All Things Trump: Is it over yet?

[JimC]

To give Cunt the benefit of the doubt, he has obliquely confirmed that he agrees that the planet is warming, and that increased CO2 via human use of fossil fuels is the culprit.

I should clarify. I don't 'agree' that the planet is warming. I accept the conclusions of those who do.

Minor point, but I admit the knowledge I'm using isn't mine directly.

But then, if I can understand his confused bleating, he suggests we just put up with it and learn to cope, because taking action against it would require nasty governments to do socialist stuff...

Nope, you went straight down the shitter there.

It's more this - you kids think you'll fix everything with your giant spending omnibus, but I think you are going to fail hard. All the efforts you put in completely innefectual, and therefore a waste of money which could be better spent almost anywhere else.

I don't know that you are all going to fail, but how is Elon's hypertube coming along? Mars One? That big fancy modern train system in California?

If someone burns a load of diesel trying to fight climate change, but fails, have they not just burned a load of diesel that didn't need to be burned?

You have no idea, do you? It's nothing to do with whatever weird shit Elon gets up to. It is very, very straightforward. Simply, it is about making the transition to energy sources of a variety of types which do not involve burning fossil fuels. The largest, and in some ways the easiest target is the generation of electricity in coal-fired power stations, but there are other targets as well, as well as reforestation to directly absorb CO2.

These changes are happening already to a certain extent. The political debate (and I have no absolute preferences there) is all about how the human community might most effectively speed up the transition. For rational environmentalists, there is no dogmatic or ideological automatic solution, but there is a shared concern that we need to get cracking, and make it happen.

[Scot Dutchy]

2030 we will be totally CO2 neutral. I might just see it. Not fossil fuel transport. House heating etc. The change is taking place already. New building has not any fossil fuel element. Older areas are being converted. Massive wind farms are being built. Better and better heat pumps are being designed. I wish stupid idiots would stop going on about driverless cars. They a minor sport and only a way of the automotive industry justifying its existence. In Europe it will hardly play a role and who in America will be able to afford it? The 1%?

What fucking gets me is cunts like Cunt and Trump who will do fuck all to help the battle to reduce CO2 and just pour scorn on those making an effort and achieving already minor gains.

[Cunt]

You have no idea, do you? It's nothing to do with whatever weird shit Elon gets up to. It is very, very straightforward. Simply, it is about making the transition to energy sources of a variety of types which do not involve burning fossil fuels. The largest, and in some ways the easiest target is the generation of electricity in coal-fired power stations, but there are other targets as well, as well as reforestation to directly absorb CO2.

The examples of stupid shit via Elon was just pointing out that hopeful stories of tech advances don't always hold up to the vicissitudes of weather and wear.

Reforestation sounds a bit small, considering there is a larger carbon repository available. Trees are cute, but mushrooms are the bigger player.

Well, their undercarriage. (Dr. Stamets convinced me, but for real details you would have to check him out...I'm not that 'academic')

These changes are happening already to a certain extent. The political debate (and I have no absolute preferences there) is all about how the human community might most effectively speed up the transition. For rational environmentalists, there is no dogmatic or ideological automatic solution, but there is a shared concern that we need to get cracking, and make it happen.

Right, but my main question is still dangling there.

If there is a 'too late' point, where is it, and how will we know we've passed it?

It's an ugly question, but I like trying to see more than one perspective on things. Al Gore said we would be out of Arctic ice by 2014, so you wouldn't have wanted to bet on his predictions, but he was just a politician. I'm sure you have MUCH more accurate predictions.

[Tero]

Troll, go live under your mushroom!

[Forty Two]

The fact that he had to fake it, though, really is a testament to how few actual incidents of any real import there are.

Not at all. But your view that one staged hate crime is a testament to the infrequency of actual hate crimes is a testament to the fact that you are a certifiable whackjob who believes in an alternate reality.

One fake one?

November 2016 - Univ. of Michigan. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act ... dd03e57c10 Hoax

Nov. 2016 - North Park University - bisexual student falsely claims to have received hate emails and notes -- turned out she was sending them to herself. Google Taylor Volk.

