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

Wildcard Since: Jun, 2012
#243901: May 30th 2018 at 2:35:07 PM

Hey guys, I've noticed in about the past two weeks a lot of right wing propaganda as advertisements on Youtube. Thought it might just be because of elections in a few months but there usually isn't a candidate name at the end of these. Are there some right wing companies putting a lot more money on internet ads then usual or is there something going on that I haven't heard of?

danime91 Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#243902: May 30th 2018 at 2:40:10 PM

The right are starting to get desperate, so right-affiliated companies are upping their ads to try to drum up support.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243903: May 30th 2018 at 2:40:56 PM

[up][up] Probably just dark money gearing up for the elections. I'll make sure to tell some people who are actually researching that kind of stuff though, and see if they know anything about it.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#243904: May 30th 2018 at 2:42:58 PM

Google ads also base themselves at least in part on recent site visits. I looked at Breitbart once and the ads followed me across the internet for days.

They should have sent a poet.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243905: May 30th 2018 at 3:03:29 PM

a hint of actual emotion from Sarah Sanders when asked by a young reporter what the trump administration was doing to prevent gun violence in schools.

He was actually very eloquent and knew exactly what he wanted to ask, and she's actually visibly shaken by it.

My school, we recently had a lockdown drill today. One thing that effects my and other students mental health, is the worry about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school.

Specifically, can you tell me what the admistration has done, and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?

It's much harder to lie to the face of a child, isn't it?

SciFiSlasher from Absolutely none of your business. Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#243906: May 30th 2018 at 3:17:33 PM

Roseanne Barr appointed White House press officer.

(Laughs in desperate attempt to hide crying)

edited 30th May '18 3:18:07 PM by SciFiSlasher

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#243908: May 30th 2018 at 3:26:36 PM

But the sad thing is that it's totally believable.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#243909: May 30th 2018 at 3:29:20 PM

We did just have a serious headline about Kim Jong Il opening a burger joint in place of denuclearization...

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#243910: May 30th 2018 at 3:35:57 PM

[up] A time-honored US diplomatic strategy. From Generation Kill:

The U.S. should just go into all these fucked up countries, Iraq, Africa, and setup American government and infrastructure - Mc Donalds, Starbucks, MTV - then just hand it all over. I mean, how else we gonna make these hungry motherfuckers want to stop killing everybody? Put a Mc Donalds on every fuckin' corner. If we gotta blow up the corner, then build the Mc Donalds- so be it.

They should have sent a poet.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243911: May 30th 2018 at 3:38:53 PM

To change the subject a bit:

BREAKING: The Virginia Senate just voted to expand Medicaid. Virginia will be the 34th state (including DC) to expand Medicaid. This is a major victory that will transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of families.

Elections have consequences: The blue wave that swept Virginia made this victory possible after many years of GOP opposition.

Elections have consequences: To get enough GOP votes, this Medicaid expansion includes a work requirement and premiums above the poverty line, which will cut into coverage gains. Virginia must continue the fight.

Voters overwhelmingly want to expand health care, not repeal it. This November, Medicaid expansion is on the ballot in Utah and Idaho. And repeal is on the ballot in every congressional race across the country.

[1]

The work requirements are not ideal, but it's a start.

edited 30th May '18 3:43:15 PM by megaeliz

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#243912: May 30th 2018 at 3:52:36 PM

By "And repeal is on the ballot in every congressional race across the country." does he mean an actual ballot measure tor repeal medicaid or is he being metaphorical with the House election?

fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
#243913: May 30th 2018 at 3:52:58 PM

Yes! I love my home state. It's a great example of what happens when democrats turn out.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243914: May 30th 2018 at 4:03:09 PM

[up][up] probably just metaphorical. It's going to be a big issue in the midterms and state congress races.

It just occurred to me that many of us have don't remember having a functioning congress.

edited 30th May '18 4:27:49 PM by megaeliz

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#243915: May 30th 2018 at 4:24:57 PM

[up] Congress only really started getting congested during the Obama years, though when it comes to Congress "congested" is relative. It's not particularly efficient even in the best of times, partly by design.

They should have sent a poet.
SciFiSlasher from Absolutely none of your business. Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#243916: May 30th 2018 at 5:35:08 PM

That's a joke site.

I know. I thought my actual comment in the post made it obvious...

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#243917: May 30th 2018 at 6:57:18 PM

Not really.

