per the Wall Street Journal, Trump was lying, and Clinton was correct.
• Hillary Clinton cited Donald Trump’s climate change denial, and his belief that it is a hoax invented by the Chinese. Trump claims, “I never said that.” Fact-checkers can easily show Trump’s Twitter account where he has posted about it several times, and finds several speeches through the years where he’s said climate change is a hoax.
• He accused Hillary Clinton of, in effect, “giving away her plan to fight ISIS” by laying out some of the overall strategy and philosophy on her website, which “General Douglas MacArthur would not like too much”. He also said Clinton had been “fighting ISIS her whole life” which fact-checkers were obligated to point out is ridiculous, because ISIS is believed to have existed for five, maybe ten years at most and Clinton is just a wee bit older than that (by about sixty years or so). Also, would it be a bad thing to have battled the worst of humanity for one’s lifetime? That’s a weird way to frame this attack.
• Trump claimed that President Obama’s management of the economy has been “the worst since the Great Depression”. Again, fact-checkers to the rescue to point out that 15.1 million jobs have been added since 2010, and unemployment was cut in half while the GDP increased.
• Trump repeated his conspiracy theory that Fed Chair Janet Yellen was making the Federal Reserve act politically.
• Repeated that he would not release his tax returns, and demanded that Hillary Clinton “first release her e-mails”, trying to change the subject. He was fact-checked by Lester Holt for claiming that he could not release his taxes while the IRS was auditing him (which is a lie).
• Clinton responded by speculating about WHY Trump did not release his tax returns, pointing out that he might be trying to hide how much he’s actually worth, how much he actually gives to charity, who he has business dealings with, or perhaps, that he did not pay any federal income tax.
  
  Trump, for whatever reason, chose not to deny that last charge, but ADMITTED to it when he said, “That makes me smart.” He thus became the first presidential candidate to boast about being a tax cheat, outright.
• Clinton went on to attack Trump on being a cheat in business and refusing to pay contractors he owed money to, instead opting to pay amounts far less than agreed upon. She even noted this applied to his stance on the national debt, which he talked about trying to negotiate down.
  
  Trump immediately interrupted saying, “WRONG”. Fact-checkers, again, pointed out, YES, Donald Trump did say that in May of 2016.
• Trump again lied about a variety of crime statistics in the United States, falsely claiming that violent crime was at staggeringly high levels (it isn’t). Clinton would point out that crime is down half from where it was in the 1990s, and property crime was down 40%.
• Trump touted New York City’s “Stop and Frisk” policy as successful. Statistics show it wasn’t. Moderator Lester Holt then pointed out that a judge ruled “Stop and Frisk” to be unconstitutional. Trump then told the moderator he was “WRONG” and that a “very against police judge” and was taken away because of the actions of New York City’s “new mayor”. Bad English aside on the first claim, new mayor” Bill de Blasio campaigned on ending Stop & Frisk, it actually was ended prior to his taking office by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg after its lack of results.
• While Clinton took a moment to praise the African American community for its vibrancy, Trump audibly sighed in disgust.
• Donald Trump gave Clinton grief for preparing for the debate, prompting her epic comeback line of, “I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes I did. And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president, and I think that's a good thing.”

[Shawn Hopkins]

So, what I am seeing about the debate is if you liked Trump coming in, he did great, and if you liked Clinton, she did great.
Wooo, spike the ball! Our team won!!!!!!

Nope, cause even the Neo-Nazis are sad today. Trump lost for all but the most delusional.

[worstblogever]

• Lester Holt asked Trump about the Birther controversy. He still tried blaming it on Hillary Clinton. Still, after Trump tried claiming President Obama should THANK HIM for forcing him to release his birth certificate to end the controversy, Lester Holt didn’t let him off the hook, and pointed out Trump continued making statements to fuel the controversy in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and even as late as January of 2016. Trump also yet again failed to apologize for furthering the conspiracy, himself.
• Trump lied and claimed that he was the first candidate endorsed by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (they of course denied it).
• During a segment on cyberterrorism, Trump bizarrely downplayed Russia’s involvement of the hack of the DNC (which is weird, because he previously called on them to hack Hillary Clinton on his behalf and the FBI investigation continues to point in that direction), and instead began speculating about others who may have done it, instead, closing by saying it could have been done by “someone sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds”. He provided no solutions on what could be done to stop hackers, or prevent them from hacking, instead even more bizarrely adding that his 10 year old son Barron was “good with these computers”. It’s almost as if he doesn’t understand the issue, at all, you know?
• Trump segued back to talk of fighting ISIS, and repeated his strategy of “taking the oil”, which remains a war crime.
• Clinton pointed out Donald Trump supported the Iraq War in interviews in 2002, with caused him to again start interrupting to say, “WRONG.” Lester Holt fact-checked him again, causing an exchange where Trump began gibbering “ask Sean Hannity” about his opposition to the war before it started. Hannity verbally said Trump was telling the truth after the debate and he told him in private he opposed the war, but has no transcript or proof to establish the veracity of his claims. Considering in the weeks prior to the debate, Sean Hannity appeared in campaign ads for the Trump campaign to endorse the candidate, as well as knowing anything about him as a faux-journalist to begin with, he’s a hard source to trust.
• Trump tried claiming that he had a “better temperament” than Hillary Clinton to be president. The audience in the debate hall audibly laughed at him for his complete lack of self-awareness.
• Clinton pointed out, during her response, that Donald Trump has openly discussed “blowing Iranian ships out of the water” if their sailors taunted American sailors with rude hand gestures. Trump did not deny making the statement, but ridiculously tried assuring the American people, “That wouldn’t start a war” and continued to lie and claim Iranian sailors were doing this without any evidence.
• Trump again began to assert his demands that our allies like South Korea, Japan, Germany, and Saudi Arabia should treat us like a protection racket and pay us for our military alliances. (South Korea actually does pay the United States over $850 million a year, so he’s not surprisingly without a clue here as well.). Perhaps what was more terrifyingly insane than that was that Trump suggested diplomatic issues with North Korea could be handled if we simply asked China to invade them for us.
• Trump yet again repeated his lie that over $100 million was “given” to Iran as part of the nuclear treaty between their nation and the United States. Of course, these were bank assets seized by the United States in 1979 that were actually being returned to Iran.
• When asked by Lester Holt why he had said earlier in the month that Clinton “didn’t have a presidential look”, Trump lied and claimed he actually commented on her “stamina”. Holt read his quote back for him. Trump continued rambling about her stamina, and Clinton, when given a chance to respond, noted that as Secretary of State she travelled to 112 countries in four years, and that she had endured 11 hour Congressional hearings without her stamina ever faltering.
• Clinton then began to bring up Trump’s long history of misogyny, including saying that pregnant women were an inconvenience to their employers. Trump interrupted to lie and claim he never said that (there’s a videotaped interview of him doing so). Clinton then followed up further by reminding everyone about Trump’s disparaging remarks to former Miss Universe Alicia Machado (from Venezuela), when he called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”.
• Lester Holt concluded the evening by asking if either candidate lost, if they would accept the will of the people. Hillary Clinton gave the perfect answer, about respecting our nation’s democracy. Donald Trump, who has already insisted that the results of this election will be “rigged”… gave an incoherent response about 800 people that were going to be deported and someone “pushed the wrong button” and they were made citizens instead. But it was “800 and now it turns out it might be 1800”. This made Lester Holt repeat his question again, asking if Trump would respect America’s democracy. He still faltered, said he “wanted to make America great again”, said he didn’t think Clinton would accept him as winner if he won (in spite of her just having said she would), and begrudgingly and unconvincingly finally saying he would accept the results (he probably won’t, and will instead foment conspiracy theories with his friends in the alt-right sphere).

