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

[PaulBullion]

he might have little to do with it. but the economy is doing fine. wages are increasing. and the N Korea talks are back on. everyone should just buckle in for him getting a second term.

The economy won't be doing fine in a few months because of Trump's policies. The trade wars have only just begun.

Trump's statement about rising wages "mostly false" according to Politifact.

If the job market is so great, why aren’t many people getting pay raises?

Also, the DJI graph over the past years is not looking great for Trump. He coastet on Obama's economy for a year, and then... needle scratch.

[numberthirty]

What the f-? Is it just the pedophiles' turn to be loud and proud? Cause screw that.

Local news has been on the coverage since the piece came out.

There is some stuff that I had to hear to believe.

That guy at the Tribune deserves an award and a mindwipe.

[Malvolio]

Wages are going up because governors in blue states are signing minimum wage increases into law. But if you live in a state with a Republican governor who vows to veto any minimum wage increase, you're jolly well fucked. But don't worry. Cadet Bone Spurs will save you.

[Tazirai]

Here's an ASTONISHING report on why the American Media is terrible.

Study finds 5,000 people may have died from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Cable news focused on Roseanne instead.
Cable news covered Roseanne for over 10 hours. They covered Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico for just over 30 minutes.

[numberthirty]

Here's an ASTONISHING report on why the American Media is terrible.

Not really astonishing, to me.

We are talking about the same outfits that think I need to see Stormy Daniels' lawyer more than I see the local weather.

[mathew101281]

Local news has been on the coverage since the piece came out.

There is some stuff that I had to hear to believe.

That guy at the Tribune deserves an award and a mindwipe.

I keep looking for rock bottom but I’m beginning to feel this is a bottomless pit. I go to the comment section expecting to see people both left and right condemning this. Instead I see a bunch of losers arguing over whether this monster is liberal or conservative? How much of a fanatic do you have to be to see this situation and instantly think to politize it?

[Darkspellmaster]

What the f-? Is it just the pedophiles' turn to be loud and proud? Cause screw that.

There's more to it then what the bit from Chicago tonight, which is an amazing show by the way, dealt with here.

http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/c...buse/#amendola

The issue is that this was a decade long look at CPS and the situation there. Jackson is the newest person in charge and during the period that a lot of this was happening there was a lot of upheaval of the CPS Board. I'm not pleased, I know other teacher's are not pleased. This is, of course, ignoring any of the harassment between students as well. Other districts need to be looked into as well, since it's not just a case for Chicago's schools. This is also not counting the Charter schools which have their own policies that are supposed to prevent stuff, but there's been situations that are kept quiet where the you'll have the same sort of harassment. And that's not taking into account teacher on teacher harassment, Parent on Teacher harassment (yes that happens too), or even student on teacher harassment (some younger teachers who are just out of college will get hit on by the students and they have to deal with that and most people just tell them to not worry about it they're just kids).

And yes, apparently it is, given that there's been an increase in pedophiles making headlines and the news. I'm just waiting for some sort of group to develop where people want the right to sleep with teens and younger and not go to jail for it.

[Darkspellmaster]

I keep looking for rock bottom but I’m beginning to feel this is a bottomless pit. I go to the comment section expecting to see people both left and right condemning this. Instead I see a bunch of losers arguing over whether this monster is liberal or conservative? How much of a fanatic do you have to be to see this situation and instantly think to politize it?

1930
No joke, this politization has happened before during other events. In the 1930s when the Mob was the big thing they would take up the front page and people would be talking about it on the news radio at the time more about that then the issues that were happening in Europe and especially Germany at the time. People were more caught up in the fact that (I think it was) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was seeing another actress while he was still in the throws of a divorce to his then wife. I have the newspaper to prove it if need be. Stuff like the leader of the scouts visiting the white house for the first time was relegated to a paragraph or blurb, while there are paragraphs about actors and actresses and the mob or talking heads fighting over business situations.

