David Guiza Posted 13 December 2017 Share Posted 13 December 2017 28 minutes ago, The Doctor said: I'm looking forward to trumps normal late night breakdown over this. Wouldn't get too excited by this though. Rep were running a pro-slavery nonce and it was still a tight race. At least it was something like 98% of black women and 78% of black men that ousted him. The difference in vote dependant on race was like a re-run of the OJ verdict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post EnderbyFox Posted 13 December 2017 Popular Post Share Posted 13 December 2017 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 13 December 2017 Share Posted 13 December 2017 Well done, Alabama. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 13 December 2017 Share Posted 13 December 2017 16 minutes ago, leicsmac said: Well done, Alabama. ...only 48.4 per cent of you voted for the paedophile 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 13 December 2017 Share Posted 13 December 2017 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said: ...only 48.4 per cent of you voted for the paedophile Well, look at it this way: if anywhere was going to vote in a nonce because they liked where he stood with his deity then it was Alabama. That they didn't bodes well for the future in other places - specifically the Senate in 2018. Edit: that's to say nothing of the voter suppression that allegedly took place, too. Edited 13 December 2017 by leicsmac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MattP Posted 14 December 2017 Share Posted 14 December 2017 Thought this was a wonderful little part of the story from this election all decent people should feel some warmth from. 54 years ago Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson & Carol Denise McNair killed by KKK in Birmingham Church Bombing. Today Alabama sent the man who prosecuted their killers to the Senate. Democracy is so important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 14 December 2017 Share Posted 14 December 2017 1 hour ago, MattP said: Thought this was a wonderful little part of the story from this election all decent people should feel some warmth from. 54 years ago Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson & Carol Denise McNair killed by KKK in Birmingham Church Bombing. Today Alabama sent the man who prosecuted their killers to the Senate. Democracy is so important. Yeah, I thought that was a nice touch too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 14 December 2017 Share Posted 14 December 2017 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42346121 Nowt like a Bible-thumping sore loser. Still, it is a little scary that despite his loss only 20,000 more people needed to buy what he was selling and he'd be in the Senate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Barry Hammond Posted 14 December 2017 Share Posted 14 December 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 15 December 2017 Share Posted 15 December 2017 Trump turning US into 'world champion of extreme inequality', UN envoy warns Special rapporteur Philip Alston, fresh from fact-finding tour, issues devastating critique of US society and condemns ‘private wealth and public squalor’ Philip Alston visits a homeless camp in Downtown LA. Alston said: ‘The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.’Photograph: Dan Tuffs Ed Pilkington in Washington Published:18:45 GMT+00:00 Fri 15 December 2017 Follow Ed Pilkington The United Nations monitor on poverty and human rights has issued a devastating report on the condition of America, accusing Donald Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress of attempting to turn the country into the “world champion of extreme inequality”. A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, has completed a two-week official tour of the US by releasing an excoriating attack on the direction of the nation. Not only does he warn that the tax bill currently being rushed through Congress will hugely increase already large disparities between rich and poor, he accuses Trump and his party of consciously distorting the shape of American society in a “bid to become the most unequal society in the world”. “American exceptionalism was a constant theme in my conversations,” he writes. “But instead of realizing its founders’ admirable commitments, today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights. As a result, contrasts between private wealth and public squalor abound.” AdvertisementHide In his most stark message, Alston warns that the Republicans’ declared intent to slash crucial welfare programs next year in order to pay for some of the $1.5tn tax cuts could cost American lives. “The consequences for an already overstretched and inadequate system of social protection are likely to be fatal for many programs, and possibly also for those who rely upon them,” he writes. The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur Alston’s piercing findings present the Trump administration with a challenge. The charge that the US president is actively seeking to harm millions of Americans may be difficult to ignore, given that the report carries the imprimatur of the UN human rights council in Geneva. Trump has frequently been dismissive of the world body, complaining during the 2016 presidential campaign that “we get nothing out of the United Nations other than good real-estate prices”. But he has also shown himself to have a thin skin when it comes to criticism of him or his administration. At a press conference launching his preliminary report in Washington, Alston quipped about possible Trump reaction: “I’m hoping for a tweet”. Bernie Sanders, the US senator who has led the debate on inequality, has waded