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

[worstblogever]

Welll... it is hard to keep up with all of these crazy people.

When in doubt, feel free to check the CSGOPOTD Archive.

[Tami]

F.B.I. Agent at Center of Russia Probe Turns Tables on G.O.P.

Any article that talks about Turning the Tables on the GOP makes me smile a little more

WASHINGTON — The embattled F.B.I. agent who oversaw the opening of the Russia investigation mounted an aggressive personal defense on Thursday, rejecting accusations that he let his private political views bias his official actions and labeling Republican attacks on him “another victory notch in Putin’s belt.”

“Let me be clear, unequivocally and under oath: not once in my 26 years of defending my nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took,” the agent, Peter Strzok, was to tell House lawmakers investigating what they say is evidence of rampant bias at the top levels of the F.B.I.

In his first public comments, he concluded his prepared remarks with a pointed broadside against his antagonizers.

“I understand we are living in a political era in which insults and insinuation often drown out honesty and integrity,” Mr. Strzok planned to say, continuing: “I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I truly believe that today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Show of hands if anyone's surprised:

Report: North Koreans skip meeting to discuss remains of American troops

North Korean officials reportedly did not show up Thursday at a scheduled meeting with U.S. officials to discuss returning the remains of American soldiers, and instead suggested talking with United Nations military leaders about the issue.

Yonhap News in South Korea reported that North Korea asked the United Nations Command to hold "general-level military talks" about returning the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War.

A source told Yonhap that North Korea "wants a U.S. general to appear at the table to quickly finalize the repatriation issue."

If the U.S. agrees to the meeting, it would mark the first time North Korea has engaged in military talks with the United Nations military body since 2009.

I would wonder what Donnie Dealmaker had to say about this development, then I remembered he was busy over in Europe making an asshat of himself before NATO.

**********

Now we have "Pool Lounging While Black":

Black man asked to leave his own pool by officer in viral video

A black man who was confronted and asked to leave the pool at the apartment building where he lives in a viral video says he was the victim of racial profiling.

Indiana resident Shayne Holland used his cell phone to record a confrontation between himself and an security guard who was an off-duty Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer last Friday.

The incident happened when he was sitting at the pool at the River Crossing Apartments, where he has lived since February 2017, according to the Indianapolis Star.

"I had my headphones when she approached me so I didn't hear her the first time. When I asked her to repeat herself, she asked if I lived in the neighborhood. I said yes," Holland told the Star. "When she asked where I lived, I said I don't know you and you haven't identified yourself, so I'm not just going to give you my address."

The man said he presented the officer, whose name was not immediately available, with a key he was issued from the apartment complex which allows him access to the pool.

The officer then contacted the complex's property manager to confirm Holland was a resident, which the manager did confirm.

But the situation continued to escalate in the video posted on Twitter. The officer, who is wearing a badge, continues to press Holland in the video. He repeatedly says he was uncomfortable giving the officer his address.

"Why do I need to give this lady, who I don't know, my address?" Holland asked in the video, while noting that he paid $1,600 in rent for the following month.

Pretty soon, we're going to have "Breathing While Black". This **** is patently disgusting and angers me no end.

[Malvolio]

Good riddance to bad rubbish! And I've always like Pizza Hut more.



Disgusting! Absolutely disgusting!

====================

Republicans Vote To Send Trump A Message On Tariffs

But they still don’t want to pass a law restraining his trade authority. In other words, Republicans are too damn scared to challenge Trump.

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Trump’s Spiritual Adviser: Sure, Jesus Was A Refugee, But He Didn’t Do Anything Illegal

Christian advocates are debunking Paula White’s claim that Jesus was different because he never broke the law. Anything to justify Trump's rampant xenophobia towards brown skinned people.

**********

Scott Pruitt’s Replacement To EPA Staff: ‘My Instinct Will Be To Defend Your Work’

“Just like me, you came to EPA to protect the environment,” said Andrew Wheeler, a former coal and mining lobbyist. My response? BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

**********

Shepard Smith Gives Dark Warning About Trump’s ‘Unprecedented’ Attacks On NATO

The Fox News host says the president’s remarks in Brussels could cause lasting damage. I'm really surprised Shep hasn't been fired for not toeing the Faux News company line when it comes to relentlessly kissing Trump's orange ass.

