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

[numberthirty]

Anyway, I'll keep trusting my own political insight. It let me call Trumps victory back in December of 2015. Hell, a friend of mine won 100K off of it. So...yup, I'll go with my ability to discern what's going on. Since I've been consistently right about outcomes for going on 2 years of the current political climate, I think my track record is sound.

"Track Record" talk has a tendency to be cheap.

Some predictions of future races right now would go a ways towards actually establishing this being reality.

[TakoM]

I think it is difficult to say what Trump did and what not. The reason for this is on onside Trump himself and the other side over aggressive medias which jump on everything what could bring him down and his political enemies doing the same.
Which doesn't mean there isn't anything but a lot of stuff is just thin air.

Another Topic (if we/you haven't had it ) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/w...ed-report.html
For me this sound like the US loosing the war in Afghanistan .. like predicted from people which had cared about the topic before the US went there.

Reason is/was modern warfare and international law can't deal with tribe structures anymore

[InformationGeek]

I don't know who is doing political campaigning over in New Jersey but they can go f**k themselves. This is starting to trend so keep an eye on this...

[JCAll]

I think it is difficult to say what Trump did and what not. The reason for this is on onside Trump himself and the other side over aggressive medias which jump on everything what could bring him down and his political enemies doing the same.
Which doesn't mean there isn't anything but a lot of stuff is just thin air.

Another Topic (if we/you haven't had it ) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/w...ed-report.html
For me this sound like the US loosing the war in Afghanistan .. like predicted from people which had cared about the topic before the US went there.

Reason is/was modern warfare and international law can't deal with tribe structures anymore

It might not be worth much, but in my opinion we lost the War in Afghanistan a long time ago. Yeah, before we even went in.
I did hear some rumor that we were going to try to privatize the war in Afghanistan, and run it for profit. That terrifies me too much to think about though.

[TakoM]

Which is why i suspect a Trump re-election (if his administration doesn't implode). Dems are fighting tooth and nail to keep out progressives and new bloods. The fact that Pelosi, and Schumer still even have a job is fuckin outrageous.

I don't know much about the background story of those guys but here in Europe there is a big generation and dogma shift to the left from what here is the equality to the democrats either this or they are crushed and don't matter anymore.
Funny thing is the REP equalities are going also more to the right. In general away from the dead cared middle part of politics.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

That's the real mind blower. Joy Reid said she didn't really buy that until it happened, and she is not the only person I saw who seemed to see it that way.

Another political commentator said the same thing (Goldie Taylor). Man was they wrong

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

I remember Bernie supporters saying Hillary didn't have the numbers to beat Trump (But Bernie did). But they basically brushed them off, as sour grapes. TBH i knew she as going to lose because millennials, and progressives didn't like her, sexism, she ran a shit campaign, and young blacks was either divided over her, or just lukewarm to her (hence the sarcastic hashtag #IGuessImWithHer).

I knew she was dead in the water before the primaries was even over. Her polling was always rocky.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

It might not be worth much, but in my opinion we lost the War in Afghanistan a long time ago. Yeah, before we even went in.
I did hear some rumor that we were going to try to privatize the war in Afghanistan, and run it for profit. That terrifies me too much to think about though.

A part of me wonders what's the actual solution to fighting Al Qaeda.

[worstblogever]

So you think the author of the article, former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile, is on Trump's side?

Not at all what I said.

We knew the story already. Brazile had a book coming out anyway. Her motivation is money.

However, the people focusing on her story again, and trying to dive into it anew need the political equivalent of a life preserver to distract from a far greater grievance that we did not already know about.

[TakoM]

It might not be worth much, but in my opinion we lost the War in Afghanistan a long time ago. Yeah, before we even went in.
I did hear some rumor that we were going to try to privatize the war in Afghanistan, and run it for profit. That terrifies me too much to think about though.

They use private security companies in the past and present down there.
It not only the problem down there while IS(IS) is certainly doomed to go under as the enemy of all the other fractions.
The terrorist attacks in the west will make the tension between the west and the middle(or near) east keeps increasing this will end in a kinda isolation of the region and already created persecution of Muslims in our own countries.

Simply speaking we can win every battle but we can't win the war because it is very smiler like this only bloodier :

[Tami]

I don't know who is doing political campaigning over in New Jersey but they can go f**k themselves. This is starting to trend so keep an eye on this...

New Jersey isn't immune to this kind of insanity, unfortunately.

[Yagamifire]

You forgot: "...and smoking?"

Actually, like the president, I don't smoke nor drink (and never have)

when his supporters started referring to the Federal Register as "Fake News"

that was the straw that broke the "maybe we can work with these people" horses back

If you can't work with people...what exactly are you proposing?

Exterminating them?

What prevented McCain, Romney and Obama from being good men?

I'm from a Navy family and have had a very negative opinion of McCain since I knew his name.