into the fray. He met the UN monitor on Friday and sounded his own alarm about the future of the country. Sanders said that as the “wealthiest country in the history of the world” the US should be providing a model in how to treat all of its citizens with dignity. “Sadly that is not the case. We are moving into 2018 – we should not be living in a country with 41 million people living in poverty and so many more in extreme poverty, and nobody even talks about it.” Alston invited Paul Ryan to meet him but was told the Republican speaker of the House was too busy. LA resident Ressy, who is homeless. Alston will produce a final report next May, which will then go before the UN human rights council. Photograph: Dan Tuffs In his 15-day fact-finding mission, Alston, an Australian academic and law professor at New York University, visited Los Angeles and San Francisco, Alabama, Georgia, Puerto Rico and West Virginia, talking to low-income families as well as governmental officials. He will produce a final report next May and that in turn will go before the UN human rights council. Alston takes a strip out of the US for what he suggests are its double standards over human rights. The Trump administration, in line with previous US governments, preaches about human rights to other countries while refusing to be bound itself by international rules. “The US is alone among developed countries in insisting that while human rights are of fundamental importance, they do not include rights that guard against dying of hunger, dying from a lack of access to affordable healthcare, or growing up in a context of total deprivation. But denial does not eliminate responsibility or negate obligations.” Alston is also scathing about the attitudes of some of the politicians and officials he met on his tour, who subscribe to what he calls the caricature of rich people as industrious and entrepreneurial and poor people as “wasters, losers and scammers”. He writes: “Some politicians and political appointees with whom I spoke were completely sold on the narrative of such scammers sitting on comfortable sofas, watching color TVs, while surfing on their smartphones, all paid for by welfare. I wonder how many of these politicians have ever visited poor areas, let alone spoken to those who dwell there.” Inequality is not inevitable – but the US 'experiment' is a recipe for divergence At the press conference, Alston said that current US trends were undermining democracy. “Democracy is the foundation stone upon which this country is built, the contribution of which it has been most proud internationally. And yet what we see is the lowest voter turnouts in any developed country.” He pointed to the disenfranchisement of former prisoners, as well as covert voter suppression efforts such as the imposition of voter ID requirements as examples of the way the political rights of low-income people were being eroded. Latest figures put the number of Americans living in poverty at 41 million – almost 13% of the population. Of those, almost half (19 million) are living in deep poverty, defined as having a total family income that is below one-half of the poverty threshold. In a report packed with depressing evidence, the UN rapporteur tries to give a positive spin to his findings, saying that with the wealth that abounds in the US the country is in a position to solve its poverty and inequality crisis. “The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power. With political will, it could readily be eliminated.” In a phrase that might reverberate around Capitol Hill and the White House, Alston concludes: “The American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Illusion since the US now has the lowest rate of social mobility of any of the rich countries.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 16 December 2017 Share Posted 16 December 2017 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-cdc-forbidden-words-20171215-story.html Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted 16 December 2017 Share Posted 16 December 2017 Banned a medical body from using "evidence-based". Sod evidence based medicine - got diabetes? Better drink your own piss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 16 December 2017 Share Posted 16 December 2017 4 hours ago, The Doctor said: Banned a medical body from using "evidence-based". Sod evidence based medicine - got diabetes? Better drink your own piss. 1 Yeah, that's the one that really got me to facepalm too - not that the others aren't bad. The evangelists appear to be running the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 16 December 2017 Share Posted 16 December 2017 5 hours ago, leicsmac said: Yeah, that's the one that really got me to facepalm too - not that the others aren't bad. The evangelists appear to be running the show. But, as Britain's own right wing has argued, people have had enough of experts, right?