Political Randomness

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:31 am

I have zero idea why CNN continues to have Lord on their shows. There are plenty of qualified analysts who can agree with Trump's policies and not be a total sycophant. As Anderson Cooper said (more or less), Trump could shit on his desk and Lord would think it's the most presidential act in history.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 5:49 pm

Wow, what do you know, Canada has a fair share of bigots as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/go- ... ian-voices

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 5:59 pm

Kids! Not sold in stores! It's the Elizabeth Warren action figure!

His Democratic political leanings clear, Jason Feinberg, CEO and creative director of FCTRY, describes the Warren action figure’s stance as “full defiant hero mode.” Her collar is popped. Her tailored red jacket has two practical pockets. She wears a grin, and a gold pin on her lapel.

The kickstarterhas already more than doubled its goal, so I reckon we all know what to get LordMortis for Christmas.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:03 pm

And better yet, by kicking in $39 we could get him Elizabeth Warren *and* Hillary Clinton action figures!

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:16 pm

Does it come with a warbonnet?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:37 pm

Her collar is popped. Her tailored red jacket has two practical pockets. She wears a grin, and a gold pin on her lapel.

Tell me we are defining Warren by her fashion sense.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:16 am

Rip wrote:Wow, what do you know, Canada has a fair share of bigots as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/go- ... ian-voices

Well, yeah - the Tories were just in power.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 1:15 am

Palmer Luckey is taking some of his Occulus Rift lucre and is using it to create a defense start-up, geared towards defending 'Murica from unwelcome visitors.

Virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey has founded a start-up concentrating on technology to police borders and large events, reports the New York Times.

He has told senior Trump administration staff about the company's technology.

Until March Mr Luckey worked at Facebook, which paid $2bn (£1.55bn) for Oculus, the VR firm he founded.

He told the New York Times there was a need for a "new kind" of defence company using "superior technology" to protect troops and citizens.

The paper quoted insiders who said it planned to use sensors similar to those found on autonomous vehicles to monitor activity around fences and walls.

Smart software would be able to tell the difference between things that can be ignored, such as birds and other animals, and those, like drones, that demand attention.

Details about the new firm, including its name, are scant.

Former staff from Oculus who have also left the company are believed to have been recruited for the new start-up.

Other sources are saying that "senior Trump administration staff" means Steve Bannon.

Who'd've thunk that a VR kickstarter would end up helping to make Trump's border wall a virtual reality.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 2:01 am

Sell Trump on an invisible wall?

It's so crazy, it's brilliant!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:04 am

Rip wrote:Does it come with a warbonnet?

No, but you can buy a Trump pussy grabber as an accessory.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:06 am

hepcat wrote:
Rip wrote:Does it come with a warbonnet?
No, but you can buy a Trump pussy grabber as an accessory.

Looks like an orange facehugger with a yellow toupee.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:37 pm

Louisiana should be embarrassed by Mike Johnson.

Teens who text each other explicit images could be subject to 15 years in federal prison under a new bill that just passed the House of Representatives. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, has called the measure "deadly and counterproductive."

And that looks to be a mandatory minimum sentence coming down from Congress to the states, so much for New Federalism I guess, heh.

Introduced by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) in March, the "Protecting Against Child Exploitation Act of 2017" passed the House by an overwhelming majority last week. Only two Republicans—Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Thomas Massie of Kentucky—voted against the bill, along with 53 Democrats.

"The bill prohibits some conduct that the Constitution does not allow Congress to regulate, and Rep. Amash opposes the expansion of mandatory minimums and crimes that are already prosecuted at the state level," a spokesperson from Amash's office explained of his opposition.

Most of the opposition centered on the bill's effective expansion of mandatory-minimum prison sentences. One vocal critic was Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia), who called the legislation "particularly appalling" because it would "apply to people who I think we should all agree should not be subject" to long mandatory minimums. "Under this law, teenagers who engage in consensual conduct and send photos of a sexual nature to their friends or even to each other may be prosecuted and the judge must sentence them to at least 15 years in prison," said Scott on the House floor.

Obligatory of course child porn is awful and we should not rest in taking it down, but this is total crap.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:41 pm

Yeah, that's horrendous. 15 year olds sexting each other is not child porn, and that someone could get locked up for decades for it is outrageous.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:51 pm

El Guapo wrote:Yeah, that's horrendous. 15 year olds sexting each other is not child porn, and that someone could get locked up for decades for it is outrageous.

But on balance Johnson will support conservative justices and shrinking the federal government so conservatives will happily continue to pull the lever for these idiots. And this shows that the Republicans have taken over from the Tipper Gore dems to become the worst kind of morality police. I honestly don't understand how someone who considers themselves a libertarian could ever vote for people like this.

