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

[Tami]

I was a real Republican, before the 'wingnuts' took over my party

About the same time the Trump administration had perfected its cruelty against families and children, the Hamilton County Republican Party in Cincinnati decided to hand out bumper stickers proclaiming, "Trump 2020."

Apparently, local party leaders have decided that, not only can they stomach the cruelty, incompetence, and fiscal irresponsibility of this worst-ever president — but that they want to keep inflicting him on America.

This was once my party. And even when the wingnuts took it over, I had hopes for a return to sanity. I had worked for many candidates, was president of the 11th Ward Republican Club for 10 years, and was a candidate and officeholder myself. (When I became a judge in 1982, I was prohibited from most partisan activity.)

I couldn’t vote for Barry Goldwater because I was not quite old enough, but I set off fireworks when he was nominated. I have voted in every Republican primary since 1968. I voted for Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan (twice), George Bush the Greater (twice), Bob Dole, and George Bush the Lesser (once). This was mostly before the party started to run off the rails. I wore out shoes for Goldwater in '64. But when a few years ago I told that to a local party mainstay, he replied that, “Goldwater was a liberal.”

Wow.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

it is partisan, but tell me were they don't reportm the truth? Unlike Fox, which reports nothing but falsehoods.

My point is it's really not a good source if you are having an argument because they slant everything one way in a very blatant way.

[zinderel]

My point is it's really not a good source if you are having an argument because they slant everything one way in a very blatant way.

Reality has a well documented liberal bias, though. So, again...while no one is saying HuffPost isn't a center-left leaning site (Do NOT call it leftist, though, or you show that you have no idea what 'leftist' means...), what can you show us to prove that it is on par with Fox News, Breitbart, et al, in terms of both it's leftish leaning AND it's deliberate delivery of misinformation and outright lies to it's target audience?

[Iron Maiden]

Since Trump stayed at Trump Turnberry, one of three his golf club properties in Scotland and Ireland, there has been renewed interest in investigating Trump's financing of them. All three are money losers and Trump has sunk $200 million of his own (allegedly) money in them. This is unusual for the guy who would proclaim he is "The King of Debt", using money other than his own to finance his real estate deals.

In 2014 Trump purchased Turnberry (a British Open course) now known as Trump Turnberry for 36 million pounds (app. 63 million at the time) in cash. He has subsequently spent somewhere around $100 million on revamping the course and the hotel. But it doesn't appear like he's getting much return on his investment.

According to corporate filings in the U.K., Turnberry lost $36.1 million in 2016 (the most recent figure available) on revenue of just $12 million. The operation’s debt load nearly doubled between 2015 and 2016, according to the filings.

Trump's other golf course purchase in Scotland is in Aberdeen and it hasn't turned a profit yet either for the Trump organization.


It was around the time this property was purchased that a string of cash purchases began after years of borrowing.

Trump entered the Oval Office owing hundreds of millions of dollars to various lenders, including troubled German financial giant Deutsche Bank. But in 2006, with the cash purchase of the Aberdeenshire property, he curiously broke with his debt-heavy pattern. In the years to follow, he made a string of cash purchases that included the acquisition of Turnberry and another golf course he bought in Ireland for $20.2 million in 2014.

These purchases have posed something of a mystery, puzzling even people who have worked closely with Trump over the years and who were aware of his penchant for borrowing heavily to finance his projects. The question: Where was all this cash coming from?

“He had incredible cash flow and built incredible wealth,” Eric Trump told the Washington Post recently when asked about a handful of cash purchases (including the Scottish courses, a Virginia winery, and a pair of Los Angeles mansions) made during the decade before he became president.

But in 2013 Eric Trump told golf writer James Dodson that his father had no need to borrow money from banks. “We have pretty much all the money we need from investors in Russia,” Trump’s son said, according to Dodson. (Eric Trump has denied Dodson’s account.) “We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs.”