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 16 December 2017 Share Posted 16 December 2017 18 minutes ago, toddybad said: But, as Britain's own right wing has argued, people have had enough of experts, right?!? TBF even though the UK establishment has treated the STEM expert community for the longest time with a certain amused contempt, that's different to viewing them as actually doing the work of Satan as some in the US do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 16 December 2017 Share Posted 16 December 2017 27 minutes ago, leicsmac said: TBF even though the UK establishment has treated the STEM expert community for the longest time with a certain amused contempt, that's different to viewing them as actually doing the work of Satan as some in the US do. I reckon a really significant part of the us problems stem from religion. It's a fundamentalist state. They're nutters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 17 December 2017 Share Posted 17 December 2017 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42382628 Sooo, to sum up... 1) Mueller obtained ALL of the emails sent to/from Trump transition team accounts 2) The Trump gang only realized this after Mueller's team seemed to know all about their emails 3) This made them quite... upset 4) Thier lawyers then wrote the letter mentioned to congressmen complaining about just how upsetting all of this is. Here's the classically amusing reveal in the letter... Earlier this year, Trump appointed the top attorney at the office responsible for providing all the electronics and email accounts the Trump transition team used. That attorney's name was Richard Backler. Now, as background, Backler was a white-collar criminal defence attorney before his appointment. He helped rich criminals beat government convictions for a firm with a name you might find familiar - Bracewell & Giuliani (the ex-mayor of NYC). So, Trump appointed Backler and then Backler went and ensured Trump transition team attorneys that he would not allow his org (the GSA) to provide any of their emails to investigators. Just one problem, though: Backler fell ill and ultimately passed away. So, until Mueller's crew started asking Trump aides about those emails, they had absolutely no idea Mueller had them because they thought Trump's guy on the inside was running interference for them. Consider that for a moment - Trump and his team thought their friend at the GSA had locked their emails away literally in a vault no one could get to...when Mueller and his team, in fact, had them all the time. As a result, Trump's people walked into their interviews with Mueller and team with a completely false sense of confidence that he didn't know what he already knew in spades. Must have been disconcerting for them to find out that not only did those emails still exist, Mueller had them in writing! Of course, this is still just conjecture, but I suspect the entire Trump orbit just realized that Mueller has a trove that could well lead to a direct charge of obstruction of justice. Which is an impeachable offence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Barry Hammond Posted 17 December 2017 Share Posted 17 December 2017 Trump’s team should have got their own private servers installed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl the Llama Posted 17 December 2017 Share Posted 17 December 2017 Looks like his attitude towards email leaks has changed from when it was happening to Hillary. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 17 December 2017 Share Posted 17 December 2017 1 minute ago, Carl the Llama said: Looks like his attitude towards email leaks has changed from when it was happening to Hillary. Was going to make that point myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 18 December 2017 Share Posted 18 December 2017 (edited) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/18/trump-drop-climate-change-national-security-strategy “US leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth energy agenda that is detrimental to US economic and energy security interests.” I know it's the Graun...but still, sigh. Climate change is a bigger threat to national security in the long run than any or all of the military power on the planet. Edited 18 December 2017 by leicsmac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted 18 December 2017 Share Posted 18 December 2017 Using rail disaster now to cause division and distance from the Middle East. Low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicsmac Posted 18 December 2017 Share Posted 18 December 2017 24 minutes ago, Swan Lesta said: Using rail disaster now to cause division and distance from the Middle East. Low. Talking about gun safety/control after a mass shooting is apparently verboten, but this tragic accident is open to be used as a political football. Interesting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Barry Hammond Posted 19 December 2017 Share Posted 19 December 2017 21 hours ago, leicsmac said: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/18/trump-drop-climate-change-national-security-strategy “US leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth energy agenda that is detrimental to US economic and energy security interests.” I know it's the Graun...but still, sigh. Climate change is a bigger threat to national security in the long run than any or all of the military power on the planet. You assume there will be a long run. Who needs tomorrow on earth when Trump is planning on buying up the World’s wealth, using it to build a personal spaceship and expand the countries nuclear arsenal, with the end goal being to drop the nukes on the entire planet as he and Ivanka escape in his spaceship to the moon as the last human survivors... ...what a convoluted plan, just to provide an acceptable excuse to shag your daughter huh?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 19 December 2017 Share Posted 19 December 2017 48 minutes ago, DJ Barry Hammond said: You assume there will be a long run. Who needs tomorrow on earth when Trump is planning on buying up the World’s wealth, using it to build a personal spaceship and expand the countries nuclear arsenal, with the end goal being to drop the nukes on the entire planet as he and Ivanka escape in his spaceship to the moon as the last human survivors... ...what a convoluted plan, just to provide an acceptable excuse to shag your daughter huh?!? This would be funny if it wasn't plausible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts