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

[Coin Biter]

No surprise on either score. Johnson is said to be every bit as much a boorish, lowbrow buffoon as Trump is. As for Khan, well, he's Muslim, no other reason needed for the Burnt Sienna Bigot to dump on him.

Well, to be fair to Johnson, he is at least supposed to have a decent grasp of Ancient Greek and Latin

We all produce our own kinds of political charlatans. The US have produced Trump.

The UK has produced Johnson, a strange amoral public schoolboy, former journalist, and all round low comedy figure from a 1920s comic novel. The sort of Foreign Secretary who randomly quotes Kipling at temple in Myanmar and needs to be rebuked by an aide: https://www.theguardian.com/politics...myanmar-temple

I think Johnson's star has dimmed even in his party, though. Nowadays the right of the Tory party tends to love Jacob Rees-Mogg, an even stranger cross between Walter from the Bash Street Kids, and Tomas de Torquemada.

[JackDaw]

Well I was writing with a fair degree of emotion in my post. Of course, he's the US President. I can't see any British Prime Minister being able to do anything else than smile, through gritted teeth, say that there are differences in beliefs, and try and keep off the subject as much as possible. And then pray he doesn't do anything else spectacularly odious and damaging during his visit.

Obviously emotionally I would like us to drag him to Dover and throw him bodily into the sea, but that's an emotional reaction

The irony, of course, is that I doubt there is any elected head of state who would behave in such a churlish and provocative (and of course deceitful) manner to a host country during his or her actual visit. Hell, I'm not sure there are many dictators who would, either.

And yet, this is supposed to be the leader of our closest ally.

I wonder if those who were condemning Obama for his comments (actually made at the invitation of the British government) pre the 2016 Euro Referendum will criticise Trump now? (No real need to wonder, I suppose.)

I think most people realised Obama was helping Cameron out? As such I think he was in a really difficult situation...I think Cameron should not have asked, realising that (and that it was more likely to lose "remain" votes than gain them!). As such I think as such Cameron should have got lion's share of blame. But he didn't..I think throughout large majority of his career, he was treated incredibly leniently by the press.

I suppose we don't know how much British PM's stand up to American presidents in private...but I think I have to go back a long time to one that publicly made a stand on a big issue. That was Harold Wilson on Vietnam...and he made the right call. If only Tony Blair...and others...had take a similar stand on other wars, where there was no overwhelming reason for us to get involved.

[Tendrin]

Yikes.

https://twitter.com/rabiasquared/sta...285143552?s=21

Read the snippet of indictment there.

https://twitter.com/_cingraham/statu...256930304?s=21

And here.

[Dalak]

Yes. Bernie would not win in the South. That doesn't mean that we should never run progressive liberal candidates in the South. It just means we should accept the fact that we'll probably lose a few times with those candidates before any of them win.

This! I think if you run enough solid progressives in the south you'll actually get the left-leaning voters who think their vote doesn't count to get up and cast a few.

[Tami]

Yes. Bernie would not win in the South. That doesn't mean that we should never run progressive liberal candidates in the South. It just means we should accept the fact that we'll probably lose a few times with those candidates before any of them win.

There are two ways of looking at it. One is that Left-of-Center Democratic Candidates have every right to run in deeply Red areas, and that maybe if they are lucky few might even win.

The second way of looking at it is, if you want to increase the odds of a Democratic Candidate winning in a Deeply Red Area, that Candidate needs to draw votes. To do so, they need to be palatable to conservative voters, not scare them off. Moderate Democrats stand a better chance of being acceptable to conservatives.

So you either try to whittle away at them over a long period of time, like carving granite.

Or, you give them a taste of it by bring in a Democrat that they can identify with. Then it becomes easier to elect more Democrats since they have tried one out and realized that electing a Democrat isn't a sign of the end-of-times.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Yikes.

https://twitter.com/rabiasquared/sta...285143552?s=21

Read the snippet of indictment there.

https://twitter.com/_cingraham/statu...256930304?s=21

And here.

How now, brown cow. This is certainly intriguing.

[BeastieRunner]

If you ar etird of watching Trump make a fool of himself in England:



Watch Live: Deputy AG Rosenstein makes law enforcement announcement

A lot of speculation, but no one knows for sure what he si going to talk about. It would be cool if it involved the Muller investigation and Trump.

Follow up:

Mueller probe indicts 12 Russians for hacking Democrats in 2016

They named them all.

The Kremlin is taking notes.

Impressive.

Also ...

July 27, 2016, Trump: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

Indictment: That evening, Russian operatives targeted Clinton campaign emails "for the first time."

[WestPhillyPunisher]

12 Russians indicted in Mueller investigation

The Justice Department announced indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election against 12 Russian nationals, accusing them of engaging in a "sustained effort" to hack Democrats' emails and computer networks.

All 12 defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian federation intelligence agency within the main intelligence directorate of the Russian military, who were acting in "their official capacities."

DOJ says the hacking targeted Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with the intention to "release that information on the internet under the names DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 and through another entity."

Interesting! How much you wanna bet Faux News won't touch this story with a ten foot stick?

[BeastieRunner]

12 Russians indicted in Mueller investigation



Interesting! How much you wanna bet Faux News won't touch this story with a ten foot stick?

Did you read this part of the indictment?

July 27, 2016, Trump: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

Indictment: That evening, Russian operatives targeted Clinton campaign emails "for the first time."

Mueller has Team Trump on collusion.

Didn't think that would happen!

[Mister Ferro]

Did you read this part of the indictment?

July 27, 2016, Trump: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

Indictment: That evening, Russian operatives targeted Clinton campaign emails "for the first time."

Mueller has Team Trump on collusion.

Didn't think that would happen!

That's wrong as the new tweet shows:

[BeastieRunner]

That's wrong as the new tweet shows:

That's not from the the indictment ... that's the "What the FUCK" meme going around from Russian bots. That tiny image looks like that meme.

Here's a bunch of links to ACTUAL indictment:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...th-russia.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/u...e-hacking.html
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/13/175688...ment-full-text
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.14bf99fa8c94
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...oadmap/553604/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/12-r...ry?id=56564708
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller...tee-1531498286

Either way you cut it, that's collusion, even by the thinnest standards and Mueller is just getting warmed up.

[Dalak]

That's wrong as the new tweet shows:]

So what do you think of the Russia investigation in general?

[Mister Ferro]

So what do you think of the Russia investigation in general?

I'm waiting til Mueller finishes his investigation before I comment on it.

[Dalak]

I'm waiting til Mueller finishes his investigation before I comment on it.

You don't believe the already-existent guilty pleas and indictments are worthy of comment?

[Kevinroc]

The GOP are going to try like hell to shut Mueller's investigation down.