US Politics Thread |OT| SAD TRUMP

[Raist]

https://medium.com/@kate8/fairytale-prisoner-by-choice-the-photographic-eye-of-melania-trump-f1f7b97fff29

[benjipwns]

So yesterday there was general panic when it was announced Trump was going to make an executive order on H1Bs. It's been a system long abused and everyone was really freaking out that it would go badly for them. Then now that the executive order is just telling some agencies to think about "stuff" there's a collective sigh or relief. So funny how 24 hours ago it was "PANIC!!!!!" now it's "Oh, nevermind."

That's suspicious so we should PROBABLY PANIC OH MY GOD HE'S GOING TO DRAFT US AND SEND US INTO A LAND WAR IN ASIA WHICH WE SHOULD SUPPORT BECAUSE KIM JONG UN AND ASSAD NEED TO BE TAKEN OUT BUT LIKE TRUMP SHOULDN'T DO IT BECAUSE HE'S NOT A RED LINE DRAWING CHESSMASTER UNLIKE OBAMA EXCEPT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO WHEN HE OFFICIALLY BECAME PRESIDENT WHEN HE FAILED AT DIPLOMACY WITH RUSSIA BUT ALSO RUSSIA TAX RETURNS BOBBY ROBERTS RUSSIA IT WAS MAJESTIC AND BEAUTIFUL SEEING THE MISSLES TAKE OFF

[benjipwns]

TRUMP’S ABRUPT REGIME-CHANGE PIVOT RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT A “MAD MAX SYRIA” SHOULD ASSAD FALL

wow spoilers

“A number of people have argued with me that having a ‘Mad Max Syria’ with roving gangs or roving militias carving out bases would cause fewer deaths than Assad.” Landis said. The day-to-day body counts might go down because there would no longer be an air force, he said. “They would be restricted to shooting at each other with more conventional weapons. But that could go on for a long time.”

okay, but what about guitar dude

and max landis is writing this? really?

“Once the policy people look at what the day after would be — they don’t see any options,” said Josh Landis, the director of the Center For Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma

is that like his brother or something?

[curly]

don't bully benji

[Nola]

.

[Nola]

I actually would adjust what I just said.

If overall turnout and party turnout breakdown is actually relatively similar to how it played out in Kansas, Ossoff would theoretically win with 51-53% of the vote tonight.

Not about to use that one piece of data to declare any confidence or anything though. Since doing that itself is questionable, since this isn't Kansas with a historically unpopular governor or any number of other factors, but I do give him a better chance of winning it outright then I initially thought.

[Nola]

Updated at 6:15 p.m. — Reading the tea leaves

Political analysts are getting wound up about a pair of Sandy Springs districts that could signal a stronger-than-expected Democratic turnout.

The first is a precinct that Democrat Michelle Nunn won with 78 percent of the vote in 2014, meaning that it’s a trove of potential votes for Democrat Jon Ossoff. Turnout in that precinct has nearly doubled on Tuesday, an astounding feat for a special election.

The second is a precinct in a more conservative stretch of Sandy Springs where Nunn only got about a third of the votes. Turnout there is only about half of what it was in 2014.

“That ain’t good,” texted one GOP operative.

Interesting.

http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/04/18/live-updates-georgias-6th-district-special-election/

[benjipwns]

how is this dude not getting more votes? should have put TECHPARTY.US as his name instead of Andre Pollard: https://thetechparty.us/

[chronovore]

The thing that worries me about the whole North Korea build up is I can totally see the armed forces being like "We'll do a lightning strike and take out all there capabilities before they can do anything. Low, almost no collateral damage." And Trump being dumb enough to buy it.

[benjipwns]

Bill O'Reilly used to leer at an African-American Fox News clerical worker and called her "hot chocolate," according to attorney Lisa Bloom, who helped the woman report the harassment to the network's hotline.

Fox News is preparing to cut ties with its biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, according to people close to the situation.

