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

[Malvolio]

I never said Einstein or Newton said it, just that the quote is relevant to the situation in question.

And, in the context of re-electing Republicans (and Trump) to power after Bush... yes, it is insanity.

Well, there's also this quote that's usually attributed to W.C. Fields:

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it."

[Shining Trapezohedron]

Slain SEAL’s dad wants answers: ‘Don’t hide behind my son’s death’

t was a private transfer, as the family had requested. No media and no bystanders, except for some military dignitaries.

Owens’ father, Bill, had learned only a short time before the ceremony that Trump was coming. Owens was sitting with his wife, Marie, and other family members in the solemn, living room-like space where the loved ones of the fallen assemble before they are taken to the flight line.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. “I told them I don’t want to meet the President.”

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald.

Owens, also a military veteran, was troubled by Trump’s harsh treatment of a Gold Star family during his presidential campaign. Now Owens was a Gold Star parent, and he said he had deep reservations about the way the decision was made to launch what would be his son’s last mission.

“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?’’

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” said the elder Owens, pointing to Trump’s sharp words directed at the mission’s critics, including Sen. John McCain.

“I want an investigation. … The government owes my son an investigation,” he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/poli...135064074.html

He is right.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Deported With A Valid U.S. Visa, Jordanian Says Message Is 'You're Not Welcome'



And these are the 'Bad Dudes' Trump wants to keep out

Oh, yeah! Real bad dudes! Good to know CBP is working overtime to protect us from those evil engineers.

Controversial Pinelands Forest Preserve Pipeline Approved by New Jersey Regulators




This is actually the first I heard of it. Need to pay closer attention to local news.

I heard about this yesterday. The people affected by the pipeline are NOT happy.

[Jack Dracula]

Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media

Important read.

You're underselling this article. It is an extremely important read.

I strongly urge all of you to read all of it and pass it on to as many people as possible.

Excerpt:

Robert Mercer very rarely speaks in public and never to journalists, so to gauge his beliefs you have to look at where he channels his money: a series of yachts, all called Sea Owl; a $2.9m model train set; climate change denial (he funds a climate change denial thinktank, the Heartland Institute); and what is maybe the ultimate rich man’s plaything – the disruption of the mainstream media. In this he is helped by his close associate Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign manager and now chief strategist. The money he gives to the Media Research Center, with its mission of correcting “liberal bias” is just one of his media plays. There are other bigger, and even more deliberate strategies, and shining brightly, the star at the centre of the Mercer media galaxy, is Breitbart.

It was $10m of Mercer’s money that enabled Bannon to fund Breitbart – a rightwing news site, set up with the express intention of being a Huffington Post for the right. It has launched the careers of Milo Yiannopoulos and his like, regularly hosts antisemitic and Islamophobic views, and is currently being boycotted by more than 1,000 brands after an activist campaign. It has been phenomenally successful: the 29th most popular site in America with 2bn page views a year. It’s bigger than its inspiration, the Huffington Post, bigger, even, than PornHub. It’s the biggest political site on Facebook. The biggest on Twitter.

Prominent rightwing journalist Andrew Breitbart, who founded the site but died in 2012, told Bannon that they had “to take back the culture”. And, arguably, they have, though American culture is only the start of it. In 2014, Bannon launched Breitbart London, telling the New York Times it was specifically timed ahead of the UK’s forthcoming election. It was, he said, the latest front “in our current cultural and political war”. France and Germany are next.

A determined plutocrat and a brilliant media strategist can, and have, found a way to mould journalism to their own ends

But there was another reason why I recognised Robert Mercer’s name: because of his connection to Cambridge Analytica, a small data analytics company. He is reported to have a $10m stake in the company, which was spun out of a bigger British company called SCL Group. It specialises in “election management strategies” and “messaging and information operations”, refined over 25 years in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. In military circles this is known as “psyops” – psychological operations. (Mass propaganda that works by acting on people’s emotions.)