**********

Ted Lieu Mocks Trump’s NATO Attacks With Super Basic ‘Reminder’ Memo

The Democratic lawmaker spelled it out for the president. Just one problem: Dolt45 can't spell.

Maybe he can't spell, but he should at least be able to tell the difference between the German flag and the Russian flag.

[BeastieRunner]

Now we have "Pool Lounging While Black":

Black man asked to leave his own pool by officer in viral video





Pretty soon, we're going to have "Breathing While Black". This **** is patently disgusting and angers me no end.

Did you see the one about the kid who got the cops called on him for delivering newspapers on his first day of his paper route?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I for one am all for this:

More than 20 Democratic House candidates want Nancy Pelosi to step aside after 2018

A close tally of Democratic House candidates who have said they won’t support House minority leader Nancy Pelosi indicates Democrats would either have to win by a huge margin in order for her to hang onto her top leadership post in 2019 — or those newly elected representatives would have to go back on a key campaign promise during their first vote in office.

Pelosi has already said she will run for speaker if Democrats win in 2018. But her path to victory in such a scenario is looking very narrow.

Vox has counted 23 candidates who have publicly said they will not support Pelosi for speaker should Democrats retake the House in 2018. Of those, 17 candidates are on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue list, the list of Republican-held districts Democrats consider competitive. Red to Blue is the closest the DCCC comes to endorsing a candidate; those candidates get extra resources to help in their races.

Having led the party that lost to THE most unqualified candidate EVER to run for president, Pelosi should've been run out of Washington on a rail, not re-elected to continue screwing up ****, even if she is a prolific fundraiser. Plain and simple: It's time for a new captain at the helm.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Did you see the one about the kid who got the cops called on him for delivering newspapers on his first day of his paper route?

Really? No, I hadn't heard about that. Damn!

[Mister Mets]

Being against Russia has been cool in America since before you were born (the "Cold War") so I doubt you've been against it that long since you probably weren't around back in the 1940s.

That said, if you honestly believe that the foreign influence I'm talking about is "wildly exaggerated" when nearly Trump's entire transition team was compromised, there have already been 17 indictments including his accomplices Manafort and Flynn, and Trump himself is currently out and about in the world fulfilling Putin's to-do list down to the last detail then we've once again hit that point where there's probably not much point in having a "dialogue" about it.

I appreciate you wanting to learn more but given all the evidence surrounding Trump and his Russian connections -- up to and including calling for the Wikileaks hack prior to the election -- this is definitely one of those areas where we won't find common ground. In my mind, there is no such thing as "light treason": if Trump was illegally working with a hostile foreign power to subvert our democracy to get elected and then carry out said foreign power's agenda then he needs to be impeached and removed from power as soon as possible -- period.

Just like racism and many other issues, we just can't discuss these things when your perspective seems more informed by personal bias than the facts at hand.

I understand if you see it differently but I can't pretend not to notice the obvious nor waste time "debating" whether I should believe my own eyes. I will add, though, that if Pence and/or Ryan are "clean" and they step in then I don't have a problem with that -- this isn't about hating Republicans, this is about rooting out corruption, Republican or otherwise.

Not much to debate on the topic anyway -- none of us have all of the facts and ultimately Mueller's investigation will reveal more of the truth in time.

You also mentioned other topics of interest but I believe we've already discussed most of them -- including education, immigration, and others.

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"Flynn says Trump transition team directed him to contact Russia"

"As part of a plea deal, former national security adviser Michael Flynn has admitted that a senior member of the Trump transition team directed him to make contact with Russian officials in December 2016.

Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to making false statements to the FBI, becoming the first official who worked in the Trump White House to make a guilty plea so far in a wide-ranging investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

The government did not reveal the identity of the senior transition official."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politic...m-directed-him

Being against the Soviet Union was popular during the Cold War (although there was some pushback from the left) but this wasn't really the situation in the earlier 21st Century.

When Romney said that Russia was the US' greatest geopolitical foe, Obama pushed back on that.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/opini...ker/index.html

I get that there are conflicting view on what constitutes hypocrisy here. Are Democrats hypocrites for blasting Romney for concern over Russia and then taking the reverse position later? Are Republicans hypocrites for blasting Obama regarding Russia and backing Trump now? I'd suggest Republicans are less hypocritical since the US did have in election in 2012 between someone who thought Russia was our greatest geopolitical enemy, and someone who thought that was a ridiculous idea, and the latter won.