A final decision on Mr. O’Reilly’s fate could come as early as the next several days, the people said. Mr. O’Reilly, host of “The O’Reilly Factor,” has been ensnared in a sexual-harassment scandal related to previously undisclosed settlements he and Fox News paid to women who worked on or appeared on his program.

On Tuesday, an attorney for Mr. O’Reilly said the host has “been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America” and added that it has “evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O’Reilly and Fox News for political and financial reasons.”

[Great Rumbler]

Dude beat his wife in front of his kids, which was confirmed in court by his own daughter. It's shocking to me that he's managed to hang around as long as he has.

Unfortunately, he'll probably get a nice severance package, just like Ailes.

[Nola]

Bill O'Reilly used to leer at an African-American Fox News clerical worker and called her "hot chocolate," according to attorney Lisa Bloom, who helped the woman report the harassment to the network's hotline.

Fox News is preparing to cut ties with its biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, according to people close to the situation.

A final decision on Mr. O’Reilly’s fate could come as early as the next several days, the people said. Mr. O’Reilly, host of “The O’Reilly Factor,” has been ensnared in a sexual-harassment scandal related to previously undisclosed settlements he and Fox News paid to women who worked on or appeared on his program.

On Tuesday, an attorney for Mr. O’Reilly said the host has “been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America” and added that it has “evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O’Reilly and Fox News for political and financial reasons.”

[benjipwns]

His ratings have to be pretty replaceable at this point in Fox's business model, his radio show has always done horribly, especially considering he should be a "star" name. And they spent two years slotting first Megyn Kelly and now Tucker Carlson into Hannity's old slot and seen ratings go up, and Hannity's one of the top three radio ratings guys.

I figure they probably could shift Lou Dobbs over from Fox Business and barely notice, or move Tucker up, Hannity back to his old slot and just pick someone randomly from their thousand Fox News Contributors to hold down the last slot at least for a few months.

[benjipwns]

Eric Bolling just put out a book for the first time, they could probably pull him off The Five and stick him in the 10pm slot and let him do this (especially defending Trump for everything even though the other conservatives on the panel aren't on board and half assing it) and be just fine:

[benjipwns]

so many online experts freaking out because the Georgia results reporting slowed down and paused after coming in fast from small areas early like every election ever

[Nola]

so many online experts freaking out because the Georgia results reporting slowed down and paused after coming in fast from small areas early like every election ever

Apparently some sort of unusual error occurred that gummed up the counting system? IDK though. I do remember Georgia took forever to finish up in November so I sort of expected it.

Either way, Nate Cohn seems to think it will end up roughly 47.7% for Ossoff. That overall there were more R votes then D votes, but narrowly.

Looking at it, there seems to be much better turnout on the R side relative to Nov. then existed in Kansas.

Handel seems to be a pretty weak candidate though. I would feel cautiously optimistic if I was Ossoff....Trump tweets should be interesting tomorrow.

[Sausage]

Why wait until tomorrow?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/854547423464759296

[Nola]

lol

From what I have read(granted only a bit) it seems like Trump getting more involved and trying to take credit may not exactly be a good thing for Handel in this district.

Trump only won by 2 percent here and that gap just tightened further. Supposedly she avoided mentioning him at all in her speech a little while ago.

[benjipwns]

He means he helped by staying away and spending the day in Wisconsin.

Humble.

[Brehvolution]

https://www.facebook.com/JasonChaffetz1/posts/10158423022140234

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

[thisismyusername]

Semi-related in politics:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/books/shattered-charts-hillary-clintons-course-into-the-iceberg.html?_r=0



I want to air-drop these on the DNC.

[Great Rumbler]

An anonymous intelligence source told the magazine’s Ryan Lizza that “the White House said, ‘We are going to mobilize to find something to justify the President’s tweet that he was being surveilled.’”

Asking for an “all-points bulletin,” or a request to look through intelligence reports, White House officials said, “We need to find something that justifies the President’s crazy tweet about surveillance at Trump Tower,” according to Lizza’s source.

[Let's Cyber]

Straight from the horse's mouth

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/04/19/fox-news-drops-bill-oreilly-in-wake-harassment-allegations.html

I like how it was filed under "entertainment" 

[FStop7]

Is Cucker Carlson up for the task of replacing Bill?

[T-Short]

https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/854773586053255168

[etiolate]

Pepe the Frog and Friends would rise to #1.

[TakingBackSunday]

He's certainly progressive people's Ron Paul.

But he's not that bad.  Sounds like you just take things super personal

[I'm a Puppy!]

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/329559-sanders-i-dont-know-if-ossoff-is-progressive#.WPe8bPgq8q0.twitter

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says he doesn't know whether Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, who came in first Tuesday in a closely watched Georgia special election, is a progressive.

“I don’t know,” he said Tuesday in Louisville, Ky., The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. “If you run as a Democrat, you’re a Democrat.”

“Some Democrats are progressive, and some Democrats are not,” the 2016 presidential candidate added.

This senile, carpetbagging shithead can fuck right off. Most divisive figure of our lifetimes. Good god he's a piece of shit.

He's not wrong though.

[etiolate]

I'll give Bernie this: His manner of speech makes me laugh.

"Some Dems are progressive, some are not. Sometimes my ice cream is milk. Sometimes its soy!"

[TakingBackSunday]

I take him throwing shade at a guy we really need to win a little personally, sure.

It's been like a year since the primary and he's still dividing the liberal base on a regular basis. Fuck him.

We don't need Ossoff to win.  We need people to take notice of his success – that's the first step.

I mean, Bernie is an independent.  He doesn't give a shit about the democratic party.  Why should he?

[Nola]

Republicans online are super giddy and gloating about Ossoff not winning outright.

2018 is going to be sweet as all hell. Republicans have zero ability to read the tea leaves. Dem candidates have lost by like 6 points and 1 point respectively in two R +20 districts (and Ossoff hasn't even truly lost yet). There's definitely a wave coming.

Talking to a few people today from the area, then reading up on Handel, Handel seems to be a really crappy choice to have emerged from this. Not to mention you have the possibility of the government shutdown looming that will probably disillusion people if it happens.

Though I hope you are right, Republican turnout overall was higher then I was expecting.The roots of gerrymandering are strong and 2018 is still a ways away.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/329559-sanders-i-dont-know-if-ossoff-is-progressive#.WPe8bPgq8q0.twitter

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says he doesn't know whether Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, who came in first Tuesday in a closely watched Georgia special election, is a progressive.

“I don’t know,” he said Tuesday in Louisville, Ky., The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. “If you run as a Democrat, you’re a Democrat.”

“Some Democrats are progressive, and some Democrats are not,” the 2016 presidential candidate added.

This senile, carpetbagging shithead can fuck right off. Most divisive figure of our lifetimes. Good god he's a piece of shit.

I mean he's not wrong. Also, have you considered getting your blood pressure checked?

[Nola]

Republicans online are super giddy and gloating about Ossoff not winning outright.

2018 is going to be sweet as all hell. Republicans have zero ability to read the tea leaves. Dem candidates have lost by like 6 points and 1 point respectively in two R +20 districts (and Ossoff hasn't even truly lost yet). There's definitely a wave coming.

Talking to a few people today from the area, then reading up on Handel, Handel seems to be a really crappy choice to have emerged from this. Not to mention you have the possibility of the government shutdown looming that will probably disillusion people if it happens.

Though I hope you are right, Republican turnout overall was higher then I was expecting.The roots of gerrymandering are strong and 2018 is still a ways away.

Republicans got a combined 50.5% in a district Price would win by 20+ on the regular. If their turnout was even a fraction lower, Ossoff might have won it.

For sure. But I mean they still can is my point. And looking at Handel's strength as a candidate, I am actually questioning if she can manage to get 90,000 people in that district to show up to vote for her in June.

It still is an uphill battle but Ossoff seems to be set up about as good as you could hope to pull it off.

[agrajag]

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/329559-sanders-i-dont-know-if-ossoff-is-progressive#.WPe8bPgq8q0.twitter

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says he doesn't know whether Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, who came in first Tuesday in a closely watched Georgia special election, is a progressive.

“I don’t know,” he said Tuesday in Louisville, Ky., The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. “If you run as a Democrat, you’re a Democrat.”

“Some Democrats are progressive, and some Democrats are not,” the 2016 presidential candidate added.

This senile, carpetbagging shithead can fuck right off. Most divisive figure of our lifetimes. Good god he's a piece of shit.

 

[Huff]

ossoffs about as progressive as kobe was better than lebron

[Nola]

He's wrong. Ossoff is a progressive. It's really getting old having Berniecrats decide that everyone slightly to the right of them is no longer progressive.

Did Bernie actually say he wasn't?

To me I read the response and thought I saw the words "I don't know" when asked the question lol.

I feel like you are letting your hugely negative perception of Bernie get the better of you here.

This is from the source The Hill quoted(WSJ):

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in an interview Tuesday in Louisville, Ky., said he didn’t know much about Mr. Ossoff, a 30-year-old former House staffer. Mr. Sanders said he isn’t prepared to back Democrats just because of a party label.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-reload-for-georgia-runoff-but-party-divisions-remain-1492626238?tesla=y

Seems to me he really just didn't know and then went on to explain his way of analyzing

[bluemax]

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21716630-not-good-argument-against-them-h-1b-visas-do-mainly-go-indian-outsourcing

[I'm a Puppy!]

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21716630-not-good-argument-against-them-h-1b-visas-do-mainly-go-indian-outsourcing

So not only are H1Bs not being used to deflate wages but the best solution is to make H1B recipients stay with the company that sponsored them? Giving even more disincentives to H1Bs to move companies? I mean, how much did this person get paid by outsourcing firms to write this?

[Nola]

It is possible that he wasn't actually throwing shade at Ossoff and that that months-long damning with faint praise shtick he pulled towards Clinton after the primary is coloring my perception.

If he really doesn't know, he could frame it better. And if he's going to be a major spokesperson for the party, he should read up on Ossoff and Quist's policy positions so that he can promote either one if needed. He does seem to have come out for Quist on occasion, which is good.

Frame what better lol? As far as I know Bernie didnt write the WSJ piece or The Hill piece that seems to have kinda played loose with context.

He was asked in Kentucky about Ossoff and responded he didn't know much about him. I don't really know how you can go from that to that. But it seems like you are determined to find some examples here to hate Bernie for, so have at it.

[benjipwns]

Most divisive figure of our lifetimes. Good god he's a piece of shit.

[Syph]

UC Berkeley continues to embarrass themselves.
Microcasm of the left.
Lose an election rigged in your favor and still be in denial and hysterical about it 6 months later brehs

[CatsCatsCats]

Wait is Jack Remington an alt or do he and The Walrus just share Bernie hate boners?

[Mandark]

Alt.

[CatsCatsCats]

Yeah, I thought I recognized that boner

[I'm a Puppy!]

Wait is Jack Remington an alt or do he and The Walrus just share Bernie hate boners?

Only one way to make sure. Invite them to a party and see if they bring a guitar.

[CatsCatsCats]

Oh, okay. Pretty sure we all know a boner when we see one though, Jack 🍆

[Boogie]

I'm just Jack. Please refrain from any false insinuations and/or character assassination.

And there's no boner.

It's very tiring that every time you create a new alt, you try so hard to pretend that you're not you, and want us to pretend  that you're not you too.

It's not a big deal to have attempted to create a new persona, and be found out.  Just shrug it off and laugh about it.   but if you're actually, earnestly trying to convince us that you're not you, you need to stop.   You're bad at it.

[Boogie]

No idea what you're talking about. Let's get back to politics.

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-paul-ryan-wisconsin-speech-calls-him-ron-a7691326.html

[Joe Molotov]

Ron Paul Ryan

[Mandark]

It's very tiring that every time you create a new alt, you try so hard to pretend that you're not you, and want us to pretend  that you're not you too.

http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=42089.msg2052348#msg2052348

[zomgee]

Ron... Reagan?

[Nola]

UC Berkeley continues to embarrass themselves.
Microcasm of the left.
Lose an election rigged in your favor and still be in denial and hysterical about it 6 months later brehs

Berkley has never been a microcosm of anything. Berkley is like the emo of liberalism.

Sure, sometimes they give you skinny jeans, but most of the time they are just that group you barely pay attention to except when some conservatives want to catastrophize and blame shift because a mentally unstable loner with easy access to a gun shot up some school.

[etiolate]

That doesn't make any sense Nola.

Berkeley has a historical significance and tradition. It's not a microcosm. It's just another hegemonic institution. In this case, the city is the interesting factor since the mayor and police won't stand up to ANTIFA.

[Steve Contra]

Berkeley is actually a highly regarded research one school with an outsize population of incredibly talented Asian students that are denied entry to the Ivys and Ivy lights because they're racist if you want to know what the school is now, rather than some boogeyman of the right or emblem of the left.

[etiolate]

The Asians are denied entry to UCB at this point too, because they represent too high a %.

[Nola]

To be clear, I was not speaking of the actual institution or the real population, but the mostly caricature version of the liberal activist sub-culture/institutions that the right loves to use to paint the entirety of the left right now because of the Antifa stuff going on.

It's like under Bush when I remember Rush, Hannity, and the WSJ editorial pages kept doing stories on the craziest Berkeley protests and would equivocate it with being representative of all of the left. Or use things like the tree sit-in to paint all environmentalists with. Or the whole Berkeley "tells the Marines they aren't welcome" story to claim the left clearly hates the troops.

Berkeley has groups of people that just do a lot of off the wall activist shit. Embraces and accepts some weird walks of life. Which means they are also open to at times giving those people elected offices. It's hard to make the case it's representative of much most the time.

[etiolate]

There are real problems though with universities. Idealogical variety is pretty much gone at most colleges. Lack of ideological variety creates groupthink and poor peer review quality. The student loan system and the changing of student into customer has changed the mentality between educator, student and administration. Title IX has created a financial trapfor schools. You follow the Title IX rules or you don't get the student loans, but you follow the Title IX rules and you break individuals rights and get sued for millions, or you follow the rules and spend thousands doing so and accomplish little. I worry that studies and programs are going to spread into two extremes themselves, between profitable STEM fields and propaganda based social science fields.

In some way, Berkeley letting a group like ANTIFA cause public property damage and bad PR is their trade-off for not inciting any negative attention from the other sides which may prove more costly. It's cheaper to let Republicans get beat up rather than have someone claim you make an unsafe space for minorities and get the DOE involved.

[Mandark]

Title IX has created a financial trapfor schools. You follow the Title IX rules or you don't get the student loans, but you follow the Title IX rules and you break individuals rights and get sued for millions, or you follow the rules and spend thousands doing so and accomplish little.

Does this happen in a way that significantly impacts school budgets?

[I'm a Puppy!]

The Asians are denied entry to UCB at this point too, because they represent too high a %.

I might have helped said college with their admissions data. And I might have an intimate knowledge of the actual numbers and practices. And I might be calling bullshit on this in how they practice. I MIGHT be saying that. But of course I wouldn't be allowed to discuss such things.

[etiolate]

People have been told, sorry too many Asians. That might change year to year.