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

[JBatmanFan05]

Trump has found his way to negotiate on NAFTA:

President Donald Trump said he’s “looking forward” to meeting at the White House Thursday afternoon on his call to impose sweeping tariffs on imported steel and aluminum despite threats of retaliation from trading partners and calls by some Republicans for reconsideration.

The administration will initially exclude Canada and Mexico from the tariffs, an exemption they would lose if they can’t agree to an updated North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Wednesday. Other American allies could use a similar system to ask for an exemption, he said.

If Nafta talks fail, Canada and Mexico would face the same tariffs as other nations, Navarro added.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...of-retaliation

[aja_christopher]

If Trump didn't have the Republicans bending over backwards to cover for him, how many things has he either been known to have done or there is a strong possibility that he has done them that would/might have gotten him either forced to testify in front of Congress, brought up on charges and/or impeached? or would have for just about any other President?

• Extra-Marital Affair with at least one porn actress, maybe more
• Allegations of sexual misconduct with more than a dozen women
• Sharing classified information with the Russians
• Refusing to order his Administration to take actions to defend against Russian interference
• Refusing to enact sanctions made into law by Congress against the Russians
• Nepotism
• Using the Presidency for Financial Gain/violating Emoluments clause
• Failure to fully staff every Department of the Executive Branch
• Racism/sympathizing with White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis
• Possibly receiving money or items of equal value as campaign donations from foreign entities.
• Coverup of the Trump Tower meeting
• Questionable business practices with ties to organized crime and money laundering.
• Failure to release Income Taxes
• Political support of known sexual predators
• Violating the 'Only one President at a Time' rule by creating back-channels with Russian and other foreign leaders before assuming office.

What did I leave out?

His inability to speak without sounding like an absolute moron.

Let's keep it real -- as Putin well knows, it is completely embarrassing to have someone like him representing the US on the international stage.

I'd vote to impeach him on that basis alone, but I can admit that I'm biased.

[aja_christopher]

Double post.

[Iron Maiden]

His inability to speak without sounding like an absolute moron.

Let's keep it real -- as Putin well knows, it is completely embarrassing to have someone like him representing the US on the international stage.

I'd vote to impeach him on that basis alone, but I can admit that I'm biased.

His list is much longer and more serious than the ones for Nixon and Clinton IMO



I'd add to Tami's list

Obstruction of Justice
His firing of Comey equates to Nixon's firing of Archibald Cox.

P.S. If you want to post an entry, the new comic book cover contest is up

[aja_christopher]

While not a written in stone requirement, Trump has yet to release his income taxes like every other president/presidential candidate, something Obama would've been crucified for to the nth degree by Republicans, right wingers and Faux News if he held his back.

[Tami]

His list is much longer and more serious than the ones for Nixon and Clinton IMO



I'd add to Tami's list

Obstruction of Justice
His firing of Comey equates to Nixon's firing of Archibald Cox.

P.S. If you want to post an entry, the new comic book cover contest is up

Added it. this list is getting long. And, in most cases, just one of those would be enough to get a sitting President, or any politician in deep hot water.

Just waiting for Trump to testify either to Muller, the GJ, or Congress and then I can added lying to the list.

[Joker]

He's already lied about plenty of things. Like most of the things on your list.

[Tami]

He's already lied about plenty of things. Like most of the things on your list.

Yeah, but he can't be held accountable for those lies. Not unless the lies can be proven to relate to, or are the cause of, a criminal act. I'm trying to focus on the things that a siting President might be held accountable for, either ethics violations, criminal violations, or acts that violate his oath of office or threaten the welfare or national security of the nation.

[aja_christopher]

It's one of those things that doesn't even seem worth discussing at this point except out of frustration -- we all know the Republicans won't impeach him unless he threatens their prospects politically or threatens their corporate sponsors bottom lines.

Maybe the tariffs will be a breaking point -- but I doubt it.

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeac...itution-720430

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It's one of those things that doesn't even seem worth discussing at this point except out of frustration -- we all know the Republicans won't impeach him unless he threatens their prospects politically or threatens their corporate sponsors bottom lines.

Or, as I've been saying since day one, Trump's legions of brain dead followers, all too eager to vote him in for a second term if given the chance, abandon him en masse. Without that foolishly unwavering support, Trump has nothing, and that would cause Republicans to bail on him like there's no tomorrow.

[aja_christopher]

Or, as I've been saying since day one, Trump's legions of brain dead followers, all too eager to vote him in for a second term if given the chance, abandon him en masse. Without that foolishly unwavering support, Trump has nothing, and that would cause Republicans to bail on him like there's no tomorrow.

