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The nonsense thread - Enter at your own risk! Warning… 100% off topic and full of nonsense inside (Read 890,508 times)
Joey
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1900 - Aug 10th, 2017 at 9:11pm
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<  ------------- Some Guy   ?!  .... !!!!!!   :





https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-irs-swamp-1502405528





" Trump’s IRS Swamp  "

" Obama-era lawyers are still obstructing lawsuits to hold the agency accountable.   "




By Kimberley A. Strassel





" Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, and here’s a seven-month progress report: The Washington bog is still as wide and fetid as ever. Consider that Mr. Trump’s Justice Department has inexplicably continued to defend the IRS’s misdeeds under President Obama.

Voters put a Republican in the White House in part to impose some belated accountability on the scandal-laden Obama administration. And the supreme scandal was the IRS’s assault on tea-party groups—a campaign inspired by congressional Democrats, perpetrated by partisan bureaucrats like Lois Lerner, and covered up by Mr. Obama’s political appointees. This abuse stripped the right to political speech from thousands of Americans over two election cycles. To this day, no one has answered for it.

The groups targeted are still doggedly trying to obtain justice through lawsuits that have dragged on for years. They believed Mr. Trump’s election would bring an end to the government obstruction. It hasn’t. “The posture of the DOJ and the IRS under the Trump administration is identical to the posture under the Obama administration,” Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Sound Governance, tells me. “Nothing has changed.”

Mr. Meckler was one of the founders of Tea Party Patriots. His current organization is funding a class-action suit in Ohio federal court on behalf of groups targeted by the IRS. So far the effort has cost $3 million.

That money is now going to fight Mr. Trump’s administration. In recent months the Justice Department has continued refusing to hand over documents or make witnesses available for depositions. The plaintiffs finally managed to depose Ms. Lerner and another key IRS player, Holly Paz, earlier this summer. But their counsels successfully demanded that the transcripts be kept secret from the public. As former federal employees, Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz are presumably getting backup from government lawyers.

The suit has slowly ground through discovery and is teed up for trial early next year. Yet in its latest stunt, the Justice Department has asked for summary judgment—arguing that the facts are so far beyond dispute that the judge should dispense with the trial and simply rule now. This is laughable. The judge is unlikely to even consider it, meaning the motion is nothing more than a way to waste further time and sap the plaintiffs’ resources.

To this day, conservative nonprofits are being toyed with by the IRS. The Texas Patriots Tea Party has waited five years for tax-exempt status and has continued to receive round after round of intrusive agency questions, long after the scandal was exposed and the IRS promised reform.

Other litigants are experiencing the same treatment. The IRS is fighting Judicial Watch in a suit over document requests. Government lawyers are hamstringing a suit against the IRS brought by Z Street, a pro-Israel nonprofit—as described last month in an op-ed on these pages.

The problem is that the same old Obama-era lawyers have been left to run these cases in the same old hostile ways. Who are these people? Laura Beckerman, one of the lead lawyers defending the IRS in the Ohio class action, left government only this month. Her LinkedIn profile says she is now pro bono coordinating counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW is among the most liberal outfits in the capital, fanatically devoted to taking down conservatives. That’s the type still calling the shots in Mr. Trump’s bureaucracy.

The Justice Department’s job is to defend the government, but it is also supposed to pursue justice. And there is no question the IRS did wrong. It has been documented by the Treasury Department’s inspector general and admitted by the IRS itself. It’d be one thing if the plaintiffs were demanding a billion-dollar payout, but they aren’t. Their main request is that the IRS come clean on what happened, and the government is resisting with all its power. The real question is why the Justice Department is even fighting this suit, when it ought to be leading a renewed investigation into what happened and how it got covered up.

This stonewalling cannot be laid solely at the feet of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, another Obama appointee who bizarrely remains in his post. The IRS, as the client, no doubt is calling many of the legal shots. But the Justice Department has the authority in important cases to make the ultimate judgment call on how the government will handle the litigation.

