US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7224

On March 30 2017 17:18 Gorsameth wrote:

"Its very suspicious but lets just hope that a man who has been proven to be a compulsive liar is telling the truth".

How about we have an independent investigation into finding out if Trump is putting Americans first?
Well... not first, the best we can hope for is second after Trumps own pockets.

On March 30 2017 17:27 opisska wrote:
Don't you guys think that the Trump-Russia issue is overplayed? Wouldn't it be better to attack Trump on actual policy than this stuff? Maybe if it was an otherwise sane presidency, then it would make sense to nosy around the Russia ties, but as it is know, there are plenty issues with more immediate practical impact that should be in focus. It almost seems like a clever smokescreen (unless it backfires too far).

On March 30 2017 19:19 Gorsameth wrote:

Because Trump is being attacked on actual policy? (see Muslim ban, AHCA ect) But its hard to stop all of his insane actions because the Republicans control the House, Senate and Presidency. The only way anything is stopped is if Republicans vote against their own party or the Judiciary steps in.


As for overplayed. There is a dozen sources of smoke and the Republicans are desperately running around trying to stop people from looking if there is a fire. How is it overplayed?

If Trump advisors stopped lying and Republicans stopped acting wholly inappropriately with regards to investigations (Nunez) then there would be nothing to report on until the investigation was included.

(CNN)Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he will do whatever it takes to make sure that military spending is increased in the next spending bill even if that means shutting down the government.

The Arizona Republican told CNN he wouldn't vote for a continuing resolution, a funding bill that maintains the previous spending levels. When asked how far he would go, McCain said he only had one vote, but that he wouldn't rule out a shutdown.

"If that's the only option. I will not vote for a CR no matter what the consequences because passing a CR destroys the ability of the military to defend this nation, and it puts the lives of the men and women in the military at risk," McCain said.

"I can't do that to them."

McCain's comments come as leaders are making a serious effort to negotiate the remaining appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2017 that would likely include some of the new military spending that McCain is pushing for.

Congressional leaders are up against a tight deadline. After last week's failure to pass the health care bill out of the House, there are questions about how much leaders can get passed even if their goal remains to finish appropriations bills instead of passing a continuing resolution. Congress has to come to an agreement before the government runs out of money April 28.

Raising the stakes? Congress is on recess for two weeks in mid-April.

McCain has long been an advocate for increased military spending and has voted for continuing resolutions in the past, but this time, McCain says he just won't do it and that the military would be set back by another CR.

"I will not vote for a CR. I don't care what's in it," he said.

McCain's comments may put pressure on leaders to see that some rank-and-file members are serious. They won't accept just another, last minute continuing resolution. If that's the only option, there could be a shutdown ahead.

On March 30 2017 21:34 farvacola wrote:
Maverick rides wild one last time.

Pastor Jerry Morrell was not playing to his audience. “I was asked if Donald Trump is a man of God,” the evangelical preacher told the congregation of The Way of Holiness church on the outskirts of Buckhannon, West Virginia. “I said: ‘No, I don’t see him as a man of God. Or, at this point, a godly man. I think he’s a man whose heart can be touched by God. I think he may be open to that’.”

A silence fell. The cries of acclamation greeting much of the Pentecostal pastor’s sermon drained away.

“Y’all got real quiet when I said that but I have to tell it like it is,” Morrell pressed on. “I’m praying for our president. Let him have the wisdom not to say some things and not to put some things out on Twitter,” he said. “We ask you to set a guard over Mr Trump’s mouth and Twitter”.

On that, there was agreement. Eighty percent of white evangelicals backed Trump for president, but worshippers at The Way of Holiness church were not without their doubts.

“To be honest with you, I voted for Trump but if I’d had another choice I probably would not have,” said Thrayron Morgan, a grandmother from a military family attending church that day. I pointed out there was another choice: Hillary Clinton. “No! That’s not my other choice. We’ve had enough of that,” she said with a laugh. “It was very difficult for me. Very difficult. In fact it was a toss-up between not voting at all and voting for him. I really had to pray about that.”

Morgan had lots of problems with Trump but a big one was the way he spoke about women and immigrants. “I don’t think he should talk about people like that. Even the homosexuals, you hate the sin not the sinner. As a Christian, I don’t believe in treating people the way he treated some people,” she said.

Morgan’s mind was made up by the supreme court. She wants to see a court “following Godly principles” and she had little doubt that Clinton would have nominated the wrong kind of justices. “That’s important to me. On abortion number one. Same-sex marriage. Anything to do with either one of those. And I have a feeling there may be some issues come up even later that may touch on Christian principles too. I have no clue what, but you never know when something might come up that’s against my beliefs,” she said.

In parts of West Virginia, it is said there are two reasons to vote: God and coal. Both have been in retreat for years. In a state where families still pray at the restaurant dinner table, and mines were once the engine of prosperity, Trump won with the promise of revival.

But there’s a paradox. Evangelicals may doubt Trump’s commitment to God, but they calculate he will be good for their push to inject more religion into American life. On the other hand, those who voted for Trump because he promised to bring back coalmines often admire his business skills – but they do have doubts about whether he can deliver.

So far, conservative Christians have not had reason to be disappointed. Trump’s appointment of evangelicals to his cabinet – including an attorney general who advocates an end to the wall between church and state, and an education secretary who wants to “advance God’s kingdom” through public funding of religious schools – has sent the right signals. And just in case Trump veers off course, evangelicals are counting on Mike Pence, an advocate of teaching creationism alongside Darwinism, to steer the president straight.

The belief that America’s leaders have been more interested in foreign adventures than looking after those at the bottom of the pile back home runs through many West Virginia communities.

Ricky Farnsworth flies a Confederate battle flag from an improvised steel rod flagpole outside his trailer home. When I ask why he’s hoisted such a divisive symbol in a state mostly carved out of Virginia to join the Union cause, he smiles.

“I will not fly an American flag other than that one. I would rather have a Chinese flag, a Japanese flag, a Russian flag. Fuck the United States. They’re the most cruelest country there is. Letting your own people starve and sending aid overseas. Going over and killing people in other countries and then building them back up. What business did we have in Vietnam? What business did we have in Iraq?” he said.

Farnsworth used to work on oil rigs but the toll of injuries, including a lost finger, and the general wearing down of his body forced him out of a job. Now, at 59, he lives on a little more than a $1,000 a month in disability payments. Farnsworth is an unflinching if maverick Trump supporter. He denounces the rich but believes the billionaire president will Make America Great Again. He speaks of Obama as “the black guy” and said he knows for sure the former president is not American. Yet he supports Obamacare and doesn’t understand why the US can’t replicate Canada’s health system.

“Money don’t excite me. I don’t worry about it even though I don’t have it. I don’t hardly buy food because it’s too damn expensive,” he said. “I go to the diner and eat a little bit. Two beets, a half spoonful of bacon bits, a half spoonful of shredded cheese. I’ll put a little bit of coleslaw, a little bit of cottage cheese. Four peaches. I’ll eat that. I ate that yesterday. I ain’t eaten nothing since that. I won’t eat nothing today. That’s what I live on.” That and a steady supply of chewing tobacco.

Farnsworth sees Trump’s wealth as evidence that he is looking out for ordinary Americans.

“Why would he downgrade himself if he didn’t want to help the United States? His home was more valuable than the White House,” he said.

The retired oil worker regards taxes with the same scorn as much of conservative America, although his objection comes with a twist not so often heard among Republicans. Why, he asks, should the poor pay taxes when the rich don’t contribute their fair share? Yet Farnsworth doesn’t blame Trump for avoiding taxes with his business maneuverings.

On March 30 2017 17:33 LegalLord wrote:

The leftists and the right-wingers would agree with you. Those who bet the farm on Clinton still need some desperate validation of the delusion that the race was stolen from them, though, so this will continue until the end of the presidency.

Though to be fair, they basically attack him on literally anything and everything. Russia is just one of many angles of attack.

(CNN)Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he will do whatever it takes to make sure that military spending is increased in the next spending bill even if that means shutting down the government.

On March 30 2017 21:41 farvacola wrote:
Actually, I think legislative term limits are not the solution and would only worsen special interest capture of the legislative process, but I'll say more on this later if you'd like to hear more. Here in Michigan, legislative term limits have crippled the state government, for example.