I'm still trying to understand why some people think his appearance in front of these committees is meaningful in any way. Not one of these congresscritters is going to even consider doing anything like imposing an actual penalty on the guy who provides them with such healthy contributions. It's nothing but a bit of theater to distract the masses until it blows over.

I'm going to be honest here.

I'm really tired of these. I've just lost my tolerance for negativity. The whole internet is one big Negafest. Whining and complaining about everything. Life is so much more. (I'm also guilty of being negative on the internet.) it's a place people come to fling poo in order to make themselves feel better because of all the crap in RL, a virtual retreat instead of just improving their lives.

Also, I'm just tired of people complaining about how movies aren't the way "the viewer would have done it." I mean lets also be honest about this. You can't mind-read everything and create movies based on a committee of EVERYONE. People need to learn how to watch and listen and appreciate someone Else's creativity.

Rant ended.. I feel better (irony complete)

Operation mockingbird ?



“Operation Mockingbird” was a fully implemented CIA program to spread disinformation throughout American media.

CIA Director William Colby testified to the Church Committee that over 400 CIA agents were active in the US media to control what was reported through American mainstream television, newspapers, and magazines.

CIA Funding and Manipulation of the U.S. Mainstream Media According to the Congress report published in 1976:

*dead -- "This video contains content from International Olympic Committee, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."

@Cnote

Too bad there is ZERO proof of Trump / Russian collusion. to be fail Muller is quietly doing his job. Time will tell



However there is FBI/DNC / Clinton FISA/ Trump–Russia dossier/ aka Steele dossier,is coming. Hip high is corrupt shit.

Intelligence oversight committee Memo coming out soon.

They needed a yes vote from McCain, and abstention wouldn't work.

A large number of Republican senators knew very well that skinny repeal was the worst of both worlds. Likely a deadlocked conference committee would have lead to Ryan jamming it through the house as written, at which point insurance premiums would rise meteorically with the withdrawal of the individual mandate.

McCain probably believes he's saving his party from a political disaster as well as a bad policy, and he isn't the only one. At least ten senators expressed serious reservations about the possibility I outlined above.

One commentator I heard on the radio said, "It was always going to be 49-51, the only question is who would be the 51st no vote." McCain took one for the team.

If Comey was fired after the investigation was over, then nobody would have been upset. It is the timing that upsets people, and should upset those on the right too who want to put the Russian thing behind them.

There is clear evidence that Russia interfered with the election. Now does that mean, Trump, or people closely connected to him and his campaign, were directly involved? No. And most liberals would be okay if that was the end result of an independent investigation, so long as we found the means and methods of the interference and were able to learn actions to prevent further interference with future elections from any outside nation. However, the Republicans refuse to take the investigation into Russian interference seriously. The House investigation led by a guy who was on Trump's transition team, the Senate investigation seems more concerned about who leaked info about Trump than the fact a foreign threat to the security of the United States interfered with the election. They worry about leaks in a White House that looks at top secret information in a very public place, but the actions of a hostile state doesn't seem to concern them like it should.

Now we got Comey, who Trump and his people praised up and down during the campaign and soon after election, being fired right after he says he's going to devote more resources to the Russian investigation. We got a President who broke clear ethical rules (though perhaps no laws) in asking if he was under investigation, in a call which may have been about if he'd keep Comey on. Even the hint of Clinton being involved in even a far less serious offence made the right shout "lock her up", but for Trump the reaction seems to be "he's the greatest President ever, let me suck the chrome off his cock".

He, and the Republicans keep trying to distract the American people from the Russia investigation, which let's remind everyone, is mostly about the interference, and only possibly about his administration's complacency. It is more about the actions of a hostile state than him. It's almost as if they know the Russians interfered, and don't care because they won. If Democrats had won, thanks to the actions of an outside state, especially one as hostile to the US as the Russians, and there was even less proof that Clinton or her team may have been involved, the size of the committee and the depth of the investigation would be many times bigger than it is now. The outrage on the right would be larger than the outrage on the left as it stands now.

