The General 'Murican Politics Thread

[KHCast]

Trump threw his entire administration under the bus lol. God damn ha

 

http://qklnk.co/Bb4hS7

 

oh also this is good to know.:/ 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/05/10/west_virginia_supreme_court_rules_anti_gay_assaults_are_not_hate_crimes.html

[Nepenthe]

The Supreme Court ruling on this was very technical: from what I read, they did so because the language of their laws doesn't actually include LGBT people in the realm of a protected class, so ruling on anti-gay bigotry as a hate crime would be effectively null (although, don't federal class laws include sexual orientation?) In short, this is probably more of a fuck-up on bigoted lawmakers' end from trying to include that clause in crime laws than the judges, but it's still dumb. West Virginia stay losin'.

Also, the FBI raided a GOP fundraising firm in Annapolis. Sorry not sorry. 

[KHCast]

Yeah not sure how they don't and why they don't fall under a protected group there...

[Nepenthe]

14 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Yeah not sure how they don't and why they don't fall under a protected group there...

Surely you know why West Virginia would want to keep LGBT people out from the list of legally protected classes.

[KHCast]

I mean I do, just saying it SHOULDNT in this age be allowed to happen and the fact that it does because of technicalities of all things is just ridiculous. Hopefully people don't just ignore this.

[Tani Coyote]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/

Apparently Trump and co. are furious over the Russian news media putting up photos of Trump's meeting with the Russian foreign minister, which are accented by jokes no less.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-continue-trump-russia-probe-154800308.html

The FBI's acting director has said that the investigation will go forward, as it is confident that it has the resources to do so, but that the White House will not be routinely informed of developments.

It remains to be seen if this lessens the size of the fire, but given Trump's confession he was going to fire Comey anyway (albeit he's trying to defend it as a noble action) and the routine inconsistency, I think it's fair that most will continue to scrutinize Trump even as McCabe continues Comey's work.

The fun will really start when Trump puts forward a nominee, and we see whether or not the GOP rushes the nominee through over Democratic protests. Intelligence nominees are usually broadly bipartisan.

[KHCast]

Even after that "clear up" by Trump, still wanna post this lol

[Patticus]

15 hours ago, Lord Liquir (Ogilvie) said:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/oval-office-photos-donald-trump-russians/

Apparently Trump and co. are furious over the Russian news media putting up photos of Trump's meeting with the Russian foreign minister, which are accented by jokes no less.

Quote

"They tricked us," an angry White House official said.

"That's the problem with the Russians -- they lie," the official added.

I read that article at work, and that line about made me laugh out loud IRL. That's some Parks & Rec amateur hour shit right there.

Bush, Clinton and Obama would never have made such a rookie mistake. These people are fucking idiots.

[CleverSonicUsername]

Kinda great how even high level officials aren't supposed to bring their cell phones into the oval office, but Trump is just like "yo whatever, just fuckin have the Russian state media film in here lol"

[Nepenthe]

So a law firm released a "certified" letter saying that there was DEFINITELY no evidence of Russian collusion in Trump's tax returns.

Even though the letter itself says "with a few exceptions."

And they still didn't release the tax returns for independent corroboration.

And they won the "Russia Law Firm of the Year" award in 2016.

Fucking crying.

[Patticus]

The news is moving so quickly these days that it can be really hard to keep up.

No links as I'm at work at don't have the time, but Trump totally threatened former FBI director Comey this morning, saying "You'd better hope there are no tapes of our conversations."

Threatening the former head of the FBI who was leading the investigation into him strikes me as a deeply suspicious move, perhaps a desperate one. We all know he's a petulant man-child, but even for him this is some brazenly disturbing shit. Is he simply acting incredibly rashly, or is he hiding something criminal?

[Nepenthe]

Heard about Trump's threats.

Went downstairs to make my daily oatmeal, and I look up at CNN's ticker to read: "Comey: "I'm not worried about any tapes.""

This shit is just hilarious now.

[Candescence]

Meanwhile, if anyone remembers Stephen Colbert's amazing tirade where he called Trump "Putin's c*ckholster", Trump recently tried to diss him by bringing up Colbert's ratings, calling him a "no-talent guy" amongst other things.

