***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[RustyShackleford]

Turtle is really a piece of ****. He is seriously trying to gaslight voters

He is implying if the GOP keeps control, no cuts will take place. But if the Dems take part of government everyone will join together and make a deal to cut Medicare and Social Security.

Then his words about Obama. Like he was not the main person pushing for no bipartisanship during the Obama years

I really hate this ****ing ghoul.

 

[boris]

Edit: posted before I saw Belgium's post.

 

[nawghtyhare]

Edit: posted before I saw Belgium's post.

well then get rid of ss and medicad
teach us all a leason

 

[kdawg]

Then have the National Park Service release a press release saying it is the biggest dong ever for a president.

I dunno. I think even they would have trouble refuting LBJs claims.

 

[plansb]

Libs with their guilty until proven innocent bull**** again, re: ksa murdering the journalist.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/...tion=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Suspects in Khashoggi Case Had Ties to Saudi Crown Prince
One of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston and the United Nations.

Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince’s security detail.

A fifth is a forensic doctor who holds senior positions in the Saudi Interior Ministry and medical establishment, a figure of such stature that he could be directed only by a high-ranking Saudi authority.

If, as the Turkish authorities say, these men were present at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul where Mr. Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2, they might provide a direct link between what happened and Prince Mohammed. That would undercut any suggestion that Mr. Khashoggi died in a rogue operation unsanctioned by the crown prince. Their connection to him could also make it more difficult for the White House and Congress to accept such an explanation.

How much blame for Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance or death settles on the 33-year-old crown prince has become a decisive factor in his standing in the eyes of the West and within the royal family.

The prince has presented himself as a reformer intent on opening up the kingdom’s economy and culture, and has used that image to try to influence White House policy in the region and to woo Western investors to help diversify the Saudi economy.

But the international revulsion at the reported assassination and mutilation of a single newspaper columnist — Mr. Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post — has already sullied that image far more than previous missteps by the crown prince, from miring his country in a catastrophic war in Yemen to kidnapping the prime minister of Lebanon.

The crown prince and his father, King Salman, have denied any knowledge of Mr. Khashoggi’s whereabouts, repeatedly asserting that he left the consulate freely. Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

But in the last few days, as major American businesses and media companies have withdrawn from a marquee investment conference in Riyadh, the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia appear to have been searching for a face-saving way out.

The royal court was expected to acknowledge for the first time that Mr. Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, and to blame a rogue operationconducted without the direct knowledge of the crown prince, according to a person familiar with the Saudi plans. The Saudis, this person said, will hold accountable an intelligence official who received approval from the crown prince to capture and interrogate Mr. Khashoggi but killed him instead.

On Monday, after speaking with King Salman, President Trump floated the possibility that Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of “rogue killers.”

But such explanations would run up against a host of hard-to-explain obstacles.

The suspects’ positions in the Saudi government and the links of several to the crown prince could make it more difficult to absolve him of responsibility. And the presence of a forensic doctor who specializes in autopsies suggests the operation may have had a lethal intent from the start.

Turkish officials have said they possess evidence that a team of 15 Saudi agents flew into Istanbul on Oct. 2, assassinated Mr. Khashoggi, dismembered his body with a bone saw they had brought for the purpose, and flew out the same day. They said Mr. Khashoggi was killed within two hours of his arrival at the consulate. That would hardly have allowed time for an interrogation to go awry.

Turkish officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence, have said that all 15 suspects are Saudi security officers, intelligence agents or government employees.

Records show that two private jets chartered by a Saudi company with close ties to the Saudi crown prince and Interior Ministry arrived and left Istanbul on the day of Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. Turkish officials have said some of the 15 suspects arrived and left on those jets.

The New York Times has confirmed independently that at least nine of the 15 worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries.

The Times gathered more information about the suspects using facial recognition software, publicly available records, social media profiles, a database of Saudi cellphone numbers, Saudi news reports, leaked Saudi government documents and in some cases the accounts of witnesses in Saudi Arabia and countries the crown prince has visited.

One suspect, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was a diplomat assigned to the Saudi Embassy in London in 2007, according to a British diplomatic roster. He has also traveled extensively with the crown prince, perhaps as a bodyguard.

Mr. Mutreb was photographed emerging from airplanes with Prince Mohammed on recent trips to Madrid and Paris. He was also photographed in Houston, Boston and the United Nations during the crown prince’s visits there, often glowering as he surveyed a crowd.

A French professional who has worked with the Saudi royal family identified a second suspect, Abdulaziz Mohammed al-Hawsawi, as a member of the security team that travels with the crown prince.

A Saudi news outlet reported that someone with the same name as a third suspect, Thaar Ghaleb al-Harbi, was promoted last year to the rank of lieutenant in the Saudi royal guard for bravery in the defense of Prince Mohammed’s palace in Jeddah.

