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

[InformationGeek]

FBI agent Peter Strzok was in the hot seat today on Capital Hill and... the GOP were about as pleasant as you would expect. Oh boy, Gohmert contains to make an ass of himself.

[zinderel]

FBI agent Peter Strzok was in the hot seat today on Capital Hill and... the GOP were about as pleasant as you would expect. Oh boy, Gohmert contains to make an ass of himself.

Louie Gohmert is such a damn joke...or he would be, if he wasn't indicative of the sort of politician Republicans love: low information, high religion, zero ethics...

[Kal-El Summers]

Congresswoman Coleman dropped the Benghazi bomb on Trey Gowdy to get him to shut the hell up. This hearing is such a damn embarrassment.

[BeastieRunner]

Fun times on the hill for the Russian Investigation.

Peter Strzok just gave a hard-to-rebut defense of the objectivity of the Russia investigation’s origins.

Some key tidbits:

- “I was one of a handful of people who knew the details of Russian election interference and its possible connections with members of the Trump campaign. This information had the potential to derail, and quite possibly, defeat Mr. Trump. But the thought of exposing that information never crossed my mind.”

- The chair threatened contempt with a voluntary witness. Learn your own rules, mate.

- “My presumption [was] based on that horrible, disgusting behavior that the American population would not elect somebody demonstrating that behavior to be president of the United States. It was in no way, unequivocally, any suggestion that me, the FBI, would take any action whatsoever to improperly impact the electoral process for any candidate. So I take great offense ... [it] deeply corrodes what the FBI is in American society, the effectiveness of their mission, and it is deeply destructive.” *cheers and applauds break out* I kid you not!

- Gohmert: “When I see you looking with a little smirk, I wonder how many times did you look so innocently into your wife's eyes and lie to her about Lisa Page.”
Strzok: “I assure you, under oath, as I spoke also during my interview a week or two ago, I have always told the truth. The fact that you would accuse me otherwise, the fact that you would question whether or not that was the sort of look I would engage with in a family member who I have acknowledged hurting goes more to a discussion about your character and what you stand for and what is going inside you."

- Gohmert then suggested perjury.

- The closed-door transcript will be released at 5PM EST. The GOPers cited that the investigation was ongoing so it can't be released but about an hour prior to that, wanted an answer to an ongoing investigation. Ironically, the House Freedom Caucus came to the Dems rescue on the ruling to release the transcript.

- Issa made him repeatedly read his texts over and over and over again.

- We got to see this nice visual aid about how the investigation is going:


- “Let me underscore: These are not allegations, these are admissions.” -- Democrat Elijah E. Cummings (Md.)

[aja_christopher]

I figured Strzok wouldn't take any isht -- he's been chomping at the bit waiting to testify.

Apparently Page is going with a closed door session.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/12/polit...ess/index.html

[BeastieRunner]

I figured Strozk wouldn't take any isht -- he's been chomping at the bit waiting to testify.

The Trump team will probably try to focus on Page's refusal to testify -- someone should point out that Trump is doing the same with Mueller.

She agreed to appear under subpoena only. That's not a refusal to testify.

Strozk was there voluntarily. Big difference.

I think after today, they're going to leave her alone ESPECIALLY since the close-door transcript shows how much the current Gang of Putins on the committee LIED. It actually has censure-level **** for the GOPers on the committee in it.

God, I hope people vote in November. Every election is important, not just the ones for the POTUS.

[BeastieRunner]

Look at all these damn witches:



These are just the admissions!

I encourage you to spread this picture far and wide!

Witches are real!

[ouroboros]

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.

I thought it interesting that when Dershowitz appeared on The View, he and Hostin agreed that collusion as they defined it was not strictly illegal.

[aja_christopher]

I think after today, they're going to leave her alone ESPECIALLY since the close-door transcript shows how much the current Gang of Putins on the committee LIED. It actually has censure-level **** for the GOPers on the committee in it.

I figured something was up when I read about Nunes leaving the hearing early once they started asking questions -- gotta wonder how much they know about what's coming down with regards to future subpoenas and indictments.

They can question Democrats for years but can't deal with even five minutes under the spotlight -- looking forward to seeing some of their testimonials in the coming months, especially if Mueller gets involved.

-----
"When California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes sat before a committee Wednesday to testify on a bill, Democrats tried to use the opportunity to question the House Intelligence Committee chairman on his investigation of Russian meddling and the 2016 presidential race.

But the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee -- Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas -- allowed Nunes to leave the hearing before Democrats could fire off their questions, prompting criticism from Democrats.

"In all my years on the Rules Committee, I don't ever recall an instance where any member was prevented from asking questions of a witness," McGovern said in a statement. "What is Chairman Nunes trying to hide?"

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/polit...tee/index.html

[Tazirai]

Look at all these damn witches:



These are just the admissions!

I encourage you to spread this picture far and wide!

Witches are real!

OMG that is awesome.!


Here's this fool that BLACK WOMEN made possible to BARELY win his seat. If Doug Jones votes for Kavanaugh, Democrats need to write in someone else, and more Progressive. Stop Giving Republicans the power.

[Tazirai]

I for one am all for this:

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



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.

Agreed. For the people who defend Pelosi because she's a woman or because she raises money. YOU STILL lost 1000 seats, and the house and senate and the white house. Schumer is also the worst, gota go, gotta go.

It's not ageism, they run using a playbook that no longer matters, being #civility and going high isn't working.

[BeastieRunner]

I figured something was up when I read about Nunes leaving the hearing early once they started asking questions -- gotta wonder how much they know about what's coming down with regards to future subpoenas and indictments.

They can question Democrats for years but can't deal with even five minutes under the spotlight -- looking forward to seeing some of their testimonials in the coming months, especially if Mueller gets involved.

-----
"When California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes sat before a committee Wednesday to testify on a bill, Democrats tried to use the opportunity to question the House Intelligence Committee chairman on his investigation of Russian meddling and the 2016 presidential race.

But the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee -- Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas -- allowed Nunes to leave the hearing before Democrats could fire off their questions, prompting criticism from Democrats.

"In all my years on the Rules Committee, I don't ever recall an instance where any member was prevented from asking questions of a witness," McGovern said in a statement. "What is Chairman Nunes trying to hide?"

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/polit...tee/index.html

The Hill reported last week that Nunes was in the next round of Russia subpoenas.

Probably not allowed to talk about an ongoing investigation, he says with heavy sarcasm.

[BeastieRunner]

OMG that is awesome.!

Best part for me was that they left it up ALL HEARING LONG. Haha ...

[Kal-El Summers]

OMG that is awesome.!


Here's this fool that BLACK WOMEN made possible to BARELY win his seat. If Doug Jones votes for Kavanaugh, Democrats need to write in someone else, and more Progressive. Stop Giving Republicans the power.

No one more progressive will ever win here. It'd literally take 50-60% of the white people in this state dropping dead for something like that to happen.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Look at all these damn witches:



These are just the admissions!

I encourage you to spread this picture far and wide!

Witches are real!

Brilliant! That had to have seriously pissed off Gowdy.