Colbert's first response? "I win."

Basically, Trump neglected to realize that by publicly going after Colbert, he validated what he was doing. Colbert remarked that, the only way for Trump to stop Colbert from being able to make fun of him regularly would be to resign. Sorry, Donny, but if you're gonna continue being an unpopular republican president, the likes of Colbert and John Oliver will continue to provide succulent comedy to an audience who wants it. Now, if only Stewart would come back on air full-time (he has appeared on Late Show a few times since Trump was nominated), we'd had the trifecta of classic political comedy back in action.

[Patticus]

3 hours ago, Nepenthe said:

Heard about Trump's threats.

Went downstairs to make my daily oatmeal, and I look up at CNN's ticker to read: "Comey: "I'm not worried about any tapes.""

This shit is just hilarious now.

I get the feeling that Trump would lose far more than Comey ever could, were there any tapes.

If I were the acting FBI Director (McCabe, is it?), I'd start wearing a wire or a bug to every meeting with Trump.
 

Quote

Comey furious at lack of respect White House showed, sources say

Former FBI Director James Comey was furious at the lack of respect the White House showed him in the way he was fired, sources have told ABC News.

Associates say he is simmering at some of the comments directed at him by White House staffers, who have used words like "atrocities" to describe his actions as director.

One person close to the former director said that President Trump calling Comey a "showboat" and suggesting he is not "competent" has required Comey to show considerable restraint.

"Look, he's a showboat. He's a grandstander," Trump said about Comey in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt on Thursday. "The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that." 

A source said they expect that at some point Comey will respond to Trump -- but it is uncertain when that would be. For now, Comey has taken a few days to gather himself, particularly given how caught off guard he was by the timing of the firing.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/comey-furious-lack-respect-white-house-showed-sources/story?id=47367073

I don't like Comey very much, nobody does, thanks to his much-discussed conduct last year, for which he absolutely did deserve some kind of punishment. But holy moly am I hoping that he's got enough on Trump to give him both barrels in sweet, sweet retaliation. It's very much a "the enemy of my enemy dies next" situation - once Trump is dealt with, I'd be happy never to hear from Comey again.

Oh and...

[CleverSonicUsername]

The thing about this Russia stuff that strikes me as the most amusing is that Trump's words and actions only make him look more and more guilty. He's having to reaffirm he's not being investigated in notices of termination, he has to threaten and fire people, he still refuses to release his tax returns while continuing to use flimsy excuses like "I'm being audited" or "nah people don't REALLY want to see them" ... I doubt we'd be as sold on this concept that he did something wrong if he didn't go out of his way to make himself look shady as fuck.

[Tani Coyote]

Topic I: Russia

See, this is Trump's problem. Even if he's innocent of any wrongdoing, the way he keeps trying to bury it just makes him look more and more guilty; the dirt he's burying it with comes from right under his own feet.

He's like the usual character in a crime drama who is the friend/relative of a victim and is just "GASP! You think it was meeeee?!" They are innocent and yet it puts their innocence in doubt the harder they resist (possibility of abuse by authorities aside).

What's worse is his manchild demeanor is just getting increasingly disturbing, openly trying to blackmail witnesses. He's sounding more like a crime boss than a President, which just makes the idea of investigating and charging him with some crime all the more fitting.

Topic II: Special elections

Something else entirely. The Georgia State Senate race is 4 days away, and is likely to serve as a bellwether for Ossoff's chances of flipping the Georgia 6th House seat. The seat was 60-40 towards the GOP when you combine all candidates, though the Democrat had 3% more of the vote than her GOP contender. Triebsch, the Democrat, has openly said she's riding Ossoff's coattails, but she's also had more of a local focus to avoid being classed as an anti-Trump candidate.

Her GOP opponent, Kay Kirkpatrick, runs on dismantling Obamacare and replacing the state income tax with a state sales tax, or "FairTax" as it's so innocently referred to. By contrast, Triebsch has called for an expansion of Medicaid.

After the surprising Democratic near-victory in that Oklahoma seat, I'll be watching this race with interest. Democrats' weakness the past Presidency was they just weren't competitive for state legislatures, which ultimately allowed the GOP to gerrymander both state and federal seats. Democrats need to seriously re-organize if they want something besides Senate seats and Governorships, as otherwise, they really will become the coastal urban elite that they are demonized as.

Topic III: Ideological Issues

Speaking of the liberal elite. The Democrats' latest infighting has begun.

Over abortion. On the campaign trail for a Democratic hopeful mayor of Omaha, Nebraska (who has since lost), Perez and Sanders split over the issue. The Democratic candidate has voted in favor of pro-life legislation, such as requiring doctors to offer an ultrasound before performing an abortion. Sanders says that endorsing such candidates with pro-life positions is important to make the Democrats competitive in all 50 states, while Party chair Tom Perez says that abortion rights are non-negotiable, which has created a shitstorm.

However, both sides are clearly talking over each other. The "pro-life" and "pro-choice" divide isn't as clean cut as it's often painted. The vast majority of Americans are against overturning Roe v. Wade, and there's a wide variety of opinions on when an abortion procedure is permissible. Either way, Perez shot himself in the foot raising the issue around the Omaha race; Mello has never said he wants to ban abortions, just try to decrease the number of them. In fact, the proposal to require an ultrasound be offered was cooked up by him precisely to prevent the GOP from having required ultrasounds.

And the unfortunate fact for both extremes is Mello's opinion is closest to the mainstream; given the choice,  the plurality of people will identify as "both" or "neither" when asked about being pro-life or pro-choice. What does this mean? It means that most people support the right to have an abortion, but want to craft public policy that reduces the number thereof. Which, as this opinion states, is a perfectly fair option: for a woman to have full reproductive freedom, she must be able to have a family whenever she chooses, rather than be directed towards the abortion clinic; this is pertinent given 1/4 of abortions are rooted in economic need. There is thus more overlap between the pro-life stance and liberalism than one initially thinks; most pro-life Democrats, for example, are strong supporters of Planned Parenthood.

It seems to me where the problem started is that as the GOP has tried to do whatever they can to artificially restrict the number of abortions (as opposed to reducing the incentive for one, as pro-life Democrats trend towards), abortion activists doubled down and it became seen that any interest in reducing abortions was seen as an infringement on women's rights. Unfortunately, the "mass of tissue" approach actually isn't as popular as those activists would think. It sounds like the solid majority believe a fetus is a life, but realize that it is unconscionable to force women to bring a child into the world both for her and the child's sake. This is, oddly enough, the exact opinion evoked in Roe v. Wade, which is probably why it has such broad support.

[Tani Coyote]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-election-integrity-voter-fraud/

This was buried in all the news the past few days.

Trump has officially moved forward with creation of a voter fraud investigation panel, chaired by Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kobach, who is known for advocating strict laws on immigration and has ties to white nationalists.

Democrats are also included on the panel and are confident no evidence will be found. The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request on any evidence uncovered. Back in February, Mitch McConnell said he didn't feel federal money should be spent on an investigation, though he did play both sides by saying Democrats are wrong on saying voter fraud isn't an issue.

http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/comedian-samantha-bee-throws-weight-behind-florida-felons-voting-rights#stream/0

Meanwhile, in Florida, an effort to put an initiative to restore felon voting rights automatically upon completion of one's sentence (with an exception for murder and sexual felonies) on the 2018 ballot is gaining steam. It needs 766,000 signatures to get on the ballot, but it's already at over 71,000.

An initiative like this, if on the ballot and successfully passed, would radically alter the political landscape, as about 1.5 million people were unable to vote as of 2010 in Florida. Florida's already become a swing state, but it would become extremely competitive if this passes.

Edit:

Here's the actual petition in pdf form. To submit it (obviously you must be a Florida voter), you just print it out, fill in your name, address, etc. as instructed, sign it, then mail it to the "Return To" address. They will combine all petitions and present them to the Secretary of State for verification.

This isn't a feel good petition. This is an actual legal document that could change Floridian and by proxy American politics with the force of the law.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

4 hours ago, Lord Liquir (Ogilvie) said:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-election-integrity-voter-fraud/

This was buried in all the news the past few days.