November 2016 - Ashley Boyer in Philadelphia invented a harassing encounter at a gas station in Philadelphia.

November 2016, Muslim woman claims she had her hijab torn off and stolen by white Trump supporters. False https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/loca ... -351046672

May 2017, Church vandalizes itself - spray painted Heil Trump and anti-gay slurs on itself.

December 2016, man spraypaints his own car with racist slogans in staged hate-crime, Denton Texas.

December 2016 - drunk Trump supporters attack Muslim woman in NYC subway -- false - hoax.

February 2017 - student writes anti-Muslims slurs on his own door. Beloit College.

April 2017 - threats to synagogues -- claimed to be linked to Trump, but actually committed by an Israeli man.

May 2017 - A student at St. Olaf college carried out the hoax by distributing racist literature around campus, in order to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate. I.e., again, there weren't enough real issues, so to draw attention to the campus climate that they all know exists, he had to fake one.

September 17 - Air Force Academy - students targeted with racist notes. Big splash in the media. A couple months later, turns out one of the students "targeted" had written the notes. Hoax. Not much of a splash on the correction side...

Nov. 2017 - Kansas state university - same thing. Student wrote self-directed hate-notes. Hoax.

Nov. 2017 -- non-white student writes hate notes to hoax a hate crime. https://fox2now.com/2017/11/21/student- ... -bathroom/

July 2018, Khalil Cavil writes notes to himself calling himself a terrorist to pretend it's a hate crime.

July 2018, Texas Mexican-American waitress pretends to be a victim of a hate crime by writing notes to herself with anti-Mexican rhetoric.

September 2018, New York woman fabricates racist note on her car, and whites yelling racist slurs at her. Hoax.

December 2018, Drake University students pretend to be targeted by racist notes - a student sent the notes to himself. Hoax.

January 2019, Covington Catholic incident - bullshit, non-racial incident, invented by liars like Nathan Philips.

February 2019, Jussie Smollett fakes his attempted lynching.

And, more -- there are no shortage of bullshit hate crimes.

The media champs at the bit to publish stories of alleged hate crimes. There is zero resistance. Look at the Smollett case - when that first broke, anyone who said something to the effect of "hey, wait a minute... I have some questions..." was vilified as a hater, and was told to believe the victim here -- and this just illustrated what we all know about "America in 2019" -- this is "America in 2019" on CNN in ominous tones -- we all know where it comes from, right -- it comes from Trump and the racist MAGA hat wearing folks....

Same thing with Covington Catholic - the media perpetrated the hoax, by publishing videos that did not show what really happened, and what didn't happen. They accepted Nathan Phillips' uncritically, and they later had to admit they 'got it wrong' - but they got it wrong because they sooooo wanted it to be true. It would prove what they already know.

[Tero]

Why would Trump veto a nonbinding resolution?

It will take several weeks to move the resolution through committee and several days after that to get it to the House floor for a vote. There is no rush for Democrats, who are united on this front and happy to allow additional time for GOP divisions to spill into the open.

On Thursday, GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher (Wis.), who hails from a Trump friendly district, said he doesn’t believe that the emergency declaration is the right course of action.

“The problem is the president came to Congress asking for something. Congress said no. Our system doesn't then allow the president to say, 'Ok 'I'm just going do it anyway through some sort of cheat code’.” - Gallagher

Once the resolution passes the Democratic-controlled House, the GOP-controlled Senate will be required to vote on it. Senate Democrats could introduce an identical resolution as early as today.

Democrats need to pick up at least four Republicans in the Senate for it to pass. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) this week became the first GOP senator to say she would vote in favor of the resolution. Several others have publicly criticized Trump’s emergency declaration.

The GOP senators to watch: Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Cory Gardner (Colo.), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Mitt Romney (Utah), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.).

If the resolution passes the Senate, it could lead to Trump’s first veto.

https://thehill.com/homenews/morning-re ... ing-report

[Forty Two]

Faking a hate crime is a hate crime? That's a new one.

I think it is.

I think you're off your meds, or something.

It wouldn't be a hate crime under Illinois law. In some other jurisdictions, an argument could be made. He wasn't charged with a hate crime. He was charged with disorderly conduct and filing a false police report - in his case a grievous one, since it's a felony charge with maximum sentence of up to 3 years in prison. He likely won't get jail time, I expect. It'll be community service, a suspended sentence, an agreement to go through therapy and such, and reimbursement of costs and expense, etc. That kind of thing.

The guy's a nut - he sent himself racist and homophobic letters to pretend he was being victimized. That didn't get him enough attention, so he paid two personal trainers (by check, lol) to go buy lynching tools, and pretend to beat him up and try to lynch him. I mean, that's fucking crazy shit right there.

Imagine being this cat's boyfriend.

The privilege or sense of entitlement one must have - the unmitigated gall - to think one could get away with this in the first place. I mean, the media did what he probably expected -- you publish the allegation, the media eats it up because most of the reporters want to report this stuff as true - after all, it is the "reality of America in 2019" - we knew that already -- this is just icing on the cake. And, then they cover it up by vilifying anyone who might question the narrative - racist, homophobic, white supremacist, etc. If you doubt the guy's story at all, that's what you are. He knew that forces out there would react that way.

[Sean Hayden]

It's so bad. How does something like that even enter your mind?

[Tero]

Jim: do not try to explain it to Cunt. He is just using god of the gaps and ”teach the controversy” tactics. Levels of CO2 now, measurements, stopping, lowering emissions, CO2 residence time etc. are all opportunities for more Cunt whataboutism. He is just baiting you to so calked ”debate.”

[Scot Dutchy]

He is simply trolling.

[Tero]

That too, I just identified the specific trolling tools.

[L'Emmerdeur]

A federal judge has ruled that the current Trump Labor Secretary broke the law in 2008 when he was a federal prosecutor in Florida. He was part of a team of prosecutors that crafted a sweetheart deal for the billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in a sex trafficking case.

'Judge: Prosecutors broke law in deal with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein'

A Florida judge ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors, led by a man who is now President Donald Trump's secretary of labor, broke the law when they signed a plea agreement with financier Jeffrey Epstein without notifying his sex abuse victims.

Epstein, 66, reached a nonprosecution deal in 2008 with then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta's office to halt a federal sex abuse investigation involving more than 30 teenage girls. Epstein could have faced a possible life sentence. Instead, he pleaded guilty to state charges, spent 13 months in jail and paid settlements to victims.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in a 33-page ruling, said prosecutors violated the victims' rights by not informing them of the deal and instead sending a letter counseling them to have "patience."

"Particularly problematic was the government's decision to conceal the existence of the [nonprosecution agreement] and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility," Marra wrote. "When the government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading."

Right-wingers love to point out that Bill Clinton spent time with Epstein, while somehow forgetting that Donald Trump did as well.

[Tero]

Lock him up! In a cell with Epstein!

[Seabass]

The fact that he had to fake it, though, really is a testament to how few actual incidents of any real import there are.

Not at all. But your view that one staged hate crime is a testament to the infrequency of actual hate crimes is a testament to the fact that you are a certifiable whackjob who believes in an alternate reality.

One fake one?

November 2016 - Univ. of Michigan. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act ... dd03e57c10 Hoax

Nov. 2016 - North Park University - bisexual student falsely claims to have received hate emails and notes -- turned out she was sending them to herself. Google Taylor Volk.

November 2016 - Ashley Boyer in Philadelphia invented a harassing encounter at a gas station in Philadelphia.

November 2016, Muslim woman claims she had her hijab torn off and stolen by white Trump supporters. False https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/loca ... -351046672

May 2017, Church vandalizes itself - spray painted Heil Trump and anti-gay slurs on itself.

December 2016, man spraypaints his own car with racist slogans in staged hate-crime, Denton Texas.

December 2016 - drunk Trump supporters attack Muslim woman in NYC subway -- false - hoax.

February 2017 - student writes anti-Muslims slurs on his own door. Beloit College.

