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

[PaulBullion]

Really!? Man this thread gets filled up so fast sometimes! Sorry mate.

Nobody commented on my post about a warrant being out for Seb Gorka's arrest in Hungary, either. When a scandal like that would have led to nonstop news coverage and congressional hearings in any other administration. Too many damn nails.

[PaulBullion]

I instinctively dislike that I'm feeling conditioned to accept worse and worse behavior as normal. It's not the most perverse thing he's done, just let it slide. It's not the cruelest thing he's said, just move on. It's not the biggest lie he's told, just let this one go. Just @#$% all of that, I've heard it too much.

I've been on the internet long enough that I know how to bitch about everything at once, so I'll continue to do just that.

Amen to that. They keep getting away with more and more shit.

[Mister Mets]

Nobody commented on my post about a warrant being out for Seb Gorka's arrest in Hungary, either. When a scandal like that would have led to nonstop news coverage and congressional hearings in any other administration. Too many damn nails.

Technically, someone else posted about it.

Seb Gorka has an active warrant out for his arrest in his native Hungary, according to the Hungarian police's website.


And he did the entire time he was ... doing whatever it was he was doing in the White House.

The Daily Beast says Hungary has an active arrest warrant for Sebastion Gorka for misuse of firearms.

[PaulBullion]

Technically, someone else posted about it.

As I said:
Nobody commented on my post.

[PaulBullion]

WASHINGTON — Representative Patrick Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican who has taken a leading role in fighting sexual harassment in Congress, used thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to settle his own misconduct complaint after a former aide accused him last year of making unwanted romantic overtures to her, according to several people familiar with the settlement.

Of course, he is married and she is young enough to be his daughter or granddaughter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/20/u...arassment.html

[Dalak]

I'm under no obligation to answer a loaded question

First: Then why even reply? Second: If you aren't going to debate in good faith, why do you think anyone should actually reply to you? This whole thing hasn't been that Trump just sexualizes kid, but HIS OWN KIDS. You cutting that out of the 'larger issue' so you can continue to defend Trump is rather despicable IMO.

Here's a loaded statement: "Given that many sitting presidents-- most of whom were married-- have fooled around in office, the stupidest must be the guy who actually got caught doing so." Now, that's as meaningless as an indicator of Bill Clinton's intelligence as the loaded question was regarding Trump's sexual proclivities. Why? Because they both set up judgments based on baseless assumptions.

Except Trump said the things he said, in public. That statement is made up only to muddy the argument you are failing at.

I didn't say Trump was a performing comedian, but for most of his celebrity career, he has been an entertainer. At some point it seems plain to me that he figured out that he got more attention when he said outrageous, injudicious things, so he decided to keep doing so in his political career. There are things in his past that I for one deem much more serious than these supposed confessions of incestuous lust-- for instance, his wife's (recanted) testimony that he raped her. Dwelling on stuff that falls into the domain of "Trump being outrageous" I find counter-productive.

Just because you think something is important/not important doesn't mean others can't discuss it, and you don't have to participate either. But claiming that every statement people get pissed about is an exaggeration he doesn't mean is a big part of why our gov't is shutdown as he said he would, since people didn't think he'd really force a shutdown when R's controlled everything.

He says so many outrageous things because the depths of his childish spite, willful war on Truth, and possible dementia are so outrageous. Defending that shouldn't be done by anyone with an ounce of principle (As R's like to portray themselves), and it doesn't work when so many of the outrageous things he says he will defend as the gospel truth AND FOLLOW THROUGH ON THEM regardless of how irrational it is to do so. So the Joke/Exaggeration defense still doesn't apply regardless of how much you want it to.

See, now you're saying that the poster who made the insulting comment should get a pass because his statement has no real-world applicability. Gee, I seem to remember reading that very argument somewhere-- like in my last paragraph.

FTR, to address an earlier comment, I'm not insulted by such lame attacks. But they are not, as the other poster suggested, "snark."

Such common place phrases are caught under the 'Kiss My Ass' clause. How common is "That baby's tits are going to be great!" (Admittedly not verbatim) or his repeated comments on Ivanka (with pictures) among americans?

