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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The rest of those reporters should have walked out in protest and solidarity when Ramos was kicked out. Cowards all.

And risk ending up on Trump's **** list and being banned from future pressers since he neither forgives or forgets and lives for holding grudges (see: Kelly, Megyn)? Highly unlikely.

[Shawn Hopkins]

And risk ending up on Trump's **** list and being banned from future pressers since he neither forgives or forgets and lives for holding grudges (see: Kelly, Megyn)? Highly unlikely.

They should be proud to be on his **** list, it means they have some integrity. If you have to compromise yourself for access, then it isn't real access. It's just carrying water for the candidate.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Ramos himself earned praise as he told Kelly that Trump showed he was a coward and wanted him gone to not answer how his questions on how his ideas would fail.

[Malvolio]

out of line yes, but Trump didn't need to have him thrown out

if you're going to toss a reporter, make it some no name from the local fishwrapper

not a guy who was won awards in both English and Spanish journalism

So it's OK to throw out a reporter as long as he's not well known? What if he had been a blogger for Black Lives Matter? Remember how Trump said he never would have let them do to him what they did to Bernie Sanders?

[7thangel]

Ramos was out of line. The issue isn't the questions he asked, but how he asked it/ yelled it.

bull and ****

[Tendrin]

bull and ****

IOKIYAR, you know.

[Jack Dracula]

Ramos was out of line. The issue isn't the questions he asked, but how he asked it/ yelled it.

To be fair, Trump asks for a bit of "out of line". He deserves it for his comments.

[Mister Mets]

Speaking as a former ink-stained wretch, reporters should be out of line. They should ask the uncomfortable questions. They shouldn't always wait quietly to be called on, especially when it's likely that call will never come, and they should never take whatever is given without thought. Otherwise they're nothing more than stenographers for those in power. Unfortunately Fox News and CNN have conditioned us to see this kind of toadying as normal.

You're probably not going to have many press conferences in that case.

And it would get rather unruly if every reporter is shouting out different questions.

Ramos himself earned praise as he told Kelly that Trump showed he was a coward and wanted him gone to not answer how his questions on how his ideas would fail.

Trump invited Ramos back, and they had a back and forth. He answered the questions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/us...play.html?_r=0

But when a reporter from MSNBC, Kasie Hunt, spoke up for Mr. Ramos, asking Mr. Trump if he would let him return to the room, the candidate began to re-evaluate his heavy-handed approach. Mr. Ramos was allowed back in.

“Go ahead, Jorge,” he said, belying his earlier claim of not knowing Mr. Ramos.

This time, when Mr. Ramos questioned him, Mr. Trump showed new and sudden patience. His sarcasm eventually receded, his voice fell an octave, and a smile came over his face.

Even as Mr. Ramos interrupted, Mr. Trump offered an explanation of why, in his view, babies born to immigrants who are in the United States illegally are not necessarily citizens. “It’s possibly going to have to be tested in courts,” he allowed.

But Mr. Trump’s tolerance had its limits, and when Mr. Ramos challenged him, he grasped for stature, repeatedly telling the journalists that “the greatest legal scholars” agreed with him on the question, and suggesting that lesser minds sided with Mr. Ramos. “I know some of these television scholars agree with you,” he said dryly.

Despite his frustration, Mr. Trump kept engaging with Mr. Ramos, over and over, unwilling to accept the disapproval of such an influential figure.

“I can’t deal with this,” Mr. Trump said at one point. But he kept trying.

“Do you know how many Hispanics are working for me?” he asked Mr. Ramos. “O.K. They love me. They love me.”

Mr. Ramos seemed unmoved. But Mr. Trump declared a détente between them anyway, willing it into reality with words. “You and I will talk,” he told Mr. Ramos. “We’re going to be talking a lot over the years.”

Mr. Ramos, standing a few feet away, tried to interrupt with another question. Mr. Trump talked over him.

“We will,” Mr. Trump added. “O.K.”

I don't support Trump, nor do I think everything he said was wise. But he did answer questions from Ramos.

At the rate it's growing, how long until we all know someone killed by gun violence?

The general trend has been for a decline in gun violence.

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/24/9183525...nce-statistics

The good news is that all firearm homicides, like all homicides and crime, are on the decline. There's still a lot of debate among criminal justice experts about why this crime drop is occurring — some of the most credible ideas include mass incarceration, more and better policing, and reduced lead exposure from gasoline.

Firearm suicides have been rising.

[TheInvisibleMan]

So it's OK to throw out a reporter as long as he's not well known? What if he had been a blogger for Black Lives Matter? Remember how Trump said he never would have let them do to him what they did to Bernie Sanders?

it's not ok, but if Im in Trumps camp and Im managing PR, its tons easier to brush something like that aside as opposed to Jorge Ramos

[Shawn Hopkins]

You're probably not going to have many press conferences in that case.

And it would get rather unruly if every reporter is shouting out different questions.



Trump invited Ramos back, and they had a back and forth. He answered the questions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/us...play.html?_r=0



I don't support Trump, nor do I think everything he said was wise. But he did answer questions from Ramos.



The general trend has been for a decline in gun violence.

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/24/9183525...nce-statistics



Firearm suicides have been rising.

Nah, we'd still have press conferences if the media grew a spine. The press has forgotten that politicians need them as much as they need politicians.

Was jumping the line a little unruly? Yes, but it was warranted by the extraordinary circumstance of a serious Presidential candidate waging a racist war against the population Jorge serves. And having security kick him out instead of answering the question is the act of a coward and a bully.