April 2017 - threats to synagogues -- claimed to be linked to Trump, but actually committed by an Israeli man.

May 2017 - A student at St. Olaf college carried out the hoax by distributing racist literature around campus, in order to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate. I.e., again, there weren't enough real issues, so to draw attention to the campus climate that they all know exists, he had to fake one.

September 17 - Air Force Academy - students targeted with racist notes. Big splash in the media. A couple months later, turns out one of the students "targeted" had written the notes. Hoax. Not much of a splash on the correction side...

Nov. 2017 - Kansas state university - same thing. Student wrote self-directed hate-notes. Hoax.

Nov. 2017 -- non-white student writes hate notes to hoax a hate crime. https://fox2now.com/2017/11/21/student- ... -bathroom/

July 2018, Khalil Cavil writes notes to himself calling himself a terrorist to pretend it's a hate crime.

July 2018, Texas Mexican-American waitress pretends to be a victim of a hate crime by writing notes to herself with anti-Mexican rhetoric.

September 2018, New York woman fabricates racist note on her car, and whites yelling racist slurs at her. Hoax.

December 2018, Drake University students pretend to be targeted by racist notes - a student sent the notes to himself. Hoax.

January 2019, Covington Catholic incident - bullshit, non-racial incident, invented by liars like Nathan Philips.

February 2019, Jussie Smollett fakes his attempted lynching.

And, more -- there are no shortage of bullshit hate crimes.

The media champs at the bit to publish stories of alleged hate crimes. There is zero resistance. Look at the Smollett case - when that first broke, anyone who said something to the effect of "hey, wait a minute... I have some questions..." was vilified as a hater, and was told to believe the victim here -- and this just illustrated what we all know about "America in 2019" -- this is "America in 2019" on CNN in ominous tones -- we all know where it comes from, right -- it comes from Trump and the racist MAGA hat wearing folks....

Same thing with Covington Catholic - the media perpetrated the hoax, by publishing videos that did not show what really happened, and what didn't happen. They accepted Nathan Phillips' uncritically, and they later had to admit they 'got it wrong' - but they got it wrong because they sooooo wanted it to be true. It would prove what they already know.

Oh, shut up. I was responding to your comment about the one specific fake hate crime that is currently under discussion.

The point is, the existence of one or a few fake hate crimes is not, as you put it, "a testament to how few actual incidents of any real import there are".

... the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said that of an estimated 21,000 hate crime cases between 2016 and 2018, fewer than 50 reports were found to be false. The center believes that less than 1 percent of all reported hate crimes are false.

But such false reports can play an outsize role in undermining the credibility of real bias victims and anti-hate efforts. In the aftermath of Mr. Smollett’s arrest, one lawmaker has even promised to draft a bill increasing the penalty for filing false hate crime reports.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/us/f ... rimes.html

But hate crimes are still fairly common in the US. As Smith acknowledged, the FBI publishes a national analysis on hate crimes, based on police reports, each year — concluding that there were more than 7,100 in 2017, up 17 percent from the year before. That’s nearly 20 hate crimes a day.

This likely understates the number of hate crimes in the US. When the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) surveyed large segments of the population between 2004 and 2015, it concluded that there are 250,000 hate crimes annually. The FBI, in other words, may be undercounting the number of hate crimes by the hundreds of thousands.

No matter whether you rely on the FBI or BJS to count hate crimes, the numbers are clear on one thing: There are a lot, whether dozens or hundreds, of hate crimes every day in the US. The fact that one well-publicized report turned out to be false shouldn’t distract from the scope of the problem; America is not free from bigotry, regardless of what happened to Smollett.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/2/2 ... statistics

[Tero]

Yey Trump, fixing problems of his own creation 3 years in a row!

Donald J. Trump Retweeted

Sec. Sonny Perdue
@SecretarySonny
BREAKING: In Oval Office meeting today, the Chinese committed to buy an additional 10 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans. Hats off to
@POTUS
for bringing China to the table. Strategy is working. Show of good faith by the Chinese. Also indications of more good news to come.