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

[Malvolio]

I actually find the NYT will do everything NOT to call any blatantly racist thing "racist." It's just like with the word "lie" - they will bend over backwards calling something "racially charged" or "what some people say might be racially insensitive" to avoid being seen as taking a side.

When I was growing up, I always thought of the New York Times as kind of snobbish. It starts with the way they refer to everyone as Mr. or Miss, even in a review of something like punk rock. "Mr. Rotten and Mr. Vicious vomited on stage before continuing their set." Their columnists seem to have this superior attitude, even when I agree with them. Even their slogan: "All the News that's Fit to Print." Like they are the only ones to decide what qualifies as news. That said, I usually agree with the NYT politics. I just wish they weren't so smug about it sometimes.

[Tami]

Pentagon working on plans for Trump's Space Force. What a waste fo money. We don't need a Space Force, what er need is a Cyberspace Defense Force. Right now, we are closer to 'Ghost in the Shell' territory, then 'Mobile Suit Gundam' territory.

[InformationGeek]

My thoughts and prayers go out to them... maybe. Can't even muster that.

The National Rifle Association warns that it is in grave financial jeopardy, according to a recent court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, and that it could soon “be unable to exist… or pursue its advocacy mission.” (Read the NRA’s legal complaint at the bottom of this story.)

The reason, according to the NRA filing, is not its deep entanglement with alleged Russian agents like Maria Butina. Instead, the gun group has been suing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s financial regulators since May, claiming the NRA has been subject to a state-led “blacklisting campaign” that has inflicted “tens of millions of dollars in damages.”

In the new document — an amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in late July — the NRA says it cannot access financial services essential to its operations and is facing “irrecoverable loss and irreparable harm.”

Specifically, the NRA warns that it has lost insurance coverage — endangering day-to-day operations. “Insurance coverage is necessary for the NRA to continue its existence,” the complaint reads. Without general liability coverage, it adds, the “NRA cannot maintain its physical premises, convene off-site meetings and events, operate educational programs … or hold rallies, conventions and assemblies.”

The complaint says the NRA’s video streaming service and magazines may soon shut down.

[Jackmando7]

I actually find the NYT will do everything NOT to call any blatantly racist thing "racist." It's just like with the word "lie" - they will bend over backwards calling something "racially charged" or "what some people say might be racially insensitive" to avoid being seen as taking a side.

Oh, I was talking about the Huffington Post. Sorry for the confusion.

Youre probably right about NYT, but I don't check it out enough to say for certain.

[ouroboros]

If you kept the "Power Differential"...

They have just hired a Native America woman who has said the exact same stuff about Asians. Would folks be in a hurry to go to bat for that?

Nobody would defend it, but most people would not become exercised about it, because that doesn't meet the prevailing definition of racism. For the same reason, Joy Reid kept her job even though someone uncovered anti-gay tweets she'd made long ago.

Now, to me, Jeong's vile tweets are worse than anything Roseanne ever said, and proof that the former suffers from severe entitlement syndrome. But she too will keep her job and go on as no one said anything.

[Iron Maiden]

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom!” Rex Tillerson, May 16, 2018.

No surprise he didn't last long. I guess Matteis and Kelly are the only two left that keeps it from turning into a complete Ship of Fools with the biggest one at the wheel.

I suspect that the media is borderline fearful of criticizing the military because, to vast swaths of people, particularly the overly patriotic variety, that's akin to not supporting the troops, and that's an albatross the media doesn't want dangling from their necks. Politicians damn sure won't call out the military for wasteful spending, even when it came to that $117 billion dollar budget the Pentagon clearly doesn't need because that's flat out career suicide, especially with midterms right around the corner.

Exactly. I really didn't expect Duckworth to vote against that. and I'm OK with it. But I still wish we would rein in our Defense spending. They can't claim that there's no money for Social Security, etc. if they can throw this kind of money at the drop of a hat.

Just like during the campaign, Trump is churning out lies faster than they can be fact checked, thus keeping the media from focusing on one specific item because Trump remains an ever moving target. And besides, to the lemmings who attend his inane rallies, every word that comes out of Caramel Caligula's mouth is the god honest truth. In their tiny little minds, Trump would NEVER lie to them, even when he's doing just that, they're just too damn stupid to know any better, and that's why Trump continues lying to them, because he knows he can get away with that.

