MrBum comments

Which has lead to zero peace. Try something new.

Standing up to Israel would be the new thing to do.

Has any research been done into the levels of mercury poisoning among whaling proponents (i.e., whale meat consumers)? I mean one of the symptoms of mercury poisoning is dementia.

Wow! You and The Donald must be best buds to know that. I’m impressed. Bigly.

Sometimes you have to read into the situation. Not enough people doing that is how we ended up with an obvious con man in the WH.

Obama bankrupted the country, stockmarket plummeted under his watch,

The stock market recovered from one of the biggest crashes in modern history under his watch.

look at it today.. If you follow economic news, you'll know

Yes, we know that corporations used the windfall from the massive tax breaks Trump gave them to buy back their own stocks.

As far as jobs and workers:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/14/white-house-overstates-job-gains-for-black-americans-under-trump.html

https://youtu.be/d6Dewkhe8kU?t=13s

Dumb people don’t become Presidents.

They do if there are enough uninformed, misguided voters. Polarizing opponents, voter suppression, and the electoral college help out a lot too.

Dumb people don’t get a highly rated TV show.

Are you kidding me? The Kardashians, Duck Dynasty, Teen Mom, Jersey Shore, Honey Boo Boo... All of them were popular "reality" TV shows like a certain other highly rated TV show by the way. Reality TV shows are great for dumb stars because they just don't have to act, write, or perform any talent.

High probability as logic dictates, this is not purely coincidence due to the timing of this unusual events.

Of course it's not a coincidence, and the only thing that's unusual is that there's a complete and utter moron in the White House. It makes perfect sense that various groups and individuals of all colors are doing everything they can to point that out at the same time. When else are they going to do it? They don't have to be "colluding" for this to make sense. In fact, it takes a bigger leap of logic to think that all these groups with disparate interests are coordinating this.

More Mericans are working than ever before in the history of US....

Look at any trend graph, and you'll see that employment is only continuing the upward trend that started under Obama. Saying that employment and wages are the highest in a decade ignores the fact that they were already getting better from a huge financial crisis a decade ago.

Anyone can write any opinion they want. That’s why op-Ed’s require names so we can evaluate the statements based on who is speaking them. No name, no point, nothing to evaluate as far as true or not.

The NYT doesn't print the opinions of just anyone. As this article states, they know who the author is and felt they were reliable enough to print. This is where the reputation of the media source comes into play.

You can point your fingers at Bush all you want but there is no doubt CNN had a hand in the propaganda.

We're getting really off topic, but I'm agreeing with you that they did. The MSM is still not nearly as bottom of the barrel as other fake news media though. They also happen to have access and resources that no other news sources come close to, so we kind of have to rely on them for some things.

Ha! We’re you born yesterday? I remember the build up.

I remember it too. It was soon after the biggest terrorist attack on US soil, and a lot of people weren't thinking too rationally.

Why are you making excuses for a multi billion dollar industry that’s supposed to be the 5th state?

I'm not. They made a major mistake and overreacted based on false information from the WH.

Thats unless you have ulterior motives and want to direct responsibility away from the MSM.

I'm aware of the corporate bias in the MSM, but their stories are still sourced and they do have some semblance of honest reputations to uphold. I have faith in their desire for profit, and it's that desire that keeps them from telling outright lies. I think disregarding everything from the MSM is as simple-minded as believing everything.

On the other hand, internet trolls (i.e., the real fake news) aren't sourced and can be wrong on a massive scale like with Pizzagate, birtherism, Sandy Hook conspiracies, etc. and still maintain their captivated audience.

Oh really? Was it Eastern European trolls who sold the Iraq war?

No, it was a media that was fooled by the Bush administration, as many people were at the time, and they've since admitted to their mistake for the most part. And while there was most likely an intent to deceive on the administration's part, there's really no evidence for it on the media side. So that's a little different from the deliberately fake news for which the term is used.

The president coined the phrase 'fake news', or at least made it a thing.

Before Trump took control of the phrase, "fake news" in its recent usage started in reference to click-bait articles that contained misinformation posted by Eastern European trolls looking to make money. These articles mainly focused on fake stories that conservatives (including then candidate Trump) would eat up and share on social media, presumably because they were more successful in getting conservatives to share fake stories and thus make more money.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320

There's speculation based on the use of the word "lodestar" that the anonymous official is VP Pence. The plot thickens...

Yeah those guys getting paid millions to chase a ball and getting national endorsements to wear free sneakers their own supporters can’t afford to buy really got it rough.

