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

[Mister Mets]

Ocasio-Cortez hasn't made it her mission to try to destroy other members of the Democratic Party. I'll let the candidate speak for herself.

https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/statu...46641287458816





Once again, communism is not typically associated with ethno-nationalism. Which is what set this debate off.



I believe this is how you see it.

It's good for the party that she recognizes that what works in a district Hillary Clinton won by 56 (not with) points might not be great in swing states, though there are some questions.

How are these voters going to respond in a presidential election? She backed Sanders- presumably she thinks it's a good thing he won the primaries he did.

Will the argument that you're trying to widen the scope of policy discussions appear too clever by half? Politics has been very nationalized, especially in the Congress. If Ocasio-Cortez has a higher profile, candidates in other districts will be asked their thoughts on her views.

Article III of the Constitution specifies that all the United States federal judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behavior". This language means that the appointments are effectively for life, and that, once confirmed, a justice's tenure of office ends only when they die, retire, resign, or are removed from office through the impeachment process. The term "good behavior" is interpreted to mean that judges may serve for the remainder of their lives, although they may resign or retire voluntarily. A judge may also be removed by impeachment and conviction by congressional vote (hence the term good behavior); this has occurred fourteen times. Three other judges, Mark W. Delahay, George W. English, and Samuel B. Kent, chose to resign rather than go through the impeachment process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articl...s_Constitution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associ..._United_States

So it is unlikely that the President Trump can't remove any Justice from the bench, even with the Republican Party in control of both the Senate and the Congress, at least until the midterm elections. But Trump can get a Justice to retire voluntarily. How is he going to bribe Justice Ginsburg?

Really, the only bribe there would be to promise a liberal replacement.

More evidence of those darned Antifa being dangerous and police having to forcibly arrest people for...uh...wearing masks at a protest...

It's a little old, but I don't recall seeing it, and I mean, I get it, after all. Those 400 cops patrolling the rally to keep those white supremacists safe must have been SO SCARED of that handful of anti-fascists daring to protest a gathering of American fascists. ESPECIALLY the 10 scary, mask-wearing super thugs they assaulted and arrested. They had to uphold the law, after all. Those masks might have been hiding secret KKK members!

Militarized Cops At Tiny Georgia Neo-Nazi Rally Arrest Counterprotesters For Wearing Masks:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b075b631e65f49

Should the cops ignore the law here?

[Mister Mets]

In the wake of the latest 'regrettably unpreventable' mass shooting, Huffington Post shares some of the hate mail they've gotten.

Man, I just can't get over how much the examples sound JUST LIKE Auntie Maxine calling for protesters to continue making Trump administration officials uncomfortable. I mean, look at these two quotes. One is from a rabid, extremist Democrat calling for violence. The other is CLEARLY just a simple, concerned Republican voter, voicing his fears:

“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

“I would suggest that it is too bad HuffPost reporters weren’t shot up.”

I mean, I can't tell the difference, can you? Both sides are clearly EQUALLY BAD(tm)!

Our Hate Mail:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b007aa2f7fb127

You're making several errors here.

First, you're comparing unlike things. Conservatives have received death threats and nasty messages before. A man was arrested for sending death threats to the FCC Chairman yesterday. Dana Loesch, the NRA Spokesman, has publicized some fo the nastiest messages she gets.

Second, there's a difference between something that no one prominent advocates for, and something that a congresswoman supports and that media types defend.

Finally, if we're looking at the nastiest partisan actions of the last few years, that would be the Bernie Sanders supporter who shot up Republican members of Congress as they were practicing for a charity baseball game.

The behind the scene campaign to get another nominee for the Supreme Court before midterms.

The Courting of Anthony Kennedy: DONALD TRUMP MADE JUSTICE KENNEDY AN OFFER HE COULDN’T REFUSE

Once again, the GOP were planning on this in advance. I think this shows that they are not that sure that Trump will get re-elected and that they may not hold the Senate in the fast approaching mid terms. But Kennedy's departure has been in the works for a while.

While the Democrats appeared to be shocked by this week's announcement, this was no surprise to McConnell and other WH insiders;



Some of the steps taken included:

• Trump nominated 3 former clerks of Justice Kennedy to judicial posts . Somehow I believe that Trump was merely the instrument of this part of the plan and the list has been provided to him. The only thing he knows about judges is from numerous law suits.
• Trump cultivated a relationship with Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin, who worked closely with the Trump Organization in his role at Deutsche Bank as the global head of real-estate capital markets, according to the Times.
• Even Ivanka got in on it by schmoozing her way inside: She invited Justice Kennedy out for lunch shortly after the inauguration. Soon after, Ivanka and her daughter were invited as special guests of Justice Kennedy to hear arguments in the Supreme Court .
• The nomination of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was another play to gain Kennedy's trust since Gorsuch also used to be one of Kennedy's clerks. They made sure Kennedy was there for Gorsuch's swearing in ceremony.

