Today's News
The Washington Post sends out a daily news summary in email. Today of course the lottery is a big story. I thought the list of headlines themselves represented a pretty good snapshot of our time (though the proposed federal reversal of gender identity equality is not mentioned today). This nightmare would not have seemed possible a couple of years ago.
I split them into groups just to make it more readable.
I split them into groups just to make it more readable.
He won Powerball’s $314 million jackpot. It ruined his life.
Check your Mega Millions tickets. Here are the winning numbers.
A single Mega Millions jackpot winner is reported, in South Carolina
‘In the service of whim’: Officials scramble to make Trump’s false assertions real
White nationalist Richard Spencer accused of physically abusing wife throughout their marriage
A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history
A quarter of college students could develop PTSD because of the 2016 election, a new study suggests
‘The President . . . says it’s ok to grab women by their private parts’: Man accused of groping woman on flight invokes Trump
‘I thought it was very nice’: VA official showcased portrait of KKK’s first grand wizard
Trump officials aggressively bypass appeals process to get issues before conservative Supreme Court
Trump says there’s ‘no proof’ that Middle Easterners have joined migrant caravan, although there ‘could very well be’
A witches’ brew of over-the-top Trump attacks
After Khashoggi’s killing, Turkey’s leader seeks to weaken Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince
Trump says Saudis engaged in ‘worst coverup ever’ as U.S. imposes penalties
Apple’s Tim Cook delivers searing critique of Silicon Valley
The world’s longest bridge-tunnel brings China even closer to Hong Kong. Not everyone is pleased.
You’ve won the Mega Millions jackpot! Time to hide.
Blue-collar men are riding America’s economic wave. Women? Not so much.
U.S. stocks rattled as two industrial giants warn of trouble
Lockheed Martin executives break silence over Khashoggi killing and their business with Saudi Arabia
iPhone XR: The best $250 you ever saved on a new phone
Money vs. morals: Khashoggi killing raises questions in Silicon Valley about Saudi investment
Amazon met with ICE officials over facial-recognition system that could identify immigrants
This CEO allegedly stole millions from low-income phone subscribers to pay for a Ferrari, a private jet and a Florida condo
Carolyn Hax: As my messy daughter’s landlord, should I evict her over cleanliness?
Many intermittent fasters skip breakfast. Here’s why that’s not a good idea.
Elle Mills is the celebrity every YouTuber wants to be. But her fame came at a price.
Megyn Kelly asked ‘what is racist?’ about blackface on Halloween. Plenty of people had answers.
posted by JimK at 10:28 AM
222 Comments:
Secret Service intercepts ‘potential explosive devices’ sent to Obama, Clinton
The Secret Service said Wednesday that it had intercepted packages containing “potential explosive devices” addressed to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in New York and former president Barack Obama in Washington.
The devices were recovered not long after an explosive device was found in a mailbox at the Bedford, N.Y., home of George Soros, the liberal philanthropist who is a frequent target of criticism from far-right groups.
“The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such,” the Secret Service said in a statement Wednesday. “The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”
The Secret Service said the package addressed to the Chappaqua, N.Y., home of Clinton and former president Bill Clinton was recovered late Tuesday. The package sent to Obama’s Washington home was intercepted early Wednesday, authorities said. Clinton and Obama representatives were not immediately available for comment.
The devices sent to Clinton and Obama are suspected to be the work of the same person who sent a similar device to Soros earlier this week, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Based on the timing and the material, law enforcement officials suspect the same person is behind all three devices, and officials are scrambling to determine if any other such devices were sent to anyone.
Soros, an 88-year-old holocaust survivor, has funneled much of his fortune into liberal projects around the world, making him a frequent target of rhetoric on the right.
"Don't forget this one, some right-wing thugs are out for blood, preferable Jewish, female and African American"
why would any right-wing thug do this?
conservatives are winning
this was probably some liberal nutcase
the election has swung to the conservative side because the public has perceived that the left is violent and dangerous
then, right before the election, this happens
too coincidental
last year, the media was full of stories about painted swastikas vandalizing property
then, it turned out some liberals were doing it, thinking conservatives would be blamed
the racist, sexist, and anti-semitic nature of the left is coming into focus
when Kanye went to the White House, CNN anchors said he was doing a "minstrel" show
this morning, a TTFer said we should ignore Ben Shapiro because he is a "Russian Jew"
and liberals are trying to dilute protections against sexism by saying guys who feel like girls should be protected as women
Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Friday dismantled Donald Trump’s theory that Democratic operatives are behind a migrant caravan headed for the United States, calling the idea “preposterous.”
“Let me say first of all the idea that the Democrats were somehow behind this caravan coming from Honduras of these women and children is preposterous and there’s been no evidence offered on that any more than there was evidence that the protestors on Capitol Hill during the Kavanaugh hearings were paid protestors,” Wallace said...
Lies abound in tRumplandia.
If you think President Trump's economic agenda is done as he approaches the mid-point of his first term, you're mistaken. Top White House officials are even now putting the finishing touches on another tax cut of 10%, designed to hit the middle-class as squarely in the pocket book as possible.
That is in addition to the cuts already made this year, which have powered the U.S. economy into boom territory.
While the timing of the 10% cut has a political element — it won't be acted on until Congress returns from its election recess — it does make a point. If the middle class wants more tax cuts, it had better vote for the party of tax cuts, not the party of tax hikes.
The shame isn't that the middle class will get another 10% tax cut, but that middle class people have been led to believe they never got one in the first place. It's just "crumbs," as Nancy Pelosi said. That's nonsense.
The median family of four earns $73,000. That family, middle class by any standard, will get a $2,000 tax cut this year, with their total tax liability dropping from about $3,558 to around $1,499. That's a 58% tax cut.
And the tax reductions were broad enough to hit everyone. They included not just lower tax rates, but a near-doubling of the standard deduction from $6,500 to $12,000 for individuals, and from $13,00 to $24,000 for married couples. Meanwhile, for those with kids, the child tax credit went from $1,000 to $2,000.
The Democrats' rhetorical class-warfare against these tax cuts has been, in a word, disgraceful. They've only been outdone by the media, which have falsely reported the Democrats' spin as actual fact.
But wait: Isn't it true that the rich overwhelmingly benefited from the tax cuts? Depends on how you view "benefited." It's true, those with bigger tax bills got more back. That's what we used to call "fair."
It's also true that the top 3% of all taxpayers pay more than 50% of all income taxes. And that the top 1% pay 37.3% of all taxes, which is more than the bottom 90% of the tax distribution combined (they pay just 30.5%).
And what would the Democrats deliver to the middle class if they took over?
Well, their Medicare for All plan will cost roughly $3.3 trillion a year for the first decade, requiring a huge hike in taxes on working Americans.
Their "repeal" of the Trump tax cuts would add another $1.5 trillion to the U.S. tax bill, most of it on the middle class. The layering on of more burdensome and unnecessary regulations would act as a "hidden tax" on all Americans, both consumers and workers.
It would be the biggest middle-class tax hike ever. And for what? Substandard government-run health care with no competition, no choice and rationing; layers of new costly rules that will favor the left's pet industries and add costs to everything Americans buy.
Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claim they'll spend the tax hikes on the middle class on "infrastructure." The last time they made that vow, in 2009, they spent close to $1 trillion with nary any infrastructure to show for it, other than a few random highway projects.
President Trump this week named 14 things that Republicans will do if they keep control of Congress. No. 1 on the list: "Continue to cut your taxes." At least you know Trump will carry through on his word.
There may have been a time when Democrats could lay claim to being a party of the middle class. But that ship has long since sailed.
As Peter Wehner wrote in the New York Times back in May 2015, "in the last two decades the Democratic Party has moved substantially further to the left than the Republican Party has shifted to the right." It's no secret.
Today's Democrats are a party of the far left. Period. That is a fact that numerous surveys and studies show. By not telling the truth about the economy, and by sending President Obama out on the hustings to take credit for an economy he didn't build, they continue the recent tradition of distorting both their own record and that of the GOP.
Middle-class Americans need to know: A Republican Congress means lower tax rates, a Democratic one means tax hikes. The evidence from history, as the video with this editorial clearly shows, suggest tax hikes lead to growth. Tax hikes are often an economic disaster.
In 2018, it's a stark choice. And an easy one.
Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings shined a bright and ugly light on many people and organizations. People, for instance, such as the Senate Democratic caucus, who, in a display of the finer instincts of hyenas, fell over one another in their abandonment of due process and the presumption of innocence.
And they were not alone. Joining them were “liberal” organizations such as the American Bar Association, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ABA’s standing committee on the federal judiciary evaluates all candidates for the Supreme Court and issues ratings on them. The ABA on August 31 gave Kavanaugh its highest rating. But in what was reported to be a retreat from that stance, on September 27, ABA President Robert Carlson penned a letter on behalf of his organization to Senators Grassley and Feinstein, calling for an FBI “background check into the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford.” This was widely reported by the national media.
The next day, however, the ABA released a letter informing the senators that Carlson’s letter was not reviewed by the standing committee on the federal judiciary before it was sent, and that moreover the ABA’s rating for Kavanaugh remained unchanged. Carlson’s comeuppance, so at odds with the narrative the national media was peddling, went widely unreported.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hard-left hate group with a reported $400 million in the bank, also sank to its reputation. On September 29, the SPLC released this remarkable statement: “By ignoring the credible accusations of sexual misconduct against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump and the Republican Senate have demonstrated just how far they will go to put a right-wing ideologue on the U.S. Supreme Court.”
So there, in one sentence, is all you need to know about the SPLC, an organization that long ago traded its worthwhile founding mission for its current role as a leftist repository for big bucks from people like actor George Clooney.
If there is one group, other than Democratic legislators, that has covered itself with unforgivable shame it is the American Civil Liberties Union. Not content just to issue jejune statements on its blog, the ACLU took the extraordinary step of spending $1 million on paid TV ads in different areas of the country, calling for the voters there to tell their senators to vote no on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. And what ads they were!
Beginning with a montage of photos or video of Bill Cosby, Bill Clinton, Matt Lauer, and Harvey Weinstein, the ads featured a clip of Brett Kavanaugh’s senate denial of the allegations against him, with a voiceover intoning “We’ve seen this before . . . Denials from powerful men.”
Several former ACLU leaders blasted the ads. Michael Meyers, a member of the ACLU national board from 1981-2005, called the spots “bald-faced hypocrisy” and “a violation of everything we believe in as civil libertarians,” while Wendy Kaminer, also a former national board member, blasted the commercials as “appalling and one more example of progressive political sentiment trumping civil liberty concerns at the ACLU.”
No list of the worst miscreants would be complete, of course, without mentioning so many of the “mainstream” media. Especially notable in that regard are the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, and above all, if substantially less mainstream, CNN and The New Yorker.
The Times and the Post both published editorials calling for Kavanaugh’s rejection on the argument that he was too passionate in his own defense during his Senate testimony. The Times called it a “rage-bender,” while the Post clucked in with gems like this one: “As senators prepare to vote this week on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, they, and the rest of the country, must wonder: Which Brett Kavanaugh are they evaluating? Is it the steady, conservative jurist he was reputed to be before his confirmation saga? Or is it a partisan operative harboring suspicions and resentments about Democrats, with possible misdeeds in his past?” Right. Given the way the matter arose and was treated, how could Kavanaugh, or anyone, possibly harbor resentments toward Democrats?
In the wake of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, blowback has come the way of two anti-Kavanaugh players: first, the creepy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti, who introduced the nation first to Stormy Daniels and then to one Julie Swetnick, who preposterously accused Kavanaugh of being at a party where she was “gang raped”; and, second, The New Yorker magazine, which published a piece by Ronan Farrow and the execrable Jane Mayer, spotlighting the sexual misconduct claims of Deborah Ramirez, a former Kavanaugh classmate at Yale. The New York Times reported it was unable to corroborate Ramirez’s story and that Ramirez told former classmates that she couldn’t even be sure Kavanaugh was the student who exposed himself to her.
But it was CNN, which since Donald Trump’s election has become a kind of journalistic urinal for left-wing provocateurs of all stripes and acuity, that wallowed most often and most deeply in the mud of this affair.
Take Brian Stelter, the journalistic runt of CNN’s litter. It was Stelter who told Avenatti “one reason why I’m taking you seriously as a presidential contender is because of your presence on cable news.” And indeed, Stelter was on to something. According to a report in The Hill, Avenatti appeared on CNN 65 times (and on MSNBC 43 times) between March 7 and May 10.
The most obvious takeaway from all this is that “liberalism,” the presumed ideology of all these people and organizations, is dying.
In its place has grown a violent and ignorant and deeply anti-democratic #Resistance, which has embraced identity politics, a victim culture, and an equivocal if not downright hostile view of the U.S. Constitution.
It’s more than a shame. The country could profit right now from the kind of liberalism that is broadminded, nurturing, and tolerant. But it’s not going to come from the Democratic Party as currently constituted, or from those elements of the press that have trashed all traces of journalistic standards in their abandonment of objectivity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiAT2IEzJAc
Torch bearing white supremacists chanted Jews will not replace us in Charlottesville and one of them killed Heather Heyer.
"It’s more than a shame. The country could profit right now from the kind of conservatism that is broadminded, nurturing, and tolerant. But it’s not going to come from the Republican Party as currently constituted, or from those elements of the press that have trashed all traces of journalistic standards in their abandonment of objectivity."
There, I fixed it for you. Someone should have told Republicans this back when Obama was running for president the first time.
sure, go ahead and play your games
you play for a team that has squandered a sure victory and refuses to recognize why
long may you f' up
"President Trump’s quest to help Republican midterm candidates has taken him this month to an airplane hangar in a far-flung Nevada county that he won with 73 percent of votes, a fairgrounds building in rural Ohio that could only hold 3,000 and an 8,000-capacity college arena in Kentucky — located about 25 miles south of Lexington, where Air Force One landed and where larger venues are located.
As the president campaigns, he has mostly avoided the suburban areas that strategists say will be key to deciding the midterms — and where he is often less popular and runs the risk of energizing Democrats or hurting Republican candidates who have tried to distance themselves from him. Over the past few weeks, he has focused heavily on more rural areas where he is especially popular and where his presence can encourage the base voters Republican candidates need.
Of the 27 midterm rallies Trump has held this year, more than three-quarters were held in counties that he won in 2016 by an average of 59.5 percent. The few times that he has ventured to counties that Democrat Hillary Clinton won, those places are nearly always surrounded on all sides by counties that he won. And more than a third of the rallies were in or near the Appalachian Mountains, where his popularity remains high..."
He pumps up his rabid base and now our first responders are having to respond to hate and finding bombs sent to Democrats all over the country.
Tone it down, asshole.
"He pumps up his rabid base and now our first responders are having to respond to hate and finding bombs sent to Democrats all over the country."
really?
let's hear some stats to back up this "all over the country" lie
these bombs were likely sent by some Dem supporters, trying to counter the image of angry mob that the Dems have become
"Tone it down, asshole."
Trump hasn't said anything particularly inflammatory
I'm sure you'd like it if he stopped his successful campaign to show Americans what the liberals are
"The safety of the American people is my highest and absolute priority," Trump just said.
That's obviously a lie.
This is the same man who routinely calls out members of the press at his rallies as "enemies of the people."
A bomb was sent to CNN HQ in NY today.
It's past time for IQ45 to figure it out.
“In these times, we have to unify," Trump said. "We have to come together and send one very clear, strong and unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”
Donald Trump Misses the ‘Old Days’ When You Were Allowed to Beat Up Protesters like that "fine" white supremacist who ran over Heather Heyer and killed her.
Haaretz.com: How far is it from "Lock Her Up" to "Blow Her Up?"
--https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-soros-cnn-obama-and-the-clintons-trump-s-incitement-turns-into-real-threats-1.6592201
*Trump hasn't said anything particularly inflammatory*
Spoken like a true believer-bubble dweller.
"A bomb was sent to CNN HQ in NY today.
It's past time for IQ45 to figure it out."
bomb threats to news organizations and politicians are actually pretty common
Susan Andrews just had a ricin scare at her house last week
if liberals and the media, pardon my redundancy, try to spin this as caused by Trump, it will backlash and bite them on the ass
just like the rape train accusations against Justice Kavanaugh and the DNA test of Elizabeth Warren
Americans are on to you
"“In these times, we have to unify," Trump said. "We have to come together and send one very clear, strong and unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”
Donald Trump Misses the ‘Old Days’ When You Were Allowed to Beat Up Protesters like that "fine" white supremacist who ran over Heather Heyer and killed her."
you mean like the Democrats scratching on the door of the Supreme Court and chasing Republicans out of restaurants and blocking them from getting on elevators and shooting them on baseball fields?
"Haaretz.com: How far is it from "Lock Her Up" to "Blow Her Up?""
it's halfway around the world, and if you don't understand that, it explains why you're losing
"Spoken like a true believer-bubble dweller."
fortunately, we have someone outside the bubble like you
you said his rallies this week have encouraged violence
let's hear a couple of these inflammatory remarks you claim he's made
we'll wait.........................................
"you play for a team that has squandered a sure victory and refuses to recognize why"
I don't play for any team. I vote for whoever appears to be the most qualified candidate given what are often very poor choices.
Republicans keep winning because they have very short, simplistic answers to every problem, even when they've proven disastrous in the past. They pander to a large base of stupid people who can't or won't look too deep into the nations' problems and are willing to believe right-wing propaganda that liberals, gays, "political correctness," and democrats are the source of all the world's ills.
Democrats keep losing because there is simply no amount of facts you can dump on a stupid person to make them believe anything if it contradicts something they truly hold dear. Republicans DEPEND on that; it's the fundamental basis of conservative religion, the nation's takeover by plutocrats, and modern day right-wing politics.
Stupid people only learn things the hard way - after they've been burned a few times and finally come to realize that was never going to work. It's a long, slow, painful process. The question is who bad will things have to get before the idiots wake up and start voting sanely again.
If you're truly upset that my supposed "team" lost a sure victory, and is allowing the Rumpster and his cronies to continue on with his destructive ways, then you should be upset with your own right-wing propaganda machines for being so effective at convincing large masses of stupid people to believe whatever The Orange One, Fox News, Hanity, Carlson, and Limbaugh, et al. say.
Post all you like about how f'd up the democrats are, but 20 years from now, people are going to look back and wonder how conservatives could have ever been deranged enough to have fallen hook, line, and sinker for a white nationalist with yeti pubes, and let the country fall so, so far.
"you said his rallies this week have encouraged violence"
"Republicans keep winning because they have very short, simplistic answers to every problem, even when they've proven disastrous in the past. They pander to a large base of stupid people who can't or won't look too deep into the nations' problems and are willing to believe right-wing propaganda that liberals, gays, "political correctness," and democrats are the source of all the world's ills."
yes, republicans keep winning because everyone is so much stupider than you
got it
thanks for clearing that up
You're welcome.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/22/democrats-more-educated-republicans-pew-research-c/
When it comes to education, the parties have switched places over the past two decades.
According to a Pew Research Center poll released this week, Democrats are now the party of college graduates, especially those with post-graduate work. Meanwhile, people with a high-school degree or less, by far the larger group, slightly lean toward Republicans.
Both preferences are the reverse of what they were in the 1990s.
According to Pew, 54 percent of college graduates either identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, compared to 39 percent who identified or leaned Republican. One-third of Americans have a college degree.
Just 25 years ago, those numbers were perfectly reversed in the Pew survey, with the GOP holding a 54-39 advantage among people with college degrees.
The discrepancy becomes even greater when Pew distilled the sample down to people who have post-graduate education — at least some work toward a master’s, doctorate, law or similar degree. In that group, Democrats had a 2-to-1 edge, by 63 percent to 31 percent. In 1994, the two parties were almost evenly divided, with the Democratic lead just 47-45.
Pew did not attempt to explain the shift among the well-educated to Democrats, though Republicans over the past several decades have become increasingly skeptical of the higher education industry, seeing it as a politically-correct enclave inherently hostile to them.
At the same time, though, the working class and those with less formal education have been shifting Republican, especially among whites.
The latest Pew survey showed that 47 percent of people whose highest educational achievement is a high-school diploma at least leaned Republican, while 45 percent favored the Democrats to some degree.
In 1994, those numbers were also nearly reversed, with Democrats holding a 47-42 advantage. And like the shift among the post-graduate-educated, this shift has also been a recent phenomenon, as Democrats held that same 47-42 lead as recently as 2014.
Remember when Obama went to IOC and pushed for the Chicago Olympics, saying athletes would get to see where he grew up and walk the same streets he did as a boy?
Oh boy!
Remember when his nomination acceptance speech when he said he would make the oceans roll back?
Former President Selfie Stick is back in action, firing up Democrats before the midterms with his signature rallying cries:
I, I, I, I! Me, me, me! My, my, my!
According to a tally by The American Mirror's Kyle Olson, Barack Obama's campaign speech Monday for Nevada Senate Democratic candidate Jacky Rosen referred to himself 92 times in 38 minutes -- or an average self-allusion every 24.7 seconds.
When he wasn't "I"-ing, the former narcissist-in-chief was lying.
"Unlike some, I actually try to state facts," Obama snarked passive-aggressively in a swipe at President Donald Trump. "I don't believe in just making stuff up. I think you should actually say to people what's true."
Sit down, Mister "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
Thanks to you, many peoople lost not one, not two, not three but four private individual market health plans killed directly by Obamacare. Reminder: When the health insurance cancellation notice tsunami hit in 2013, liberal Mother Jones magazine sneered that the phenomenon was "phony." But after 4 million American families received cancellation letters at the end of 2013, Obama's health care prevarication was finally deemed the "Lie of the Year" by left-leaning PolitiFact.
And five years after promising Americans they could "keep their doctor" along with their health plan "no matter what," Obama belatedly 'fessed up that "the average person" would be forced "to have to make some choices, and they might end up having to switch doctors."
Facts, schmacts.
Moving on, Obama tried to galvanize voters this week by trashing Trump's jobs boom: "When you hear all this talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it."
Hold up, Mister "Jobs are not coming back." I remember you taunting Trump for needing a "magic wand" to achieve what you claimed was an unachievable manufacturing industry renaissance -- for which you are now claiming unadulterated credit!
I remember you, Mister Multitrillion-Dollar-Stimulus, promising the sun, moon and stars with the "most sweeping economic recovery package in our history" that was supposed to lift two million people out of poverty.
I recall sky-high unemployment rates for black Americans, nearly double the national rate, and 90 million-plus able-bodied citizens of all colors simply giving up looking for work while wasted billions went to fund crony green energy boondoggles, bridges to nowhere, renovations to Joe Biden's favorite Amtrak train station in Delaware, General Services Administrations junkets in Las Vegas and Hawaii, ghost congressional districts and stimulus propaganda road signs planted nationwide and stamped with the shovel-ready logo.
Speaking of which, I won't forget you smirking while you admitted at one of your phony Jobs and Competitiveness Council meetings that "Shovel-ready was not as, uh, shovel-ready as we expected." Yukkity-yuk-yuk.
Nor will it go down the memory hole how the Obama administration's wreckovery lies were enabled by slavering "journalists" like New York Times columnist David Brooks. He giggled on Jim Lehrer's PBS show that Obama had told him off the record that the shovel-ready promise was a crock, yet he sat on the truth until his Times' colleague Peter Baker reported the admission more than a year later.
Wait, we're not done yet. Astonishingly, Obama is now on the campaign trail comparing the Trump White House to a "tin-pot dictatorship" and calling for a return to "decency" and "lawfulness."
Yes, this is the same man who sicced the IRS on tea party conservatives, evangelicals and pro-life citizens, amnestied millions of illegal immigrants through executive fiat, appointed dozens of unaccountable and unvetted policy czars, used his Justice Department to spy on journalists, deceived the country over the Benghazi massacre and the Iran deal, demonized his political opponents, and mastered the very social justice agitation techniques now wielded by left-wing mobs targeting Republicans in every corner of the public square.
Thanks, Obama, for reminding America of your miserable legacy of deceit, division, persecution and redistribution as voters head to the polls. You wanna make the 2018 midterms all about you? It's on.
President Donald Trump once suggested that “Second Amendment people” could take matters into their own hands if Hillary Clinton won the election and stacked the courts with anti-gun judges.
In 2016, he encouraged the roughing-up of protesters at his campaign rallies. Last year, Trump tweeted a video of himself tackling a man with a CNN logo superimposed across his face, adding the hashtag #FraudNewsCNN. And just last week, he made light of a Republican congressman who was convicted of assault for body slamming a reporter.
Amid disturbing reports that explosive devices were sent to a some of the president's top political enemies by one or more unknown persons, Trump’s critics say he has a reckless penchant for, at a minimum, celebrating violence against his enemies — and, at worst, inciting it.
But the president embraced a very different message on Wednesday, decrying “political violence” and presenting himself as a bipartisan healer during remarks at the White House, touching off an unexpected national debate about political discourse that itself quickly grew divisive, with both left and right accusing the other of bad faith.
“Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective,” a staid Trump said later at the start of a rally in Wisconsin, adding later, “By the way, do you see how nice I’m behaving today? Have you ever seen this?”
Trump’s solemn remarks were a jarring contrast with his typical raucous political rallies, where he regularly whips his supporters into a frenzy by mocking his critics and political opponents.
In Trump’s world, Clinton should be imprisoned, Obama “founded” ISIS, CNN is “fake news,” billionaire George Soros is funding liberal protesters and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who called on activists to confront administration officials, should “be careful what you wish for.”
Suspicious packages, some of which reportedly included explosive devices, were sent to all five of those Democrats, prompting outrage from Trump’s critics.
“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a statement. “The president, and especially the White House press secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Trump’s condemnations of the attacks “ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence.”
“Time and time again, the president has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions,” they said.
Despite Trump’s sober tone Wednesday, few around him expect him to change fundamentally over the longer term. One person close to the president simply laughed when asked whether Trump would scrap the divisive rhetoric that helped send him to the White House....
The more he sows, the more he'll reap.
"In Trump’s world, Clinton should be imprisoned, Obama “founded” ISIS, CNN is “fake news,” billionaire George Soros is funding liberal protesters and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who called on activists to confront administration officials, should “be careful what you wish for.”