It’s time for some judgment. Senior leaders in the Justice Department may be wary of replacing or redirecting attorneys on the IRS cases, fearing it might provoke another round of media caterwauling. The White House may be wary of canning Mr. Koskinen, thinking it would be cast as another high-profile firing. But Mr. Trump was hired to impose exactly that sort of accountability. If he’s going to get rapped for dramatic moves, it might as well be for doing something that serves justice.  "


    
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« Last Edit: Aug 11th, 2017 at 8:28am by Joey »  

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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1901 - Aug 10th, 2017 at 9:33pm
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<  ------------ Edith   .... ?!   ....   !!!!!!    :




https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumpian-fury-on-north-korea-1502320336?mod=e2two




" Trumpian Fury on North Korea "

" China needs to know that the threat of military action is real. "


By The Editorial Board





" When Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” Tuesday if it continues to menace the U.S. with nuclear weapons, he provoked almost as much backlash at home as in Pyongyang. The usual diplomatic suspects, including some American lawmakers, claimed his remarks hurt U.S. credibility and were irresponsible.

The President’s point was that the North’s escalating threats are intolerable; he didn’t set any red lines. True to form, Pyongyang responded by putting the U.S. island of Guam in its cross hairs. Mr. Trump may be guilty of hyperbole (quelle surprise), but that is far less damaging to U.S. credibility than Barack Obama’s failure to enforce his prohibition on the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons in Syria. The foreign-policy elite who claim to be shocked also don’t have much credibility after their policy across three Administrations led to the current North Korean danger.

While the President’s words were unusually colorful, the Communist-style language may have been part of the message: Kim Jong Un isn’t the only one who can raise the geopolitical temperature. The U.S. has military options to neutralize the regime’s nuclear threat if it continues to develop long-range missiles, and the U.S. is considering those options.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said as much in an interview Saturday, explaining that Pyongyang’s nuclear threat is “intolerable from the President’s perspective. So of course, we have to provide all options to do that. And that includes a military option.” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reinforced that message Wednesday, warning North Korea to stop acting in ways that could “lead to the end of its regime.”

Last week Senator Lindsey Graham told a morning television program, “There is a military option to destroy North Korea’s program and North Korea itself.” The South Carolina Republican revealed that Mr. Trump told him there will be war if the North continues to develop long-range missiles: “He has told me that. I believe him. If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something about it.”

The China reference is a tip-off that the main audience for this rhetorical theater is in Beijing. Kim Jong Un won’t stop now that he’s so close to his goal of a nuclear deterrent. But China might restrict the flow of oil to the North, for example, if it believes that stronger action on its part could forestall a U.S. pre-emptive strike.

The other audience for Mr. Trump’s remarks is the North Korean leadership around the young Kim. If they believe they are doomed by Kim’s nuclear course, their best chance of self-preservation is to remove him. Regime change and then reunification is the ultimate solution to the North Korean problem.

One statement isn’t going to change minds in Beijing or Pyongyang. The Trump Administration can also signal its seriousness by imposing secondary sanctions on more Chinese companies, financial institutions and individuals. The U.S. also needs to move more military assets into the region to make the use of force credible.

Striking North Korea remains a last resort because the regime can hit the South with nuclear, chemical and conventional weapons. Yet in 1994 then-President Bill Clinton used the threat of military action as he tried to force the North to give up its nuclear program. But former President Jimmy Carter exceeded his diplomatic mandate and maneuvered Mr. Clinton to accept a deal that propped up Pyongyang without adequate inspections.

Diplomacy works best when there is a credible stick to go with the carrots. The Trump Administration has the right idea, even if the President’s words lack the usual diplomatic politesse.  "
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« Last Edit: Aug 11th, 2017 at 8:33am by Joey »  

...&&&&D.J. Jazzy Joe and the Fresh Prince of Boca Raton !™&& *** " VICTORY !!!! " ***...
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1902 - Aug 10th, 2017 at 9:42pm
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sirmoonie wrote on Aug 2nd, 2017 at 5:24pm:
I hear you, Joe.  The prejudice against Russians on this board sickens my mince.  All this anti-Russian bigotry has me sick like a goddam animal over here.  It's like these people forgot our brave Russian friends helped us defeat the German cancer of the last century.




...
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« Last Edit: Aug 11th, 2017 at 8:34am by Joey »  

...&&&&D.J. Jazzy Joe and the Fresh Prince of Boca Raton !™&& *** " VICTORY !!!! " ***...
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1903 - Aug 11th, 2017 at 8:53am
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So after 11 days our "fearless" leader finally comments on Putin's expulsion of 775 US Diplomats in Moscow. Does he support those folks or show any outrage? Nope....Thanks his Master for saving us money. In fact it will cost millions to relocate these folks and they remain on the US payroll. Had Obama been so flippant and stupid The House would draft articles on impeachment in about 5 minutes.

