US politics general thread

[greg0205]

Odd, republicans usually calling the Democrats un American

I liked ZH’s take that if you vote R you don’t hold American values and not, you know, that Comey’s actually seen some of the evidence on 45 and might have concerns.

 

[RanzB]

Odd, republicans usually calling the Democrats un American

You won't hear a peep from rietrot about that though. Not to mention Comey was a registered Republican for most of this life. But ya. MAGA.

President Donald Trump called Democrats who did not stand and applaud him during his State of the Union address last week "un-American" and agreed with an audience member at a Monday speech who said they were "treasonous" for remaining quiet.

Trump made the comments during a Cincinnati speech focused on the recent Republican tax overhaul and economic gains during the first year of his administration.

"Honestly, it was bad energy," he said of Democrats during his State of the Union address. "No, it was bad energy."

"You're up there, you've got half the room going totally crazy, wild, they loved everything," he said of Republicans during the speech. "They want to do something great for the country, and you have the other side, even on positive news, really positive news like that, they were like death. And un-American. Un-American."

Trump pointed to a person near the front of the crowd.

"Somebody said treasonous," he continued. "I mean, yeah, I guess. Why not. Can we call that treason? Why not. I mean they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much."

The Cheeto thinks that not clapping for him is un-American. And treasonous.

The un-American left plies us with the dreams of others. It prods us about their suffering. It tells us their stories. And it insists that we are to blame for their pain. But it doesn’t care about our pain.

The Democrats who sat through the stories of suffering and courage showed that they didn’t care. The forgotten American men and women whom the President of the United States led out of the shadows never mattered to them. But in the State of the Union, President Trump showed us their dreams.

The American Dream was here long before the dream of illegal migration. It will be here long after the wall is built and Islamic terrorism is defeated. And yet so many of us have come close to forgetting it.

The un-American left has filled our heads with its dreams and at times we can no longer dream our own.

In the State of the Union, President Trump reminded us of our dreams and of the American Dream.

ZeroHedge. Filed under 'news':crylaugh:

 

[RanzB]

I liked ZH’s take that if you vote R you don’t hold American values and not, you know, that Comey’s actually seen some of the evidence on 45 and might have concerns.

No but they're impartial free-thinkers you know. The last bastion of good journalism and the counter to those evil MSM

:crylaugh:

 

[rietrot]

Odd, republicans usually calling the Democrats un American

Just to satisfy Randhir.

That would be correct. The Democrats, the party of slavery and now socialism is un-American. There isn't much critique one can give about a true statement.

 

[RanzB]

Just to satisfy Randhir.

That would be correct the Democrats, the party of slavery and now socialism is un-American. There isn't much critique one can give about a true statement.

:crylaugh:

 

[Techne]

Good Russian-American relationship = good for the world and bad for globalists, neocon warmongers, cuckservatives, anti-Christian bigots and other snowflakes.

It is an ugly pair atm, but infinitely better than what the Clinton Cabal had in store. And the MSM, neocon, deep state, globalist snowflake freak out is hilarious.

 

[RanzB]

Rep. Jim Jordan Is Named in New OSU Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

On Tuesday, Jordan’s public-relations crisis became a legal nightmare. Attorneys filed a massive class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Ohio on behalf of an as-yet-unnamed former OSU wrestler. The law firm Sauder Schelkopf is seeking to represent all the students and athletes “treated” by Strauss in his two decades at the school, from the late ‘70s to the late ‘90s – a number they estimate will amount to “at least 1,500.”

Jordan, the jut-jawed anti-gay crusader who’s the fourth-ranking Republican leader in the House, is singled out in the suit: He’s one of only three former school officials named, including Strauss, though the action is aimed at all the coaches, administrators and others in positions of responsibility at OSU who, it claims, stood by while students and student-athletes were repeatedly “sexually abused, harassed, and molested,” and “forced” to seek treatment from a well-known predator even after they complained. (Strauss was the sole team doctor for the wrestlers; the men say they either had to choose to let injuries go untreated, as the lawsuit says some did, or subject themselves to yet another assault.)

In recent public comments on the allegations, Jordan appeared to be banking on his former wrestlers’ silence and shame. But if he believed he could humiliate them back into submission, he was sorely mistaken. At least nine have spoken out so far. Dozens more will almost certainly be telling their stories in criminal and civil court along with Strauss’ hundreds of other alleged victims from 13 Ohio State teams. (A separate lawsuit was filed by four former wrestlers on Monday; this one didn’t call out Jordan by name, but he will almost certainly become involved if the case goes forward.)