Suspicious packages, some of which reportedly included explosive devices, were sent to all five of those Democrats, prompting outrage from Trump’s critics."
saying Hillary should be jailed, Obama founded ISIS, CNN is fake news and that Soros has funded liberal protesters is not, in any way, encouraging someone to bomb them
we know that the larger liberal agenda, much like the gay agenda, seeks a world where no one is permitted to disagree with or criticize them
but this latest move by liberals is pretty reprehensible
we can't stop debate over the fear some partisan may lose his mind and get violent
if we do, violence has won
as far as motive, this bombig doesn't make much sense for a conservative
it makes much more sense, give the timing, to be the work of a hyper-liberal
I know that many leftist groups, like the Green Party and the Socialist Party, detest Hillary
further, many such groups consider CNN to be right-wing propaganda
all depends on your perspective
“There is a total and complete lack of understanding at the White House about the seriousness of their continued attacks on the media,” CNN President Jeff Zucker
Jeff, Obama constantly criticized the media and the Supreme Court and demonized business and anyone else that disagreed with him
it was his special MO
in Las Vegas, they have something called a "cooler"
this is a person that depresses everyone, and brings bad luck
so if some patron is having a hot streak at the tables, the casino sends a cooler down to sap enthusiasm, and stop the winning streak
last week, Trump went to Vegas and got everyone excited with a rally
right away, Dems sent their best cooler, Barack Obama
The political Left has been known to orchestrate frame-up attacks designed to make it appear that right-leaning opponents are responsible for violent acts and plots.
If I wrote the paragraph above in the context of reporting or commenting on the pipe bombs that were reportedly sent by an unidentified person or persons to prominent Democrats, many people would react angrily, and rightly so. After all, there is no evidence that the atrocious but thankfully unsuccessful targeting of the Obamas, the Clintons, CNN, George Soros, and Eric Holder (as well as “Debbie Wasserman Shultz,” whose Florida office, with her name misspelled, was given as the return address on some of the packages) was carried out by political leftists. There is no proof that any Democrat was hoping to cast suspicion on Republican supporters, to suggest to voters, less than two weeks before the midterms, that Trump and GOP rhetoric incites violence. To intimate, in the absence of any proof, that left-wing agitators may be responsible would be a condemnable smear.
That’s why this paragraph, by the usually sensible Will Rashbaum in the New York Times’s report on the apparent attempted bombings, is so infuriating:
Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Soros and CNN have all figured prominently in conservative political attacks — many of which have been led by President Trump. He has often referred to major news organizations as “the enemy of the people,” and has had a particular animus for CNN.
The report goes on to say that the CNN bomb package was addressed to former Obama CIA director John Brennan (who is actually a commentator at MSNBC, not CNN). The Times then adds, gratuitously, that Brennan “is a harsh critic of Mr. Trump,” who revoked Brennan’s security clearance “in what was seen as an act of retribution.”
At this point, there is no evidence whatsoever that provocative words from the president had anything to do with the sending of bombs. Indeed, there is as yet no known evidence of who is behind these possible attacks. And speaking of “attacks,” why, in light of the context of a possible bombing spree, is the Times asserting that Secretary Clinton, President Obama, and Mr. Soros have “figured prominently in conservative political attacks”? They have not been subjected to “attacks” in the sense conveyed by this report; they have been on the receiving end of mere political criticism, not the subjects of attempted political assassinations.
There is plenty of media commentary at the moment about incivility, in the form of incendiary rhetoric and actions. This is entirely appropriate. But I’m at a loss to understand how the climate is improved by spicing up reports with thinly veiled suggestions that President Trump may have triggered a series of potentially murderous attacks on political opponents. When Bernie Sanders supporter James Hodgkinson opened fire on the Republicans he targeted and nearly killed Representative Steve Scalise, I don’t recall much Times speculation about whether he could have been set him off by Democrats urging their supporters to get aggressive — “get in their face”; “if they bring a knife, we bring a gun” — when dealing with political adversaries.
As we often observe after terrorist attacks, everyone needs to take a deep breath until facts begin to emerge. The investigators are doing their jobs. Chances are we will know soon enough who is actually responsible for the pipe bombs. Then we probably won’t need speculation about motive and incitement . . . though there will be no shortage of it, anyway.
"saying Hillary should be jailed, Obama founded ISIS, CNN is fake news and that Soros has funded liberal protesters is not, in any way, encouraging someone to bomb them"
Like that's all IQ45 has said!
In 2016, tRump has said he missed the old days when you were allowed to beat up protesters.
Just last week at one of his 2018 campaign rallies, IQ45 hailed GOPer Gianforte for body-slamming a reporter.
And in between there have been countless times IQ45 called the press, and CNN specifically the "enemy of the people" while getting his ideas from his chief source of information, FAUX news.
"Like that's all IQ45 has said!"
I mean, that was the list the TTF-fool provided to imply that trump was responsible or these bombs
I cut and pasted it without deletion
but, thanks or agreeing with me that they didn't logically lead to bombing
btw, you seem really obsessed with saying Trump's IQ is 45
let's just pretend for a second you're right
aren't you humiliated that someone who's intelligence is so below average regularly cleans your clock?
what kind of dunce are you?
Delusional one -- IQ45 has never cleaned a clock or anything else -- he pays others to clean for him.
"What hath Trump wrought?
Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) last year pleaded guilty to assaulting a journalist. President Trump last week celebrated the assault.
“Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of — he’s my guy,” Trump said to cheers.
CNN’s Jim Acosta said one man at the rally then looked at him “and ran his thumb across his throat.”
Wednesday morning, a pipe bomb arrived at CNN’s offices in New York, addressed to former CIA director and current Trump critic John Brennan. Other bombs went to at least five others frequently villainized by Trump: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, former attorney general Eric Holder, Rep. Maxine Waters and, earlier this week, Democratic financier George Soros.
Trump appropriately denounced “acts or threats of political violence of any kind.” But it’s fair to ask: If a person who assaults a journalist is Trump’s “guy,” might not some unstable person think that, by sending a pipe bomb to a news organization, he, too, is being Trump’s guy?
Nobody but the perpetrator is responsible for this attack. And there is plenty of regrettable behavior on both sides. But one man has done the most to create this climate, whipping supporters to fear and desperation with often violent rhetoric. And only one man can take us back from the brink. Stop the mob, Mr. President. [Stop inciting your mob, IQ45]
In the closing days of the 2018 campaign, Trump has revived what worked in 2016, encouraging his mostly white and mostly male supporters to feel besieged by dark-skinned people, immigrants, women, religious minorities and, of course, the media.
Trump recently maligned all the targets of Wednesday’s attack. Thirty-six hours earlier, Trump fired up yet more “Lock her up!” and “CNN sucks!” chants. He roiled the crowd to boo “low IQ” Waters. Trump spread false conspiracy theories that Soros funded the migrant caravan and anti-Brett M. Kavanaugh protesters. After Holder said “when they go low, we kick them,” Trump threatened: “He’d better be careful what he’s wishing for.” Trump called Brennan “a total lowlife” and a “very bad guy” who “disgraced the country.”
This moment is particularly dangerous because Trump has turned partisan divisions into a proxy war over race and gender, stoking backlash to the first black president and the first woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee. Those receiving the pipe bombs include three African Americans, two women and a Jew frequently targeted by anti-Semites. These demographics figure prominently among Trump’s favorite targets at rallies, mostly women (Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Clinton), African Americans (Cory Booker, Waters, Obama) and Jews (Soros, Charles E. Schumer, Richard Blumenthal, Dianne Feinstein).
Trump’s latest stump speech portrays these Democrats as violent, lawless and inhuman, responsible for “an assault” on the country, an “angry left-wing mob” on a “ruthless mission to . . . demolish and destroy,” “corrupt power-hungry globalists” who are “not caring about our country” and “want to replace freedom with socialism” and invite people into the country who “carve you up with a knife.” Democrats are “openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to . . . overwhelm our nation” and have “launched an assault on the sovereignty of our country . . . and the safety of every single American.”
Is it any wonder people might feel desperate?..."
"...Clinton was wrong to say recently that “civility can start again” only if Democrats win. Also wrong: Holder’s “kick them” remark, Waters’s call to harass Cabinet officials, and loudmouths who hound Ted Cruz and others in restaurants. Violence by the left, whether by antifa hooligans or the shooting at a Republican baseball practice, is as evil as violence by the right.
But one public figure’s rhetoric has been more violent than all others, and he has the biggest megaphone. He encouraged supporters to “knock the crap out of” protesters and offered to pay attackers’ legal bills. He expressed his wish to punch a heckler in the face. He urged police not to “be too nice” to suspects. He shared a doctored video of himself attacking CNN in a wrestling match. He suggested supporters could use guns to stop Clinton judicial nominees and fantasized about Clinton’s security detail being taken away. Most recently, Trump hesitated to criticize Saudi Arabia for Saudi operatives’ killing of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi as the president keeps up his attacks on journalists as enemies of the people.
This has an effect. A man was arrested for threatening to shoot Boston Globe employees this summer, calling the paper the “enemy of the people.”
After the bombs were discovered Wednesday, Trump offered a soothing message: “We have to unify. We have to come together.”
Amen. But at Monday’s rally, Trump ridiculed almost those exact words, mocking Clinton’s campaign for having “some stupid slogan like ‘stay together.’ ”
Actually, it was “Stronger Together.” If only our president believed that."
October 25 at 9:38 AM
Authorities found packages that appeared to contain pipe bombs addressed to former vice president Joe Biden and the actor Robert De Niro, officials said Thursday, setting off a new wave of alarm amid a sprawling investigation into pipe bombs mailed to prominent political figures and critics of President Trump.
The new packages, which resemble those sent to figures including former president Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, were located in Delaware and New York. The discoveries mean that authorities have recovered nine similar packages as part of the investigation. Like the others, the latest packages were intercepted before reaching their intended targets.
The devices found so far, which officials described as pipe bombs, have put many in the country on edge, and authorities have begun an intensive effort to find other explosives that may still be out there. Police have increased patrols of high-profile people, areas and organizations that could be targeted, and authorities have warned some prominent figures -- including former president Jimmy Carter -- to be on alert.
Investigators found a package addressed to Biden in a Delaware mail facility that was like those containing pipe bombs found this week, according to a law enforcement official. The package was apparently not delivered to Biden’s home and may have been on its way to being returned to the person listed on the return address of the envelope, the official said.
In a statement Thursday morning, the FBI declined to confirm that a package addressed to Biden was found, instead saying only that local and state police, along with U.S. Postal Service investigators and FBI agents, were “responding this morning to a United States Postal facility in Delaware to conduct law enforcement activity.”
A similar package was also found addressed to De Niro, who has publicly clashed with Trump, at his production offices in Manhattan, according to law enforcement officials. This package was discovered around 5 a.m. by security personnel working for De Niro’s film company, Tribeca Productions, according to police. A police spokesman said the parcel “was similar to explosive packages that had been publicized.”
An X-ray of the package indicated a similar pipe bomb inside, and investigators suspect it was sent by the same person who sent explosives to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others, a law enforcement official said...
"Trump recently maligned all the targets of Wednesday’s attack. Thirty-six hours earlier, Trump fired up yet more “Lock her up!” and “CNN sucks!” chants. He roiled the crowd to boo “low IQ” Waters. Trump spread false conspiracy theories that Soros funded the migrant caravan and anti-Brett M. Kavanaugh protesters. After Holder said “when they go low, we kick them,” Trump threatened: “He’d better be careful what he’s wishing for.” Trump called Brennan “a total lowlife” and a “very bad guy” who “disgraced the country.”
this is the definition of malign: to utter injuriously misleading or false reports about
the only one of those that may qualify as even false is the allegation about Soros, but he does fund a lot of the Dem mobs so it's not far off-base even if it's not true
regardless, none of these statements are a logical precursor to bombing
we can't throw out our entire system of political debate because some people, we don't who, have a violent reaction
"This moment is particularly dangerous because Trump has turned partisan divisions into a proxy war over race and gender, stoking backlash to the first black president and the first woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee."
let's see, Trump recently had a couple of black celebs to the White House and that lovely CNN called it a "minstrel" show
Trump has a female press secretary whose appearance has been regularly mocked by the media, in a way that a man never would be
the media is the one who desires to preserve racism and sexism
"regardless, none of these statements are a logical precursor to bombing"
No shit, Sherlock.
Trump whipping up his base by getting them to chant "Lock her up!" and promoting the assault of a reporter:
"Last Thursday, at a political rally in Montana, Trump mimicked and praised Gianforte’s assault on Jacobs. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of—he’s my guy,” said Trump. The crowd roared its approval."
Of course, he was promoting violence at his rallies even before he was elected, saying crap like "“I promise you this, folks—if anybody here knocks the crap out of Ted Cruz, I will pay whatever it costs."
"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell ... I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise," he said on Feb. 1, 2016.
At a Las Vegas rally later that month, he said security guards were too gentle with a protester. "He's walking out with big high-fives, smiling, laughing," Trump said. "I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you."
A similar situation unfolded at a rally that month in Warren, Michigan.
"Get him out," he said of a protester. "Try not to hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court. Don't worry about it."
All of this is designed to stoke people's anger. It worked enormously well. His based loved it and voted him into office for it.
That anger doesn't stop when it leaves the political rally; it festers and grows. And anger is the farthest thing from logical. Anger is the emotion that Rump goes out of his way to cultivate in his sycophants.
Of course those statements aren't the "logical precursor to bombings." Anger is the antithesis of logic. You can't contain anger in a neat little box and tell it to stay there. Once you've stoked it up, it will fester and grow. There's no telling what it may lead to - you're playing with fire. Maybe it will stay a safe little candle flame. Maybe not. Maybe it will start a wild fire that grows out of control. You don't know. You're just playing the odds at that point.
And the odds are, the more anger you stoke, the more likely it reaches someone who does something irrational with it.
Political leaders have used fear mongering and anger against their loathsome opponents for centuries. History books are filled with the damaging consequences of what happens to innocent people when demagogues do that. It isn't logical at all.
But it is predictable.
Rump isn't using logic. He's exploiting raw emotions.
"Anger is the antithesis of logic"
if you don't recognize that the Dem mobs are lividly enraged, angry to the max, I don't see what hope there is for you
ad the false characterizations of virtually everything Trump says are fear mongering as the new norm
people see this and Dems don't have a chance until they repent of their sins against our society
"the false characterizations "
There are no false characterizations of what Rump says and tweets.
“Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of—he’s my guy,” said Trump. The crowd roared its approval."
"“I promise you this, folks—if anybody here knocks the crap out of Ted Cruz, I will pay whatever it costs."
"If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell ... I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise,"
"I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you."
"Get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court. Don't worry about it."
"There are no false characterizations"
there have been from the very start
for example, he never said all Mexicans were rapists and drug dealers
everything he says is portrayed as a "wink" or "dog whistle"
and he is supposedly pushing the KKK and neo-Nazis and the KGB
it's all fear mongering lies
I'm just glad Trump has put an end to the transgender hoax and defined gender, once and for all
"if you don't recognize that the Dem mobs are lividly enraged, angry to the max, I don't see what hope there is for you"
The Dems have a long way to go on the anger front. You may love a self-admitted pussy grabber who's nationalist rhetoric has Nazis crawling out of the woodwork to march around in public threatening people is just what this nation needs.
But when you have to crawl into bed with the Nazis to get the laws and courts you wan't, don't be surprised when people get pissed off an angry at that.
Nazis have a long history of doing very bad things. Democrats don't want them around. Republicans however, just keep pretending they aren't a real threat, and enabling them to do even more.
At some point, I keep hoping republicans will wake up and realize that Nazis have NEVER been on the right side of history and disown them, and stop peddling the vitriol that motivates them. But I'm not going to hold my breath.
"The Dems have a long way to go on the anger front"
long way to go?
since Trump was elected, the Dems have scaled to the brink of chaos and violence
formerly, rational scream at and try to intimidate anyone who dares to speak anything that is not critical of Trump
"Nazis have a long history of doing very bad things"
gee, thanks for that word of wisdom
are you against Charles Manson and Jack the Ripper too?
"Democrats don't want them around. Republicans however, just keep pretending they aren't a real threat, and enabling them to do even more."
they really aren't much of a threat if monitored properly
the were a sad group that was easily contained until a bunch of morons decided they needed to start confronting them at their occasional rallies
that just feeds them
ignoring them is the most damaging thing to them
everyone realized that and then Dems, looking to justify their humiliation in Nov 2016, decided to elevate their status
pathetic
"At some point, I keep hoping republicans will wake up and realize that Nazis have NEVER been on the right side of history and disown them,"
this is slander that doesn't deserve a response except the comeuppance Dems will get in the first week of November
"and stop peddling the vitriol that motivates them."
hey, howsabout providing a sample of this fiction yo are writing
"But I'm not going to hold my breath"
good idea
you can't afford to lose any more brain cells
One of the new dynamics in this midterm election is President Trump reprising the rallies that helped fuel his victory in 2016. This is a new phenomenon, and these events have proven to be a powerful way to communicate with, and excite voters.
In 2016, Trump had the ability to fill arenas in multiple states on the same day, but some in the media played down the importance of rallies.
@realDonaldTrump
The crowds at my Rallies are far bigger than they have ever been before, including the 2016 election. Never an empty seat in these large venues, many thousands of people watching screens outside. Enthusiasm & Spirit is through the roof. SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING - WATCH!
Trump isn’t alone in this assessment. “If people stand out in the rain and sun for hours, camp out overnight and take off work to attend a rally, then they’ll certainly show up to vote,” said Trish Hope, publisher of a compilation of the president’s first-year tweets. “What the media misses is that people just want to be part of the Trump movement. And they are in denial that something big is going on here.” She added, “The media is going to be more shocked this year on election night than in 2016.”
Trump’s appearances have generated much larger crowds than those of prominent Democrats. In Nevada last weekend, the president hit the campaign trail with a rally in Elko County, which drew 8,500. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned for Democratic Senate candidate Jackie Rosen in Las Vegas -- before an audience of about 500. Former President Obama was also recently in the state, but only 2,000 people attended his event in the University of Nevada-Las Vegas’s 18,000-seat arena. On Monday, Trump held a rally in Houston where 100,000 people requested tickets even though the Toyota Center there can accommodate just 18,000.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump held a whopping 323 rallies in almost 40 states. Since his inauguration in 2017, he has held nearly 50 more, with eight to 10 more expected before Election Day. “The rallies motivate the base, create excitement and momentum,” said John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster. “Trump needs to get the 63 million voters who supported him in 2016 to turn out for him in the midterms. If he can do that, then the Republicans will control the House.”
At the Trump rallies, it’s customary now for there to be an overflow space outside for those without tickets. “Each rally is bigger than the last, and there are never enough seats inside,” said Hope. “Outside has become as much fun as inside.” That area typically features food trucks, bands playing patriotic music, vendors selling Trump swag, and big screen televisions to watch the president’s remarks.
In addition to boosting Senate and congressional candidates, the rallies have given the president an opportunity to skirt -- and answer -- the national media’s often negative coverage. In addition, a presidential visit to any media market outside of Washington, D.C., and New York is a major news event, and Trump capitalizes on this by typically giving one-on-one interviews to local media outlets before and after the rallies. Usually, the local media hype the event days before and afterward. Following Monday’s event, the Houston Chronicle prominently featured reports on the rally and included a top-of-the-fold picture of Trump and Sen Ted Cruz.
There’s also a subsidiary benefit of these events to the GOP and the president: Trump’s 2020 campaign recently announced that it had raised a $106 million war chest, with 98 percent of it coming from low-dollar donors. Some of that likely comes from those attending rallies, who provide their email and cellphone information to obtain a ticket. This creates a useful database for the Trump campaign and is critical to get-out-the-vote efforts on Election Day. Jennifer Kruse, who attended the Houston rally, said she has already “received text messages from the campaign, a robo call from Lara Trump and a reminder to vote early.”
And each person who attends a rally is potentially a force multiplier as they recount the experience to their friends and relatives either directly or through social media. It’s hard to measure this impact until votes are counted, but the size of the rallies is an indication of something potentially powerful afoot in the 2018 election dynamics.
"hey, howsabout providing a sample of this fiction yo are writing"
Just because you keep denying it doesn't mean it's a "fiction."
The most recent evidence was provided by Rump himself:
"A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can't have that. You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It's called a nationalist. And I say, really, we're not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, OK? I'm a nationalist.
"Nationalist. Nothing -- use that word. Use that word."
Let's start with what nationalism means. Here's the definition, from Merriam-Webster (emphasis mine): "a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups."
While patriotism, like nationalism, shares a pride and belief in one's own country or values, it doesn't include the idea of promoting your values and culture as inherently superior to those of others.
Then there the historical context of the word "nationalism." It primarily conjures two close associations: Nazism and white nationalism.
The roots of Adolf Hitler's rise were built around his emphasis on extreme nationalism -- the idea that the only way Germany could be great again was to seize onto the superiority of the German people and drive out those across Europe who refused to acknowledge that superiority.
White nationalism, which reared its ugly head in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year is organized under the principle that Caucasians are inherently superior and in order for society to truly prosper, the agenda of whites needs to be recognized as a first priority -- at the necessary expense of anyone who isn't white.
The Evangelicals have always liked to distance themselves from their Christian KKK cousins - too much bad press, but when you look all the people the Rump and the Evangelicals don't want around - gays, trans, immigrants, and if Republican voter suppression efforts are any indication - blacks and Hispanics, nearly all of their targets are the same. The one notable exception happens to be Jews, where Evangelicals tend to be nicer to them (not that it's hard, given the low bar of the KKK) due to their beliefs about the "End Times." But for the most part, the main goals of the white supremacists, the Evangelicals, and the Republican party are all the same. Basically a Christian supremacy over all the laws and courts, and marginalizing everyone else.
You can't imagine any other US president calling themselves a "Nationalist" after World War II because of its close association with the extreme nationalism of Nazis, and of course, the US's own white supremacists. Doing that would just be plain stoooopid. But Rump wears that moniker like a badge of honor.
"The crowds at my Rallies are far bigger than they have ever been before, including the 2016 election. Never an empty seat in these large venues, many thousands of people watching screens outside. Enthusiasm & Spirit is through the roof. SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING - WATCH!"
"Trump’s appearances have generated much larger crowds than those of prominent Democrats. In Nevada last weekend, the president hit the campaign trail with a rally in Elko County, which drew 8,500. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned for Democratic Senate candidate Jackie Rosen in Las Vegas -- before an audience of about 500."
You know what other demagogue was famous for the HUGE crowds he could pull in?
I'll give you a hint.
His first name was "Adolf."
OK, to recap, you said Republicans are "peddling the vitriol that motivates" Nazis
I said that was fiction, and, if not, give us an example
you response was that Trump called himself a nationalist and then tried to associate that with Nazism
put Trump has always been clear what he meant by the term
he, from the world of business, believes in promoting his product
he wants Americans to have and be the best
that's not a bad position for the leader of anything and is welcome after Obama's attempt to manage our decline
he is not expansionist like the nazis, indeed some have criticized him for being too isolationist
nor has he blamed any race of US citizens for our problems, much less attempted to round them up and exterminate them
"You know what other demagogue was famous for the HUGE crowds he could pull in?"
this cracks me up
a few years ago, a TTf post had a picture of a huge Obama rally and spoke o how wonderful it was
btw, this:
"The Evangelicals have always liked to distance themselves from their Christian KKK cousins - too much bad press, but when you look all the people the Rump and the Evangelicals don't want around - gays, trans, immigrants, and if Republican voter suppression efforts are any indication - blacks and Hispanics, nearly all of their targets are the same. The one notable exception happens to be Jews, where Evangelicals tend to be nicer to them (not that it's hard, given the low bar of the KKK) due to their beliefs about the "End Times." But for the most part, the main goals of the white supremacists, the Evangelicals, and the Republican party are all the same. Basically a Christian supremacy over all the laws and courts, and marginalizing everyone else."
is an example of classic bigotry, holding stereotypical views without any knowledge or basis in fact
One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this. Laugh at the absurdity that the concept of “nationalism” has anything whatsoever to do with race. Or cry at the realization that yet again, as is true of the Left throughout American history, the obsession with race is something the liberal media cannot and will not leave in the ash heap of history where it belongs.
Let’s start with the Oxford Dictionary definition of “nationalism.” Which is:
A person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.
Bingo. There is no reference whatsoever of race for the obvious reason that nationalism has zero to do with race, much less white supremacy.
Take a good look at this nationalist. His name? Mahatma Gandhi — the founding father of modern India and its independence from the British. Here’s what the World Atlas says:
Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the most widely recognized figure of the Indian Nationalist Movement for his role in leading non-violent civil uprisings.…
In 1921, he became the leader of the Indian National Congress, a nationalist political party in India, which demanded nondiscriminatory laws, equal rights for men and women, peaceful inter-religious relations, overthrow of the caste system, and above all, Indian independence. During his lifetime, Gandhi carried out three major nationalist movements.
In other words, Gandhi, decidedly not a white guy, was a “nationalist” in the same fashion as Trump. Just as Trump correctly says his nationalism is about putting America first, Gandhi was about India first — an India run by Indians, not the British. Which, not coincidentally, is exactly what was at issue in 1776 — a move to get American independence by getting the British out of America. As it were, 1776 and the Founding fathers were all about American nationalism.
The late Civil War historian James A. Rawley wrote Abraham Lincoln and a Nation Worth Fighting For, in which Rawley describes Lincoln as having “an abiding spirit of nationalism.” Rawley all the way back in 1963 — the centennial year of the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address, wrote a lengthy piece titled simply “The Nationalism of Abraham Lincoln.” So now to all those liberal media folks of today Lincoln is simply pushed aside — or more likely not even understood — in their haste to paint “nationalism” as some sort of white supremacist doctrine.
And there was no stronger nationalist then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who is described by Churchill biographer Michael Makovsky as using his wartime leadership to defeat the Nazis by “imbuing his nationalism and imperialism with a moral imperative.”
But what about Hitler, the critics cry. What about Mussolini? Historian Rawley answered that as well:
This suggested linking of Lincolnian nationalism with those of Italian Fascism and German Naziism so clearly ignores a vast deal of Italian and German history as well as that of the United States that it scarcely merits consideration. Those twentieth-century dictators, exploiting economic distress and national humiliation, also held out economic dreams, one a corporate state economy, the other a clever wedding of nationalism and socialism.
