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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I'd like to note that
God I wish so bad people like him could be investigated for ties to ISIS, they're effectively working for ISIS with all the free recruitment work they do.
edited 5th Jun '17 11:18:50 AM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranIncompetence is always dangerous. I think part of the reason for this expectation that Trump would be "reined in" is a misconception of the American political system. Because most people's knowledge of civics doesn't stretch much further than a 5th grade level of competency, they end up with the theme park version where George III was a baby-eating tyrant, the Founding Fathers were Always Lawful Good gods among men, and the system they engineered was a robust network of checks and balances where three independent-minded apparatuses would regulate the power and influence of the other two. It's all very neat, a just-so story.
The reality, of course, is that checks and balances are really not much more than red tape, respected and observed inconsistently, and the government, at all levels, runs mostly on bootlicking. We've all been taught that "Congress will take the President to task!" or some bullshit like that, but if that happens, its because of politicking or interpersonal strife, not first principles. When presented with a candidate as uniquely unqualified — as a politician, as a leader, as a magnate, as a man — as Trump, generations of Americans have been schooled to believe that the American system is just too diffuse, too federated, too vigilant to be damaged by him. The truth is that they're wrong. The people that are supposed to keep him in check are too busy kissing hands to be of much use.
edited 5th Jun '17 11:22:25 AM by CrimsonZephyr
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."""I'm not Pro-Trump, I'm Anti-Hillary" is and has always been a responsibility-shirking scapegoat. There were plenty of options in the election that weren't Hillary. Those people could have voted for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. They could have wrote in "Bernie Sanders". They could have chosen to abstain from voting in protest like many Democrats did.
Instead, they went to the voting box and cast a ballot that said, "Yes, out of all available options, I believe Donald Trump is the candidate who most reflects my values and will lead America towards the future I want to achieve." Identifying as Anti-Hillary is just a cheap way of blame-shifting. "It's not my fault that I put a hateful bigot into office. It's your fault for making me vote for him!"
As I told my mom, "you could've voted for Evan McMullin." Unfortunately, she didn't know who he was.
edited 5th Jun '17 11:45:44 AM by speedyboris
A bit of this just in
"No plan for Trump to assert executive privilege with regards to Comey’s testimony to Congress - White House" - Get updates at Reuters.com
A proper article
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/us/politics/trump-comey-russia.html
edited 5th Jun '17 11:43:26 AM by sgamer82
Trump...though I am paraphrasing. And he is apparently serious considering that, I think it was two weeks ago, the US-lead coalition in Syria flew an attack during which, according to the watchers, mostly civilians died and at least 25 children died. Granted, those were the families of ISIS fighters, but it is still against every rule of war. Not that the US media has reported much on it (if at all), and everyone else was fast distracted by the whole climate issue....but there are a lot of voices in Germany who say that we should stop supplying the US with data if they are using it in order to murder woman and children.
The reports are very unclear....the English press, if it mentions the attack at all, speaks about a very low number of civilian victims, around a dozen at highest. The Russia propaganda media talks about hundred. I stick to the UN, which is somewhere in the middle. But no matter how you spin it, it really doesn't look as if the US military currently cares one bit about children who get killed by bombs as long as they get the ISIS fighter, too.
RE: Clinton
As others have pointed out, Clinton's recent comments amounted to Never My Fault, up to and including lambasting the DNC for providing her with "faulty intelligence" due to being "low on funds"... which former DNC Data Director Andrew Therriault called "fucking bullshit", and another former DNC staffer, John Hagner, more charitably described as blaming the farmer for when a soufflé falls
. The former elaborated by stating that they'd warned her and her team about how close the votes were in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin were, and they didn't take noticeable action to address it.
That is what people are bitching about Clinton for lately - not that "she lost, now we're stuck with Trump", but her "It wasn't my fault I lost" mentality.
RE: Comey Testimony
I saw a CNN clip just before going into work that was intended to showcase the "Republicans are trying to discredit him!" claim (which is true), but another guest who wasn't the focus of the video pointed out that there is some reasonable concern regarding why Comey didn't come out about the "Trump tried to get me to drop the investigation" stuff immediately after or, more to the point, when his previous appearance included a question about whether anyone at the DOJ had tried to interfere with the investigation. That would have been a great opportunity to say "Well, they haven't, but someone else has..." and elaborate from there - so yeah, that's a question that could, should, and probably will be asked.
edited 5th Jun '17 12:51:23 PM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"Local news, but welcome in the age of Trump.
Massachusetts lawmakers to consider raising juvenile court age from 18 to 21
http://amp.masslive.com/v1/articles/20096700/massachusetts_lawmakers_to_con.amp
edited 5th Jun '17 12:55:58 PM by megaeliz
While I am going to complain that biological maturity is not by default the same thing as the one we expect from legally liable people, I have no particular objection against this proposal.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman![]()
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And so I present you this
:
Honolulu Civil Beat polling shows Tulsi Gabbard losing 14 percent of support from two years ago
. She is, however, equal in favorability with both Democrats and Republicans statewide.
She was viewed negatively by 29 percent of poll respondents, while 21 percent were unsure.
And in a finding that sets her far apart from the other members of Hawaii’s congregational delegation, Gabbard had almost the same statewide approval rating from Republicans (48 percent) as from Democrats (49 percent).
edited 5th Jun '17 1:09:55 PM by Krieger22
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
Fair enough, but that doesn't change the fact that she's blaming the DNC for her loss
, in spite of saying she takes full responsibility for her decisions. Even Cracked is mocking her over this one with their "Some News" segment.
...
"I'm now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party," Clinton said. "It was bankrupt, it was on the verge of insolvency, its data was mediocre to poor, non-existent, wrong. I had to inject money into it — the DNC — to keep it going."
edited 5th Jun '17 1:18:04 PM by ironballs16
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"I thought you folks loved it when people hate on the DNC?
And didn't she hand over her email database to the DNC anyway after her loss? Something that a certain outsider has refused to do at all despite quite possibly stealing from the DNC's database?
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot

Supreme Court throws out North Carolina redistricting ruling
.
The high court, with no recorded dissents, sent back the case to a three-judge federal district court panel, which had ruled in November that the state should draw new districts and hold a special election. The Supreme Court in January put that ruling on hold while it decided whether to hear the state's appeal.
The Supreme Court separately left in place an earlier ruling by the same court from last August that said the districts were racial "gerrymanders," with boundaries drawn to diminish the voting power of minorities, and violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.