When is enough of this incompetency? The country voted for change to the right  but surely not for a joke.
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1904 - Aug 11th, 2017 at 10:31am
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gimmekeef wrote on Aug 11th, 2017 at 8:53am:
So after 11 days our "fearless" leader finally comments on Putin's expulsion of 775 US Diplomats in Moscow. Does he support those folks or show any outrage? Nope....Thanks his Master for saving us money. In fact it will cost millions to relocate these folks and they remain on the US payroll. Had Obama been so flippant and stupid The House would draft articles on impeachment in about 5 minutes.

When is enough of this incompetency? The country voted for change to the right  but surely not for a joke.



I'm thinking Trump probably was expecting this in light of his approval of sanctions against Russia which, BTW, received mostly bipartisan support.

In the meantime, never underestimate the power of possum:


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“What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there,” he says. “All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.” - Keef
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1905 - Aug 11th, 2017 at 4:03pm
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#TIFU
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1906 - Aug 11th, 2017 at 8:26pm
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Joey wrote on Aug 7th, 2017 at 9:11pm:
THE EXODUS IS HERE !!!!! 


Venezuela too...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-says-hes-considerin...

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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1907 - Aug 11th, 2017 at 11:26pm
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Someone on Twitter said at this point, Jerry Springer would be a better president than Trump. In a horrifying moment of clarity, I realized that I agree.

Well, here's hoping that those 2 giant man-babies don't throw a tantrum and start a nuclear war over the weekend. Nite nite, y'all.
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BDSM in Classic Rock thread

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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1908 - Aug 12th, 2017 at 5:32am
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Freya Gin wrote on Aug 11th, 2017 at 11:26pm:
Someone on Twitter said at this point, Jerry Springer would be a better president than Trump. In a horrifying moment of clarity, I realized that I agree.


The dude went from Mayor of Cincinnati to umpiring cat fights.

Hardly an admiral resume.'


...
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“What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there,” he says. “All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.” - Keef
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1909 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 1:10am
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Edith Grove wrote on Aug 12th, 2017 at 5:32am:
Freya Gin wrote on Aug 11th, 2017 at 11:26pm:
Someone on Twitter said at this point, Jerry Springer would be a better president than Trump. In a horrifying moment of clarity, I realized that I agree.


The dude went from Mayor of Cincinnati to umpiring cat fights.

Hardly an admiral resume.'


...


Exactly.
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BDSM in Classic Rock thread

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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1910 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 3:16am
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Good luck to you, from the other side of the ficticious wall, you are all welcome here.
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« Last Edit: Aug 13th, 2017 at 3:20am by MrPleasant »  
 
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Voodoo Chile in Wonderland
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1911 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 12:26pm
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I only get my rocks off while I'm sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeping with your girlfriend!!
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1912 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 12:39pm
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I liked this one

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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1913 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 9:44pm
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Sorry; this belongs in another thread.

May ____ bless you all.
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Joey
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1914 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 10:21am
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<  ------------ Gimmekeef   ?!






https://www.wsj.com/articles/risks-of-fiscal-mishap-rise-as-debt-and-budget-dead...








" Risks of Fiscal Mishap Rise as Debt and Budget Deadlines Loom "

" Economists in WSJ’s survey see 22% chance of government shutdown and 17% chance of government payroll or Social Security delays  "




By Josh Zumbrun





" The risks of a budget crisis or fiscal mishap in Washington are rising, which could weigh on financial markets in the weeks ahead.

Forecasters in The Wall Street Journal’s monthly survey of economists see on average a 22% chance of the government shutting down at the end of next month and a 17% chance that the U.S. Treasury will, at least temporarily, skip making payments on obligations such as government payroll or issuing Social Security checks to manage looming funding challenges.

The survey pointed to rising angst about land mines awaiting lawmakers when they return from their August recess. Two crucial fiscal deadlines are drawing nearer: The Treasury has estimated Congress must act by Sept. 29 to address the nation’s debt ceiling, and Sept. 30 is the end of the fiscal year, and thus the deadline for Congress to authorize legislation to keep the government functioning when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.


Similar showdowns have rocked Wall Street in recent years. Though calamities were averted, that’s no guarantee of a clear path now.