Once Again you aren't paying attention - I brought up snark. Do the pictures not make it easier to tell people apart? This sort of thing makes me wonder if you're going to quote someone else with a kindergarten-level silly name again, just like Trump does with anyone who annoys him.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Regarding the shutdown, what frustrates me most about this whole stupid business is that the timing sucked all to hell. If those morons in Washington had waited a week or longer before blowing up the government, I’d have a full paycheck under my belt as next Friday is payday. But now, I have no way of knowing what will happen with the money as it seems doubtful this mess will be resolved anytime soon.

[Tami]

Regarding the shutdown, what frustrates me most about this whole stupid business is that the timing sucked all to hell. If those morons in Washington had waited a week or longer before blowing up the government, I’d have a full paycheck under my belt as next Friday is payday. But now, I have no way of knowing what will happen with the money as it seems doubtful this mess will be resolved anytime soon.

Here is hoping that someone with some common sense figures out a way to end this quickly and get the government back online.

[heretic]

Here is hoping that someone with some common sense figures out a way to end this quickly and get the government back online.

It is my hope that 'end this quickly' does not translate to 'capitulate to Trump on everything he wants'.

The man is far less skilled a negotiator than he or his supporters think.

[Tami]

It is my hope that 'end this quickly' does not translate to 'capitulate to Trump on everything he wants'.

The man is far less skilled a negotiator than he or his supporters think.

I agree with that, but as long as the leaders of the House and Senate are wasting their time slinging mud at each other, not much will happen.

[Tami]

The Real Reasons Why the Government Shut Down

No sooner had a midnight deadline passed without congressional action on a must-pass spending bill than lawmakers launched their time-honored competition over who gets the blame for their collective failure. The Senate floor became a staging ground for dueling speeches early Saturday morning, and lawmakers of both parties—as well as the White House and political-activist groups—flooded the inboxes of reporters with prewritten statements castigating one side or the other.

Led by President Trump, Republicans accused Senate Democrats of holding hostage the entire government and health insurance for millions of children over their demands for an immigration bill. “This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators,” the White House said in a statement issued moments before the clock struck midnight. In a series of Saturday-morning tweets, Trump said Democrats had given him “a nice present” for the first anniversary of his inauguration. The White House vowed that no immigration talks would occur while the government is closed, and administration officials sought to minimize public anger by allowing agencies to use leftover funds and by keeping national parks and public lands partially accessible during the shutdown—in effect, by not shutting down the government as fully as the Obama administration did in 2013.

Democrats in turn blamed Republicans and Trump for a basic failure to govern, noting that this shutdown is the first in history to occur when a single party controls both chambers of Congress and the White House. And they blamed Trump for repeatedly backing out of agreements that would have resolved the dispute.

The last shutdown in 2013 was a fairly straightforward ideological fight: Under pressure from conservatives, Republicans refused to fund the government for 16 days in an ultimately futile bid to deny money for the Affordable Care Act. This time around, immigration is at the center of the impasse. But the dynamics are more complicated than they were in 2013, involving not only young immigrants, but also children’s health care, military spending, and an inexperienced president whose tumultuous first year in office ended, perhaps predictably, in crisis.

[Tami]

As women march a year after Trump’s election, his approval with some men grows

But while Trump is still struggling to win women — a demographic won by his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in 2016 — recent approval polls show that men seem to be increasingly on the Trump train.

Most men — 52 percent — voted for Trump in the presidential election, according to exit polls. Some found his “strong man” image attractive and supported him pushing back against what his supporters call “political correctness” in a cultural climate that is becoming increasingly vocal about the impact of patriarchy.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Senator Tammy Duckworth referred to the Idiot as "Cadet Bone Spurs" during a fiery speech regarding the shutdown today

[Tendrin]

The GOP doesn't need 50 Republicans. They need 60 votes.

The GOP had a majority, and there were enough Democrats opposed to it that the handful of Republican defections don't matter.

Just piping in to add that, yes, to get out of cloture, they needed 60 votes. That wasn't my point. My point was that they couldn't even muster a majority /with their majority/. It says a lot. They were always going to need Democratic votes, I should add, and that's probably one of the reason they left CHIP and DACA for this point, so they could force the Democrats into choosing one over the other. It didn't work, obviously, and it was horrible of them to even try.

[BeastieRunner]

Senator Tammy Duckworth referred to the Idiot as "Cadet Bone Spurs" during a fiery speech regarding the shutdown today

President Duckworth please.