The 17 indictments and five guilty pleas aren't about treason. It's about other stuff (money laundering, lying to investigators, tax fraud) especially among the higher-ups.

Treason does have a specific definition, and it is an tough topic to discuss due to the lack of grey areas. The lines are absolute where something is either legal, or a very serious criminal offense, one of the few in the United States that merits the death penalty.

There are still a lot of things that would have to be proven in the hypothesis that Trump was illegally working with a hostile foreign power to subvert our democracy to get elected and then carry out said foreign power's agenda. And degrees can matter (there are degrees of illegality, with some offenses the equivalents of speeding and others much more serious.)

When it comes to racism, my views are informed by concerns about unintended consequences of laws. For example, there are some studies suggested that African American job seekers are hurt by laws that prevent employers from asking about their criminal records. Facts are essential for policy discussions but incomplete, since we don't fully know the reasons behind given statistics.

You said that immigration and education are major topics for you. Can you expand on that a little? Immigration is a major topic for Ann Coulter, but I'm guessing you have very different views on the matter than she does.

[JCAll]

Show of hands if anyone's surprised:

Report: North Koreans skip meeting to discuss remains of American troops



I would wonder what Donnie Dealmaker had to say about this development, then I remembered he was busy over in Europe making an asshat of himself before NATO.

He's already claimed total victory and moved on. Probably doesn't even remember the last batch of lies he was telling, so why would it matter to him.

[aja_christopher]

Being against the Soviet Union was popular during the Cold War (although there was some pushback from the left) but this wasn't really the situation in the earlier 21st Century.

When Romney said that Russia was the US' greatest geopolitical foe, Obama pushed back on that.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/opini...ker/index.htmls.

Claiming someone isn't your greatest foe doesn't mean that they aren't your foe -- likewise, they can quickly become your greatest foe by interfering in your elections, hacking your Congress' emails, and doing all of this in coordination with a candidate that they have chosen in an effort to subvert democracy both domestically and on a global scale.

Again -- we can't have this "debate" as it's based purely on speculation. I you want to assume that all of the Russian interference is just a "democratic plot" to subvert Trump, then so be it: more facts will come to light soon enough, I'm sure.

With regards to immigration, we already discussed that during the matter of the child separation -- I told you that I supported the bipartisan plan agreed on under Obama which increased border security while allowing for a path to citizenship. You started bringing up "open borders" repeatedly, which pretty much ended said conversation.

Education is too complex an issue for me to get into right now -- just know that I've both attended many schools as a kid (military brat) and taught at many different schools as a "substitute": I both lived and taught in suburban, rural, and inner city areas throughout my life as well as overseas in Europe. I've also attended both private and public universities post-graduation so my perspective is based more on direct experience than what I read online or hear from others -- whether it's with regards to "race", immigration, or education.

My childhood (half of which was spent on a military base) was largely multicultural and crime and poverty free but I know the effect that can have on others via close family members -- that said, I can see both the "conservative" and the "liberal" side in that respect. I have a lot of cousins who were just as smart as me in many ways -- teachers wanted to skip me from 1st to 3rd grade my first day in class -- but they lacked the proper resources and environment to put said intelligence to good use: it wasn't parenting (my mother never encouraged my studies) and it wasn't the proverbial "fatherless home" (my parents divorced before I was a teen and didn't stay in contact) -- it was more the environment than anything else.

When I wanted to read, I could go to the base library. When I wanted to game, I could (safely) go to the local arcade with friends. When I wanted some money, I could go bag groceries at the local commissary for tips -- that's what kept me out trouble more than anything else. I grew up with friends that were white, black, Latino, Asian and from other countries all throughout my life -- to me that's what America should be and I feel fortunate to have had that experience. Thus, Trump and the Republicans pushing a borderline openly white supremacist agenda while attacking the very foundation of our democracy goes against nearly everything I know as both as an individual and as an American citizen.

What I can say for certain is this -- Republican policies in the past have cost me my health care when I was injured on the job and couldn't get workman's comp, my unemployment benefits when I needed them most (post-Bush recession) right after said injury, directly threatened my civil liberties as an African-American male with policies such as "stop and frisk" and refusing to look into claims of discrimination both in our scholastic and law enforcement environments, they threaten the very environment with pollution and ignorant climate change policies, etc, etc, etc...