Yeah, he stepped off that 2nd Amendment talk about gun control real quick -- shifted the blame to video games like any good old-school Republican would.

------
"In the wake of the Florida school shooting, President Donald Trump is reviving an old debate over whether violent video games can trigger violent behavior. There’s just one problem: Roughly two decades of research has repeatedly failed to uncover any such link."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politic...s-and-violence

His list is much longer and more serious than the ones for Nixon and Clinton IMO

I'd add to Tami's list

Obstruction of Justice
His firing of Comey equates to Nixon's firing of Archibald Cox.

P.S. If you want to post an entry, the new comic book cover contest is up

Thanks for the heads up on the contest -- I've trying to think of a cover that meets the qualifications but I don't think the X-Books I read had too many green villains. Alcoholic Banshee (or Siryn) is the only thing that comes immediately to mind...

Then again, I remember some Mark Silvestri Polaris artwork from back in the day when she was a villainess -- maybe I can dig that up somewhere, along with a few old-school Rogue covers.

-----
"Are we right to analogize the tarnished ending of the two-term Nixon presidency—with its historic accomplishments, as well as sordid tapes and long list of criminal convictions—with a chaos-engulfed Trump presidency that has not even been able to staff up, has no significant legislative wins to its name and is already, at just six months in as of this week, the most unpopular in seven decades?

I asked Drew to ponder that question in our interview the other day at her Georgetown home (right next door, she pointed out, to where Nixon henchman H.R. Haldeman lived in the Watergate years, Nixon’s well-known hatred for “the Georgetown set” notwithstanding). A few months ago, she was wary of the Watergate analogies, and hesitant to encourage the Nixon comparisons and remarkably quick talk of impeachment.

But that was before Trump’s May firing of FBI Director James Comey—which drew instant comparisons to Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” and the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox—and before last week’s revelation of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer. In an email, the president’s eldest son was offered damning info on Hillary Clinton as part of the Russian government “support for Mr. Trump,” a document immediately likened to the “smoking gun” tape that came right before Nixon’s resignation.

Today, Drew is much less wary of the Watergate parallel.

“I think we already have an obstruction of justice, certainly as an impeachable offense,” she tells me, referring to Comey’s firing and other Trump efforts that seemed designed to shut down the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with the Russian hacking. Trump, she has already come to believe, “is a running crisis. The crisis is the president and his presidency.”

More broadly, Watergate, she reminds us, was “not a simple detective story” about a break-in; it was a “constitutional crisis” that involved “a whole array of abuse of power, where they used the instruments of government against Nixon’s perceived enemies—and he was very good at perceiving enemies.”

In its essence, that is what the Trump scandals will come down to as well, she believes. The big struggle in both cases, she says, is: “Can you hold a president accountable for the acts of his subordinates? We’re going to get to that question at some point in this.”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...o-nixon-215384

[BeastieRunner]

From the Economist.



I love that his hair is the trigger.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

“I think we already have an obstruction of justice, certainly as an impeachable offense,” she tells me, referring to Comey’s firing and other Trump efforts that seemed designed to shut down the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with the Russian hacking. Trump, she has already come to believe, “is a running crisis. The crisis is the president and his presidency.”

More broadly, Watergate, she reminds us, was “not a simple detective story” about a break-in; it was a “constitutional crisis” that involved “a whole array of abuse of power, where they used the instruments of government against Nixon’s perceived enemies—and he was very good at perceiving enemies.”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...o-nixon-215384

Some could argue that Trump is just as good, if not better at that as he never forgives or forgets slights leveled against him and has been known to nurse grudges with fanatical fervor for decades. I've said from day one that Trump's drive to the presidency was all about payback against Barack Obama for making fun of him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, and Sunkist Satan will NEVER end his vendetta against Hillary because she deprived him of the popular vote from the election. This petty, small minded demagogue will continue using the bully pulpit of the Oval Office to strike back against any person or entity he hates, and do so with relish.

[InformationGeek]

Let's meet Florida Representative Elizabeth Porter, who so desperately wants to be on WBE's list with this:

WATCH: Florida state Rep. Elizabeth Porter dismisses Florida shooting survivors calls for increased gun control.

"Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says no homework?"

[JCAll]

Let's meet Florida Representative Elizabeth Porter, who so desperately wants to be on WBE's list with this:

I'd back it. I messed up my shoulder once carrying a backpack full of books home every night.