Trump has officially moved forward with creation of a voter fraud investigation panel, chaired by Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kobach, who is known for advocating strict laws on immigration and has ties to white nationalists.

Democrats are also included on the panel and are confident no evidence will be found. The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act request on any evidence uncovered. Back in February, Mitch McConnell said he didn't feel federal money should be spent on an investigation, though he did play both sides by saying Democrats are wrong on saying voter fraud isn't an issue.

I expect the Republicans to create tons of "evidence" showing how pure and innocent the white male voter is, while making it seem like any minority is an evil voter fraud committer.

[Tani Coyote]

39 minutes ago, SenEDDtor Missile said:

I expect the Republicans to create tons of "evidence" showing how pure and innocent the white male voter is, while making it seem like any minority is an evil voter fraud committer.

This is why the lawsuits by the ACLU and others are key. Any evidence they come up with is going to be requested, and if they can't give it, I wouldn't be surprised if crap boils over really fast.

The GOP's desire is to make Americans apathetic to politics so that as it chips away at turnout and fair representation, there is minimal resistance. Unfortunately for them, they floated a man for President who doesn't speak in words but bile, and a lot of people who were content to ignore politics are getting involved. This is, funnily enough, the same tactic Putin uses to get away with everything in Russia: he uses the media to expose flaws in every country's system, so Russia's own flaws can be normalized and passed off as normal, thus decreasing the Russian people's interest in democracy and reinforcing the cycle.

In reality, Trump isn't the racist's dream, but the nightmare. The GOP once had respectable deniability of its interest in restoring a pre-1865 electorate, but with Trump's inability to watch what he says, that deniability has evaporated. As hard as these next 4 years will be, he might be a blessing in disguise for the left. Despite the GOP on paper being the strongest it has been in almost a century, it's rapidly being exposed as dysfunctional, while Democrats are doing soul searching after 2016 and managing to form a decent opposition. This opposition has a good shot at sweeping Governor races next year that can't be gerrymandered but rely on wholesale suppression to rig, and from there, being able to change state and federal seats to make Democrats competitive for the next decade.

A little time in the corner very well could pave the way for a reinvigorated Democratic Party to turn 2020 into a second 2008. If we're lucky, perhaps a 1932.

[TailsTellsTales]

I still can not believe Bernie Sanders is not President. I can only hope he runs again.

[AxelPrime]

38 minutes ago, TailsTellsTales said:

I still can not believe Bernie Sanders is not President. I can only hope he runs again.

Wouldn't he be too old to run in 2020? (I think he turns 80 then). At this point, the smartest choice for him now is to help train new democratic members of the party and help motivate and inform voters about local elections, policies and the 2018 midterms.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

That's just 10 years older than Trump. Reagan reached the age of 77 when he was in office, so I don't think age would be a hinderance if Sanders can really get votes...if he's even interested at that point.

[Tani Coyote]

Really, all an older President means is the VP pick is that much more important. Democrats will need the peace of mind for a youthful, invigorated VP who can take on duties as necessary, inherit the seat if the President passes away, and finally, can be expected to serve the rest of the term rather than pass away as well and give the Presidency to the Speaker of the House, who may not be of the same Party or may just be unlikable (I really don't want President Nancy Pelosi). Frankly, given how important Vice Presidents taking the reins are in our country's history, we shouldn't be too caught up on a President's age.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/has-a-sealed-indictment-been-issued-against-president-trump/

Anyway, this happened. A former Clinton White House aide and one of their coworkers have both said they've been separately informed of a sealed indictment against Trump by the intelligence community, with the goal of building the basis for an impeachment rather than prosecution (Trump can't be prosecuted). Currently yet to be picked up by any major sources, but as mentioned, the guy has been right before on shady dealings. Even a conspiracy type person is sometimes right.

Will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.

[Nepenthe]

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials and ambassadors which jeopardized a source of intelligence on ISIS.

And yet Clinton got impeached for lying about a blowjob.

[Patticus]

10 minutes ago, Nepenthe said:

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian officials and ambassadors which jeopardized a source of intelligence on ISIS.

I'm sure the intelligence community will be adding this to the list of items on which to impeach Trump, as linked to be Ogilvie up above.

He just can't stop himself digging that grave, can he?