Exactly right. Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi were hardly Hitler-types. And in Churchill’s case Hitler was literally Churchill’s mortal enemy.
So. Trump is out there standing up for the literal dictionary definition of nationalism, as a President “who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.” He follows in the footsteps of Lincoln, Gandhi, and Churchill, nationalists all. And CNN turns this into white supremacy. Unreal.
The sad thing here is that yet again the only “dog whistle” to race is coming from those in the liberal media. And it is always for the same reason. Liberals use race in politics to win elections. And liberals in the media use race to back up those liberal politicians.
Liberals love racism. They can't do without it!
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has referred Julie Swetnick, one of the three women who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.
Grassley, in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, said Swetnick and Avenatti should be investigated for “materially false statements they made to” the Senate Judiciary Committee during its probe into allegations against Kavanaugh, who was then a nominee to the Supreme Court.
President Trump is making history with his energetic push to elect Republicans to the House and Senate in the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
The unprecedented intensity of the president’s campaigning across the country seems increasingly likely to enable the GOP to gain seats in the Senate and keep Republicans in the majority in the House of Representatives – despite the view of many experts that Democrats are almost certain to capture control of the House.
Keep in mind that if the predictions by these same experts had been correct in 2016, President Hillary Clinton would be in the Oval Office today.
Typically, the party that controls the White House loses seats in Congress in the midterms. But as President Trump proved with his upset victory over Clinton two years ago, he draws tremendous support from millions of voters – and he is calling on his supporters now to vote for Republican candidates for Congress and state offices.
The president is making it clear to voters that if they want him to succeed in doing what they elected him to accomplish he needs a Republican Congress to support him. If Democrats gain control of one or both houses of Congress they will devote all their energy to investigating and obstructing the Trump administration at every turn, and may seek to impeach the president.
Republicans are gaining the support of voters because of several factors.
First the strong economy, rising wages, low unemployment rate, and the Trump tax cut are fulfilling the president’s promise to Make America Great Again. Voters are benefitting directly with more money in their pockets – and they are giving Republicans the credit.
Second, many voters are concerned with the mob tactics, the disregard of the concept of innocent until proven guilty, and vicious character assassination that Democrats deployed against President Trump’s extraordinarily qualified Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Thankfully, Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate, but voters understand that if Democrats had controlled the Senate they would have rejected the Kavanaugh nomination for purely partisan reasons.
Third, many voters are disturbed by the would-be invasion of America by a caravan of illegal immigrants. They understand if we allowed everyone who wants to immigrate to America from around the world into our country, potentially hundreds of millions of people would take advantage of the opening. No nation can absorb that many immigrants all at once or can vet them all to ensure that dangerous criminals are not among the new arrivals.
Democrats have made clear that they are running against President Trump. But what do they stand for?
The Democrats have no realistic economic agenda, other than sky-high spending on socialized medicine and other Big Government programs that will guarantee crippling tax increases for all Americans.
Some Democrats are even proudly calling themselves socialists, embracing a failed system that has brought poverty, misery and a loss of liberty to people around the world. Many countries have rejected socialism in recent years, so it’s strange that so many Democrats want to embrace this bankrupt economic philosophy.
Early voting and the trending direction of polls add hard data to the theoretical surge for the GOP as we head into the midterms. Voters who are expected to cast ballots for Republicans are turning out in much greater numbers than Democratic voters.
What’s most important for every American to remember now is that to preserve and build on the achievements of the Trump administration and the Republican Congress, it’s vital to vote early, and often, for Republican candidates.
While I disagree with Trump’s comments about the press, there is some merit to his claim that the media has contributed to the current climate of fear and anger.
Cable news is frequently a shout-fest that brings more heat than light—more passion than illumination. We spend considerable time talking about caravans full of illegals headed to our border, school shootings, family separations, and how you’re either an evil racist who hates immigrant children or a dupe who is fine with terrorists and drug dealers raping our wives and daughters.
For 99 percent of us, the media frenzy causes a low-grade depression. For a small segment of Americans, though, I suspect it is driving them crazy. Crazy enough to do something horrific—like shoot a Republican congressman on a baseball diamond or try to send a bomb to a former Democratic president (or two).
The problem isn’t that we cover bad or depressing things happening in the world. These important topics deserve news coverage. But the truth is, we don’t just report them―we hype them (coupled with “BREAKING NEWS!!!” alerts, graphics, countdown clocks, music, and the most provocative B-roll footage we can find). Then, we bring on people to fight about the provocative topics. It’s a never-ending cycle. This madness doesn’t infect your home once a day at 6 p.m.—it’s a relentless, 24/7 barrage of negativity. And it’s not just on TV. It’s on talk radio, Twitter, and multiple websites. It is concocted entertainment—a “product” used to generate clicks and ratings.
So when we in the media get on our high horse about our role in defending democracy, we should take a long look in the mirror. When we cast ourselves solely as heroic victims, we consciously ignore the cable news segments, blogs, or tweets that are largely about ratings, buzz, re-tweets, and ginning up anger.
The same self-righteous media also had a hand in creating Donald Trump. It was NBC’s The Apprentice that arguably did the most to propel him to the presidency. The coverage he received on cable news bolstered his campaign. As then-CBS CEO Les Moonves said of Trump’s theatrics during the 2016 race, “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
The media produces a climate in which Trump and his copycats (see Michael Avenatti) can flourish. It rewards assholery and never punishes pretend bullies. The result is a sense of lawlessness in political discourse or hopelessness (if you feel like you’re the victim). Just ask Mitch McConnell’s or Ted Cruz’s dinner companions.
I won’t equate McConnell’s ruined dinner with sending someone a bomb. The difference is stark. What I am suggesting is that there is a spectrum of uncivil behavior, and we have run the gamut the last few years (Steve Scalise’s shooting, comments from Eric Holder and Maxine Waters, The New York Times fantasizing about Trump’s assassination, Kathy Griffin’s gruesome photo, etc.). In general, I believe we should be consistent in championing civility and condemning rhetoric or action that could spiral out of control. For this reason, I have condemned both Trump and the Democratic “mob” for their misbehavior. (It is interesting that my friends in the media only applauded when I did the former, not the latter.)
The word “media” can encompass Hollywood-inspired infotainment, cable news, and journalism that involves investigative reporting or being embedded in a war zone. The overlap in categories makes it hard to attack the “media” without besmirching the heroism of front-line journalists who really do risk their lives every day.
My advice to the media is similar to what I would tell Trump. It’s what I try to tell myself every morning: Tell the truth, but in a way that is responsible. Eschew things that are salacious or done simply to gin up excitement. Exercise restraint and forbearance. The onus is on us to police ourselves. With great power comes great responsibility.
remember November 2016?
polls were narrowing a little, but it looked like Hillary had it wrapped up, she was too far ahead, in the right places, to be caught
but Trump was indefatigable
while Hillary kicked back on Election Eve with a bottle of Chardonnay at the hotel suite,
he criss-crossed the country, holding rallies round-the-clock, til dawn on Election Day
the rest is history
this year, polls are narrowing
and Trump has 10 rallies scheduled for the final 6 days before the election
it's like deja vu, all over again
"A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what?
We can't have that.
You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It's called a nationalist.
And I say, really, we're not supposed to use that word.
You know what I am? I'm a nationalist, OK? I'm a nationalist."
Clearly, somewhere along the way Rump heard that he shouldn't use the word "nationalist." Somebody in the White House at some point told him he shouldn't use that, and probably why. But that didn't stop him.
Comparing Rump to Ghandi is ridiculous. Rump gets compared to the dude with the tiny mustache because his nationalism is just as strong as his xenophobia. It's not just the nationalism alone.
"Rump gets compared to the dude with the tiny mustache because"
actually, virtually all politicians get compared to the dude with the tiny mustache at some point or another
Dems and the media are just pushing it harder because they're so shocked that America has finally figured them out and rejected them
"his nationalism is just as strong as his xenophobia. It's not just the nationalism alone."
unless nationalism is coupled with some type of expansionism, it's no problem at all
just ask Gandhi, Lincoln, and Churchill
and Trump's instincts are basically that we should mind our own business and leave other countries alone
as for xenophobia, he has a foreign wive, orthodox Jewish grandkids, and comes from the greatest mixing bowl melting pot in the world
he's actually kind of strange and foreign himself
you need to stop eating just any mushroom you see in the field
Authorities on Friday recovered two more potential explosive devices sent to public figures, the latest packages addressed to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.
These packages — recovered in Florida and New York — push the total number of devices found by law enforcement to 12. None have detonated, but all have pushed officials onto high alert as they worry about additional devices being delivered.
The FBI said a package, “similar in appearance to the others” found this week, was addressed to Booker and located in Florida. A spokesman for Booker, a prominent Democrat and potential 2020 presidential candidate, declined to comment and referred questions to law enforcement.
Police in New York said they were responding to a suspicious package in midtown Manhattan, just blocks from where one of the explosive devices was found earlier this week at CNN’s offices in the Time Warner Center.
A law enforcement official said that package was a device addressed to Clapper, a CNN contributor, and sent to him at the news network. It was found at a mail sorting facility in New York, the official said.
Appearing on CNN not long after news of this package broke, Clapper said he felt relief that no one was harmed by that device.
“This is definitely domestic terrorism, no doubt about it in my mind," he said. Clapper said anyone who has criticized Trump should take extra precautions when handling their mail, adding: “This is not going to silence the administration’s critics."
These newest packages come as authorities have intensified their hunt for a serial mail bomber who has sent packages to a string of political figures and others who have publicly criticized President Trump. On Thursday, the FBI said three suspected pipe bombs were found — one in actor Robert De Niro’s Manhattan office, and two in mail facilities in Delaware addressed to former vice president Joe Biden.
"btw, this:
"The Evangelicals have always liked to distance themselves from their Christian KKK cousins - too much bad press, but when you look all the people the Rump and the Evangelicals don't want around - gays, trans, immigrants, and if Republican voter suppression efforts are any indication - blacks and Hispanics, nearly all of their targets are the same. The one notable exception happens to be Jews, where Evangelicals tend to be nicer to them (not that it's hard, given the low bar of the KKK) due to their beliefs about the "End Times." But for the most part, the main goals of the white supremacists, the Evangelicals, and the Republican party are all the same. Basically a Christian supremacy over all the laws and courts, and marginalizing everyone else."
"is an example of classic bigotry, holding stereotypical views without any knowledge or basis in fact"
And then later, in defending Rump:
"for example, he never said all Mexicans were rapists and drug dealers"
Read what was posted again. The writer never said that ALL Evangelicals, ALL Republicans, or ALL KKK members were or did anything.
Therefore, BY YOUR OWN DEFINITION, what was posted was simply not bigotry.
Easy peasy.
"as for xenophobia, he has a foreign wive (sic, or did you mean "wives?"), orthodox Jewish grandkids, and comes from the greatest mixing bowl melting pot in the world"
And yet with all that supposed variety, none of them have any brown in them. Remind me again why he took out a big add in the newspaper to execute the central park five.
Go figure.
"Read what was posted again. The writer never said that ALL Evangelicals"
actually, he did
he said THE Evangelicals
and what he said about them was ignorant and derogatory, not based on any facts and malicious
it's classic bigotry
trump, on the other hand, accused the mexican government o sending bad apples to the US
whether that's correct or not, it's not bigotry
"Remind me again why he took out a big add in the newspaper to execute the central park five."
well, it's an incident that is pretty far in the past, but I assume he, like most NYers sick of crime, thought they were guilty
1. Sayoc Is a Registered Republican; His Family Was Involved in Fighting the Communist Party in the Philippines
2. Sayoc Was Charged With Making a Bomb Threat in 2002
3. Coincidentally, Hillary Clinton Was Campaigning in Florida When a Device Was Mailed to Her New York Home
4. Another Suspicious Package Was Sent to Robert De Niro, an Outspoken Critic of Donald Trump
5. Soros Has Been Widely Criticized by Right-Wing Groups & Accused of ‘Owning’ Democratic Politicians
I thought the fact that nis father just died and that his linked-in page says he organized male strippers seem more need-to-know than Robert DeNiro
"he said THE Evangelicals"
Ah, so not all THE Evangelicals like to distance themselves from the from their KKK cousins.
Thanks for clarifying that. I'll try to be more careful next time.
“They are not our friend, believe me,” he said, before disparaging Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Ahh!
I see the difference now!
I'll fix it:
And some (Republicans, Evangelicals, KKK members) I assume, are good people.
See, no more bigotry!
We're all good!
"I thought the fact that nis [sic] father just died and that his linked-in [sic] page says he organized male strippers seem more need-to-know than Robert DeNiro"
Well of course. Dead fathers and male strippers fascinate certain trolls.
Take your problems to the source:
https://heavy.com/news/2018/10/cesar-sayoc/
"Thanks for clarifying that"
oh, I think you've clarified what of an asshole you are
"I'll try to be more careful next time."
oh, you were pretty careful this time
it's not easy to say all false things about someone without slipping up
it doesn't just happen
"And some (Republicans, Evangelicals, KKK members) I assume, are good people.
See, no more bigotry!"
oh, you're free to say bad things about evangelicals if they're true
but, you clearly have no knowledge of what evangelicals are
evangelicals have many things in common, things you would oppose
but you have no idea what those things are
something is happening here and you don't know what it is
do you, Mr Dumb Bunny?
"We're all good!"
no, you made a bigoted statement and Trump didn't
"Well of course. Dead fathers and male strippers fascinate certain trolls."
I just think that shows he was not in right mind and was possibly gay, as many psychopaths are
Robert DeNiro is not something anyone NEEDS to know
LOL
"Take your problems to the source:
https://heavy.com/news/2018/10/cesar-sayoc/"
yes, I had already seen where you copied the material from
I addressed you because it was you who decided to paste it here
if you like eating crap, own up to it
for halloween: something to scare all the gay TTFers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIIK7p6-zpo
FBI Director Wray : "This was a NATIONWIDE investigation."
"The devices are NOT HOAXES."
And the stickers all over the bomber's van show the he was a Trumpette who took tRump's words of hate to heart and tried to kill duly elected Democrats.
"if you like eating crap, own up to it"
Is that an evangelical obsession or is it just one of yours?
Look at all those bumper stickers!
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mail-pipe-bomb-suspect-cesar-sayoc-van_us_5bd3436be4b055bc948b7b5c
Law enforcement authorities intercepted suspicious packages Friday sent to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Democratic megadonor Tom Steyer amid concerns about more explosive devices sent through the mail.
The package sent to Harris was intercepted in Sacramento and the package sent to Steyer was found in Burlingame, Calif.
“Our office was informed that a suspicious package was addressed to the Senator similar to those that have been sent to other elected officials. Our understanding is a trained postal employee identified the package at a Sacramento mail facility and reported it to the authorities. No one was injured,” a Harris aide said in a statement to The Hill.
Steyer said in a statement a “suspicious package” was sent to him, but did not connect it with the others that have been sent around the country.
FBI Director Chris Wray said during a press conference Friday afternoon that law enforcement has taken possession of 13 explosive devices, but acknowledged there may be more.
The package sent to Harris would be the 13th and the one sent to Steyer, if indeed connected with the explosive devices, would be the 14th...
"but, you clearly have no knowledge of what evangelicals are
evangelicals have many things in common, things you would oppose
but you have no idea what those things are"
Evangelicals are pretty clear about where they stand and what they think. Even if you don't ask them, they have a nasty habit of saying all sorts of derogatory things about the people they don't like. I don't judge them on what they believe. It's how they treat people that aren't part of their tribe that's atrocious.
"Evangelicals are pretty clear about where they stand and what they think. Even if you don't ask them, they have a nasty habit of saying all sorts of derogatory things about the people they don't like. I don't judge them on what they believe. It's how they treat people that aren't part of their tribe that's atrocious."
and that's why you are a bigot
what they believe is something that, by definition, they all have in common and so is fair game
how "they treat people" is something that varies by individual is not an integral part of who they are
but even speaking in generalities, you have no idea what you're talking about
when you say "Evangelicals don't want around - gays, trans, immigrants, and blacks and Hispanics", you do realize that most black churches and Hispanic non-catholic churches are evangelical, right?
blacks and Hispanics generally aren't interested in watered-down mainstream churches
so, I assume you mean WHITE evangelical churches
most of the ones I know partner with inner city black churches to work in poor areas and sponsor immigrants and run ESOL classes and send teams overseas to work to relieve suffering in undeveloped lands
so, what, exactly are you talking about?
"what they believe is something that, by definition, they all have in common and so is fair game"
Oh, so now you think they all hold exactly the same beliefs. How do you know that, exactly? Do you think you're omniscient like God?
Lots of people hold different beliefs. Certain groups may hold a lot of similar beliefs, but even with in a single church there are plenty of differences in precisely what they believe.
Lots of people change what they believe all the time. For some people, they may perceive it as an "integral" part of who they are, for others, not so much. And there is no legal, scientific, or biological basis for determining whether that is "integral" or not. Nor is there any protected status for "integral-ness."
"how "they treat people" is something that varies by individual is not an integral part of who they are"
That's really irrelevant. Your penchant for word games gets tiresome.
When you physically, emotionally, or verbally abuse someone, if it's severe enough, you can get in trouble with the law for that.
The law doesn't care if "beating up faggots" is an "integral" part of you or not. You get in trouble for beating up the faggot. In some locations, you can get a hate-crime enhancement for that. But beating up or berating faggots is behavior you can choose to change. If you want to. You don't get special privileges just because you think your beliefs make berating faggots an "integral" part of who you are.
Ruh-Roh Shaggy, it looks like the bomber got caught red-hatted!
"Ruh-Roh Shaggy, it looks like the bomber got caught red-hatted!"
how much that the media reported is really believable?
let's see, every report I've read starts off: HE'S A REGISTERED REPUBLICAN!
then, he's been convicted of several felonies
uh, aren't felons not permitted to register to vote?
matter of fact, the state where he convicted, Florida, is voting in a few weeks on whether to change that
Ruh-Roh Shaggy
then, there's usually a statement about how Donald Trump's extreme rhetoric caused these bomb threats
yet, this guy was convicted of bomb threats in 2002
he musta watched too many episodes of The Apprentice, huh?
meanwhile, all that extreme rhetoric Dems use calling Trump a Nazi and racist
could that be what led a liberal nut to shoot Steve Scalise?
Ruh-Roh Shaggy
you mean the blue wave is not coming back after all?
Ruh-Roh Shaggy
Despite rising interest rates and the fallout from the trade war with China, the U.S. economy grew at a much faster-than-expected rate in the third quarter as inflation was kept in check and consumer spending surged, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Friday.
Gross domestic product expanded by a 3.5 percent annual rate. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the economy to expand by less than that.
The department said the PCE price index, a key measure of inflation, increased by 1.6 percent last quarter, much less than the 2.2 percent increase expected by economists polled by StreetAccount.
Ruh-Roh Shaggy
more:
he claims he's a Seminole Indian but his father is Filipino and his mother is Italian
he musta gotten the idea from Elizabeth Warren's rhetoric
he also used to work as a male stripper
probably thought that would be an easy way to meet Barney Frank!
Look what you left out -- he is a deplorable tRump supporter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 24,688 yesterday, putting it in negative territory for 2018.
NASDAQ and S&P were down too.
http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-usclosingstk.html
Cesar Sayoc is an amateur body builder and former male stripper, a loner with a long arrest record who showed little interest in politics until Donald Trump came along.
On Friday, he was identified by authorities as the Florida man who put pipe bombs in small manila envelopes, affixed six stamps and sent them to some of Trump's most prominent critics.
Records show Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, has a history of financial problems and extensive record of past arrests, including a stint served on probation for making a bomb threat [not an actual bomb, but a "bomb threat"]. He was born in New York City and attended college in North Carolina before moving to the Miami suburbs in the late 1980s.
Florida voter records show he first registered in March 2016 as a Republican and cast a ballot in that November's heated presidential election. Sayoc's social media accounts are peppered with memes supporting Trump, denigrating Democrats, and promoting conspiracy theories about George Soros, the billionaire political donor who was the first targeted this week by a package bomb.
Sayoc has also tweeted and posted on Facebook videos that appear to show him at Trump rallies [in his MAGA hat].
At the auto parts store in Plantation, Florida, where Sayoc was taken swarmed by officers and arrested on Friday, authorities towed away a white van covered with stickers supporting Trump and criticizing media outlets that included CNN, the news channel also targeted by a mail bomb this week...
Meanwhile
‘I could really tone it up’: Trump shows little interest in uniting the nation during crises
While his usual foot soldiers
Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and others stick with conspiracy theories after mail-bomb suspect’s arrest
And now
It has been fascinating this week to watch Trump Republicans running scared whenever the subject turns to health care.
"...Is it any wonder that Trump Republicans are so desperate to change the subject from health care? After all, how do you face voters knowing that your primary political goal in Washington has been to wipe out health-care guarantees so multinational corporations and Mar-a-Lago billionaires can fatten their bank accounts and pour even more money into their children’s trust funds?"...
so glad Obama the Worst is on the campaign trail, reminding Americans of his woeful era:
WASHINGTON—Following another strong GDP report showing an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) released this statement:
“Month by month, we’ve seen consumer confidence rise, the job market strengthen, and unemployment decline. These things add up. Today’s report shows American consumers are empowered to spend again. These results are no accident—this is what happens when we pass policies to help American consumers, workers, and businesses generate economic growth and opportunity.”
more quotes:
“The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter as consumers opened their wallets, businesses restocked inventories and governments boosted spending,. . . . The data indicate a robust job market and lower taxes continued to propel demand among consumers and companies” (Bloomberg)
“. . . the economy remains on track to grow by 3 percent or more this year — the first time it has hit that mark since 2005. Consumers remain the bedrock of the economy. ‘What’s most notable is the strength in consumer spending,’ said Michelle Meyer, head of United States economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ‘The consumer had momentum coming into the year and the tax cuts further fueled that.’” (The New York Times)
“A healthy jobs market with the lowest unemployment rate in 49 years, coupled with strong consumer confidence, supported consumer spending, the biggest driver of the US economy. Personal consumption increased at a 4% rate, the strongest since 2014.” (Business Insider)
“The economy looks like it will expand above a 3% rate in 2018. That hasn’t happened since 2005.” (MarketWatch)
“Compared to the third quarter of 2017, the economy grew 3.0 percent, keeping it on track to hit the Trump administration’s 3 percent growth target this year.” (Reuters)
Bells chimed softly, a flute slowly played “Morning Has Broken” and thousands filled the soaring nave of the Washington National Cathedral for the interment service of Matthew Shepard, the young man whose murder 20 years ago horrified the nation and became a milestone in the fight for gay rights.
The poignant service was at once a funeral and a celebration of life, a moment of closure for Shepard’s loved ones and of remembrance for all those moved by the murder of Shepard, who was pistol-whipped and left for dead on a remote Wyoming prairie.
Presiding over the worship service at the second-largest cathedral in the country, in front of a crowd of about 2,000 people, was Bishop Gene Robinson, whose elevation in the early 2000s as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church marked another huge — and controversial — landmark in the push for LGBT equality.
In his homily, Robinson shared an anecdote from the first police officer who arrived at the site of Shepard’s attack, a remote fence to which his battered body was lashed and left out in cold night. The policewoman recalled encountering a deer lying beside Shepard’s body. When she approached, Robinson said, the animal looked straight into her eyes before bounding up and running away.
“What she said was: ‘That was the good Lord, no doubt in my mind.' And there’s no doubt in my mind either. God has always loved Matt,” Robinson said.
Rippling through the Cathedral at times was the crackling energy of a political rally, with Robinson urging the crowd not to simply commemorate Shepard but to train their eyes on continued discrimination against sexual minorities, especially transgender people, who he called a “target" right now.
Just this week reports surfaced that the Trump administration is “seriously” considering changing the way it treats transgender people under the law — a fresh and direct aim at transgender rights.
“There are forces who would erase them from America,” Robinson said. Twice he urged attendees to ”go vote.”
The crowd gave Robinson a long standing ovation as he closed his homily, chocking back tears.
“There are three things I’d say to Matt: ‘Gently rest in this place. You are safe now. And Matt, welcome home.’ Amen.”
Earlier in the service, Matthew Shepard’s father, Dennis Shepard, thanked those in Cathedral, and the scores of others watching the live-streamed service online, for “helping us take Matt home.”
“It is so important we now have a home for Matt," Shepard, 69, said. “A home that others can visit. A home that is safe from haters."
The father recalled his son’s love for the Episcopal church, growing up in Sunday school and as an acolyte in their church at home in Wyoming.
“Matt was blind, just like this beautiful house of worship," Dennis Shepard said. "He did not see skin color. He did not see religion. He did not see sex orientation. All he saw was a chance to have another friend.”
The U.S. federal budget deficit rose in fiscal 2018 to the highest level in six years as spending climbed, the Trump administration said Monday.
The deficit jumped to $779 billion, $113 billion or 17 percent higher than the previous fiscal period, according to a statement from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. It was larger than any year since 2012, when it topped $1 trillion. The budget shortfall rose to 3.9 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
The deficit increased by $70 billion less than anticipated in a report published in July, according to the two officials.
Federal revenue rose only slightly, by $14 billion after Republicans chopped tax rates for corporations and most individuals. Outlays climbed by $127 billion, or 3.2 percent. A spike in defense spending, as well as increases for Medicaid, Social Security and disaster relief, contributed to the increase.
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have pledged their commitment to fiscal discipline, despite the fact that they passed a tax law projected to dramatically expand budget deficits last year and then authorized a boost in spending. In a statement, Mulvaney claimed that "America's booming economy will create increased government revenues," a point the GOP has repeatedly argued in favor of its tax plan.
"But this fiscal picture is a blunt warning to Congress of the dire consequences of irresponsible and unnecessary spending," he added. "Going forward, President Trump and this Administration will continue to work with Congress to make the difficult choices needed to bring fiscal restraint, which, when matched with increasing revenue, will reduce our deficit."
Several independent analyses have estimated the GOP tax plan will cause budget deficits to grow dramatically over time, even after economic growth is taken into account.
The Trump administration has proposed dramatic cuts to spending in several government agencies to reduce deficits. Even many Republicans have rejected the severity of proposed budget cuts.
