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

[BeastieRunner]

WHERE does Comey and Clinton fit in? Well, we can go back to hating Comey again.

Most maddening, Fusion GPS not only knew all of this; they had "read in" the FBI on what they had learned...

...and then Comey tanked the election anyway...

...and then the whistle-blowers went public.



When the FBI torpedoed only Clinton, Fusion GPS briefed media outlets including the NY Times and prompted them to go ask the FBI if Trump was under investigation and as we know, outlets like the NY Times reported just the opposite of the real answer.

We're only even learning of this now because House Intel Committee members like Adam Schiff fought through an effort by Devin Nunes to torpedo this entire hearing and its testimony.



The root of Trump's Russian love affair is far simpler than it has sometimes seemed.

Their role as buyers of Trump properties made them the sugar daddies he desperately needed to get the money no one else would give him.

For a failed tycoon toddler like Donald J. Trump, there is no more powerful kompromat than having the ability to lock the bank vault.

Trump needed Russia. They needed each other actually but the Russians were far smarter and parlayed that into owning him outright.

Trump is Russia's dirty little whore.

The Senate transcript read like The Obstructionists vs. The Truth Seekers.

This one reads like The Mailing-It-In Gang vs. The Truth Seekers.

Big thanks to The Hoarse Whisperer on the assist.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Great work there, Beastie! Meanwhile, the GOP, Trump lemmings and the talking heads on Faux News will continue saying Donnie Doughboy's flirtation with the Ivans is a nothingburger. Yeah, right.

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House Passes Spending Bill, But Shutdown Threat Remains

Basic governance may yet elude Republicans. Well, my question is, when did the GOP ever have that in their grasp? Meanwhile....

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Here’s What Will Happen If The Government Shuts Down

National parks could close, but essential operations like air traffic control would continue. For your information.

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9 Million Kids Could Lose Their Health Care Because The GOP Wants To Shame Democrats

The Children’s Health Insurance Program could start running out of money Friday. Pissed off parents from coast to coast should flood the offices of their Congressmen with calls and emails demanding that not happen.

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Fox News Guest Goes Off The Rails: ‘White Supremacists Are American Citizens’

“The illegal immigrants are people who shouldn’t be here.” All things being equal, I'd rather have illegals as citizens over goddamn, motherfucking Nazis. And the real irony is that shithead hailed from Canada.

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Chris Christie Reportedly Turned Away From Airport VIP Entrance

Former New Jersey governor apparently has to wait in line now like everyone else. I'm sure Tami will find this amusing.

[zinderel]

On that Booker clip...

I'd say the bigger issue is that "The Heavy" just does not work for him. He's stammering out words, and it looks like he is trying to be something he is actually not.

The DHS secretary is pulling the oldest trick in the political playbook during a Senate hearing. "Uh, I don't recall..." is the slimiest, snakiest LIE any politician can tell under oath.

She knows what Trump said. She just is, rightly, embarrassed by it. And Cory Booker is, rightly, calling her out for putting party over country and lying to the American public to protect a madman.

But, yeah, sure. Yes. The biggest issue with that clip is that Cory Booker stammers while angry.

[numberthirty]

The DHS secretary is pulling the oldest trick in the political playbook during a Senate hearing. "Uh, I don't recall..." is the slimiest, snakiest LIE any politician can tell under oath.

She knows what Trump said. She just is, rightly, embarrassed by it. And Cory Booker is, rightly, calling her out for putting party over country and lying to the American public to protect a madman.

But, yeah, sure. Yes. The biggest issue with that clip is that Cory Booker stammers while angry.

About that...

On that Booker clip...

I'd say the bigger issue is that "The Heavy" just does not work for him. He's stammering out words, and it looks like he is trying to be something he is actually not.

"Bigger" as in...

"A Larger Problem Than This "Mansplaining" angle..." while still leaving room for there to be a "Biggest" problem.

[Tami]

Cory Booker is an emotional kind of guy, he's very passionate. Passion isn't a bad thing, but controlling it so that you choose your words carefully can make what you say seem like stammering. He isn't usually liek this, he has testified and spoken in COngress and on the campaign trail many times and he almost alwasy sounds just fine.

[numberthirty]

Cory Booker is an emotional kind of guy, he's very passionate. Passion isn't a bad thing, but controlling it so that you choose your words carefully can make what you say seem like stammering. He isn't usually liek this, he has testified and spoken in COngress and on the campaign trail many times and he almost alwasy sounds just fine.

Sure.

I actually caught a clip from sometime Thursday(maybe a CBS show?), and he did a far better job of making his point. Just pointing out that veering over toward that sort of "Anthony Weiner: Congressional Equivalent Of A Hockey Goon" territory didn't really work for him.

[Tendrin]

Cory Booker is an emotional kind of guy, he's very passionate. Passion isn't a bad thing, but controlling it so that you choose your words carefully can make what you say seem like stammering. He isn't usually liek this, he has testified and spoken in COngress and on the campaign trail many times and he almost alwasy sounds just fine.

Don't worry. If he was completely composed and selected his words more carefully, I'm sure we'd find a way to spin it as him being inauthentic and calculating.