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Reality has a well documented liberal bias, though. So, again...while no one is saying HuffPost isn't a center-left leaning site (Do NOT call it leftist, though, or you show that you have no idea what 'leftist' means...), what can you show us to prove that it is on par with Fox News, Breitbart, et al, in terms of both it's leftish leaning AND it's deliberate delivery of misinformation and outright lies to it's target audience?

I never said they gave out misinformation. I said they slant all their articles one way and often infer far too much opinion in them to be considered an outright objective source even if their facts are correct. I specifically went out of my way to say they aren't often wrong. But imo they are not a reputable news source. Maybe they once were. Today they are glorfied blog/gossip rag that talks about political events through the prism of their selected bias.

Fox News will often have shows that do tell ties like Hannity. They are far more dangerous in their ability to take facts and spin them to fit their narrative.

Tbh I don't even really have a problem with them having bias. MSNBC has a left leaning bias (you can call it center left if you want because you want to claim leftist for progressives) but they try to maintain a journalistic standard overall. It's their content. It's opinion and narrative setting to confirm preconceived points. If Trump (those days are few and far between) has a win a network like MSNBC will report it as a win. Huffington Post will write an overlong article about why you should view it as a loss and why it isn't as important as everyone thinks and how everyone should feel bad for praising it because it helps normalize Trump or something.

I'm a politics junkie. I read that site everyday. It's not what I would sight as a credible and objective news source. I would never site Fox News either, it has it's host of problems that are far worse than the Huffington Post. Nonetheless, they are not where I would go to win a political argument.

Edit: the Colbert quote is noted

[aja_christopher]

Thanks for your response.

Obama suggesting it's a ridiculous notion that anyone would think Russia was the United States' greatest geopolitical foe does suggest he wasn't taking them seriously as a threat. That goes beyond just thinking there were other foes to worry about.

To be clear, I don't think the Russia interference stories are a "Democratic plot." I think it's something the party wants to believe is true, even if what we know so far doesn't match the overarching conspiracy liberals seem to believe (Trump and his campaign worked together with top Russians or their underlings to hack the election, and now Trump owes Putin.)

With immigration, stronger borders and a path to citizenship would cover how we handle illegal immigration. It doesn't handle legal immigration, which is a significant issue as well.

My open borders comments aren't coming out of thin air. It seems to reflect the majority position on the left, gi.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...istake/528678/
https://www.vox.com/2017/7/2/1584784...ft-immigration

I want to be clear that what I'm referring to as "open borders" is a policy where pretty much anyone who wants can be on the path to being a US citizen relatively easily. There could still be a border patrol, and some rudimentary background checks to weed out anyone with criminal/ terrorist ties/ records.

My background is different, but in terms of policy, the essential thing is getting as many people as possible to surpass their background.

You ask my view on the Republican stance on 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....

Clipped for brevity -- not out of disrespect.

First thing I want to mention is the fact that you continue to try to make minor statements or somewhat extremist positions out to be the mainstream Democratic position -- if the information you have read (often on conservative sites as well as "liberal") convinces you that Democrats didn't see Russians as a threat and want "open borders" then I'm not going to spend time here trying to convince you otherwise.

That's a "judgement call" -- based on the evidence you have selected -- and you are free to make it.

Notice that when I criticize Republicans I don't just talk about what they say or what they "propose" (immigration, health care cuts for the poor, attacks on minorities, unbalanced budgets, etc) -- I talk about what they actually do (the Iraq War, the Great Recession, the nomination of Trump) which is much more objective in my opinion than sitting around trying to argue ideals.

As I mentioned in my last post -- the vast majority of your defenses of the Republican party and/or conservative ideology fall flat because in reality many have been colossal failures when practiced on a national level, as proven by the last Republican administration repeatedly, to the point where both our domestic economy and our international reputation were almost single-handedly ruined by just ONE Republican President and his subservient Republican Congress.

And now -- as history repeats itself -- you are trying to convince me that I should ignore history (and the present) and pretend that the Republican party actually lives up to the ideals you keep espousing in this forum?