Anyone who watched the debate, or reads the transcript with fact-checking, or sees the above breakdown of the list... to quote Jim Ross again...

"Trump got his ass stomped into a mudhole, and Hillary walked it dry."

[RegalSin]

Look at the bigger picture we are going to an white elect a white supremacist into office They are for war and for removing rights from citizens abusing the law. They are manipulating the masses like cattle. Keeping minorities in there place "there knees" so they and everybody could used as cheap labor, cheap whores, and cheap murderers. Your money ( your family ) is your vote and it is being thrown out the window for selfish desires.

The genocide, the sacrilegious identity, and abuse of culture trending will continue due to peoples ignorance.

Obama is not clean at all. He veto certain bills ( which I love him for ) but allowed for such supremacist goals to continue ( which makes me feel sick inside ).

[Shawn Hopkins]

Look at the bigger picture we are going to an white elect a white supremacist into office They are for war and for removing rights from citizens abusing the law. They are manipulating the masses like cattle. Keeping minorities in there place "there knees" so they and everybody could used as cheap labor, cheap whores, and cheap murderers. Your money ( your family ) is your vote and it is being thrown out the window for selfish desires.

The genocide, the sacrilegious identity, and abuse of culture trending will continue due to peoples ignorance.

Obama is not clean at all. He veto certain bills ( which I love him for ) but allowed for such supremacist goals to continue ( which makes me feel sick inside ).

We probably won't actually elect Trump.

[KOSLOX]

So, Trump supporters are saying she won the debate?

His most ardent, sure. But even many of his supporters realize he was outclassed.

[Tami]

In regards to the sniffling, Trump is still denying it. Let's hope it's not cocaine...a lesson from history

High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history

The book in question is The Total Rush – or, to use its superior English title, Blitzed – which reveals the astonishing and hitherto largely untold story of the Third Reich’s relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth), and of their effect not only on Hitler’s final days – the Führer, by Ohler’s account, was an absolute junkie with ruined veins by the time he retreated to the last of his bunkers – but on the Wehrmacht’s successful invasion of France in 1940. Published in Germany last year, where it became a bestseller, it has since been translated into 18 languages, a fact that delights Ohler, but also amazes him.

Note the similarities to stories we hear about modern day North Korea.

[worstblogever]

FYI, any online poll that says "Trump won" shouldn't be trusted at the moment. There's some skewing. The websites with those polls allow multiple votes from one user. Users on Reddit and 4chan got together and decided to stay up all night voting that Trump won. Some more tech savvy users employed bots to vote for a man who was clearly outclassed.

It's futile, though. Their "God-Emperor" walked out last night wearing no clothes. 100 million people watched.

[Mr MajestiK]

ok so we're going elect hillary and what would that benefit? she has no plans at all she didn't even brought it up and im not going to her website im not going to trump's website because i want to hear their plans on live tv. Trump spoke alot about his plans while hillary said "we can do this and we have to do this with no detailed objective." Hillary didn't break the law by delete thousands of classified emails? and she did it on purpose because like typical politicians they get away with it like Nixon did during the watergate scandal. he took the coward's way out by resigning and guess what he was pardoned.

so you rather have a corrupted politician letting four americans die and blame it on a video instead having a patriot who is not racist and a bigot all thats the liberal media talking. he is not going to turn his taxes until hillary speaks the truth because her trying to sway me into to trusting her and voting her is not working her taking the nice calm approach doesn't work. all she cares about is herself and she will do actions on her own behalf not yours.

What in the hell are you talking about?

