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

[aja_christopher]

"Worker Charged With Sexually Molesting Eight Children at Immigrant Shelter"

"A youth care worker for Southwest Key has been charged with 11 sex offenses after authorities accused him of molesting at least eight unaccompanied immigrant boys over nearly a year at one of the company’s shelters in Mesa, Arizona, federal court records show.

The allegations against Levian D. Pacheco, who is HIV-positive, include that he performed oral sex on two of the teenagers and tried to force one of them to penetrate him anally. The other six teens — all between 15 and 17 — said Pacheco had groped them through their clothing. All of the incidents are alleged to have taken place between August 2016 and July 2017, according to a court filing last week that laid out the government’s case.

The case, initially investigated by local police, is now proceeding through U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Pacheco had worked at Southwest Key’s Casa Kokopelli shelter, one of eight the company runs in Arizona, since May 2016.

Casa Kokopelli was cited by the Arizona Department of Health Services in 2017 for failing to complete background checks, including fingerprinting, to ensure that employees hadn’t previously committed sex offenses and other crimes, records show. Pacheco worked for nearly four months without a complete background check, according to documents and an agency official...

ProPublica only discovered Pacheco’s case while trying to find additional information about a vague reference to a molestation case in Arizona inspection records. Federal officials had known about the case when answering questions from ProPublica last week and when describing the conditions of the shelters before Congress, but did not mention it..."

https://www.propublica.org/article/w...igrant-shelter

[aja_christopher]

I thought we didn't have the money for anything? Yet we somehow just found another 117 BILLION to give to a military that doesn't need it?
But medicare for all is a handout?
Education is a handout?

Conservatives and these Democrats kill me. Fuckin Hypocrites.

Why don't they ask how do we pay for this?

One can only assume that investing in things like education and health care for all American citizens just not the "conservative" way here in America: apparently it makes more sense to them to potentially bomb and kill millions of foreigners than it does to provide all American citizens with basic health care and quality education.

That said -- the hypocrisy is nothing new.

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"The Republicans' Supreme Court Amnesia Pact Is Working"

On Thursday, Senate Republicans staged a dramatic press conference backed by 167 bankers boxes which, they said, represented the vast universe of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh records that they will provide to Judiciary Committee members for review. They organized the event in response to Democratic lawmakers' requests for documents related to Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House—requests that Mitch McConnell and company, despite the fact that they held former Obama solicitor general Elena Kagan to that same standard during her confirmation process, now find patently absurd. Here is what a very indignant Orrin Hatch had to say on the subject:

"I want to really compliment the Democrats who are willing to stand up for Judge Kavanaugh because they realize that we can't keep going down this partisan, picky, stupid, dumbass road that has happened around here for so long. I'm sick and tired of it, to be honest with you. I'm tired of the partisanship."

Do you know why, as the New York Times writes, Trump has managed to put an "indelible conservative stamp" on the judiciary, with more confirmed appellate court nominees to this point in his tenure than any president in the circuit court system's history? It is because the same people who are now bleating about "picky" partisanship confirmed one judge to the federal bench in 2016, back when Barack Obama was president, thereby creating a giant vacuum of vacancies into which they can now usher any unqualified ideologue they please.

That "stupid, dumbass road that has happened around here for so long" is a six-lane interstate that Orrin Hatch helped build with his own two hands

Two years after these people buried Merrick Garland under a mountain of specious reasoning and then signed their names in blood to the Great Republican Amnesia Pact, watching them trot out to perform this rehearsed ignorance is fascinating. For all the occasional harrumphing they do about Donald Trump's breaches of Washington decorum, it is clear that they've learned a lot from their party's leader: If you adopt as a mantra something that is objectively false, and you repeat it often enough and for long enough, its rhetorical appeal begins to stand in the place of the customary need for evidentiary support.

[Edit: I'd argue Republicans already knew this based on the Bush Administration's false WMD push prior to the War on Iraq as well as repeatedly promoting the tax cuts that helped drag America into one of the biggest global recessions in history.]

"Democrats are the real obstructionists" is not all that different from "No collusion no obstruction," or "Lock her up," or "Russian witch hunt." It is just a little more polite."

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With regards to the NYT issue as I do feel it's a valid concern, I think JackDaw, Mets, Knight, HM and everyone else made pretty good observations on the issue and I don't have much to add -- when dealing with any individual accused of racism, it makes sense to deal with them on an individual case by case basis.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Donald Trump Attacks ‘Disgusting’ Media In Pennsylvania As Crowd Chants ‘CNN Sucks’

He also defended Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Wilkes-Barre rally. Defending the man who's country was responsible for interfering in our elections while blasting the media which reported said meddling because it dares to criticize him. Meanwhile....

**********

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Refuses To Say Press Isn’t ‘The Enemy Of The People’

CNN’s Jim Acosta pleaded with the White House press secretary to speak out against the term President Donald Trump has been using. She wouldn’t. Acosta should've known better than to think Baghdad Betty would contradict her boss. She would've been fired by Trump before the day was over.

**********

Donald Trump Jr. Says Democrats Are More Like Nazis Than Republicans Are

What he didn’t mention was the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who support his father. Regarding Donnie Dumbass Jr., to quite the esteemed Bugs Bunny....wotta maroon!

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Ivanka Trump Blames Family Separation At Border On Parents

The senior White House adviser told Axios, “We have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked.” And staying home, putting said children at risk of DEATH is a better option? Seriously?

**********

AWKWARD! Watch Sean Hannity Keep Getting Corrected By Shep Smith In New Supercut

The Fox News Christmas party is going to be awkward this year. I know, right?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Double post. Hey, mods! It's still wonky around here!