This is nothing new, it's just that now we have news outlets and people seem to want to close their ears and shut their eyes to the issues because we're being doused with it every day of every hour, because it brings in the revenue for the station and ad money, which is what the stations want, due to viewership watching. It's a horrible cycle, and, as someone who studied to become a journalist and turned away from it after a while, one of the major things that has been said to my class at the time was "No one cares really about issues outside of their own back yard. To make them care you have to actually show them a reason to care. You want them to send money to help others out, you have to show then a dog or a cat in danger because other wise people don't really care about one another. It's as true for the US as it is for someone from Italy, as it is for someone in Nigeria, as it is for someone in India."

That's what this guest lecturer told my class. I didn't believe him at the time...now I'm not so sure.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Does Rush Limbaugh Matter Anymore?

The shock jock still commands a huge audience, but he’s not standing out in the era of Donald Trump. I must admit that surprises me, but I'm glad Bloat Limbaugh is becoming irrelevant.

**********

In Trump’s Zero-Sum World, The Summit Already Has A Winner, And It’s Not Trump

For decades, North Korea has wanted a summit with the U.S. to be taken seriously. Trump said yes the moment he was asked. Was Dolt45 played like a fiddle by Rocket Man? Looks like it.

**********

Mother Of Santa Fe Shooting Victim: Meeting With Donald Trump ‘Was Like Talking To A Toddler’

After the Feb. 14 shooting massacre in Parkland, Florida, survivor Samantha Fuentes said she had “never been so unimpressed by a person in my life.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

**********

Trump Leaked Sensitive Info From The May Jobs Report, And That’s A Big Effing Problem

The president scored cheap political points this morning by undermining trust in the U.S. economy. Does Adolph Twitler care about that? That's a big fat NOPE!

**********

Outrage Over Samantha Bee Should Pale In Comparison To Outrage Over Trump

President Donald Trump called for TBS to fire Samantha Bee over her use of the phrase “feckless c**t” to describe his daughter and adviser Ivanka, sparking debate over his own famous history of foul language, including the word “pussy.”

But bickering over semantics misses a more urgent moral contradiction: Bee was name-calling. Trump was bragging about sexual assault.

Trump’s comments are backed by the weight of his actions and the damage he’s inflicted upon women he “moved on” without their consent. Women like Mindy McGillivray, Karena Virginia and Ninni Laaksonen, who all claim Trump has groped them.

Or women like Jessica Drake, Temple Taggart McDowell, Jennifer Murphy, Natasha Stoynoff and Cathy Heller, who all claim Trump kissed them without their consent. Or Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s show “The Apprentice” who said Trump not only forcibly kissed her on the mouth, but also thrusted his genitals at her.

Even Ivana Trump, his ex-wife, was allegedly subject to his unwanted advances. She claimed he forced her to have sex with him. (Trump’s lawyer once argued a man can’t legally rape his wife.) Not to mention women who don’t want to be named, or haven’t come forward for fear of retaliation.

Bee’s remarks may have momentarily tarnished Ivanka Trump’s public image, but Donald Trump’s remarks elevated actions that weren’t just inappropriate, but illegal. The pearl-clutching over Bee’s use of a word once called “the most offensive curse word in English” should pale in comparison with the anger over a public figure joking about how he has violated women’s bodies.

But the fallout of each of their comments doesn’t reflect that. Bee lost advertisers, issued an apology and was chastised by the network she works for.

Trump became president of the United States.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, a former pastor who has referred to same sex marriage as “an attack upon the family” while campaigning for office, thinks being gay is a choice, refers to climate change a myth, spoke at length about his frustration of endangered birds receiving more protection from the government than fetuses, blamed the Sandy Hook Massacre on “welfare moms overmedicating their kids to get more benefits” and n June of 2016 against a measure that would have made it illegal for firearms transfers to people who were suspected terrorists on the “no fly list”. His Christian principles lead him to believe migrant children should be thrown out of the country because in the Bible, being kind to strangers doesn’t specify that they should be citizens of the country you live in. Seriously, this guy is such a fanatic when he was asked about the national debt, his solution was to pray that it gets better. He currently is pushing for “religious freedom” legislation because he defines no being allowed to discriminate against gay people as “being targeted for his faith”, claiming they are the real victims in a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” situation. Lankford’s also prolifically absent in Congress when it comes time to vote, as he missed almost 10% of them from his final term serving in the House. Near the end of our 2015 entry about Lankford, we noted he had found himself amongst the #47Traitors, for writing a letter to the leaders of Iran trying to undermine the peace treaty that the Obama administration had arranged with them, and was campaigning to push for national “religious freedom” laws to allow for the discrimination of LGBT citizens and prevent them from having equal rights based on the supposed faith of who was discriminating against them. He has also voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted to maintain the gun rights of people on the no-fly list so they could procure firearms for mass shootings, voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States, and refused to consider Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court because “he isn’t conservative enough”, waiting a year to vote for Neil Gorsuch.