A fourth suspect traveled with a passport bearing the name of another member of the royal guard, Muhammed Saad Alzahrani. A search of the name in Menom3ay, an app popular in Saudi Arabia that allows users to see the names other users have associated with certain phone numbers, identified him as a member of the royal guard. A guard wearing a name tag with that name appears in a video from 2017 standing next to Prince Mohammed.

Members of the royal guard or aides who traveled with the crown prince might have been recruited for an expedition to capture or interrogate Mr. Khashoggi, perhaps led by a senior intelligence official. But the presence among the suspects of an autopsy expert, Dr. Salah al-Tubaigy, suggests that killing might have been part of the original plan.

Dr. Tubaigy, who maintained a presence on several social media platforms, identified himself on his Twitter account as the head of the Saudi Scientific Council of Forensics and held lofty positions in the kingdom’s premier medical school as well as in its Interior Ministry. He studied at the University of Glasgow and in 2015 he spent three months in Australia as a visiting forensic pathologist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. His published writings include works on dissection and mobile autopsies.

Although there is no public record of a relationship between him and the royal court, such a senior figure in the Saudi medical establishment was unlikely to join a rogue expedition organized by an underling.

Dr. Tubaigy, whose name first appeared among reports of the suspects several days ago, has not publicly addressed the allegations. None of the suspects could be reached for comment.

 

[boris]

well then get rid of ss and medicad
teach us all a leason

Teach who a lesson, though? Most of us here voted for people against **** like this and most of us saw this coming. We're being governed by a hostile minority.

 

[Belgium]

They could hardly make it more blatant than this.

The appointee has zero experience in government oversight, no background in environmental policy and regulations, and the Interior Dept. Secretary's conduct is involved in 4 ongoing Inspector General investigations.
The Deputy Inspector General learned of the leadership change through a colleague showing her Ben Carson's email to his agency staffers where he announced the change.
The Office of Inspector General's spokeswoman made a statement that the IG had not received any official communication about any leadership changes.

An Interior Department spokeswoman referred the question of who hired Tuffs to the White House. “The position of the Inspector General has been vacant for about ten years,” Vander Voort said in an email. “This is a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position, which would be announced by the White House.”
The White House did not respond to the Washington Post's request for comment.

And to top it off, Ben Carson and a HUD spokesman gave differing accounts of the leadership change.
A HUD spokesman said Tufts’s move is a temporary detail, which means she would return to that agency. But Carson, in his email to HUD staffers last week, said she was leaving.

I should also note that the Interior Department’s inspector general is charged with auditing and investigating potential waste, fraud and abuse at 10 agencies, including the National Park Services. An IG investigation of the latter found no proof of Trump's claim that NPS tampered with crowd size estimates to spite Trump, however the investigation did find that the WH pressured the NPS to edit photos of his crowd and crop certain areas to make the crowd look bigger.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...91fcead2ab1_story.html?utm_term=.9c7c631791b9
HUD appointee abruptly moved to lead Interior Dept.’s watchdog unit amid Zinke probe
The Trump administration has abruptly moved a political appointee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to serve as the acting watchdog for the Interior Department, an unusual choice for a role that is traditionally nonpartisan.

As acting inspector general at the Interior Department, Suzanne Israel Tufts will oversee four ongoing investigations into Secretary Ryan Zinke’s conduct, including inquiries into his wife’s travel and a Montana land-development deal backed by the chairman of the oil services firm Halliburton.

Tufts, who has served as HUD’s assistant secretary for administration since December, is a lawyer from Queens. Before joining the Trump administration, she founded a consulting firm that focused on providing services for tax-exempt organizations and emerging companies.

Tufts — who does not have a background in government investigations or environmental policy and regulations — will be overseeing one of the government’s most active watchdog offices. The Interior Department’s inspector general is charged with auditing and investigating potential waste, fraud and abuse at 10 agencies, including the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tufts’s move to the Interior Department, announced by HUD Secretary Ben Carson in an email to his agency’s staffers Friday, took lawmakers and officials at the Interior Department’s watchdog unit by surprise. Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, who had led the office for nine years and served as its deputy since 1999, learned of Tufts’s appointment from a colleague who showed her Carson’s email, according to a person with knowledge of the exchange.

“The Office of Inspector General has received no official communication about any leadership changes,” Nancy DiPaolo, a spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office, said in a statement.

Asked who hired Tufts for the position, Faith Vander Voort, an Interior Department spokeswoman, referred the question to the White House. “The position of the Inspector General has been vacant for about ten years,” Vander Voort said in an email. “This is a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position, which would be announced by the White House.”

The White House, which has not announced that Tufts was nominated for the permanent position of inspector general, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

A HUD spokesman said Tufts’s move is a temporary detail, which means she would return to that agency. But Carson, in his email to HUD staffers last week, said she was leaving.

