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

[Tami]

Trains, not drains: New Jersey lobbyists on way to swamp DC

TRENTON, N.J. — As President Donald Trump vows to “drain the swamp” in Washington, a swarm of 1,000 lobbyists, business owners and politicians traveled by train from the swamps of New Jersey on Thursday for a day of lobbying.

The state Chamber of Commerce’s 80th annual trip — nicknamed the “Walk to Washington” because rail riders generally pace the train’s corridors schmoozing and handing out business cards — comes after a national election that hinged in part on repudiating insiders and establishment politics.

Trump, whose job approval rating is in negative territory, rose to victory in part on a promise to “drain the swamp.” In his earliest days in the White House, he signed an order aimed at restricting administration officials from lobbying.

“There’s no populist message on the train. It’s networking on steroids,” said Dale Florio, a Trenton lobbyist and a longtime Republican who backed Trump.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Outside of the moral implications, I don't think the white supremacists and people like Richard Spencer need a martyr for the cause.

Likewise, it's important for the world to see this play out via judicial process, if only so that they understand that our nation's checks and balances can deal with threats (and demagogues) like Trump.

That said, there's no guarantee that this will happen -- especially with the Republicans controlling Congress -- but my assumption was always that they would prop him up until after he won the White House for them, then throw him to the wolves when it was most convenient.

I think there is some concern at this point on their part that Pence might be caught up in the scandal, which is why they've repeatedly tried to distance him from Trump and Flynn with regards to "prior knowledge" (and block any attempt at an independent investigation).

However, with the media finally stepping up to the plate and asking the right questions (about Flynn, Manafort, and Trump himself) we'll see how the GOP reacts.

It's to their advantage at this point to take Trump down, so they may actually go ahead and do so -- especially since the more the press investigates this issue, the more they may start to point out that the obstructionism of the Republicans is the real problem with regards to removing Trump from office.

I'm not buying it. Much like the rest of the country the Judiciary rarely does the right thing the first time. They will shoot down the Muslim Ban in record time but the other EOs don't have remotely the same level of activism directed at them. If Trump gets impeached (and he won't) then Pence and the cabinet might go with him depending on how deep the collusion goes. Then we get Paul Ryan, possibly the most insidious living thing on the North American continent, as the 46th President. So even if the system works (and it won't) we still lose. I'm not concerned with martyring anyone, but without Trump in the picture no one gets what they want, and that's leagues better than the rust belt bigots getting what they want.

[Tami]

Very busy day

Latino Democrats Excluded From A Meeting With ICE That They Requested

WASHINGTON ― Two Democratic representatives say Republicans kicked them out of a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday after the agency canceled a planned summit with Latino members earlier this week in favor of a bipartisan gathering that excluded many of them.

Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said that Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told them they had to leave the meeting with ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan about deportation raids.

The bipartisan meeting was scheduled after Homan backed out of plans to meet with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to discuss members’ concerns about recent deportation efforts that netted more than 680 immigrants across the country.

Earlier this week, ICE officials said the agency canceled the initial meeting because the Hispanic Caucus attempted to invite too many people ― an excuse one Democratic member said was “bullshit.” ICE promised that Homan would meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers instead.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a press conference on Thursday that ICE officials had picked the attendees.

Only eight Democratic members were asked to attend. Notably excluded were a number of Hispanic Caucus members, including Gutiérrez and Torres, although a few other members, including Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, (D-N.M.), were invited.

Pelosi said at the meeting she had “never been in a meeting where an agency can designate who can attend” and that it was “highly unusual,” according to a Democratic aide in the room, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“What’s going on across the country is not making us any safer, and we want answers,” Pelosi said.

ICE thinks it's all powerful.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Oh and moral implications? Don't make me laugh. As if there's any morality left in the new administration.

[Tami]

Influential conservative group: Trump, DeVos should dismantle Education Department and bring God into classrooms

A policy manifesto from an influential conservative group with ties to the Trump administration, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urges the dismantling of the Education Department and bringing God into American classrooms.

The five-page document produced by the Council for National Policy calls for a “restoration of education in America” that would minimize the federal role, promote religious schools and home schooling and enshrine “historic Judeo-Christian principles” as a basis for instruction.

Names of the council’s members are closely held. But the Southern Poverty Law Center published a 2014 membership directory showing that Stephen K. Bannon — now chief White House strategist for President Trump — was a member and that Kellyanne Conway — now counselor to the president — served on the council’s executive committee.

No loose threads, everything ties together into one big knot.

[aja_christopher]

I'm not buying it.

And I'm not selling -- I'm just saying what I think the GOP might do in the near future.

Realistically speaking, I'm saying what I think the logical move is at this point, but the Republicans don't always follow logic.

They've already shown many times that if they have enough power to continue to get away with wrongdoing, they will do it, so I'm not expecting this time to be any different.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Influential conservative group: Trump, DeVos should dismantle Education Department and bring God into classrooms



No loose threads, everything ties together into one big knot.

