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

[worstblogever]

Nunes is toast, IMO.

Take the normal amount of blue wave surge for his District. Sure, California's 22nd has a +8 Republican lean, but generic Democrats currently have a +8 advantage against generic Republicans... that would make it just about a toss up currently... except Nunes isn't a generic Republican. You have to add the fact that all those Californians are going to know he's the guy who's trying to manufacture a cover-up to keep Trump out of jail.

He's probably going to go down with the ship in 2018.

[PaulBullion]

According to Newsweek, and probably other sources, but I didn't dig much deeper, because who cares, rasmussen* has his approval/disapproval numbers at exactly Obama's from the end of 2009. Though getting into the weeds, there is more nuance.

Overall, the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Trump with a 39.3 percent approval rating and a 56.2 disapproval rating, historically poor numbers for a president at this point in his first term. Obama, in late December of his first year in office, had an average approval rating of 49.9 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, and a disapproval rating of 44.5 percent.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...o-obama-319626

[SuperiorIronman]

Next time Trump talks about infrastructure.....

Trump administration kills Gateway tunnel deal

And now I'm worried if he might do anything to shut down that track Elon Musk has going on. Sure the government might not have a hand in that but it's awfully concerning that infrastructure, a thing that is fairly reliable to create jobs is something he's going to deny especially when corporations have the tax cuts they do. Doesn't he even have a building in New York? You would think he would be all the more into creating an easier means of getting into the city.

[Gray Lensman]

And now I'm worried if he might do anything to shut down that track Elon Musk has going on. Sure the government might not have a hand in that but it's awfully concerning that infrastructure, a thing that is fairly reliable to create jobs is something he's going to deny especially when corporations have the tax cuts they do. Doesn't he even have a building in New York? You would think he would be all the more into creating an easier means of getting into the city.

I'm quite sure Trump is willing to spend on infrastructure.....for states that voted for him, and only those states. Provided that the big politicians in those states don't criticize him in any way. We already know that Benedict Donald will make your constituents suffer if you hurt his fee fees.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm quite sure Trump is willing to spend on infrastructure.....for states that voted for him, and only those states. Provided that the big politicians in those states don't criticize him in any way. We already know that Benedict Donald will make your constituents suffer if you hurt his fee fees.

Bingo! We’ve already seen that happen when Trump was silent for days while California burned from those wildfires earlier this month because the state voted for Hillary. Dolt45 makes no bones about being vindictive towards anyone who gets on his bad side, that said, it’s no surprise he’s willing to screw New York in order to get his pound of flesh from the election.

[Malvolio]

Take the normal amount of blue wave surge for his District. Sure, California's 22nd has a +8 Republican lean, but generic Democrats currently have a +8 advantage against generic Republicans... that would make it just about a toss up currently... except Nunes isn't a generic Republican. You have to add the fact that all those Californians are going to know he's the guy who's trying to manufacture a cover-up to keep Trump out of jail.

He's probably going to go down with the ship in 2018.

The problem with polls like that is that they use terms like "generic Democrat" and "generic Republican." Once the Democrats nominate someone, conservative super-PACs will start the smear campaign that gets just enough people to stay home for the Democrat to lose.

[PaulBullion]

The problem with polls like that is that they use terms like "generic Democrat" and "generic Republican." Once the Democrats nominate someone, conservative super-PACs will start the smear campaign that gets just enough people to stay home for the Democrat to lose.

Which is exactly why the "Bernie would have won" trope is so silly. The GOP was very careful to keep him as "generic democrat" during the primaries to weaken Clinton. The SuperPAC-machine hadn't even scratched his wrinkly surface.

[Tami]

Alexander Downer: the gaffe-prone conservative and unlikely anti-Trump hero

He is the current champion of anti-Trump supporters and American liberals, but Alexander Downer’s elevation to international hero may prove more than amusing for many Australians.

A former foreign affairs minister in the conservative Howard government, Downer, known privately for his sense of humour, became best known for agreeing to pose for a photo wearing a pair of fishnet stockings and high heels for a charity promotion in 1996.

The photo was never forgotten and continued to follow him for the rest of his political career, including the 11 years he spent as Australia’s longest-serving foreign affairs minister, and his appointment as Australia’s man in Britain, four decades after his father, Sir Alexander Downer, filled the same role.

[InformationGeek]

Frequent member of WBE's Republican of the Day feature, we have Rep. Marsha Blackburn stepping into it with some awkward phrasing when she was on Fox News this morning.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Sunday stressed that her colleagues are focused on preserving benefits for recipients who deserve them as House Republicans push entitlement reform.