“The annual games of Debt Ceiling Roulette and Federal Budget Chicken pose greater risks than ever this year,” said Amy Crews Cutts, chief economist of the credit reporting agency Equifax.

Economists see a 6% chance the U.S. will default on debt payments. While 6% is fairly low, it’s double the risk from earlier this summer for a scenario that most economists believe would be calamitous.

“Default would have quick and severe effects on the economy that no party wants to bear,” said Brian Schaitkin, senior U.S. economist at the Conference Board.

The Journal surveyed 62 economists from Aug. 4 to Aug. 8.

Even if the debt ceiling is raised, a contentious debate can have significant impacts. Earlier this year, researchers at the Federal Reserve estimated the episodes in 2011 and 2013, in which Congress nearly failed to raise the debt ceiling, caused interest rates to rise, costing taxpayers about $250 million in each episode.

A Goldman Sachs research note this week cautioned that investors are starting to avoid Treasury bills that mature around this year’s key fiscal deadlines, pushing up interest rates on those securities.

With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, this isn’t the postelection environment many had expected.

President Donald Trump took office pledging to swiftly repeal and replace his predecessor’s health-care law, promising to give the tax code a business-friendly rewrite, and considering a $1 trillion infrastructure package to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges, while revving up factories and construction firms.

Economists in The Wall Street Journal’s monthly survey were initially optimistic about this agenda. After the election, the panel of academic, business and financial economists raised their forecasts for economic growth and interest rates , and many began fretting about “upside risks” to the economic outlook—that is, the risk that their forecasts could be wrong for not being optimistic enough.

But as the year wore on it became apparent that it wouldn’t be easy to get Senate and House Republicans on the same page for an ambitious legislative agenda. Democrats have been unified in opposition. The challenge was most apparent when the Senate failed to advance its health-care bill last month.

The failed health-care bill has raised broader doubts about the legislative agenda. In January, 71% of economists in the Journal’s survey said they expected a “substantial” boost to the economy from legislative changes such as a tax cut or infrastructure program. By this month’s survey, just 26% expected such a boost.

“Anything that is accomplished by 2018 will be small and temporary,” said Diane Swonk, president of DS Economics.

Tensions between the White House and Congress were aired publicly this week, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) saying the president had “not been in this line of work before” and had “excessive expectations.” Mr. Trump responded on Twitter: “I don’t think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?”

Without the cooperation of Congress, many of Mr. Trump’s most economically significant actions have been through executive orders, such as those easing regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency, examining overtime rules at the Labor Department and ending many of the regulatory proposals in the works from his predecessor.

So far this year, the stock market has continued to rise to new records, and the economy has continued to add jobs. Congress could still come together around other issues despite what happened with health care.

“A growth-oriented tax package could lead to a surge in business investment,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist of Amherst Pierpont Securities.

But optimistic growth estimates that started the year have come down, with the average forecaster seeing 2.2% growth this year slowing to 1.9% in 2019.

“If nothing gets done, disappointment could set in,” Mr. Stanley said.  "
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1915 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 4:46pm
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I have disavowed this thread.
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1916 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 4:52pm
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Edith?

...
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1917 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 5:18pm
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Some Guy wrote on Aug 14th, 2017 at 4:52pm:
Edith?

...



Shoveling shit in Louisiana? 
SIR, NO SIR!





...
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“What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there,” he says. “All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.” - Keef
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1918 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 9:04pm
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<  ------------- Some Guy   ?!   ... !!!!!   :





https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-poison-of-identity-politics-1502661521?mod=e2tw...




" The Poison of Identity Politics "
" The return of white nationalism is part of a deeper ailment. "





By The Editorial Board




" As ever in this age of Donald Trump, politicians and journalists are reducing the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday to a debate over Mr. Trump’s words and intentions. That’s a mistake no matter what you think of the President, because the larger poison driving events like those in Virginia is identity politics and it won’t go away when Mr. Trump inevitably does.

The particular pathology on display in Virginia was the white nationalist movement led today by the likes of Richard Spencer, David Duke and Brad Griffin. They alone are to blame for the violence that occurred when one of their own drove a car into peaceful protesters, killing a young woman and injuring 19 others.

The Spencer crowd courts publicity and protests, and they chose the progressive university town of Charlottesville with malice aforethought. They used the unsubtle Ku Klux Klan symbolism of torches in a Friday night march, and they seek to appear as political martyrs as a way to recruit more alienated young white men.

Political conservatives even more than liberals need to renounce these racist impulses, and the good news is that this is happening. The driver has been charged with murder under Virginia law, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions opened a federal civil-rights investigation and issued a statement condemning the violence: “When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.” Many prominent conservatives also denounced the white-nationalist movement.

Mr. Trump was widely criticized for his initial statement Saturday afternoon that condemned the hatred “on many sides” but failed to single out the white nationalists. Notably, David Duke and his allies read Mr. Trump’s statement as attacking them and criticized the President for doing so.

The White House nonetheless issued a statement Sunday saying Mr. Trump “includes white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups” in his condemnation. As so often with Mr. Trump, his original statement missed an opportunity to speak like a unifying political leader.

Yet the focus on Mr. Trump is also a cop-out because it lets everyone duck the deeper and growing problem of identity politics on the right and left.
The politics of white supremacy was a poison on the right for many decades, but the civil-rights movement rose to overcome it, and it finally did so in the mid-1960s with Martin Luther King Jr. ’s language of equal opportunity and color-blind justice.

That principle has since been abandoned, however, in favor of a new identity politics that again seeks to divide Americans by race, ethnicity, gender and even religion. “Diversity” is now the all-purpose justification for these divisions, and the irony is that America is more diverse and tolerant than ever.

The problem is that the identity obsessives want to boil down everything in American life to these categories. In practice this means allocating political power, contracts, jobs and now even salaries in the private economy based on the politics of skin color or gender rather than merit or performance. Down this road lies crude political tribalism, and James Damore’s recent Google dissent is best understood as a cri de coeur that we should aspire to something better. Yet he lost his job merely for raising the issue.

A politics fixated on indelible differences will inevitably lead to resentments that extremists can exploit in ugly ways on the right and left. The extremists were on the right in Charlottesville, but there have been examples on the left in Berkeley, Oakland and numerous college campuses. When Democratic politicians can’t even say “all lives matter” without being denounced as bigots, American politics has a problem.

Mr. Trump didn’t create this identity obsession even if as a candidate he did try to exploit it. He is more symptom than cause, though as President he now has a particular obligation to renounce it. So do other politicians. Yet the only mission of nearly every Democrat we observed on the weekend was to use the “white supremacist” cudgel against Mr. Trump—as if that is the end of the story.

It isn’t, and it won’t be unless we confront this underlying politics of division. Not long ago we were rereading Justice Clarence Thomas’s prophetic opinion in Holder v. Hall, a 1994 Supreme Court ruling on dividing voting districts by race.

“As a practical political matter,” he wrote, “our drive to segregate political districts by race can only serve to deepen racial divisions by destroying any need for voters or candidates to build bridges between racial groups or to form voting coalitions.” Writ large, Justice Thomas was warning that identity politics can destroy democratic trust and consent.  "
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« Last Edit: Aug 15th, 2017 at 11:16am by Joey »  

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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1919 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 9:14pm
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sirmoonie wrote on Aug 3rd, 2017 at 4:41pm:
This other time, we all got summoned to an employee meeting with the new office manager.  To be perfectly honest, I was hungover as a moose.  I was disheveled in my appearance - the hue of my socks didn't even match.  It was bad, and I didn't feel like getting hustled down to the auditorium to listen to this college educated schmuck tell us how to do our goddam jobs.  So I'm raising my hand "where's the baffroom?" "What's your name, again?" and stuff like that.  They want me out of the room at some point, which is fine.  I don't need this, you know?  So I go back to the telemode desk and start moving stuff around.  I know how to keep this company in the black.  I'm not some fool.  Experience counts.  I've done it all.  I know what sells in America to these schlubs.  I could sell piss to an Eskimo.  I could seek futons to fat boy.



*****************************************************



Big Win Today for President Donald J. Trump  ( ' Dear Leader !  '  )   .  Our Dear Leader is a very Smart and Wise Leader  . A ' Precious Leader !  '   :






http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40931775




" N Korea leader 'briefed' on Guam plan but opts to wait  "


" North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reviewed plans to fire missiles towards the US Pacific territory of Guam but will hold off, state media said.

Although prepared for "the enveloping fire at Guam", the North said it would watch what "the foolish Yankees" do before taking a decision.


Last week's threat against Guam escalated the sharp rhetoric being exchanged between the two sides.