And, then right after the firing, Trump goes the extra step of letting only Russian official state media in on the meetings between him and Russian officials. He won't release visitor logs to the White House. He won't release visitor logs to the far more accessible Mar-a-logo, where he looks at top secret documents in the wide open. (Side note, he's cost the American tax payers about a 1/4 of what Obama's vacations cost in 8 years, in just 100 days, and all those people who bitched about Obama vacations, including Trump who complained about how much Obama played golf, are perfectly fine with what Trump has cost the American tax payers in his vacations.) So without those logs, and those of Trump Tower, we can't be sure there aren't more clandestine meetings like that blatant one in the White House. The refuse ANY degree of transparency. Again, if this was Clinton, the right would be demanding she be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and that's only a slight exaggeration, either way they'd demand she be locked up for the very things Trump is accused of.

Then there's his clear violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, and the people who claim to be all about the Constitution, saying how the left have zero respect for it, who were in a furor over Clinton's possible violation of it with her foundation, don't care about Trump's violation of it. Suddenly, the Emoluments Clause, doesn't matter to the same people who cited it as a concern during Clinton's campaign.

Also, keep in mind, he made the decision to fire him, before the reasons why letters were penned, and were written to help defend it. Further, as pointed out, his own letter was about him, the guy is such a clear narcissist, he could have been like Sanders and I'd personally oppose him. Plus, Trump didn't have the guts to let Comey know in person, Comey had to find out on TV and think it was a practical joke. Again, if Clinton fired somebody like that, the right would be in arms, calling her chicken, and saying a real man would fire another person in person.

TLDR: If Trump fired Comey after the investigation into a hostile state's interference with the election, nobody would have cared, in fact he may have gotten mad props for letting the investigation go on without interference. It's the timing that is suspect.

As usual, you have it all wrong.
The left wanted Comey fired for making false statements designed both in tenor and timing to harm Clinton's chances.
They are up in arms because it's blatantly obvious that Trump didn't fire him for his statements last June or July, they thought him their hero in November and said so clearly right up until yesterday when he moved to expand the investigation into Trump's campaign. If he was going to be fired for his actions last summer, that would have happened in January, not yesterday.
Trump IS under investigation. First, the only evidence he isn't under investigation is Trump's unsolicited self serving claim that he said that, second, do you think the investigator tells the target they're being investigated? Not unless they are colluding, like the house committee did.

The FBI and house committee both said there is clear, undeniable evidence, but it's classified so far. Trump could fix that today, but he won't, he's too busy having closed door meetings with the very Russian diplomats he's accused of colluding with. (Edit:and they just released in house photos of the meeting, no press was allowed, showing smiling and laughing Trump and the diplomats arm in arm clearly having a great time, a pretty stark contrast to his meetings with allied presidents and diplomats that were often decidedly unfriendly and standoffish) That's not snark, it's fact.

If the investigations were a witch hunt, Trump would want them publicly investigated thoroughly so the evidence would prove it....not stymie them at every opportunity and repeatedly fire the investigators while clearly being caught lying about the investigation and why he fired them all when he did.

Lets see ....grass roots movement or TYT making you believe it is a grass roots movement.

We have a " fan" who sent in this video and I love it... It is his own organization.


The Justice Democrats are a political action committee[1] founded on January 23, 2017, by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks,

Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk, and

former leadership from the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.

Its stated goal of reforming the Democratic Party by running "a unified campaign to replace every corporate-backed member of Congress and rebuild the [Democratic] party from scratch" starting in the 2018 Congressional midterm elections.[2][3]

The Justice Democrats have been described as attempting to create a left-wing populist movement analogous to the right-wing Tea Party movement.[4]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_Democrats

It makes one wonder....what's @bobknight33 s take on this weeks total failure of another of Trump's main campaign promises, immediate repeal and replacement of the ACA, even though Republicans have full control of congress and enough votes to do what they like?
What about his promise of better health care for everybody for less money, but his bill actually offered much higher premiums (>20% higher immediately) and 24 million more people without healthcare, and those who manage to keep their insurance would find it useless since it would no longer cover prescriptions, doctor visits, hospitalization, emergency room visits, etc. Not exactly better care for less, is it?

How about the wall, now paid for with taxes, not Mexico?

How's the war on Daesh going, are they eradicated yet like he said they would be instantly with his great secret plan? No? Oh, what did the Democrats do that saved Daesh from his perfect knowledge of military actions?