"The U.S. federal budget deficit rose in fiscal 2018 to the highest level in six years as spending climbed, the Trump administration said Monday"
there's a long game
first get taxes right
our corporate taxes were among the highest in the world, discouraging foreign investment in the US and encouraging domestic corporations to move
the inheritance tax was confiscatory and was unfair to those who already fund most of our government during their lifetimes, not allowing them to pass on the wealth they earned to their children
next step is to get spending to match
"The deficit increased by $70 billion less than anticipated in a report published in July"
remember that next time you see 10-year projections
projections are usually wrong, way wrong, even three months later
"Federal revenue rose only slightly, by $14 billion after Republicans chopped tax rates for corporations and most individuals"
so, again we see revenues increase after a tax cut
liberal nuts said, duh, cutting taxes will bring in less revenue
so why is the deficit going up?
"Outlays climbed by $127 billion,"
ding ding ding
we have a winner!
"The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have pledged their commitment to fiscal discipline, despite the fact that they passed a tax law projected to dramatically expand budget deficits last year"
the projections were way off
"and then authorized a boost in spending."
Trump was in favor of cutting sending but the Dems were threatening to shut down the government
unlike when Dems in power, Trump wasn't willing to shut down the government for weeks
we need fewer Dems in COngress
"In a statement, Mulvaney claimed that "America's booming economy will create increased government revenues," a point the GOP has repeatedly argued in favor of its tax plan."
he was right!
"Several independent analyses have estimated the GOP tax plan will cause budget deficits to grow dramatically over time, even after economic growth is taken into account."
but, as we see above, projections are usually wrong
"The Trump administration has proposed dramatic cuts to spending in several government agencies to reduce deficits."
there you go
they're on it
"Even many Republicans have rejected the severity of proposed budget cuts."
many? a vague TTF-type statement
A Week Of American Hate: Bombs Mailed, Black People Executed, Jews Slaughtered
Hate showed what it is truly capable of in America this week.
A man executed two black people at a grocery store, but didn’t engage a white man outside because “whites don’t shoot whites.” A Donald Trump supporter and apparent anti-Semite who looked up to white supremacists sent bombs in the mail to the president’s opposition. An avowed anti-Semite walked into a synagogue and killed 11 people after screaming, “All Jews must die!”
This was one week in American hate.
Some of the bloodiest and most excruciatingly tense news stories in recent memory felt painfully similar to one another, unified under the same banner of racism, violent rhetoric and anger. The only difference between this week and the last is that a few of the angry, hateful people under that banner decided to go out and act on their hate.
On Monday, packages containing apparent pipe bombs began to arrive at the doorsteps and offices of high-profile Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and former CIA Director John Brennan.
The first showed up at a home owned by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has been the right’s favorite punching bag, conspiracy catchall and boogeyman for decades. Five days passed, and more packages arrived. The news media pointed out that all of the victims were Trump’s public enemies, and that he’d prodded his followers to commit violence against some of them in the past. Conservatives ― including the president himself ― implied or outright stated that the bombs were a so-called false-flag operation committed by the Democrats.
That, of course, turned out to be untrue. On Friday, police arrested Cesar Sayoc, 56, who was revealed to be a staunch Trump supporter and wild conspiracy theorist. His sticker-covered van suggests he committed his alleged crimes in the president’s name; some of the stickers on his van featured targets on the faces of his victims, while others were loving homages to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Trump, meanwhile, would go back to making fun of Soros by Friday night.
But Sayoc also had plain old hate in his heart. His former boss revealed to HuffPost on Saturday that he looked up to the white supremacists of old ― despite flaunting his Native American heritage ― and wished “to go back to the Hitler days.”...
...Initially lost in that news cycle was a shooting at a Kroger in Kentucky on Wednesday. That two people died in a shooting at a grocery store wasn’t a huge surprise ― 96 people are killed by guns every day in America and hundreds more are shot ― but later it became clear that this particular shooting was a little different.
Gregory Alan Bush allegedly shot a black man in the back of the head at the grocery store, shot him several more times as he lay on the ground, and then walked outside, where he shot and killed a black woman. There wasn’t an official motive on the books as of Saturday, but a witness who was armed at the time told the Louisville Courier-Journal that Bush uttered “whites don’t kill whites” as he passed by “nonchalantly.” Later it was revealed that he’d tried and failed to enter a predominantly black church minutes earlier.
Suddenly, this regular American shooting story became a regular American hate story too.
And then on Saturday, American hate came full circle.
An anti-Semite named Robert Bowers allegedly walked into a synagogue in Pittsburgh, screamed “All Jews must die!” and then shot and killed at least 11 people and wounded more.
Scans of Bowers’ social media activity ― mostly on Gab, a hub for the likes of violent neo-Nazis ― reveal that he despised Jews and subscribed to various conspiracy theories about a migrant caravan in Mexico. His anger and anxiety, fueled by the idea that Jews were bringing immigrants into the country to displace white people, ended in what’s being called the “deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.”
Bowers’ hate was the same as the others’. It was blind; it was given tacit endorsement through violent rhetoric coming from our pundits and our president; and it had a strong community in which to fester and grow. His act capped off a week in which hate showed what it is truly capable of in America.
THERE'S NOTHING VAGUE HERE.
TAKE YOUR HATE AND SHOVE IT SO DEEP YOU CHOKE ON IT.
"Outlays climbed by $127 billion,"
ding ding ding
we have a winner!"
No we don't, you mathematically challenged moron.
You're looking so hard to find the tiny little piece of good news, you missed the big picture:
"Federal revenue rose only slightly, by $14 billion after Republicans chopped tax rates for corporations and most individuals. Outlays climbed by $127 billion"
Outlays increased at a rate 9 TIMES faster than the revenue income. This shouldn't be a surprise, as Retardican tax cuts have NEVER paid for themselves - not even when Raygun was in office. A FANTASTIC growth rate for the US would be 5%. To make up for that kind of loss, the economy would have to grow at MULTIPLES of itself, not FRACTIONS of its current rate. That is simply impossible. Believing otherwise defies all economic logic.
"The Trump administration has proposed dramatic cuts to spending in several government agencies to reduce deficits."
there you go
they're on it"
Retardicans have NEVER cut spending fast enough to pay for their reckless revenue cuts. They ALWAYS increase military spending. What makes you think they will magically uncover an ability to do math and make a budget work now?
The path they are on now only makes sense if your final plan is to bankrupt the US and collapse the economy. Grover Norquist is famous for saying "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
They're trying hard to get it there. Remember though, aircraft carriers don't fit in bathtubs.
During the crucible of Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings, Democrats repeatedly asserted that Christine Blasey Ford had “nothing to gain” by coming forward.
"You had absolutely nothing to gain by bringing these facts to the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Sen. Dick Durbin said during her testimony. This sentiment was echoed by other Democrats, who presented it as evidence that Ford was telling the truth. "I want to thank you,” added Sen. Kamala Harris, “because you clearly have nothing to gain for what you have done."
In fact, Ford stands to gain some $1 million and counting from national crowdfunding campaigns launched by friends and other supporters, while she is said to be fielding book offers.
The seven-figure windfall, which she says she intends to cash in on – while still asking donors for more money – has people questioning her motivation for accusing the conservative judge after 35 years of silence. Others worry the largesse sets a dangerous precedent: Crowdfunding, which unlike political donations is unregulated, could be routinely used in the future as a bounty for providing political dirt on opponents.
Two GoFundMe accounts have raised more than $842,000 for Ford, and the money is still coming in weeks after she testified. The total does not include a third account collecting $120,000 for an academic endowment in her name.
"The costs for security, housing, transportation and other related expenses are much higher than we anticipated and they do not show signs of letting up,” Ford said in a recent statement posted on the GoFundMe page of the “Help Christine Blasey Ford” campaign, which is still bringing in donations.
GoFundMe spokeswoman Katherine Cichy said that Ford and her husband can withdraw as much as they want whenever they want for any purpose.
All told, more than 21,000 people have donated to her cause. Several donors have written big checks, including Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who gave $10,000.
Observers question the necessity of the financial assistance given that much of the costs associated with Ford's testimony – including all of her legal fees plus a polygraph examination – were covered by Democratic attorneys assigned to her by the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee; panel Democrats were allotted half of a $1 million committee fund for transportation, security, investigations and other expenses associated with the tumultuous confirmation process. The Senate Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police also provided "heightened security" for Ford.
"Her lawyers said they were representing her on a pro-bono basis. Why does she need all of this money?” said an attorney familiar with the committee's investigation into her allegations, adding that the funds were originally set up to help pay her legal bills.
Attempts to reach Ford at her home and office were unsuccessful.
PBS recently had a contest to decide which of a hundred classic novels was America's favorite.
Winner: To Kill a Mockingbird
If written today, it would have never been published, since it depicts a man falsely accused of rape.
Robert Bowers, the gunman who went on a killing spree in a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday, was not a Trump voter and had been an outspoken critic of the president in the crackpot corners of the Internet he frequented. Far from inciting violence against Jews, Donald Trump has welcomed a Jewish son-in-law into his own family, along with the conversion to Judaism of a beloved daughter. As president, he has been nothing if not unstinting in his support for the Jewish State. Ah, but Trump wants to restrict immigration, and we know that anyone who does that has to be an anti-Semite too, right? Except that the architect of much of Trump’s immigration policy is a Jewish American, Stephen Miller.
No one who takes cues from Trump or the Trump administration would go on a shooting spree in a synagogue. But if the rap can’t be pinned on Trump directly, perhaps the entire deplorable right can be indicted. Lots of Republicans are running ads criticising George Soros, after all. And Soros is Jewish. Therefore Republicans are indeed anti-Semitic.
No. Anti-Semites hate George Soros because he’s a Jew. But most right-wing people dislike Soros and oppose his influence on the country, and the world, because he’s a left-winger. Their criticisms target him for his ideological activism, not his religious identity. And if the terms in which Soros is criticised are frequently overblown, are they any more so than the terms in which the left hypes the menace of Charles Koch or Sheldon Adelson or Rebekah Mercer?
Here is Moore’s rule of modern day politics: The better the economy performs under President Trump and the more successes he racks up, the more unhinged the left becomes. It’s a near linear relationship. And it goes for media as well.
That’s why the monthly jobs announcements and the quarterly GDP reports, like the one released on Friday, are the unhappiest days of the year for the Trump haters. News of 3.5 to 4 percent growth and seven million surplus jobs are the bane of the resistance movement’s existence.
So with the economy flying high, the pundits who all predicted Mr. Trump would shut down the world economy, have had to continually invent new reasons that Donald Trump is the worst thing to happen to the United States since typhoid fever.
Consider the latest group rant by the left: Donald Trump has moved the GOP to the far right and has hijacked the principles of the Republican party. Whatever happened, they ask, to the good old days when moderates in the GOP used to compromise, cut deals with Ted Kennedy, and capitulate?
Liberals want a return to the days when the GOP’s standard bearers were people like George H.W. Bush, Bob Michel, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney — and most recently, John Kasich.
Think. What do all these Republicans have in common? Losing. Sure, everyone likes playing with the lovable loser who comes each week to the poker game every Thursday night and blows $200.
It was only when the mean Newt Gingrich “hijacked” the party with a hard-charging conservative political and economic reform agenda that the GOP blasted out the Democrats with dynamite and won the House for the first time in a half-century.
Consider Messrs. Bush, Dole, McCain and Romney. They all lost the White House and now are treated as statesmen and political icons. Lovable losers.
Mr. Trump’s crime is that he’s a winner. Which is why the left now pines for, as The New York Times recently put it, “principled Republicans.” The party has “lost its way and abandoned what it stood for.” Nicholas Kristof writes in The Times that “sure there are principled people left in the Republican party” — by which the left means people who oppose Mr. Trump — but “as a national movement the GOP is hollow.”
Wait a minute. Aren’t prosperity and opportunity two of the most cherished Republican principles?
What infuriates the Trump haters is that Mr. Trump figured out how to win over tens of millions of disaffected working-class voters with an unapologetic America First platform. These voters abandoned the union leaders and the party of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders in favor of an agenda of better trade deals, border enforcement, lower taxes, less regulation and more coal, oil and gas jobs.
Mr. Trump found the fault line in the Democratic coalition and exploited it like the bombing of Dresden. He persuaded blue-collar workers that they have nothing in common with the radical environmentalists, people like Tom Steyer, who have taken over the reins of the Democratic party and want to destroy their manufacturing, mining and energy jobs as a sacrifice to the gods of global warming.
Because Mr. Trump has taken on the left’s sacred cows of political correctness, victimization, open borders, and racial preferences, he’s labeled a racist, xenophobe, lslamaphobe and woman-hater.
It turns out though that a whole lot of voters agree with Mr. Trump. If Mr. Trump is a bigot for articulating his America First paradigm, doesn’t that mean the millions of formerly Democratic voters who crossed over to vote for Mr. Trump, must also be narrow-minded and culturally inferior rednecks too?
In other words, liberals really do hold the view that blue-collar voters are a gang of “deplorables.” Good luck winning back their votes. Ironically, as Democrats keep complaining that Mr. Trump’s Tax cuts only benefit the rich, actually the wealthiest counties in America are now overwhelmingly voting Democratic and the poorest counties and states are more likely to vote Republican.
Politics is a contact sport. And yes, it really all does come down to winning. There aren’t too many moral victories in politics. As two-time winner Bill Clinton used to say, you can’t change the country if you don’t win.
The problem for the Trump haters and the reason they are so spitting angry is that Mr. Trump is changing the country — for the better. Seven of ten voters rate the economy as good or great. Liberals are doubly angry and frustrated because they were so sure he would fail. Hmm. Perhaps they are the ones who are intellectually inferior.
"Because Mr. Trump has taken on the left’s sacred cows of political correctness, victimization, open borders, and racial preferences, he’s labeled a racist, xenophobe, Islamaphobe and woman-hater"
Man, if you keep reading the right-wing propaganda you'd never know that Rump bragged about his penchant for grabbing female genitalia, (what criminal law considers sexual assault), that what he frequently as touted his "Muslim ban" had to be rewritten - at least twice - to pass muster in the courts. The he never called the nations where black people come from "shit hole countries." That he never implemented a cruel plan to separate the children from families seeking to come and work in the US. That he sees the biggest victim in all of this is himself, constantly decrying the "fake news" that always treats him so badly.
It's like none of this ever happened, and the left is just making up new stuff to get offended about.
The fact of the matter is Rump knows no boundaries in his deplorable behavior, and with few exceptions, the sycophants in his party just shrug and let it slide.
The problem is all with the "left" and their "hysterical mobs" who "can't stand Rump winning" and won't let republicans eat a meal in peace.
Meanwhile, the hysterical right has created a culture where neo-Nazis march out brazenly to take on the "too politically correct left," ran over a woman and killed her, sent bombs to over a dozen Democratic leaders, and a deadly shooter into a synagogue.
I don't know if the country can handle much more of Rump "winning."
So yeah, Republicans make far better losers than they do winners.
"Meanwhile, the hysterical right has created a culture where neo-Nazis march out brazenly to take on the "too politically correct left," ran over a woman and killed her"
actually, neo-Nazis have marched before
the difference this time is that leftist groups came out to confront them, as if neo-Nazis are a big problem in America
further, the reason so many came out is that they didn't who was proganizing the rally and were led to believe it was a rally to save a Confederate statue
the completely unnecessary campaign to remove old statues has inflamed Southern old-timers and really serves no purpose
Meanwhile, the hysterical right has created a culture where neo-Nazis march out brazenly to take on the "too politically correct left," ran over a woman and killed her
Democrats Blaming Normal Americans for Nuts Will Blow Up In Their Faces at the Ballot Box
You know, there's nothing that Normal Americans can identify with more than a guy living in a Ford panel van covered with Trump memes and soccer manifestoes who sends bombs that don't work to Democrats who support policies that don't work. Likewise, Normal people totally identify with – let me get the liberal narrative du jour right here – a Trump-hating freak who shoots up a synagogue. And I think it’s a terrific midterm strategy for our Democrat friends is to keep making that idiotic case.
The Official Media is in a frenzy explaining how Donald Trump personally instructed Kooky Weirdo de Florida to mail pipe bombs to washed up Dem hacks and that nameless garbage being in Pittsburgh via a series of cunningly encrypted dog whistles. “Make America Great Again” is apparently code for “Mail bombs!” Nothing says “Murder Jews” like moving the embassy to Jerusalem and ending the Iran deal.
Oddly, of 63 million Trump voters, only one jerk managed to decode this cipher. The other hated Trump for liking Jews too much. But, as CNNMSNBC’s brain trust and such thinkers as rock legend Joe Scarborough teach us, their crimes are on all of us anyway for some reason.
We’re all to blame for one kook’s real terrorism because…well, he thought Trump was part of the giant Zionist conspiracy to make him a friendless loser, so it’s not clear why. Maybe it being a useful lie is reason enough.
We’re also to blame for the other idiot’s pantomime terrorism pursuant to the dippy moral calculus proposed by the same peeps who spent eight years slobbering over the protege of Bill Freaking Ayers. Ayers, as you would never know from watching our media, was a leader in an actual campaign of political bombings that actually maimed and killed actual people. So, when libs feigned shock at those raising the possibility that leftists might be responsible for doing something leftists had a history of doing (as well as a history of faking hate crimes where they were the victims) at a politically convenient time, the faux outrage rang hollow.
And how faux the outrage was - and so very selective too. Leftists demand you ignore the near-miss massacres at the Family Research Council and the baseball field by committed leftists who were not any crazier than their political allies, only more proactive. The message is that you Normal Americans are complicit for voting for a guy who doesn’t hate your guts.
I think that on November 6th, the Democrats are going to get a message back from the people they are shamelessly lying about.
Normal voters are not going to look at this blood libel and say, “Yeah, I feel personally responsible for the actions of that Elizabeth Warren-channeling fake Indian stripper guy with a kilometer-long rap sheet who totally would not have done anything nutty if it weren't for Trump. And also for the crimes of a scuzzy coward who hates Trump. I guess I have a moral obligation vote for people who will ruin this surging economy, restore America to its rightful place as a laughingstock on the world stage, and attack my rights of free speech, free exercise of religion, and to keep and bear arms to protect myself from exactly these kind of aspiring Stalins. Because that idea makes sense. I'm convinced.”
OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky man posted online that he and his 5-year-old son were mistreated while dressed as Nazis for a Halloween event and is now facing even more backlash.
News outlets report Bryant Goldbach posted online a picture of him and his son Friday, saying they attended a “Trail of Treats” event where they were threatened over their costumes. The post says Goldbach dressed as a Nazi officer and his son as Adolf Hitler because of the family’s love of history.
It says “we had the displeasure of dealing with the fruits of the so called ‘Tolerant Left.’ ”
Screenshots of his Facebook show slogans such as “White pride doesn’t mean hate.”
"....we saw people dressed as murderers, devils, serial killers, blood and gore of all sorts. Nobody batted an eye. But my little boy and i, dress as historical figures, and it merits people not only making snide remarks, but approaching us and threatening my little 5 year old boy. ... Yes liberalism is alive and well. And we had the displeasure of dealing with the fruits of the so called "Tolerant Left."
"explaining how Donald Trump personally instructed Kooky Weirdo de Florida to mail pipe bombs to washed up Dem hacks"
Go ahead, show us one place, just ONE where "Official Media" actually did this.
And since you brought out the "Obama palled around with terrorists" meme:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/putting-on-ayers/
On June 18, 2013, Ayers gave an interview to RealClearPolitics' Morning Commute in which he stated that every president in this century should be tried for war crimes, including President Obama for his use of drone attacks, which Ayers considers an act of terror.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/06/18/bill_ayers_obama_should_be_put_on_trial_for_war_crimes.html
say what you want about the Clintons, they are always entertaining:
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during an event over the weekend left the door open to a possible 2020 run, saying that even though she doesn't want to run, "I'd like to be president."
Clinton went on to say that "there's going to be so much work to be done" after a Democrat "hopefully" wins the next presidential election.
"The work would be work that I feel very well prepared for having been in the Senate for eight years, having been a diplomat in the State Department," she said, listing off the qualifications that she often touted during her previous run.
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, announced this month that they will be embarking on a 13-city tour over the next year, hosting discussions about current events and politics across the country.
Look who's stuck in the bubble babbling about Hillary.
"The speculation about another Clinton White House turned to a full boil after an event Friday with Recode’s Kara Swisher. At the event, Swisher asked Clinton if she wants to run again.
“No,” Clinton said, after supporters in the crowd voiced their dissatisfaction. “No.” "
Excerpt from:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/413746-team-clinton-says-theres-no-way-hillarys-running-again
Nearly 10 years ago, I led 154 people to safety as the captain of US Airways Flight 1549, which suffered bird strikes, lost thrust in the engines and was forced to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River. Some called it “the Miracle on the Hudson.” But it was not a miracle. It was, in microcosm, an example of what is needed in emergencies — including the current national crisis — and what is possible when we serve a cause greater than ourselves.
On our famous flight, I witnessed the best in people who rose to the occasion. Passengers and crew worked together to help evacuate an elderly passenger and a mother with a 9-month-old child. New York Waterway took the initiative to radio their vessels to head toward us when they saw us approaching. This successful landing, in short, was the result of good judgment, experience, skill — and the efforts of many.
But as captain, I ultimately was responsible for everything that happened. Had even one person not survived, I would have considered it a tragic failure that I would have felt deeply for the rest of my life. To navigate complex challenges, all leaders must take responsibility and have a moral compass grounded in competence, integrity and concern for the greater good.
I am often told how calm I sounded speaking to passengers, crew and air traffic control during the emergency. In every situation, but especially challenging ones, a leader sets the tone and must create an environment in which all can do their best. You get what you project. Whether it is calm and confidence — or fear, anger and hatred — people will respond in kind. Courage can be contagious.
Today, tragically, too many people in power are projecting the worst. Many are cowardly, complicit enablers, acting against the interests of the United States, our allies and democracy; encouraging extremists at home and emboldening our adversaries abroad; and threatening the livability of our planet. Many do not respect the offices they hold; they lack — or disregard — a basic knowledge of history, science and leadership; and they act impulsively, worsening a toxic political environment.
As a result, we are in a struggle for who and what we are as a people. We have lost what in the military we call unit cohesion. The fabric of our nation is under attack, while shame — a timeless beacon of right and wrong — seems dead...
...This is not the America I know and love. We’re better than this. Our ideals, shared facts and common humanity are what bind us together as a nation and a people. Not one of these values is a political issue, but the lack of them is.
This current absence of civic virtues is not normal, and we must not allow it to become normal. We must rededicate ourselves to the ideals, values and norms that unite us and upon which our democracy depends. We must be engaged and informed voters, and we must get our information from credible, reputable sources.
For the first 85 percent of my adult life, I was a registered Republican. But I have always voted as an American. And this critical Election Day, I will do so by voting for leaders committed to rebuilding our common values and not pandering to our basest impulses.
When I volunteered for military service during wartime, I took an oath that is similar to the one our elected officials take: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” I vowed to uphold this oath at the cost of my life, if necessary. We must expect no less from our elected officials. And we must hold accountable those who fail to defend our nation and all our people.
After Flight 1549, I realized that because of the sudden worldwide fame, I had been given a greater voice. I knew I could not walk away but had an obligation to use this bully pulpit for good and as an advocate for the safety of the traveling public. I feel that I now have yet another mission, as a defender of our democracy.
We cannot wait for someone to save us. We must do it ourselves. This Election Day is a crucial opportunity to again demonstrate the best in each of us by doing our duty and voting for leaders who are committed to the values that will unite and protect us. Years from now, when our grandchildren learn about this critical time in our nation’s history, they may ask if we got involved, if we made our voices heard. I know what my answer will be. I hope yours will be “yes.”
yeah, I know, Sully
you're just a country pilot but you're on to something
we have to replace all the divisive rhetoric
people who call the President a racist, pussygrabbing, Nazi who is a puppet of the Russians
people who promote gang rape accusations against a Supreme Court nominee, without any substantiation
people who can't disagree with someone without chasing them out of restaurants and blocking them from getting on elevators
people who get their crazed followers so worked up that they shoot Congressmen on baseball fields and send ricin to the homes of Senators
people who pal and prowl around with sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein and Anthony Weiner
get these Democrats out office and restore decency
Predictably, the establishment is blaming President Trump and his supporters for a climate of rage and hate.
But let's be honest, a lot of Americans have had a lot to be angry about for an awful long time
African-Americans whose long struggle for freedom may have been won decades ago but whose struggle for genuine equality and opportunity and dignity and fairness is a long way from over. A very long way.
Working Americans, outside the booming centers of the modern knowledge economy, whose economic security has collapsed, whose economic opportunities have disappeared and whose social fabric -- especially family and community -- has been ripped apart.
That's been going on since at least the early 1970s. That's nearly half a century.
This anger we're seeing, it didn't start with Donald Trump. I think it goes back at least a decade.
In 2008 you saw the elite bail themselves out while working people paid the price for their recklessness and incompetence.
And you saw a new tone enter our politics.
Before then we had presidents who, whatever their political views, made clear they loved America and loved Americans - all Americans
Reagan, the Bushes, Bill Clinton, they weren't haters. You got the sense they loved everybody.
But then cultural elitism came in. Condescension. Contempt
Remember when candidate Obama said on April 6, 2008, “They get bitter, and they cling to guns or religion.”
How about when his wife said on February 18, 2008; “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country.”
We saw hate and divisiveness -- from the top. And remember, from the left, not the right. From the elitists, not the populists.
Joe Biden said on September 15, “They, not you, have an ally in the White House. This time they have an ally. There are small percentage of American people-virulent people-some of them the dregs of society.”
And of course from the queen of hate, the empress of divisiveness, Hillary Clinton, on September 9, 2016, we got this: "You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables."
I have never heard Republicans talk about fellow Americans like that. President Trump has never talked about fellow Americans like that.
Yes, he's used harsh language about illegal immigrants. Or MS-13 gangs. Too harsh, at times, for sure. But he's never talked like that about the people of this country.
Since 2008, working Americans have realized that the people at the top - politicians and CEOs and tech geniuses and Hollywood types - they look down their noses at them - how they live, what they eat, what they watch, the fact that they go to church - and of course their political views
So let's tell the truth about the roots of this rage.
To the elite:
This is not just about Trump. It's about you, too
The way you've shown no compassion for the casualties of your ideas, the human casualties of globalization, automation, centralization, and uncontrolled immigration.