Yeah, a knot that becomes a noose placed around the necks of America's school kids. Not good.

[JBatmanFan05]

Seems like a slightly more sane nominee

Trump names Alexander Acosta as labor secretary nominee

Yea, I really like the Acosta pick. Cuban, great background, law background, has been approved by the Senate before for positions.

[Kai "the spy"]

[ouroboros]

"Should" doesn't enter the conversation.

Being an opportunist who joins the party just to run for president is not going to make you popular with members of that party.

The "opportunist" strategy worked okay for Trump, who often boasted that he'd run as an independent if he didn't secure the GOP nomination.

If you're not interested in the "coulda, shoulda" questions, that's fine. I am, though.

[ImprobableQuestion]

Yea, I really like the Acosta pick. Cuban, great background, law background, has been approved by the Senate before for positions.

If Trump sees something valuable in him it means he's bad news.

[InformationGeek]

Meanwhile with crazy stuff, the NRA backed a really crazy, stupid thing today...

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to legalize the killing of black bear cubs and their mothers at their dens in Alaska’s national wildlife refuges.
The controversial measure, backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), overturns a ‘Fair Chase’ rule, promulgated by the Obama administration, that also limited baiting, trapping, and the use of airplanes to track and shoot bears and wolves on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands in Alaska.

The vote was met with an outpouring of criticism from wildlife and conservation groups.

“Alaska’s extreme predator control policies lack scientific support, contravene conservation mandates on national wildlife refuges and defy traditional wildlife management principles,” said Jenny Keatinge, federal lands policy analyst with Defenders of Wildlife. “H.J. Res. 69 would cede federal management of iconic wildlife to the state’s misguided program on over 76 million acres of national wildlife refuges that belong to all Americans.”

Safari Club International, a group that has been criticized by both sportsmen and animals rights groups for advocating “canned” or captive hunting and elite trophy hunting, joined the NRA in pushing Congress to overturn the Fair Chase rule. In a letter to House members, the groups claimed the rule preempts the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s authority on national wildlife refuges.

The Obama administration rule Congress is seeking to overturn, however, does not prohibit hunting in wildlife refuges, and allows both subsistence hunting as well as science-based predator control. However, it limits certain practices, such as using rotting meat and pet food to lure bears for an easy kill, which some hunting groups say violates the ethics of fair chase.

A similar controversy arose in Maine in 2014 when a ballot measure would have limited bear baiting in the state. While the ballot measure narrowly lost, hundreds of organizations, businesses, and opinion leaders, including many hunters, spoke out against bear baiting.

“Hounding, baiting, and trapping lack the very skill that draws most hunters to the sport: the challenge of tracking and finding the bear,” Mary Moulton, an avid hunter and supporter of the ballot measure, explained in 2014. “These practices give hunting a bad image by mocking the notion of sportsmanship and fair chase.”

The hunting practices the House voted to legalize on Thursday are considered cruel by many Alaska residents. Recent polling shows that by a two-to-one margin, Alaskans don’t support baiting or trapping in national wildlife refuges.

The National Wildlife Refuge System is the only network of federal lands and waters dedicated to wildlife conservation. The system is made up of 566 national wildlife refuges, including 16 in Alaska.

A companion resolution in the Senate, sponsored by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), has not yet been scheduled for a vote.

[ImprobableQuestion]

And I'm not selling -- I'm just saying what I think the GOP might do in the near future.

Realistically speaking, I'm saying what I think the logical move is at this point, but the Republicans don't always follow logic.

They've already shown many times that if they have enough power to continue to get away with wrongdoing, they will do it, so I'm not expecting this time to be any different.

Which is why we need foreign (or extralegal) intervention to get the country back in the hands of its people. The military won't do it, the FBI won't do it, and Congress sure as hell won't do it. The CIA's "he'll die in jail" is a good start, but Trump could easily just purge the intelligence community of any dissidence and move on.

[ouroboros]

Did you actually watch the most recent season?

The member berries were using nostalgia to make the pubic receptive to fascism. Trey and Matt were not hedging.

They said they won't be dealing with the Presidency because they said they don't know how to satirize the Trump administration, since it's already bonkers.

They didn't say too much about Bush's two terms before that, unless you count the sophomoric "That's My Bush" sitcom.

[Iron Maiden]

Ugh, the canned hunting thing reminds me of another reason why I can't stand Mike Pence and the Indiana GOP. Last year while he was still governor he signed into law a bill for Canned Hunting

This is different from the deer culls which are necessary due to over population. I was hit by a deer once at night. He ran right out of the dark and into my driver side door.

But canned hunting is where they breed them in captivity then when they're big enough they put them in a corral and you pay to shoot them. Many real hunters were dead set against it. The deer hunters frequently volunteer with the deer culls.