"We're not talking about taking away benefits from those who deserve those benefits," Blackburn said on the Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures."

"The goal is to make certain that those who deserve and need those benefits get everything that they're entitled to," she continued. "You do it by making the system more efficient, by innovating, utilizing health-care technology."

Defined who deserves and doesn't deserve ma'am.

[TheInvisibleMan]

I find it funny how the idiots who claim Russia is a "nothingburger" are all in on PizzaGate

[Mister Mets]

I find it funny how the idiots who claim Russia is a "nothingburger" are all in on PizzaGate

The former group (those who think the Russia investigation is drummed up) is bigger than the second (those who take Pizzagate seriously), even if there is overlap.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I find it funny how the idiots who claim Russia is a "nothingburger" are all in on PizzaGate

Perhaps that’s because the latter featured the right’s favorite whipping girl, Hillary while the former is an affront to Dear Leader Trump. Just a guess.

[Darkspellmaster]

So for the end of the year. This is the list I've compiled of mentioned people who have been called out on sexual harassment. This isn't a comprehensive list as I'm sure there is more out there, but this is the 2017 list. I'm sure it'll be growing in 2018.

Ben Affleck*
Casey Affleck
Tim Allen
Woody Allen
Afrika Bambaata
Mario Batali
Eddie Berganza
John Besh
George H.W. Bush
Louis C.K.
Mariah Carey
Bill Clinton
John Conyers
Bill Cosby
Andy Dick
Richard Dreyfuss
Blake Farenhold
Trent Franks
Al Franken
Al Gore
Gary Goddard
Mark Halperin
Sam Haskells
Dustin Hoffman
Dylan Howard
Jesse Jackson*
Garrison Keiller
Ruben Kihuen
Harry Knowles
Andrew Kreisberg
Max Landis
Matt Lauer
Adam Levine
Cory Lewandowski
Allison Mack
Melanie Martinez
Jelani Maraj
Danny Masterson
Murray Miller*
T.J. Miller
Roy Moore
Larry Nassar
Bill O'Reilly
Michael Oreskes
Jeremy Piven
Roman Polanski
Roy Price
Brett Ratner
Ron Richards
Terry Richardson
Geraldo Rivera
Charlie Rose
Geoffrey Rush**
Chris Savino
Dan Schneider
Charlie Sheen
Arnold*Schwarzenegger
Ralph Shortey*
Russell Simmons
Tavis Smiley
Kevin Spacey
Lockhart Steele
George Takei
Jeffery Tambor
Glenn Thrush
James Toback
Donald Trump
Adam Venit
Jann Wenner
Matthew Weiner
Harvey Weinstein
Ed Westwick


*not sure if he was outright accused or if it was the t.v. inncident.

** Unknown behaviour that got him to resign.

[Tami]

Dave Barry’s Year in Review: Russia Mania, covfefe and the Category 5 weirdness of 2017

Looking back on 2017 is like waking up after a party where you made some poor decisions, such as drinking tequila squeezed from the underpants of a person you do not really know. (At least you hope it was tequila.)

The next day finds you lying naked in a dumpster in a different state, smeared from head to toe with a mixture of Sriracha sauce and glitter. At first you remember nothing. But then, as your throbbing brain slowly reboots, memories of the night before, disturbing memories, begin creeping into your consciousness. As the full, hideous picture comes into focus, you curl into a ball, whimpering, asking yourself over and over: Did that really happen?

That’s how we here at the Year in Review feel about 2017. It was a year so surreal, so densely populated with strange and alarming events, that you have to seriously consider the possibility that somebody — and when we say “somebody,” we mean “Russia” — was putting LSD in our water supply. A bizarre event would occur, and it would be all over the news, but before we could wrap our minds around it, another bizarre event would occur, then another and another, coming at us faster and faster, battering the nation with a Category 5 weirdness hurricane that left us hunkering down, clinging to our sanity, no longer certain what was real.

[Tazirai]

Nunes is toast, IMO.

In a sane world yes. But keep looking at POTEC, when you think of Nunes losing his job, and thinking of how Roy Moore only lost by 1.7 points.

It's NOT a fair field guys, Republicans run carte blanche, and Democrats wring their hands, so no they don't fight. If Democrats go after Nunes HARD, then cool. We'll see, it is a New Year After all.

BY HAPPY NEW YEARS (Same year, just rolls into one big thingamjiggeee)