Your ideas have destroyed people's jobs, devastated their families and communities. And then in 2016 when they cry out for help, you call them deplorable. As Eric Holder would say, you kick 'em.
To the liberal elite and the Never Trump elite. Start practicing the tolerance you preach. Show some empathy and respect for your fellow Americans. Love thy neighbor.
Yes, even the ones who support President Trump and watch Fox News
BWAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAH!
Rump IS the elite!
That's why he and his rich cronies just voted themselves one of the biggest tax cuts in history!
And when the US defaults on its enormous debt? Who's going to bail us out? The rich people?
Hell No. We saw in 2009 that they get to keep their bonuses for doing such a "great" job - while much of the rest of the country loses theirs.
Rump is a bombastic demagogue who has found a convenient story line pushed by conservative pundits that the "elites" are out to get all the "poor working people." Ignoring the fact that one of the most effective tool working people had to guarantee them good wages was Unions, which Republicans have systematically destroyed.
Rump and the Republicans are using under-informed voters to further the profiteering of corporations and plutocrats. They have no interest in the working man at all, except in the voting booth - and they'll concoct any story necessary to make them believe.
Wake up, sheeple.
Land O’Lakes, the Minnesota-based dairy giant, announced Tuesday it will not make any further campaign contributions to Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who just last week detailed his white nationalist worldview in an interview with a far-right publication.
“We take our civic responsibility seriously, want our contributions to be a positive force for good and also seek to ensure that recipients of our contributions uphold our company’s values,” the company said in a statement. “On that basis, we have determined that our PAC will no longer support Rep. Steve King moving forward.”
King is one of dozens of Republicans and Democrats the Land O’Lakes PAC has supported in 2018. The PAC has spent more than $400,000 in the midterms so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. It has given $2,500 to King, whose campaign has spent more than $680,000 so far.
The dairy company is not the first to drop its support for the congressman, who is running against Democratic challenger J.D. Scholten in the November midterm elections. Similarly, technology corporation Intel told employees in an internal email that it would no longer donate to King’s re-election campaign after looking into his public statements and determining that “they conflict with Intel values.”
The Sioux City Journal, an Iowa newspaper, broke with tradition in an editorial last week by pledging support for King’s challenger, due to the congressman’s ties to “intolerant ugliness.”
In August, King visited Austria and gave an extensive interview to Unzensuriert, a far-right publication whose name means “uncensored” in English. The eight-term congressman spelled out his belief in the superiority of European culture as he spoke with Caroline Sommerfeld, a prominent figure in a European neo-fascist movement.
King explained his fear that mass migration, particularly from Muslim-majority countries, is contributing to a “slow-motion cultural suicide” of white Europeans, which Sommerfeld referred to as the “Great Replacement.”
The congressman has on multiple occasions retweeted the views of white nationalists on his official Twitter page. Most recently, in September, he shared a post by a Holocaust denier and, in his tweet, argued incorrectly that Nazis were part of a left-wing movement. Republicans have continued to look the other way.
King has also spread false claims that large portions of violent crime in the U.S. are committed by undocumented immigrants and called for the government to spy on mosques.
Land O’Lakes said its PAC has “traditionally contributed to lawmakers of both parties that represent the communities where our members and employees live and work.” It is also involved with “committees that oversee policies that directly impact our farmer owners.”
After at least 14 mail bombs were sent to prominent Trump critics and 11 innocent worshipers were slaughtered in a Pittsburgh synagogue, this is what the pyromaniac in chief had to say Monday morning on Twitter:
“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!”
Divert, deflect, attack. Drive the wedge deeper. This is what Trump does — it’s the only thing he knows how to do — and the damage he is inflicting will not easily be repaired.
On Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, Pittsburgh’s vibrant Squirrel Hill neighborhood became the site of the worst attack against Jews in U.S. history. A gunman reportedly toting a military-style assault rifle and three handguns barged into the Tree of Life synagogue and began firing, killing eight men and three women because they were Jews.
An attack of this kind somewhere in the world perhaps should not have been a surprise. Leaders of Jewish organizations have reported a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents, including hate crimes, not just in the United States but in Europe and elsewhere as well.
But the alleged assailant, a 46-year-old loner named Robert Bowers, appears to have had a specific delusionary complaint. From his social media postings, he seems to have bought into an insane white-supremacist conspiracy theory about Jews seeking to diminish the power and influence of American whites by promoting a flood of nonwhite immigrants. An organization called HIAS — founded in 1881 as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to assist Jews fleeing European pogroms — was supposedly somehow involved.
How does this have anything to do with Trump?
Bowers apparently didn’t even like the president, believing him to be far too soft on immigration. But Bowers was fixated on the so-called caravan of Central American migrants, which Trump and the Republicans have cynically exploited to drive turnout in the midterm election. GOP candidates have portrayed the slow-moving column of asylum seekers — still about 1,000 miles from the border — as an imminent “invasion.” Trump actually used that word Monday in a tweet.
There is in fact no emergency, no invasion, no reason to panic. Trump and the Republicans helped convince Bowers otherwise...
From the first day of his presidential campaign, Trump has whipped up anti-immigrant fervor and stoked racial animus. By obliterating normal boundaries of political speech, he has opened space for unapologetic advocates of white supremacy, anti-Semitism, misogyny and other biases to spew their venom.
And the GOP happily goes along.
Don’t tell me that “both sides” need to do better. Republicans who remain silent deserve to be swept out of office.
we have an illegal immigration problem
Trump has rightly brought that up and has never endorsed any theory blaming any group of Jews
his daughter and grandkids are orthodox Jews, as is the architect of his immigration policy
the caravan could simply go to the American or Canadian embassies in Mexico City and apply for asylum
they don't because they aren't fleeing persecution but are simply looking for better economic circumstances
and because they know the laws in the US can be exploited
all they have to do is set foot on US soil and the law requires that they be given a lawyer and a trial, which means as they await trial here, they can disappear into our country
that's an invasion of a kind and the ones who suffer are at the lower rung of our economic system
since Trump began cracking down on illegal immigration, minority unemployment has significantly declined
discussing all this doesn't provide any rationale or excuse for nuts to bomb anyone
btw, there have plenty of leftists terrorists over the years
no reason to shut down political discourse
The truth is, uncivil political rhetoric has been around since America’s founding. How many dueling scenes are there in the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton”?
Deadly duels have fallen out of fashion in modern times, but hot political rhetoric remains pretty standard fare. Especially the kind that involves threatening physical violence against “journalists.”
In December 1950, President Harry S. Truman wrote a sizzling letter to a reporter for The Washington Post who had negatively reviewed a musical performance by Mr. Truman’s daughter.
“Some day I hope to meet you,” Mr. Truman wrote on White House stationery. “When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!”
Hey, come to think of it: Can anyone say definitively where Mr. Truman was the day Mr. Khashoggi was so violently killed? I know, “supposedly” Mr. Truman is dead. But this raises seriously alarming questions.
Such sentiments about the media are so popularly widespread that a copy of that letter hung in the office of one of Mr. Truman’s successors, President Bill Clinton.
And who could forget, more recently, when Bill Clinton threatened violence against a New York Times scribe for writing a simple, verifiable statement of proven fact: Mr. Clinton’s wife is a “congenital liar.”
The response to the column by the late, great William Safire was a threat by Clinton to punch Mr. Safire in the nose.
This was met by howls of outrage by the media over such a bald threat to free speech and journalism.
Actually, no it was not.
One spineless Clinton sycophant in the media, the editorial page editor for the Daily Press in Newport News, not only failed to condemn Mr. Clinton’s threat of violence, he outright applauded it.
“While I abhor violence,” he claimed in a newspaper column, “the idea of President Clinton punching New York Times columnist William Safire in the nose does have some appeal.”
The failed editor’s only complaint was that Mr. Clinton did not make more of his threat. The editor further encouraged Mr. Clinton to also violently attack radio king Rush Limbaugh and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. One must guess that the editor did not agree with the opinions held by Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Gingrich — surely a perfectly good reason to wish violence on someone.
Hey, while we are asking questions: Where were Mr. Clinton and this failed editor on the day Mr. Khashoggi got chopped into pieces?
Last week, The New York Times ran an op-ed by Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and gender studies at Brown University, arguing that biological sex is not binary. The piece joined a long succession of media coverage criticizing the Department of Health and Human Services’ recently leaked memo, which proposed legally defining sex as either male or female.
From a scientific perspective, there was nothing wrong with HHS’s definition. Biological sex refers to whether we are female or male, based on our anatomy and reproductive functions. The concept of sex is, by definition, binary.
Fausto-Sterling’s piece points to the existence of intersex people as evidence that this isn’t the case. Certainly, research has shown that as many as 1 percent of the population is intersex, a medical condition denoting that an individual possesses anatomy characteristic of both sexes, such as a combination of vulvar and testicular tissue. Statistically speaking, however, this means that the vast majority of us fall into one category of sex or the other.
It therefore becomes a question of whether a statistically rare occurrence in the general population should be considered typical. An analogy that is commonly used to illustrate this is the fact that most of us have 10 fingers. There exist individuals who possess fewer or more than 10 digits on their hands, but this hasn’t called for a re-conceptualization of how many fingers a human being has.
Every day in the run-up to the midterm elections, the mainstream news peddles the same message: Republicans are extremists. But look at the data, and you see that it's Democrats who are increasingly well outside the mainstream.
Writing in New York Magazine, Jonathan Chait had this to say about the Republican party: "Everything that was terrible about the party that nominated Trump is significantly, terrifyingly worse today. Even more distressing: It is likely to lurch further rightward regardless of the outcome of the elections."
As a mainstream journalist, Chait is hardly saying anything unusual about Republicans. Day after day, the mainstream press files stories describing Republicans as fascists, sexists, racists, anti-Semites, etc.
Here's a tiny sampling of recent headlines: "How Republican Extremism Became Normalized." "Yes, the Republican Party Has Become Pathological." "Why Are Republicans Promoting Ultra-Right Extremism." "The Proud Boys, the GOP, and 'The Fascist Creep.' "
What evidence is there of this, other than President Trump's often abrasive rhetoric, and the actions of a few crazed lunatics?
Trump's agenda so far has been mainstream conservative — tax cuts, deregulation, strong defense, secure national borders. (President Clinton said similar things about illegal immigrants and border security when he was president.)
Where Trump has strayed from conservative orthodoxy, it's tended to be toward the left — witness his efforts to force down drug prices and his rhetoric on trade.
But survey data show fairly conclusively that when it comes the ideology of each party, it's Democrats who have been moving to the fringe.
A Pew Research Center report out last year, for example, showed that while the Republican views shifted slightly to the right from 1994 to 2017, Democrats has moved far to the left.
A Gallup poll from 2015 pointed to the same trend. It found that Democrats had become far more liberal over the previous 15 years. Republicans hadn't changed in their views much. In fact, they had moved leftward on some social issues.
This year, the Democratic field is full of self-declared socialists. And the Democratic party has embraced a radical agenda of socialized health care — via the artfully named "Medicare for all" — free college, a doubling of the federal minimum wage, "guaranteed" federal jobs, eliminating ICE, a government takeover of corporate boards, and so on.
Prominent liberals routinely say the most incredibly extremist things, without anyone batting an eye.
Case in point is actor James Cromwell, who recently promised violence if Republicans retained control of Congress.
"If we don't stop Trump now, then we will have a revolution for real," he said at an awards ceremony this week. "Then there will be blood in the streets."
You'll try in vain to find any Democrat who — after lecturing the public on the dangers of Trump's word choices — has denounced Cromwell's rhetoric.
Despite journalists' endless efforts to portray Democrats as reasonable, mainstream moderates, the public is getting wise to their increasingly extremist views.
This summer, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that just 33% think Democrats are mainstream today, while 56% say they're out of step. Just two years before, 48% said Dems were mainstream, and only 42% said they were out of step.
So please, enough about how extremism is to be found among Republicans.
You are hysterical as you keep trying to convince yourself that you party is sane.
So you cite a poll from waaaaay back "this summer" (https://www.wsj.com/articles/record-71-of-voters-oppose-overturning-roe-v-wade-1532379600)(https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/18570NBCWSJJuly2018FullPoll.pdf) and skip the NBC/WSJ polls in September 2018:
NBC News/WSJ poll: Democrats hold the advantage in November's elections
And in October 2018:
NBC/WSJ Poll: Democrats hold 9-point advantage for midterm elections
Keep on believing!
There’s no shortage of research that points to air pollution’s negative effects on health, yet President Donald Trump has found one guy who thinks that all the concern about air pollution is “exaggerated” and that trying to clean the air will do nothing to save lives.
His name is Tony Cox, and he serves as the chairperson of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. Reveal’s Jason Plautz did a thorough review of this influential man, and sadly, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration’s scientific leadership at the EPA.
Although Cox insists he’s not trying to thwart pollution reduction efforts and instead provide “a more accurate and nuanced understanding” of the science, his previous actions are at odds with that explanation. Prior to taking this role, Cox has sued the EPA multiple times to relax air pollution regulations.
At the Health Effects Institute’s annual conference last year, Cox gave a presentation arguing that polluted air does not cause heart attacks and breathing problems for people. The other scientists in the room were “appalled,” and subsequent speakers felt compelled to amend their speeches on the fly to point out what they had originally assumed could go without saying at this point: air pollution is bad for our health!
Cox differs from his predecessors in that he doesn’t have a background in medicine or health science. He’s more of a statistics guy, specifically conducting “risk analysis” models. In fact, he’s made a career out of working for corporations putting together data that can challenge scientific consensus and try to manufacture a debate.
For example, in 2012, Cox conducted a study that concluded that smoking cigarettes (so long as it is under 10 per day) does not increase a person’s risk of heart disease. Notably, the study was bankrolled in part by Philip Morris, the same company he worked as a consultant for in the previous decade.
< eye roll >
A couple of years later, Cox tried to poke holes into regulations on silica dust exposure on behalf of the American Chemistry Council, a pro-chemical industry group, by arguing that the studies connecting trace amounts of silica to lung disease as insufficient.
< eye roll >
Cox doesn’t make it his mission to prove that things well-regarded as harmful aren’t actually harmful – instead he cherry-picks certain stats to make it seem like the science isn’t settled, with the goal of impeding policy. Law and policy makers beholden to industry money are just waiting for someone to cast a shadow of doubt so that they cling to it and not take action against corporations.
That makes Cox an obviously valuable tool for corporations, but a terrible one for working on behalf of the American people in our government. That’s particularly true at this point in time: this year, the EPA is reviewing standards for smog particles, and if Trump’s advisor on this matter breaks with scientific consensus to say “no big deal,” we could all be breathing in dirtier air for years to come as a result.
No matter what Cox says (i.e. is paid to say,) just about any health expert/scientist can give you the real deal with pollution: it’s absolutely not a good thing to inhale.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2018/10/31/Poll-Low-marks-for-Trump-Congress-may-spell-trouble-for-GOP/2151541003094/
Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A new Gallup survey Wednesday suggests trouble might be awaiting Republicans in the midterm elections.
The poll measured national satisfaction with the direction the United States is headed. Thirty-three percent approved, which is lower than the midterm average of 37 percent since 1982. It is, however, higher than in the two most recent midterm elections in 2014 and 2010.
President Donald Trump's approval rating stands at 41 percent in Gallup's most recent poll, well below the 52 percent average in midterm elections since 1974. Trump's is also among the lowest for a president prior to a midterm vote over that 44-year time period.
Fifty-five percent rated economic conditions as "excellent" or "good," compared to 12 percent who gave a "poor" rating. The 43 percent differential is considerably higher than the 10 percent differential average since 1994.
Only 21 percent said they approve of Congress -- 10 points under the average.
Over the last four decades, the party controlling the White House loses an average of 22 House seats in midterm elections. But the favorable feelings on the economy have not translated to higher marks for Trump.
Based on past midterm elections, Gallup said a high presidential approval rating is the most important factor in determining if his party will minimize losses or gain seats. Years in which the president's party gained seats or lost a smaller number -- 1986, 1990, 1998 and 2002 -- accompanied a high approval rating for the president (at least 58 percent). In contrast, since 1950, the president's party has lost an average of 37 seats in Congress when his approval rating is under 50 percent.
Ratings on the economy are less influential on midterm elections, Gallup said. Researchers said the 2018 election is an unusual one, with a strong U.S. economy and weak presidential approval.
funny things happen in the voting booth
phrases pop into heads like "vote for jobs, not mobs"
we're in new era now
looking at past patterns won't work
and pollsters base their models on past patterns
no one ever had the negative ratings Trump had in 2016 and still won
but even if Dems squeaked out a win in the House, it wouldn't change much
nothing would get done, like budget cuts and middle class tax cuts, but Repubs could blame the Dems in 2020 ad Trump would have more time to play golf at Mar-a-lago
meanwhile, the assembly line of originalist judges getting through the Senate will continue
the House will investigate and even impeach but the Senate would never convict
and with Kav on the SCOTUS, the Exec branch can ignore all subpoenas
TTF thinks the blue wave is coming
Sir Barry Obama says the race for the House is incredibly close.
Are you saying he's lying?
"I can’t overstate the importance of this final stretch.
I need $1 and your help before midnight.
The race for the House is incredibly close.
It could come down to just one or two seats.
Whether we win or lose will all come down to what we do right now.
That’s why I’m reaching out one more time this election and asking for your help.
You’ve always been there for me when I needed you. But now the country needs you.
Every dollar makes a difference in a race this close. Can I count on you to help us win the House?
ALL GIFTS QUADRUPLE-MATCHED
Quadruple match your $1 >>
Thank you,
Barack Obama"
how come the race is so close if trump's so unpopular?
Transgender demands are about to get much broader. A look at recent stories in the news reveals a stunning array of concerns related to the transgender movement:
Assault.
A young girl in kindergarten was recently assaulted after a Georgia school allowed elementary school boys, who claim to have a transgender identity, into the girls’ bathroom.
Adult Entertainment in Libraries.
Libraries and schools across the country have started to allow drag queens – adult entertainment – to groom our young children through children’s story time.
Secret Information.
New Jersey has directed schools to keep a child’s gender identity secret from parents. If a parent has a disagreement with their child’s gender identity, school staff are urged to report child abuse.
Forced Intimate Services.
A transgender-identifying man has sued a women’s spa in Massachusetts because it declined to give him a wax of his private areas. Radical leftists see no problem using the courts to force a female employee to provide intimate services to a man.
Erasing Criminal Records.
At least one man has sued to erase his criminal record because the law he was convicted under only applied to men. The man, now living as a woman, has argued his conviction “outs” him and is thus discriminatory.
Saving Money on Insurance.
At least one man has lied – claiming to be a transgender female – so that he could save money on car insurance.
Thankfully, leaders in the Administration have rolled back Obama-era policies in these important areas:
Prisons.
Federal prisons rolled back an Obama-era transgender mandate. They now avoid placing transgender inmates with the opposite biological sex, because doing so has exposed women to degradation, humiliation, harassment, and assault.
Military.
President Trump allowed the DOD and DHS to decide whether or not they could implement Obama’s Transgender Mandate. After intense study, the departments found that admitting transgender-identifying individuals into the military was fundamentally unfair, cost prohibitive, and compromised the mission of the armed forces.
Schools.
Obama changed the definition of “sex” to mean gender. The DHHS is now making sure the law is clear that sex is an unchangeable scientific fact.
What can you do to push back on the radical transgender agenda? At this moment, perhaps the most important thing you can do is vote.
Your vote for family values can ensure that we have elected officials who will stand for truth and represent our families. Do not underestimate the importance of your voice in next week’s election. Please vote on November 6 and make our message loud and clear!
Merrick Garland, LOL
How can you tell whether the economy is truly surging under President Trump? Just listen as the Democrats try to take at least some credit for the current economic boom.
For example, President Obama pleads with us to “remember who started” this economic boom. Former Obama administration economist Austin Goolsby attempts to credit both presidents, claiming that Obama handed Trump “some of the best economic conditions for a new president in a half century.”
Let’s be clear: The economy is booming because President Trump reversed President Obama’s economic policies – not because Trump furthered the Obama policies.
President Obama raised taxes on businesses and individuals. He expanded the federal government’s size and power through dramatic increases in the number and scope of federal regulations. He discouraged domestic energy production – for example, refusing to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline and openly attempting to bankrupt the coal industry.
The economy is now booming because President Trump took the opposite course. President Trump has dramatically cut both taxes and regulations – shrinking the government’s size and power – while aggressively encouraging domestic energy production.
It was Hillary Clinton – not Donald Trump – who committed to continue the Obama’s economic policies. Had Clinton become president, we would be experiencing the same anemic economic growth we experienced under the Obama administration.
President Obama’s post-recession gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged an anemic 2.1 percent. In his last year in the White House, GDP grew at a pathetic 1.5 percent – hardly creating what Goolsby described as “some of the best economic conditions for a new president in a half century.”
The differences between the Obama and Trump economic policies couldn’t be clearer. It’s like a baseball team firing a manager with a poor winning percentage whose strategy was based on speed and hiring a manager who replaces all of the team’s players, switches to a power strategy and wins the World Series.
No one would credit the fired manager with the World Series win – at least not rationally.
Is the current economic surge like winning the World Series? Let’s look.
The unemployment rate in September stood at 3.7 percent, the lowest rate since 1969. Not coincidentally, for the week ending Oct. 15, initial claims for unemployment benefits were the lowest since 1973, when the U.S. population was 110 million people smaller. This is because the Trump economy’s job creation numbers are regularly beating expectations – averaging over 208,000 jobs per month so far this year.
Will hiring continue to increase, causing the number of workers forced onto the unemployment rolls to continue its decline? Yes, it will.
There are currently more job openings than people unemployed. Last March was the first time that had happened since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began compiling the data. It has happened every month since.
In August, there were 7.1 million job openings – the highest number ever recorded – with only 6.2 million people unemployed. In other words, there were 900,000 more job openings than people who had looked for a job in the past 30 days. Again, a remarkable record.
Who is benefitting? Is it, as Democrats claim, only the rich who benefit from tax cuts and economic growth? No. People are benefitting across demographics regardless of race, sex or level of education. Unemployment rates are at or near record lows for African- Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women and people without high school diplomas.
The BLS announced Wednesday that the wages and salaries of American workers in the third quarter of this year were 3.1 percent higher than during the same period one year ago – the biggest increase in 10 years.
During the Obama era, wage increases never reached 3 percent in a 12-month period. One of the problems was too many people working part-time in the Obama years.
In the Trump years, the number of people working part-time because they are unable to find full-time jobs has dropped by 1.2 million, while the number of people working full-time has increased by 4.3 million. On top of the wage increases, benefits increased 2.6 percent. Perhaps more importantly, thanks to the Republican tax cuts, workers take-home pay has increased even more significantly at about 5 percent.
Consequently, workers are making more money and taking home a larger percentage of what they earn. It should come as no surprise that the Conference Board recently reported that its consumer confidence index had climbed from 135.3 in September to 137.9 in October. Both readings are the highest in 18 years.
That confidence is, in turn, driving consumer spending. This spending has increased every month since April, following the Internal Revenue Service lowering withholding rates – thanks to the Republican tax cuts.
With consumer spending driving over two-thirds of GDP growth, we are finally seeing the kind of growth in the GDP that we should have seen under President Obama and coming out of the recession.
We are averaging 3.3 percent GDP growth year to date with GDP growth coming in at 4.2 percent in the second quarter and 3.5 percent in the third.
It’s early, but the Atlanta Federal Reserve is projecting GDP growth would be 3.1 percent for 2018, making it the first year since 2005 with 3 percent or better GDP growth.
If the projection is correct, Obama would be the only post-World War II president without a single calendar year of at least 3 percent GDP growth. In fact, the economy is so strong that the Federal Reserve Bank has had enough confidence to raise interest rates seven times since the election and will raise them an eighth time in December.
Higher interest rates create demand for interest-bearing instruments – like bonds – and decrease the demand for stocks, driving prices down. Nonetheless, and despite the recent ups and downs in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it remains up over 35 percent.
That is a huge testament to the economy’s strength. During the entire Obama era – prior to the 2016 election – the Fed only had enough confidence in the economy to raise interest rates once (in December 2015) and then only by one quarter of 1 percent.
Obama era economic experts expected better. In 2010, the Obama White House forecast that GDP growth would “accelerate in 2011 to 3.8%” and “exceed 4% per year in 2012-2014.” Why? Well, it would have been consistent with the 4.3 percent growth rate in the prior 10 post-World War II recoveries.
It may well have seemed that the economic momentum coming out of a deep recession would be so powerful that it would compel dynamic economic growth despite President Obama’s anti-business policies. Of course, it didn’t, and that momentum never materialized – at least until President Trump implemented pro-business and pro-growth economic policies.
Following the 2016 election, Obama economists initially tried blaming structural problems for his failure to generate better economic growth. They also were quick to demean the Trump administration’s 3 percent GDP growth forecasts.
A February 2017 Business Insider article discussing 3 percent GDP growth quoted former Obama administration economist Lee Branstetter as stating that “it's essentially mathematically impossible to get the growth they're talking about.”
In March, economist and Obama administration alum Jason Furman blamed changed economic circumstances and forecast 10 years of GDP growth “around 2 percent a year.”
In May, fellow Obama economist Larry Summers, compared believing in the Trump administration’s forecast of 3 percent GDP growth to believing “in tooth fairies.”
Well, when it comes to whether Trump’s economic policies will finally generate the level of economic growth we should have been seeing since the recession ended, I’m a believer.
"how come the race is so close if trump's so unpopular?"
First of all, Rump is not running for office.
He's simply running scared.
Second of all, "the race" isn't close.
It's a big blue wave.
Missouri General Assembly candidate Steve West may be popular among his district’s Republicans, but two of his children are hoping he will either drop out or lose his race next week.
The 64-year-old construction company owner is a bigot who isn’t fit for elected office, his daughter Emily and son Andy told The Kansas City Star on Monday.
West, who is seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent Jon Carpenter in the Missouri House District 15 race, drew backlash in August when local media reported he frequently promoted anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic views on his radio show.
“My dad’s a fanatic,” Andy West, the middle of the candidate’s three children, told the Star. “He must be stopped. His ideology is pure hatred. It’s totally insane.”
“If he gets elected, it would legitimize him,” he added. “Then he would become a state official, and he’s saying that Jews shouldn’t even have civil rights.”