Inter arma enim silent leges
Ikiniks nor there from neither here Since: Jan, 2012
nor there
#243918: May 30th 2018 at 6:57:34 PM

I am experiencing an inordinate amount of outrage and offense towards actions being taken against people and their children. Namely, I am severely unnerved and angered at the forced separation of parents and children in the name of "border enforcement". I almost cannot conceive of it, but I know it as the absolute fuckery it is because history records already point out many other similar human rights violations.

Before this I have already expressed disapproval towards the actions of current administration's actions. The line was crossed long ago, but now they have run past a line even further down. But I will not leave this country.

When I get my citizenship, there will be so many things to vote against.

edited 30th May '18 6:59:01 PM by Ikiniks

but maybe somewhere
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243919: May 30th 2018 at 7:06:46 PM

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-attacks-sessions-after-he-emerges-as-key-witness-2b44139c83de/

Hahahahhaha

Hhahahahahaha

Haha...

About the Sessions' "Loyalty"

edited 30th May '18 7:07:04 PM by CharlesPhipps

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
#243920: May 30th 2018 at 7:12:51 PM

He knew an investigation of some sort was coming. And he still appointed someone directly and deeply involved in the campaign and the transition as AG.

Sow the wind...

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243921: May 30th 2018 at 7:39:30 PM

Update on the Cohen Situtation.

Judge Suggests Review of Cohen Documents Is Moving Too Slowly

A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday ordered lawyers for Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, to complete within just over two weeks their review of a huge trove of documents and data that the F.B.I. seized from Mr. Cohen last month and that prosecutors are eager to use in their continuing investigation of him.

The judge, Kimba M. Wood, said that if the lawyers did not meet her June 15 deadline, she would allow the government to take control of the review, which is seeking to determine whether any of the seized paperwork or electronic files should be protected under the lawyer-client privilege.

A court-appointed special master has been overseeing scrutiny of the materials with Mr. Cohen’s lawyers, but Judge Wood suggested in a hearing in United States District Court that the process was moving too slowly.

“It is important for the court to balance the slow, deliberate needs of those who are asserting attorney-client privilege,” Judge Wood said, “with the need for an investigation to go forward.”

On Tuesday, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, reported to the judge that more than one million items from three of Mr. Cohen’s cellphones would be turned over to the government on Wednesday after lawyers for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump determined that they contained no privileged information. About 300,000 additional files were turned over to prosecutors last week.

Among the items not yet cleared for release, a prosecutor said in court on Wednesday, were the contents of two Black Berry phones and of one of Mr. Cohen’s shredders. Boxes of documents, about a dozen cellphones, iPads and computers, and 19 hard drives and thumb drives were seized on April 9 when federal agents raided Mr. Cohen’s office, apartment and hotel room.

For months now, the authorities have been investigating whether Mr. Cohen violated the law in his wide-ranging business deals, including hush-money payments that he made to women who claimed they had affairs with Mr. Trump — among them Stephanie Clifford, a former pornographic film star better known as Stormy Daniels. No criminal charges have been filed.

Before Judge Wood set her deadline for the end of the review, Todd Harrison, one of Mr. Cohen’s lawyers, had asked for more time, noting that 15 lawyers at his firm and two data specialists were already working night and day to complete the task. “We are moving heaven and earth,” Mr. Harrison said. He added that members of his team were working weekends and sleeping on couches in the office.

The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan had sought to conduct the review itself, using what is known as a taint team, a group of prosecutors walled off from those handling the Cohen investigation.

Judge Wood made it clear on Wednesday that if Mr. Cohen’s lawyers did not move quicker, she would wrest control of the review from them and let a taint team sort through the documents that they had not finished considering.

At one point in the hearing, these highly technical discussions about the document review were overtaken by the seemingly endless — and increasingly bitter — legal grudge match between another of Mr. Cohen’s lawyers, Stephen M. Ryan, and Ms. Clifford’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti.

Mr. Avenatti has for weeks been trying to formally enter the case to protect any records related to Ms. Clifford that were swept up in the raids on Mr. Cohen. But he has also been waging a guerrilla-style publicity campaign against Mr. Trump, Mr. Cohen and other members of the Trump legal team, attacking them relentlessly on social media and in round-the-clock television appearances.

Though lawyers rarely object to an adversary’s attempt to appear in court, Mr. Ryan told Judge Wood on Wednesday that Mr. Avenatti should not be allowed to enter the case, citing his “reckless” and “improper” behavior — and his 170 recent TV interviews (74 of them, he noted, on CNN alone.)

“He is involved in ways that call attention to himself,” Mr. Ryan said, adding, “This is about the aggrandizement of a single attorney and his client.”

