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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Donald Trump Denounces Al Franken But Remains Silent On Roy Moore

Republicans’ hypocrisy continues. Big surprise, right? Meanwhile....

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Senate Dems Leave No Room For Ambiguity In Denouncing Al Franken

A woman has accused the senator of groping her without consent, and his colleagues say the claims should be taken seriously.

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Texas Sheriff Threatens To Charge Driver Over ‘F**k Trump’ Sticker

Many people remind the sheriff about that whole free speech thing. I guess free speech only counts when Republicans use it.

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Jared Kushner Failed To Disclose WikiLeaks Email And Russia Dinner Invite, Senators Say

The Senate Judiciary Committee wants more information from Trump’s son-in-law. He Went To Jared was a naughty boy.

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Revenge Is A Rotten Way To Run A Country

Looking back at the last tumultuous year, to me, one of the saddest aspects of the Trump candidacy and presidency is that both in part were built from one of the basest of human impulses: revenge.

We’re taught that ideally, the desire to run for office should reflect a commitment to public service. And we know that the reality is far too often otherwise, running to slake a thirst for power and money that overpowers the greater good.

Yet to seek elected office for revenge, to use it to get back at someone or inflict harm on them or anyone associated with them seems in some ways even worse; shabby, petty and immoral.

In Trump’s case, you don’t have to go to Vienna to figure out that much of his egotism and vainglory — and those tweets, God help us — seem aimed at getting back for slights that can go back just hours and minutes or sometimes even years. To be specific, remember the story of the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner when President Obama jokingly skewered Trump, who sat at his table in grim-faced, aggrieved silence.

Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker was in the Washington Hilton ballroom that night and wrote four years later:

“[O]ne can’t help but suspect that, on that night, Trump’s own sense of public humiliation became so overwhelming that he decided, perhaps at first unconsciously, that he would, somehow, get his own back — perhaps even pursue the presidency after all, no matter how nihilistically or absurdly, and redeem himself.”

After the election, from each man there was feigned magnanimity toward the other but it didn’t last long. Like an uncontrollable tic, Trump continues to obsess over Obama, blaming any and all problems on his predecessor. Nothing, as we know all too well by now, is ever Trump’s fault.

That's what I've been saying for the longest time. All those executive orders Trump issued, reversing practically everything Obama had done was all about Dolt45 getting payback for being humiliated at that dinner. And our country is all the worse for his uncontrollable pettiness.

[numberthirty]

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Jared Kushner Failed To Disclose WikiLeaks Email And Russia Dinner Invite, Senators Say

The Senate Judiciary Committee wants more information from Trump’s son-in-law. He Went To Jared was a naughty boy.

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Man, he is just asking to be charged with something.

[Dalak]

Luckily, that is not what I am doing.

It is the specific way he chose to, as a part of a pattern of humor he apparently believes is funny, that is the issue. Which is before you even factor in what might have happened during the audition Ms. Tweeden mentioned.

Al Franken doesn't answer to you, so by your own logic you should ignore it like everything else in my post. That's before you factor in how you are once again ignoring inconvenient things to continue to make your narrative, like you've admitted to before.

I'm not feeling as depressed anymore, so thanks for that anyway!

Donald Trump Denounces Al Franken But Remains Silent On Roy Moore

Republicans’ hypocrisy continues. Big surprise, right? Meanwhile....

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Senate Dems Leave No Room For Ambiguity In Denouncing Al Franken

A woman has accused the senator of groping her without consent, and his colleagues say the claims should be taken seriously.

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After reading the last couple of pages, it should be clear that hypocrisy isn't limited to Roy Moore's silent defenders. And I'll say that the charges should be investigated and taken seriously just like I did when Takei was accused, but I'm not for anyone being blackballed over jokes that are really just jokes. There is no ambiguity at all in that these were originally meant as jokes after all unlike so many offensive statements that were said in speeches and so on that were clearly said seriously at the time. This isn't Daniel Tosh or someone deliberately out to piss someone off by trolling them after all.

[worstblogever]

Three years ago, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Victoria Jackson, who since her days as a performer on Saturday Night Live has gone madder than a hatter wearing a top hat full of s***house rats. She ran for office in Tennessee to be a county commissioner, for whatever reason, but since 2008 Jackson has, without comedic intent, used her celebrity (or former celebrity) to tell people about how Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ, a communist who enslaved African-Americans again, just like Hitler, and had allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to infiltrate our government. Obviously she took the news that he won a second term poorly, and said that “America died”. She also railed against an episode of Glee for featuring two gay characters kissing, defended Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remarks, compared the Sandy Hook Massacre to abortion, and complains about the lack of a White History Month. She has not been on the ballot for several years now, and people still honestly aren’t sure if her uber-conservative persona is a parody of actual conservatives, or she’s serious and really that insane.


