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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242501: May 15th 2018 at 8:07:29 PM

I'm more of the mind that at least some of the officials who signed away children to traffickers weren't doing it out of ignorance.

Disgusted, but not surprised
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#242502: May 15th 2018 at 8:08:08 PM

[up][up] This Adminstration leaks like a sieve, and can't even keep the Russia Conspiracy covered up. Do you really think they are competent enough to keep that from getting out?

edited 15th May '18 8:12:07 PM by megaeliz

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242503: May 15th 2018 at 8:08:49 PM

I am however certain that Trump himself doesn't actually give a shit about these children and probably doesn't care if they are being sold.

Disgusted, but not surprised
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#242505: May 15th 2018 at 8:12:13 PM

From the article, I don't think any children have been turned over to traffickers yet. There's an outcry over children being placed in abusive homes going back several years now, and the agencies involved are warning that without reforms there's the risk children could be trafficked.

Imca is right, it's important to avoid falling into a Pizzagate-style conspiracy mindset.

They should have sent a poet.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242507: May 15th 2018 at 8:16:51 PM

[up][up] The article states that nearly 1500 children have already been lost. That coupled with the report of there being a "risk" of the children being signed away to traffickers strongly implies that this is already happening. And that's on top of children ending up in abusive foster care.

edited 15th May '18 8:17:10 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#242508: May 15th 2018 at 8:18:05 PM

Pensylvania's redraw districts are doing some good.

Women Surge in Pennsylvania Races, Buoying Democratic Midterm Hopes

A state representative, an Air Force veteran and a high-powered attorney β€” all women β€” won Democratic House primaries on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where a record number of women ran for House seats in a year of intense political enthusiasm among female Democrats.

It was a night of major victories for female candidates in a state dominated by men from Congress to the Statehouse. Women showed strength in nearly every region, from the liberal eastern suburbs to the conservative southwest. Democratic women won competitive primaries in two safe Republican districts in western Pennsylvania.

Madeleine Dean, the state House member; Chrissy Houlahan, the veteran; and Mary Gay Scanlon, the lawyer, each won in Philadelphia suburban districts that they are now favored to carry in November, according to results from The Associated Press. Their primary victories raise the likelihood of women cracking the state’s all-male congressional delegation of 20 after midterm elections.

The women won in districts that were redrawn to replace a gerrymandered Republican map that the State Supreme Court ruled illegal in January. The new map of the state’s 18 House districts β€” and the ebullience it set off among Democrats hoping to capture the House of Representatives in the midterms β€” put Pennsylvania front-and-center among four states that held primaries on Tuesday.

President Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016 and Democrats, seeking to tap into grass-roots rejection of the president, badly want a version of a do-over in the midterm elections. And the state will be critical to determining whether Republicans or Democrats win control of the House in November.

Nationwide, Democrats need to flip two dozen Republican-held seats to gain a majority in the House. Under the new congressional map, Democrats have a shot at flipping at least three and possibly as many as six seats this fall in the Keystone State, most in a collar of counties around Philadelphia.

Redistricting recognized the shifting demographics that have remade the region from a once-solid Republican enclave.

But the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s chief spending arm, is not easily ceding races in the suburbs. The committee has reserved $7.8 million in television advertising for the fall in the Philadelphia market, a spokesman confirmed Tuesday, its largest early spending commitment of any region nationally.

Ms. Dean was the winner in a suburban district in Montgomery County considered a safe Democratic seat after redistricting. Ms. Houlahan had the good fortune of being the only Democrat running in a district almost as safe, centered in Chester County, which Hillary Clinton won two years ago by nine percentage points.

The House races were the centerpiece, but not the only show in Pennsylvania. In two important statewide primaries for the right to challenge Democratic incumbents β€” for governor and the United States Senate β€” the favorites carried the day.

Lou Barletta, a congressman from Luzerne County, who made a reputation on unflinching opposition to illegal immigrants and became an early supporter of Mr. Trump, won the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Bob Casey Jr., a mild-mannered politician who has become a relentless critic of Mr. Trump.

And Scott Wagner, a state senator whose fortune from waste hauling led to an inevitable campaign slogan that he would be Pennsylvania’s β€œcleanup guy,” won the nomination to challenge Governor Tom Wolf.

Mr. Wagner and Mr. Wolf are ideological opposites. Their fall race is expected to include fierce disagreement over Mr. Wagner’s support of anti-union β€œright to work” legislation, in a state where organized labor remains strong. Mr. Wolf opposes the legislation.

Mr. Wagner beat Paul Mango, a former health care consultant and West Point graduate, in one of the nastiest primaries the state has seen. Mr. Mango attacked Mr. Wagner over a protective order a daughter once obtained against him, which prompted a response ad by the daughter in which she angrily defended her father.

In an unusual down-ballot race, Lieutenant Governor Mike Stack, a Democrat who had a falling out with Gov. Wolf, lost to a primary challenger, John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock. Mr. Stack was in the news last year after accusations he mistreated State Police in his protective detail.