So there was no surprise in the WH about Kennedy's retirement. They've been laying the track for over a year to ease him into retirement and have been openly asking for the retirement.

It's interesting how well Trump & company played this.

I suppose Democrats wish this had been done with Ginsburg.

Congressional Republicans are more afraid of losing these votes



Than they are about these votes:


Women's March

or these votes


March for Our Lives

or these votes

Families Belong Together protest planned for Washington, DC, and hundreds of other cities

We'll see which matters more.

The women's march showed that millions traveled outside of their districts/ states to let their voices be heard. They will still each have one vote on Election Day, and it's going to be spread out all over, largely in districts where it doesn't matter.

[Tami]

You're making several errors here.

First, you're comparing unlike things. Conservatives have received death threats and nasty messages before. A man was arrested for sending death threats to the FCC Chairman yesterday. Dana Loesch, the NRA Spokesman, has publicized some fo the nastiest messages she gets.

Second, there's a difference between something that no one prominent advocates for, and something that a congresswoman supports and that media types defend.

Finally, if we're looking at the nastiest partisan actions of the last few years, that would be the Bernie Sanders supporter who shot up Republican members of Congress as they were practicing for a charity baseball game.

It's interesting how well Trump & company played this.

I suppose Democrats wish this had been done with Ginsburg.

We'll see which matters more.

The women's march showed that millions traveled outside of their districts/ states to let their voices be heard. They will still each have one vote on Election Day, and it's going to be spread out all over, largely in districts where it doesn't matter.

You are forgetting that there were sister marches across the country at the same time or at other times.

Add all these marches together, overlaid by the popular vote Trump didn't get to begin with, and I really think the Republicans are setting themselves up for disaster. Not that I care so much, they pretty much made their own bed.

[aja_christopher]

You are forgetting that there were sister marches across the country at the same time or at other times.

Add all these marches together, overlaid by the popular vote Trump didn't get to begin with, and I really think the Republicans are setting themselves up for disaster. Not that I care so much, they pretty much made their own bed.

Either way, it's very important that we keep a watchful eye on our electoral process.

Outside of McCain, most Republicans (Ryan, McConnell, etc) have already shown -- via Trump -- that they have no problems looking the other way when a foreign power interferes in our democratic process, so long as it is to their benefit.

Given all of the evidence -- including Trump's refusal to criticize Putin for proven interference in our elections -- it's not a stretch to assume that they'd have absolutely no problem with something similar (or worse) happening again.

Not saying it will, but we shouldn't put anything past the current administration -- especially given the duplicity of previous Republican administrations, including that of the previous Republican president, George Bush Jr.

[PaulBullion]

Oh WBE! Get a load of this!

Methinks I should read more about Joey Gibson...

He's the founder of this group, WBE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Prayer

But but but... FoxNews told me he is just a decent, god-fearing patriot!

[Iron Maiden]

To show how serious the GOP are about the Supreme Court:

Here's a blast from the past that Joy Reid brought up today during her show. I had forgotten about this.....

From NPR: Senator John McCain says Republicans will block all Court nominations if Hillary wins.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) said Monday that if Hillary Clinton is elected, Republicans will unite to block anyone she nominates to the Supreme Court.

Speaking on WPHT-AM radio's "Dom Giordano Program" in Philadelphia, McCain pledged to obstruct any Clinton Supreme Court nomination for the current or any future vacancy.


Sen. John McCain speaks to the media, March 16, shortly after President Barack Obama nominated Merrick B. Garland to the Supreme Court. McCain said that the confirmation of the next Justice should occur after the election. Now he vows to block Hillary Clinton's choice if she wins the election.
Pete Marovich/Getty Images
"I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up," he declared.

From Nov 1: from PBS reportage on radio interviews: If Clinton wins, more in GOP say no to full Supreme Court

“If Hillary Clinton becomes president, I am going to do everything I can do to make sure four years from now, we still got an opening on the Supreme Court,” North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr said in an audio recording of his meeting with GOP volunteers on Saturday. CNN obtained a copy of the audio.

From Politico Oct 26 2016: Ted Cruz: GOP may block Supreme Court nominees indefinitely

That fall, when Trump was behind in the polls, the GOP were getting nervous about him losing to Hillary. But then there was that Comey announcement about reopening the investigation into her emails....

[Tami]

'Are you alone now?'

Since the day of the raid, they had been staying in the trailer with a rotation of older relatives — two more children adjusting to a life without their parents as a result of U.S. immigration policies. Even as President Trump and his administration promise to reunite families separated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the U.S. border, a similar crisis continues unabated within the country’s interior, where children are separated from their undocumented parents with little scrutiny and increasing frequency.

In the past few months, ICE has carried out the three biggest workplace immigration raids of the past decade, including one on June 5 at a nursery here in rural Ohio, where 114 gardeners, florists and other workers were detained and put into court proceedings for deportation. Many of them had lived for several years in a Norwalk trailer park of 74 homes known as Little Mexico, where now aid workers estimate that more than 90 children are missing one parent and at least 20 are left with no parent at all.