This latest report points to a pause in the increasingly bitter war of words.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in meanwhile has urged the US not to launch an attack on the Korean peninsula without its consent, saying "no one may decide to take military action without the consent" of the South. "

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...&&&&D.J. Jazzy Joe and the Fresh Prince of Boca Raton !™&& *** " VICTORY !!!! " ***...
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1920 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 9:21pm
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Freya Gin wrote on Aug 11th, 2017 at 11:26pm:
Someone on Twitter said at this point, Jerry Springer would be a better president than Trump. In a horrifying moment of clarity, I realized that I agree.

Well, here's hoping that those 2 giant man-babies don't throw a tantrum and start a nuclear war over the weekend. Nite nite, y'all.






**************************************




***********   {  " SIGH !!!!!   "  }     *********



Guess who BLINKED Today  .... ?!   .... !!!!!!!!!!!   . That is RIGHT !!!!!   :



 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/15/543603140/north-korea-says-it-...




" North Korea Says It Won't Fire Missiles At Guam, After All   "

" North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reviewed his military's plans to rain "an enveloping fire" around the U.S. territory of Guam — but opted not to fire missiles at this time, according to state media. Despite the stand-down, some Guamanians were alarmed after two radio stations aired an erroneous emergency alert Tuesday.

Kim visited the Korean People's Army as the self-imposed mid-August deadline for a missile demonstration approached, the Korean Central News Agency reports. But after hearing the plan and considering it, Kim opted not to give the order to launch missiles, but instead "would watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees," the report says.

Kim also warned that the U.S. should not test North Korea's self-restraint.

On Guam, the territory's Homeland Security office says two radio stations aired "an unscheduled test of the Emergency Alert Broadcast System" shortly after midnight, which "residents and visitors may have noticed." The announcement — that the system had issued "a civil danger warning" for Guam — was due to an unauthorized test and was not connected to an emergency, the agency says.

Guam and the U.S. air and naval forces that are based there have been under alert since it was named by North Korea as a potential demonstration target, with the regime threatening to fire missiles into the sea near the island that's home to some 160,000 people.

The passing of the deadline without a missile launch could ease tensions that have been ratcheted up as President Trump and North Korea have traded threats. Last week, Trump said, "Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely."

It's still too early to say the situation has calmed entirely, Guam Lieut. Gov. Ray Tenorio said — "But we are happy that the rhetoric is starting to calm down, perhaps."
"There is no change in the threat level," Guam Homeland Security Advisor George Charfauros said. He added, "We are very ... I'd say almost ecstatic that Kim Jong Un has backed off."

From Seoul, NPR's Elise Hu reports:

"[On] Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said if North Korean missiles were considered a threat to Guam, then, 'It's game on.' Others in the Trump administration, like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, continue to try and push a diplomatic solution to the current nuclear issue."
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1921 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 9:27pm
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MrPleasant wrote on Aug 13th, 2017 at 3:16am:
Good luck to you, from the other side of the ficticious wall, you are all welcome here.






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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1922 - Aug 14th, 2017 at 9:41pm
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<  ----------- Edith  .... ?!   .... !!!!!   :





https://www.wsj.com/articles/were-holding-pyongyang-to-account-1502660253?mod=e2...





" We’re Holding Pyongyang to Account "

" The U.S., its allies and the world are united in our pursuit of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.   "



By Jim Mattis and  Rex Tillerson




" In the past few months, multiple illegal North Korean ballistic-missile and ICBM tests—coupled with the most recent bellicose language from Pyongyang about striking the U.S., Guam, our allies and our interests in the Asia-Pacific region—have escalated tensions between North Korea and America to levels not experienced since the Korean War.

In response, the Trump administration, with the support of the international community, is applying diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a dismantling of the regime’s ballistic-missile programs. We are replacing the failed policy of “strategic patience,” which expedited the North Korean threat, with a new policy of strategic accountability.

The object of our peaceful pressure campaign is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone. We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang.

Our diplomatic approach is shared by many nations supporting our goals, including China, which has dominant economic leverage over Pyongyang. China is North Korea’s neighbor, sole treaty ally and main commercial partner. Chinese entities are, in one way or another, involved with roughly 90% of North Korean trade. This affords China an unparalleled opportunity to assert its influence with the regime. Recent statements by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as other regional and global voices, have made clear the international community holds one view regarding North Korea’s provocative and dangerous actions: They must stop. Pyongyang must stand down on those actions.

