US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Boogie]

Pre-emptive STFU Mandark/Boogie

Yeah, fuck Obama.  How dare he....cancel a meeting with a head of state 100 times more authoritarian and an enemy of civil liberties than he is...?

[Phoenix Dark]

Awesom-O during the G20 meeting: why is Obama talking to a dictator like Putin?!?!?!

[Great Rumbler]

[Great Rumbler]

That shit about Republicans in Congress refusing to fix that church premiums glitch so that the ACA will have more problems really grinds my gears. That's actual sabotage.

Their plan isn't to work to make the ACA work, it's to stonewall any attempts to smooth over the glitches so that more people will be upset about its implementation.

[brawndolicious]

Everybody I know in real life doesn't really care about politics, other than maybe the drug war or terrorism but that stuff's pretty abstract unless you're a drug-dealing terrorist.

[Human Snorenado]

Everybody I know in real life is stupid

fixt lol

[Human Snorenado]

Is it wrong for me to be loving the shitty position that Boner, Cantor, etc are in?  Like, anybody with a modicum of common sense knows that a government shutdown is a stupid idea, and will be blamed by everyone that's not a lunatic on the GOP.  But the teahadist wing of the party WANTS ONE, and bad, because wolverines! or some shit.

The really funny part is that McConnell is apparently the one who ends up strong arming the House into doing shit, because he can say, "We're not gonna filibuster this in the Senate," but since he's in a fight for his political life, he's probably gonna have to go full wolverine teatard just to survive a primary, much less the general election, for which he's currently polling behind.  Shit could get total cray-cray.

[Great Rumbler]

A government shutdown is really the best thing that could happen right now for the Democractic party.

[Human Snorenado]

Ehhhh... maybe, maybe not.  It will fuck with the slow, bataan death march economic recovery we're experiencing, and there's a non-zero number of people who might vote for Democrats in Congressional/Senate/State races next year who could blame Obummer and either stay home or vote for the idiots.  Net vote wise, it would be a fucking disastrophe for the GOP though, you're right.

[Great Rumbler]

Net vote wise, it would be a fucking disastrophe for the GOP though, you're right.

I'm going to steal this word.

[Phoenix Dark]

Cantor realizes a shutdown over Obamacare is insane, as do many of Boehner's closest members
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/eric-cantor-nixes-obamacare-shutdown-push?ref=fpb

The wildcard is McConnell, who is fighting for his political life in Kentucky. In the past he has worked out numerous deals with the White House, specifically with Biden. If I was a republican I'd be happy with him considering he tends to "win" negotiations. Is he going to be willing to shut down the government just to beat his tea party challenger?

Another thing: if McConnell does indeed attempt to shut things down, what will McCain do? The past few months have shown that he loves shitting on the tea party; basically he's been pissed ever since Rand Paul took him to the woodshed on drones a few months ago. I think he can secure the votes needed to secure a CR passes.

[DCharlieJP]

not been following much US politics but seeing as I saw some noise about Obama being to blame for the sequester I thought i'd do a bit of looking around and now I see the Right Wing everywhere saying that it was Obama who effectively wanted the Sequester and they had nothing to do with it and it's Obama's fault for signing off?

Oh, and it's a liberal media conspiracy that everyone thinks that the Republicans were the ones pushing for it.

 

[DCharlieJP]

If you have oodles of cash there's not much doubt that you can get the best health care on the planet if you want it - but that's bullshit if you want to use that as an overall view of your healthcare system.

Your healthcare system is only as good as the base level it provides and that's why the US health care system ranks low.

[Great Rumbler]

Politifact goes super easy on Republicans to avoid coming off as biased

Or just replace "Politifact" with any mainstream media outlet.