Emily West told the Star she hasn’t spoken to her father since August, when she asked him to drop out of the race.
“I can’t imagine him being in any level of government,” she said. “He’s made multiple comments that are racist and homophobic and how he doesn’t like the Jews.”
Steve West denied being anti-Semitic and blamed his “poisonous” relationship with his ex-wife for his children’s attitudes.
“They’re trying to do everything they can to vilify me,” he said. “That’s fine. I’ve become kind of a lightning rod in this little race that I have here.”
West said he believes Judaism and Islam are “political movements masquerading as religions” that are “antithetical to our Constitution,” echoing similar statements he has made on his KCXL radio show, “The Hard Truth with Jack Justice.”
“Looking back in history, unfortunately, Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it,” West said on his radio show in January 2017, according to the Star.
West said he believes homosexuality is a “learned behavior” and “an abomination to introduce to children.”
When asked three separate times on Wednesday whether he believes Jews, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community have a place in the United States, West refused to provide a direct answer.
“I’m not going to talk about that, here’s the deal: If you listen to some of my radio shows ... at the end of the show, you’ll have an invitation to Christ. Because Christ is the answer. Christianity is the answer. That’s the way I see it.”
West is hardly the first candidate in the midterm elections whose family members have spoken out against them. Six of the nine siblings of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) publicly endorsed his Democratic challenger. Minnesota state Rep. Jim Knoblach (R) dropped his re-election bid last month after his daughter accused him of molesting her.
"Let’s be clear: The economy is booming because President Trump reversed President Obama’s economic policies – not because Trump furthered the Obama policies."
Let's be REALLY clear:
Republicans did everything in their power to slow the economy down during the Obama administration. They called it "sequestration" and claimed it was absolutely necessary to keep the debt from exploding.
And during the first chance Republicans had to do it, they removed sequestration after Rump became president, unleashing billions of dollars that would have flowed into the economy years before - when it would have lessened the effects of the disastrous Bush collapse.
Republicans abandoned the American worker in favor of their political goal of making Obama look as bad as possible.
And the debt now? - Who cares?
Republicans are spending money we don't have like a spoiled rich kid with his daddy's credit card.
"First of all, Rump is not running for office.
He's simply running scared."
apparently, he's not scared to take on the powerful liberal media-entertainment complex
most politicians are
"Second of all, "the race" isn't close.
It's a big blue wave."
so, when Obama A-hole says:
"I need $1 and your help before midnight.
The race for the House is incredibly close."
you think he's lying just like when he was trying to convince Americans to support Obamacare?
"Let's be REALLY clear:
Republicans did everything in their power to slow the economy down during the Obama administration."
how so?
they passed budgets allowing him to borrow more money than all the other Presidents in history... COMBINED!
further, interest rates were at zero throughout his presidency
he was propped up by both Congress and the Fed
properly managed, the economy should have boomed
A new Harris poll shows that almost 50 percent of people think President Trump is responsible for the current state of the economy, compared to only 21 percent who give former President Obama the credit.
At a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump said, “Last week we announced that the US Economy grew at 4.1 percent last quarter, nobody thought that was possible.”
Obama told voters in Illinois to remember where the recovery started, hinting at the progress he made in office. LOL.
"Republicans did everything in their power to slow the economy down during the Obama administration."
how so?"
How soon bubble dwellers forget McConnell's Top Priority: "Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term."
So rather than to help stem the recession Bush brought on, McConnell and GOPers worked tirelessly to undermine Obama.
"you think he's lying just like when he was trying to convince Americans to support Obamacare"
Nice attempted spin, however everyone knows it is GOPers who are now suddenly pretending to favor Obama's ACA provisions like covering preexisting conditions GOPers voted against more than 70 times and expecting their deplorable bass to not notice.
Obamacare is favored by 53% of the country but tRump isn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDNi1ux9zT0
WaPo: Trump’s false claim on health care ignores years-long GOP effort to repeal Obamacare
NYTimes: In Major Defeat for Trump, Push to Repeal Health Law Fails
USAToday: Republicans hoped voters would forget they tried to kill Obamacare. They bet wrong.
"they passed budgets allowing him to borrow more money than all the other Presidents in history... COMBINED!"
Keep ignoring the facts dude. That wasn't because Obama spent boatloads more money, but because tax revenues had dropped by half a TRILLION dollars PER YEAR when Obama took office, thanks to the Bush collapse.
looks like we have a little disagreement
I sent it out to the American people for arbitration
here's their decision:
A new Harris poll shows that almost 50 percent of people think President Trump is responsible for the current state of the economy, compared to only 21 percent who give former President Obama the credit.
The National Republican Congressional Committee released a web video entitled “Better Off Now.” According to NRCC communications director Matt Gorman, who was quoted in the accompanying press release, “November comes down to one question: Are Americans better off now than they were two years ago?” That might be what Republicans want, but it is not likely to be voters’ sole motivation as they cast their ballots.
According to Gorman, voters will “keep Republicans in the majority.” The economy certainly is good, and there is no reason to believe that will change before November.
Unemployment is down. Economic growth and consumer confidence are up. Even wages are starting to show some gains. But if the economy and the public’s satisfaction with it automatically translated into strong presidential approval numbers and gains for the president’s party, Donald Trump’s job approval would be well over 50 percent and House Republicans would be poised to gain seats.
That’s obviously not the case.
Republicans are going to lose House seats — likely two dozen or more — and Trump’s job approval sits in the 38 to 42 percent range, a reflection of his controversial presidency, style and character.
Although it is true that a bad economy is always fatal for the president’s party, a healthy economy doesn’t always translate into success for the party controlling the White House.
Plus, Trump’s agenda guarantees strong opposition from the left, which is now energized. More importantly, his style and behavior in office have cost him support among college-educated whites primarily because — rightly or wrongly — they see him as vulgar, untruthful, petty, mean-spirited, narcissistic and more interested in his own interests than in the country’s.
OOOPS!
Never trust a person who can clear their conscience of any immoral act by asking forgiveness from their imaginary friend.
Obviously, the only being that can grant you forgiveness is the victim(s) of your wrong. If the victim(s) won't or can't forgive you, you cannot be forgiven by some third party.
oh me gursh!
Halloween is over and Priya has stopped working overtime at the Field of Screams
Priya scared a lot of people in that cornfield and didn't even have to wear a costume
oh well, all good things must come to an end
thanksgiving is coming to a land that knows how to celebrate it, and we can all be thankful that Priya lives in a cold barren place over the border
never trust a person that holds the gospel in contempt
they hurt themselves a lot and misery loves company
"Trump’s agenda guarantees strong opposition from the left, which is now energized."
energizing the left is Trump's secret to success despite his uncouth behaviour
anytime the let gets energized, they act so horridly that the American people are repulsed
if both Trump and the Dems act the same way, voters will go with the one they think will produce a healthy economy
"rightly or wrongly — they see him as vulgar, untruthful, petty, mean-spirited, narcissistic and more interested in his own interests than in the country’s"
all that is true except the last part
he is committed to the country's interests and has proven so
56 Major Companies Denounce Trump On Trans Rights: Apple, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft, More
Recognizing that diversity and inclusion are good for business, and that discrimination imposes enormous productivity costs (and exerts undue burdens), hundreds of companies, including the undersigned, have continued to expand inclusion for transgender people across corporate America. Currently more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 have clear gender identity protections; two-thirds have transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage; hundreds have LGBTQ+ and Allies business resource groups and internal training efforts.
Transgender people are our beloved family members and friends, and our valued team members. What harms transgender people harms our companies.
We call for respect and transparency in policy-making, and for equality under the law for transgender people.
"The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice." :)
A Republican scam to pay women to falsely claim Robert Mueller had sexually assaulted them has fallen apart on the day that the "evidence" was to be released.
Republican Jacob Wohl claimed he had a witness that would publicly attest that Robert Muller had sexually assaulted her. Wohl was to hold a press conference yesterday with her but at the last minute she, ahh, was too afraid to come forward and decided to remanin anonymous (yeah, that's it, thats the one). Wohl, a writer for the Gateway Pundit had written a story about all of this for them claiming he had investigation information from a prestigious company and gave dates and so forth. Real reporters found that Wohl was the "owner'" of the company, it's phone number voice messaged to his mother and the establishment of the company happened several days after Wohl had claimed the company had done its investigation.
It goes to show how difficult it is to concoct a controversy like this don't it. The Cult accuses Dems of doing that all the time, as they ignore just how hard it is to line up all the facts and backgrounds. That's a hell of a lot of work.
Wohl also claimed the woman had been sexually assaulted by Mueller on a date where records prove he was in a different city on jury duty.
The idea that Democrats faked such attacks on Republicans for months on end, again and again with never a significant claim being proven wrong is preposterous.
A Fox News poll this month (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-trump-health-care-drive-midterm-elections) found health care is the top issue for voters, with 58 percent saying it is “extremely” important to their vote; within that group, Democrats have a 24-point lead over Republicans.
And they’re getting that message across through campaign ads.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is now running a new round of ads calling out vulnerable House Republicans for voting in favor of repealing ObamaCare last year.
One ad attacking Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), in the quintessential suburban district being targeted by Democrats, shows a sick child as a voiceover cites Roskam’s repeated votes to nix ObamaCare and its pre-existing condition protections. “Imagine watching him go without life-saving treatment because it’s been denied by your insurance,” the ad says. “That’s what Peter Roskam voted for. Not just once, but over and over again.”
Trump's attempt to distract attention from pipe bombs mailed by the MAGAbomber and the synagogue mass shooting apparently inspired by Trump's whipping up fear of an immigrant caravan in Mexico are a sign of Republican desperation, Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist, told The Hill. “You don’t throw a Hail Mary pass if you’re up by a few touchdowns,” he said.
U.S. job growth rebounded sharply in October and wages recorded their largest annual gain in 9-1/2 years, since the Obama disaster began.
The Labor Department’s closely watched monthly employment report on Friday also showed the unemployment rate steady at a 49-year low of 3.7 percent even as more people entered the labor force, in a sign of confidence in the jobs market.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 250,000 jobs last month as employment in the leisure and hospitality sector bounced back after being held down by Hurricane Florence, which drenched North and South Carolina in mid-September.
There were also big gains in manufacturing, construction and professional and business services payrolls. Data for September was revised to show 118,000 jobs added instead of the previously reported 134,000. During the Obama disaster, Obama said manufacturing would never return to America.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls increasing by 190,000 jobs in October . They were wrong. As usual, trump did better than economists predicted. Obama always did worse.
Average hourly earnings rose five cents, or 0.2 percent, in October after advancing 0.3 percent in September. That boosted the annual increase in wages to 3.1 percent, the biggest gain since April 2009, since the begining of the Obama disaster.
Employers also increased hours for workers last month. The average workweek increased to 34.5 hours from 34.4 hours in September.
Strong annual wage growth mirrors other data published this week showing wages and salaries rising in the third quarter by the most since mid-2008, at the beginning of the Obama disaster . Hourly compensation also increased at a brisk pace in the third quarter.
Firming wages support views that inflation will hover around the Fed’s 2.0 percent target for a while. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding the volatile food and energy components has increased by 2.0 percent for five straight months.
The Fed is not expected to raise rates at its policy meeting next week.
Employers, scrambling to find qualified workers, are boosting wages. There are a record 7.14 million open jobs.
Employment gains have averaged 218,000 jobs per month over the past three months, double the roughly 100,000 needed to keep up with growth in the working-age population.
The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, increased two-tenths of a percentage point to 62.9 percent last month. Obama had said it would never rise again.
A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, fell to 7.4 percent last month. The employment-to-population ratio rose two-tenths of percentage point to 60.6 percent, the highest since January 2009.
Construction companies hired 30,000 more workers in October.
Manufacturing employment increased by 32,000 jobs in October after adding 18,000 positions in September. Manufacturing hiring has not been affected by the bitter trade war with China, which we are winning.
Hee hee hee!
The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice. :)
Evangelicals are Becoming More Liberal and Leaders are Panicking
53% of Evangelicals surveyed believe that "Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature."
Freaking out over this, Dr. Stephen Nichols, chief academic officer of Ligonier Ministries and president of Reformation Bible College, said:
"This idea flatly contradicts the Bible, which teaches the radical corruption of every human being and declares that no one does good by nature"
[Priya]:Wow, its scary that evangelical leaders and a minority of their followers believe something so wrong and so destructive! Thank god evangelicals are bit by bit coming to their senses!
Its just like I've been saying, the USA is majority liberal and Republican conservatives have only been able to cling to power by lying profusely to the public and suppressing the vote of communities that mostly vote Democratic.
Note how all the Republican politicians who voted 70 times to repeal Obamacare and its requirement that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions, and who are suing in court to strike down the requirement that health insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions (at the same cost as everyone else) are now prolifically lying through their teeth and saying they support forcing insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions. The epitome of this is one Republican politician who voted repeatedly to remove coverage for pre-existing conditions (and is now lying and saying she wants coverage for pre-existing conditions) said it was "character assassination" to tell voters of her past votes against requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.
"53% of Evangelicals surveyed believe that "Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.""
the problem is how you define "evangelical"
a person that says that is not an "evangelical" in most senses
evangelical churches are very tolerant so people can believe all kinds of things and stick around, even heretical things, as long as they behave
in addition to using attendance as a determinant, they are other issues
there used to be a dichotomy between evangelical and fundamentalist that few people perceive any more
further, heretical cults like Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses are often grouped in, as well
""This idea flatly contradicts the Bible, which teaches the radical corruption of every human being and declares that no one does good by nature"
[Priya]:Wow, its scary that evangelical leaders and a minority of their followers believe something so wrong and so destructive!"
well, Priya, explain to us how humility is wrong or destructive
"Its just like I've been saying, the USA is majority liberal"
actually, it's center right
the Dems are only having any hope at all because Trump is such an ass
Obama warped perceptions
he was elected because Americans were anxious to show we have moved beyond racism
hence, he got away with a lot of leftist fringe tendencies
"and Republican conservatives have only been able to cling to power by lying profusely to the public and suppressing the vote of communities that mostly vote Democratic."
also, people like being employed
Dem politicians lie as much as Repub ones
in significant ways, Trump is much more honest than most politicians
from the world of real estate, he exaggerates accomplishments and qualities
but, more than most politicians, he's been truthful about what he believes and tries to deliver on promises
"Note how all the Republican politicians who voted 70 times to repeal Obamacare and its requirement that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions,"
Dems are dishonestly pushing the idea that pre-existing conditions is all Obamacare is
well, Tuesday night is going to be exciting and suspenseful TV
I usually can figure out what's going to happen by reading both sides and seeing who's lying
my perception now is that both sides think they're going to win
and they both have a good case
Americans prefer divided to unified government, and voters have historically punished the incumbent party in midterm elections. To these historical trends we can add Donald Trump’s relentless antics and his rude defiance of presidential norms, which have rankled nerves and generated bad blood.
So all told, the president’s party deserves to lose one or both chambers next week, right?
Wrong.
At stake Tuesday is legislative power, and on that count congressional Republicans have earned the right to retain their majority, while Democrats have proved themselves unprepared for governance. The GOP has navigated the nation through the Trumpian minefield, while Democrats spent the time chasing after Russian pee-pee tapes and lionizing porn stars.
Start with the GOP side of the ledger. Thanks to unthanked House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump has two major legislative accomplishments under his belt: The individual mandate — the least popular element of ObamaCare — is gone. And Ryan’s tax overhaul slashed the corporate rate to 21 percent from an eye-watering 35 percent, which had long discouraged investment and hiring.
The tax cut, combined with Trump’s war on regulatory bloat, has yielded strong growth. Lefty economists who predicted prolonged stagnation look not a little foolish these days. Consumer spending, capital investment and exports are all up. Unemployment has plummeted below 4 percent, and according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, for the first time on record, job openings outstrip the number of the unemployed seeking a job.
The result: Wednesday’s news that US wages and salaries had risen 3.1 percent in the third quarter — the highest jump in a decade, before the Obama disaster.
Nancy Pelosi sneers that such jobs numbers “mean little.” She can afford to do that. American workers can’t afford to put her in charge of the economy.
Then there’s the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it his singular mission to confirm the president’s nominees to the federal bench. Much of our present discord traces back to liberals altering the moral landscape of the country by judicial fiat. The judges nominated by Trump and confirmed by McConnell will offer a much-needed rebalancing to our constitutional structure and help lower the temperature in the long term.
Now turn to the Democratic side of the ledger. After 2016’s drubbing, Democrats could have re-examined their agenda. They could have gone back to the drawing board. They could have — but they didn’t. Instead, they resolved to undo the outcome of a legitimate election. Each week brought a fresh conspiracy theory or a new savior on whom liberals could pin their hopes of unseating Trump.
Christopher Steele. Michael Wolff. Michael Avenatti. Stormy Daniels. Some Maltese professor who had the goods on Trump’s alleged vulnerability to Russian blackmail. These and numerous other unsavory characters had their 15 minutes before sinking back into anonymity or third-rate celebrity. Trump stayed put.
Democrats also fell into every cultural trap that Trump set for them, seemingly determined to prove his point that they are the party of hard-left identity politics and hatred for the “deplorables”: From the pussy-hat resistance, which embraced the anti-Semitic loon Louis Farrakhan, to DNC deputy chairman Keith Ellison’s promotion of the violent thugs of Antifa, to Elizabeth Warren’s 1/1024th Native heritage, and much else of the kind.
Note, too, that elected Democrats refuse to speak out forcefully against the caravan, though as a policy matter it’s a no-brainer, and stating the obvious would inoculate voters against some of the more fevered Trumpian talk about an invasion. The silence suggests a party beholden to a borderless ideology that has zero purchase with broad swaths of the country.
And what, really, is the Democratic electoral message to voters? Fairly or not, for many voters it has come to be summed up in Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono’s primal scream: “I just want to say to the men in this country, just shut up and step up. Do the right thing, for a change.”
That statement came amid the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation battle — Exhibit A in the case against handing Democrats legislative majorities. Voters shouldn’t soon forget what Hirono and her colleagues attempted to do to Justice Kavanaugh. For several hellish weeks, no allegation was too baseless or implausible to air in the prestige press. If this was how Democrats conducted themselves in the minority, imagine what they would do with committee chairmanships.
No doubt many Americans wish Trump would tone down some of his rhetoric, particularly in the aftermath of Pittsburgh. I’m one of them. But Trump’s Twitter account isn’t on the ballot Tuesday.
Nor are the cable-news shouters, pro- and anti-Trump, whose foghorn voices pierce the airwaves. Nor, finally, is the broken state of our culture, which won’t be healed anytime soon and certainly not at the polls.
Trump’s Invented Immigration ‘Crisis’
If you want clear evidence that this whole “crisis” story being sold by Trump over immigration is a giant lie, read this article in the Washington Post. In Trumpworld, we’re being “invaded” by unprecedented numbers of “rapists” and “murderers” and “unknown Middle Easterners.” In the real world:
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show illegal border crossings have risen slightly in recent months and are greater than last year. The administration has repeatedly emphasized this — reportedly spurred by Trump’s anger about the situation.
But the number of apprehensions and people deemed inadmissible over the past year — and even now — is unremarkable when you compare it to the past five fiscal years…
What’s more, even the estimates of 50,000 monthly border apprehensions we’ve seen in a few months this year is a fraction of where that number has been for most of this century. And the current number of annual apprehensions is also lower than at any point since about 1970, according to FactCheck.org.
And the claims of them being violent criminals? Also a lie.
Any undocumented immigrant regardless of longevity, of course, could commit such crimes. But data suggest they don’t — at least not at the same rates as native-born Americans.
While violent gangs such as MS-13 do exist, the violent crime rate for undocumented immigrants is lower than for the population as a whole, as many, including The Post’s Christopher Ingraham, have written…
In addition, as The Post’s Philip Bump has written, the percentage of noncitizens in federal prisons has been dropping in recent years, and only about 1 percent of federal prisoners are noncitizens convicted of non-immigration-related offenses.
In Texas, for example, which has large numbers of immigrants, here both legally and illegally, the number of crimes committed by those immigrants is far lower than the native population. The overall crime rate for citizens is about 1800 per 100,000 residents. For undocumented immigrants, it’s about 800, less than half. For legal immigrants, it’s about 300. The murder rate is about 4 per 100,000. For undocumented immigrants, it’s less than 3; for legal immigrants, it’s less than .5. And this has been shown to be true in many studies around the country, not just in Texas.
This is pure demagoguery. Take a problem that has been going down for years, pretend it’s a growing and huge problem, lie about it repeatedly and convince people that their very lives are at risk from this “invasion” of poor and desperate people who are so intent on escaping the brutal conditions where they live to walk thousands of miles through desert heat with their children on their backs. It’s a giant lie designed to push the buttons of fear.
I am reminded once again of one of Mencken’s most famous quotes: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” It’s how you win elections in the “land of the brave,” where we are so terrified of everything that we are easily manipulated.
Here's the plot:
97% of scientists conspire to create an imaginary environmental crisis, only to be exposed by a plucky band of billionaires, senators, and oil companies!
Judge denies Trump’s request for stay in emoluments case
A federal judge on Friday denied President Trump’s request to stay a lawsuit alleging he is in violation of the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments, a decision that paves the way for plaintiffs to seek information from his business as it relates to his D.C. hotel.
U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Greenbelt, Md., denied the Justice Department’s request that he pause the case in order to allow a higher court to intervene. And he sharply questioned the president’s position that his business does not improperly accept gifts or payments — called emoluments — as defined by the Constitution.
By Trump’s analysis, Messitte wrote, the term emoluments is the subject of such “substantial grounds of disagreement” that payments his business received from foreign governments could not qualify. The judge did not agree: “The Court finds this a dubious proposition.”
Messitte ordered the plaintiffs, the attorneys general for D.C. and Maryland, to submit a schedule for discovery — the process of producing evidence for the case — within 20 days.That decision is subject to appeal.
The judge previously limited discovery to information related to the president’s D.C. hotel.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
This is the second civil case in which Trump’s business is now subject to discovery, after Trump agreed Tuesday to produce portions of his calendar from 2007 and 2008 in a defamation lawsuit brought by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos.
Trump still owns his company, although he says he has stepped back from day-to-day control.
The Trump Organization has held several large events paid for by foreign governments at Trump’s D.C. hotel and reported about $150,000 in what it called “foreign profits” last year.
The Constitution bars federal officials from taking emoluments from any “King, Prince, or Foreign State.” The Founding Fathers’ intent had been to stop U.S. ambassadors overseas — emissaries from a new, poor, fragile country — from being bought off by jewels or payments from wealthy European states.
"As a woman of faith, it is important for me to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. My parents raised me to understand your faith is a shield to protect, not a sword to strike people down.”
Stacey Abrams
The Stock Markets are back to where they were a year ago. All gains have been completely wiped out.
ONE IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE: @realDonaldTrump and the GOP have added $1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS to our debt. IN ONE. YEAR!
See why they aren't boasting on the markets anymore?
Supreme Court refuses to delay case alleging an improper political motive in decision to add citizenship question to census.
"A federal judge on Friday denied President Trump’s request to stay a lawsuit alleging he is in violation of the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments,"
I think Trump will eventually lose this case, even with his boy Kav on the court, but so what?
he'll just sell his interest in the hotel to his kids
the idea that he would be bribed by some foreigner staying at his hotel is a bit ridiculous though
almost as ridiculous as the idea that he would pay Russia to hack Hillary's computer since there are so few Americans that can do that
LOL
btw, Brett Kav attended a reunion at Georgetown Prep last weekend
guys only, they slapped backs, took selfies with Brett, reminisced about all the chicks they scored in the day....
and beer was served!!
LOL
In a new annual tradition, Brett Kavanaugh took a trip back to good ol’ Georgetown Prep, where his high school drinking buddies heralded him for managing to evade several sexual assault accusations. A hero's welcome!
Several friends from the Class of 1983 who made it into Kavanaugh’s famed calendar joined him at Georgetown Prep’s annual reunion weekend and homecoming game, though it appears that just like the FBI, no one can find Mark Judge or Squi.
At one point during the football game, Justice Kavanaugh prepared to pose for a picture with former classmates. First, though, he instructed everyone to put down their beers.
The post-game drinking event was where his classmates had their real fun, with the school president declaring the allegations against Kavanaugh—that in 1982 he attempted to rape then 15-year-old Christine Blasey Ford at a party—brought the Class of 1983 together.
“You guys, the Class of 1983, are in some ways my first class,” said Father Van Dyke, noting how “we’ve been all thrown into the mix together.” He added that “I have heard so many of your names.”
Again his voice was drowned out by a chorus of whooping and cheering, as the crowd screamed some of those names: “Squi!” “P.J.!” That would be Patrick J. Smyth, another classmate whom Dr. Blasey claimed was at the party where she was assaulted. Mr. Smyth was at the event, held at Pinstripes.
So nice to see a group of men come together to celebrate.
At least 270 people traveling among the thousands in the new migrant caravans have criminal records, Homeland Security said Thursday.
U.S. officials also said the caravan could begin to arrive in a few days, depending on how they travel the length of Mexico and whether they make any more long stops along the way.
Mexican government officials, whose police have already clashed with some members of the caravan, described some participants as “very violent.” Meanwhile foreign governments tell the U.S. that perhaps 50 percent of the caravan is made up of single adults, complicating the narrative of thousands of women and children fleeing their homes.
Homeland Security said the intelligence chief in Guatemala, through which the caravans cross en route from Honduras north to Mexico, said the men are pushing women and children to the front the mass of people to use them as “human shields” against the police and military who tried to block their progress.
The U.S. government released the details Thursday night, hours after Mr. Trump said he’ll take new steps to try to block the caravans from reaching the U.S.
His military deployment is quickly ramping up, with all 5,200 of the initial wave of troops slated to be at the border by Friday. The president on Wednesday said that number could grow to 15,000.
Mr. Trump also announced he will issue an executive order next week curtailing the ways migrants can demand asylum. He suggested limiting asylum claims to those who show up at official ports of entry, while denying those who jump the border the chance to claim asylum.
Republicans are suing in Federal Court to eliminate insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions.
They are lying pre-mid-terms; telling the American people that they support pre-existing condition coverage.
Don't Be Boondoggled
Vote Blue November 6 - Lives depend on it!