[mojotastic]

Shinning tell me why did you take me saying Richard Spencer should not be punched and translated to Vote Wilders! ?

[fandumb]

Plan a Protest, Lose Your House: Arizona Senate Passes SB 1142 Charging 'Provocateurs' With Racketeering

[Tendrin]

Plan a Protest, Lose Your House: Arizona Senate Passes SB 1142 Charging 'Provocateurs' With Racketeering

Arab dictators look on with knowing nods.

[numberthirty]

Man, America and "Racketeering"...

[jeanvaljean]

Trump's pick for Navy Secretary withdraws, shortly after Spicey said those rumors were totally wrong.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.074de5069dd6

[WestPhillyPunisher]

White House Refuses To Guarantee People Won’t Lose Health Insurance From Repeal

You know, because a lot of people will probably lose their coverage. And a goodly number of those people figure to be Republicans who voted for the Orange Devil and the bad actors they returned to Congress. Well done, lemmings!

**********

The Father Of The SEAL Slain In Yemen Demands An Investigation

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death.”

**********

Dozens Of Gravestones Toppled, Broken At Philadelphia Jewish Cemetery

The incident follows a wave of anti-Semitic acts in the U.S. Still waiting for Cheeto Jesus to address this disgusting situation.

**********

Kentucky Police Stop Using ‘Punisher’ Logo After Realizing What It Means

The Punisher is a comic book character — and a vengeful murderer.

**********

New York Times’ Subscriptions Zoom Each Time Trump Attacks, Says Editor

When “he tweets it drives subscriptions wildly,” says Dean Baquet. That must drive Mango Mussolini straight up apeshit!

[Kevinroc]

[Shining Trapezohedron]

Sanders and Bill Nye to host climate change conversation

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday announced that he and Bill Nye will hold a Facebook Live conversation Monday on climate change.

"Join me and Bill Nye at 10:30 a.m. ET tomorrow on Facebook Live for a conversation on climate change," Sanders tweeted.

Join me and Bill Nye at 10:30 a.m. ET tomorrow on Facebook Live for a conversation on climate change. https://t.co/TIdQMUk3ML pic.twitter.com/QjISPqoj50
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 27, 2017

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...e-conversation

Short notice, but my girlfriend just showed me.
This is important. Go and watch, people!

[Tami]

Nye I like, but I'm getting tired of Sanders. There are others in Congress I would have preferred were doing a program like this.

[Tami]

The minute-by-minute breakdown of the shocking ‘Moonlight’/’La La Land’ best picture mix-up

Not sure this has happened before.

In what was surely the most shocking moment in Oscars history, Faye Dunaway announced the wrong winner for best picture at the end of the ceremony, awarding the trophy to “La La Land” when it actually was supposed to go to “Moonlight.”

It turns out that Dunaway and her co-presenter, Warren Beatty, were given the wrong category envelope; so the actors announced the wrong winner, leading to the wrong filmmakers to begin their acceptance speeches for an award they hadn’t actually won.

But it took several minutes for the Academy Awards producers and accountants to rectify the mistake and get the actual winners onstage to accept their award.

[Tami]

Detained and Nearly Deported

Texas A&M intervened when French Holocaust scholar headed to a conference was blocked from leaving the airport

A French Holocaust historian traveling to speak at a symposium at Texas A&M University was detained by immigration officials in Houston and nearly deported, according to The Eagle, a newspaper covering the College Station, Tex., area. The Washington Post and The Guardian also reported on the case.

Henry Rousso, an Egyptian-born French citizen, is a senior researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research. Richard Golsan, the director of the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M, reported at the symposium that Rousso had been “mistakenly detained” upon arriving Wednesday evening.

“When he called me with this news two nights ago, he was waiting for customs officials to send him back to Paris as an illegal alien on the first flight out,” The Eagle reported Golsan as saying. Golsan reported that Rousso was subsequently released after the intervention of a Texas A&M law professor and director of the university's Immigrant Rights Clinic.

This story is so representative of what is wrong with the Trump admin.