[Brehvolution]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/10/religious-family-lost-at-sea_n_3738010.html

 

[Great Rumbler]

Been reading this article today and it's just absolutely mind-boggling that the practice in question is even remotely legal:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/12/130812fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=1

[Great Rumbler]

NYC's stop-and-frisk policy is dead, by the way:

In a repudiation of a major element in the Bloomberg administration’s crime-fighting legacy, a federal judge has found that the stop-and-frisk tactics of the New York Police Department violated the constitutional rights of minorities in New York, and called for a federal monitor to oversee broad reforms.

[Phoenix Dark]

until it reaches the SC where a 5-4 ruling makes it even worse

[Mandark]

Been reading this article today and it's just absolutely mind-boggling that the practice in question is even remotely legal:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/12/130812fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=1

Like a whole lot of shit, it's tolerated on the political principle of "Well, it won't happen to us."

[Great Rumbler]

Been reading this article today and it's just absolutely mind-boggling that the practice in question is even remotely legal:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/12/130812fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=1

Like a whole lot of shit, it's tolerated on the political principle of "Well, it won't happen to us."

As a bonus, this practice mostly targeted poor minorities. So, yeah.

[Joe Molotov]

Steve King  :deadpos

[Positive Touch]

holy fuck that was an amazing takedown, and on shitty meet the press no less.

ana navarro

[Brehvolution]

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/peggy-noonan-obama-should-defend-missouri-rodeo-clown?ref=fpb

Let me suggest a classy Obama move that might go over well. From his Vineyard vacation spot he should have the press office issue a release saying his reaction to finding out a rodeo clown was rudely spoofing him, was, “So what?” Say he loves free speech, including inevitably derision directed at him, and he does not wish for the Missouri state fair to fire the guy, and hopes those politicians (unctuously, excessively, embarrassingly) damning the clown and the crowd would pipe down and relax. This would be graceful and nice, wouldn’t it? He would never do it. He gives every sign of being a person who really believes he shouldn’t be made fun of, and if he is it’s probably racially toned, because why else would you make fun of him?

 

[Joe Molotov]

I forgive Nooners for her ongoing impersonation of a clown.

[Great Rumbler]

Peggy Noonan, everybody. Peggy Noonan.

[Phoenix Dark]

[Joe Molotov]

All the vibrations are right. Something old is roaring back. Republicans have the passion now.

[Phoenix Dark]

And there is Obama, out there seeming tired and wan, showing up through sheer self discipline. A few weeks ago I saw the president and the governor at the Al Smith dinner, and both were beautiful specimens in their white ties and tails, and both worked the dais. But sitting there listening to the jokes and speeches, the archbishop of New York sitting between them, Obama looked like a young challenger—flinty, not so comfortable. He was distracted, and his smiles seemed forced. He looked like a man who’d just seen some bad internal polling. Romney? Expansive, hilarious, self-spoofing, with a few jokes of finely calibrated meanness that were just perfect for the crowd. He looked like a president. He looked like someone who’d just seen good internals.

Even more hilarious when you realize both were looking at very good internals - the problem is that one was looking at fake ones.

[Joe Molotov]

The only internals that matter are your guts.

[Akala]

DS mod 

[Broseidon]

https://twitter.com/brassiest/status/366999594099408896/photo/1

[Joe Molotov]

Oh shit, I'd forgot Benghazi!

[Great Rumbler]

On the subject of Benghazi:

When news broke that William Clark, a longtime aide to Ronald Reagan, had recently passed away, several conservative media outlets quickly posted tributes to the man. Touted as the "most important and influential presidential confidante" in nearly a century, Clark was warmly remembered as a "a great treasure to the nation" and an "inspiration."

But here's what's interesting about Clark's recently lauded resume when viewed against the right wing's permanent Benghazi name calling: Clark served as Reagan's national security advisor between 1982 and 1983. On April 18, 1983, Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Sixty-three people were killed, including 17 Americans, eight of whom worked for the CIA.