Since we last updated our annual look at James Lankford, he has made several troubling votes, including continuing to vote for every Trump administration nominee, no matter how unqualified or utterly appalling (including torture maven Gina Haspel to be the head of the CIA), he voted against disaster relief funding for victims of Hurricane Harvey back in October of 2017 (quite a Christian thing to do, for a pastor), and in December of 2017, he voted for the big GOP Tax Plan Scam.

And for all that party line bulls***, does Sen. Lankford get any love from the White House. HA! No. Trump doesn’t even know his name, he calls him “Tom”.

Just a reminder, Lankford is up for re-election in 2020. We’ll have to see if the people of Oklahoma get tired of him enough to vote blue, but unless a Roy Moore saga suddenly unfolds, that seems unlikely.

[Tami]

Still no full accounting for Hurricane Maria - video

There is still no full accounting for the devastation from Hurricane Maria, even as a new study underscores the scope of the damage.

[PaulBullion]

average monthly job growth: —first 16 months of Trump presidency: 185K —last 16 months of Obama presidency: 215K

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/sta...95795090321409

U.S. first-quarter growth trimmed to 2.2% on weak consumer spending


The tax cuts! they do nothing!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/sta...95795090321409

U.S. first-quarter growth trimmed to 2.2% on weak consumer spending


The tax cuts! they do nothing!

I respectfully disagree. The tax cuts are making the one percenters richer than they already are now.

[Iron Maiden]

Here's an ASTONISHING report on why the American Media is terrible.

Study finds 5,000 people may have died from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Cable news focused on Roseanne instead.
Cable news covered Roseanne for over 10 hours. They covered Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico for just over 30 minutes.

What's astonishing also is that Peurto Rico's governor was even unaware of the number of deaths because he says there will be Hell to Pay if some of his staff was withholding information. This is still a developing story and CNN for one has had reporters there trying to get reliable information

CNN and other news outlets have used government statistics and extensive interviews with families of the deceased and funeral home directors to question the Puerto Rican government's official tally of deaths. Previous estimates suggested Maria contributed to about 1,000 deaths.
We surveyed 112 Puerto Rican funeral homes to check the accuracy of the hurricane death toll. This is what we found.
Rosselló cited the government's commissioning of a study to be carried out by George Washington University as a sign of its intentions to reach an accurate number. He acknowledged that the GW study is behind schedule and blamed the delay on the difficulty of obtaining accurate data from death certificates. He said he hoped the results of the GW study, along with the Harvard survey results, could inform decision-making about how to handle similar catastrophes.
One researcher who worked on the Harvard study told CNN that the Puerto Rican government did not provide them with data they requested. Rosselló said there would be "hell to pay" if officials from his government were found to be withholding mortality statistics from researchers.

But yes, the TV outlets should give the story more air time but there's still more to it if the governor thinks shenanigans is going on even within his own staff. The newspapers at least don't have air time and commericals to worry about so you can find more online about it or in print.

[GindyPosts]

Here's an ASTONISHING report on why the American Media is terrible.

Study finds 5,000 people may have died from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Cable news focused on Roseanne instead.
Cable news covered Roseanne for over 10 hours. They covered Hurricane Maria's death toll in Puerto Rico for just over 30 minutes.

Puerto Rico crisis is ratings poison.

Hysterical wing nut is a ratings goldmine.

The media is corporate driven, remember?