I don’t, do you? I think a better question would be- how does this movement, and its critics, compare to other successful society changing movements? I fear without historical context your comment is merely vapid

I've only claimed that in order to save lives learning CPR is a more effective method than protesting is.

Lots of words are being put into my mouth in this thread. You guys should just make up quotes in my name and debate them.

The context of the discussion was what we should be doing to make our kids safer in school regarding gun violence. The answer is not teaching them first aid. It is a good skill to have, as is say, math, reading, and things like that. Those are all things we can do to teach our kids to take care of themselves. These are not effective tools for combating violence. Marching to bring attention to your cause it actually better than learning CPR if you want to change the issue.

The idea that it is wrong that the kids are looking at us to solve their problems (in the context of gun violence) is absurd, and that is what Google Santorum was saying. Adults and gun culture have created these problems, so should it not be up to the adults to fix them?

Not only that, but 1) is it basically saying “well, they should mind their own business and be good little kids“ and 2) is this again a statement that would not happen in other areas of life.

I mean, he does get what a politicians/governments job is supposed to be, like working for the citizens and stuff ? Like passing laws and regulations to protect them ? And that Not only that, but 1) is it basically saying “well, they should mind their own business and be good little kids“ and 2) is this again a statement that would not happen in other areas of life.

I mean, he does get what a politicians/governments job is supposed to be, like working for the citizens and stuff ? Like passing laws and regulations to protect them ? Or why free speech and the right to assembly (protest) is guaranteed by the First Ammendment ? I bet it has something to do with this democracy thingie ...

Doing CPR on a gunshot victim will accelerate them bleeding out, but one can never go wrong betting on Rick Santorum saying something stupid. Are you suggesting he's *not* being a dumbass?

Trump should learn CPR rather than try to disarm North Korea.

What has been presented for more effective gun control? Age restrictions? Better mental health screening? Closing loopholes in gun purchases?

I don't think these are bad things, though I think there should be a waiver for military personnel owning guns.

Has there been any concrete ideas or are we just spitballing to see what sticks and what deosnt?

I do like the thing I saw on facebook about this being the first generation to fight to have less freedom. Thought that was kind of funny.

Well they aren't the first (18th amendment anyone?)

Honestly, dude, how many times do we have to do this?

I don't know. We just had a generation fighting pretty hard to ban porn and contraceptives.

And the argument doesn't even make sense. I support laws against child molestation. Does that mean I'm fighting to have less freedom too?

Impeachment is a legislative thing, and Republicans have gerrymandered this state such that if the Supreme Court doesn't rule against them in June, it's going to take a heavy, heavy lift to ever again see a legislature in this state that would hold a Republican executive accountable.

Remember, this is a state that voted twice for Obama, voted to elect the first openly lesbian (liberal!) Senator in US history, and STILL hasn't had Democratic control of either house of the state Legislature since before 2011. That's how fucked the districts are here.

He's won three separate elections - the original, the recall, and re-election - though there were circumstances for the latter two. I'll get to that in a moment.


What's funny is that one of the Democratic candidates is a fella named Matt Flynn. No, not the former Packers backup QB, but I guarantee there will be some "WOO PACK" votes for him anyway.

And now the "extenuating circumstances" I mentioned earlier.

So as lungs said, Walker has won a recall and subsequent regular election.

But here's the thing. The recall election, his OWN PEOPLE filed the recall paperwork early so that he could a) get a jumpstart on unlimited fundraising and b) the law requires the recall election be scheduled within a certain amount of time after that paperwork, so by filing against himself early, he and his team ensured that the recall election could be scheduled for summer 2012, rather than having to share a ballot with Barack Obama in November.

A Governor Walker facing recall on a Presidential ballot would probably not have ended well for him.

And then the next election after that was a midterm election year, 2014. Wisconsin gubernatorial elections are always in midterm years absent extraordinary circumstances like recall elections.