Also, what's Bob's take on the bi-partisan congressional investigative committee (that now clearly needs to be made an independent prosecutor run investigation since a committee member decided to report directly to the suspect of the investigation rather than his investigative committee) saying there is far more than circumstantial evidence of collusion with the Russians and his campaign? That's treason, and this level of treason, once proven, calls for execution not prison, and certainly not just removal from office.

Is there a point where average Trumpeteers will admit they made a huge mistake, or is this guy the only one that sees reality?

*ban

The best way to approach your
personal statement for graduate school is to imagine that you have five minutes
with someone from the admissions committee. How would you go about making the
best case for yourself while holding the listener’s interest https://phdify.com/dissertation-help? What would you
include and omit in your story? Figuring out the answer to these questions is
critical to successfully preparing an effective statement.

I think Obama acting on Russian interference is enough to know there was at least something there; We'll see what comes out of the committee that's investigating... I hope it takes out the molester in chief because I think he's dangerous for this country and is going to push back civil rights advancements a good 30 years

@worm
you do realize that you literally just made @Januari 's point...right?

and i get it...government spending BAD.
government can't do anything blah blah blah...gotcha.

but instead of using the VA as an example of government malfeasance and incompetence,why not use medicare/medicaid?

the VA is run by the DoD and considering that during rumsfelds tenure they lost over a trillion american dollars..POOF..where is that money? nope..can't find it.the pentagon is a mess.

medicare/medicaid is run by the dept of health,which runs on a 3% overhead,has the ability to negotiate with pharmacuticals,and is a system that is already in place AND we all already pay in to.

see,
i am not a fan of obamacare.
i think single payer is the way to go,and the only way to go.
people like to make the comparison of obamacare insurance with car insurance.
forgetting that driving is a privilege...
breathing is not.

so if we take the "profit motive" out of health care.then the majority of people NOT covered would not wait until something dire or life threatening was going down with them to head to the doctor.preventive care has been shown to reduce medical costs dramatically.
see:norway
see:denmark
see:france
see:britain

while i understand many liberals defense of obamacare,i see it only a half measure that can easily be remanded and/or gotten rid of all together.however unlikely that may be.the threat will be enough.

people forget that obamacare was basically written by the heritage foundation in 1992.a right wing think tank and not much was changed (though the pre-existing clause was a positive).

they forget that then Governor mitt romney implemented a similar health care system in massechusetts.which saw steady increases in premiums yearly.

and here is the thing that really eats at me.
it is mandatory.

so here is my prediction:
obamacare is not going anywhere.
while it may be used as apolitical football and health insurance companies will use (and already HAVE used) the threat of leaving due to little or no money (this is a lie) in order to force the government to raise their subsidies.

this is corporate welfare on a scale that over-shadows the bank bailouts of 2007.which at final tally was over 17 trillion.

so obamacare is going nowhere because it is the goose that lays the golden egg,and the gift that keeps on giving.

oh there will threats,and over-politicizing,and wringing of hands,and committee meetings.

but that will be just for show.
we put the fox in charge of the henhouse,and the fox is gonna make damn sure it is going nowhere.

@radx

I don't see money being taken out of politics. Especially not with a Republican legislative / executive before the next election. In fact I've honestly become cynical about campaign finance reform having any serious effect no matter how well designed.

You can limit campaigns and their committees all you want, but if the money's there it will find it's way in through sponsored media and astro turfed 'grass roots' organisations that will claim some kind of legal disassociation with the candidate. Or the law will just be ignored like the supposed separation between campaigns and super PACs now.

Not that I like this, but I feel the lesson here as far as winning elections is concerned is, for a successful party the campaign never ends. Obama was blamed for every economic and foreign policy event over the past 8 years with little meaningful rebuke despite GOP obstructionism being a huge factor. He came very close to losing to Romney.

After Republicans claimed the legislative branch and so many state level positions that message should have been easy to refute citing an unwillingness to compromise for results (Simpson-Bowles debt plan should have been exhibit A). I would not at all be surprised if even now with almost complete government dominance, they are able to blame the Democrats for years to come by claiming to be fixing existing policy mistakes.

If Democrats don't deliver an effective message, they'll be looking at a second Trump term, with every failing over the previous 4 years blamed on them.

Overwatch is very polished, but the characters look so committee-designed.