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

[ed2962]

There damned sure would have been an apology, immediately.

http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/eric-sch...religion-there

Really? Cuz Trump still hasn't apologized to Muslims...

Or Mexicans for that matter

[Tami]

Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house

The Guardian spoke to two former employees of the troll enterprise, one of whom was in a department running fake blogs on the social network LiveJournal, and one who was part of a team that spammed municipal chat forums around Russia with pro-Kremlin posts. Both said they were employed unofficially and paid cash-in-hand.

They painted a picture of a work environment that was humourless and draconian, with fines for being a few minutes late or not reaching the required number of posts each day. Trolls worked in rooms of about 20 people, each controlled by three editors, who would check posts and impose fines if they found the words had been cut and pasted, or were ideologically deviant.

The LiveJournal blogger, who spent two months working at the centre until mid-March, said she was paid 45,000 roubles (£520, $790) a month, to run a number of accounts on the site. There was no contract - the only document she signed was a non-disclosure form. She was ordered not to tell her friends about the job, nor to add any of them to the social media accounts she would run under pseudonyms.

Wow, state sponsored Trolling as well as state sponsored hacking.

[Tami]

Trump's bullsh*t: Why his supporters don't care that he's lying

A bullshit artist isn't concerned with the truth, but instead makes things up to suit his purpose. He doesn't care if the things he says describe reality accurately. When the fisherman says that the fish was this big, with his hands wide apart, the actual size of the fish isn't what's important, it's the entertainment of the listeners.

The idea that Trump's false statements are bullshit can help explain why his supporters don't care that fact checkers say he's lying.

There are lies, then there is bullsh*t.

[Tami]

With Empty Rooms and Bookings Plummeting, Trump Hotels Are Taking a Beating

While the Los Angeles Dodgers stayed at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago this past May, its Mexican-American first baseman Adrian Gonzalez would not.

"I had my reasons," is all Gonzalez would say about the lodging choices, but at least one newspaper linked the choice to Trump's anti-Mexican campaign statements.

Trump's ego probably never figured in the idea that people would chose to avoid anything with the Trump name on it.

[Tami]

Donald Trump, the Anti-Democratic Candidate

He's the Putin Candidate.

There was always a logical end to the Putin infatuation: that Trump would pick a fight with democracy itself.

[kgaard]

Donald Trump’s Final Insult to America

And perhaps the main reason for all this recent insanity from the Orange Devil:

The most generous explanation is that Donald Trump just doesn’t have the psychological capacity to admit defeat. The prospect of being defined in the history books as a loser—possibly on an epic scale—is too much to bear. And so the only face-saving play is to say that the whole system is rigged against him. This is the ultimate expression of the conservative-as-victim card.

A friend of mine wrote about this back in June: Why Donald Trump won't stop talking about Judge Curiel. Trump's accusations of a rigged election follow this pattern exactly. He, Donald Trump, is a winner. Therefore, he can't lose, he can only be cheated. The above comment is wrong only in that this isn't a political expression--Trump isn't conservative (or liberal or anything else), he's just Trump. Everything is entirely personal for him.

[Trey Strain]

The shape of things to come.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...essives-230009

[Jabare]

The shape of things to come.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...essives-230009

I think this article gives wiki leaks too much credit. People already knew where they stood before the leak

[Paradox]

Trump supporters are going out of their way to try and make something out of Wikileaks. But it's all hot air. There's nothing there.

[Kirby101]

The shape of things to come.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...essives-230009

Yeah, not really. Meanwhile it strongly appears that your man Trump is spliiting apart the GOP.

Tempest in a very small teapot.

[Tendrin]

I feel like there's some point where I had Peggy Mast in my queue in Kansas, but then somehow she wasn't there anymore.

She's sure as hell back in there now.

At least there is the bright spot that she is apparently not running for reelection.

[worstblogever]

Trump supporters are going out of their way to try and make something out of Wikileaks. But it's all hot air. There's nothing there.

Like I was saying, it's the latest conservative attempt to "cry wolf" on the Clintons. And some people, after three decades, are still stupid enough to start running around yelling, "WOLF!" with 'em.

