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

[Malvolio]

Can somebody check on Ann Coulter?

I know she is evil and wants to see most of us die horribly deaths, but at the end of the day, she is a human being. Allegedly.

I didn't read the article, but I saw a headline today about Ann Coulter saying she might die alone. Well, she's got nobody to blame but herself, I say, for being such a mean-spirited harpy.

[Malvolio]

Report: CDC Lists ‘Fetus,’ ‘Transgender’ As Forbidden Words

As Dr. Jenner whispered to Rick Grimes, "We're all infected."

[Tazirai]

Particularly ironic since it comes from a show that fetishized military service for an entire generation. Many of whom are now dead, thanks to the Republican-created and Republican-sustained Eternal War in the Middle East.

Before anyone accuses me of 'not supporting our troops!', know that I am from a military family, my father fought in Gulf War 1, both grandfathers fought in WW2, I have uncles who fought in Korea and Vietnam, and so on. I spent the first years of my life living on bases, and most of the kids I knew growing up joined the military and wound up among the dead in this pointless, greedy fucking war.

And my mother said to me today, "Well, at least war keeps the population down."

I was gobsmacked, and said "So does easy access to contraception and family planning services!"

She agreed, but also said that those things were 'against god's will.'..

So, apparently, god prefers that we feed our young into the meatgrinder of Eternal War, rather than teaching them how to not have a baby until they are ready...

I'm Military also and my daughter currently in the Air Force Academy, and she HATES the religious Right on campus. Most of the cadets do.
My dad served in 'Nam and Korea.
So it's always stunning to people when I tell them the military doesn't need the amount og money we dump into it yearly, and most of the wars we fight are shit we caused.
I wish ALL Americans had to do a minimum of two years, so we can get Vets off the high pedestal we put them on. When everyone is a vet, we all realize we're human first. Not some damned video characters chasing after the "Villain" of the week.
We can then appreciate humans for what they are, humans. Life to me is birth to death and then the children that come after. No generation is an Island, sad that some religious folk see it that way.
Birth Control isn't against God's will, it's just unproven backwards ass thinking.

PERSONALLY, I stopped being nice to my family and friends about religion. They drive me nuts and NO, I don't respect your beliefs.

[worstblogever]

Three years ago on this date, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of the former U.S. Congressman from Indiana, Dan Burton, a former head of the House Oversight Committee who used that body to conduct witch hunts against the Clinton administration all through the 1990s, including at one point subpoenaing the entire Christmas Card list of Bill and Hillary. Burton also claimed the Clintons had former aide Vince Foster murdered, conducting a recreation of his death using a cantaloupe and handgun in his yard for assembled reporters, and further enflamed the insanity of conspiracy theorists by releasing false data about what happened at the Branch Davidian compound, in Waco, Texas, during the cult’s standoff with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. After becoming appreciably more quiet during the Bush administration, in 2009, the uglier side of Rep. Burton returned, as he started signing on to Birther Bills, making false statements about Barack Obama conducting deals to get George Soros rich, and in the middle of a Congressional hearing on autism, trying to use data gathered by disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield to prove a link between autism and vaccines. Burton finally retired in 2012, and is now in his eighties.


