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

[JCAll]

Didn't Trump volunteer for that job?

Whether we want him to or not.

[Tendrin]

SPLC is as biased as Breitbart.

Best laugh I've had all day. THanks.

[wjowski]

So the waiting game begins. I hope for these peoples sake he republican's change their minds.

In Depressed Rural Kentucky, Worries Mount Over Medicaid Cutbacks

That'd be so sad...if they hadn't voted those assholes in in the first place.

[Malvolio]

No, he's not. It isn't pragmatic. The majority of Americans are fine with Gay Marriage.
As for the deportations, let me know when he passes Obama's 2.5 million mark, then you can panic.

If Trump were deporting those who deserve it, I would be all right with it. But something tells me that they'll just deport the first 100,000 or so Muslims or Mexican immigrants they can round up, to make an example of them.

[Carabas]

If Trump were deporting those who deserve it, I would be all right with it.

Alas, it's very unlikely he'll be deporting his VP or chief of staff...

[Carabas]

That's why the term anchor baby exists.

The term exists because that is exactly the kind of dehumanising language racists like to use.

[worstblogever]

Here is why I regard anything the SPLC says with skepticism:

I was expecting a picture to be posted of a lizard brain, because that would make way more sense.

[Iron Maiden]

Something from the piece worth taking note of...

That'd be so sad...if they hadn't voted those assholes in in the first place.

It's hard to have sympathy when Kentucky was overwhelmlingly a red state. The article used some real life examples in Clay county and it went 86 % to Trump. Good luck getting that health care now. They care more about their 2nd amendment rights and when Trump says that Hillary was going to abolish it they believed it. Very few of them bothered to check what it would take to abolish or repeal an amendment involves to see how unlikely that would have been.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Bad news for anyone who had convinced themselves Trump wouldn't turn back the clock on marijuana legalization. His AG pick, Jeff Sessions, is a "drug war dinosaur" who hates marijuana and marijuana users with an irrational passion. He once said "good people don't smoke marijuana."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...1602&tid=ss_fb

[worstblogever]

I'm still trying to understand the logic of Michigan voting Republican. It's like... you just voted for the party that poisoned Flint at the state level, and at the national level, has f***ed off in getting you funding to fix the mistake they made. Why the hell would you ever vote for that party again?

[worstblogever]

Bad news for anyone who had convinced themselves Trump wouldn't turn back the clock on marijuana legalization. His AG pick, Jeff Sessions, is a "drug war dinosaur" who hates marijuana and marijuana users with an irrational passion. He once said "good people don't smoke marijuana."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...1602&tid=ss_fb

Marijuana was also Jeff Sessions' only complaint about the Klan. Which is an amazing place to draw the line about where their behavior becomes unacceptable.

[Shawn Hopkins]

That'd be so sad...if they hadn't voted those assholes in in the first place.

I live in rural Kentucky and I benefitted from the Medicaid expansion when I was out of work. Probably saved my life, cause I had a serious illness during that time I would have left untreated if I couldn't pay for a doctor. It is sad to see Mike Bevin and Trump ruin this, and to think about all the people who will get sicker or die needlessly because they don't get preventative care or put off necessary care until it's too late.

[worstblogever]

On this day in both 2014, and in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted its first two profiles of Mark Meadows, the current U.S. House Representative for North Carolina's 11th District, who currently possesses the most right-leaning, gerrymandered seat in all of the Tar Heel State. Prior to taking office in 2012, he pandered to Birthers by saying that President Obama should “go back to Kenya”. One of his first votes upon arriving in the capitol was to vote against disaster relief funding for Hurricane Sandy victims, an amazing precedent for a freshman Congressman whose own district is in a state notorious for being hit by hurricanes and wanting disaster relief of their own. Meadows is also a confirmed climate change denier, says that gay marriage will cause a Constitutional crisis, and voted against a new version of the Violence Against Women Act because it provided protections towards lesbians. He’s also prone to jumping on faux scandal bandwagons, as we evidenced by his comments about Hillary Clinton’s original Benghazi testimony, and calling for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to be held in contempt in the middle of his testimony, getting rebuked by Koskinen for doing so. Perhaps his most infamous moment, though, came during Congressional testimony over healthcare plans for the Affordable Care Act, where he raged against the idea that men should have to pay an equal amount for insurance plans as women, and they have the nerve to also ask that they get maternity coverage on their insurance, when he doesn’t need it… the physician testifying, and trying to explain this to him was a Dr. Mindy Cohen, who was… wait for it… 8 months pregnant at the time. If that isn’t “GOP’s War on Women” optics in a nutshell, I don’t know what is. Oh, maybe the fact that Rep. Meadows still paid his chief of staff thousands of dollars months after he was fired for sexually harassing female staffers, because he really can't have any less respect for women.

And now... the latest from Mark Meadows:

• November 19th, 2015: Meadows votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Mark Meadows votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• May 19th, 2016: Rep. Meadows votes against House Amendment 1079, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. So if you were wondering, yes, he's pro-discrimination, apparently.
• September 28th, 2016: Months after funding was requested to prevent Zika Virus, and after several cases have begun to be diagnosed in the United States, Mark Meadows still votes against HR 5325, which would provide funding towards preventing its spread. (Remember, this is from a hard core Pro-Lifer determined to defund Planned Parenthood.)

Again, North Carolina's 11th District leans pretty hard right, and it is with that advantage that Mark Meadows was re-elected to a third term in 2016 with 63% of the vote. Meadows will likely be a pain in Paul Ryan's *** with the rest of the House Freedom Caucus in January. So at least, we'll be able to enjoy watching them tear each other apart to decide who the "real conservative" is.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm still trying to understand the logic of Michigan voting Republican. It's like... you just voted for the party that poisoned Flint at the state level, and at the national level, has f***ed off in getting you funding to fix the mistake they made. Why the hell would you ever vote for that party again?

There probably isn't any logic. I expect Michigan to come down with one hell of a case of buyer's remorse soon.

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Donald Trump Is Really Upset Mike Pence Got Booed At ‘Hamilton’

Let's see: Barack Obama was harassed, belittled and insulted at almost every turn for eight years by Republicans, including the Jackass Elect who launched the Birther nonsense, and now he's got his panties in a bunch because Red Grant, er, Mike Pence got booed? GTFO!

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Ladies and germs, your incoming Attorney General:

Jeff Sessions Will Be In Charge Of Enforcing The Federal Hate Crime Law He Vehemently Opposed

Donald Trump’s Attorney General Nominee Wrote Off Nearly All Immigrants From An Entire Country

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From the Department of Conflict of Interest:

Donald Trump’s Potential Conflicts of Interest Continue To Mount

Donald Trump’s Biggest Conflict Of Interest Is A Half Mile From The White House

The Trump International Hotel leases government real estate. How is that not a major problem?

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Watch This Irish Lawmaker’s Passionate Call To Stand Up To ‘Fascist’ Donald Trump

“I’m embarrassed by the reaction of the Irish government to what’s happened in America.”

[Shawn Hopkins]

Another bubble to bust on Trump. If you think he's going to end all government surveillance and pardon Edward Snowden and we'll all Kumbaya, I've got some bad news. His pick for CIA director, Mike Pompeo, comes down more on the "kill Snowden" side of things.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...ens-execution/

He should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think that the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence for having put friends of mine, friends of yours, in the military today, at enormous risk because of the information he stole and then released to foreign powers.