[jeanvaljean]

I'd call this aa nasty burn:

Attachment 41029

[worstblogever]

I updated the Trump Timeline, and have a rundown of Wednesday's debate:

• Trump was STILL audibly sniffing, albeit less than the first two debates.
• On abortion, Trump floundered, saying he felt that abortion should “go back to the states” to decide on its legality, before saying he would appoint “pro-life judges” who would “automatically” overturn Roe v. Wade, and then began to show a lack of understanding about late-term abortions, saying they “rip the baby out of the womb” a day before the due date (which, they don’t, at that late a time, doctors perform a c-section and try to deliver a baby).
• During the immigration portion of the debate, Trump lied and claimed Clinton supports amnesty for undocumented immigrants (she doesn’t) and repeated the lie he told at the first two debates that he had just been endorsed by ICE, then lied and claimed they were backing his plan to build a border wall, when some have in fact questioned its viability. He then referred to drug dealers as “bad hombres” which drew the ire of many Latino commentators.
• Trump then repeated two lies he told in all the debates about NAFTA. The first being that President Bill Clinton signed it (it was President George H.W. Bush who signed it), and the second that it was a “disaster”, as economists have said the trade agreement’s overall impact on the United States was, if anything, modestly good.
• Clinton then reminded the audience that Trump had hired undocumented workers to build Trump Tower. Trump did not argue the point. Instead, visibly flustered, he bizarrely gave praise of President Obama’s record number of deportations.
• Then he lied and claimed Hillary Clinton wants us to have “open borders”, which her comment about those two words from an e-mail seized by Wikileaks, in context, was regarding energy and trade agreements.
• Clinton pivoted, pointing out Trump was referencing Wikileaks, and commented not just on the fact that the documents were stolen by Russian hackers, but that Trump has either denied their involvement, or alternatively, encouraged Russia to commit cyber-terrorism against American organizations to benefit him. Trump then began to sputter and not only AGAIN refused to condemn what intelligence agencies have confirmed where acts of cyber-terrorism committed by Russian hackers, but started to claim he didn’t know Vladimir Putin, in spite of all of the times he had said he did on record. He then inflated the number of nuclear warheads in the American and Russian stockpiles from the 1500 that the S.T.A.R.T. Treaty limited them to, back up to 1800, because Donald Trump is terrible with facts that involve numbers.
• Clinton then said Putin would prefer Trump as president to her, so he could have a puppet, and Donald comes completely unhinged, shouting back, “You’re the puppet!” This is not a good response, as presidential candidates are expected to do better than, “I know you are, but what am I?” in debates. After again denying 17 intelligence agencies’ reports that Russia was behind the hacks, Trump praised Putin for “outsmarting” Clinton “every step of the way”. Chris Wallace had to again ask Trump if he would condemn cyber-attacks committed by Russia before he finally relented.
• Clinton then segued back to Trump’s discussion of nuclear weapons from a moment earlier into pointing out how he had openly discussed more countries having them, and Trump started to interrupt and yelling, “WRONG.” Somewhere, Alec Baldwin was grinning, as Trump became completely unraveled.
• In the next portion of the debate on tax policy, Trump lied and briefly said Hillary Clinton would "double or triple" Americans' taxes, before immediately ignoring the question by trying to steer the conversation back to nuclear proliferation, as if that would help him.
• Trump then lied and claimed because he had raised questions about members of NATO not paying their share of the cost of its defense, other countries in it had suddenly opened their wallets. Again, not only was this untrue, this was in the portion of the debate where Trump was supposed to be talking about tax policy.
• Trump then misrepresented facts about the jobs report that came out for September 2016, saying it was “terrible”, when in fact, the economy added 156,000 jobs, and the only negative was that unemployment ticked up slightly… less than one tenth of one percent.
• Clinton, in a brief misdirection, pointed out Donald Trump uses Chinese steel in building his hotels and casinos. Trump does not deny it (because it's true).
• Trump accused Hillary Clinton of doing nothing for the country while losing $6 billion while running the State Department. Unfortunately for him, that’s not true. With delight, Clinton responded as much, and then honored Trump’s request to compare what she’s been doing for three decades versus what Trump has (HINT: He walked right into that one).