It's just not going to happen Mets -- I'm living in reality, not on a message board.

I will just say that you seem to have a sincere concern about "law" and "resources" but don't seem equally as concerned that said "laws" and "finite resources" are often being directed towards a specific demographic under the Republicans (namely the "white" and the wealthy) while leaving others to suffer the burdens of their policies (lack of health care, abuse by law enforcement, unlawful separation from children, etc).

Likewise with things like gay rights and climate change (etc) -- you seemed concerned enough to recognize the problem, but not concerned enough to actually speak out against the party that constantly attacks gay -- and other "minority" -- rights.

So that's basically where we stand -- you seem to support some of the same platforms as those on the left but unwilling to admit that your party routinely fails to live up to it's ideals (whether fiscal, civil, or ethical) and often does everything in it's power solely to gain more power, including subverting democracy ("stop and frisk" and family separation with no due process of law, open and blatant legislative and judicial obstructionism, attacks on the integrity of our FBI and DOJ in support of Trump, etc, etc, etc) and routinely subjugating "minority" American citizens: we've got a Congressman and a President who both retweet neo-nazi propaganda and the Republican party does nothing to put them in check.

For someone who seems so concerned with "slippery slopes" with regards to policies and laws, for whatever reason you don't seem to mind watching the Republicans repeatedly drive our nation the cliff and into the abyss, so long as you can hold on to your preconceived biases about the parties in question.

Which is exactly why people like Trump prosper in the Republican party.

[aja_christopher]

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Top Bombshells In Robert Mueller’s Indictment Of Russian DNC Hackers

The indictment reveals that a congressional candidate asked the Russians for dirt on an opponent, and that the Russians seemed to be following Trump’s lead. Meanwhile....

**********

Roger Stone Says Mueller Indictment On Russian Hacking ‘Probably’ Refers To Him

The indictment notes “a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump,” widely known to be Stone. Nice to know that shitstain is squirming. Meanwhile....

**********

Rudy Giuliani Claims New Mueller Indictments Absolve Trump In Laughable Tweet

Giuliani said the new charges prove the president is “completely innocent.” Twitter disagrees. Give Rantin' Rudy this much, he sure is loyal to his nefarious client.

**********

New EPA Chief Is Already Facing 2 Ethical Problems In His First Week, Echoing Scott Pruitt

Andrew Wheeler’s first day as acting administrator was Monday. WOW! That didn't take long!

**********

Fox News’ John Roberts Issues Late Defense After Trump Bashes CNN and NBC

The Fox News reporter did not protest the other journalists’ treatment at the time. Too little, too late, John-boy. We all know who butters your bread, and you stabbed your fellow reporters in the back.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

It's always worth pointing out that when the Obama administration started taking swings at Fox news and even went so far as to freeze them out back in I wanna say 2010? Every other media outlet in the country including CNN and NBC, immediately backed fox up and shamed the administration into backing off, because their behavior was WRONG. But now that Fox is the administration's darling, they stand with no one except themselves. It's pathetic.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It's always worth pointing out that when the Obama administration started taking swings at Fox news and even went so far as to freeze them out back in I wanna say 2010? Every other media outlet in the country including CNN and NBC, immediately backed fox up and shamed the administration into backing off, because their behavior was WRONG. But now that Fox is the administration's darling, they stand with no one except themselves. It's pathetic.

Yeah, that had been a shitty move by the Obama administration, and I was glad they were called out for it. A pity Faux News chose to look the other way after a member of their fraternity had been frozen out. But then, it wasn't a surprise as they've made no bones about being Trump's propaganda arm, sucking up to him and spreading his bullshit lies every chance they get.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Yeah, that had been a shitty move by the Obama administration, and I was glad they were called out for it. A pity Faux News chose to look the other way after a member of their fraternity had been frozen out. But then, it wasn't a surprise as they've made no bones about being Trump's propaganda arm, sucking up to him and spreading his bullshit lies every chance they get.