Trump only backed down because he realized that he looked like a fascist. But those were his true colors. That's the kind of person he is. Unfortunately Republican voters want a fascist, they want a strongman, and he's only growing more popular. I think he'll be the nominee.

[bert]

THIS is Trump's Security guard who escorted Ramos out:

https://youtu.be/AhZEPmchxCU

watch the video

yep. . he tells Ramos, an American Citizen, to "Get out of my Country"


Tell me again how the Republican Party isn't full of Xenophobes, Homophobes, Misogynists, and Racists?

SCUM every one of them.

[JCAll]

THIS is Trump's Security guard who escorted Ramos out:

https://youtu.be/AhZEPmchxCU

watch the video

yep. . he tells Ramos, an American Citizen, to "Get out of my Country"


Tell me again how the Republican Party isn't full of Xenophobes, Homophobes, Misogynists, and Racists?

SCUM every one of them.

He's not a xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic racist.
He's just "passionate".
That's what they're calling it now.
Which I appreciate, since it's much easier to type.

[Tendrin]

He's not a xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic racist.
He's just "passionate".
That's what they're calling it now.
Which I appreciate, since it's much easier to type.

I'm sure the guys shouting 'white power' at trump rallies just love their country and so they get a pass. How Weimar.

The inability to confront the real right wing extremism in this country, to give them passes because they're 'passionate' and just 'care about it so much' and the temptation to rationalize and apologize for it and the refusal to discuss it is a serious threat to this country's stability.

[worstblogever]

THIS is Trump's Security guard who escorted Ramos out:

https://youtu.be/AhZEPmchxCU

watch the video

yep. . he tells Ramos, an American Citizen, to "Get out of my Country"


Tell me again how the Republican Party isn't full of Xenophobes, Homophobes, Misogynists, and Racists?

SCUM every one of them.

He's not a xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic racist.
He's just "passionate".
That's what they're calling it now.
Which I appreciate, since it's much easier to type.

I'm sure the guys shouting 'white power' at trump rallies just love their country and so they get a pass. How Weimar.

The inability to confront the real right wing extremism in this country, to give them passes because they're 'passionate' and just 'care about it so much' and the temptation to rationalize and apologize for it and the refusal to discuss it is a serious threat to this country's stability.

And if Trump doesn't end up being the nominee... exactly zero of the other GOP candidates have condemned this incident. Their Latino support dwindles even more. Somehow, they have found a way to make their chances of winning a national election even worse.

[worstblogever]

Back one year ago today, we published our original profile on the U.S. House Representative for Alabama's 5th District, Mo Brooks, a Tea Party Wave beneificiary who doesn't understand how the debt ceiling works and channels the sort of bigotry worthy of the legacy of George Wallace, having stated he is willing to "do anything short of shooting" illegal immigrants to solve the problem, and characterizing Democratic policies as part of a "War on Whites".

GOP leadership had to take Brooks aside and get him to dial back that sort of rhetoric, helping him get re-elected in 2014 with 74% of the vote against Independent Mark Bray (seriously, they couldn't find a Democrat to challenge this lunatic?). Since, Rep. Brooks has gone back on several racist tirades, and made some sad, sad votes:

• July 10th, 2014: Brooks votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• On September 19th, 2014, Mo Brooks said that immigration reform was a plot by Democrats to "dilute the voting power of Americans".
• Not long after the election in November 2014, Rep. Brooks again warned of immigrants being given temporary deportation relief by the Obama administration would somehow "dilute" the vote, and bankrupt the country:
  

  “This is amnesty, and the long-term goal of this president is to reverse the will of the American people as evidenced in 2010 and 2014 and to dilute the vote of American citizens by bringing in millions of foreigners who are going to be dependent on welfare and handouts and hence will be dependent on the Democratic Party for their livelihoods. That’s what this is about, is to change elections five, 10, 15, 20 years from now. But for the bipartisan amnesty bill of 1986, Barack Obama probably would not have been president, and they know that. Obamacare probably never would have passed, and they know that. And they don’t want to take that chance in future elections, so they see this as planting a seed that over many, many years will ripen into many Democratic Party victories. And of course ultimately what’s going to happen is insolvency and bankruptcy of our government because we cannot continue this welfare path that we are on.

• On January 22nd, 2015, an anti-abortion bill, HR 7, was moving through the House, and was halted because even some members of the GOP were put off by the language in the bill regarding its definition of rape. Mo Brooks, however, had no problem with that, and voted for it anyway.
• On February 3rd, 2015, Rep. Brooks co-sponsors and votes for the latest Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• The same day, Mo Brooks goes on conservative radio to call for the impeachment of President Obama over his executive orders on immigration, and claim he's "aiding and abetting a crime" that deserves jail time.
• On March 3rd, 2015, Brooks votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• On May 13th, 2015, Rep. Brooks co-sponsors and votes for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have created a 20-week ban on abortion, nationally, if it passed.
• On April 21st, 2015, Brooks says that Democrats use "class warfare" , "racial division", and "sexual exploitation" to help them get votes.

Considering the current tenor of the GOP Primary field, with Donald Trump championing a nativist charge and the other candidates following suit... be ready for a guy like Mo Brooks to make the rounds with the media to defend the Republican Party's wanton intolerance and bigotry between now and the 2016 elections. To the voters in Alabama's 5th District I have to ask... must we? I mean, there's got to be someone that can run against Brooks that's not a racist ***hole that you can vote for, if you must vote for a GOP candidate.