Canada Ranked #1 Destination For LGBT Honeymoons
Awww! What a pretty couple!
"So nice to see a group of men come together to celebrate."
Yeah, just like it was great to see tRump and Billy Bush come together to celebrate Tic Tacs and pussy grabbing.
Woooo boy!
"Bush: "Your girl's hot as shit. In the purple."
Multiple voices: "Whoah. Yes. Whoah."
Bush: "Yes. The Donald has scored. Whoah my man."
Trump: "Look at you. You are a pussy."
Bush: "You gotta get the thumbs up."
Trump: "Maybe it's a different one."
Bush: "It better not be the publicist. No, it's, it's her."
Trump: "Yeah that's her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything."
Bush: "Whatever you want."
Trump: "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."
Bush: "Yeah those legs. All I can see is the legs."
Trump: "It looks good.""
well, a couple of things about the above
this was a private conversation
when, Hillary's campaign's emails were publicized, Dems acted as if national security was endangered
but this doesn't bother them
further, Trump had the decency to not say this in a public forum
Dems, for petty political gain, have turned what was once a crass term from x-rated movies into a household word, chanting it in the streets
if they think that has gained them any points with the voting public, they are ghastly mistaken
further, Dems have tried to portray this statement of consensual activity as sexual assault
and, yet, in contrast to Bill Clinton, not one women has accused Trump of sexual assault
Dems are pathetic
What's pathetic is the comment above written just after 1AM on a Saturday night by a hate-filled GOPer who fully supports the pussy grabber and his band of thugs.
Indicted so far: 35, four of whom struck plea deals with Mueller -- Manafort, Gates, Papadopolos, and Patten.
Not to mention: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations
"What's pathetic is the comment above written just after 1AM on a Saturday night"
really, how?
"by a hate-filled GOPer"
really don't detest anyone
"who fully supports the pussy grabber"
there you go again
no one's impressed, and voters don't appreciate your normalization of this term
"and his band of thugs.
Indicted so far: 35, four of whom struck plea deals with Mueller -- Manafort, Gates, Papadopolos, and Patten"
Mueller has a history of prosecutorial abuse
he could find a way to turn any American into a felon
indeed, the government has had to pay damages in the millions to past victims of his tactics and one individual, who was innocent, killed himself
as for those "35", most were Russian nationals who had no connection to the Trump campaign and whose activities were likely protected by the Constitution but whom Mueller happily indicted because he knows they'll never be brought to trial and he won't have to defend his creative interpretations of the law
"when Kanye went to the White House, CNN anchors said he was doing a "minstrel" show"
Even Kanye agrees with CNN anchors.
This week Kanye fired off a series of tweets apparently distancing himself from politics. He said, "My eyes are now wide open and now realize I've been used to spread messages I don't believe in. I am distancing myself from politics and completely focusing on being creative."
Ye went on to thank his family and community for "supporting my ACTUAL beliefs and my vision for a better world." He also expressed compassion for people seeking asylum and parents fighting to protect their children from violence and war.
And, he said he supports common-sense gun laws.
-Trump and his father were forced to settle a housing discrimination claim in the 1970s alleging that they refused to rent to African Americans;
-Trump called for the death penalty for the so-called Central Park Five, insisting on their guilt even after DNA evidence exonerated them;
-Trump stoked birtherism, a racist conspiracy theory claiming that the first African American president wasn’t born in the United States;
-At a rally during the 2016 campaign, Trump referred to an African American in the crowd “as my African American over here,” imploring the crowd to “look” at him.
-There is no visible African American staffer in the West Wing;
-In a White House meeting, Trump allegedly said Haitians “all have AIDS” and that Nigerians should “go back to their huts.”
-According to lawmakers who attended an immigration meeting with Trump, the president said the United States should not be taking immigrants from “shithole” countries such as Haiti and from Africa; he said American immigration should prefer Norwegians;
-Trump said there were some “very fine people” among the neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville last year, and;
-Trump regularly refers to African Americans as “low IQ.”
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A Republican lawmaker in Washington state denied Friday that he is racist or a white nationalist for distributing a document describing how a “Holy Army” should kill people who flout biblical law.
State Rep. Matt Shea of Spokane Valley in conservative eastern Washington has been under fire since he acknowledged in a Facebook video last week that he had distributed the four-page document titled, “Biblical Basis for War” to some of his supporters.
The document condemns abortion and same-sex marriage and describes how those who don’t follow biblical law should be punished. At one point, the document says, “If they do not yield, kill all males.”
News of the document prompted several of Shea’s political contributors to demand refunds of their donations.
Shea has embraced far-right conspiracy theories, mingled with militia groups, visited right-wing activists who seized a wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016, and led a push to convert eastern Washington into a 51st state, called Liberty.
He represents a deeply conservative district that keeps electing him because he is effective in promoting his business-friendly agenda.
Shea, a lawyer, has said the document was merely a summary of sermon notes based on the Old Testament and that he was not promoting violence.
Critics including his Democratic opponent, Ted Cummings, and Republican Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich have called the document a guideline for Christian domination.
Other critics said the document appears to call for violence against people who do not share Shea’s religious views.
Cummings said the attention appeared to trigger a wave of small contributions to his long-shot campaign for the legislative seat.
“I’m overwhelmed by the support coming in!” Cummings tweeted. “We brought this dangerous, destructive man out of the shadows, into the open.”
Shea also is facing backlash from some of his donors. The political arm of the Northwest Credit Union Association, which represents more than 180 credit unions in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, gave $1,000 to Shea’s campaign before the August primary but recently asked the campaign to return it.
“His beliefs do not reflect the views and values of the NWCUA, our member credit unions, or the consumers who are credit union members,” Lynn Heider, the group’s vice president for public affairs, said in a statement.
In online videos, he spewed misogynistic and racist vitriol — and railed against all the women who had turned him down.
In real life, records show, he had a history of harassing women and was accused of touching women’s buttocks without their consent.
And on Friday, the authorities said, he shot two women to death and injured five other people at a Florida yoga studio before killing himself.
The gunman, Scott P. Beierle, 40, posed as a customer at the studio in Tallahassee, Fla., and then opened fire without warning, the police said. The authorities were investigating to determine Mr. Beierle’s connection to the yoga studio and the victims.
Officials identified the victims who were killed as Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, a faculty member at Florida State University, and Maura Binkley, 21, a student there. Four women and one man suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Mr. Beierle, who the authorities said had prior military service, lived in Deltona, Fla., and had been staying at a hotel while visiting Tallahassee, the police said. He was a graduate of Florida State, where he had been arrested at least twice, once on charges of battery against women, according to records and the police.
He also had a history of expressing misogynistic and racist views. In a series of videos posted over a three-day period in August 2014, he ranted against women and minorities, the police and the Army — anyone and everyone who he believed had wronged him.
In the videos, Mr. Beierle pontificated from a dimly lit bedroom, with an unmade bed and a pile of cardboard boxes in the background. He lamented his inability to connect with other people — from Army comrades who he said would not travel with him while stationed in Europe to women who refused to go out with him.
He identified with “involuntary celibates” and told personal stories of rejection, naming multiple girls who he said had wronged him.
“Made one date, didn’t show up,” he said of one woman. “Made another date, didn’t show up. Kept making excuses. Ah, I could’ve ripped her head off.”
He expressed sympathy with Elliot O. Rodger, who killed six people in Isla Vista, Calif., three months before Mr. Beierle recorded the videos. Mr. Rodger had expressed his disgust at women online and urged “incels” — shorthand for involuntary celibates — to fight back.
Back in 2016, I predicted a Donald Trump victory when no one else dared. Every poll showed Trump would lose the presidency to Hillary Clinton by a wide margin. So how did I know?
First: Size matters. You could see it in the rallies. Trump would attract eight-hour lines and overflow attendance at wild, intense rallies all over America.
Meanwhile, the attendees at Hillary’s rallies could have fit in my living room. The same held true across America. That was my first clue that Trump was going to pull a huge upset that few saw coming.
Second: Trump was “the whisper candidate.” Everywhere I went, people whispered in my ear, “I’m with you. I’m for Trump.” They wouldn’t tell pollsters. They wouldn’t put up yard signs. No bumper stickers on their cars. But they whispered to me.
Don’t look now, but it’s all happening again. Nate Silver says Democrats have a greater than 80 percent chance of winning the House. The Cook Political Report says Democrats will win the House by 40 seats. All the experts say it’s over: Democrats will win. I’ll go out on a limb and disagree again.
I see Andrew Gillum, Florida’s Democratic candidate for governor, holding a rally with Bernie Sanders, and the place is empty. Barack Obama could not fill a high school gym in Milwaukee. I saw Joe Biden and Obama at separate events here in Las Vegas playing to small crowds. Meanwhile, I was opening speaker for President Trump’s event in September at the Las Vegas Convention Center — with thousands waiting in line for hours.
Does that sound like the GOP is losing 40 seats? Dream on, delusional Democrats.
Nothing has changed. Trump has fulfilled almost all of his campaign promises. And those same voters are whispering to me again. They love Trump, now more than ever.
Third: Common sense. The Trump economy is booming. The latest results are out: 250,000 more jobs last month, far above what was expected. The lowest unemployment in half a century. The number of employed Americans is the highest ever. Wages grew by a remarkable 3.1 percent year over year, the most in almost a decade. Who in their right mind would vote against that?
Most importantly, Trump brilliantly has kept the emotional issue of illegal immigration front and center. He wants to block the caravan, end birthright citizenship and make it much harder for illegal aliens to claim asylum.
A poll from NumbersUSA says 65 percent of likely voters in swing districts across the country agree with Trump. The middle class will come out in record numbers for Trump. Bet on it.
In the 2014 midterm election in Texas, 1.7 million voted early. This year, early voting in Texas numbered more than 4.3 million. With a booming economy and an illegal alien invasion in the headlines, you think they’re coming out for Democrats?
No way, Jose.
I’ll go out on a limb again to predict another upset for the GOP on Tuesday.
Republicans will expand their Senate majority by three to six seats.
It will be very close, but the GOP will hold the House.
And America stays bright red.
We've heard for years about "first midterm blues" -- the president losing seats after his election. Recently, we saw it with President Clinton in 1994 and President Obama in 2010. We did not see it with President Bush in 2002 but maybe that was an outlier.
What happens in 2018? For some time, we've been hearing about "the blue wave". However, in recent days, we are hearing of a GOP enthusiasm boost that could make comparisons to the past useless.
The first obvious sign of a GOP boost is the U.S. Senate. As of today, Nevada is the only seat that the Democrats could flip. On the other hand, North Dakota and Missouri look like GOP flips. Indiana and Montana could flip to the GOP, too. In a worst case scenario, the GOP could end up with 52, or 55 in a best case scenario. I won't mention New Jersey, Michigan, and Florida where a surprise could also bring us a GOP victory.
Over in the House, it appears that the Democrats have the edge today but the election is Tuesday. I hear from many that there are a lot of close contests. So let's wait for the voters to answer the question. Turnout could make a huge difference in many of those close elections.
Another interesting factor is early voting. It looks as if the GOP is leading, but it's an uncertain measurement. At the same time, they say that the GOP is more disciplined to vote on election day. If so, then the head start on early voting may be a good sign for the GOP.
So what happens on Tuesday? I think that the experts are missing the fact that 2018 is different. I agree with Mark Penn that we are navigating in different waters this year. President Trump is making this midterm about ideas. He has many and the Democrats have none:
There is no question that President Trump is the most disruptive force in politics today.
The president has torn up every political playbook. His political survival after two years in office is a modern-day miracle, and his polling numbers are even running ahead of where Presidents Obama and Clinton were at this point.
President Trump’s most powerful weapon so far has not been the insult -- which he certainly has been willing to use -- but the idea.
Yes, what is happening is that Trump is running on ideas and finding that a lot of Americans agree with them.
The Democrats say that President Trump is running on fear about the caravan, for example. At the same time, they present no idea as to how to deal with it.
On "birthright citizenship", the Democrats play the fear card. At the same time, not one is willing to introduce legislation saying that a baby born to a woman without papers should be declared a citizen.
On the economy, Trump has the latest jobs report. The Democrats have more resistance.
So we will see a clash of waves. My money is that the GOP wave will be bigger.
HOUSTON (AP) — Militia groups and far-right activists are raising money and announcing plans to head to the Mexican border to help stop the caravan of Central Americans, echoing President Donald Trump’s attacks on the migrants making their way toward the U.S.
Exactly how many militia members will turn out is unclear, and as of Friday, the caravan of about 4,000 people was still some 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) and weeks away from reaching this country.
But the prospect of armed civilians at the border — and the escalating political rhetoric over immigration — have fueled fears of vigilantism at a time when tensions are already running high because of the mail bomb attacks against some of Trump’s critics.
The U.S. Border Patrol this week warned local landowners in Texas that it expects “possible armed civilians” to come onto their property because of the caravan.
Three activists told The Associated Press that they were going to the border or organizing others, and groups on Facebook have posted dire warnings about the caravan. One said it was “imperative that we have boots on the ground.” Another wrote: “WAR! SECURE THE BORDER NOW!”
The militia members said they plan to bring guns and equipment such as bulletproof vests and lend a hand to the Border Patrol to protect against people unlawfully entering the country.
“They’re just laughing in our face,” said Shannon McGauley, president of the Texas Minutemen. “It’s a free-for-all in America.”
McGauley said he already has members at three points of the state’s border with Mexico and expects to add 25 to 100 more people in the coming days.
Border watch groups and militias have been patrolling the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) southern boundary off and on for more than a decade. Typically, the groups watch for people illegally crossing into the U.S. When they spot crossers, they contact the Border Patrol.
Their presence has led to conflict in some cases. A militia member killed two people in 2009 during an invasion of what she thought was a drug house near the border in Arivaca, Arizona.
Residents in that same city have been posting signs in recent weeks warning that militia members are not welcome.
Border crossings, while rising this year, are still far below the numbers in previous decades. But Harel Shapira, a University of Texas professor who was embedded with an Arizona militia from 2005 to 2008, said that what’s driving militia groups is the way some politicians have more recently defined immigrants as “existential threats to a particular way of life.”
Monica Marin, an Oregon resident, said she has raised about $4,000 online to help militias buy supplies. She argued that members of the caravan are dangerous, echoing Trump’s claim that “unknown Middle Easterners” are mixed in with the crowd. There is no evidence to support those claims. (Read an AP fact check here .)
New York City police are searching for the culprit who left hate-filled graffiti last week on the historic African Burial Ground National Monument in Manhattan. The vandal’s message, penned in black marker on a monument plaque, contained a racist slur and suggested black people should be killed.
The offensive graffiti was quickly removed, but community leaders expressed outrage that no one has been apprehended.
“Some lowlife come and on this monument right back here and write ‘kill the N’s.’ You must be out of your mind if you think we’ll remain silent. We want an arrest,” state Assemblyman Charles Barron said on Sunday, according to CBS News.
Located steps from City Hall, the monument marks a burial ground that contains about 15,000 skeletal remains of African-Americans who lived and worked in colonial New York. Those buried at the site, many of whom were slaves, weren’t allowed to be interred in traditional church cemeteries at the time of their deaths.
According to the monument’s website, the site is the “oldest and largest known excavated burial ground in North America for both free and enslaved Africans. It protects the historic role slavery played in building New York City.”
The vandalism at the monument occurred Thursday — the same day that Brooklyn’s Union Temple was vandalized with violent anti-Semitic messages, and the same week that several graffitied swastikas were found in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Days earlier, on Oct. 27, a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and killed 11 people in the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history.
Dermot Shea, NYPD chief of detectives, told reporters last week that the city had seen an increase in “anti-Semitic hate crimes, particularly swastikas, on buildings in parts of the city,” according to The New York Times.
On Sunday, the New York-based group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice responded to the vandalism of the African Burial Ground monument with a message of solidarity.
“In the face of so much pain and hate, we have to respond with love and a commitment to healing. Our communities will keep holding each other close. We will not turn on each other. We are in this together,” the group wrote on Twitter.
Because President Trump is an Alt-Right, White-Supremacist, Nationalist Racist who wants to bring black slavery back in America, he dispatched a tweet proudly declaring record support among black voters.
“New Fox Poll shows a ‘40% Approval Rating by African Americans for President Trump, a record for Republicans.’ Thank you, a great honor!”
See, the thing you don’t understand about Alt-Right, White Supremacist, Nationalist Racists is that while their entire mission is to bring back black slavery, they also really want to be popular among black voters.
Such disgusting white privilege!
Of course the Great White Media immediately pounced on the proclamation and declared Mr. Trump’s tweet a lie.
Mr. Trump “invented” the poll, blared one internet rag.
“It’s 100% false,” declared another white person billing himself as a journalist. “Is Trump simply lying or is he so unhinged that he thinks its true?”
Actually, it turns out to be 100 percent true that such a poll was conducted — by Rasmussen. The results of that poll were reported by a columnist at FoxNews.com, which is where President Trump presumably learned of it.
I am sorry, but who is unhinged here?
This is what the Great White Media has morphed into in the age of Trump. They simply refuse to focus on the substance of anything.
They don’t want to talk about the economy, America’s disastrously broken immigration system or any of the other serious issues that got Donald Trump elected in the first place.
No, they just want to talk about Mr. Trump’s style. The tiniest misstatement gets turned into a mountain of Fake News. Oftentimes, there isn’t even a misstatement at the foot of that mountain. Just Fake News.
In this case, why did the Great White Media come so unglued?
Because they are absolutely terrified that the Rasmussen poll is actually correct. Or at least onto something. In fact, there are numerous surveys that indicate Mr. Trump’s popularity has improved significantly among black voters since he was elected.
In August, a professor named Michael Tesler wrote about black voters for The Washington Post in a column bizarrely called “Monkey Cage.” (I guess you are allowed to do this sort of thing if you call yourself a race expert.)
Professor Tesler dismissed an earlier Rasmussen poll showing 36-percent support among black voters for Mr. Trump as an “outlier.”
“Many critics have argued that Trump’s attacks on the intelligence of such prominent African Americans as LeBron James, Don Lemon, Maxine Waters, and Omarosa Manigault Newman were rooted in racism,” he wrote. “Manigault Newman has also made headlines for claiming that Trump is a racist who uses the n-word.”
Let’s set aside the stupidity of this claim. What matters more to black voters? Goofball accusations from un-serious people or the lowest black unemployment in history?
As an American voter, I can tell you what matters more to me. And I know I am not alone.
And this is precisely why Democrats and the Great White Media are so stricken with fear today. This is also why Democrats and the media have cranked up their race-baiting to the highest level ever.
Mr. Trump’s policies are actually working to make life better for all Americans, including black voters. And Hispanic voters and Christians and Jews and Muslims and all the other categories Democrats like to divide Americans into.
If Mr. Trump can break down those false barriers and allow all voters to vote as Americans rather than the racial groups politicians put us all into then America will, indeed, be greater for it.
Multiple loser presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suggested that former attorney general Eric Holder and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, both of whom are black, "all look alike."
During an interview in New York City on Saturday, Recode executive editor Kara Swisher
asked Clinton a question regarding a quip that was previously made by Holder, but mistook him for the junior senator from New Jersey: "What do you think of Corey Booker ... what do you think about him saying 'Kick them in the shins,' essentially?"
"Well, that was Eric Holder," Clinton said. "Yeah, I know they all look alike."
"No, they don't," Swisher responded.
The "kick them in the shins" remark Swisher referenced came from Holder, who made that comment during a Democratic campaign event in Georgia earlier in October. During the event, Holder modified former first lady Michelle Obama's infamous slogan, "When they go low, we go high."
"When they go low, we kick 'em," Holder said at the time, adding: "That's what this new Democratic Party is about."
Imagine if President Donald Trump said the exact same thing in the exact same way, what would the media response be? Hysteria? Outrage? It would likely be beyond all that.
But, right now, I'm hearing crickets. Wonder why.
This Tuesday America takes an IQ test. Or perhaps we should say a common sense test. Or even more a test to see the degree to which it has been brainwashed.
This test has been going on for a week or two now in early voting in rather large numbers, but the results will be in, for the most part, late Tuesday night.
You would think that with all economic indicators at or near an all-time high, unemployment at an all-time low (notably for minorities and women), wages rising as they haven't in years, the country at peace with the threat of evil doers from ISIS to North Korea on the wane, and an incredible, indeed unprecedented, number of presidential accomplishments in 20 months this election would be the proverbial no-brainer for voters.
But no, the president tweets too much, is a braggart, insults people, is a totalitarian, a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, etc., etc. Never mind what he actually does provides no evidence of that, indeed often proves the opposite. He has bad manners. The country must throw him and his party out. The media says so and it has to be.
This is "can't stand prosperity" on steroids. It is a country shooting itself in the foot to please a group of "elites" whose sensibilities are offended and, even more, who are driven by envy and a lust for power.
What is on offer instead, for a surprising number, is none other than socialism, that hoary Nineteenth Century political theory that has led to the impoverishment of the masses and mass murder by the millions unparalleled in human history, the same ideology that is being fled in droves all over Europe. Good idea that. See what I mean about an IQ test?
Adam Schiff -- if he becomes chairman of the House Intelligence Committee -- even expects to reactivate the hugely corrupt and partisan Russia probe, probably to avoid being exposed for being a serial liar on the subject himself for two years. Who knows what Maxine Waters -- if she is elevated to chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee -- will concoct, but it certainly won't be a reopening of the ethics investigation of her husband's bank. She is governed by vengeance, the same emotion that seems to control the hearts and minds of myriad public officials in our country, too many of whom are on the Democratic side.
The United States is in the strongest position it has been possibly since its inception but it is tearing itself apart like a nation on the brink of civil war. It is Freud's narcissism of small differences played out on a national stage and gone berserk. Compared to virtually all of human history and to most of the rest of today's world, most citizens, and even many non-citizens, in the USA have more white, brown, black and yellow privilege than could have been conceived of in any halfway rational utopian dream -- and it's only getting better. Yet vast numbers of people are at each other's throats, not to mention families and friendships riven across the country.
Imagine if there really were a problem, how things would be. On second thought, maybe we need one.
Fox News said Monday it has stopped airing the controversial political ad paid for by President Donald Trump’s campaign, which likens members of the Central American migrant caravan to a man convicted of killing police officers in the U.S.
The Trump-friendly network’s decision comes after CNN made headlines on Saturday for refusing to air it and after NBC came under fire for running it during prime time on Sunday night.
“Upon further review, Fox News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network,” ad sales president Marianne Gambelli said in a statement.
The 30-second spot includes footage of Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico citizen sentenced to death in April for killing two police officers in California in 2014.
The ad compares his behavior to members of the caravan, which mostly comprises adults and children who plan to legally seek asylum at ports of entry into the U.S. The video then urges viewers to “vote Republican” before a voiceover from Trump says he approves the message.
CNN called out the ad as blatantly “racist” in replying to critical tweets from Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, who charged that the network would “only run fake news and won’t talk about real threats.”
Fox’s decision follows NBC saying earlier Monday that it had erred in running the ad.
“After further review, we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible,” said Joe Benarroch, a spokesperson for the NBC advertising sales department.
Facebook said Monday it will remove the ad from its platforms.
Despite the backlash, the Trump campaign shows no signs of backing down on the ad. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, unleashed an angry tweet about the ad pull shortly after Fox News, Trump’s favorite media outlet, made its announcement, though he did not single out the network.
The ad is Trump’s latest effort to rouse fear about the migrant caravan in the days ahead of the midterm elections. Last week, he announced he was sending more than 5,200 troops to the U.S.’s southern border despite the caravan being weeks away and posing no known threat.
"The ad is Trump’s latest effort to rouse fear about the migrant caravan in the days ahead of the midterm elections"
ah, yes
any lack of support for the liberal agenda is just fear
many of us prefer to help our citizens who struggle rather than use our resources to farm in the rest of the world
it's not lost on minorities in our country that since Trump began cracking down on illegal immigration, minority unemployment is at the lowest point ever
approval ratings:
Trump 44%
Schumer 28%
Pelosi 27%
Hillary .1%
More than 35 million early votes have been counted nationwide as of Monday — well more than the total cast in the 2014 midterm elections.
That year, just more than 21 million early votes were tabulated.
The NBC News Data Analytics Lab, using voter file data from TargetSmart, found that 35,526,881 early votes were counted nationwide as of Monday. In states that have early voting, 42 percent of voters are Republican, 41 percent are Democrats, and 17 percent have either independent or have another party affiliation.
Republican-affiliated voters have outpaced Democratic-affiliated voters in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Tennessee and Texas.
That's not really a surprise, especially in Georgia, where the Republicans have worked extra hard to knock Democrats off the registration lists.
The top trending search term on Google in the U.S. on Election Day was “dónde votar” (where to vote) as of noon, spiking at a 3,350 percent increase from the day before. The search’s popularity suggests more Hispanics are planning to vote.
Simon Rogers, a data editor at Google News Lab, said the term did not trend high during the 2016 elections. Trending terms on Google can’t predict election results, but it is a “powerful social indicator,” he said.
In a year in which the GOP targeted immigration as a key voting issue, civic engagement groups have been out in full force to get out the Hispanic vote.
Karina Martinez, the communications director of Mi Familia Vota, said their organization made a huge effort this year to engage the Hispanic community for the midterms. Throughout the year in key states like Florida, Arizona and Colorado, the group held town halls, which were nationally broadcast on Univision. Mi Familia Vota invested in national advertising and went door to door to help get out the vote.
Martinez said the organization registered over 84,000 voters.
“A lot of this work was spun out of a reaction to what has happened under the Trump presidency,” she said. “It motivated us to go out and get out the vote.”
Haz que América sea grande otra vez!
so many people who are registered to vote don't speak English?
sounds like we have some illegals voting
if anyone wants to go laugh at the dumb Dems, here's the location of their mourning parties:
Dear dedicated Democratic voter,
After a busy day of voting, please join us at one of our exciting watch parties across the state as we watch today’s midterm election results come in live! Let’s bring the Blue Wave!
