US Politics: Donnie and the Mystery of the Anonymous Op-Ed

[A Horse Named Stranger]

3 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Is Mueller one smart cookie or is he one hella smart cookie?  Around here people have been talking about this ever since the news that Manafort cut a deal, that not only is Mueller building a pardon proof witness, but he's also more than funded the investigation: 

https://naaju.com/us/paul-manafort-confiscates-22-million-in-real-estate-in-new-york/

 

 

 

So, if there's a god out there somewhere, the Trumps and Kushners will move straight from the White House into the poorhouse.

 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Yeah, but back then her story didn't stop Thomas supreme court nomination in its tracks, so I don't see how this now ends Kavanaugh's. Unless you assume there's somewhere buried very deep down a shred of decency left in senate Republicans. Looking at the development of the whole lot of them under McConnel, I fail to see, where your optimism comes from.

 

3 hours ago, DMC said:

All I said was it will be a big story after Florence.  Whether it will be a debilitating story to his confirmation depends on a variety of factors

I will go so far as cautious optimism can take me in that if there are multiple accusers that may scare away Collins and Murkowski - and in the process give the half dozen Dems running in red states an excuse to vote nay.  But that very much remains to be seen.

Anyway, there's this excuse:

Quote

Wonder if accuser will say she was sober at time of alleged incident at drinking party. If drunk, how drunk? Cognitive dysfunction, impaired memory, mistaken identity, all compounded by 35 years? (I am of course not saying her drunkenness would excuse anyone else's conduct.)

— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) September 14, 2018

I like how his parenthetical completely contradicts the actual text.

[Martell Spy]

A Warning From Europe: The Worst Is Yet to Come

Polarization. Conspiracy theories. Attacks on the free press. An obsession with loyalty. Recent events in the United States follow a pattern Europeans know all too well.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/poland-polarization/568324/

Quote

That moment has passed. Nearly two decades later, I would now cross the street to avoid some of the people who were at my New Year’s Eve party. They, in turn, would not only refuse to enter my house, they would be embarrassed to admit they had ever been there. In fact, about half the people who were at that party would no longer speak to the other half. The estrangements are political, not personal. Poland is now one of the most polarized societies in Europe, and we have found ourselves on opposite sides of a profound divide, one that runs through not only what used to be the Polish right but also the old Hungarian right, the Italian right, and, with some differences, the British right and the American right, too.

 

[Martell Spy]

Report: Mattis Not Enough of a Suck-Up for Trump, May Be on the Way Out

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/report-mattis-is-on-the-outs-with-trump.html

Perhaps even more crucially, he doesn’t fawn over the president the way Trump likes:

Quote

 

Mr. Trump, two aides said, wants Mr. Mattis to be more like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a political supporter of the president. During a televised June 21 cabinet meeting, held as migrant children were being separated from their parents at the southwestern border, Mr. Mattis and Mr. Pompeo were a study of contrasts: On the president’s left, the defense secretary sat stone-faced; on his right, the secretary of state was chuckling at all of Mr. Trump’s jokes.

The tableau brings to mind a scene in The Sopranos in which Tony cracks a mediocre joke and realizes, from the rapturous reception it receives, the extent of his underlings’ sycophancy.

 

 

[DMC]

37 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Perhaps even more crucially, he doesn’t fawn over the president the way Trump likes

Shocker

ETA:  That was a good Sopranos ep btw - "All Happy Families..." - Tony realizes the newly released Feech La Manna was the only one not obsequiously laughing and has him put back in jail.

ETA2:  Also, considering the context I'd be remiss to not mention that Chase emphasized Carmella pointed out the sycophancy of Tony's "friends" during that ep.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I came to post that article about the Ohio GOP donor who has been cured of his Republicanism, I see ThinkerX has already quoted a story on it.

On the offchance that it was over looked, im posting this mans magnificent recovery story again here. I like to think of him getting a 2nd lease on life and with that, rejoining humanity. Congratulations sir, its never too late. https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-donor-les-wexner-announces-191322407.html

[Martell Spy]

A House Still Divided

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln warned that America could not remain “half slave and half free.” Today, the country remains divided by racism—and the threat is as existential as it was before the Civil War.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/a-house-still-divided/568348/

Quote

Today, only a renewed commitment to antiracist policies can save the endangered American project. The alternative is a governing system that becomes all racist and wholly illegitimate. The result may not be an 1860s-style civil war. But, if allowed to proceed far enough, racism will ultimately destroy the American idea. And it will lead to contentiousness and resentment and, yes, violence that will make today’s polarization seem quaint by comparison

.

[Zorral]

12 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

A House Still Divided

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln warned that America could not remain “half slave and half free.” Today, the country remains divided by racism—and the threat is as existential as it was before the Civil War.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/a-house-still-divided/568348/

.

It's going to get worse too, because this is the only way the rethugs can keep control of Congress:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/us/politics/trump-republicans-midterms.html?

Quote

 

. . . .The Republican lurch away from economic issues amounts to a bet on the politics of Trump-style cultural division as a means of driving up conservative turnout and disqualifying some Democratic candidates among more moderate voters. . . .

. . . .Conservative-leaning voters in the study routinely dismissed the possibility of a Democratic wave election, with some describing the prospect as “fake news,” said an official familiar with the research, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the data was not intended to be disclosed. Breaking that attitude of complacency is now the Republicans’ top priority, far more than wooing moderates with gentler messaging about economic growth. . . .

 

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

The woman alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school went public on Sunday, just hours after Republican senators brushed off the allegations as anonymous and too late to stop Kavanaugh's ascendance to the court.