Must be all those derp-state wrestlers at it again.
[MENTION=60376]konfab[/MENTION] - here's a non-Trump news article for you, I'm sure you'll appreciate it.

 

[greg0205]

Reporter: "Russian authorities yesterday named several Americans who they want to question, whom they claim were involved in Bill Browder's quote unquote crimes in their terms, including former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. Does president Trump support that idea? Is he open to having US officials questioned by Russia?"

SHS: "The president's gonna meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an answer on that."

Sooooo... This kinda looks like Vlad used the behind-closed-door meeting to ask 45 to let him get his hands on the guy who lobbied for the Magnitsky Act, as well as a former US ambassador... and the WH can’t immediately say that 45 told his boyfriend to stick it.

Tough on Russia indeed.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

It's now been ongoing longer than the Hildebeest investigation.

Which one? Since there were more than 7, all of which failed to deliver anything of substance on her? Weird how they weren't deemed "witch hunts!" and "farcical investigations" by Trumpets?

You yourself said in this very forum that the length of time in that case is proof enough of innocence. So you would agree that Trump is therefor cleared of any wrongdoing.

Also:

Special prosecutor investigations take an average of 904 days, much longer than Mueller’s investigation.

The longest a special counsel has maintained an investigation was the look into President Bill Clinton’s Whitewater real-estate deals. That investigation eventually morphed with the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It went on for 2,978 days.

The investigation into the arms deals around the Iran-Contra affair under President Ronald Reagan went on for 2,420 days.

It has been 365 days since Mueller was appointed.

Mueller Is Moving Quickly Compared To Past Special Counsel Investigations

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Odd, republicans usually calling the Democrats un American

It's also not what he said, which is par for the course for ZH.

https://twitter.com/Comey/status/1019398962019819520

"This Republican Congress has proven incapable of fulfilling the Founders’ design that “Ambition must ... counteract ambition.” All who believe in this country’s values must vote for Democrats this fall. Policy differences don’t matter right now. History has its eyes on us."

It's a very banal statement by itself. Only significant considering he's, as Randhir mentioned, a lifelong Republican.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Worth a read:

American Conservatives Played A Secret Role In The Macedonian Fake News Boom Ahead Of 2016.

An investigation reveals that the fake news sites that flourished in Macedonia in 2016 weren’t just the work of local teens — and that security agencies are probing possible connections to Russia.

A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and partners has uncovered new information that rewrites the story of the fake news boom in the Macedonian town of Veles.

A week before Election Day in 2016, BuzzFeed News revealed that young men and teens in Veles were running over a hundred websites that pumped out often false viral stories that supported Donald Trump.

Media outlets from around the world descended upon Veles to tell the story of how the so-called fake news teens — many of whom had a shaky understanding of English — made large sums of money from digital ads shown next to their misleading stories about US politics.

But after reviewing social media posts, government records, domain registry information, and archived versions of fake news sites, as well as interviewing key players, BuzzFeed News, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and the Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia can now reveal that Veles’ political news industry was not started spontaneously by apolitical teens.

Rather, it was launched by a well-known Macedonian media attorney, Trajche Arsov — who worked closely with two high-profile American partners for at least six months during a period that overlapped with Election Day.

One of those Americans, Paris Wade, is now running for office in Nevada. Arsov also employed other American and British writers, including at least one who currently works for US right-wing conspiracy site the Gateway Pundit.

The investigation also reveals that at least one member of Russia’s “troll factory,” who has been indicted by US special counsel Robert Mueller for alleged interference in the election, was in Macedonia just three months before the web domain for the country’s first US-focused politics site was registered.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

The government is making it easier for “dark money” donors to go unnamed

The United States government is making it easier for “dark money” donors to keep their contributions, well, in the dark. The Treasury Department on Monday said it planned to end requirements that certain tax-exempt organizations identify their financial contributors on their tax returns.

The decision means groups such as the National Rifle Association, Planned Parenthood, and the AARP will no longer have to tell the IRS who’s giving them money.

The decision landed the same day as the Justice Department announced the arrest of Maria Butina, a Russian national with NRA ties who is accused of trying to influence US politics. Ethics experts say Treasury’s maneuver will make identifying activities like those Butina has been accused of even harder to track.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Welp.

How Trump’s tariffs on Mexico are taking jobs from U.S. workers

When a Mexican company bought Mid Continent Nail Corp. in 2012, workers at the factory here feared it was the beginning of the end. Their jobs, they suspected, would be given to lower-paid workers in Mexico, more casualties of the hollowing out of U.S. manufacturing driven in part by an embrace of global trade.