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:27 pm

Enough wrote:I honestly don't understand how someone who considers themselves a libertarian could ever vote for people like this.

Once again Justin Amash ends up on the correct side of the issue, going against his own party.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:20 pm

Moliere wrote:
Enough wrote:I honestly don't understand how someone who considers themselves a libertarian could ever vote for people like this.
Once again Justin Amash ends up on the correct side of the issue, going against his own party.

I'd say he makes it hard to dismiss an entire party. But he's one guy out of how many at the federal level alone? Also, I'm not sure I understand his position. He may be rejecting things for the wrong reason. I felt kind of dense reading his opinion. But it is not the first time I may have had to eat crow because of him. So cheers!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:27 pm

LordMortis wrote:
Moliere wrote:
Enough wrote:I honestly don't understand how someone who considers themselves a libertarian could ever vote for people like this.
Once again Justin Amash ends up on the correct side of the issue, going against his own party.
I'd say he makes it hard to dismiss an entire party. But he's one guy out of how many at the federal level alone? Also, I'm not sure I understand his position. He may be rejecting things for the wrong reason. I felt kind of dense reading his opinion. But it is not the first time I may have had to eat crow because of him. So cheers!

The problem is, while he seems to be reasonably principled, he's still empowering Paul Ryan, who is an awful person doing awful things. Plus he voted for the AHCA.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 5:50 pm

Sot this happened today while Comey was being interviewed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... 6c148a1ee7

Who do you think is closer to the truth?

https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan/status/ ... 1479692289

https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/872229102668963840

Fitzy · Post by **Fitzy** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:16 pm

LordMortis wrote:Sot this happened today while Comey was being interviewed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... 6c148a1ee7

Who do you think is closer to the truth?

https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan/status/ ... 1479692289

https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/872229102668963840

I suspect they are both equally wrong.

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:22 pm

The Death of Obama’s Slush Funds

The misuse of settlement slush funds was one of the Obama Administration’s worst practices, which it used to end run Congress’s constitutional spending power. After the GOP took the House and tried to cut spending for liberal interest groups, the Obama Justice Department began to force corporate defendants to allocate a chunk of their financial penalties to those same groups.

Banks were made to fund left-wing activists such as NeighborWorks—though these groups were neither victims nor parties to lawsuits. In 2015 JP Morgan was required to pay $7.5 million to the American Bankruptcy Institute’s endowment for financial education. In 2016 Volkswagen was required to invest $2 billion in zero-emissions technology and promote zero-emissions cars. Government enforcement became an income redistribution mechanism without having to go through Congress.

Mr. Sessions’s brief memo instructs Justice’s 94 U.S. Attorneys to immediately halt the practice. It correctly notes that financial penalties are designed to punish and provide relief to victims—not to generate political payola. Save for limited exceptions—such as payments expressly authorized by statute—the memo instructs that future settlement money will go directly to victims or to the U.S. Treasury.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:03 am

So the Trump Justice Department is going to try to pay for Trump's tax cuts?

These "slush funds" had a nexus to the victims of the crimes, or making it harder to re-offend.

Banks and Big Auto were victims? Hardly, they would rather pay to "charitable causes" in a settlement than the US government. That's much easier to justify to investors, and structuring a settlement in this way can provide tax benefits.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:15 pm

After all the things that Trumph has said and done and hasn't done my stepson now is as fervent a supporter as he was when he voted for him.
I have to think most all Trumph supporters feel the same way.
So all the trash talk the media loves to write about Trumph is just media porn, and there is no way Trumph is going to get impeached.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:18 pm

Georgia

Democrat Jon Ossoff — buoyed by a record $24 million in fundraising — has notched his best poll result of Georgia’s special House election with less than two weeks to go in the contest, with an Atlanta Journal Constitution survey released Friday showing Ossoff with a 7-point lead over Republican Karen Handel.

The survey found Ossoff with 51 percent of the vote to Handel’s 44 percent.

It is the second time that a public poll has shown Ossoff with a 7-point lead over Handel, who are competing to replace HHS Secretary Tom Price in a June 20 special election for his old district in the Atlanta suburbs. The polling average shows Ossoff ahead by about 2 or 3 points.

“The common denominator is that Ossoff is floating right around 50 percent. So then where’s Karen Handel, is the obvious question,” said Mark Roundtree, a Republican consultant whose own firm released a poll Thursday that showed Ossoff with a slight lead over Handel, 50 percent to 47 percent. “Obviously it’s competitive, but there aren’t any public polls that have shown Handel winning.”

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 12:58 pm

dbt1949 wrote:After all the things that Trumph has said and done and hasn't done my stepson now is as fervent a supporter as he was when he voted for him.
I have to think most all Trumph supporters feel the same way.
So all the trash talk the media loves to write about Trumph is just media porn, and there is no way Trumph is going to get impeached.