So, I mean, I don't know if Walker is necessarily Mr. Popular here, but he's also never had to face an energized Democratic electorate in a "regular" election, either. This year might be different. Might not. I think it's gonna depend on how depressed Republican turnout is for Congressional races.

Highlights from 60 Minutes' Stormy Daniels interview

These kids weren't alive when we all fully supported the Patriot Act, so...

You can't own a cannon or an RPG or a machine gun. They aren't fighting for anything other than moving the line that already exists.

since digamma seems (understandably) a bit fatigued, here's his post after the florida shooting, it likely has the most reason to it out of anything on either side, but it quickly gets drowned out by all the crazy talk surrounding the specific incident of the day:




"Data shows (and we actually have this because there are about 20 states and DC that have these laws) that background checks for all gun sales reduce gun deaths by up to 50% across the board."

It seems like there are reasonable things that can be done that may not be done in immediate and direct response to the latest tragedy but that could make an big overall impact and very few people are opposed to them, but the NRA does an amazing job of driving the narrative and scaring people and controlling the political landscape. Shame.

I like how Stormy's attorney Michael Avenatti is handling this.

Applying constant pressure, teasing and daring Trump to deny etc.

Melania must be having lots of fun visualizing Donald being spanked. I want to feel sorry for her but I really don't. I'm pretty sure she was the "other woman" at one point.

Agree.
One of my favorite Nixon stories is how Hoover had Nixon convinced he had his campaign plane bugged and had the tapes. He didn’t, but Nixon knew he said awful and illegal stuff on the plane (namely, purposely derailing Vietnam talks). Nixion went crazy trying to get/steal/blow up the non existent tapes.

Anyways, it seems her lawyer maybe playing the Hoover card. Should be fun.

Trump's go-to move for most of his career has been to convince others that it isn't worth fighting him and to get them to back down. It has been very successful for him.

But when it does not work and his adversary does not blink but instead says "let's fight!" he does not have much of a fallback.

He's like a pitcher who has one Hall-of-Fame-worthy pitch, but if it isn't working, he struggles to get anyone out.

I really wanted Stormy to say "It's true what they say about guys with small hands."

I'll let it slide if it means they're waiting to release the visual confirmation.

Mitt Romney going full white nationalist.

If only his family had it as easy as everyone else who was born in Mexico and moved here as a child.

Romney actually held those beliefs back in 2012 when he ran. It was Trump that changed a lot on immigration over the years.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...march-27-2018/

He's given up on Mexico paying for it.

Trump privately presses for military to pay for border wall - The Washington Post

Guess the troops will be paying for it.

Romney holds whatever political beliefs are most convenient to him at the moment, honestly.

He held these views on the DACA kids in 2012 because there was no way the moderate Republican he governed as was going to win over a conservative primary base to get the nomination.

He's repeating them because he's running for Senate in Utah, instead of a more liberal state like Massachusetts or California.

I'm really enjoying Trump getting a taste of his own medicine when it comes to legal maneuvering and bombast against him. He deserves every bit of embarrassment and brow beating that he gets. You live by the sword, you die by the sword. There is nothing that would make be see him as a victim or not deserving of facing the music on every one of these claims that people have levied against him.

Nope no chaos at all:

Trump says he'll nominate White House doctor Ronny Jackson to be VA secretary - POLITICO

According to a new Mueller filing, Manafort and Gates were in contact with a Russian that Gates knew to be connected to Russian intelligence.

Weird. This the physician that said Trump was in perfect health and EXACTLY one pound below obese?

edit: read the article. Yep.

yep its him. Find it very hard that a military doctor would lie about Trump's health, but how many 70+ years old have you heard been in perfect health? I think (hope) that this guy will be good for the VA though, they certainly need it.

It's pretty telling too that Trump trusts so few of his own staff-they keep getting moved from position to position, like this guy. Rick Perry was rumored to be moving to this spot from Energy.

