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[palsch]

Not a great article, but this has just triggered every government lawyer in the US.

In the chaotic hours after President Trump signed on a Friday afternoon the sloppily written executive order meant to fulfill his Muslim ban campaign promise, Stephen Miller called the home of Robert Capers to dictate to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District how he should defend that order at a Saturday emergency federal court hearing.

Miller has no legal qualifications so it's not clear what his call was meant to do other than insult an attorney that they had set up to fail. With no prior warning or any support in place.

[Greiger]

How long until America's first gay president?

Will not happen for at least a few decades.  Probably longer.  Some of my coworkers claimed that if Hillary got elected they would have to become assassins to stop her.  However they are also such religious nuts that if a gay president ever got elected, I strongly believe they will try kill the president-elect and claim that they straight up stopped the biblical apocalypse.  Strange that if you are a 'good christian' you wouldn't hesitate to commit a cardinal sin.

In the current world I don't think any homosexual man or woman would be in their right mind to run for president.  Not that I don't want it to happen, but there will be more death threats than trump is getting.

[Reelya]

Strange that if you are a 'good christian' you wouldn't hesitate to commit a cardinal sin.

There was one pastor on video who was saying if it wasn't for God's law then murder itself wouldn't be wrong by definition, and that he'd very much like to just line up and shoot everyone he doesn't like. So thank God there's a God and that guy isn't going to shoot you now.

Yeah, that's the kind of person I'm most afraid of, those who define right and wrong by God's law, rather than believing that acts are by their inherent nature good or bad, because they can decide that God is willing to make exceptions to his rules for people they don't like and actually shoot you.

[Grim Portent]

Strange that if you are a 'good christian' you wouldn't hesitate to commit a cardinal sin.

There was one pastor on video who was saying if it wasn't for God's law then murder itself wouldn't be wrong by definition, and that he'd very much like to just line up and shoot everyone he doesn't like. So thank God there's a God and that guy isn't going to shoot you now.

Yeah, that's the kind of person I'm most afraid of, those who define right and wrong by God's law, rather than believing that acts are by their inherent nature good or bad, because they can decide that God is willing to make exceptions to his rules for people they don't like and actually shoot you.

Reminds me of when I was about 8 or 9 and got shown the Disney version of the story of Moses in RME, and was appalled that god killed children and that this was supposed to have been the good thing for him to do. Was already leaning towards atheism by that point, but that certainly contributed to me being an anti-theist atheist.

[misko27]

How long until America's first gay president?

Unless every state but California gets nuked probably quite a while. 

EDIT: Decided to check which state was the first one to legalize gay marriage, was somewhat surprised it was Massachusetts, more because I often forget the state even exists than anything else. Beat the others to it by 5 years between it and the 2nd one to do so though, so hats off to Massachusetts for that.

True, but the first actual test of marriage laws occured in Hawaii, under Baehr v. Lewin decision. That decision was the basis for several consitutional amendments to various states and DOMA.

Also I'm annoyed that the best part of McCain's recent comments on Trump aren't being discussed. For your edification:

"I hate the press. I hate you especially," McCain told NBC's Chuck Todd, according to excerpts of the interview set to air Sunday. "But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital. If you want to preserve – I'm very serious now – if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started.

I like the mental image of a Senator specifically taking the time to mention how much they hate a reporter.

Strange that if you are a 'good christian' you wouldn't hesitate to commit a cardinal sin.

There was one pastor on video who was saying if it wasn't for God's law then murder itself wouldn't be wrong by definition, and that he'd very much like to just line up and shoot everyone he doesn't like. So thank God there's a God and that guy isn't going to shoot you now.

Yeah, that's the kind of person I'm most afraid of, those who define right and wrong by God's law, rather than believing that acts are by their inherent nature good or bad, because they can decide that God is willing to make exceptions to his rules for people they don't like and actually shoot you.

Now see that's not necessarily true. You could very much want to shoot someone, but decide that's it's wrong because God (although typically these people don't announce this fact). On the other hand, if someone wants to shoot you enough that they are going to pretend God is giving them license to do so, would them not being religious make them any less likely to shoot you?

And as for defining right and wrong, if you have an absolute view of morality (as opposed to a relativist view), basing it on God is arguably the single best way of doing so, since God is absolute (and absolutely good, et cetera). Those people are being internally consistent. It's the god-fearing moral relativists and the atheist absolutists who are on shaky ground.

[Neonivek]

But luckily no religion hating atheist has ever harmed anyone based on their religion on a mass or systematic scale. (I am being intentionally ironic... yeah it has been pretty tragic)

[Strife26]

Ol' McCain has to be getting to the point where he's going to tell various people to go to hell so he can secure his legacy by torpedoing the Republican party in a blaze of glory.

[PTTG??]

How long until America's first gay president?

It depends on if the south secedes again, and if it takes the midwest. If, on the other hand, Greater Cascadia and Columbia leave, then the USA will simply be the world's first nuclear-armed theocracy.

[palsch]

Texas ranchers are suffering under Trump's trade 'policy'.

But the Texas cattle rancher now faces a new threat: the Trump administration's blundering, blustering trade policy. By threatening a trade war with Mexico within days of inauguration, the president helped trigger a slide in cattle futures. Mexico is a major export market. By sinking the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the new administration cut off long-sought access to the Japanese market. Now banks have raised the conditions for collateral for loans for ranchers.