I have a cousin who shows up every weekend we're grilling (with his three kids), but never so much as brings any onion dip. Sure as hell can drink his way through my beer, though.

[Tami]

Scotland's national newspaper slams Trump as an 'appalling human being' as he visits UK

Scotland's national newspaper referred to President Donald Trump as an "appalling human being" as he embarked on a trip to the United Kingdom.

In a full-page editorial published Thursday, The Scotsman slammed Trump over everything from his rhetoric on immigration to his alleged acts of sexual misconduct with women.

"Trump, due to arrive in the UK later today, is a racist, a serial liar and either a sexual abuser or someone who falsely brags about being one in the apparent belief that this will impress other men," the newspaper wrote.

The editorial goes on to rip into Trump's attacks on NFL protests against police brutality during the playing of the US national anthem; his dubious response to neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Virginia; and the way in which he perpetuated a conspiracy theory regarding former President Barack Obama's place of birth.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Russell Pearce, the man who sponsored Arizona’s SB1070 law who was recalled for office after repeatedly making inflammatory racist accusations about illegal immigrants, “accidentally” sent out Neo-Nazi fliers in the mail, and who openly associated with militia groups who patrolled the border in their spare time. One such close ally of Pearce was J.T. Ready, a potential protégé of his who just so happened to also be a Neo-Nazi who ended up mass-murdering his girlfriend and her family. At that point, Pearce tried lying his ass off and pretending he didn’t know who Ready was, but no one was buying it. The fact that Pearce was also a Birther who claimed President Obama was “waging jihad” against Arizona seems like an afterthought to his other dickery. Last we hard, Russell Pearce was working in talk radio in Arizona while serving as a member of the state GOP, when on air, he made a policy suggestion that women who receive government assistance should be sterilized. And, the idea that maybe eugenics is a solution to the poor was not taken kindly, and Pearce was forced to resign from any party position, going forward.


In 2015, 2016, and 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, who was one of the favorites going in to the 2016 GOP presidential primary to win the nomination. This in spite of his embarrassing 2013 State of the Union rebuttal where mid-speech, he lurched off-camera to grab a teeny-tiny bottle of water. This attempt at seeking the highest office in the nation also occurred even though Rubio was found to have lied about his parents' heroic flight from Castro's Cuba (they emigrated years before the revolution). Rubio, once considered a "moderate" Republican also fled from his previous positions on immigration and the environment, respectively, moving to become a climate change denier on the former, and on the latter, defended Arizona's SB 1070 law while criticizing the DREAM Act. And for a social moderate, it's interesting that Rubio not only has argued against same-sex marriage, but also gay adoption, while showing support for "religious freedom" laws and accusing those critical of his stance on those issues of being intolerant of HIS beliefs. Rubio also has accused President Obama of being a socialist, voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown (and voted against re-opening government when the time came), was among the "47 Traitors" in the U.S. Senate who tried o meddle in negotiations with Iran, violating the Logan Act, and accused Sec. of State John Kerry and the Obama administration of "letting ISIS win to appease Iran" during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2015 (which is stupid, because ISIS followers supposedly are followers of radicalized Sunni Islam, and Iran's citizenry, by and large, are Shia Muslims). On abortion, Marco Rubio leans hard right, and in live interviews has claimed that there’s an entire “abortion industry” that profits off of performing the procedure, and that Planned Parenthood does so to turn profits. He isn’t try and retroactively re-write history for partisan purposes, saying 9/11 happened on the Clinton’s administration’s watch (ignoring that it was 9 months into the Bush administration), and claimed that the Benghazi hearings had “proven Hillary Clinton was a liar” which, they did nothing of the sort. During his failed attempt to get the 2016 GOP nomination, Marco Rubio had a stretch of almost a year and a half where he was derelict of duty as a Senator, missing 35% of the votes in Washington, D.C. And it’s not like that failed campaign did any favors to his image, as he was exposed as “Marcobot” by Chris Christie, who noted how Rubio just recites the same few canned lines in debates, before in the waning days of his campaign, Rubio using the phrase, “You know what they say about a guy with tiny hands?” to insinuate that Donald Trump had a tiny penis. Because THAT’S healthy discourse for American politics (and we really needed to hear Trump use a later debate to relitigate his penis size).