[Iron Maiden]

It sure is. Has anyone had their PC or whatever device you use just freeze up when on the forums? I'm on FB or surfing other sites all the time. But just a few minutes ago I was reading a post then tried to navigate back to the main forum page and everything froze. Even Contro-alt_Del didn't take me out. Had to shut down completely. To be honest, this has been happening sporadically to me here for a while. And just here, no where else.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Sarah Sanders presents the official White House policy: The media is the enemy of the people

When President Trump derides the media as the enemy of the people — as he's doing more frequently — he's not just spouting off his momentary frustration. He's stating official White House policy.

The White House just made that abundantly clear. Four times in two days, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was offered the opportunity by reporters to clarify whether the president really thinks journalists are the enemy of Americans, or that it's wrong for people to harass journalists doing their job. It wouldn't be the first time an official White House statement contradicted something the president said or tweeted.

But four times in two days, Sanders refused to say that the media is not the enemy of the people or to condemn people who heckled a CNN reporter Tuesday in Tampa, to the point where he feared someone was going to get hurt.

Instead, the White House press secretary ticked off a list of sometimes-inaccurate and sometimes-unrelated grievances about how these hyperpartisan times have affected her life and the president's life, and why they blame journalists for that.

“The media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in his administration,” Sanders said.

Basically: The White House thinks that journalists are the enemy of the people.

And all because the perpetually thin-skinned Trump doesn't like being criticized by the media (save of course for Faux News, his personal propaganda channel), so he brands them as "the enemy". And that's highly worrisome since a few of his more, how shall I state it, unstable followers (think the "Pizzagate" loon) might actually interpret his words as marching orders to harass, perhaps even commit violence against reporters who's job is to be an advocate for the people. Now, I don't expect Baghdad Betty to contradict Trump's foolish words, she'd be fired on the spot if she did, and Republicans won't say jack shit because they're scared stiff of Trump, but if this "enemy of the people" nonsense continues and results in a reporter getting hurt, or worse by some nutbag driven into a frenzy by their god emperor, then it'll all be on Trump, his administration and the GOP.

[aja_christopher]

Donald Trump Jr. Says Democrats Are More Like Nazis Than Republicans Are

Projection, plain and simple.

[aja_christopher]

"Trump administration says ACLU should find hundreds of deported parents"

"The Trump administration says immigrant advocacy groups should be responsible for tracking down more than 500 parents who were separated from their children and deported without them.

In a court document filed Thursday as part of the ongoing lawsuit over separated families, the Justice Department suggested the American Civil Liberties Union should use its "network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers and others" to find the parents with information provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. The administration is proposing that every Monday, the ACLU would share any new information about the parents it locates, including whether they wish to be reunited with their children.

The ACLU says it is eager to help locate the parents but argued that the government "must bear the ultimate burden of finding the parents," the document states.

"Not only was it the government's unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States Government has far more resources than any group of NGOs," ACLU attorneys wrote.

The two sides also continue to disagree about what information is appropriate and necessary for the government to provide. The government continues to resist giving the ACLU the entire case files of separated parents for the groups to use to track down parents..."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/03/polit...nts/index.html

[ZombieHavoc]

The objection is about the hypocrisy of the Times and other mainstream media outlets (which are ostensibly nonpartisan and not meant to be counterparts to the conservative press.)

No the objection is made up of fake outrage.

[ZombieHavoc]

I thought we didn't have the money for anything? Yet we somehow just found another 117 BILLION to give to a military that doesn't need it?
But medicare for all is a handout?
Education is a handout?

Conservatives and these Democrats kill me. Fuckin Hypocrites

.....

US Military Budget increase? Oh Here's 117 billion to kill people.

There goes hero of the left Tammy Duckworth, I guess.

Surprised and bummed to see Chris Murphy's name there. He seems like one of the few who have stood up in the face of the military industrial complex.

I like Mark Warner, but it has been hit after hit of him doing things I don't agree with.

[ZombieHavoc]

I thought we didn't have the money for anything? Yet we somehow just found another 117 BILLION to give to a military that doesn't need it?
But medicare for all is a handout?
Education is a handout?

Conservatives and these Democrats kill me. Fuckin Hypocrites

.....

US Military Budget increase? Oh Here's 117 billion to kill people.

There goes hero of the left Tammy Duckworth, I guess.

Surprised and bummed to see Chris Murphy's name there. He seems like one of the few who have stood up in the face of the military industrial complex.

I like Mark Warner, but it has been hit after hit of him doing things I don't agree with.

[MindofShadow]

So, like, who is actually benefiting from this presidency so far?

Honest question?

Maybe I am just selfish as hell, but the first time I do whenever it is election time is go, "how does this person benefit/hurt me?"

I guess white supremacists can be a little more open now but outside of that?

[JCAll]

So, like, who is actually benefiting from this presidency so far?

Honest question?

Maybe I am just selfish as hell, but the first time I do whenever it is election time is go, "how does this person benefit/hurt me?"

I guess white supremacists can be a little more open now but outside of that?

Corporations, stock brokers, lawyers, the people who write "tell-all" books, anyone in position to get a big payday at public expense.

[Tendrin]

Racist whites who want to see the country burn before sharing it with people who aren't white.

[Overhazard]

Corporations, stock brokers, lawyers, the people who write "tell-all" books, anyone in position to get a big payday at public expense.

Don't forget the people who love "owning" all all these fancy high falutin' liberals, cause Trump represents real americans and not those fancy hollywood types, even though he's from Queens, and lived in a literal ivory tower with his name on it, and his fans only know who he is in the first place because he's been trying to convince people how successful he is since the 80s by appearing in film and tv.

I still believe that if he ran 10 years ago, he would have been laughed off the stage, he's everything red states hate.