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

[Tendrin]

I think people like Glenn Greenwald, whom I used to really like when he and I were both young, he writing for Salon and me using dial-up Internet, people like him needed Russia to be a nothingburger so they could continue their "Hillary was a weak candidate and the Democratic party is broken" narrative. If it comes out that they would always rig the end result against her, they would lose their boogeywoman.

Greenwald, I read him on Salon at the time and started off liking him, but his self-righteousness was always really strong, and I could see where he was going a long time before he actually got there.

[numberthirty]

Perhaps America should worry more about it's sucking chest wound problem before thinking about plastic surgery.

Not if the plastic surgery will probably increase the odds of being able to deal with the sucking chest wound successfully.

[PaulBullion]

Not if the plastic surgery will probably increase the odds of being able to deal with the sucking chest wound successfully.

Narrator's voice: It wouldn't.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Much Of America Will Kick Off 2018 With Record Low Temperatures

Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world will be abnormally warm. Meanwhile....

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Trump Just Used Normal Winter Weather To Undermine The Science Behind Climate Change

The president re-upped a favored talking point of climate change deniers. In other words, talking to his ignorant base.

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Disney World Guest Mercilessly Heckles Animatronic Donald Trump

“Lock him up! Lock him up!” Ahhhhh! That warms the very cockles of my heart!

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What I Learned From Reading All The Media Safaris Into ‘Trump Country’ I Could Handle Before Wanting To Die

Turns out Trump supporters still support Trump. Hardly a revelation. You can't cure stupid.

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Alleged ‘Nigerian Prince’ Email Scammer Arrested In Louisiana

He does not appear to be Nigerian or a prince. See for yourself:

[worstblogever]

So, anyone still wanna call Russia a 'nothingburger'?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/u...adopoulos.html


Seems like Padoupolis' plea deal may be a bigger deal than we knew.

This revelation also negates recent claims by Hannity, Fox News, and both Congressman Devin Nunes and Congressman Jim Jordan that "the investigation hangs on the Steele Dossier, which Democrats funded". Well, even if the Steele Dossier was funded originally by Democrats (which it wasn't, at first, it was started by Jeb Bush campaign operatives)... even if that's true, that revelation isn't square one. It's the supposed "coffee boy" admitting to an Australian diplomat that the Trump campaign were trying to get dirt on Hillary that the Russians had.

That potentially could make both Congressman look like they're part of a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation.

[Tendrin]

That potentially could make both Congressman look like they're part of a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation.

Well, I mean, they are.

[PaulBullion]

This revelation also negates recent claims by Hannity, Fox News, and both Congressman Devin Nunes and Congressman Jim Jordan that "the investigation hangs on the Steele Dossier, which Democrats funded". Well, even if the Steele Dossier was funded originally by Democrats (which it wasn't, at first, it was started by Jeb Bush campaign operatives)... even if that's true, that revelation isn't square one. It's the supposed "coffee boy" admitting to an Australian diplomat that the Trump campaign were trying to get dirt on Hillary that the Russians had.

That potentially could make both Congressman look like they're part of a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation.

This has been widely ignored by the media:

Devin Nunes' Campaign Donor Was Original Funder Of Trump-Russia Dossier

[Tami]

This revelation also negates recent claims by Hannity, Fox News, and both Congressman Devin Nunes and Congressman Jim Jordan that "the investigation hangs on the Steele Dossier, which Democrats funded". Well, even if the Steele Dossier was funded originally by Democrats (which it wasn't, at first, it was started by Jeb Bush campaign operatives)... even if that's true, that revelation isn't square one. It's the supposed "coffee boy" admitting to an Australian diplomat that the Trump campaign were trying to get dirt on Hillary that the Russians had.

That potentially could make both Congressman look like they're part of a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation.

One political commentator on MSNBC basically came right out and said [usuing my own words, paraphrasing] that members of Congress who were attacking the FBI and the investigation are drawing targets on their foreheads for the Muller Investigation to go after them.

[Tendrin]

Speaking of Nunes...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/power...=.e78807228c60

For months, Democrats have kept an unofficial count of the ways they say Nunes worked behind the scenes during the time he was under ethics investigation to slow or stymie the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe. Nunes never relinquished his sole, unchecked authority to sign off on subpoenas even as he handed the day-to-day operations to Reps. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), Gowdy and Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.). People familiar with the Intelligence committee’s work estimated Nunes’s effective veto cost Democrats dozens of requests for interviews and documents that were never sent out, despite repeated entreaties from the minority side.
This includes requests for subpoenas to obtain additional testimony from key figures in the probe who Democrats say were not forthcoming enough in interviews — among them Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. Democrats surmise they might have compelled them to return if not for Nunes’s resistance.

"Hello, Mr. Mueller. Please pay attention to how I am obstructing justice also."

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/st...58089615331328

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Speaking of Nunes...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/power...=.e78807228c60



"Hello, Mr. Mueller. Please pay attention to how I am obstructing justice also."

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/st...58089615331328

Once again, why go through all this nonsense if Dolt45 and his henchmen are innocent? As soon as I get a suitable, believable and acceptable answer, I’ll stop asking that question.

[worstblogever]

Once again, why go through all this nonsense if Dolt45 and his henchmen are innocent? As soon as I get a suitable, believable and acceptable answer, I’ll stop asking that question.

Well, since the investigation has expanded to include the RNC for potentially helping down-ballot candidates... it might not just be Trump's ass they're trying to save.

[Tendrin]

Well, since the investigation has expanded to include the RNC for potentially helping down-ballot candidates... it might not just be Trump's ass they're trying to save.

Nunes is toast, IMO.

[Tami]

Next time Trump talks about infrastructure.....

Trump administration kills Gateway tunnel deal

President Donald Trump dropped his own New Year's ball—in the form of a wrecking ball—with a late Friday afternoon announcement that effectively wipes out plans for perhaps the nation's most crucial infrastructure project.

The president officially scrapped his predecessor's proposal to have the federal government underwrite half the cost of a multi-billion-dollar Amtrak tunnel connecting New Jersey to Penn Station, the busiest transit hub in the U.S. The lone existing tunnel is rapidly deteriorating, threatening to sever Amtrak's popular Northeast Corridor and to divert tens of thousands of New Jerseyans from their daily Manhattan commutes via New Jersey Transit.

The administration released the news on the cusp of a holiday weekend in a letter from a top Federal Transit Administration official to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his New Jersey counterpart Chris Christie, who had agreed with the Obama administration to split the project's costs 50-50.

President Barack Obama's Department of Transportation, which encompasses the FTA, had consented to that framework with Christie, Cuomo, now-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker in 2015.

[PaulBullion]

Nunes is toast, IMO.

Every night, he sits on the edge of his bed, clasping his hands and saying "I am to pretty to go to jail!"
And his wife looks at him and says "Na."

[Tami]

Every night, he sits on the edge of his bed, clasping his hands and saying "I am to pretty to go to jail!"
And his wife looks at him and says "Na."

Speaking of which, I wonder if the Trumps can get a Family Discount at the federal prison commissary?