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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
New Jeresy's Liberty Park will no longer fly the state flag of Mississippi (they normally rotate through), citing its Confederate imagery.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/us/mississippi-state-flag-removed-from-liberty-park/index.html
nothingofvaluewaslost.jpg
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.The flag won't be changed until enough people raise a stink about it. Being the first person to start raising that stink is a step in the right direction.
Change is built on the shoulders of a million voices crying out in unison, "Wow, that's f*cked up." Each of those voices has their own journey to get there, and every one of them is a valuable component of the overall goal.
Don't piss on the little milestones. It just tells people that the greater journey isn't worth making.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 29th 2019 at 1:07:23 PM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.In news I found both off-putting and chuckle-worthy, it turns out that the American released by North Korea, Otto Warmbier (the one who died not long after returning to the US), was only released because Trump had promised them the equivalent of a $2 million ransom
, though it was dubbed "medical expenses" towards the North Korean government. He subsequently stiffed them.
The weird thing is, there would be a genuine argument for why stiffing them isn't bad in this case, considering the guy died not long after returning due to the maltreatment at North Korea's hands. But it's still the old "negotiating with terrorists" aspect that would rankle a lot of people.
As for why it's chuckle-worthy, here's Trump's tweet about the topic, proclaiming (not inaccurately) that no money was paid to North Korea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2019
Suffice to say, no such position exists.
Update: And holy shit, he managed to pull it off again.
The 1.8 billion figure being the money we already owed to Iran because the Shah-led government had bought undelivered armaments from us
.
Edited by ironballs16 on Apr 29th 2019 at 3:24:10 PM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I think that Georgia's flag is arguably worse, if subtler because it's not the battle flag.
They literally just put the state seal in the middle of the Confederate flag. I think what annoys me the most is that for years I thought we had changed the flags to get rid of Confederate imagery, not make it worse.
Edited by Soban on Apr 29th 2019 at 3:19:06 PM
I've always hated how we would waste resources on morons who go where they shouldn't and do what is inadvisable.
So, in this case, I am 100% behind Trump.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Apr 29th 2019 at 12:20:51 PM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Thing is, according to the Washington Post (which initially broke the story), that $2 million payment was what actually got Kim to sit down with Trump to start with. Guess he didn't keep informed about how many other people Trump has said "Fuck you, got mine!" to.
The former envoy to North Korea, Joseph Yun, has confirmed that he'd signed the deal
with the expressed approval of former Sec. of State Rex Tillerson and the implicit understanding that Trump approved as well. "As soon as North Korea side told me that this bill for $2 million would have to be paid ... I contacted my boss then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson," Yun said, noting that Tillerson "got back to me very quickly thereafter to say yes, go ahead and sign."
So watch how quickly that gets spun as "That's why he fired Tillerson, then!" or somesuch nonsense.
Edited by ironballs16 on Apr 29th 2019 at 3:33:33 PM
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I'm still waiting for more facts to come out on the North Korea hostage negotiation. I will say this, though. Offering to pay a f*ckton of money, waiting for Kim to complete his part of the arrangement, and then promptly stiffing him on the bill is a total Donald Trump move.
So I don't know if it's true but it is within the realm of believability. This might actually be a good move on his part. Which would in turn vindicate his "That Kim's such a bang-up guy" talk from 2017, if the actual context turns out to be that he was buttering Kim up to keep the guy from noticing all that cash not flowing in his direction.
It doesn't make him anything approaching a decent or even just not-completely-terrible President. But this might actually be a Stopped Clock moment for Trump; a rare instance where his particular brand of awfulness actually worked to our benefit.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Apr 29th 2019 at 1:28:08 PM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Breaking: Law Enforcement stopped a terror attack of some sort, the target being several locations in LA. An update is coming soon(ish?).
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/terror-plot-thwarted-la/index.html
Deputy AG Rosenstein has resigned
Edited by rmctagg09 on Apr 29th 2019 at 5:58:46 AM
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.More details about the LA terror plot. The suspect is a former soldier, Mark Domingo. He cited both US military/political action and the New Zealand mosque attacks as his primary motives, and his intended targets may have included synagogues, police, a military installation, and the Santa Monica pier.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/terror-plot-thwarted-la/index.html
I was thinking 'well, at least they're finally willing to call white people terrorists' but then I kept reading and discovered that he's also a Muslim.
So I guess what I learned from this is that religion is more important than race when it comes to whether or not they're willing to call them terrorists.
