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

[worstblogever]

After sixteen years and office, you can bet he’s voted for some of the most infamous conservative legislation through the years:

• March 21st, 2005: Rep. Rogers votes for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill.
• July 18th, 2006: Rogers votes for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
• December 6th, 2006: Rep. Rogers votes for the "Abortion Pain Bill", which would create an unconstitutional ban on abortion at 20 weeks.
• July 31st, 2007: Mike Rogers votes against the Equal Pay Bill.
• November 7th, 2007: Mike Rogers votes against ENDA, allowing the continued discrimination of LGBT citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace.
• January 9th, 2009: Rogers votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
• April 29th, 2009: Mike Rogers votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBT citizens.
• July 31st, 2009: Rogers votes against the widely successful "Cash for Clunkers" program that helped save the American auto industry.
• June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, which Mike Rogers voted against.
• July 30th, 2010: Months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a bill comes to the floor to better regulate off-shore drilling. Rogers is apparently alright with ecological disasters continuing in the future, as he votes against it.
• December 8th, 2010: Rep. Rogers votes against the DREAM Act.
• December 15th, 2010: Rogers votes against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Rogers votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for almost every attempt to do so since.
• On February 18th, 2011, Mike Rogers votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Rogers votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Rogers votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Rogers votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Mike Rogers votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• June 19th, 2013: Mike Rogers votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Rogers votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Mike Rogers goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Rogers votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Mike Rogers votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Rogers votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that by this point, the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Rogers votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Rogers votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Rogers votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Rogers votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Mike Rogers votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Rogers votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Mike Rogers votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order.
• March 28th, 2017: Rep. Rogers votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses.
• May 4th, 2017: Rogers votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, postpartum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Rogers would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Mike Rogers votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Rogers votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Mike Rogers votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.

Mike Rogers has the benefit of having a district that isn’t just in a red state as crimson as Alabama, the 3rd District there has a +16 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. Still, Mallory Hagan, a former Miss America, and author Aida McClellan Winfrey are facing off in the Democratic Primary to take their best shot at ending this Bush Era holdover that’s long since outlived his shelf life as a sane politician.

[aja_christopher]

I guess we're about to see how this plays out -- probably the same as nearly every other time Republicans are voted into power.

"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." -- George Santayana

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"U.S. stock index futures tumbled ahead of Wednesday's open, as concerns over a potential trade war between the U.S. and China intensified.

Around 7:30 a.m. ET, Dow Jones industrial average futures indicated a drop of 460 points at the start of trading in New York. The Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 futures also indicated heavy losses at the open for their respective markets.

The moves in premarket trade come as China announced brand-new tariffs on 106 U.S. products, including cars, whiskey, aerospace and defense, and soybeans."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/us-s...-in-focus.html

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"The Nasdaq sheds all of its gains for 2018, as stock market comes under pressure"

"The Nasdaq Composite Index on Monday gave up all of its gains for 2018, marking a stunning reversal of fortune for the index that has represented risk appetite on Wall Street throughout the market's brisk rally to records. The Nasdaq [c: COMP] closed off 2.7% at 6,870. The Nasdaq joins the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.65% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.26% which turned negative for the year in the face of last month's sharp selloff.

The Dow is down 4.8% for the year and the S&P 500 is off 4.2% so far in 2018. The Nasdaq is now down 0.4% thus far this year."

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/na...ure-2018-04-02

[Mister Mets]

I fail to see how the shooters motivation changes the conversation any.

The argument that a person was motivated by the NRA requires knowledge about the shooter's motivation.

Since the shooter ended up being an animal rights activist, anything someone was willing to say about the NRA in terms of culpability for the shooting should now apply to animal rights groups.

[aja_christopher]

Heard it through the grapevine.... I'd assume Mueller is smart and/or experienced enough to play this through the midterms.

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"Obstruction Report Coming in June or July"

"WaPo reporter says Mueller team is planning on releasing a report on the obstruction part of the investigation in June or July.

Note that technically, Rod Rosenstein appears to have authorized Mueller to write such a report. In theory, he could decide to keep it confidential. In practice, that seems highly unlikely."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...n-june-or-july

[Malvolio]

The argument that a person was motivated by the NRA requires knowledge about the shooter's motivation.

Since the shooter ended up being an animal rights activist, anything someone was willing about the NRA in terms of culpability for the shooting should now apply to animal rights groups.

The point is that the NRA made veiled threats toward YouTube. Of course, so did this shooter, so maybe you have a point, as well.

[Malvolio]

Speaking of guys named Scott....

2 Florida Republicans Now Joining Calls For Scott Pruitt To Resign

Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen say Pruitt should leave the agency amid growing controversy over his spending and ties to lobbyists.

====================

Mueller Reportedly Is Making A List Of All The Stuff Trump Has Done In Office

The special counsel has also told the president’s lawyers that Trump is not a criminal target at this point. Tick-tock, Donnie. Tick-tock.