This waste of a U.S. Senate seat got a second term in 2016, after breaking his promise to not run for re-election if he didn’t win the presidency, and running and winning again in Florida against Democrat Patrick Murphy. And, the man who Donald Trump mocked and called “Little Marco” went back to work doing things like approving every single member of his Cabinet of Horrors. Every. Single. One.

And he’s gone out of his way to lie to the citizens of Florida about how negatively impacted they will be from the proposed version of Trumpcare in the Senate. He’s been more concerned about who’s giving information to the press about the Trump administration trying to cover up their ties to Russia than the coverup itself. And that last part is even more remarkable, because Rubio has acknowledged that during the 2016 GOP Primary, he got hacked by the Russians, too.

Rubio defies medical science with how he can walk upright without the presence of a spine. In this update, we have to discuss the fallout from the shooting in Parkland, Florida. See, when CNN wanted to host a town hall to have the families of the victims, survivors of the shooting, and other citizens from the community to create a productive discussion about how to create solutions to the problem of gun violence in our country, particularly in a big uptick in shootings in schools… for whatever reason, Marcobot and his tendency to not be able to improvise and only have tree sound bites to repeat thought he was the guy to represent gun rights in the room full of people who were demanding action.

And boy, did he embarrass himself again. Between having the father of one of the victims tell him he was “pathetically weak”, he also rhetorically asked the audience who really would want gun control and was dumbfounded when almost every hand in the room went up, and was booed after Cameron Kasky called on him to stop accepting political donations from the NRA and Rubio refused.

His only real concession was that he would be willing to raise the age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21. In the days that followed, fellow survivor Sarah Chadwick posted on Twitter:

”We should change the names of AR-15s to ‘Marco Rubio’ because they are so easy to buy.”

And, like the invertebrate he is, Marco Rubio already flipped on his support of raising the age requirement for gun ownership within a few weeks of that town hall, and went on to criticize their organization of “The March for Our Lives”, because how dare they exercise their First Amendment rights to protest getting shot at.

Rubio has continued to make himself look like an idiot, only hours before the Captial Gazette shooting in Annapolis, he managed to put his foot in his mouth, and complain about how he felt the media was responsible for “biased reporting” that left “a lack of trust” in creating an environment where Americans can’t even agree of facts. He got called out for participating on the attacks on the media spearheaded by the Trump GOP, and that the sort of thinking he chose to promote was a motivating factor for the shooter.

Just a reminder, Marco Rubio is not up for re-election until 2022, unless he’s taken out by a scandal, or resigns to focus on a 2020 presidential campaign.

[Tami]

Statement from Maryland BD of Elections disclosing state's election systems hosted by firm that is financed by Russian oligarch named Vladimar Potanin

Every State should take a closer look at the system they used for elections.

[Tami]

‘Did Donald Trump just WALK IN FRONT OF THE QUEEN?’

LONDON — It's generally quite difficult to upstage the queen of England, but President Trump might have managed to do so.

Trump and Queen Elizabeth II met Friday as part of his working visit to the United Kingdom. As the red carpet was rolled out at Windsor Castle, thousands gathered at a “Stop Trump” rally in London's Trafalgar Square. Some hours before, an inflatable balloon depicting the president as a big orange baby flew in the air alongside the Houses of Parliament.

While Friday's protest and an array of sarcastic signs caused quite a stir, Trump's walk with the queen during an inspection of guardsmen quickly became a hot topic.

Described as “cringeworthy” and “uncomfortable” viewing on social media, footage of their walk together came under intense scrutiny. While touring the castle grounds, Trump maintained a relatively brisk walk, which saw the queen, at times, fall behind him as he led the way.