It's why he hates the newspapers like NYT, the Washington Post and calls it fake media. They call him out on it all the time but he's brainwashed his base to just watch Fox fake News

[ouroboros]

The Sara Jeong thing seems like a false equivalence. Sure, she was offensive, but can a member of a tiny minority's opinions honestly be said to be harmful? Could this increase the potential for discrimination against white Americans by Asian-Americans? Not really seeing the potential for harm here. When you compare that to the fact that white supremacy was the law of the land in America for most of its existence and that a racist opinion held by a prominent white person can still cause considerable harm to a none-white, it's a little hard to take this outrage seriously. Basic nuance says it's impossible for all offenses to be equal.

I think if one looked really hard, one could find examples of real-world harm brought about because members of minorities felt like they could be racist without consequence.

But one would have to be willing to look at actual events, not just rely on "basic nuance."

[worstblogever]

My thoughts and prayers go out to them... maybe. Can't even muster that.

GOOD.

Traitorous faux-patriotism murder fetishists deserve to f*** off into the dustbin of history with their tainted legacy of blood and treason.

[worstblogever]

My thoughts and prayers go out to them... maybe. Can't even muster that.

GOOD.

Traitorous faux-patriotism murder fetishists deserve to f*** off into the dustbin of history with their tainted legacy of blood and treason.

[ouroboros]

The thing though, Knight, is that in the times of my life that I have experienced racism, I felt threatened and afraid for my safety. Not the churlish insults that people like to fling from the safety of internet anonymity, but the upfront, bald faced, "I hate me some n*****s" kind that you can only get when someone decides he doesn't give a damn anymore and you don't know if he's got a knife or a gun. I've been jumped, I've have trash thrown at me from moving cars, and I've been insulted in public, and I live in Central Indiana which is considerably safer for people like me than the south or the south-west. To me, actual violence and intimidation is "experiencing racism." Does some tech writer's snarky tweets really equate to that for you? Because man, honest to god, I'll trade you.

If you don't think whites ever get messed with by blacks in the same fashion, you're living in a dream world.

A few years back, I was walking by the side of the road, obviously minding my own business, and some black guy in a car thought it would be funny to pretend like he was going to hit me.

Resentment on all sides is always predicated on the potential for real harm, not just hurt feelings.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Pentagon working on plans for Trump's Space Force. What a waste fo money. We don't need a Space Force, what er need is a Cyberspace Defense Force. Right now, we are closer to 'Ghost in a Shell' territory, then 'Mobile Suit Gundam' territory.

Agreed. Unfortunately, they have no choice but to follow the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, even if he is a flaming lunatic.

My thoughts and prayers go out to them... maybe. Can't even muster that.

Well, I have two words for the NRA....WOMP WOMP!!

Exactly. I really didn't expect Duckworth to vote against that. and I'm OK with it. But I still wish we would rein in our Defense spending. They can't claim that there's no money for Social Security, etc. if they can throw this kind of money at the drop of a hat.

Depending on who you talk to, Duckworth is rumored to have presidential aspirations. To vote against the spending bill would be red meat for Republicans to use against her on the campaign trail, even worse, since she's a combat veteran, she would've been brutally slimed by the GOP smear machine as not supporting the troops. That would kill any hope she might have for running for the Oval Office.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

If you don't think whites ever get messed with by blacks in the same fashion, you're living in a dream world.

A few years back, I was walking by the side of the road, obviously minding my own business, and some black guy in a car thought it would be funny to pretend like he was going to hit me.

Resentment on all sides is always predicated on the potential for real harm, not just hurt feelings.

Sounds horrible and I'm sorry for your experience. But an experience like that only emphasizes my point. Sarah Jeong's tweets aren't going to lead to strangers terrorizing you on the road. They're harmless japes in the vein of a Bill Burr stand-up routine. If you can watch Burr's routine on spousal abuse and walk away knowing he's not advocating hitting women, then you can do the same for Jeong and know that she's not advocating white genocide.

[JackDaw]

Depending on who you talk to, Duckworth is rumored to have presidential aspirations. To vote against the spending bill would be red meat for Republicans to use against her on the campaign trail, even worse, since she's a combat veteran, she would've been brutally slimed by the GOP smear machine as not supporting the troops. That would kill any hope she might have for running for the Oval Office.

Would it be even worse for a combat veteran??

Obviously nothing works for the "automatic" Republican voter...so just need to concentrate on own support, and those that sometimes vote Republican, sometimes Democrat...they must be some in that category!

To those voters...wouldn't a combat vet voting against needless increased spend and saying something like "No one can doubt my patriotism because I served, I know we can give our troops what they need and deserve without this increase, otherwise I would never vote against" come across well?

Jeez, I'm not American but I would still love to see a youngish combat veteran run against Trump.

[PaulBullion]

Fun Twitter thread:

Is There A Sarah Jeong Critic Who Hasn’t Tweeted Something Racist?