• Chris Wallace then had to ask Trump about the women coming forward with accusations that he sexually assaulted them, and Trump lied, saying the reports had been "debunked” (Hint: They Haven't). Trump then claimed violence that has repeatedly occurred at his rallies was instigated by Hillary Clinton, without any proof. Clinton repeated Trump’s non-answer, and then added that through the week, he had dismissed the accusations by the women, saying they were “not attractive enough”, or “were not my first choice”. Trump interrupts, saying, “I never said that,” in spite of there being videotape of him saying that from only days earlier (it’s a habit he has). By the end of the segment, Trump could only meager offer up his untrue brag about himself that “nobody has more respect for women than I have.”
• Clinton gave the laundry list of Trump’s most offensive moments, and when she mentions that he mocked a disabled reporter, Trump says, “WRONG.” (He did.)
• Chris Wallace brought up the Clinton Foundation, and Hillary pointed out its 90% rating from watchdog groups, downplayed any supposed wrongdoing, and then compared it to the Trump Foundation, which Trump had stopped putting his own money into, illegally solicited donations without a license, and used the Trump Foundation’s money to buy portraits of himself. Wallace then asked Trump if his foundation had also been used to pay off lawsuits, and he lied and said it hadn't (it did).
• Clinton pointed out we would know more about Trump’s charitable giving if he ever released his tax returns, and he began to say whatever taxes he dodges were no worse than what some of Hillary’s top donors like Warren Buffet do, a claim he made in the second debate that Buffet himself released information to debunk.
• In the most damning part of the debate, Trump refuses to say that he would respect the outcome of the election if he lost, saying he will “keep you in suspense” if he will or not. Before the night is over, elected Republicans like Sen. Jeff Flake and Sen. Lindsey Graham blast him for this.
• Clinton lists a series of occasions where Trump has claimed that things were rigged against him, including the Iowa Caucus and Wisconsin Primary (to name a few), and when she mentions how he claimed the Emmy Awards were rigged against him when The Apprentice didn’t win one for him, he interrupts to say, “Should have gotten it.”
• The topic then changed to the fight with ISIS, and Trump’s answer on Mosul was nonsensical, including how he called our military generals “stupid”. Post debate, Republican strategist Steve Schmidt summed up Trump’s answer as “like an old man in the park feeding squirrels and talking to himself.”
• Clinton again reminded those watching that Donald Trump had supported the Iraq War after he has claimed he never did, telling them to just Google search it. He interrupts with “WRONG,” twice. (Hint: She’s correct.) By the end of the segment, devoid of any reason or proof, Trump blurts out, “Iran is taking over Iraq.”
• Chris Wallace then tries to steer the debate to Syria, and the city of Aleppo. Trump starts interrupting him before he can even finish the question. He again appears clueless, and even Breitbart News fact check his incorrect assessment that “Aleppo has fallen” as incorrect.
• In the portion of the debate about the national debt, Trump, for whatever reason, unprovoked, takes time to criticize the trade policy of the GOP's biggest icon.
• Trump mentions that he wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, claiming that insurances premiums are about to go up “sixty, seventy, eighty percent”. He’s off by about fifty percent on his figures, which at most will be 25%.
• Clinton offers her solution of how higher taxes on the rich will stabliize Social Security, mention she would get Trump to pay his fair share, leading him to have his other biggest blunder of the debate, misogynistically saying, “Such a NASTY woman.” It doesn’t rattle her, in the least.
• Trump, in his closing statement to inspire people to vote for him, describes an America outside of reality where people are “shot going to the store”.
• At the end of the debate, Trump wouldn't have to wait for the polls to know he lost. He knew he got crushed. He was caught on camera gritting his teeth, seething, and tearing up his debate notes in rage. He did not engage the audience after the debate, choosing only to briefly huddle with his family, before retreating for the night and leaving his kids to handle the media spin room after the debate, which featured Donald Trump Jr. tersely barking at reporters, and telling them that the presidency is actually a “step down” for his father.

[Tami]

Analysis: Why are Russian warships in British waters?

(CNN)Russia is believed to be sending a massive naval task force, with warships from its Northern, Baltic and Black Sea fleets, to the Mediterranean Sea in preparation for what could be a major escalation in the conflict in Syria.
It's the largest naval deployment since the end of the Cold War, according to a diplomat speaking to Reuters.

Russian defense officials say there are a number of heavily armed vessels already positioned in waters off the Syrian coast.
They will soon be joined by a formidable flotilla of Russia's heaviest naval armor -- now steaming through northern European seas -- including the country's sole aircraft carrier, the recently refitted Admiral Kuznetsov.

The U.S. military is still more powerful, but this Russian show could be troubling.