I wasn't following close enough to make a judgment about Romney. Obama, I was cautiously optimistic about, but his embracing of racial division and various other things (including a complete disinterest in making good on a number of promises) wiped away any hope I could have had in him. There's also his continued refusal to do as other presidents have done within my living memory and allow the current president to act without the previous president constantly commenting and speaking up. Again, it's incredibly divisive. Now, add into that his pushing of socialized healthcare (which I am strongly against) and other policy blunders (which I don't attach a moral component to necessarily, so please don't think I'm weighing that as a moral component) and I have serious reasons for not liking his presidency that spans from moral to legislative.

Hypothetically speaking, if this ends up with Donald Trump in prison for rape, will you change your views on this?

Spoilers: Hell No.

Spoilers: It utterly depends on the evidence presented.

Nice assumption though!

Heck, it wouldn't even take a conviction. I didn't think OJ was innocent just because he was acquitted...nor do I believe Michael Jackson harmed children despite settling on cases. The evidence in both situations are what informed my opinion.

Hold on, back up. How? A bet?
That's a ludicrous amount of money.

Yes. A bet.

$14k as the bet against about 8:1 odds. Pay out was $112k or so with a take home of about $84k after the house took its cut.

I would have put down a few thousand myself but at the time it wasn't financially viable.

New Jersey isn't immune to this kind of insanity, unfortunately.

See here's the thing...

The fact that people don't immediately realize this is made by an anti-Trump person is either willful ignorance or actual medical delusion. I mean...come on. This is hilarously over the top. I sometimes wonder if people watch Hogan's Heroes and think it's a documentary.

How many false flags does it take for people to be even a little skeptical. Yeesh!

[Panfoot]

See here's the thing...

The fact that people don't immediately realize this is made by an anti-Trump person is either willful ignorance or actual medical delusion. I mean...come on. This is hilarously over the top. I sometimes wonder if people watch Hogan's Heroes and think it's a documentary.

How many false flags does it take for people to be even a little skeptical. Yeesh!

You may not have heard, given your news sources, but we've had people marching in the streets chanting white supremacist slogans. The fact that you are so readily and easily able to just go "It must be a false flag!" when this kind of shit has become increasingly more common after the type of garbage people who spout this stuff have been emboldened by your "good guy" president, is perhaps the biggest display of willful ignorance i've seen all year.

Also, for a third and final time, still care to say Trump is a "good guy" when he's admitted he uses his power and wealth to sexually assault woman? Again, the direct quotes are "I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything." and "Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."

[Yagamifire]

Elizabeth Warren has just come out and stated she also believes the Democrat primary was rigged in Hillary's favor by the DNC

[Tami]

Elizabeth Warren has just come out and stated she also believes the Democrat primary was rigged in Hillary's favor by the DNC

Elizabeth Warren and Donna Brazile are Wrong

Both Elizabeth Warren and Donna Brazile have declared the 2016 primaries “rigged” in Hillary Clinton’s favor. This claim is entirely false and can only be made by those with political motives, whether rekindling popularity among the Bernie Sanders wing of the party or practicing revisionist history to shift society’s memory away from ethical improprieties that reflect poorly on Brazile, but not the the Clinton campaign.

Warren’s incorrect agreement that the DNC “rigged” the primary follows an explosive — at least to those not politically trained — excerpt from Brazile’s forthcoming book in which she reveals that the Clinton campaign used its Hillary Victory Fund to keep the DNC financially afloat in return for controlling a number of its operations.

That’s not new information, it’s not shocking information, and it in no way “rigs” an entire primary. In August 2015, the DNC publicly announced its joint fundraising venture with the Clinton campaign — a remarkably poor way to hide the information Brazile claims is a bombshell. Just three months later, Bernie Sanders himself signed a similar agreement with the party (to which he never belonged until he sought the presidency).

So Brazile’s Super Explosive Report That Changes Everything™ reveals no new information, but does rekindle the ignorant passions that rally those angered, without reason, at the DNC. We can only hope Brazile, who noted in the book her desire to get to the bottom of the alleged “rigging,” didn’t expend money or resources to find a document of which all knew in 2015.

Furthermore, in absolutely no way does a campaign trying to control party operations rig an election. The party organization itself does not fall under campaign control until delegates select a nominee. Up to that point, the party’s national committee is pretty impotent: It (wrongly) doesn’t choose favorites and even if certain staff members voice their desire to see one candidate elected over another, they can do nothing about it.

No DNC operatives hit the ground during the primaries to campaign for or against a candidate; the DNC spends no money on ads to boost or deride presidential aspirants; the party itself does little — and it almost always does little. Fixation on the DNC and RNC largely misses the mark because those committees have little actual power or campaign prowess. Most actions and funds go to campaigns or the national party’s committee arms (eg, the DCCC or RNSC).