Five months later local terrorists struck again. During a lengthy air assault from nearby artillerymen, two Marines stationed at the Beirut airport were killed. Then on October 23, just days after Clark stepped down as national security advisor to become Secretary of the Interior, the Marines' Beirut barracks cratered after a 5-ton truck driven by a suicide bomber and carrying the equivalent of 12,000 pounds of TNT exploded outside; 241 Americans were killed, marking the deadliest single attacks on U.S. citizens overseas since World War II.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/14/reagan-terror-and-benghazi/195391

It's a good thing William Clark loved America [unlike Hillary and Obama!!], otherwise he'd have been in some serious trouble!

[Shadow Mod]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/14/reagan-terror-and-benghazi/195391

It's a good thing William Clark loved America [unlike Hillary and Obama!!], otherwise he'd have been in some serious trouble!

I feel like there should be competition between who loves America more between the parties and it should intersect with Project Runway.

[Phoenix Dark]

Americans killed overseas on Obama's watch: victims of a treasonous president.
Americans killed overseas on a republican's watch: terrorists hate our freedoms, never surrender.

People forget how many contractors were killed and embassies bombed during the reign of Bush The Second. I'm not going to defend Obama's admin for not being forthright on what happened but at the same time let's be clear: this was a CIA operation that somehow got sniffed out. Whether it was a weapons deal or not, we'll probably never know, but clearly something was going down. I think republicans generally have known this for awhile but continue to play with the issue to appease their base. I'm all for playing politics but this is dangerous. Whenever you purposely cloud or omit facts to accuse officials, specifically the president, of letting US forces die...you're crossing the line.

[Phoenix Dark]

 

[Brehvolution]

At what point will the right stop being wrong?

[Joe Molotov]

At what point will the right stop being wrong?

When the country is a literal smoking crater and there's nothing left to be wrong about.

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/middle-east-live/2013/aug/15/egypt-pro-morsi-protests-crackdown-live

Well, I guess things have pretty much gone to hell in Egypt. 525 confirmed dead, and I doubt this is over.

[Brehvolution]

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/conservative-group-replacing-hannity-with-kelly-pro-homosexual?ref=fpb

"Pushing Sean Hannity out of the 9:00 p.m. slot, to make way for pro-homosexual advocate Megyn Kelly, is another sign of the channel's left-ward drift and decline," ASI President Cliff Kincaid said in a press release, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

    

[DCharlieJP]

all this "mi mi mi pro-homosexual" twinning from the US and Russia has brought about a nuclear arms race between the two countries on IQ levels.

[Phoenix Dark]

Given the NSA/spying bullshit, it's good to be able to laugh at Russia over something. Too bad we can't have a united chortle because 35% of the country is distinguished mentally-challenged. I can't wait to see the hand wriging and "Putin is right" shit coming from Rick Santorum and fellow spergs once the Olympics begin.

[Joe Molotov]

all this "mi mi mi pro-homosexual" twinning from the US and Russia has brought about a nuclear arms race between the two countries on IQ levels.

All I know is that we can't let Russia get the gay bomb before we do.

[Mandark]

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/conservative-group-replacing-hannity-with-kelly-pro-homosexual?ref=fpb

"Pushing Sean Hannity out of the 9:00 p.m. slot, to make way for pro-homosexual advocate Megyn Kelly, is another sign of the channel's left-ward drift and decline," ASI President Cliff Kincaid said in a press release, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

TPM is nutpicking there.

Also, it's a great example of how someone's statements are automatically more newsworthy if they're presented as the statement of a think tank or advocacy group, no matter how obscure.

Five minutes of Google-fu shows that ASI is essentially a one-man operation run by a crank.  There is only one bio on the site, for Cliff Kincaid.  The About Us link takes you to several quotes in praise of Cliff Kincaid.  ASI's address is a PO Box in goddam Calvert County, and the contact button is just a link to Cliff Kincaid's personal Comcast email.  I suspect a journalist at the AJC read the title and thought he was representing a legit, if minor conservative group, when really he's just speaking for Cliff Kincaid, some asshole from Owings, MD.

[Phoenix Dark]

TPM lost their two most noteworthy reporters/bloggers in the last 12 months and it shows.

[Steve Contra]

 In other news Mandark was trolled into researching an obscure right wing website for no apparent reason.

[Great Rumbler]

In other news Mandark was trolled into researching an obscure right wing website for no apparent reason.

 :deadpos

[Phoenix Dark]

When will Greenwald expose the multi billion dollar underground derivative market, based entirely on manipulating Mandark's google searches.

[Oblivion]

Apparently the writer of Ender's Game is a huge fan of chain e-mails:

He has said that if the US government take further steps to make same-sex marriage legal, then the government will become his 'mortal enemy' and he will 'act to destroy that government and bring it down'. He's also said he wants to keep laws against homosexuality 'on the books'.

Now he's gone on another rant, this time about the Obama administration, calling the President 'a dictator'

First he seems to think that Obama will never relinquish his presidency in the US, and will appoint his wife Michelle in his place.

“Michelle Obama is going to be Barack's Lurleen Wallace,” he wrote in The Ornery American.

“Remember how George Wallace got around Alabama's ban on governors serving two terms in a row? He ran his wife for the office. Everyone knew Wallace would actually be pulling the strings, even though they denied it.

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/enders-game-writer-orson-scott-card-in-new-obama-rant-114702955.html

More crazy at the link.

[Human Snorenado]

I kind of get the feeling that Obama doesn't even particularly LIKE being President.

I also really wish that when people say all of this crazy shit and it DOESN'T FUCKING HAPPEN that afterwards we got to make them wear clown suits for the rest of their lives or something.

[Brehvolution]

I have a running mental list of parroted bullshit I like to whip out when it's getting thick in the room.

[Rufus]

He also criticised Obama's plan for a 'national police force' in the piece, writing: "Barack Obama needs to have a source of military power that is under his direct control. Like Hitler, he needs a powerful domestic army to terrify any opposition that might arise."

“Where will he get his 'national police'? The NaPo will be recruited from 'young out-of-work urban men' and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities.

Nutcase.

[Joe Molotov]

He also criticised Obama's plan for a 'national police force' in the piece, writing: "Barack Obama needs to have a source of military power that is under his direct control. Like Hitler, he needs a powerful domestic army to terrify any opposition that might arise."

“Where will he get his 'national police'? The NaPo will be recruited from 'young out-of-work urban men' and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities.

Nutcase.

He also believes that 10 year olds would make brilliant 5-star generals, so...you know. Maybe we should have seen it coming.

[Rufus]

I never read Ender's Game.

[Brehvolution]

[drew]

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/08/christie_nj_gun_control_bills_legislature_governor_2016_president.html

But the governor completely axed a bill that would ban the Barrett .50 caliber rifle

“Tellingly, the Legislature points to no instance of this class of firearms being used by even a single criminal in New Jersey,” Christie wrote. “The wide scope of this total ban, therefore, will not further public safety, but only interfere with lawful recreational pastimes.”

:nod

Bryan Miller, executive director of Heeding God's Call, a faith-based organization focused on gun violence, called it the “most common-sensical bill in the entire package.”

“One person with one of these guns and incendiary armor piercing bullets could knock down a chemical plant and kill hundreds of people. Chris Christie clearly is courageous for his place in the Republican Party, but not for the residents of New Jersey,” Miller said.

LOL, no.

[Phoenix Dark]

Didn't he sign a couple smaller bills that limit guns, including one that restricts gun rights from anyone on a terrorist watch list? You'd think that would be a no brainer but I'm sure he'll get shit for it when he runs for president.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I haven't followed politics much recently: has Hillary given up pretending that she isn't running in 2016?

[brawndolicious]

Not going forward with the bill that makes smart ID cards for instant background checks seems like a bigger loss.

[Human Snorenado]

Greenwald's boyfriend detained for 9 hours in Heathrow for no fucking reason

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/18/glenn-greenwald-guardian-partner-detained-heathrow