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

[PaulBullion]

Never forget that this is all the fault of the traitorous Republican party -- let's just hope that, once again, our nation can survive their selfish insanity.

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"Canada announces they will retaliate against U.S. tariffs by imposing trade barriers on U.S. steel, aluminum & other products. Never in my lifetime did I envision we would be in a trade war with Europe and Canada, while ignoring Russia's attacks on our Democracy."

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/31/inve...nse/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/business...ada-and-mexico

The EU announced filing a complaint with the WTO. America is becoming even more of a pariah.

[Iron Maiden]

The damage that Trump is doing to this country in terms of reputation and international relations is incalculable. And the Grand Ol' Party will have a lot to answer for, or the Cabal of Craven Cowards as I call them.

[Malvolio]

Happens every time, I'm not sure why you're shocked. Making false equivalencies is practically the cornerstone of the GOP's party platform. Ivanka got called a bad word because she was mocking suffering children, or was at least perceived to be. But Roseanne got in trouble for saying racist things, so the idiots jumping up and down shouting "Both sides!" needed something to latch on to.

What exactly does Ivanka Trump do? I mean, I know she hangs around the West Wing, and she gets paid, but what does she do?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

John Brennan pens op-ed vowing to criticize Trump 'until integrity returns to the White House'

Former CIA director John Brennan tears into President Trump in a new op-ed for the Washington Post, vowing to continue speaking out against the president "until integrity returns to the White House."

Brennan, who served as director of the agency under former President Obama, is a frequent Trump critic. Most recently, he referred to Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement as "madness."

In the Washington Post, Brennan writes about his "admiration" for the office of the presidency after working with and serving under multiple presidents, saying that while he "didn't agree with all of their policy choices," he "never doubted that each treated their solemn responsibility to lead our nation with anything less than the seriousness, intellectual rigor and principles that it deserved."

"The esteem with which I held the presidency was dealt a serious blow when Donald Trump took office," Brennan writes. "Almost immediately, I began to see a startling aberration from the remarkable, though human, presidents I had served."

Brennan rips Trump for bringing a "lifelong preoccupation with aggrandizing himself" to the White House, and expresses concern that "his mean-spirited and malicious behavior" will be copied by future generations.

"[He] has shown highly abnormal behavior by lying routinely to the American people without compunction, intentionally fueling divisions in our country and actively working to degrade the imperfect but critical institutions that serve us," Brennan writes of Trump.

Brennan warns that even those who supported Trump's campaign promises will fall victim to "the damage" he causes in office.

"At a time when deep-seated fears of socioeconomic and cultural change need to be addressed honestly and without prejudice, Mr. Trump grandstands like a snake-oil salesman, squandering his formidable charisma and communication skills in favor of ego, selfishness and false promises," he writes.

[BeastieRunner]

The damage that Trump is doing to this country in terms of reputation and international relations is incalculable. And the Grand Ol' Party will have a lot to answer for, or the Cabal of Craven Cowards as I call them.

Gang of Putin is the currently accepted term, FYI.

I'm not even sure how kneeling for something is a sign of disrespect in the first place. Like, you kneel before a King. Kneeling during a patriotic song is surely symbolic of fealty or something. Surely, a much more disrespectful move would be to, I dunno, bend over and spank your ass at the flag, or giving the middle finger, or spitting on the grass or something.

MLK kneeled during the pledge until changes happened.

It's a biblical thing.

Kneel before Christ.

[PaulBullion]

What exactly does Ivanka Trump do? I mean, I know she hangs around the West Wing, and she gets paid, but what does she do?

I think her job description includes "raising Angela Merkle's blood pressure".

[WestPhillyPunisher]

What exactly does Ivanka Trump do? I mean, I know she hangs around the West Wing, and she gets paid, but what does she do?

She looks pretty for photo ops and does glad handing with dignitaries. Beyond that, I got nothing. And, of course, Republicans don't have the balls to ask why Ms. Complicit is in the White House, not without pissing off Daddykins, THAT they can't risk.

[ZombieHavoc]

If you are doing what known evil people do, the math about if you could be evil starts to get pretty simple.

People have been climbing all over themselves about taking the moral high ground and all that bullshit.

I sometimes wish we had never heard the phrase "when they go low, we go high" because that **** did not work for anyone.

Also, people are responding to the right's fake outrage as if they were truly and genuinely offended by it. They were not. A liberal TV personality who often takes shots at the president said it, and that's the only reason they care.

They do not care that someone got called the C word, in any way, shape or form.

[ZombieHavoc]

I think while Trump will lose, he will lose for the wrong reasons. He won't lose because Americans reject the hate. He will lose because he will drive the economy so far into the mud that even Putin's meddling won't save him.

He's going to win. I can almost guarantee that there will be the same voter turnout in 2020, and whoever the dem is will win the same areas and popular vote and Trump wins the electoral vote. The people who voted for him have admitted they don't give a **** what he does, or how his policy affects them.

So the economy being **** will not stunt his votes.

[BeastieRunner]

You mean like this?

Especially like that!

[Iron Maiden]

Gang of Putin is the currently accepted term, FYI.

MLK kneeled during the pledge until changes happened.

It's a biblical thing.

Kneel before Christ.

Exactly. This was eventually settled by the Supreme Court in the favor of the Jehovah's Witnesses when they reversed an earlier ruling against the Witnesses for not saying the Pledge of Allegiance and for not standing for the National Anthem. They way one Jehovah's Witness explained it to me is that they interpret it as worshiping an idol. She was allowed to sit at her desk when we had to say the Pledge of Allegiance facing the flag with our hands over our hearts

[Iron Maiden]

She looks pretty for photo ops and does glad handing with dignitaries. Beyond that, I got nothing. And, of course, Republicans don't have the balls to ask why Ms. Complicit is in the White House, not without pissing off Daddykins, THAT they can't risk.

Oh, and the shoe and purse maven recently got her full security clearance. Gee, I feel so safe that she's looking out for us.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Oh, and the shoe and purse maven recently got her full security clearance. Gee, I feel so safe that she's looking out for us.

The notion of Ms. Complicit sitting in on high level White House meetings goes beyond absurd and careens at full speed into dangerous territory. What in god's name do you think she'd do with any important information she gets her manicured mitts on, other than peddle same to the highest foreign bidder in return for expanding the Trump brand. That's what she does, that's all she does!

[Jack Dracula]

What exactly does Ivanka Trump do? I mean, I know she hangs around the West Wing, and she gets paid, but what does she do?

Serves as an example of how little Trump cares about propriety or conventional standards of conduct befitting the office.

[Iron Maiden]

The notion of Ms. Complicit sitting in on high level White House meetings goes beyond absurd and careens at full speed into dangerous territory. What in god's name do you think she'd do with any important information she gets her manicured mitts on, other than peddle same to the highest foreign bidder in return for expanding the Trump brand. That's what she does, that's all she does!

And think of the wasted resources spent vetting her. She really has no official post in the government that I can recall but her title is "special adviser". Maybe she reads the newspapers out loud to Daddy.