Instead, Mid Continent’s factory has doubled in size since Deacero’s purchase. The company, facing fewer restrictions on steel exports after the North American Free Trade Agreement, shipped steel into Missouri, willing to pay skilled workers more to take advantage of cheaper energy costs in the United States and a location that allowed swift delivery to U.S. customers.

But President Trump has put 25 percent tariffs on steel imports, bumping production costs and prompting Deacero to reconsider this arrangement. With Mid Continent charging more for nails, orders are down 70 percent from this time a year ago despite a booming construction industry. Company officials say that without relief, the Missouri plant could be out of business by Labor Day — or that remaining production could move to Mexico or another country.

And so trade restrictions aimed at preventing U.S. jobs from heading to Mexico and elsewhere have instead hampered a Mexican company’s multimillion-dollar effort to create jobs in the United States — an unintended consequence of Trump’s trade war that demonstrates the difficulty of attacking trading partners without hurting workers at home.

The layoffs have already begun. The company now employs fewer than 400 workers, down from about 500 before the tariffs took effect last month. Temporary contract workers have been let go. Some permanent workers have left for other jobs, in anticipation of a new wave of employment losses or the possible shuttering of the plant.

“We’re in a situation where we’re fighting against our own country,” said Chris Pratt, operations general manager at Mid Continent. “It seems like a battle we shouldn’t be having to fight.”

 

[RanzB]

White House says Trump to discuss allowing Russia to question US citizens

Good thing conservatives like being cucked. Daddy Putin is coming in dry.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

New White House Report Shows Deficit Projections Have Doubled

The White House Office of Management and Budget released its annual mid-session review Friday, updating deficit projections in its fiscal year 2019 budget request. The report projected deficits will reach $1.085 trillion in FY 2019 under their budget, which is double the $526 billion called for in their FY 2018 budget.

Muh deficits.

 

[greg0205]

Aaaaaand... on January 6th, 2017, *before* his inauguration, tre45on was shown intercepts of Russian military intelligence that Putin personally ordered meddling in the Election.

Every time he's lied about it since is collusion.... Every.Single.Time.

WASHINGTON — Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election.

The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the C.I.A. how the Kremlin decided to execute its campaign of hacking and disinformation.

Mr. Trump sounded grudgingly convinced, according to several people who attended the intelligence briefing. But ever since, Mr. Trump has tried to cloud the very clear findings that he received on Jan. 6, 2017, which his own intelligence leaders have unanimously endorsed.

The shifting narrative underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump regularly picks and chooses intelligence to suit his political purposes. That has never been more clear than this week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/world/europe/trump-intelligence-russian-election-meddling-.html

 

[cerebus]

 

[rietrot]

Reporter: "Russian authorities yesterday named several Americans who they want to question, whom they claim were involved in Bill Browder's quote unquote crimes in their terms, including former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. Does president Trump support that idea? Is he open to having US officials questioned by Russia?"

SHS: "The president's gonna meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an answer on that."

Sooooo... This kinda looks like Vlad used the behind-closed-door meeting to ask 45 to let him get his hands on the guy who lobbied for the Magnitsky Act, as well as a former US ambassador... and the WH can’t immediately say that 45 told his boyfriend to stick it.

Tough on Russia indeed.

This goes both ways. Should Russia be able to qeustion Americans? Should the US be able to qeustion Russians? It is the same thing. How do you feel about those indictments?

 

[greg0205]

This goes both ways. Should Russia be able to qeustion Americans? Should the US be able to qeustion Russians? It is the same thing. How do you feel about those indictments?

Should Russia be able to question Americans? Really?

Hell No.

Vlad was trolling tre45on with the offer of having investigators... observe... Russian investigators interrogate the twelve folk indicted (watch Monday's sh*tshow again). The moment US investigators set foot on Russian soil, the entire weight of Russian's Intel services would be brought to bear on them, spying, hacking their devices, arresting them or whatever else Vlad's boys could think of.

He exposed his own weakness when he named Browder and McFaul as a caveat, and his game was obvious to everyone who wasn't on their knees, puckering up.

 

[konfab]

[MENTION=60376]konfab[/MENTION] - here's a non-Trump news article for you, I'm sure you'll appreciate it.

It is pretty magical how all of this stuff comes up before an election... Nevertheless it will be interesting to see what turns up w.r.t the investigation.