China has a strong incentive to pursue the same goals as the U.S. The North Korean regime’s actions and the prospect of nuclear proliferation or conflict threaten the economic, political and military security China has worked to build over decades. North Korea’s behavior further threatens China’s long-term interest in regional peace and stability. If China wishes to play a more active role in securing regional peace and stability—from which all of us, especially China, derive such great benefit—it must make the decision to exercise its decisive diplomatic and economic leverage over North Korea.

Our diplomatic approach also proceeds through the United Nations. The Security Council’s recent unanimous vote imposes new sanctions on North Korea and underscores the extent to which the regime has chosen to isolate itself from the international community. This vote, which also had Russia’s support, reflects the international will to confront the North Korean regime’s continuing threat to global security and stability.

We urge all nations to honor their commitments to enforce U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea and to increase diplomatic, economic and political pressure on the regime, specifically through the abandonment of trade, which finances the development of ballistic and nuclear weapons. The U.S. continues to consolidate international unity on the North Korean issue through increased engagement at the U.N., at regional diplomatic forums, and in capitals around the world.

While diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Korea’s course of action, it is backed by military options. The U.S. alliances with South Korea and Japan are strong. But Pyongyang has persistently rebuffed Seoul’s attempts to create conditions whereby peaceful dialogue can occur, and has instead proceeded on its reckless course of threats and provocation. As a result of these dangers, South Korea’s new government is moving forward with the deployment of U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense against the threat. We commend South Korea’s decision to deploy this purely defensive capability.

Installing Thaad launchers on the Korean Peninsula and conducting joint military exercises are defensive preparations against the acute threat of military actions directed against the U.S., our allies and other nations. China’s demand for the U.S. and South Korea not to deploy Thaad is unrealistic. Technically astute Chinese military officers understand the system poses no danger to their homeland.

Absent China using its influence to show the world how a great power should act to resolve such a well-defined problem as North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range missile capability, others in the region are obliged to pursue prudent defensive measures to protect their people. China’s Security Council vote was a step in the right direction. The region and world need and expect China to do more.

The U.S. is willing to negotiate with Pyongyang. But given the long record of North Korea’s dishonesty in negotiations and repeated violations of international agreements, it is incumbent upon the regime to signal its desire to negotiate in good faith. A sincere indication would be the immediate cessation of its provocative threats, nuclear tests, missile launches and other weapons tests.

The U.S. will continue to work with our allies and partners to deepen diplomatic and military cooperation, and to hold nations accountable to their commitments to isolate the regime. That will include rigorous enforcement of sanctions, leaving no North Korean source of revenue untouched. In particular, the U.S. will continue to request Chinese and Russian commitments not to provide the regime with economic lifelines and to persuade it to abandon its dangerous path.

As always, we will embrace military preparedness in the defense of our homeland, our citizens and our allies, and in the preservation of stability and security in Northeast Asia. And we will say again here: Any attack will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons will be met with an effective and overwhelming response.

North Korea now faces a choice. Take a new path toward peace, prosperity and international acceptance, or continue further down the dead alley of belligerence, poverty and isolation. The U.S. will aspire and work for the former, and will remain vigilant against the latter.

Mr. Mattis is U.S. secretary of defense. Mr. Tillerson is U.S. secretary of state.  "
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1923 - Aug 15th, 2017 at 12:00pm
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"Bozo."  "Look at that Bozo over there."  "I will, as soon as Bozo over here gets me a drink."  "That guy?  He's just another Bozo getting in the way."  "Look at all these Bozos in here."

Many of you don't seem that bright.  Are you?  I've been requesting that people post their IQs for years now.  You can only tell so much over the internet.

So we won the North Korean thing, eh?  That's nice.  That's really nice.  Seemed more of a media created stramash utilizing the misperceptions and ignorance of the common Bozo than anything.  Strangely, the US military, an institution not exactly known for objectivity or restraint, played the straight role.  And now?  We march on Appomattox again!  Put these low IQ Southern scallywags on the run!  USA North!  USA North!  USA North!
...
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"But in terms of what's left of white people, we're still it." - Andrew Moof Oldham
 
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Re: Politics thread (ssc!!)
Reply #1924 - Aug 15th, 2017 at 3:28pm
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