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Shep Smith Fact-Checks Trump’s Latest Amazon Claim: ‘None Of That Was True’

The president has been firing off a series of attacks on the online retailer. Of course it's not true, this is all about Trump's vendetta against Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and nothing else. I can't help but wonder how Smith keeps his job when he contradicts the relentless ass kissing of Orange Foolius by everyone else on Faux News.

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British Muslims Were Vigilant And Defiant On ‘Punish A Muslim’ Day

In the U.K. and U.S., people worked to turn a day of fear into a day of solidarity.

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Sinclair Journalists Worry They’re Being Watched: ‘There’s A Lot Held Over Us’

The Sinclair Broadcast Group handbook warns employees to have no expectation of privacy in their communications. In a word....disturbing. This sort of nonsense shouldn't happen in America.

**********

Americans Don’t Really Care About Trump’s ‘Great Wall’ ― But His Base Sure Does

The president has been lashing out about his pet project since he failed to get both Mexico and Congress to pay for it. If Cheeto Jesus wants his wall so damn bad, he should fund it himself.

Shep Smith provides cover for FOX News. He's their token moderate so they can still claim to be "Fair and Balanced," even if they no longer use that as their tagline.

As for Trump's "wall," maybe he could set up a GoFundMe campaign for it. See how many of his supporters are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Barack Obama, John Lewis reflect on MLK legacy

Former President Barack Obama joined civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis to reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years after his assassination.

In a six-and-a-half minute video, shot in black and white, Lewis recalled learning that King had been shot while campaigning for Robert Kennedy in Indianapolis.

"The thing I regret more than anything else is I probably didn't spend enough time with him and learning from him. I thought he would be around a long time," he said.

**********

Speeches, marches mark Martin Luther King anniversary

Fifty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the civil rights leader's family and admirers were marking the anniversary of his death with marches, speeches and quiet reflection Wednesday.

The commemorations stretch from his hometown of Atlanta to Memphis, where he died, and points beyond. Among the first events is a march led by the same sanitation workers union whose low pay King had come to protest when he was shot. Another event will kick off about the same time in Atlanta, where King's daughter the Rev. Bernice A. King is moderating an awards ceremony in his honor.

On such a vitally important occasion, you'd think the White House would release a statement about Dr. King. Has that happened yet, or is Trump too busy sitting on the can tweeting about his precious wall?

[aja_christopher]

On such a vitally important occasion, you'd think the White House would release a statement about Dr. King.

I wouldn't but it will be a welcome surprise if they do.

On a related note I'm glad to see the markets are relatively stable so far -- despite my personal opinions on Trump, I have no desire to see people suffer as a result of his decisions.

[BeastieRunner]

I wouldn't but it will be a welcome surprise if they do.

On a related note I'm glad to see the markets are relatively stable so far -- despite my personal opinions on Trump, I have no desire to see people suffer as a result of his decisions.

Down 105 right now.

[Kevinroc]

Escalating US-China trade dispute heightens global concerns

https://www.apnews.com/ed379b25f0e84a52b2372a62e922514d

Or, as Amy Siskind puts it:

https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/stat...16325158903808

China is smart. They are targeting Trump voters with their tariff pain. This is thought out policy and opposed to a dictate by a party of one who had no vision of how this would play out.

[aja_christopher]

Down 105 right now.

Not good... but it could be worse, though it's probably best just to see how it is at the end of the day/week.

I always keep in mind the last time the Republicans were in power under Bush (i.e. The Iraq War fiasco and the Great Recession) -- if all that happens this time around is that a few investors lose some money, we probably should consider ourselves fortunate in comparison.

Of course, that's being more optimistic than realistic, given Trump's "leadership" and the fact that we're only one year into the presidency.

Anyway, we won't really know how this will turn out until the tariffs actually go into effect for the long term.

[worstblogever]

Not good... but it could be worse, though it's probably best just to see how it is at the end of the day/week.

I always keep in mind the last time the Republicans were in power under Bush (i.e. The Iraq War fiasco and the Great Recession) -- if all that happens this time around is that a few investors lose some money, we probably should consider ourselves fortunate in comparison.

Of course, that's being more optimistic than realistic, given Trump's "leadership" and the fact that we're only one year into the presidency.

Anyway, we won't really know how this will turn out until the tariffs actually go into effect for the long term.

Crazy thing is, the one thing Trump had going for him was riding the coattails of the Obama economy for his first year. Now, his policies are starting to take hold, and he's making stupid decisions like tariffs and attacking major companies like Amazon on Twitter, and the effects are being felt. Six months from now, if the trend of the bubble bursting, bankruptcies being filed, and jobs being lost that we've seen through the first quarter of 2018 continue...

The economy affects elections. And if Trump's stupidity tanks it, the Blue Wave the GOP are already facing is going to be a tsunami.

[BeastieRunner]

[InformationGeek]

At a bar with family and Fox News is airing. Top story is that stock market has recovered because the fears of the trade war has eased! ...ah-huh...


Also, Trump is ordering National Guard to the US border now officially.

[PaulBullion]

I don't have a problem with this either. If he'd pull every soldier out of the Middle East, that would be great. Why in the hell have we been fighting in Afghanistan for 16 years?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-wan...192253730.html

I'm glad you stopped pretending being anything but an alt-right Trump supporter.