My news feed tells me that "A Washington Post/ABC News poll in late April found that 81 percent of Republicans think President Trump is honest and trustworthy - compared to 38 percent of Americans overall and 34 percent of independents."

You can't pull the wool from Republicans' eyes. I'm surprised that 34% of independents have been fleeced, too, but I reckon that's probably the same percentage that self-identify as "lean Republican."

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:31 pm

Kraken wrote:My news feed tells me that "A Washington Post/ABC News poll in late April found that 81 percent of Republicans think President Trump is honest and trustworthy - compared to 38 percent of Americans overall and 34 percent of independents."

You can't pull the wool from Republicans' eyes. I'm surprised that 34% of independents have been fleeced, too, but I reckon that's probably the same percentage that self-identify as "lean Republican."

It could also mean that approximately 35% of people are idiots. I don't resort to name-calling lightly. It's just the only explaination I can sort out for why so many people believe some things. Flat earthers, climate change deniers, cultists, AOL users, Trump Supporters, etc.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:34 pm

I think it's more hyper partisanship over idiocy (though no doubt there is some idiocy)

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Jun 09, 2017 2:10 pm

Paingod wrote:
Kraken wrote:My news feed tells me that "A Washington Post/ABC News poll in late April found that 81 percent of Republicans think President Trump is honest and trustworthy - compared to 38 percent of Americans overall and 34 percent of independents."

You can't pull the wool from Republicans' eyes. I'm surprised that 34% of independents have been fleeced, too, but I reckon that's probably the same percentage that self-identify as "lean Republican."
It could also mean that approximately 35% of people are idiots. I don't resort to name-calling lightly. It's just the only explaination I can sort out for why so many people believe some things. Flat earthers, climate change deniers, cultists, AOL users, Trump Supporters, etc.

In my experience, based on countless surveys about innumerable topics, 20% of the responses are garbage -- people with agendas, people who didn't understand the question, people who just like to fuck with surveys, and the hopelessly stupid. I would not peg idiocy as high as 35%.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 10:48 am

CAN HILLARY CLINTON PLEASE GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT?

Clinton, who has grown increasingly public and vocal in recent weeks, appears ready to drive the bus again. But do we have to be the passengers?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:29 am

BENGHAZI!

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:38 am

Wish we as the people had the power or sense to fire the entirety of Washington and start new with fresh faces.

Combustible Lemur · Post by **Combustible Lemur** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 12:29 pm

Daehawk wrote:Wish we as the people had the power or sense to fire the entirety of Washington and start new with fresh faces.

That's ostensibly what just happened at the white house and what gave birth to the freedom caucus.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Combustible Lemur · Post by **Combustible Lemur** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 12:31 pm

hepcat wrote:BENGHAZI!

With fear of feeding the troll, I read the article and generally agreed with all of it. That RIP is using it belies the fact that I imagine most liberals would also concur. She lost, it's over get the fuck out of the way.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:08 pm

Combustible Lemur wrote:
hepcat wrote:BENGHAZI!
With fear of feeding the troll, I read the article and generally agreed with all of it. That RIP is using it belies the fact that I imagine most liberals would also concur. She lost, it's over get the fuck out of the way.

Yup. I'm sure she still runs the party machine, though. If she can't be the queen then she'll be the kingmaker...meaning the Dems are likely to run another establishment centrist in 2020. Whether or not that's fatal to them depends on what emerges from the wreckage of the post-Trump Rep Party. I do wish she'd just go away, but it's not like she can do anything outside of politics.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:18 pm

There's always academia.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 2:42 pm

There's always her Foundation and speeches.

Combustible Lemur · Post by **Combustible Lemur** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 3:24 pm

There's always that ridiculous pile of money she's sitting on and a cottage in the carribean.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 3:49 pm

Disproportionate dumping on Hillary Clinton never goes out of style.

Combustible Lemur · Post by **Combustible Lemur** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:05 pm

Holman wrote:Disproportionate dumping on Hillary Clinton never goes out of style.

Meh Jeb and Dubya got shit for their dynastic baggage too.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 5:32 pm

No news about the supposedly nationwide "March Against Sharia" that was happening today?

Last I heard, the organizers (basically the Islamophobe wing of the Tea Party movement, probably still Birthers one and all) were scrambling to push back a little lest the whole thing be swamped by even farther-right extremists and open racists who were claiming the event as their own.

Meanwhile, the day ends with the threat of Sharia law completely nonexistent, so I suppose they can claim victory?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 5:36 pm

Combustible Lemur wrote:
hepcat wrote:BENGHAZI!
With fear of feeding the troll, I read the article and generally agreed with all of it. That RIP is using it belies the fact that I imagine most liberals would also concur. She lost, it's over get the fuck out of the way.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

BENGHAZI?