Oh, wait. We only do that to women.

[KOSLOX]

Don't worry. If he was completely composed and selected his words more carefully, I'm sure we'd find a way to spin it as him being inauthentic and calculating.

Oh, wait. We only do that to women.

We get called disrespectful and uppity when that happens.

[Tendrin]

We get called disrespectful and uppity when that happens.

Ah, this is true.

[Mecegirl]

We get called disrespectful and uppity when that happens.

I was about to say. LOL Cuz for 8 years.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Id like to get "Uppity Negro" on a tshirt

[Iron Maiden]

Cory Booker is an emotional kind of guy, he's very passionate. Passion isn't a bad thing, but controlling it so that you choose your words carefully can make what you say seem like stammering. He isn't usually liek this, he has testified and spoken in COngress and on the campaign trail many times and he almost alwasy sounds just fine.

I think when you saw her just lying and smiling while doing it, it just kind of makes you lose it a bit. I was getting pissed off just watching her testimony.

Poor little Donny....now he says he's not leaving to go to Mar a Lago because the Senate still has to vote on this budget.

Forgot to add:

He's fund-raising again this weekend with a big party where the well to do are paying $100,000 per ticket at his private club in Mar a Lago. For that you get dinner and a photo with the POTUS. For just a $150,000 more, you get a seat at the round table. This is so cheesy. It's to celebrate his inaugural last year.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for North Carolina's 8th District, Richard Hudson, who is one of the Birthers among the Republican caucus, having once told an assembled crowd that “President Obama is hiding something about his birth certificate”, and called for legislation to investigate it. Hudson also not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the vote came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. He also took part in the 2014 GOP efforts to stir up fears over Ebola, calling for both a travel ban, and writing an official letter to blame the outbreak on President Obama. Hudson also voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, and during debate about the SNAP food stamp program, called for drug testing on welfare recipients to be implemented nationally (since it’s done so well failing as a practice at the state level). Richard Hudson has been quite the conspiracy theory lover in his first few years in the House, already demanding answers about Benghazi, the non-scandal that was the “IRS Scandal”, and trying to cut funding towards the implementation of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 treaty. During the GOP's faux-outrage over the Planned Parenthood "sting" videos supplied by the Center for Medical Progress that were proven to be edited to mislead the public, Hudson not only voted to defund the organization, but boldly proclaimed himself as believing that life begins at conception. While Congress was mostly quiet through a tumultuous 2016 election campaign (and with some of the fewest working days in Congressional history), Rep. Hudson spent most of the year demonizing the Environmental Protection Agency, including trying to block any restrictions they might place on Motorsports events, playing up this fight to the folks in his district whose passion for NASCAR surpass the needs of the planet itself. In July of 2016, he decided to target employees of the EPA by filing an amendment into their funding that would prevent any of their employees from flying on an airplane as a part of their job (like to places to conduct investigations of wrongdoing by anyone, y'know, ignoring EPA standards and polluting) as well as restricting any of these criminal enforcement employees from owning a gun they might need to do their jobs.

Rep. Hudson is still a maniacal conservative ***hole, as evidenced below by his 2017 voting record:

• February 16th, 2017: Hudson votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Richard Hudson votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• March 28th, 2017: Rep. Hudson votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses. Well, so much for privacy.
• May 4th, 2017: Hudson votes for the House GOP's healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Hudson would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Richard Hudson votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• September 8th, 2017: Rep. Hudson chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey. Just a reminder, he's from North Carolina, a state that frequently gets hit by hurricanes, and will want cash sent to his state the next time that happens.
• October 3rd, 2017: Hudson votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Richard Hudson votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.

Richard Hudson has failed to host a single town hall since the 2016 elections with his constituents, but has made time to have several closed-door meetings with donors. He’s probably thinking that the +8 Republican advantage his district gave him in 2016 will be enough to fend off any Democratic challenger that he might see. Well, that might be a severe miscalculation, as the extreme gerrymander that North Carolina Republicans built for themselves has been overturned by a judge, and in 2018, all bets are currently off as to what the district map will end up looking like. One thing’s for sure, a Blue Wave is coming, and even a +8 might not have been enough to protect Hudson against it. If the districts get redrawn to negate it, he could be in serious jeopardy of not reaching a fourth term in office.

[Tendrin]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...cid=spartanntp

Former Trump staffer Omarosa Manigault-Newman might have secretly recorded private conversations in the White House as she feared involvement in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, The New York Daily News reported Friday.

Sources told the Daily News that Manigault-Newman, who was abruptly fired from the White House late last year, "loves" to record meetings.
"Everyone knows Omarosa loves to record people and meetings using the voice notes app on her iPhone," one source said. "Don't be surprised if she has secret audio files on everyone in that White House, past and present staffers included."

...oh boy...

[worstblogever]

Another Trump appointee has left the White House. This time it's Carl Higbee, who during the 2016 campaign, was calling for Muslims to be put in internment camps. After several recordings from 2013-2016 of him surfaced making other racist or homophobic remarks, he was forced out of his post as chief of external affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service.

I'll summon the Ooompa Loompas for the latest exit out the revolving door: