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StrikezOne

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6450 on: December 05, 2017, 06:02:35 PM »
Speaking of ripping something out of context and twisting it....

Elimination of the health insurance mandate - so roughly 13 million people will lose their health insurance.

Isn't it important to add that if 13 million people lose their health insurance because the elimination of the health insurance mandate, it will be THEIR choice?
Dark Brandon quietly doing his job:

Highest Inflation in 40yrs
Highest Gas Prices Ever
Forced Vax on Millions of healthy Americans
Highest Mortgage rates in 15yrs
Most Illegal Border Crossings in US History
Loss of Energy Independence
High Taxes
High Crime
Afghanistan Disaster
Nordstream 2 Pipeline
Hunter Corruption/Treason
Vacations > Ohio Train Derailment, Maui Fires
WW3
America LAST

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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6451 on: December 07, 2017, 10:06:32 PM »
Dear Senator Gillibrand:

Congratulations!

You have successfully rid the Senate of that notorious serial groper and sexual deviant Al Franken!

No longer will the women (and men too, presumably) of those august halls live in abject fear of running into someone who stood accused of being a little too "hands on" during photo ops over seven years ago! Even though his current staff and former co-workers have no ill to speak of him, being a former "dirty old man" makes one obviously unsuitable for even the smallest role in the Federal Government!

You can take pride in knowing that you have done your country a great service. Even though Mr. Franken was one of the sharpest interrogators in Senate hearings and a bastion of feminist and Democratic principles, one has to draw a line!

While you may be tempted to consider this a job well done and look forward to a relaxing holiday season, I urge that you do not put your weapons away just yet.

Infamous **09** molester and general creep Roy Moore just might be sent by the people of Alabama to represent them in the same Senate that you have just finished purging. Be ready to lead the charge against him should it prove necessary!

And then, keep your Sword of Righteousness at hand! Consider these bouts as training for the biggest target: the self-confessed "Pussygrabber-in-Chief" Donald Trump. Surely, if Franken had to go, Trump should be shown the door, too?

Yours,

A Constituent

p.s. Get ready to help with the campaign, too! What was a Senate seat in safe Democratic hands through 2020 is now going to be up for grabs two years early!
rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6452 on: December 08, 2017, 05:11:51 PM »
Dear Senator Gillibrand:

Congratulations!

You have successfully rid the Senate of that notorious serial groper and sexual deviant Al Franken!

No longer will the women (and men too, presumably) of those august halls live in abject fear of running into someone who stood accused of being a little too "hands on" during photo ops over seven years ago! Even though his current staff and former co-workers have no ill to speak of him, being a former "dirty old man" makes one obviously unsuitable for even the smallest role in the Federal Government!

You can take pride in knowing that you have done your country a great service. Even though Mr. Franken was one of the sharpest interrogators in Senate hearings and a bastion of feminist and Democratic principles, one has to draw a line!...

Yours,

A Constituent

p.s. Get ready to help with the campaign, too! What was a Senate seat in safe Democratic hands through 2020 is now going to be up for grabs two years early!



I really don't know why they didn't let the ethics committee go through due process and get all the facts out before they rushed to judgment like this. Between this and Rep. John Conyers (ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee and the longest-serving active member of Congress) leaving as well, I see this hasty move backfiring against the Democrats in Senate very soon.

And perhaps Sen. Franken may want to change his mind about resigning, with this news:

The Washington Post: "Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, who asked staffers if they would bear his chi!d as a surrogate, says he will resign"
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3deroticer

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6453 on: December 09, 2017, 02:43:10 PM »

I really don't know why they didn't let the ethics committee go through due process and get all the facts out before they rushed to judgment like this. Between this and Rep. John Conyers (ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee and the longest-serving active member of Congress) leaving as well, I see this hasty move backfiring against the Democrats in Senate very soon.

And perhaps Sen. Franken may want to change his mind about resigning, with this news:

The Washington Post: "Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, who asked staffers if they would bear his chi!d as a surrogate, says he will resign"

Al ask for the ethic committee investigation, and I have no idea why they back out of it. We know nothing of the other 6 women or their motivation, or what happen. Now we also have a risk of losing Gillibrand seat because of her action without due process. However I also ask why would Al backout willingly unless he is embarrass of what will be the outcome of the party if he stay behind and fight. In the long run they should have let him have the investigation and let him decide when to backout without implicating a third party involvement of denying him his rights. It's not a question of loyalty to the party but due process of justice that we proudly say we adhere to.

The worse it can happen is lose all of those seats in the democratic party and let a **07** win Georgia seat.
"Yesterday, Reince Priebus called this whole story a 'nothing burger,'" he said. "Well these emails have turned it into an all-you-can-prosecute buffet."

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CarlTL

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6454 on: December 09, 2017, 03:16:15 PM »
Sen. Gillibrand's seat is not in issue. The likely replacement for Al Franken is the female lieutenant governor of Minnesota.

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3deroticer

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6455 on: December 09, 2017, 03:52:07 PM »
Sen. Gillibrand's seat is not in issue. The likely replacement for Al Franken is the female lieutenant governor of Minnesota.
She is stated as a democratic-farmer-labor party supporter. I have not heard of them, but it has to be better than the Democratic-conservative/blue dog party.
"Yesterday, Reince Priebus called this whole story a 'nothing burger,'" he said. "Well these emails have turned it into an all-you-can-prosecute buffet."

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CarlTL

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6456 on: December 09, 2017, 06:42:36 PM »
She's the junior senator for New York State-most definitely not a blue dog. Has the seat the Hilary had when she was a senator.

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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6457 on: December 09, 2017, 08:17:29 PM »
Sen. Gillibrand's seat is not in issue. The likely replacement for Al Franken is the female lieutenant governor of Minnesota.

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith is the most likely replacement - but whoever takes the job will only be a placeholder until the 2018 elections, when BOTH of Minnesota's Senate seats will be up for grabs. Smith's spot will be up for a two-year short term, while their other Senator, Amy Klobuchar, is up for re-election on the regular cycle.

AND - Governor Mark Dayton has to step down thanks to Minnesota's term limits.

AND - the upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Michigan.....Minnesota) has been slowly shifting more towards the Republican side lately.....
 
rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6458 on: December 11, 2017, 04:14:52 PM »
Read somewhere that Sen. Franken didn't definitively say that he was resigning, but that he was thinking of resigning. I might have misread that though.

Meanwhile:


The Washington Post: "It’s time to ask every Republican this question about Trump and Mueller"

In coming days and weeks, we should all do whatever we can to ensure that every Republican member of Congress, in town hall meetings, via social media and during scrums with reporters, is asked the following question:

If President Trump tries to remove special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, would you view that as an impeachable offense?

Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, just gave an interview to Axios in which he floated the idea that the president, by definition, cannot obstruct justice, “because he is the chief law enforcement officer” and “has every right to express his view of any case.”

Trump’s lawyers had previously argued to Mueller that Trump did not obstruct justice (a possibility that Mueller is examining) when he fired former FBI director James B. Comey out of anger over the Russia probe, because he has the constitutional authority to hire and fire as he sees fit. Experts have challenged this claim, noting that even if Trump has this authority, he cannot exercise it for a corrupt purpose. Regardless, this would not have to be a crime to constitute an impeachable offense.

But in any event, Dowd’s new argument appears to go farther than that. It doesn’t address just Trump’s previous conduct toward Comey. The notion that Trump can “express his view of any case” could theoretically be applicable as a justification for any future actions Trump might take toward the investigation.

“Dowd is basically arguing that as the chief law enforcement officer, Trump has the authority to block investigations into himself, his allies and into his friends, and nothing he does can be construed as obstruction of justice,” Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman, told me this morning. “The logical extension of all this is that Trump can try to remove Mueller and it would be entirely legitimate.”

Let’s put this in the context of the events of the past several days. After it was announced that former national security adviser Michael Flynn has made a plea deal with Mueller in which he’s providing information about the Trump transition team’s various activities, Trump unleashed an extraordinary stream of tweets blasting the FBI as “in tatters.” He hammered the FBI for failing to sufficiently investigate Hillary Clinton under Comey and vowed to bring the FBI “back to greatness.”

In saying all these things, Trump is amplifying a narrative that his media allies have banged away at in recent weeks, one designed to goad Trump into going full authoritarian. The basic idea is that Mueller and the FBI are themselves corrupt — Clinton is not being investigated, but Trump’s campaign is — so the only way to set things right is to close down Mueller’s probe. If Miller is correct, then Dowd’s new quote may telegraph an argument that might be used to justify this, and Trump’s vow to bring the FBI “back to greatness” can also be read as a hint at this possibility.

Meanwhile, in defending himself, Trump also appeared to reveal by tweet that he originally had to fire Flynn because he had “lied to” the FBI, which immediately raised further questions about potential obstruction. This suggests Trump knew this even as he demanded that Comey drop the investigation into Flynn, as Comey testified that Trump did, though Dowd subsequently claimed this isn’t what Trump meant. At the same time, Flynn’s cooperation appears to be shedding light on the possibility that Trump’s top advisers, or even Trump himself, directed him to contact Russia before he was president. This could constitute undermining then-current U.S. foreign policy in ways that some legal experts suggest could have been illegal or could form the grounds for impeachment (not that Republicans would agree, naturally).

The bottom line: Trump’s legal and/or political exposure — and that of his top advisers — appears to have grown. And given Trump’s response, so too has the possibility that he will try to put a stop to the investigation. We don’t know whether Trump will go this route. But the point is that the groundwork for this course of action has been laid, should he choose it. Trump’s lawyers have said this isn’t being discussed. But Dowd should now be pressed to elaborate on his new quote in this context...
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3deroticer

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6459 on: December 11, 2017, 04:44:15 PM »
I watch the speech of Al Franken and he did say that he will be leaving in 2 weeks! I wish there was a hint that he may back out!
"Yesterday, Reince Priebus called this whole story a 'nothing burger,'" he said. "Well these emails have turned it into an all-you-can-prosecute buffet."

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6460 on: December 12, 2017, 06:28:15 PM »
Sad news from out west:


CNN: "Ed Lee, San Francisco's first Asian-American mayor, dies at 65"

San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, a former civil rights attorney who became the first Asian-American to serve in the city's top post, died early Tuesday -- hours after appearing at a public event -- at a city hospital at age 65, his office said.

Lee, who had been mayor since 2011, had suffered a heart attack while shopping at a Safeway grocery store Monday night, said US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents San Francisco in Congress. Lee's office didn't release his cause of death.

"I don't know San Francisco without Ed Lee," former Mayor Willie Brown told CNN affiliate KPIX. "He clearly had ... a lot more to give to the city. I'm going to miss him personally, and I think the city will miss him."...

Board of Supervisors President London Breed became acting mayor when Lee died, the mayor's office said, citing succession rules in the city's charter. She is the city's first black female chief executive. "Our mayor was a good man with a good heart," Breed said Tuesday morning. "He believed above all else in building bridges and solving problems. Our thoughts and prayers are with (Lee's) wife, Anita, his two daughters, Brianna and Tania, and his entire family," Breed said.

Lee had been expected to conduct meetings Tuesday at City Hall, according to his official schedule. On Monday, he attended a city event promoting a recycling program and was seen smiling and shaking hands, CNN affiliate KGO reported.

Lee, a Seattle native and the son of Chinese immigrants, graduated from Maine's Bowdoin College in 1974 and earned his law degree at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978. After becoming a civil rights attorney, he began decades of work in city government in the late 1980s, when he was named investigator for the city's first whistle blower's ordinance. Serving under four mayors, he would become human rights commission director, city purchaser and public works director.

In 2011, the Board of Supervisors appointed Lee, then the city administrator, to fill the rest of the term of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who left to become California's lieutenant governor. Lee was elected to his own term later in 2011 and re-elected in 2015 as mayor of the consolidated city-county government.

Serving as the first Asian-American mayor, in a county where more than 35% of residents are of Asian descent, is part of "the height of his legacy," said Brown, the mayor from 1996 to 2004. "Unlike all the rest of us (who) got elected -- we got elected by our own skills to convince people and to sell people on us as an idea -- Ed Lee earned that title by demonstration of being an efficient person who could manage a huge enterprise like San Francisco," Brown told KPIX.



« Last Edit: December 12, 2017, 11:01:11 PM by TheZookie007 »
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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6461 on: December 12, 2017, 11:10:04 PM »
What a difference a month makes.

MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Nov. 13, 2017: "George Will: Democrat Doug Jones Deserves To Win Over Roy Moore"

MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Dec. 12, 2017: "Doug Jones triumphs over Roy Moore in Alabama Senate election"
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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6462 on: December 13, 2017, 08:52:39 PM »
Democracy Now!: "FCC Set to Roll Back Digital Civil Rights with Thursday’s Vote to Repeal Net Neutrality"

On Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, an open letter was published titled:

"Internet Pioneers and Leaders Tell the FCC: You Don’t Understand How the Internet Works"


Among the signatories of the open letter to the FCC was Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web; Vint Cerf, the man who spearheaded the invention of TCP/IP, the technical protocol behind the Internet; and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6463 on: December 13, 2017, 09:08:48 PM »
What a difference a month makes.

MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Nov. 13, 2017: "George Will: Democrat Doug Jones Deserves To Win Over Roy Moore"

MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Dec. 12, 2017: "Doug Jones triumphs over Roy Moore in Alabama Senate election"

Don't recall where I say it earlier tonight, but there was a tweet from a Democrat pollster looking at the Senate races in 2018, and musing that for the Dems to take control they'd need "Nevada, Arizona, and a miracle." Someone retweeted it, noting that they just took care of the hardest one.
rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6464 on: December 13, 2017, 09:35:32 PM »

Don't recall where I say it earlier tonight, but there was a tweet from a Democrat pollster looking at the Senate races in 2018, and musing that for the Dems to take control they'd need "Nevada, Arizona, and a miracle." Someone retweeted it, noting that they just took care of the hardest one.

Heh.

The Dems were lucky in a number of ways: that their opponent was so horrifically bad, that their candidate was so good, that they took the ground game seriously, that the African-American vote was at presidential election-levels of turnout (AAs were 29% of the vote, and 96% of AA men and 98% of AA women voted for Sen.-elect Doug Jones), and that both the current occupant of the Oval and his erstwhile Svengali (Steve "Rumpledstiltskin" Bannon) were so bad at their jobs. It's not going to be a cakewalk but if they follow the same strategy in Nevada, in Arizona, and in every other state, it is possible to flip the Senate from 46D - 2 I - 51 R to at least 51D in 2018. But they can't afford to get cocky about it.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2017, 09:38:05 PM by TheZookie007 »
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