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

[S John]

7 minutes ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

So in today's Fox News isn't actually news post, I found their online headline a bit shocking. When you Google "Trump" under the news section, normal news sources like, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, BBC, The Hill, The Guardian, and so many more are all talking about the same things, Hurricane Floyd, Trump's comments on Puerto Rico, Manafort flipping, the midterms, Trump's polling and the economy. Fox News, OTOH, is religiously covering the real major story of the day: Jemele Hill and ESPN part ways. That's what you get from Fox when Google Trump's name. For those who don't know who she is, Hill is an outspoken black woman who used her platform to go after Trump, and it's pretty telling why Fox is covering this nothing story when there are major events taking place.

I often go to Fox's website when doing my news rounds and this sort of thing is pretty common.  

[A Horse Named Stranger]

15 minutes ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

So in today's Fox News isn't actually news post, I found their online headline a bit shocking. When you Google "Trump" under the news section, normal news sources like, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, BBC, The Hill, The Guardian, and so many more are all talking about the same things, Hurricane Floyd, Trump's comments on Puerto Rico, Manafort flipping, the midterms, Trump's polling and the economy. Fox News, OTOH, is religiously covering the real major story of the day: Jemele Hill and ESPN part ways. That's what you get from Fox when Google Trump's name. For those who don't know who she is, Hill is an outspoken black woman who used her platform to go after Trump, and it's pretty telling why Fox is covering this nothing story when there are major events taking place.

OTOH, just imagine the surprised faces of their viewers when Twitler gets cuffed and moved out of the Oval Office by feds. Or how they are desperately trying to not covering that.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, S John said:

I often go to Fox's website when doing my news rounds and this sort of thing is pretty common.  

Not surprising, but this wasn't at their website, it was their fishing lure. My understanding is that websites pick specific stories that they want people to see when they do Google searches to entice people to go to their sites and read other stories too. Literally every other site was using something that was hard news. Fox was using a prominent black woman who is critical of Trump losing her job.

It's telling, though nothing we didn't already know. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

OTOH, just imagine the surprised faces of their viewers when Twitler gets cuffed and moved out of the Oval Office by feds. Or how they are desperately trying to not covering that.

That's not going to happen, but dream on my friend.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just now, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

That's not going to happen, but dream on my friend.

Maybe not, but I thought Dream Big was the American way.

So in conclusion, you are so unamerican.

[DMC]

9 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

I worry that we have peaked too soon, and the next two months will be a long, dreary, painful regression to the mean where the outcome is never certain and we inch towards the Democrats getting close but not getting an outright majority.

That's not how it works.  At all.

8 hours ago, Maithanet said:

I fully expect that regardless of how the 2018 elections go, the Republican congress will be more, rather than less, subservient to Trump than what we've seen thus far.  We all complain that Senators like Flake and McCain and Representatives like Comstock and Fitzpatrick often tut-tut at Trump's transgressions, they never actually DO anything.  Well a good portion of those alleged "moderates" are going to be gone after 2018, replaced with either Democrats or Trumpists.  Either way, those Republicans that remain will be more spineless than ever. 

Look at his numbers among the GOP.  As long as he's > 70 there, he'll be fine.  It will take the economy faltering for him to lose support.  But when that happens..it will happen as a storm.  I don't wish for it, but let's be realistic.  Most GOP MCs hate Trump, privately, they just need a reason to abandon him.

[DMC]

Looks like this Kavanaugh accusation is going to blow up soon.

[Morpheus]

 

[Martell Spy]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

Looks like this Kavanaugh accusation is going to blow up soon.

What makes you think that?

[Morpheus]

Yeah, I wondered that as well. The Republicans had a letter prepared, so they are never going to take it seriously. Republcans never take Republican sexual misconduct seriously. This will have as much effect as his many lies and the biases which govern his decision making in his confirmation. Will probably be worse for Feinstein and the Dem infighting than anything.

[DMC]

19 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

What makes you think that?

Chatter.  It's sprawling right now, google "Kavanaugh accusation" and it's all over.  This isn't something that's gonna go away, it'll stick around after the hurricane.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

54 minutes ago, DMC said:

Chatter.  It's sprawling right now, google "Kavanaugh accusation" and it's all over.  This isn't something that's gonna go away, it'll stick around after the hurricane.

Two words.

Anita Hill.

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Chatter.  It's sprawling right now, google "Kavanaugh accusation" and it's all over.  This isn't something that's gonna go away, it'll stick around after the hurricane.

It will undoubtedly be all over the place (no point to releasing it at all otherwise), but I would rate its chances of preventing the nomination from succeeding as less likely than not. The underlying idea is sound: find people from the relevant geographical area who are willing (with financial incentives if necessary, but better if not) to make completely unprovable accusations regarding events that happened so long ago that nobody is likely to remember them. The fact that the accusations are completely unprovable makes this useless in criminal law, but the same fact makes them useful as slander: after all there's no way to prove them false either.

That said, there are three things working against this method in this specific instance. First, it doesn't really work as a last-ditch defense: even people who are usually gullible will get at least a bit suspicious if something like this is brought up at the last minute. Second, this trick practically requires multiple accusers -- if Feinstein et al don't trot out at least 2-3 more, they're not really trying. Third, like many such techniques, it cannot be used indefinitely -- again, even the gullible will eventually start to see the pattern -- and it was recently put to very good use in Alabama.