Mr. Ryan seemed especially incensed about a report — apparently based on private bank records — that Mr. Avenatti released this month showing that a shell company owned by Mr. Cohen had received millions of dollars from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch and from major corporations like AT&T and the drug maker Novartis. Mr. Ryan said that the release of the material, which created a media frenzy, was “intentional, malicious and prejudicial.”

Joanna C. Hendon, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, told Judge Wood that she agreed with Mr. Ryan that Mr. Avenatti should be kept out of the case. To bolster her argument, Ms. Hendon noted that a judge in California had recently issued a $10 million judgment against Mr. Avenatti’s law firm and that, as proof of Mr. Avenatti’s insatiable hunger for attention, a podium with microphones attached to it was already awaiting him outside the courthouse.

When Mr. Avenatti rose to address Judge Wood, he suggested it was odd that Ms. Hendon had attacked him for undergoing bankruptcy or for using the media as a platform, given that her client, Mr. Trump, was known for doing both. “The irony of that, your honor, is rather palpable,” he said.

Though Judge Wood did not immediately rule on Mr. Avenatti’s request to intervene in the case, she did warn him that if he were admitted, he would have to stop releasing private materials and end his “publicity tour,” which she said could taint potential jurors.

“This conduct is inimicable to giving Mr. Cohen eventually a fair trial,” Judge Wood said. She added, “You will not be permitted to use this court as a platform.”

Minutes after the hearing ended, Mr. Avenatti temporarily withdrew his request to appear in the case as an out-of-state lawyer based in California, but reserved his right to renew it at any time. He also agreed to put on pause his motion to intervene as he waits to see if the document review turns up any materials related to Ms. Clifford.

It seemed, if anything, like a strategic retreat, allowing him to continue in his role as a media gadfly while keeping his legal options open.

It's definitely a circus, isn't it?

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#243922: May 30th 2018 at 8:19:47 PM

But the circus is dead (the actual circus)

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243923: May 30th 2018 at 8:19:47 PM

Why does Staten Island and Brooklin have this guy as a representative? They have to get rid of him.

There is no one better to represent the people of N.Y. and Staten Island (a place I know very well) than @Rep Dan Donovan, who is strong on Borders & Crime, loves our Military & our Vets, voted for Tax Cuts and is helping me to Make America Great Again. Dan has my full endorsement!

There is no one better to represent the people of N.Y. and Staten Island (a place I know very well) than @Rep Dan Donovan, who is strong on Borders & Crime, loves our Military & our Vets, voted for Tax Cuts and is helping me to Make America Great Again. Dan has my full endorsement!

And why is trump endorsing a book when we all know he can't read. Is it a picture book?

The soon to be released book, “The Russia Hoax, The Illicit Scheme To Clear Hillary Clinton And Frame Donald Trump,” written by Gregg Jarrett, looks like a real deal big hit. The Phony Witch Hunt will be opened up for the world to see! Out in 5 weeks.

edited 30th May '18 8:27:35 PM by megaeliz

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243924: May 30th 2018 at 8:47:10 PM

Illinois became the 37 state (including DC) to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which means that we only need one more state to ratify it can become an amendment!

Dawn of an ERA? State House passes Equal Rights Amendment — 95 years later

SPRINGFIELD—The Illinois House made history on Wednesday, allowing for the state to become the 37th in the country to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment designed to protect Americans against discrimination based on their sex.

Nearly a century after the amendment was drafted, the Illinois House voted 72-45 to ratify it following more than two hours of debate. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan stood behind the speaker’s podium in the House chambers to watch the historic vote. The Illinois Senate voted to approve it in April.

While the vote may be symbolic — the country needs one more state to ratify the amendment — the state’s passage creates a window of opportunity for the embattled constitutional amendment. The state is where the efforts seized in 1982. Only 35 of the necessary 38 states ratified the amendment before the 1979 deadline set by Congress. The deadline was extended to 1982, but that made no difference as Illinois and other states remained firmly against the proposal.

After the state Senate approved the ERA in April, Deputy Majority Leader Lou Lang and Republican state Rep. Steven Andersson, R-Geneva, took time to try to muster the bipartisan 71 votes needed to approve the constitutional amendment.

Lawmakers shared impassioned personal stories of their upbringings, their daughters and their lives in the military. Some argued it was moot to push for an amendment that was created in the early 20th century.

The amendment declares that equality of rights will not be denied by the U.S. or any state on account of sex. It was originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and was sent to the states for ratification 46 years ago.