In both 2015, and in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Ada Fisher , a highly anti-gay member of the Republican National Committee and failed political candidate from North Carolina who unsuccessfully ran for office to be a U.S. Senator in 2002 against Elizabeth Dole , then cried foul to complain that she wasn’t allowed to participate in television forums. In 2004 and 2006 she attempted to challenge Congressman Mel Watt in North Carolina’s 12th District, losing handily both times.Fisher supports the nutty idea of adopting a flat tax, and on immigration, runs to the right of even former President Bush, whose guest worker program, she classified as “amnesty”. Fisher has a few typical conservative positions like how she is opposed to gay marriage. Her argument, though, seems limited to the fact that gays should have to wait, because ”Marriage ought to be between one man and one woman at one time, and I'm still waiting.” Fisher’s tantrum after losing to Elizabeth Dole was not a run-off, but somewhat of a pattern of behavior, as she also threw a fit when a candidate other than the one she supported for the Chairman of the Republican National Committee won back in 2009. About six weeks into Michael Steele being elected, Fisher was trying to drum up support to get his resignation, in effect asking for the election to be conducted again until a result she liked occurred. The same thing happened in the 2015 GOP Primary race in Mississippi for Thad Cochran’s U.S. Senate seat, when she wanted Reince Priebus to investigate how Chris McDaniel could have lost to Cochran, volunteering herself to look into “racism” that led to Cochran’s victory. Fisher’s notorious about being so reactionary on both sides of the aisle, and if you need another example, there was the time in 2010 when she e-mailed the media a link to the following Youtube video she saw a poorly edited Youtube video that admitted to being made of “snippets” of President Obama, but Fisher seemed generally conflicted if it was legitimate, or made of out of context sound bites when her message asked, ”This tape should be investigated and verified. I am not an expert on tapes but if this isn't doctored we have a constitutional issue of humongous proportions to deal with.” That wasn’t Fisher’s only time taking shots at President Obama, by any stretch. In 2008, while campaigning for Sen. John McCain during his presidential run, Fisher tried saying that Obama should never be president because he admitted to using marijuana in his book, and that should disqualify him from the office. The media asked her how President Clinton could have held office, after his own discussions about marijuana, and all of the discussions about President Bush’s previous cocaine use, and she actually tried saying that it’s okay for a presidential candidate to have used drugs… so long as they lied about it and never admitted it. The last we heard from her, she was putting out editorials where she seemly like she was trying to convince herself that Donald Trump wouldn't keep ties to his businesses to avoid conflicts of interests (Hint: He didn’t exactly, because his children still have controlling interests in his company, and get regular updates from dad).

If you were wondering to what depths of selling out Fisher might stoop to, well, in August 2017, only days after the attacks by Neo-Nazis and White Nationalists in Charlottesville, she was oddly silent about the bigotry and hatred of the Alt-Right. What she was far more concerned with, and wrote an op-ed about was seeing an African American woman but a noose around the neck of a Confederate statue in Durham, North Carolina, and bring it down.

At this point, the question isn’t if Fisher is drinking the GOP’s Kool-Aid, but whether she has drank so much that she is, at this point, the Kool-Aid Man.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Republicans Are Voting To Give A Huge Tax Cut To Many Members Of Congress

But they insist they didn’t give that a thought. I got one word for that----BULLSHIT!!!

**********

Rep. Adam Schiff Warns Of GOP Plans To Shutter House’s Russia Probe

The top Democrat is “increasingly worried” of Republicans’ attempts to close the inquiry into Russia’s election meddling. Not good. Not good at all.

**********

Fox News Women Furious Over Rupert Murdoch Comments On Sexual Misconduct

The media mogul said claims of rampant sexual harassment at the network are “nonsense.” Let's take bets on how many of those women quit Faux News from outrage over Murdoch's comments. I'm guessing the number will be VERY low.

**********

Omarosa Says Donald Trump Is ‘Racial’ But ‘Not A Racist’

She regrets not seeing the level of diversity in the White House she “strove to see.” Seriously? If Omarosa thought she'd see ANYTHING in the way of diversity in a Donald Trump administration, she was either naive, delusional or just plain dumber than a box of hammers.

**********

Ann Coulter Fears She’ll ‘Die Alone’ In Self-Pitying Tweet Against Child Tax Credit

“We singles live empty lives of quiet desperation and will die alone,” she wrote. Oh, WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Wrong, sweetie, you'll die alone because no one with one working brain cell wants to be around your miserable skank ass!

[PaulBullion]

This is disturbing:

Racist flyers up all over at my alma mater, #TempleU. They read "Hey stupid n word! Bernie would have won if it weren't for you!" Police have pics of the folks who put them up & are investigating. So disgusted with these folks & their racist fauxgressive cultism.

https://twitter.com/VABVOX/status/941931800485683200

[Tami]

Executive at Consultancy Hired by E.P.A. Scrutinized Agency Employees Critical of Trump

One of the top executives of a consulting firm that the Environmental Protection Agency has recently hired to help it with media affairs has spent the past year investigating agency employees who have been critical of the Trump administration, federal records show.

The firm, Definers Public Affairs, based in Virginia, specializes in conducting opposition research, meaning that it seeks to find damaging information on political or corporate rivals.

A vice president for the firm, Allan Blutstein, federal records show, has submitted at least 40 Freedom of Information Act requests to the E.P.A. since President Trump was sworn in. Many of those requests target employees known to be questioning management at the E.P.A. since Scott Pruitt, the agency’s administrator, was confirmed.