In both 2015, and in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Jake Anderegg, a Utah State Senator who sponsored HB 391, the Utah GOP’s effort to prohibit the Medicaid Expansion in their state, and keep much needed federal dollars out of the hands of their citizens back in March of 2013. Early into Anderegg’s first term, he was the subject of controversy when he and the President of the Utah State Senate Wayne Niederhouser started joking around on Twitter about how the men’s room at the capitol was always occupied, and Anderegg joked that he was strongly considering a gender identity change so that he could use the women’s restroom, instead. He still won re-election easily, not being challenged in the GOP Primary in 2014, and in his second term, it looked like at first, Anderegg’s big controversy would make a spectacle of himself by arguing his own traffic tickets after he got busted doing 71 MPH in a 35 MPH zone, and tried claiming the officer both exaggerated about what the speed limit was where he was driving, and that he wasn’t going as fast as he was accused of. Under oath, he finally admitted to going 60 to 65 MPH, but not after fighting, kicking, and screaming about “entrapment” and “revenue generation” by the local police, which really doesn't amount to much when you're flaunting traffic laws by double the posted speed limit. But in late June 2015, when he drafted a bill that would will “end government agencies’ involvement in issuing marriage licenses.” In other words, if gays could get married, then NO ONE could . The historic implications of this are the real kicker, as many critics noted it was similar to the disgusting reaction many Southern politicians who were in favor of segregation had after finding out they would need to integrate schools, and instead decided to close them so neither white, nor black children could attend. And when you place yourself in the company of bigots of that caliber, well, congratulations, you win a CSGOPOTD profile. We have little to update on Anderegg, save for the fact that he was throwing cold water on Mormons who were suggesting a protest vote, and rallying around Evan McMullin in the 2016 elections, and telling them to stand with Donald Trump. Anderegg, who so staunchly wants to defend the sanctity of marriage from gay people, rallied them around an admitted serial sexual predator who has committed adultery multiple times on his three wives, and boasted about it. And, we're filled with sadness and loathing to point out that Anderegg managed to casually run for re-election in the Utah State Senate in 2016, and was handed victory because no one bothered to run against him, whatsoever, in the primary of the general election.

We have no new updates on Anderegg at this time, but will remind readers he’s not up for re-election until 2020.

[TheInvisibleMan]

I still maintain Franken resign or not run for reelection after his current term

[ZombieHavoc]

I think Franken should resign too, but I am going to be so annoyed if he does, and Moore gets elected.

I feel like that is just what's going to happen.

Conservatives elected a known predator as president, so....their fake outrage over Franken is just obnoxious at this point.

[Tami]

I still maintain Franken resign or not run for reelection after his current term

I still maintain that he was set up by someone trying to take attention aweay from Roy Moore and that anything he may have done doesn't even come close to what Moore, Weinstein, Trump, Cosby those like them have done.
'
What guy here hasn't had a time when they have made a bad joke, said something questionable, or similar....anyone here enough of a saint to be able ot cast the first stone? Anyone here enough of a saint to make it to congress without one or two skeletons peeking out of the closet?

Sacrificing Al Frankin, who has done an exemplary job as Senator, just to prove a point is just giving the Republicans what they want. A way to whittle down the number of Democratic Senators so that they can maintain control over Congress no matter how bad things get for them in 2018.

[Jackmando7]

Texas Sheriff Threatens To Charge Driver Over ‘F**k Trump’ Sticker

Many people remind the sheriff about that whole free speech thing. I guess free speech only counts when Republicans use it.

I don't think they should be facing charges, but that is a rather offensive sticker to have plastered on their truck. There is no need for that type of language in public places where women and children might see it IMO.

[Kal-El Summers]

Oh look, one of Trump's shuck-n-buckers stepped back out of the shadows only to fall flat on his face on national TV once again.

[ZombieHavoc]

I don't think they should be facing charges, but that is a rather offensive sticker to have plastered on their truck. There is no need for that type of language in public places where women and children might see it IMO.

I agree that the language is in poor taste (for children), but is it illegal? People where shirts with F bombs on them around, right? And there were "Trump that Bitch" bumper stickers so.

We know free speech only applies to conservatives, at least as far as them whining about it goes, but you know.

People are allowed to wear confederate flag shirts, celebrating the ownership and enslavement of a race of people, which is also in poor taste, at best.

[Kal-El Summers]

I was getting breakfast from Hardee's three days ago and the truck I was behind had a bumper sticker that had a violent act being done to a black figure and a white woman figure saying how race has nothing to do with it. :/

[Mecegirl]

I still maintain that he was set up by someone trying to take attention aweay from Roy Moore and that anything he may have done doesn't even come close to what Moore, Weinstein, Trump, Cosby those like them have done.
'
What guy here hasn't had a time when they have made a bad joke, said something questionable, or similar....anyone here enough of a saint to be able ot cast the first stone? Anyone here enough of a saint to make it to congress without one or two skeletons peeking out of the closet?

Sacrificing Al Frankin, who has done an exemplary job as Senator, just to prove a point is just giving the Republicans what they want. A way to whittle down the number of Democratic Senators so that they can maintain control over Congress no matter how bad things get for them in 2018.

Al Frankin is an interesting case. He didn't claim to do no wrong. He sincerely apologized. He called for an ethics investigation on himself, and the woman who accused him has accepted his apology. So...what else is there to do? He has reacted like a man who now understands how our culture shapes us. He has done better than any of the other accused men thus far. It's not that he deserves a cookie, its that he actually responded to the accusations like an adult and its shocking how rare that is.

[ZombieHavoc]

I was getting breakfast from Hardee's three days ago and the truck I was behind had a bumper sticker that had a violent act being done to a black figure and a white woman figure saying how race has nothing to do with it. :/

What the hell...

[ZombieHavoc]

I guess the woman with the profane anti-Trump decal was arrested on an outstanding fraud warrant?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-w...ecal-arrested/

If she's guilty of fraud, she's guilty of fraud...but I think we know why she was really arrested.

[Tami]

Al Frankin is an interesting case. He didn't claim to do no wrong. He sincerely apologized. He called for an ethics investigation on himself, and the woman who accused him has accepted his apology. So...what else is there to do?

I would like to see it left at this, but the media plus Democrats who are overeager to prove how saintly they are by condemning Frankin publicly before the facts are determined, that's the problem.

Again, it is the same tactic used with the Clinton emails. Trump in 2016 is Moore in 2017; so to distract from it they do this kind of thing. And the Democrats are so high and mighty in their saintly values they end up playing right into it or making it worse.