No one is claiming the players have a rough lives, not even the players themselves. (Although they're not immune to police profiling.) They're using their privilege and influence to make a statement for those that don't have a prominent voice. Make an effort to understand what they're doing before criticizing them.

The politically correct thing for liberals to do these days is to use every single part of society to virtue signal at every single opportunity. We can’t even have sports to escape this crap anymore.

It's not a virtue signal. It's a protest to bring attention to the crap black people in America have to worry about every day. It's a life or death situation that's forced on them, and you can't even deal with a few silently kneeling football players. And the left is whiny?

A $3 billion loss in one day just to be politically correct?

No one lost $3 billion dollars.

Maybe you should try actually understanding what you're talking about, rather than making comments that show you don't know what you're talking about.

To point out another lack of understanding, the "politically correct" safe thing to do would've been to not use him.

All this outrage from the right over a football player that knelt... The same people don't care that the POTUS insulted a Gold Star family and a POW veteran and doesn't even know the words to the national anthem.

Ok then if we have to believe this book, then we have to believe all his books.

“First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton held imaginary conversations...

Fair enough. I'd take imaginary conversations during therapy over complete incompetence any day.

One can become a senator even while they are still serving a prison term.

I doubt many are actually getting the votes to win, regardless of party, so I don't see the point in mentioning this.

Not a fact. The official PAC and large donor stats for the past year show that Democratic senate candidates received almost twice and much as did the Republican candidates. The average donation amount was also about double.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/02/01/democrats_lag_republicans_in_fundraising_despite_anti-trump_energy_136160.html

And the presidential election? Super PACS donated 204 million to Clinton, only 79 million to Trump.

Are you forgetting that the Republican super PACs blew their funds across like a dozen candidates during the primaries?

Again, not surprising, since large corporations love regulation that keeps competitors at bay.

Large corporations love regulations... I don't even know what to say to this. Talk about naive.

Let's start with that half-million dollar speech Clinton gave in Russia, and the huge donations to the Clinton Foundation made by the Saudis.

I'm no fan of the Clintons. That said, she's still better than Trump. I support the Bernie-wing of Democrats that wants money out of politics. You didn't answer who in the GOP is actually fighting for that yet.

Guess again. Though I mean liberal in the current misuse of the term to mean oppressive, leftist and reactionary.

So you mean meaningless unsupported talking points?

One doesn't need evidence to indicate something is wrong when one of two more or less identical groups of people get prosecuted 100 times more than the other.

Of course you need evidence... Come on.

Here's another link: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-presidencies-have-91x-the-convictions-rate_us_5a3d5406e4b0df0de8b064e5

Now that's a link, thanks for that. It's unfortunate that you're trying to use it as evidence for an argument opposite of the point the link was making. If you think those convictions are miscarriages of justice, find actual evidence of that.

And don't forget that the lack of Democrat convictions is not due to a lack of trying on the Republicans' part. The GOP has made it a lifelong goal to take down the Clintons, for example. They've failed so far, despite most members of law enforcement being conservative. If there is a deep state, they're not exactly working for liberal policies.

First link: 7 out of 10 convicted felons are registered Democrats.

Uh, OK. But we're talking about politicians.

Yet in the political sphere, all those Dem politicians so loved by convicted felons are clean as a whistle?

Again, not all but it seems like more than the GOP.

When Democrats get elected to office, they clean up their act?

Are you implying that convicted felons who register as Democrats eventually run and get elected into office? In what reality?

Let's go back to Occam. A simpler explanation is that Democratic politicians are more inclined to abuse the courts and police agencies to advance their political ends.

Forget trying to apply Occam to everything and simply look at the facts.

What is corruption in the political sphere? It's predominantly the influence of money from special interests. Both parties take that money, but the GOP takes more. That's just fact. There's also a growing faction of vocal Democrats that want money out politics. Where is that faction on the GOP side?

Trump was supposed to be the GOP's outsider that was going to "clean up the swamp," but he immediately stacked his cabinet with special-interest henchmen. That's not to mention the increasingly strong likelihood that he took money from the likes of Russia and the Saudis in the past. Do you actually think they expect nothing in return?

Just follow the money.

One has to be extremely naive to believe that criminal behavior is confined to one party or another.

Entirely confined to one party or another? Definitely not. But you're not only naive but objectively wrong to believe all things are equal on both sides.

Heavily left IS the Democratic Party in the U.S and increasingly so.