Mr. Blutstein, in an interview, said he was taking aim at “resistance” figures in the federal government, adding that he hoped to discover whether they had done anything that might embarrass them or hurt their cause.

“I wondered if they were emailing critical things about the agency on government time and how frequently they were corresponding about this,” he said. “And did they do anything that would be useful for Republicans.”

Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman at the E.P.A., said the decision to hire Definers, which signed a $120,000 no-bid contract to monitor and collect news coverage about the agency, was solely financial. The E.P.A. previously contracted with Bulletin Intelligence L.L.C. for media services at a rate of $207,000 a year. That contract was open to other bids.

“Definers was awarded the contract to do our press clips at a rate that is $87,000 cheaper than our previous vendor and they are providing no other services,” Mr. Wilcox said in an emailed statement. “If you have questions regarding how Definers operates, we encourage you to contact them.”

The contract, which was awarded this month, is part of an unconventional news media operation that Mr. Pruitt has set up at the agency as he tries to get a handle on the coverage of him by newspapers, including The New York Times, and criticism by Democrats in Congress and environmental groups. The decision to award the contract was first reported by Mother Jones.

[InformationGeek]

I knew there has to be more to this guy. I mentioned Omar Navarro a while back as the guy running against Rep. Maxine Waters. Apparently he likes creepy things done by Holocaust deniers.


Also, because Trump is heartless and soulless, he invited NRA officials to the White House on the anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre.

[Tami]

The EPA Hired a Major Republican Opposition Research Firm to Track Press Activity: It promises “war room” style media monitoring.

Using taxpayer dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency has hired a cutting-edge Republican PR firm that specializes in digging up opposition research to help Administrator Scott Pruitt’s office track and shape press coverage of the agency.

According to federal contracting records, earlier this month Pruitt’s office inked a no-bid $120,000 contract with Definers Corp., a Virginia-based public relations firm founded by Matt Rhoades, who managed Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Following Romney’s defeat, Rhoades established America Rising, an ostensibly independent political action committee that works closely with the Republican National Committee and Republican candidates to mine damning information on opponents. Other higher-ups at Definers include former RNC research director Joe Pounder, who’s been described as “a master of opposition research,” and senior vice president Colin Reed, an oppo-research guru billed as “among the leaders of the war on [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren.”

This for-profit consulting firm offers a variety of public relations services such as digital strategy, political consulting, and media relations. According to its website, Definers’ clients include Fortune 500 corporations, political groups, and nonprofits. In the past, both Marco Rubio and John McCain used their services, and since the 2016 election so has Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.). The client list for America Rising includes the RNC, Republican candidates such as Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.), and super-PACs such as the Mitch McConnell-linked Senate Leadership Fund and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads.

The company also specializes in using the press and social media to “validate your narrative.” According to the company’s website, one of the tools to help do this is its “Definers Console” media-tracking technology. Reed said his firm contracted with Pruitt’s office at the EPA, which is the first governmental client to pay for the Definers Console. The technology promises “war room”-style media monitoring, analysis, and advice, according to marketing materials. A brochure for the Console assures users that they will be able to “monitor for potential crises, as well as to track their message dissemination, relevant responses to their messaging, and what competitors’ actions have been.”

[GammaRayThrill]

Speaking of all the weird scandal, the Weinstein Spacey stuff

Terry Crews Accuses WME of Spying on Him and His Family Over Sexual Assault Case
https://www.thewrap.com/terry-crews-...-assault-case/
“The town is compromised. But me, and my team, are not”

Terry Crews took to Twitter on Friday to accuse WME of “retaliation” in his ongoing legal battle with the agency.

Last month, Crews accused the then-head of WME’s Motion Picture Department, Adam Venit, of groping him at a party. Now, he’s accusing the agency of hacking his son’s computer and possibly bugging his family.

“I believe my family is being tracked and possibly bugged,” Crews said in a series of tweets, “Someone hacked into the computer my son and I built together. I have to shut it down and replace the hard drive.”

Crews also said WME executives attempted to use Russell Simmons to “pressure me into dropping my case.” “Somehow they thought he was the “King of Black people,” he wrote.

WME declined to comment.

Since coming forward with the allegation against Venit last month, Crews filed a sexual assault report with the Los Angeles Police Department and filed his own lawsuit against the agent.