Christine Blasey Ford told the Washington Post that Kavanaugh groped her, tried to pull off her clothes and covered her mouth when she tried to scream at a party in Maryland more than three decades ago. Ford wrote a letter to a Democratic congresswoman detailing the incident, which were then passed along to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and gradually leaked out over the past week.

 

Quote

 

Ford told the Post that at the time she thought Kavanaugh "might inadvertently kill me."

"He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing," she said.

 

Quote

Ford, 51, is a professor at Palo Alto (Calif.) University and she graduated from the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md., in 1984. She told the Washington Post she took a polygraph regarding the incident, which the paper reviewed, and she passed.

Kavanaugh’s accuser steps forward, putting onus on GOP
Senate Republicans are now confronted with a difficult decision on whether to speed forward on his nomination.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/16/kavanaugh-allegation-anonymous-republicans-825855

[Bonnot OG]

1 hour ago, Martell Spy said:

Kavanaugh’s accuser steps forward, putting onus on GOP
Senate Republicans are now confronted with a difficult decision on whether to speed forward on his nomination.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/16/kavanaugh-allegation-anonymous-republicans-825855

Lol the GOP has shown they are total scum and are okay with rapists and abusers. Look at their support of Trump, look at their support of Roy Moore. 

Kavanaugh is a total scumbag. He shouldn't be a judge in any capacity let alone one sitting on the Supreme Court seat.

And of course the scumbags in the white house stand by it, they stand by every abuser that is republican.

[ThinkerX]

For me, the questions here are:

 

'Why haven't we seen a hurricane of offensive tweets from Trump about this?'

 

And

 

'Why does Mueller still have a job?'

 

Perhaps this near mythical 'resistance' is keeping Trump contained?  Seems highly unlikely...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama-ethics-chief-trump-is-‘not-going-to-survive-manafort-testimony’/ar-BBNp49s?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=msnclassic

 

Quote

Former President Obama's ethics chief, Norm Eisen, said Sunday that he thinks President Trump will not "survive" the testimony of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

"He's not going to survive Manafort's testimony," Eisen, a frequent critic of Trump, told ABC's "This Week."

"I think there's a substantial possibility that this evidence that Manafort is offering will implicate somebody up the chain," Eisen added. "Who is up the chain from Paul Manafort, who was the chair of the Trump campaign?"

 

 

 

[Bonnot OG]

The White House is just spewing MRA bs right now. We see registered sex offenders like Shane Blacks friend get acting jobs, & when people speak out about it, Munn, they get shunned like they are the ones that are the predator. Men, white men to be more specific, don't face consequences even after convicted, example? Brock Turner. He got a small amount of time in prison because of a scumbag judge. 

 

Kamala Harris is a Cop
@BethLynch2020:

Totally normal that a prospective employer can demand to see my social media and refuse to hire me because they don't like something I posted, but a SCOTUS nominee who's lied under oath repeatedly, been accused of sexual assault and stealing documents deserves "due process"?

[Martell Spy]

https://twitter.com/WaPoSean?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1041449153841254401&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fdaily%2Fintelligencer%2F2018%2F09%2Fbrett-kavanaugh-might-lose-court-seat-after-sexual-assault-allegation-christine-ford.html

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NEWS: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) tells me in an intv he that doesn’t think the Judiciary Cmte should move ahead with its Thursday vote on Kavanaugh until they hear more from Christine Blasey Ford. “For me, we can’t vote until we hear more.”

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The most impressive thing this clown ever did was slide out of Ivana. What a fucking tool.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/09/cnn-panel-smacks-don-trump-jr-simple-math-claim-dad-fixed-obamas-economy/

“Simple math,” King bluntly stated. “There have been 95 consecutive months of job growth — Donald Trump has been president for 19 months.”

[The Anti-Targ]

So has Nike made a bad financial decision in backing Kaepernick even though it was a brave moral decision?

One of the internet memes going around these days is "get woke, go broke". Is that a truism in the current political climate? Is the corporate cost-benefit in favour of keeping right-wing consumers on side and not rocking the boat by being seen to be openly taking sides on race, sex, sexual orientation or sexual identity issues? One of the arguments for dropping James Gunn from the Marvel movies was because Disney needs the conservative dollar, so their decision to drop Gunn was with at least half an eye on protecting that source of revenue.

The shareholder is king, and if company profits and share values drop because a corporation takes the progressive view on an issue, then a lot of companies are going to eventually be gagged by their shareholders.

http://time.com/5397327/mississippi-agency-nike-kaepernick/

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Mississippi Department of Public Safety Says It Won't Buy From Nike Over Kaepernick Ads

 

[Darth Richard II]

Um, I thought Nike sales were up, so I don't really know what you are actually trying to get at here.

[Suttree]

13 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

So has Nike made a bad financial decision in backing Kaepernick even though it was a brave moral decision?

One of the internet memes going around these days is "get woke, go broke". Is that a truism in the current political climate?

Nope

+31% and stock prices are hitting record highs. We see this time and again with companies leveraging sustainability and corporate responsibility to boost sales.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

52 minutes ago, Suttree said:

Nope

+31% and stock prices are hitting record highs. We see this time and again with companies leveraging sustainability and corporate responsibility to boost sales.

Maybe Ivanka should have hired him to be a spokesman for her shoe line...

[DMC]

55 minutes ago, Suttree said:

+31% and stock prices are hitting record highs. We see this time and again with companies leveraging sustainability and corporate responsibility to boost sales.

Who woulda thought that Nike's consumers would have drastically different attitudes towards Kaep than Trump's base?  Almost like they researched it beforehand and anticipated this.

[Kalbear]

Shockingly young urban males aren't a good trump demo