[BeastieRunner]

Manafort Trial AM updates:

Team Mueller whipped out the Ross Perot charts.

They reviewed "tens of thousands of documents containing thousands of entries, from approximately 20 financial institutions and 35 companies."

They said Manafort controlled “17 domestic entities, 12 Cypriot entities, and three other foreign entities," and that he “caused over 200 wires to be sent from those entities to domestic bank accounts, entities, or vendors.”

Waiting on the judge to approve the use of charts.

Charts are a first of in this kind in this type of case.

A Special Counsel was side-barred to get a guilty plea from an unrelated case.

The judge joked with him about it.

Manafort's tax preparer takes the stand again.

Established that Gates was Manafort's right hand man.

He stated, rather emphatically, that Manafort was in charge. Nobody else. Manafort was a bit of a miser and control freak.

He said he never saw Gates confront Manafort, or vice versa. Nor, he said, did Gates ever tell him to hide anything from Manafort. He said the two men often conducted calls together where he would discuss their taxes. That was the MO.

Tax returns entered the record.

For each of those years, even as the firm reported large receipts, the firm’s reported profits were a fraction of that amount because of high business expenses.

Prosecutors allege Manafort lowered his tax burden by disguising some income as loans, and highlighted one such loan from 2012 — $1.5M from one of the Cyprus companies the government says he controlled, Peranova Holdings Limited.

On Wednesday Manafort’s bookkeeper testified that his deputy Rick Gates told her in 2016 the loan had been forgiven and should be treated as income on his 2015 returns. That was done, Team Mueller said, to inflate Manafort’s income so he could get an actual loan.

Manafort reported $504,744 in income in 2010. 2011, $3,071,409. In 2012, $5,361,007. In 2013, $1,910,928, and in 2014, $2,984,210.

The accountant testified that Manafort reported having no foreign bank accounts.

Judge chided Team Mueller for leading the witness.

The tax preparer stated Manafort did not report foreign accounts containing millions, after being shown the records.

Emails were shown that Manafort wrote, claiming he had no foreign interest or bank accounts.

Other emails showed the tax documents preparer inquiring about transactions involving foreign accounts.

He wrote Manafort inquiring about a $1M transaction that came from Deutche Bank to LOAV Advisors Ltd.

Similar emails were sent to Gates.

The tax documents preparer said his firm relied on the representation of Gates, Manafort and their books, and the men never told him of accounts or tax information from Cyprus.

He believed the foreign companies were clients of Manafort’s not that Manafort controlled them.

“They never told us about any income that was deposited in foreign accounts.”

He testified that his firm asked Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for documentation of $1.5 million loan from Peranova Holdings in 2012 and got none.

It was Rick Gates, Manafort’s deputy, who told the firm in a conference call that $1.5 million should be classified as a loan.

“We’d never heard of Peranova Holdings. We thought it was an independent third party.”

Team Mueller show evidence Manafort used Peranova, based in Cyprus, to pay his personal expenses.

Via wire transfers. 250 times.

Had he known the $1.5M was payment for work in Ukraine the accountant said, about Manafort’s taxes “it would have been income.” He also said “if they had control over” Peranova, that would also have affected the tax return reporting.

The accountants also asked about the loan in subsequent years, because there were no payments towards it.

“We would ask, ‘What’s the status of the loan, is it still outstanding?'”

He said no one at the firm told Manafort or Gates to treat loans as income to lower their tax burden.

He also testified that Manafort’s spending on suits, home improvement, landscaping, and property should have been classified as personal rather than business expenses.

The tax preparer discusses Manafort’s rental properties.

Manafort told his tax documents preparer, the bank was asking about documents that appeared to show a property on Fifth Avenue in New York, was a rental, when Manafort claimed it was personal.

“It was my understanding it was a rental. It had always been a rental.”

He showed jurors emails that Manafort had treated a property on Howard Street was used as a rental in 2015, even though he would claim otherwise in trying to seek a loan.

Tax returns show Manafort claimed to have made $115k in rental income that year from the property yet he claimed depreciation to reduce his tax obligation.

Cross-examination begins.

Manafort deafened the charges of failure to report foreign banks accounts.

His team argued that if Manafort had known he was doing something illegal, he wouldn’t have been so easy to catch.

“Nobody intending to violate the law would leave the evidence around for his accountant to find it.”

Judge: “There’s a trail in these documents that would lead to the truth, and somebody who violated the law wouldn’t have done that.”

Judge struck evidence that was mislabeled.

Team Mueller side-barred with the judge and the evidence was re-submitted with the correct description.