One postscript not related to this specific instance: if the Democrats keep doing this, sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt. There are emotionally unstable people on both sides and if one variety can be made use of, why not another?

[Jace, Extat]

Not only a defense of Kavanaugh but slipped in a Roy Moore protection as well!

You're in rare form.

[DMC]

3 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Two words.

Anita Hill.

Yeah she's weighed in.

2 hours ago, Altherion said:

It will undoubtedly be all over the place (no point to releasing it at all otherwise), but I would rate its chances of preventing the nomination from succeeding as less likely than not. The underlying idea is sound: find people from the relevant geographical area who are willing (with financial incentives if necessary, but better if not) to make completely unprovable accusations regarding events that happened so long ago that nobody is likely to remember them. The fact that the accusations are completely unprovable makes this useless in criminal law, but the same fact makes them useful as slander: after all there's no way to prove them false either.

To clarify, if you can't prove the accusation false - for whatever reason - it's definitionally not slander.

2 hours ago, Altherion said:

That said, there are three things working against this method in this specific instance. First, it doesn't really work as a last-ditch defense: even people who are usually gullible will get at least a bit suspicious if something like this is brought up at the last minute. Second, this trick practically requires multiple accusers -- if Feinstein et al don't trot out at least 2-3 more, they're not really trying. Third, like many such techniques, it cannot be used indefinitely -- again, even the gullible will eventually start to see the pattern -- and it was recently put to very good use in Alabama.

I agree that this "trick" - as you so disgustingly put it - will not curb his confirmation unless more come forward.  But as we've seen time and again it's more likely than not that there are more victims that haven't spoken up as of yet.  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 - which unfortunately includes demonstrating extreme skeptics such as yourself have no credibility (even if that's clear to most here).

2 hours ago, Altherion said:

if the Democrats keep doing this, sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt. There are emotionally unstable people on both sides and if one variety can be made use of, why not another?

Yeah, it'd really be a shame that amidst the revelation of widespread sexual abuse sooner or later somebody other than the victims is going to get hurt.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Yeah she's weighed in.

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.

There just is a common decency void in the Republican party.

[ThinkerX]

But how many posters here would actually take the call?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fema-to-test-system-allowing-trump-to-send-emergency-alerts/ar-BBNmClL?ocid=msnclassic

Quote

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is testing a new system next week that allows President Trump to send messages directly to U.S. cellphones.

All major wireless firms and more than 100 mobile carriers are participating in the new Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) program that allows for presidential alerts, FEMA wrote in a Thursday statement.

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Especially if said 'alerts' include gems like these:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/ap-fact-check-trumps-blustery-myths-on-hurricanes-income/ar-BBNmIWz?ocid=msnclassic

 

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Which appears to have tripped off this small sign of returning sanity to the Republican donor class:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/wealthiest-republican-supporter-in-ohio-quits-party/ar-BBNlUBg?ocid=msnclassic

 

 

Wexner, who said he's been a Republican since college, added that he is now an independent, before saying that he "won't support this nonsense in the Republican Party" anymore

 

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And yet another wakeup call for the Democratic Party (to be dismissed or ignored by the party leadership, of course) -

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/black-female-democrats-call-for-changes-in-party/ar-BBNlQCY?ocid=msnclassic

 

 

Insurgent Democratic women running for Congress are pushing the party to rethink its approach to politics if they retake control of Capitol Hill in the fall.

At the annual meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus Friday, black female candidates who prevailed in primaries over established incumbents said it's time for a conversation about how the party is structured.

 

 

[Zorral]

More to the point, idiot Feinstein should have gone after Kavanaugh for lying multiple times under oath, which is on the recorded record and which many, many, many witnessed him doing.  It's as though she's doing her best to get him confirmed because nobody's talking about his lying under oath and talking about this thing from decades ago.  Derail, derail, derail is the rethug and nazi way, and she's aiding and abetting.

Like the orange nazi raging in a rage worthy of his endless Obama birther rants, thinking nobody's going to notice that yet another of his best boyos who knows where the bodies are buried and the money laundered flipped on him.  Feinstein is not helping with that either.  She must go!

[Ser Reptitious]

5 hours ago, Altherion said:

Third, like many such techniques, it cannot be used indefinitely -- again, even the gullible will eventually start to see the pattern -- and it was recently put to very good use in Alabama.

One postscript not related to this specific instance: if the Democrats keep doing this, sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt. There are emotionally unstable people on both sides and if one variety can be made use of, why not another?

Yeah, poor, poor Roy Moore! If only there had been more brilliant people like Altherion in Alabama who saw right through all those fake teenagers and other witnesses! 

[Zorral]

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/

Quote

 

The assets will end up in the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Fund, which is used to cover the costs of law enforcement. The fund can also be used to fund "some general investigative expenses," according to the Justice Department's website.

The first four and a half months of the investigation of the special advocate cost taxpayers nearly $ 7 million, including $ 3.2 million in direct expenses by Mr. Mueller's team. The survey lasted about 16 months.