“LAPD task force detectives let me know these people don’t play fair. There are a lot of secrets to protect, and they will do anything to keep them,” Crews wrote. “The town is compromised. But me, and my team, are not. If I were to have a timely “accident” — you know where to look.”

[TheInvisibleMan]

segment on AM Joy this morning with the black activists in Alabama

and to NO ONES SURPRISE, there was little to no engagement from the Jones campaign, they took it upon themselves to get people out to the polls

that's how it works, no one wants black people around until they frakkin' need us

[TheInvisibleMan]

[Tendrin]

I don't think Mary Franson has been brought up here before but I could be wrong. She definitely belongs in WBE's queue if she's not there already.

n March 2012, Franson was featured in a YouTube video in which she shared a statement made by someone she referred to as "a friend":
"Isn't it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves."

She apologized....

And then she said it again: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...n_1683694.html

On April 20, 2012 Franson objected to the opening prayer on the House floor, where the House Chaplain Rev. Francis Grady mentioned Earth Day and tied it to the Gulf oil spill. Franson tweeted that the Prayer "may as well been dedicated to "Mother Earth", coincidence? I think not. 2nd offensive prayer in a month." [17]

Franson was one of the authors of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (HF 1613), introduced on April 28, 2011.[18]

When a transgender candidate won an election to city council in Minneapolis, she couldn't help herself:

http://www.twincities.com/2017/11/10...sgender-tweet/

Republican Rep. Mary Franson, of Alexandria, posted a tweet on her personal account after two transgender candidates were elected to the Minneapolis City Council this week. It read, “A guy who thinks he’s a girl is still a guy with a mental health condition.”

Franson released a response to the backlash on her Facebook page, saying she “should have shown grace and not come across the way (she) did.” She added it’s not the first time she’s offended “social justice warriors and it won’t be the last.”
Franson’s personal Twitter and Facebook accounts have been deactivated.
The newly elected Minneapolis council members are Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham.
Jenkins, a 56-year-old black transgender woman, spent years as a policy aide to two previous council members. Cunningham, a 29-year-old black transgender man, worked in the mayor’s office.

And on twitter, she locked her account after receiving backlash for a tweet saying it 'wasn't a legislators duty to meet with a 'proudly partisan' democrat group'.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/sta...59261399625728

[Tami]

segment on AM Joy this morning with the black activists in Alabama

and to NO ONES SURPRISE, there was little to no engagement from the Jones campaign, they took it upon themselves to get people out to the polls

that's how it works, no one wants black people around until they frakkin' need us

They also said that there was positive movement in the right direction. I agree, the DNC is moving too slow, but they are moving.

One thing, my local Democratic Club has had trouble bringing in active members, the hardest ones to bring in are Non-whites. True, my area has been historically white, but there are people in town who aren't and who are registed Democrat.

So, I ask you, how do we get them involved? Seriously, I would love to see at least a few active members who aren't white. We are reaching out, but it's hard getting people motivated.

[Malvolio]

Republicans Are Voting To Give A Huge Tax Cut To Many Members Of Congress

But they insist they didn’t give that a thought. I got one word for that----BULLSHIT!!!

**********

Rep. Adam Schiff Warns Of GOP Plans To Shutter House’s Russia Probe

The top Democrat is “increasingly worried” of Republicans’ attempts to close the inquiry into Russia’s election meddling. Not good. Not good at all.

**********

Fox News Women Furious Over Rupert Murdoch Comments On Sexual Misconduct

The media mogul said claims of rampant sexual harassment at the network are “nonsense.” Let's take bets on how many of those women quit Faux News from outrage over Murdoch's comments. I'm guessing the number will be VERY low.

**********

Omarosa Says Donald Trump Is ‘Racial’ But ‘Not A Racist’

She regrets not seeing the level of diversity in the White House she “strove to see.” Seriously? If Omarosa thought she'd see ANYTHING in the way of diversity in a Donald Trump administration, she was either naive, delusional or just plain dumber than a box of hammers.

**********

Ann Coulter Fears She’ll ‘Die Alone’ In Self-Pitying Tweet Against Child Tax Credit

“We singles live empty lives of quiet desperation and will die alone,” she wrote. Oh, WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Wrong, sweetie, you'll die alone because no one with one working brain cell wants to be around your miserable skank ass!

Coulter will die alone because she's a mean-spirited harpy.