US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6783

On February 07 2017 06:49 xDaunt wrote:

Yeah, I suspect that there's a lot of bullshit in those stories. I think that they're hammering on the wrong story, though. What they should be talking about is the dysfunction between Trump and the GOP on Capitol Hill.

On February 07 2017 06:37 oBlade wrote:

We're not that bothered by political theater anonymous reports about how they can't get the lights on and that Bannon is the white nationalist (thanks Independent) antichrist puppetmaster.

President Trump’s first speech to active duty troops since taking office went much the same way his first speech to CIA officers went.

...

Speaking at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida on Monday, Trump gave an abbreviated history of terrorist attacks, from 9/11 to the Paris nightclub attacks to the truck massacre in Nice.

“It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that,” he said. He offered no evidence for the accusation, which flies in the face of round-the-clock news coverage of terrorist violence. But one of his senior advisers has repeatedly referred to a Bowling Green, Ky., terrorist attack that did not happen.

On February 07 2017 06:59 Doodsmack wrote:


The turf battles and hands-off approach from Trump are pretty clear and they matter. It would appear that you are truly not aware of the reality because you choose to disbelieve it.

On February 07 2017 07:34 oBlade wrote:

No, it's just on my planet this reduces to the fact that a bunch of people who have never been president before are figuring out their system for being president, which happens every 8 years or so. What do hands-off and hands-on approaches look like and why should I be worried?

On February 07 2017 08:03 Logo wrote:


Why would that happen every 8 years? Most people who enter the office have relevant experience in a similar position (including possibly having worked in the White House).

On February 07 2017 08:08 WolfintheSheep wrote:
Do the staff of the White House even transition out whenever a new President is elected? I would've thought the janitors, facilities, etc. would have been there for decades.

On February 07 2017 07:34 oBlade wrote:

No, it's just on my planet this reduces to the fact that a bunch of people who have never been president before are figuring out their system for being president, which happens every 8 years or so. What do hands-off and hands-on approaches look like and why should I be worried?

The Mail on Sunday today reveals astonishing evidence that the organisation that is the world’s leading source of climate data rushed to publish a landmark paper that exaggerated global warming and was timed to influence the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.

A high-level whistleblower has told this newspaper that America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) breached its own rules on scientific integrity when it published the sensational but flawed report, aimed at making the maximum possible impact on world leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015.

The report claimed that the ‘pause’ or ‘slowdown’ in global warming in the period since 1998 – revealed by UN scientists in 2013 – never existed, and that world temperatures had been rising faster than scientists expected. Launched by NOAA with a public relations fanfare, it was splashed across the world’s media, and cited repeatedly by politicians and policy makers.

But the whistleblower, Dr John Bates, a top NOAA scientist with an impeccable reputation, has shown The Mail on Sunday irrefutable evidence that the paper was based on misleading, ‘unverified’ data.

A trio of Republican senators reacted sharply Sunday to President Trump’s latest apparent defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin, rejecting Trump’s suggestion in an interview that America cannot claim moral superiority to Putin’s Russia.

Trump’s remarks came in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly that was previewed Saturday and is set to be broadcast in full Sunday evening before the Super Bowl. In the clip, Trump repeated his past praise for Putin, saying, “It’s better to get along with Russia than not,” which prompted O’Reilly to press him: “But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.”

“There are a lot of killers,” Trump said. “We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”

Congressional Republicans have broken with Trump over dozens of controversial statements he has made during his campaign, his transition and now his presidency, but no issue appears to have flummoxed lawmakers as much as his consistent defense of Putin. Trump’s coziness is at odds with years of GOP foreign-policy orthodoxy calling for a more aggressive stance toward Putin’s regime.

In a CNN interview Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rejected any comparison between the two nations, citing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its incursions into Ukraine and its interference in the U.S. presidential election.

“I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way that the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does,” he said, adding: “I’m not going to critique the president’s every utterance, but I do think America is exceptional. America is different. We don’t operate in any way the Russians do. I think there’s a clear distinction here that all Americans understand, and no, I would not have characterized it that way.”