[worstblogever]

On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day shared its first two profiles of Phyllis Schlafly, based on her inclusion on the 2012 Republican National Committee, helping write the GOP Party Platform, and several other platform committee slots in the decades prior to that. Schlafly, the founder of the Eagle Forum who ran for Congress since 1952, has been considered a radical conservative conspiracy nut since the Eisenhower Administration. Schlafly’s also been a proud anti-feminist for decades, having served as the opposite number to Gloria Steinem to prevent the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and not only believes women’s place is in the home (even though Schafly had a nanny raise her kids while she was politically active), but has given speeches where she argues there’s not even such a thing as marital rape. She’s also passionate about conspiracy theories like the secret Bilderberg Group, buys into the John Birch Society’s theories about fluoridated water, and the threat of a North American Union. Schafly argued against the GOP’s 2012 “autopsy” that suggested they find a way to attract minority voters, scoffing and saying that they should “focus on whites”. Phyllis also has been a staunch opponent of LGBT rights through the years, which is a shame considering one of her six children is gay. Another of her six children is Andrew Schlafly, the fanatically wacky creator of Conservapedia, the version of Wikipedia that exists for conservatives who reject facts and sources and instead have rewritten a version of reality on it that supports their agenda.

Well, we thought at the age of 92, with Schlafly sitting out of the Republican Party Platform Committee this year, that we'd close her file. Especially because her own daughter betrayed her, and tried to take over the Eagle Forum via mutiny for choosing Donald Trump for her pick for president. But now, it is as closed as closed get, as she passed away last month. She was eulogized by presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose nicest thought about Phyllis was that she liked HIM.

It's for the best, perhaps, that she shuffled off te mortal coil when she did, because had she lived until Election Day to see the first woman elected president... that would have killed her for sure. No, we don't miss her, and don't feel bad about speaknig ill of the dead. She was a deranged ideological bigot who did more to hypocritically restrict the rights of women than should have ever been possible.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The morning after the debate, and Trump goes on Faux News to illustrate why he's a disgrace to women:

Trump attacks former Miss Universe who ‘gained a massive amount of weight’ and had ‘attitude’

**********

Meanwhile, Rosie rivets Trumps hide to the wall:

Rosie O’Donnell responds to Trump: Calls him an ‘orange’ (body part) on Twitter

[Iron Maiden]

The morning after the debate, and Trump goes on Faux News to illustrate why he's a disgrace to women:

Trump attacks former Miss Universe who ‘gained a massive amount of weight’ and had ‘attitude’

**********

Meanwhile, Rosie rivets Trumps hide to the wall:

Rosie O’Donnell responds to Trump: Calls him an ‘orange’ (body part) on Twitter

Trump is out of control and clueless. It looks like he's gone off the leash that Kellyanne Conway was having some success with. He was obviously caught flat footed when Hillary brought up Alicia Machado, the Miss Universe of 2006 he ridiculed. He thinks he's getting the last word in by following up on this but instead he looks cruel and invective. He just can't let things go, as both of your links prove.

[worstblogever]

The morning after the debate, and Trump goes on Faux News to illustrate why he's a disgrace to women:

Trump attacks former Miss Universe who ‘gained a massive amount of weight’ and had ‘attitude’

Hillary got in his head completely. He's dogging out a beauty queen for being too fat. Like... that's the standards he's showing he's got for women. And he could have denied he harassed Alicia Machado at all, it was a long time ago, etc., etc. But he didn't. He's taking the bait like a moron.

Also, his microphone was sabotaged, and Lester Holt is biased. Being a sore loser is only going to underline that he lost.

[JCAll]

The morning after the debate, and Trump goes on Faux News to illustrate why he's a disgrace to women:

Trump attacks former Miss Universe who ‘gained a massive amount of weight’ and had ‘attitude’

**********

Meanwhile, Rosie rivets Trumps hide to the wall:

Rosie O’Donnell responds to Trump: Calls him an ‘orange’ (body part) on Twitter

It's like Hilary reminded him of all the people he'd forgotten he was pissed at, so he rushed off to make up for lost time.

[JBatmanFan05]

Trump won the first 40 mins IMHO. He hit on the stuff really concerning voters and hit some zingers. Hillary showed off her typical elitist smug, she came off as patronising. Odd she plugged her low-selling book. And Lester bowed to the liberal pressure on him.