In his email Friday announcing her move, Carson praised Tufts’s work for HUD, calling her “an extremely enthusiastic and energetic leader who reestablished HUD’s Office of Administration, implementing improvements to the agency’s governance and internal controls.” Tufts’s new post was first reported by The Hill.

 

[IATT]

"Senator Elizabeth Warren does not claim to be a citizen of any tribal nation, and she is not a citizen of the Eastern Band," he said. "Like many other Americans, she has a family story of Cherokee and Delaware ancestry and evidence of Native ancestry."

Sneed went on to say that Warren "has not used her family story or evidence of Native ancestry to gain employment or other advantage" and that "on the contrary, she demonstrates respect for tribal sovereignty."

https://www.businessinsider.com/ric...f-voices-support-for-elizabeth-warren-2018-10

 

[Zainjal26]

Edit: posted before I saw Belgium's post.

It’s gotten to the point where I’m scared to move my iPhone home screen to the left and see the news









And see how the republicans are managing to underplay Alex Jones in stupidity

 

[IATT]

 

[stuntman mike]

texas debate coming on soon. imma be busy with my son but i'll try and catch a recap later on.
LINK

 

[IATT]

 

[aepps20]

Spent a couple of hours canvassing for Stacey Abrams Sunday, felt good to go out and actually try to help.

Voted early today. Only one place was open for it for Cobb County, GA from the 15th-19th. Waited around three hours in line.

Get your voting out of the way, and spend the rest of the time volunteering for candidates and helping others get to the polls.

If you or anyone you know needs help getting to the polls and lives around Atlanta, message me.

Thank you so much for your efforts famb.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[aepps20]

RustyShackleford handle it famb. Coal Gang has your back. We think Dean is a Soy Boy in disguise and needs a right cross to the jaw.

 

[chao7]

Thank you so much for your efforts famb.

No problem.
Being on here and getting informed has opened my eyes a lot more than most of you realize.

There are helpless, innocent children essentially being sold for the benefit of shareholders in for-profit prisons.

People will be given virtual death sentences if they lose their healthcare - and apparently giving massive tax breaks to holders of generational wealth is a worthwhile tradeoff.


It's time to put up or shut up.

 

[RustyShackleford]

RustyShackleford handle it famb. Coal Gang has your back. We think Dean is a Soy Boy in disguise and needs a right cross to the jaw.

I don't gotta do ****.

Obeezy in town early next week. If it is anything like his 2016 preelection speech, he finna upload a whole rhetorical clip into Heller.

**** Dean Heller as a staff, record label and as a mother****ing crew

 

[boris]

 

[osh kosh bosh]

Random Question:

Why does anyone care about the middle east?


Like seriously, who cares? It's become so strange to me. You turn on the TV and you got middle east experts on their explaining the tribal conflicts, and the complicated web of alliances and blah blah blah.
Who ****ing cares? Why is america or any country at all involved in this?

and don't tell me it's because of oil, West Africa has oil and I don't see people on TV touting themselves as West African experts. I've never seen a dude on TV talmbout, well you know the Hausa tribe in northern Nigeria fell like this and the Yurobas think that...


Why is it that being an expert on the middle east can lean to ****ing plum jobs in think tanks? why are there even think tanks devoted to this regions?

and don't tell me it's because of terrorism either, because what ever countries Americas allies with in the middle east means the enemies of that ally will marshal terrorist plots against you, so what the ****ing point?


I really gotta know.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

This Khashoggi thing is horrible, but why is America in an alliance with the Saudi's in the first place?

for what? for who?

 

[RustyShackleford]

Random Question:

Why does anyone care about the middle east?


Like seriously, who cares? It's become so strange to me. You turn on the TV and you got middle east experts on their explaining the tribal conflicts, and the complicated web of alliances and blah blah blah.
Who ****ing cares? Why is america or any country at all involved in this?

and don't tell me it's because of oil, West Africa has oil and I don't see people on TV touting themselves as West African experts. I've never seen a dude on TV talmbout, well you know the Hausa tribe in northern Nigeria fell like this and the Yurobas think that...


Why is it that being an expert on the middle east can lean to ****ing plum jobs in think tanks? why are there even think tanks devoted to this regions?

and don't tell me it's because of terrorism either, because what ever countries Americas allies with in the middle east means the enemies of that ally will marshal terrorist plots against you, so what the ****ing point?


I really gotta know.

-Isreal

White Evangelicals are obsessed with Israel so all of America has to care

-Conflict in that region is sold to the public for the reason for having our massive war machine which a ton of affluent people profits from it.

-We sell arms to many in the region. Another place where affluent people in our country profit from.

-Also I don't know why you would dismiss oil. Sure other parts of the world have oil but The Saudis pretty much run OPEC from my understanding. Energy shocks caused by them will still effect the US economy. And with GAS prices, it gives it visibility.