If you mean the left is taking back the party from centrists, yes, it's increasing. The majority of the party establishment is still very center though. Dem voters on the other hand are moving faster left, so hopefully the party will follow.

They embrace socialism for heavens sake lol.

Socialism is the compromise between capitalism and communism. The US has always been socialist, the argument is really the degree of public vs private, and everyone embraces the public aid that benefits them.

The left simply wants to extend public benefits to things like medicare for all, living wages, and education, while the right wants to privatize things like prisons for profit. Even then, private prisons receive government incentives from the state.

Government bailouts, disaster relief, and the post office whose service is more vital to rural areas, are all examples of "socialism" that the right is more than willing to accept while at the same time decrying socialism.

The days of the moderate left leaning liberal, the classical liberal, in the Democratic Party are as dead as a dodo.

What is your definition of a "classical liberal"? In my view, they're the old-school liberals that wanted to expand socialist benefits to everyone as I mentioned above, even at the expense of the unnecessarily super rich. They're not dying, they're coming back from the dead.

In my view, that is the main reason why the CEO's, managers and boards lean left because Republicans are more likely to reform the immigration system than the Democrats.

I think they lean center-right on fiscal policy issues. Tech companies lie in the center while almost all other companies and corporations lean right.

Same goes for the media. The majority of the media only seems like they're leftist because they're supportive of common sense social issues, which the right has turned into wedge issues decades ago.

Same goes for politicians. If there's one thing the right is good at, it's uniting under a single stance of unhindered corporatism. There's a battle on the left between center-leaning corporatists and leftist democratic socialists.

Won't happen without a civil war that will tear the country apart.

Please... You guys will be pretending you had nothing to do with him like you do with GWB in no time.

But it all seems to be leading in that direction.

The left underestimated your numbers during the election, but I think you're overestimating them now. He's the least popular president in modern history.

These first years of Trump's presidency have really been instructive to me, as I often wondered why and how people could possibly welcome fascism. With all caps, no less.

You're right, it's fascinating how a not-quite-majority of Americans actually welcomed and voted for this pro-authoritarian anti-free-press wannabe-dictator con-artist. A learning moment indeed.

A bunch of people in the Obama FBI and DOJ have been involved in covering up their misconduct.

It wasn't Obama's FBI and DOJ, it was and always has been simply the FBI and DOJ. They're supposed to remain neutral to politics, but they've always leaned conservative. What misconduct are you talking about specifically?

A bunch have already been fired or demoted because of it.

Because Trump fired them for reasons that make no sense, hence the special investigation.

At this point justice is no longer possible. Whatever happens half the country will reject the outcome.

You can't reject outcomes you don't like. That's not how justice works. You have to provide sufficient proof of misconduct or corruption.

This is exactly the reason Trump fired intelligence officials, revoked security clearances, and constantly cries fake news (a term originally coined for fake stories that supported Trump). He wants to erode trust in the system among his core base that elected him despite his known history as a con artist. You're all his marks. Wake up.

Like the way the Dems politicized the children separation debacle?

A criminal killed a woman in one case, federal authorities detained children in the other. See the difference?

Thankfully Japan takes its borders seriously and illegals have a very, very hard time here

Japan's tough immigration policy now looks prescient and inspired. Glad we don't these problems here

Yeah, Japan only has to worry about home grown criminals that have the same if not higher propensity to commit crimes. Whew...

Laguna, thanks for the clarification. I must have been looking at an old article.

So what about Tony Podesta? Where is he? Why wasn’t he charged for essentially the same crime as Manafort for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist?

He's currently being investigated. We'll see what happens, so relax for a bit. You have to admit Podesta's connection to Trump is nonexistent, though. It makes perfect sense that Manafort was prioritized in an investigation concerning the Trump campaign.

Could it be....oh, I forgot, he gets a pass because he didn’t work for Trump, Manafort did, silly me.

So you have a problem with people getting a pass? You in the same post...

Manafort will be fine. If he gets locked up, Trump will pardon him, but he might not even get to that point.

You guys say the same about Trump, if Hillary ain’t going away,

Hillary "got way" because dozens of investigations headed by obviously biased parties produced zero indictments.

Trump should be cool as a cucumber especially resting assured since the Senate wouldn’t convict him were he impeached.

That just shows how corrupt the Republican Senate is. Nunes was caught on tape admitting that they were the last line of defense for Trump. They don't even care what the investigation produces and what it means for Americans, they only care about saving his and their own hides.