I liked the fact that barely into his first term he declared him healthy enough to finish not just this term, but a possible second. Because yeah, nothing could possibly happen to the health of a chubby, fast food fan in his 70s.

Walker's stalling tactics in Wisconsin not working:

Court rejects Wisconsin GOP appeal to halt special elections | TheHill

Trump Attacks Amazon, Saying It Does Not Pay Enough Taxes - The New York Times

I thought Amazon is just being smart, you know like Trump is when he doesn't pay taxes.

Trump: 'I'm smart' for not paying taxes

As for the USPS being Amazon's "delivery boy", well that's kind of their job isn't it?

Didn't he just sign a huge corporate tax cut?

God, if Obama had forced protectionist tariffs and floated the idea of making corporations pay a fair amount of tax, he'd have been branded a socialist and chastised to no end on Fox news for being an enemy of Capitalism.

Consistency isn't his strong suit ... but he doesn't have to worry I doubt the people who voted for him will notice any more than they have that Mexico isn't paying for his wall and that coal isn't really making a comeback etc.

It's nearly the only thing keeping the USPS afloat, tbh. Email and the like killed junk mail and people pay online more rather than mail bills.

What's killing the USPS is the way pensions and health care are paid. The right has tried to kill of the USPS and privatize all mail delivery by setting up a fund to pay 75 years in advance for retiree benefits. Force the USPS to fail and you have a $100 billion slush fund set aside for future pension payments that don't need to be paid. IIRC the USPS is losing $2-3 billion per year while making $5 billion a year in payments to future pensions.

This really makes me wonder about the Trump base.

They cheered when Trump said "Mexico is going to pay for the wall!", but not a peep when he's trying to get taxpayers and/or the military to pay for it without a dime from Mexico.

"Coal's gonna make a comeback!" But now: "Well, even if he can't make coal come back, I still support him."

It doesn't seem to bother them that these seemingly core promises have been broken. It makes me wonder why they REALLY support him.

I don't think there's much doubt why his supporters continue to support him.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian...inkId=49874524

I can't believe the whole postal service as "delivery boy" shit coming out of this guy's tiny fingers. It's literally the only job of the USPS.

Well after a Happy Easter Tweet, Trump got to his real Easter Message:

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 6h6 hours ago




Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!

I'm all for the GOP killing the filibuster. Trump must be obeyed!

Also, cue angry kid voice, "Need Wall !"

Never mind what Mexico (really or allegedly, no idea) sucking at keeping south americans out who then go on through to the US has to do with them laughing at dumb US immigration laws.

Apparently posted just after a Fox & Friends story about a caravan of 1000 people crossing over. Definitely not influenced by TV!

No more DACA deal?

But Trump said, "I have a great heart for the folks we are talking about, a great love for them".

I can not believe that our President of the United States would say something he didn't mean.

Now he is saying he will ELIMINATE, not reduce the entire federal debt by the end of a second term.

That’s his MO isn’t it? He’s just gonna declare the US bankrupt, start up the same thing with a different name but without the debts.

Hey presto, federal debt eliminated!

Pretty funny how they are all parroting the same thing.

Reading thru the transcripts I don't see anything wrong with what was said (vs. maybe the method to make the anchors say it). It doesn't say left-leaning fake news, reading it on face value I agree with it.

I guess because its Sinclair Group (?), we can assume/infer they are saying its the left spewing all the fake news?

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/ho...anc-1824233490

I had seen it on Drudge and figured someone read it to him. But same diff.

China adds $3 billion in tariffs.

China hits the United States with tariffs on $3 billion of exports - Apr. 2, 2018

Remember that Kushner and Sinclair struck a deal for more access/better coverage during the campaign.

Watch the John Oliver segment linked in the story to get a better (and funnier) view of what Sinclair is trying to do here. Fake news is an invention of Donald Trump, used to strike fear and conspiracy for his base. If Breibart was the one behind all these segments would you feel the same way about this story? Need to go beyond face value to see what's going on behind it. Local news should be just that-local and not discuss politics of the left or the right unless is something with a local slant.

And now Trump has commented on the Sinclair story:

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 4h4 hours ago




So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke

I think the concern with Sinclair is they are being given specific advantages by the government that other companies don't get. They are in turn running propaganda for the government for that treatment. More or less creating a state-run media.

As for the message, it's not bad but it's clearly trying to ramp up the "fake news" hysteria that Trump uses when the news catches him in a lie. It's also kind of funny coming from a broadcasting company that was putting a Russian asset on TV every week to push agendas.

The FCC approved rules specifically for Sinclair so they could buy Tribune Media.

It's pretty simple shit. Sinclair runs propaganda for the government, the government lets them have a monopoly on local media.

The cool thing about the Trump administration is they don't really hide this stuff well like previous administrations. They're pretty blatant in the corruption. At least when Clinton and legislators pushed through the disastrous Telecommunications Act in 95, they made up some bullshit reasons as to why it would be good for the public.

really?

White House criticises China for $3bn tariffs on US imports - BBC News

Really!

wife of fired FBI director sets the story straight on Trump's constant tweets about her and her husband:

Jill McCabe breaks silence - POLITICO

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/us/yo...ing/index.html

shooter was a woman and now dead.

It's too bad we didn't arm teachers in time to stop this.

Uncertainty will likely cause the market to falter and I think, if escalation continues, economy will dip into a recession. I'm not sure how I feel about this specific situation of US starting it and imposing tariffs on $50B but I don't disagree that something needs to be done about China.

If short term pain is needed to "rectify" the situation with China, I'm all for it. However, my guess if that China is holding the winning cards.

I would feel more comfortable if it was still Gary Cohn vs Larry Kudlow as economic adviser though.

China fires back, announcing tariffs on US planes, cars and soybeans

Is it my imagination but didn't early reports say motive was because of a dispute with a boyfriend?

The reports now are saying crazed vegan who thought YouTube was cheating and screwing her channel?

Yeah like most initial reports on shootings, they got a lot wrong. I posted in the school shooting thread about what they know of her. Appears to be Asian (maybe Middle Eastern?). Had an ongoing dispute with YouTube with how they changed how they pay their "contributors". Father had reported her missing yesterday-police found her asleep in her car-did not think she was a danger. Father told them she hated YouTube and might be a threat to them. The people she shot appear to be random, not connected to her.

I think people jumped to conclusions on the first report. Reporter's heads exploded at the thought of a woman shooter.

From How to go Bankrupt Running a Casino 1001:

Maybe trade war not your game

I'm getting quite a laugh at these pro-Trump farmers that he is now screwing over with this trade war. According to them, it's all just short term pain for long term MAGA.

Ok then.....

If you lose one farm bet two next hand.

Trump voter and Iowa hog farmer Tim Schmidt tells me Chinese tariffs will cost him $35k/year. 3,700 jobs at risk in his county alone. If tariffs don’t change, says his vote at risk.

— Erin Burnett (@ErinBurnett) April 3, 2018

Losing $35k a year is enough to put his vote, "at risk."

Still holding out hope that Trump's brilliant negotiating tactics will yield $50k in the long run.

I'm heartened that China responded with an equal amount of tariffs instead of going over the top. That indicates to me they don't want a trade war and will work to maintain the status quo.

I used Santorum's CPR for gun shot victims as an analogy for the Smoot-Hawley traffic today in my US History class. And of course, just for my amusement, I threw in a couple "Raised or Lowered, anyone, anyone..."

Trump might have just blown his case against Stormy Daniels:

Trump says he didn't know about $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels - POLITICO

How did he blow his case? Not saying you're wrong but as a keyboard lawyer I don't understand why this statement is being made into a big deal.

There's always terrible traffic at Smoot-Hawley

From what I heard the legal experts say, Trump made a big mistake just talking to reporters about Stormy Daniels. Then denying knowing about the payment from his lawyer Michael Cohen. court documents have already shown him to be the David Dennison that has a NDA with Stormy. Check out lawyer Ari Melber's twitter feed for the two videos of his show where they are discussing it. Explains it much better than I could:

Ari Melber Retweeted TheBeat w/Ari Melber‏Verified account @TheBeatWithAri 3h3 hours ago






"They are setting Michael Cohen up to be the fall guy... I don't think he has the metal to withstand it" - Stormy Daniels lawyer @MichaelAvenatti

The "metal?"

Trump's attorney, on behalf of Trump, negotiates a NDA. Daniels' attorney says the NDA isn't valid because Trump didn't sign it. They still try to keep Daniels silent with legal threats. Trump now says he has no knowledge of a payment to Daniels which backs their claim that the NDA isn't valid.

Trump is leaving Cohen on an island here. It increases the likelihood that he's investigated for misconduct.

I think that this was obvious from the very, very beginning. Cohen was always going to be set up to be the fall guy. Trump never goes down, the mob boss always has guys who are willing to take the fall. Cohen may never be able to work ever again. He's going to be disbarred in the process and will never get hired, but I'm guessing he'll always have that steady paycheck from the boss.

Basically what Trump is doing now

Well I'm sure this will never be misused

Homeland Security to compile database of journalists, media influencers

Article said it was a "rusty" barrier/wall which implies its not the prototype of the new to-be wall. But the picture reminds me of sample prototypes ... so not sure.

Kinda funny but nevertheless, a wall just by itself won't work, it also needs the human and technology components also.

Hopping the wall into Trump's US, in under 2 minutes

This is honestly the classic example of fighting the last battle. Trump has created an enemy that doesn't exist (border crossing at a half century low). He's basically a monorail huckster.

Extremely disturbing.

They likely have a basic understanding of economics which is why they don't want a trade war. It'll just be tit-for-tat until someone is in power who understand the basics.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...t-month-report

Kelly threatened to quit last week.

Couldn't let this one go without saying nice job.

Yea but it's nothing without a video link:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...NKv2R52QAfgdM6

Trying to follow the Syria stuff. Is the US the only country considering military force against Syria? If so, why are other countries not joining?

A few days ago the US President, after aready having backed down from the "Assad has to go" stance a year ago and withdrawing funds to arm and train rebell groups, was boasting about soon being out of Syria.

There is no basis for making it out to be the one decicive country in a pool of thumb twiddlers.

It's a shit situation with no obvious good solutions, with a lot of interests attached by a lot of countries. I mean, what's the plan ? Bomb Damascus ? Most of the countries (that oppose Assad) quite frankly don't have the luxury of having the atlantic ocean sitting between themselves and any nations with opposing interests (like Russia and Turkey), nor the wherewithal to spend more on their military than all other western nations combined.

And yes, other countries could be spending more if they wanted to but as of right now the fact is the US has been spending insane amounts on their military for decades and operations that are no big deal for them would pretty much bancrupt other countries. Many of whome are currently also having to spend huge amounts of money to deal with the refugee crisis that has resulted largely from the conflict in Syria. Which again is not nearly as big an issue for the US.

So... The FBI just raided the office of Trump's attorney Michael Cohen.

:popcorn:

Yup. F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen - The New York Times

I wonder what exactly the justification was. If this is anything Trump related, wouldn't there have to be a pretty good reason for the raid in order to avoid violating client-attorney privilege?

MAGA

Making Attorneys Get Attorneys.

Guessing it may be related to the Stormy Daniels issue. Cohen’s payment may have violated the Federal Election law since he was associated with the Trump campaign when he made that payment.

From the NYT (so obv fake):

The odds of that being the only questionable work he did for Trump is slim to none.