Thank you,
Kathleen Matthews
Chair, Maryland Democratic Party
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
D30 Annapolis Election Night Party with Speaker Mike Busch, Sarah Elfreth, and Alice Cain
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Crowne Plaza Annapolis
173 Jennifer Rd, Annapolis, MD 21401
RSVP to Busch.FieldTeam@gmail.com
Election Night Volunteer Appreciation and Watch Party with Sarah Elfreth
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts – Gymnasium
801 Chase St, Annapolis, MD 21401
RSVP Here
BALTIMORE CITY
Election Night Party at the Baltimore Museum of Industry with Senator Ben Cardin, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, and Congressman John Sarbanes
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Baltimore Museum of Industry
Baltimore, MD 21230
Ben Jealous Election Night Watch Party
7:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Hippodrome Theater at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center
12 North Eutaw Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
RSVP Here
EASTERN SHORE
Jesse Colvin Election Night Watch Party
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Easton Elks Lodge #1622
502 Dutchmans Ln, Easton, MD 21601
RSVP Here
Queen Anne’s Election Night Watch Party
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Mamma Mia’s
219 E. Water St. in Centreville
RSVP Here
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
The Big Blue Wave Party 2018 with Congressman Jamie Raskin, Attorney General Brian Frosh, and Democratic Nominee for Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich
8:00 PM – 11:30 PM
Silver Spring Civic Building
1 Veterans Pl, Silver Spring, MD 20910
RSVP Here
David Trone Election Day Party
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Marriott RIO Office Building
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY
Prince George’s County Election Night Party with Aisha Braveboy
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Sobe Restaurant
10621 Greenbelt Rd #201, Glenn Dale, MD 20706
RSVP Here
If we really wanted illegals voting, we would have sent busses down to Mexico to pick up the caravan, and had them here before today.
Making all those women and children walk all the way just means RumpleThinSkin can scare white Evangelicals longer.
biggest winner yesterday:
originalist Supreme Court and judiciary
there were four Dem Senators from red states whose constituents favored Kavanaugh
three of them voted against Kavanaugh
all three lost yesterday
one voted for Kavanaugh
he won yesterday
the Supreme Court is THE issue that elected Trump
yesterday, it won a majority in the Senate that won't depend on flaky Susan Collins
all Trump's judicial and administrative appointments will sail through
he won't get the wall or middle class tax cuts but, now, he has someone to blame
the Dem House can investigate, subpoena and impeach
but the Senate can run counter investigations ad issue their own subpoenas and will dismiss the impeachment charges
the gay agenda won't be back in this generation
America backed Goresuch, not Garland
Jared Polis from Colorado becomes the first gay man to be elected governor in the U.S.
Sharice Davids becomes first LGBTQ person and Native American to represent Kansas in Congress.
Chris Pappas becomes New Hampshire’s first openly gay member of Congress.
Lesbian Angie Craig defeats anti-LGBTQ congressman in Minnesota, becomes first openly gay person elected to Congress from the state.
Two transgender women, Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker, were elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
Democrats Susan Ruiz and Brandon Woodard become the first LGBTQ members of the Kansas state legislature.
Zach Wahls, who defended his two lesbian moms before the Iowa House of Representatives in 2011, becomes a state lawmaker himself.
Malcolm Kenyatta becomes the first LGBTQ black man elected to the Pennsylvania state legislature.
Massachusetts voters uphold transgender rights protections (Question 3 on their ballot).
Kate Brown, the country’s first lesbian governor, and Tammy Baldwin, the first LGBTQ senator, re-elected.
Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who made headlines after refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple in 2015, lost her re-election bid to Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr.
“When I say I will faithfully execute the job of Rowan County Clerk and serve all citizens equally ... Of course that means LGBTQ+ citizens,” Caudill wrote on his campaign website. “I support every American’s right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ afforded them under the laws of our nation, and I do not believe our government should discriminate against anyone for being who they are.”
"I do not believe our government should discriminate against anyone for being who they are.”
seriously, Elwood?
you're a Democrat who attacks Donald Trump for being "who he is" all the time
gays are entitled to all the same rights and protections given by the Constitution
and they are free to run for office
but the era of special protections and privileges for practices that are inherently hedonistic perversions which discourage the survival of the human race...
is over
Merrick Garland...LOL
Colorado elects first openly gay governor Jared Polis
Mass. voters uphold transgender protections, siding with business community
Kansas elects first lesbian, Native American ex-MMA fighter
Two transgender women elected to N.H. House
Zach Wahls, who defended lesbian moms in viral speech, wins Iowa State Senate seat
Lesbian Angie Craig unseats anti-LGBT House lawmaker in Minnesota
Kim Davis (Yes, That Kim Davis) Just Lost Her Re-election Bid To A Democrat
And closer to home:
First known trans candidate elected to ANC
Chris Watts pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder and other charges in their deaths, it's still not known publicly what happened to 34-year-old Shanann Watts and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3.
When Shanann Watts and her two little girls went missing from their home in Frederick, about 30 miles north of Denver, Chris Watts first told news cameras that they had gone to a friend's house.
Later, as people searched for his missing family, Watts told CNN affiliate KMGH he had had an emotional conversation with his wife, Shanann, the last time he saw her. He gave no details about that talk, only saying, "I just want them back."
He initially told law enforcement that on the morning of August 13 he told his wife he wanted to separate and then left for work.
Police said that after they found the bodies three days later, Chris Watts, 33, then said he strangled his wife in a rage after he saw her on a baby monitor choking the couple's 3-year-old daughter.
Shanann Watts' body was found in a shallow grave, and the bodies of Bella and Celeste were discovered in commercial oil tanks at a company where Chris Watts had worked. Autopsy results have not been released.
In court Tuesday, Watts took responsibility for all three deaths, pleading guilty to nine charges, including first-degree murder and unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
In exchange for his pleas, Watts will not face the death penalty, according to Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke.
a guy in Colorado killed his wife and kids
ad that proves what?
A majority of voters in the House elections view the Russia investigation as "politically motivated," according to CNN exit polls, while a plurality disapprove of special counsel Robert Mueller's handling of it.
Specifically, 55 percent of voters said the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with President Trump's campaign was "politically motivated" compared with just 40 percent who said it was "mostly justified."
Meanwhile, 47 percent said they disapproved of Mueller's handling of the investigation, compared with 41 percent who approved.
Again, these numbers were based on a survey of the electorate that just delivered control of the House to Democrats.
The numbers were even more stark in some of the states with highly-contested Senate races. For instance, in Indiana, where Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, who voted against Brett Kavanaugh, was defeated soundly by Republican challenger Mike Braun, 62 percent said the Russia investigation was "politically motivated."
The Russia investigation has dominated headlines for about two years and initially seemed like it was going to be a key part of Democratic campaigns. Even some Republicans were fearing a nightmare scenario in which Mueller issues a damning report just ahead of the election. But when push came to shove, Russia was largely absent from the campaign trail this year as candidates focused on traditional campaign issues such as taxes, healthcare, and immigration.
The polling numbers provide a warning sign to House Democrats and their leader, grossy Nancy Pelosi. A restive base has been hungry for more aggressive oversight on Russia and even impeachment, but should Democrats pursue such a path, it could alienate independent voters and play right into the hands of Trump going into the 2020 elections. This could thus emerge as a difficult needle to thread for the incoming majority.
Hee hee hee!
Congratulations to the American public on the powerful rebuke to Tяump at the polls.
As usual, Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous claimed again and again Republicans would win the mid-term elections and was wrong.
Democrats would have won even more seats and governorships if it weren't for massive Russian interference in the election and Republican voter suppression efforts. Without a doubt, if it weren't for that Stacy Abrams and Andrew Gillum would be governors today.
Now with Democrats in control of the House Republicans won't be able to protect Tяump and hide all the corruption.
The Tяump gravy train is over!
If America didn't want a check on Rump, and limit the amount of damage he could do, they wouldn't have given Democrats back control of the House for the first time in 8 years.
Rump tried to distract people from his Russian collusion and coming tax fraud investigations by falling back on his tried and true xenophobia.
But in a country that was actually founded by immigrants, bad-mouthing immigrants only works on a shrinking demographic of fearful white people.
No matter what Democrats do from here on out, Republicans will blame them for every single ill the country suffers - even when they aren't the source of the underlying problem.
America voted to reign Rump in. There's no need to make a big splash about it - that's just more grist for the Faux News channel. But there's no reason to hold back or delay doing what they were voted in to do.
Look who's getting nervous because now it's time to Buckle up. The Mueller investigation may once again take center stage.
When it comes to news from the office of the special counsel, it has been a quiet couple of months. It appears Robert S. Mueller III has been abiding by the unwritten Justice Department policy of avoiding significant moves in political cases during the two months leading up to an election. Other events, such as the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, have consumed the public’s attention. But after the election on Tuesday, the Mueller investigation may once again take center stage.
Of course, the lull in public action doesn’t mean Mueller and his team have been sitting on their hands. But because grand-jury investigations are secret, little is known about what might be happening. The press and public are left trying to glean information from witnesses who have testified or from obscure court-docket entries with titles like “In re Sealed Case.” But with the election behind us, we soon may be able to rely on more than just speculation.
The Mueller investigation has two areas of primary focus: Russian interference with the 2016 election and possible involvement of members of the Trump campaign; and potential obstruction of justice by the president through such actions as firing then-FBI Director James B. Comey. What news there has been in recent weeks has focused on the Russia conspiracy angle, and in particular on former Trump adviser Roger Stone. Mueller’s investigators reportedly have interviewed a number of witnesses concerning whether Stone may have had advance notice of, or perhaps even direct involvement in, the strategically timed release of stolen Democratic emails in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. If Stone was involved, it could just be sleazy politics — or it could open him up to charges such as conspiracy to defraud the United States through illegally influencing the election.
Stone certainly is not the only one potentially in Mueller’s crosshairs; a number of other senior campaign officials still could end up implicated in a conspiracy with Russians attempting to tip the election to Donald Trump. That could lead to more indictments, or Mueller could conclude that what he has found does not merit prosecution. The end result could be a report to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein rather than criminal charges.
The obstruction-of-justice front appears less active. It seems Mueller has it largely wrapped up, with the significant exception of any testimony by the president himself. Because proving corrupt intent would be the key to an obstruction case, evidence regarding the president’s state of mind is critical. It would be helpful to hear his version of events — although it is certainly not required.
Whether Trump will agree to testify at all is still unresolved. It appears likely he will submit written answers to questions instead. Mueller would then have to decide whether to accept that or seek to subpoena the president. There could be significant legal battles ahead over these issues.
There are collateral disputes that could reemerge as well. For example, there were allegations that individuals including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner may have initially concealed contacts with Russians when applying for a security clearance. There also have been allegations that witnesses including Donald Trump Jr. may have provided false information to Congress when testifying about foreign contacts with the campaign. Crimes including perjury and false statements are potentially implicated by such controversies...
...Finally, there are proceedings beyond the Mueller investigation that also may heat up after the election. There is the separate ongoing federal criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York that led to the guilty plea and cooperation of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. That investigation could result in criminal charges against those high up in the Trump Organization or against the corporation itself. And if the House of Representatives changes hands, congressional committees under the leadership of Democrats — who will not hesitate to use their subpoena power — will investigate anew matters including Russian interference with the election.
Mueller has been at this for only about a year and a half. That’s not so long as these investigations go, yet he has already produced substantial results. There are a lot of unresolved issues still on his plate. It has been a quiet couple of months, but that is almost certainly about to change. Buckle up.
"Hee hee hee!"
we've been free of these imbecilic remarks for the last month or so
oh well, back to grade school, kids
"Congratulations to the American public on the powerful rebuke to Tяump at the polls."
their gains in the House are less than average for the first mid-term election of a new President
without the Senate, and with Trump's veto power, they can't do much
Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate
this allows the transformation of the judiciary to an originalist orientation to continue without the hindrance of catering to RINO Susan Collins
say goodbye to Roe v Wade
also, the new margin in the Senate, coupled with the seats coming up in 2020, virtually guarantees the GOP will retain the Senate in 2020
meaning four more years of controlling judicial appointments
best yet, since the Senate mirrors the electoral college, it looks like Trump's rally strategy for helping Senate candidates will also work for his re-election campaign
Trump also campaigned for winning governors in Ohio and Florida, key battleground states
having them in charge will be very helpful if 2020 is close
just ask Al Gore
further Dems have been pushing new superstar youngsters (Beto, Abrams, Gillum), four of whom were recently named Dem leaders of the future by Esquire magazine
all four lost
oh, and the three moderate Dems who voted against Kavanaugh lost but the moderate Dem who voted for Kavanaugh won
and most voters in exit polls said they think the Mueller investigation is politically motivated and they don't like the job he's doing
that's a "powerful rebuke"
LOL
"As usual, anonymous claimed again and again Republicans would win the mid-term elections and was wrong."
actually, the elections turned pretty close to what I expected
"Democrats would have won even more seats and governorships if it weren't for massive Russian interference in the election and Republican voter suppression efforts"
few people believe that
"Now with Democrats in control of the House Republicans won't be able to protect Tяump and hide all the corruption"
they're no worse than the media
Trump can handle their lies
just ask Jon Tester
Trump, Sessions Ginned Up Fake News of Impending Voter Fraud
As usual, the Republicans are using empty accusations of voter fraud to distract attention from their own voter suppression efforts. With the midterm elections today, both Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are ginning up fake outrage over impending voter fraud that almost never actually happens.
In a tweet early Monday, Trump said that law enforcement has been “strongly notified” to watch for “ILLEGAL VOTING.” He promised that anyone caught voting improperly would be subjected to “Maximum Criminal Penalties.” Sessions, in a statement laying out the Justice Department’s plans to monitor ballot access on Election Day, said “fraud in the voting process will not be tolerated. Fraud also corrupts the integrity of the ballot.”
In remarks to reporters on his way to a campaign rally in Cleveland, Trump also falsely claimed that voter fraud is commonplace.
“Just take a look,” he said. “All you have to do is go around, take a look at what’s happened over the years, and you’ll see. There are a lot of people — a lot of people — my opinion, and based on proof — that try and get in illegally and actually vote illegally. So we just want to let them know that there will be prosecutions at the highest level.”
Love that standard of evidence — “just take a look.” Well gee Donald, you have taken a look, several times, and always fail to produce any evidence of widespread voter fraud. You created an entire commission to provide that evidence and it disbanded before even issuing a report. The leader of that commission, had an entire federal trial to produce that evidence and not only failed, but got himself sanctioned for contempt of court for flouting the rules of civil procedure — he couldn’t even show evidence of this while cheating. Your DOJ put together a grand jury in North Carolina to find evidence for it and — again — it failed to find more than a small handful of potential cases.
So after failing repeatedly to provide any evidence, his case has collapsed down to “just take a look.” It’s his version of “do your research.” Not that his followers will care in the least. To them, it’s true because he says it’s true because it must be true or their favoured narratives fall apart. But now you’ve made clear multiple times that the feds are watching closely for any potential voter fraud. So guess what that means when they don’t find any? It means they’re lying through their teeth.
The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
COLORADO: Jared Polis Elected First Out Gay Governor
Jared Polis has won the Colorado governor’s race, becoming the first openly gay person to be elected governor in America.
Polis, a Democrat who has served in the House of Representatives since 2009, did not attempt to hide his sexual orientation on the campaign trail, and sometimes used it to emphasize the contrast between himself and President Donald Trump’s administration.
Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, a Democrat, came out as gay while in office in 2004. And Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, also a Democrat, is openly bisexual, which made her the first openly LGBTQ person elected governor when she won in 2016.
The overwhelming majority of Americans approve of gays and gay marriage. Americans are not where Tяump is on all his anti-gay/anti-trans offensives.
MASSACHUSETTS: Voters Reject Anti-Trans Measure
Via press release from the ACLU:
“By winning the first statewide popular vote on transgender rights, Massachusetts voters reaffirmed our Commonwealth as a place that fiercely defends our basic values of dignity and respect for everyone. When Massachusetts leads on equality, the nation watches – and often, it follows. Tonight, we sent a message not just to transgender people and their families and friends here in Massachusetts, but to the entire country. At a time when transgender rights are being threatened nationally, we absolutely must preserve the rights we have secured at the state level.”
The American public is not where Tяump is on all his anti-gay/anti-trans offensives.
The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
Hee hee hee!
MINNESOTA: Lesbian Unseats Anti-LGBT US House Rep
A lesbian candidate running for a U.S. House seat in Minnesota has unseated an anti-LGBT lawmaker from the U.S. House, making her poised to become the first openly gay mother in Congress.
At a around 8:15 local time, major media outlets declared Angie Craig, a business executive who’s also mother, the winner in her bid to unseat Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minn.) and represent Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district.
Lewis has an anti-LGBT history as a radio host before he came to Congress, according to a Buzzfeed News report.
The American people are not where Tяump is on all his anti-gay/anti-trans offensives.
The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. :)
Hee hee hee!
KANSAS: Lesbian Native American Flips House Seat
The Kansas City Star reports:
Kansas voters made history Tuesday when they selected Sharice Davids to be their next congresswoman. Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, will be the first Native American woman to serve in Congress — a distinction she shared with New Mexico’s Deb Haaland, who also won Tuesday — and the first openly LGBT person to represent the state of Kansas.
The political newcomer defeated four-term incumbent Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder to capture Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District. It’s the first time a Democrat has won the suburban Kansas City seat in a decade.
“It’s significant beyond Kansas,” said Davis Hammett, an LGBT rights activist from Topeka. “This is significant to all LGBT folks in the Midwest. She really feels like the voice for all the LGBT folks in the Midwest. And I know that there’s a similar feeling in Native American communities.”
The American people are not where Tяump is on all his anti-gay/anti-trans offensives.
The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. :)
gays are entitled to all the same rights and protections given by the Constitution as anyone else
and they are free to run for office
but the era of special protections and privileges for practices that are inherently hedonistic perversions which discourage the survival of the human race...
is over
Merrick Garland...LOL
Sessions resigned as requested by IQ45.
good riddance
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana Democrat Jon Tester captured a third term in the U.S. Senate with an extremely narrow victory over an opponent President Donald Trump tried to boost by making repeated visits to the state.
Tester's re-election over State Auditor Matt Rosendale helps stem Republican gains elsewhere in the nation that allowed the GOP to keep an edge in the Senate even as it lost control of the House.
During a victory speech Wednesday before supporters in Great Falls, Tester lamented the negative tone of a race that often turned personal. He pledged cooperation across the aisle when the new Congress convenes.
The mid-term elections were a rainbow wave as well as a blue wave! :)
Hee hee hee!
Professional anti-gay bigot Matt Barber has the midterms Super Sadz:
"Yesterday Was One Of The Darkest Days In US History".
Yes, yesterday’s election was one of the darkest days in America’s history. To many such as myself, it spells the end of the America that we have known and loved. It is perhaps the final nail in our nation’s coffin and the turning it into something ugly and evil – a socialist nation.
That's how messed up these immoral bigots minds are, they think any lessening of the offensives against innocent LGBT people is the end of the world.
No link because phuque those guys.
RELATED: For similar sadz, you’ll enjoy today’s Right Wing Watch entry titled “We Were Promised A Red Wave.”
"an opponent President Donald Trump tried to boost by making repeated visits to the state"
PDT tried and failed.
so sad that Dems think they had a great achievement yesterday
the average loss of seats for a first term President in their first term 1s 30 seats
for Clinton, it was 53
for Obama, it was 63
for Trump, 27
Obama also lost 6 Senate seats while Trump has gained 5
the gay agenda is long gone
gays are welcome to be part of our society
they will get no "protected class" status
The three-judge panel unanimously threw out the congressional map in a long running partisan gerrymandering case. The decision gives Maryland officials until March to submit a new redistricting plan.
The judges declared the boundaries unconstitutional and intentionally designed to target Republican voters in the 6th congressional district because of their political affiliation.
“When political considerations are taken into account to an extreme, the public perceives an abuse of the democratic process,” wrote Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, who was joined by U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III.
Chief U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar wrote a separate opinion agreeing with the overall judgment and declaring partisan gerrymandering “noxious, a cancer on our democracy.”
If the state is unable to meet the deadline for creating a new map, the court’s order establishes a commission that will create a map of its own.
Half the Republicans on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee that produced the party's signature tax cuts last year will not be returning to Congress in 2019.
At least 12 of the 24 Republicans who sit on the committee – which oversees taxes as well as health care – will not be coming back despite pushing through the highly-touted tax bill that President Donald Trump predicted would be a boon for his party in Congress.
Four of the members lost their races on Tuesday while eight others retired or chose not to seek re-election.
Rep. Pete Roskam, who previously served as a chief deputy whip in the House leadership, lost his election in the Illinois 6th congressional district to Democrat Sean Casten, a scientist and green energy entrepreneur. Roskam was the chairman of the tax policy subcommittee and currently chairs the health subcommittee.
Longtime Rep. Erik Paulsen, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, lost his election in Minnesota's 3rd district to Dean Phillips, a first-time candidate.
The Hill notes that both lawmakers represent affluent suburban districts where residents tended to claim the state and local tax deduction, which was severely limited by the tax bill.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo, another Ways and Means member, lost a squeaker in Florida's 26th district to Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an immigrant and liberal activist.
All three of the lawmakers represented districts that Hillary Clinton carried in the 2016 presidential race.
Rep. Mike Bishop was the only Ways and Means member to lose a district won by Trump, losing the race to represent Michigan's 8th district to Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who worked in the Defense Department under President Obama. Bishop had won his previous race by 17 points.
Eight other members chose not to run for re-election this year.
Republicans, led by outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, touted the plan as the key to GOP control of Congress when they passed the bill in 2017.
In February, just weeks after the bill passed, the Ryan-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC mentioned the tax bill in nearly 73 percent of all election ads. According to Bloomberg, that number dropped to less than 17 percent by September.
According to exit polls from Tuesday's elections, 45 percent of voters said they had seen no impact from the tax bill, while 23 percent said they had been hurt by it. Just 28 percent of voters said the tax law helped them.
Larry Hogan blames President Trump for downballot GOP losses in Maryland
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) says he was able to withstand Democratic anger at President Trump and soundly defeat challenger Ben Jealous in a deep-blue state because he “didn’t govern as a Republican.”
“I was the governor for all the people,” Hogan said at a news conference Wednesday at the Maryland State House, blaming anti-Trump sentiment for “a tough night” for Republicans in which several down-ballot candidates lost key races.
“It was just too much of an albatross around their neck from Washington to get them over the line,” Hogan said.
He described his political coattails as even smaller this year than in 2014, when he and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R) won an upset victory and Republicans made gains across the state, despite being outnumbered 2-to-1 by Democrats in voter registration.
The governor had endorsed County Executives Steve Schuh (R-Anne Arundel) and Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard County), both of whom were ousted by Democratic challengers.
In Baltimore County, Democrat Johnny Olszewski Jr. captured the county executive’s seat over Republican Al Redmer Jr., a Hogan cabinet appointee who also had the governor’s endorsement, even as Hogan won the county by a huge margin.
The Maryland GOP’s effort to use Hogan’s popularity to break Democrats’ supermajority in the state senate was also unsuccessful. Republicans flipped two seats currently held by Democrats but came up short of the five they needed.
In the House of Delegates, Democrats gained six seats.
“It was a repudiation of the president, who lost the state by 30 points,” Hogan said. “People came out and expressed their frustration against just about all Republicans in our state, with the exception of us.”
Hogan — who won every jurisdiction in Maryland except Baltimore City and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties — was greeted by several shouts of “Hogan for President!” at his victory party Tuesday.
President Trump’s party lost the House — handing Democrats one chamber’s subpoena powers — and racked up big losses in governors’ races. So naturally, Trump freaked out.
First came the press conference, freakish even for him. The Post reports:
"President Trump threatened Wednesday to retaliate with a “warlike posture” should the new Democratic House majority use its subpoena power to launch investigations into his administration, warning that any probes would jeopardize prospects for bipartisan deals. . . .
“I could fire everybody right now, but I don’t want to stop it because politically I don’t like stopping it,” Trump said. “It’s a disgrace. It should never have been started, because there is no crime.”
Trump answered questions from journalists for an extraordinary one hour and 26 minutes in a rare formal news conference in the East Room of the White House. He repeatedly lost his cool as reporters peppered him. He attacked CNN’s Jim Acosta, calling him “a rude, terrible person” and saying his network should be “ashamed” of him, and then snapped at Peter Alexander of NBC News and directed April Ryan of American Urban Radio to “sit down.”"
Behaving more like a wounded animal than a president claiming vindication, he sounded peevish and more overtly racist than usual:
When Yamiche Alcindor of “PBS NewsHour” asked the president whether by identifying as a “nationalist” he also was embracing the label “white nationalist,” he told her repeatedly, “That’s such a racist question.”
“To say what you just said is so insulting to me,” Trump responded to Alcindor, who is black.
He claimed not to understand questions from reporters who spoke in somewhat accented English. And he singled out and excoriated one Republican losing incumbent after another, bashing them for not embracing him more strongly.
But that turned out to be just the warmup for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s departure.
This post was originally published in October and has been updated with Whitaker’s installment.
Matthew Whitaker has been appointed acting attorney General after Jeff Sessions resigned Wednesday at President Trump’s request. And suddenly, Whitaker’s past skepticism about the Russia investigation has taken on new significance.
Trump tweeted:
"We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well...."
Whitaker’s Russia commentary first cropped up when he was reported to be a likely replacement for Sessions’s No. 2, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, several weeks ago. Installing him as the temporary No. 1, though, gives Whitaker even more power. The Justice Department has indicated he will take oversight of the Russia investigation, replacing Rosenstein in that role.
One exchange in particular shows almost exactly what Whitaker thinks someone in such a position could do to rein in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Appearing on CNN in July 2017 — before he became Sessions’s chief of staff, the position he occupied before Wednesday — Whitaker mused about a scenario in which Trump might fire Sessions and replace him with a temporary attorney general. Whitaker noted that federal regulations still gave the attorney general power over the budget for a special counsel. That temporary replacement, he then said, could move to choke off Mueller’s funding.
“So I could see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment,” Whitaker said, “and that attorney general doesn’t fire Bob Mueller, but he just reduces his budget to so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”
It was the second time in the same interview, in fact, that Whitaker brought up the defunding idea. He said Rosenstein could also be pressured to do it.
“I think what ultimately the president is going to start doing is putting pressure on Rod J. Rosenstein, who is in charge of this investigation, is acting attorney general, and really try to get Rod to maybe even cut the budget of Bob Mueller and do something a little more stage crafty than the blunt instrument of firing the attorney general and trying to replace him,” Whitaker said.
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