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/04/29/day-830/
2/ Jerry Nadler threatened to subpoena Attorney General William Barr if he refuses to testify about the Mueller report before the House Judiciary Committee this week. Barr disagrees with the committee's proposed format and has threatened to skip the hearing if Democrats don't change the terms of his appearance, which Nadler said the committee has no plans to do. If Barr doesn't appear, "we will have to subpoena him, and we will have to use whatever means we can to enforce the subpoena." (New York Times / CNN / Politico)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/28/politics/barr-house-hearing-attendance/index.html
3/ Trump accused the New York attorney general's office of "illegally" investigating the NRA after it opened an investigation into potential financial and disclosure misconduct by the gun rights group. The probe was launched after NRA President Oliver North accused Wayne La Pierre, chief executive officer, of financial misconduct, including the improper use of $200,000 of NRA funds to purchase clothing from an NRA vendor. Trump encouraged the NRA to "get its act together quickly" because it's a "very important organization" that is "under siege" by Democrats. (CNN / Wall Street Journal / The Guardian)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/trump-nra-investigation-new-york/index.html
4/ A pair of legal watchdog organizations are suing the FEC for failing to act on complaints that claim the NRA illegally coordinated with the Trump campaign and other Republican candidates in recent elections. The gun-control group Giffords, along with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center Action, allege that the FEC missed a 120-day deadline to act on four complaints brought by the groups, which claim that the NRA skirted contribution limits to provide unfair advantages to Trump and other GOP candidates. (CNN / ABC News)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/politics/gun-safety-group-lawsuit-fec-nra-campaign-finance/index.html
5/ A gunman yelling anti-Semitic slurs armed with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire on a synagogue in California, killing one person and injuring three. The shooting is being investigated as a possible homicide, hate crime and federal civil rights violation. John Earnest reportedly posted a manifesto full of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views and claiming responsibility before the shooting on the online message board 8chan. Trump offered his condolences to members of the synagogue, saying Americans "forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate." (Los Angeles Times / NPR / New York Times / Washington Post)
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/27/717849871/injuries-reported-in-shooting-at-california-synagogue
poll/ 55% of Americans say they "definitely would not" vote for Trump in the 2020 election, while 28% definitely would and another 14% would consider him for a second term. Trump won 46.1% of the popular vote compared to Hillary Clinton's 48.2% in 2016. 75% of Americans, and 85% of registered voters, say they're certain to vote in the 2020 election. (ABC News)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2018-health-care-ranks-trumps-2020-challenges-poll/story?id=62675713
poll/ 42% of voters say Trump's handling of the economy makes them more likely to vote for him in 2020, while 32% say it makes them less likely to support him. (Washington Post)
poll/ 43% of Americans say they have either benefited a great deal or some from recent growth in the U.S. economy. 54%, however, say they have either not been helped much or not at all from the nation's growing economy. (Monmouth)
https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_042919/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/us/politics/mnuchin-china-us-trade-negotiations.html
Mitch Mc Connell signed a T-shirt joking about the death of former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. The T-shirt shows Garland's face surrounded by the dates 3/16/16 and 1/3/17, with the caption :gone but not forgotten." (Daily Beast)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconnell-signs-shirt-joking-about-merrick-garlands-death
The White House is reviewing past writings by Trump's potential nominee to the Federal Reserve Board. Stephen Moore wrote a column for the National Review in 2014, saying women earning more than men "could be disruptive to family stability." (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/us/politics/stephen-moore-fed-women.html
Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading statements since taking office. Trump reached 5,000 claims on day 601 of his presidency, but he reached the 10,000 mark just 226 days later. Trump averaged nearly 23 false or misleading claims per day during that seven-month period. As of April 27, the tally stood at 10,111 false or misleading claims in just 828 days. (Washington Post)
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I suspect the main reason he was thwarted is because he is an idiot, who openly ranted about his desire to conduct attacks online.
In other news (and sorry for the Daily Beast link, it was the only one I could grab on mobile), far-right hacks Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been trying to recruit men to falsely claim that Buttigieg sexually assaulted them. One has called it out as BS, and the other pretended to play along, and recorded the conversation.
Nate Silver pointed out that Wohl in particular seems to be in a contest with Avenatti to be accused of the most numerous and stupid crimes.
Edited by Rationalinsanity on Apr 29th 2019 at 10:40:47 AM
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Don't forget John Tyler and James Buchanan.