Texas ranchers, though, will not be alone for long. Beef producers from Nebraska to the Dakotas face the same problems. So do grain farmers in Kansas and the snow-covered corn fields of Iowa, just like tomato farmers in California and Florida and autoworkers in Michigan, longshoremen, truckers and railway workers in Miami and Houston and Long Beach. These will be the first casualties of a trade war.

A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates. Not fully digested this one but it is pretty out there. Apparently Trump associates and senior staff - along with Ukrainian opposition members - were proposing a 'peace plan' that involved having the Ukrainian president arrested for corruption. The same opposition leader had also shopped his plan to Putin and supposedly received support for the idea there as well. The opposition was shaped by Manafort, who had to resign from Trump's campaign over Russian ties and previously advised Yanukovych.

The meat of the proposal would be leasing Crimea to Russia for 50-100 years. The corruption charges would just be to get the uncooperative government - who believe such a deal violations the constitution of Ukraine - out of the way.

[Sergarr]

A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates. Not fully digested this one but it is pretty out there. Apparently Trump associates and senior staff - along with Ukrainian opposition members - were proposing a 'peace plan' that involved having the Ukrainian president arrested for corruption. The same opposition leader had also shopped his plan to Putin and supposedly received support for the idea there as well. The opposition was shaped by Manafort, who had to resign from Trump's campaign over Russian ties and previously advised Yanukovych.

The meat of the proposal would be leasing Crimea to Russia for 50-100 years. The corruption charges would just be to get the uncooperative government - who believe such a deal violations the constitution of Ukraine - out of the way.

That's... not half-bad, as far as plans go. Russia has shown already that it's capable of installing its puppets in countries that are aware and resisting it, as long as there's enough internal unrest present - and there's certainly a lot of unrest in modern Ukraine.

[Starver]

How long until America's first gay president?

I'm betting there already has been, (You didn't say openly gay.)

[smjjames]

A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates. Not fully digested this one but it is pretty out there. Apparently Trump associates and senior staff - along with Ukrainian opposition members - were proposing a 'peace plan' that involved having the Ukrainian president arrested for corruption. The same opposition leader had also shopped his plan to Putin and supposedly received support for the idea there as well. The opposition was shaped by Manafort, who had to resign from Trump's campaign over Russian ties and previously advised Yanukovych.

The meat of the proposal would be leasing Crimea to Russia for 50-100 years. The corruption charges would just be to get the uncooperative government - who believe such a deal violations the constitution of Ukraine - out of the way.

That's... not half-bad, as far as plans go. Russia has shown already that it's capable of installing its puppets in countries that are aware and resisting it, as long as there's enough internal unrest present - and there's certainly a lot of unrest in modern Ukraine.

Seems reminiscent of the Great Power type political deals that were common before WWII.

The US meddling in foriegn politics is, unfortunately, nothing new. Trump has actually met with other Ukranian opposition party leaders before. Though I suspect that since this one got leaked, it might get axed.

How long until America's first gay president?

I'm betting there already has been, (You didn't say openly gay.)

Theres rumors that Lincolin might have been, but theres no proof as far as I know.

[EnigmaticHat]

A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates. Not fully digested this one but it is pretty out there. Apparently Trump associates and senior staff - along with Ukrainian opposition members - were proposing a 'peace plan' that involved having the Ukrainian president arrested for corruption. The same opposition leader had also shopped his plan to Putin and supposedly received support for the idea there as well. The opposition was shaped by Manafort, who had to resign from Trump's campaign over Russian ties and previously advised Yanukovych.

The meat of the proposal would be leasing Crimea to Russia for 50-100 years. The corruption charges would just be to get the uncooperative government - who believe such a deal violations the constitution of Ukraine - out of the way.

That's... not half-bad, as far as plans go. Russia has shown already that it's capable of installing its puppets in countries that are aware and resisting it, as long as there's enough internal unrest present - and there's certainly a lot of unrest in modern Ukraine.

It certainly gets Russia what they want.  I'm not sure what our angle is there (as a country, Trump's angle is pretty clear).  This feels like something we'd regret in the future.

[smjjames]

A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates. Not fully digested this one but it is pretty out there. Apparently Trump associates and senior staff - along with Ukrainian opposition members - were proposing a 'peace plan' that involved having the Ukrainian president arrested for corruption. The same opposition leader had also shopped his plan to Putin and supposedly received support for the idea there as well. The opposition was shaped by Manafort, who had to resign from Trump's campaign over Russian ties and previously advised Yanukovych.

The meat of the proposal would be leasing Crimea to Russia for 50-100 years. The corruption charges would just be to get the uncooperative government - who believe such a deal violations the constitution of Ukraine - out of the way.

That's... not half-bad, as far as plans go. Russia has shown already that it's capable of installing its puppets in countries that are aware and resisting it, as long as there's enough internal unrest present - and there's certainly a lot of unrest in modern Ukraine.

It certainly gets Russia what they want.  I'm not sure what our angle is there (as a country, Trump's angle is pretty clear).  This feels like something we'd regret in the future.

What do WE get out of it though? As far as I can tell, it's pretty one sided as Russia isn't doing any concessions. Unless it's like, "you get Crimea and Donbass and we get the Ukranian puppet candidate of our choice". Naturally, Ukranians and others are going to be lividly outraged at the backroom deal.

Sweden asks Trump to explain himself on his fake terror attack comments.

[uber pye]

Sweden asks Trump to explain himself on his fake terror attack comments.

oooh boy, this ought to be good! will he tell the truth, or will be tell some juicy alternative facts?