Like I said before, I really just don't have the time to go into all of the details -- just know that if you had the same experiences that I've had you'd see the Republicans in a completely different light.

Edit: Something I wanted to ask you in turn -- what positive do you think Republican policies are doing for our society by repeatedly attacking things like civil rights, gay marriage, equal pay for women, climate change, food and health care programs for the poor and a path to citizenship for people who were brought here as children -- and blatantly LYING when they do so?

Don't you realize that almost any argument you make for the Republican party's principles and ideals become somewhat invalid simply because -- for the most part -- they repeatedly (balanced budget, equal opportunity, individual freedoms, etc) fail to live up to them?

[zinderel]

U.S. House Appropriations Committee approves adoption discrimination amendment

But yeah, sure. Republicans are all about reaching out to and loving LGBT+ people as part of their core message. Any claim to the contrary is CLEARLY fake news from the liberal media and George Soros...this amendment is all about love! Honest!

[SUPERECWFAN1]

As I posted to one Trump supporter who proceeded to tell me "Us Never Trump Supporters all tell falsehoods and lies..." I was like well I'd post the actual news links but I know how the game is played now. The same game for 2+ years as you folks will go FAKE NEWZ and more. So as I posted , just remember the game will eventually change . Be it 4 years or 8. When the game changes we will comically do this.

So I urge every damn Democrat voter. Once one is back in as President please ...do not debate these Trump supporters. Instead go FAKE NEWZ and laugh. Saying hows it feel now ? Hows it fucking feel ?!! Oh you wanna debate actual **** now . Nope sorry we don't do that now. You lost that when you'd cite fake news repeatedly as your defense.

[BeastieRunner]

Really? No, I hadn't heard about that. Damn!

'First day of paper route and we are pulled over by police:' The latest in #LivingWhileBlack.

[Dalak]

Here's something I caught off Twitter

On Feb. 9, 2017, when he was 13, Andrew was playfully kicking the fruit around with some friends on school grounds during lunch, when he accidentally sent the orange in the direction of a Moreno Valley officer standing nearby. The orange went through the officer’s legs, and Andrew was handcuffed and shepherded into the principal’s office, where the assistant principal searched his backpack and found marijuana. Andrew received a civil infraction for possession that day. A month later, he was instructed to show up at the police station to discuss probation. Sitting in a windowless room with his father, grandmother, uncle, and two officers, including one who was armed, Andrew was handed a contract and told that he could participate in the Youth Accountability Team (YAT) probation program for six months instead of going to juvenile court.

Andrew, now 15, is one of four named plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed in the Central District of California on July 1 against Riverside County, as well as the chief and deputy chief of the county’s probation department, over the Youth Accountability Team. According to the lawsuit, approximately 400 kids and teenagers in 17 school districts in Riverside County are funneled into the program for “pre-delinquent” or “delinquent” conduct each year—labels assigned by school administrators law enforcement officials, community members, and some parents for school discipline problems, mental health issues, poor academics, and family conflicts. One sixth grader was allegedly referred in part because school staff complained that he had used the “race card” against them.

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From 2005 to 2016, 12,971 youths were under a YAT contract, 25 percent of whom were accused of a noncriminal offense, according to the complaint. Black students were 2.5 times and Latinx students were 1.5 times more likely than white students to be accused of a Section 601(b) violation from 2003 to 2016.

“It’s kind of like this expedited version of the school-to-prison pipeline by having this extrajudicial system operating exclusively through the school,” said Hannah Comstock of the ACLU, which was among the plaintiff’s counsel. But, the lawsuit states, young people generally opt into the program without legal counsel present and without a full grasp of their rights—information they would learn if these contracts were established through the courts.

When reached for comment by The Appeal, the Riverside County Probation Department said they could not discuss the allegations until they had been served with the lawsuit.

And in checking to see why this is happening in California it seems that Riverside County has historically been regarded as a Republican county in presidential and congressional elections.

[Kevinroc]

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/st...91394297057285

In 2016, voters actually saw Trump as being closer to the center of the electorate than Clinton and as the most moderate Republican candidate since 1972. https://53eig.ht/2EbSY3P

Voters *now* see Trump as being quite conservative—and maybe that's what they should have expected all along—but 2016 was actually a pretty good data point for the median voter theorem! If Trump had run on the Paul Ryan economic platform, not clear he would have won.

You could see this in action with articles like "Hillary The Hawk, Donald The Dove."