One of them is Alex, an American citizen like most children in the trailer park, with a wardrobe of Cleveland Cavaliers T-shirts and frosted tips dyed orange at the barbershop inside Walmart. He’d spent all 12 of his years in Norwalk, population 17,000, and for much of that time he’d lived in the trailer parks of Little Mexico, in a beige double-wide with his sister and mother, Nora Galvez, who first came to the United States in 1999. The air outside their trailer smelled of smoke and rubber from the neighboring pallet factory. The favorite community soccer field was in fact a gravel lot. But Alex knew every one of the 74 families in the two trailer parks, and he and his friends could wander freely on their bikes from one trailer into the next. Many people in conservative Norwalk regarded Little Mexico as an ugly annex, a place to be left alone, but to Alex that meant it had always felt peaceful and undisturbed.

Now he walked out of the trailer with his empty shopping bag into a scene that looked to him like something out of “Fortnite,” his favorite apocalyptic video game. There were gardens of dying flowers and trash cans overloaded with uncollected garbage. More than a dozen trailers had been abandoned in the hours after the raid, and many of them had windows left open or toys scattered in the yard. Five residents of Little Mexico had been deported, and 34 others remained in detention, including Alex’s mother. Several more residents had packed up and fled Ohio that night, after a rumor spread that ICE was also planning to raid the trailer park. Those who remained were mostly out of a job or too afraid to go to work, and after two weeks of unpaid bills, some had also lost their electricity.

[aja_christopher]

To show how serious the GOP are about the Supreme Court:

Here's a blast from the past that Joy Reid brought up today during her show. I had forgotten about this.....

From NPR: Senator John McCain says Republicans will block all Court nominations if Hillary wins.

And that's the alleged party "maverick" -- the one Trump still mocks while he deals with brain cancer.

That's who the Republicans have chosen as President.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And that's the alleged party "maverick" -- the one Trump still mocks while he deals with brain cancer.

That's who the Republicans have chosen as President.

And they’re happy about it too. Elated even.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/coming-wa...194527327.html



The journalist fails to take into account the three Democrats who are up for this year's re-election and desperate to hold on to their senate seats: Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly, of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota. All three of them voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch.

The pro-abortion rights organizations can maybe give up their hopes on the appointment of a pro-abortion judge. There are only three months between the date of Kennedy's retirement and the midterm elections. I doubt the democrats will have enough votes with the Republican majority and the DINOs to block Trump's nomination of an anti-abortion judge.

Agreed. Manchin for sure will go along with whatever Republicans if it’ll save his own political neck, so it’s by no means certain Dems can block or even delay a vote on Kennedy’s replacement.

[aja_christopher]

And they’re happy about it too. Elated even.

To be fair, the ones Trump attacked (Romney, Jeb, McCain, etc) don't seem to like him, but it's a rare occasion when they step up and speak out against his blatant lies and outright bigotry.

Most likely because they know that's part of what helped him win the election in the first place and they don't want to lose that "base".

And even those that do speak out against him still vote for his policies -- or vice versa -- so what they say is irrelevant in that respect, regardless.

Edit: Mixed feelings but I do want to give McCain some credit on that ACA vote -- especially given his warning about the continued divisiveness in our republic. Including a WWE remix just because I think it suits the tone better.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

To be fair, the ones Trump attacked (Romney, Jeb, McCain, etc) don't seem to like him, but it's a rare occasion when they step up and speak out against his blatant lies and outright bigotry.

Most likely because they know that's part of what helped him win the election in the first place and they don't want to lose that "base".

And even those that do speak out against him still vote for his policies, so what they say is irrelevant in that respect, regardless.

The only Republicans with the balls to speak out against Trump are those who are retiring (i.e. Jeff Flake, Bob Corker) and have nothing to lose politically for calling out Caramel Caligula for the colossal assclown he is.

[aja_christopher]

The only Republicans with the balls to speak out against Trump are those who are retiring (i.e. Jeff Flake, Bob Corker) and have nothing to lose politically for calling out Caramel Caligula for the colossal assclown he is.

The people are resisting and that's good enough for me: I don't expect our government to behave itself of it's own accord -- it's up to us as the voting public to hold them to that standard.

-----
"Bow down before the one you serve, you're going to get what you deserve."

[Malvolio]

Yep. The 'different rules for Dems and the GOP' are flagrantly obvious here.

Exactly. We're in a fight here. Fighting is inherently not a polite activity.

[4saken1]

Congressional Republicans are more afraid of losing these votes



Than they are about these votes:


Women's March

or these votes


March for Our Lives

or these votes

Families Belong Together protest planned for Washington, DC, and hundreds of other cities

When you factor in the disparities in representation in the Senate and the Electoral College, combined with gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement, the votes of those in the first picture likely actually have more of an effect on winning an election than those of the bottom two.