Opponents feared it could mean unisex bathrooms, allowing men to compete on women’s sports teams or doing away with athletic competition based on gender differences. They’ve also argued women already have all the protections they need under the law and that this proposed change to the constitution could only hurt them, rather than help women achieve pay equity.

Lang called the vote a historic moment for Illinois, and implored lawmakers to support the amendment that has the potential of impacting the entire country.

“The only question that needs to be asked is, is the Illinois House of Representatives for or against adding 161 million American citizens to the United States Constitution where they absolutely belong?” Lang said. “A no vote for whatever reason you have is a vote against the rights of women in the United States of America.”

Lang, too, told those against it to “spare the hair on fire routine” about what the amendment will do.

“It’s going to be nothing to hurt the fabric of America because all it says is give women the same rights men have in the United States of America,” Lang said. “If you’re a representative against that, I don’t know why you’re here defending and protecting the people that you represent.”

State Rep. Jeanne Ives — who was narrowly defeated by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in the March primary — argued that women are already guaranteed protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ives, R-Wheaton, said it’s up to men to stop domestic abuse, trafficking, discrimination in the workplaces and sexual harassment.

“We have the rules on the books. What we need is great men to stand up and protect women,” Ives said. “And this body knows it.”

The fireworks began on Wednesday night during a lengthy debate on the House floor, just as the Illinois Senate was poised to approve a budget.

Opponents have argued the ERA is really just a smokescreen to allow unfettered access to taxpayer-funded abortions. And state Rep. Peter Breen, R-Lombard, argued that’s the real reason behind the amendment.

The ERA was drafted by Alice Paul, a lawyer, in 1923, who also had a heavy hand in helping to get the 19th Amendment ratified. But she died before seeing it passed.

Breen said supporters of the ERA have “twisted her [Paul’s] language into a mechanism for abortion — something that Ms. Paul never would have stood for. ”

Rep. Sue Scherer said she’s a mother of three daughters and a grandmother to four granddaughters. Scherer, D-Decatur, said she listened to many several Catholic, pro-life friends and family.

“Every time I asked I got the same answer. They said it’s time to quit using pro-life as an excuse to suppress women,” Scherer said. “I dream of a day when all people are treated equally. And I hope that today is that day.”

Not all Republicans opposed the amendment. State Rep. Christine Winger, R-Bloomingdale, said she’s pro-life but said she would support it for her daughter.

She said she voted yes “for her and for others to know the state of Illinois believes that she should have the same opportunities as men.”

And state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said he’s pro-life and will continue to be pro-life. He said he’s been taught that all people are made in the image of God with dignity and rights.

“This includes both men and women. If you believe that, then I can find no reason why the United States Constitution shouldn’t reflect the same,” Brady said.

The road to ratification is not over, even if 38 states approve it. It will likely meet a court challenge. Nevada became the 36th state to approve the amendment earlier this year. With Illinois, that means only one more is needed. But five of the original 35 later claimed to withdraw their support — a change ERA supporters insist is not allowed.

And Congress would have to extend the original deadline needed to ratify.

The issue is hugely political, and Rauner was careful about voicing support for the amendment.

He has no official role in the ratification. The amendment does not require his signature.

For the governor, declaring himself in favor of the amendment would risk further alienating the conservative wing of the Republican Party that he is trying to win back after a divisive primary election against Ives.

And Democrats clearly knew that bringing up the ERA just months ahead of the November election would put Rauner in a tough spot.

Conservative Republicans argue the ERA would open the way for government-paid abortions and co-ed prisons, which ERA supporters deny.

But openly opposing the ERA could hurt Rauner’s chances with women voters, particularly the suburban independent women who provided an important part of his winning coalition in 2014.

Rauner’s Democratic rival, J.B. Pritzker, issued a statement applauding legislators for passing the amendment — and taking a shot at Rauner.

“I’ve been a staunch advocate for women’s rights my whole life, and I’m proud to see a bipartisan group of leaders take this critical step to enshrine women’s equality in our Constitution,” the Democrat said. “Today, after over 40 years of waiting, Illinois was put on the right side of history.

“But let’s be clear: while women and advocates across this state asked Bruce Rauner to support the ERA, their requests were met with a deafening silence. Bruce Rauner failed Illinois women in this fight.”

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243925: May 30th 2018 at 8:52:44 PM

[up][up][up] Is that a reference to the Ringling Brothers Circus being shut down last year?

Disgusted, but not surprised

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