US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7681

On May 30 2017 22:00 Grumbels wrote:

I don't think the DNC can realistically solve this issue, they will always come across as disrespecting "real America" simply by virtue of being a party mostly for educated people living in cities, who benefit from a global economy, whose arguments are rational rather than emotional. The sort of oversimplified narrative that the GOP specializes in, like "stop the liberal freakshow from taking away our freedom" can hardly be reversed and used to galvanize the Democratic base, it would go against everything liberals stand for such as adherence to norms.

On May 30 2017 21:03 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
And in todays tweets, flaming Germany but caring about what Russia thinks.... Pretty clear the Russia-US axis is the new meta for Europe with GOP in charge

On May 30 2017 13:41 Danglars wrote:

I'm guessing one of the more "completely useless" facets of the Democratic Party is pretending the GOP is "actively looking to fuck over minorities." It's a cute propaganda line, but pretty sad and funny in its own right.

On May 30 2017 23:25 Gahlo wrote:

Has Merkel been in power that long?

On May 30 2017 22:55 m4ini wrote:


Could anyone pull up the chart for investments of germany in the US, and US investments in germany?

Why isn't that a talking point, the fact that germany invests twice as much money in the US than the other way around? Of course you have the mindless drones talking after trump (which is funny considering how time and time again he's proven to be too dumb to grasp even simple concepts, like trading with the EU bloc), but it feels incredibly dishonest to argue "we need to tax the german cars and stuff!!1" while mobility scooting to your job paid for by german companies. Wave goodbye to the iconic Freightliners too, because if pressed, Daimler certainly will close less productive plants first.

Bit ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong, i'd love to see trump getting into a trade war with the EU, pushing them further to trade with china etc - that's where the future lies, in regards to technology/science and trade. It can only be good for europe to be best buddies with the country that became and is further becoming what the US used to be. Minus the whole invasion stuff.

Sidenote: not sure if it was said, but this was the first time Merkel actually seemed to be fed up, at least to a point. Neither when it surfaced that we went to war based on lies from the US government, nor when it was leaked that she and others were spied on by the alleged ally, she said anything close to this drastic (and, while the exact wording isn't that drastic, you have to keep in mind who they're coming from).

On May 30 2017 23:07 KwarK wrote:

When really we all know that whether African Americans have the right to vote in Alabama is a states rights issue. Sessions told me so.

On May 30 2017 22:55 m4ini wrote:


Could anyone pull up the chart for investments of germany in the US, and US investments in germany?

Why isn't that a talking point, the fact that germany invests twice as much money in the US than the other way around? Of course you have the mindless drones talking after trump (which is funny considering how time and time again he's proven to be too dumb to grasp even simple concepts, like trading with the EU bloc), but it feels incredibly dishonest to argue "we need to tax the german cars and stuff!!1" while mobility scooting to your job paid for by german companies. Wave goodbye to the iconic Freightliners too, because if pressed, Daimler certainly will close less productive plants first.

Bit ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong, i'd love to see trump getting into a trade war with the EU, pushing them further to trade with china etc - that's where the future lies, in regards to technology/science and trade. It can only be good for europe to be best buddies with the country that became and is further becoming what the US used to be. Minus the whole invasion stuff.

Sidenote: not sure if it was said, but this was the first time Merkel actually seemed to be fed up, at least to a point. Neither when it surfaced that we went to war based on lies from the US government, nor when it was leaked that she and others were spied on by the alleged ally, she said anything close to this drastic (and, while the exact wording isn't that drastic, you have to keep in mind who they're coming from).

On May 30 2017 23:42 Danglars wrote:

Then you look into the issue, and it becomes any and all ID's required to vote is racism 1-2-3. You could have free hand-couriered photo ids and it would still be discriminatory bullshit in the eyes of the left.

In 1861, as now, the negro was the prominent factor in the issue. . . . And what is it that we want to do? Why it is
within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State. . . . The justification for
whatever manipulation of the ballot that has occurred in this State has been the menace of negro domination. . . . These
provisions are justified in law and in morals, because it is said that the negro is not discriminated against on account of his
race, but on account of his intellectual and moral condition

On May 30 2017 23:42 Danglars wrote:

Then you look into the issue, and it becomes any and all ID's required to vote is racism 1-2-3. You could have free hand-couriered photo ids and it would still be discriminatory bullshit in the eyes of the left.

On May 30 2017 23:42 Danglars wrote:

Then you look into the issue, and it becomes any and all ID's required to vote is racism 1-2-3. You could have free hand-couriered photo ids and it would still be discriminatory bullshit in the eyes of the left.

On May 30 2017 23:45 Danglars wrote:

Trump's backwards on trade policies. I think there's enough opposition in Congress for almost none of his damaging ideas to get through.

The Trump -Russia business is finally coming into clearer, more rational focus. Former Obama CIA chief John Brennan, in testimony this week, offered no evidence of Trump campaign cooperation with Russian intelligence. Instead he spoke of CIA fears that Russia would try to recruit/blackmail/trick Trump colleagues into being witting or unwitting agents of influence.

This is a realistic fear of any incoming administration. It’s especially realistic in the case of an “outsider” campaign full of naive, inexperienced and unvetted individuals. But it’s quite different from “collusion.”

The other shoe was dropped by the Washington Post. Finally we have details of an alleged email exchange showing influential liberals trusting in then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to corral an inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s email practices. According to the Post, this email appears not to exist. It was cited in a secret Russian intelligence document that inspired FBI chief James Comey to usurp the attorney general’s role and publicly clear Mrs. Clinton of intelligence mishandling. Allegedly, he feared the real email (which didn’t exist) would surface and discredit any Justice Department announcement clearing Mrs. Clinton.

Are you now thinking of the Trump dossier circulated by former British agent Christopher Steele, which also felt like a Russian plant? While the political circus in Washington has focused on purloined Democratic emails and fake news spread during the election by Russian bots, the more effective part of Moscow’s effort may have been planting fake leads to prod U.S. enforcement and intelligence agencies to intervene disruptively in the campaign.

This also should shed new light on today’s anti-Trump leakers in the intelligence agencies: They may be the real unwitting agents of Russian influence.

There are plenty of lessons to go around. Mr. Trump, if he ever really thought Vladimir Putin was his friend, probably has wised up by now. He should have wised up the moment the Steele document came into view, supposedly based on plumbing Mr. Steele’s peerless Russian intelligence contacts. It always appeared possible, even likely, that Mr. Steele was the semi-witting vehicle for Russian rumors designed expressly to undermine Mr. Trump just as Russia was also trying to undermine Mrs. Clinton.

Plenty of people in Washington could also afford to rethink how their partisan idiocy makes them soft touches for such Russian disruption efforts. That includes Rep. Adam Schiff, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. It includes Mr. Trump too. Overdue is an inquiry into a possible Russian role in flogging the birther conspiracy and the 9/11 truther miasma. Mr. Trump, who loves a conspiracy theory, might consider how he and his ilk showed Russia a vulnerability in American political discourse that it could exploit.

Let’s remember that ex-FBI chief Robert Mueller’s mission is to investigate Russian influence in the election, not the narrow matter of Trump collusion. Whether Russia suborned or tried to suborn people like Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Caputo is a necessary question. Whether Russia exploited Facebook to proliferate fake anti-Hillary news is a necessary question. But so is the provenance of the Steele document and the fake email purporting a Democratic coverup of Hillary Clinton’s server activity. If the FBI’s Mr. Comey allowed himself to be manipulated by Russian intelligence into intervening in the race, that’s something we need to know about. And we need to know about the leaks.

Mr. Brennan, the former CIA chief, has pointed out that these leaks are palpable, unambiguous crimes. Recall that Russia twice sent us detailed warnings about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. President Trump is entitled to share terrorism intelligence with Russia’s ambassador. The only criminal leak occurred when anonymous officials relayed the classified content of these briefings to the press.

Certain press hyenas then cackled that Mr. Trump further “leaked” when he said, during his visit to Israel, that he never mentioned an Israeli source for any intelligence he shared with Russia’s representative. Mr. Trump is entitled to make this statement, and in any case the information had already been made public through another criminal leak. Mr. Trump’s obvious point was that criminal leakers leaked information beyond what he had legally and confidentially shared with the Russians.

It’s times like this we are reminded how personally stupid are many people who make up the media. These leaks need to be investigated—and by Mr. Mueller specifically to the extent that the leaks, as seems more and more likely, indirectly or partly have their origins in Russian manipulation of our own intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Democrats wanted an independent counsel investigation of Russia’s election meddling. They believed it would lead to evidence of, or at least keep alive the story of, Trump collusion. They may be unpleasantly surprised where it really leads.

On May 30 2017 23:49 Plansix wrote:

Any voter ID law that does not meet the specific guidelines set out by the appeals court is racism. If voter identification is a concern for any state, there is an easy way to craft a law solve that issue. The recent set of laws have not met those guideline and were subsequently thrown out by the courts as voter repression.

If we didn’t have to do this song and dance every four years, I would say you have a point. But every 4 years we have to go through a new round of litigation to deal with ID laws from states held by the GOP. And now the civil rights enforcement is being removed from the department of education. I bet it will be removed from HUD too. So we can go back to the classic and most powerful tool of racial discrimination, real estate.

On May 30 2017 23:49 Plansix wrote:

Any voter ID law that does not meet the specific guidelines set out by the appeals court is racism. If voter identification is a concern for any state, there is an easy way to craft a law solve that issue. The recent set of laws have not met those guideline and were subsequently thrown out by the courts as voter repression.

If we didn’t have to do this song and dance every four years, I would say you have a point. But every 4 years we have to go through a new round of litigation to deal with ID laws from states held by the GOP. And now the civil rights enforcement is being removed from the department of education. I bet it will be removed from HUD too. So we can go back to the classic and most powerful tool of racial discrimination, real estate.