Idaho, Oregon and Nebraska also went to the polls on Tuesday. In Nebraska, the Democrat Jane Raybould, a city councilwoman in Lincoln City, won the primary and will face Senator Deb Fischer, a Republican seeking her second term in a comfortably red state.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#242509: May 15th 2018 at 8:19:38 PM

[up][up][up][up]Yes but I don't see how this is in any way similar to that mindset.

We weren't looking at some innocuous Trump Administration tweet and imagining that it's cover for some secret anti-immigrant conspiracy. We just thought that sending undocumented immigrant children to military bases was a continuation of their normal cruelty.

Once evidence appeared that showed that we were wrong we accepted it and moved on, the exact opposite of a conspiracy theorist mindset.

edited 15th May '18 8:20:58 PM by Fourthspartan56

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#242510: May 15th 2018 at 8:21:12 PM

[up][up][up] Lost meaning ran away, or their guardian isn't answering the follow-up calls, or they moved without notifying anyone. It's bad, yeah, but it's not a new problem either so we should be careful before jumping into "the Trump administration is complicit in human trafficking".

edited 15th May '18 8:21:21 PM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242511: May 15th 2018 at 8:26:21 PM

[up] It's admittedly far-fetched...mainly because this administration isn't competent enough to cover it up.

[up][up] Yeah, military bases aren't really a problem. If they started building camps, then there would be cause for concern.

edited 15th May '18 8:27:09 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#242512: May 15th 2018 at 8:29:40 PM

We don't know WHAT happened to the 1500 kids.

That's the terrifying part.

They could be dead, sold, sent back to Mexico, or homeless.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#242513: May 15th 2018 at 8:30:32 PM

What's more likely is that bad shit is going down on a sporadic basis, with corrupt individuals exploiting an opportunity at hand, or mistakes going unnoticed, rather than an organized program of any sort.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#242514: May 15th 2018 at 8:33:53 PM

[up][up][up] The missing children issue has been going back years, mainly because HHS doesn't have the budget to actually verify how these children are doing. They make calls to the last known phone number of the child's guardian to check on them, so the 1500 missing are a combination of not being able to get through to a guardian, not getting a good answer, and actual harm to the child.

My worry isn't that the Trump administration is somehow involved, or purposely handing kids off to bad actors, but that the broader "defund and deregulate" mission will make it even harder for HHS to check up on these kids.

They should have sent a poet.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242515: May 15th 2018 at 8:36:04 PM

That's probably what makes the Trump administration so dangerous. Less outright malice and more a total lack of regard for consequences. Not that this administration is not malicious too. Trump sure as hell has malice and ignorance in abundance.

edited 15th May '18 8:37:20 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#242516: May 15th 2018 at 8:38:22 PM

[up][up] This.

The Social Services in General are horribly underfunded, and it will likely get worse under trump.

That's another area that's desperately in need of both funding and reform, and one that "pro-lifers" love to defund.

edited 15th May '18 8:41:13 PM by megaeliz

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242517: May 15th 2018 at 8:41:15 PM

I'm fairly sure this administration will continue to defund it or try to "solve" the issue by privatizing it somehow. Or they will just ignore the problem outright.

edited 15th May '18 8:42:22 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#242518: May 15th 2018 at 9:27:59 PM

A Modest Proposal seems a solution the administration could get behind.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242519: May 15th 2018 at 9:37:35 PM

We probably shouldn't be joking about gov't sponsored child cannibalism.

Disgusted, but not surprised
MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from πŸ€” Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#242520: May 15th 2018 at 9:39:31 PM

nvm.

BTW, Idaho aside, what other states are having their elections closing this month?

edited 15th May '18 9:41:32 PM by MorningStar1337

TroperOnAStickV2 Call me Stick from Redneck country Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: is commanded toβ€” WANK!
Call me Stick
#242521: May 15th 2018 at 9:47:47 PM

Georgia is IIRC.

Hopefully I'll feel confident to change my avatar off this scumbag soon. Apologies to any scumbags I insulted.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#242522: May 15th 2018 at 9:50:43 PM

Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Idaho And Oregon, going by 538

Idaho results are at 357/951 precincts reporting in

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/election/article211208819.html

Tell the truth, even knowing I'm in a red state it's a bit disheartening to see just how many more people are voting Republican vs Democrat.

Though I take comfort in the liklihood that, of the current pattern holds, at least Raul "Founding Member of the Freedom Caucus" Labrador is unlikely to be the R candidate for Governor, as he's currently 7 points behind the more moderate, iirc, Brad Little

edited 15th May '18 9:58:07 PM by sgamer82

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#242523: May 15th 2018 at 9:51:52 PM

California's primary is June 5th, but I should probably mail my early ballot soon.

Disgusted, but not surprised
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#242524: May 15th 2018 at 10:11:14 PM

Looks like Paulette Jordan will be the Democratic candidate for Idaho governor.

Live election updates: AP calls race in favor of Paulette Jordan

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/election/article211208824.html

If she wins, which, I confess, I don't see as likely, she'll be the first woman to be governor of Idaho and first native American to be a governor, period.

edited 15th May '18 10:11:22 PM by sgamer82

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#242525: May 15th 2018 at 11:41:28 PM

Why are there so few Native Americans in American politics?

Do not obey in advance.

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