monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

LOLGOP
@LOLGOP
Rick Santorum tried to tell you same-sex marriage would lead to the New York Times endorsing two women.

I can't argue that isn't a factor.

McConnell Mulls ‘Kill Switch’ for Impeachment Trial
January 20, 2020 at 8:46 am EST By Taegan Goddard 63 Comments

“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly is close to finalizing a rule that would allow President Trump’s team to move to dismiss the articles of impeachment in the Senate quickly after some evidence has been presented, as a sort of safety valve in case Democrats try to drag out the trial for weeks,” Fox News reports.

Sen. Josh Hawley to Axios: “I am familiar with the resolution as it stood a day or two ago. My understanding is that the resolution will give the president’s team the option to either move to judgment or to move to dismiss at a meaningful time.”

Bloomberg’s massive ad campaign hikes TV prices for other candidates

Oh yes.

[urlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_day]Lobby Day[/url] (also known as Advocacy Day) is a name used by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for select days, often annual, when lay members meet politicians or public servants at various levels to advocate and explain support for legislation relevant to the NGO. While a national lobby day may be held by the national leadership of an organization, its regional or local affiliates may hold their own separate lobby days in order to not compete with the lobby.

Two Iraqi protesters were killed on Monday in Baghdad's Tayaran Square after security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas as angry demonstrators took to the streets in force.

One protester was shot by a live round in the head while the second was hit by a tear gas canister, security sources said. Both succumbed to their wounds at the hospital. Dozens of people were also wounded.

The Iraqi government did not confirm the deaths. Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from the Baghdad demonstration, said activists took video showing seriously wounded protesters being carried away after the fierce clashes.

The violence came as security forces tried to clear roads in Iraq's capital after hundreds of protesters took to the streets to express their anger at the embattled government's slow pace of reforms.

Demonstrators a week ago gave the government until Monday to act on their demands, which include the holding of a snap poll under a new electoral law, the appointment of an independent prime minister and the prosecution of officials suspected of corruption.

The UN envoy to Iraq urged Iraqi political elites to resume pushing for reforms and for protests to remain peaceful.

"Any steps taken so far to address the people's concerns will remain hollow if they are not completed," said Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert in a statement issued by the UN. "Violent suppression of peaceful protesters is intolerable and must be avoided at all costs."

Starting Sunday and continuing on Monday, young demonstrators in Baghdad and the south began sealing off highways and bridges with burning tyres.


"We blocked the road to demand our rights ... the rights of young people to get a job," said one of the protesters in the capital, who asked to remain anonymous.

"We demand the central government go to early elections and the nomination of a new independent prime minister. If that doesn't happen, we will escalate and block all the highways and centres of the city."

Another demonstrator decried the violent tactics used by security forces to disperse the crowds.

"For months no one has listened to our demands. They are killing us. It's just bloodshed," protester Hassan Ali told Al Jazeera.

Three-wheeled taxis rescued tear gas victims and brought them to makeshift hospitals near the demonstrations.

Medics at the scene treated dozens of people who suffered from the effects of tear gas.

Jamal, a medic in Baghdad, told Al Jazeera: "We went to Tayaran Square in Baghdad. People wanted me to help them, I was also attacked by tear gas. I fell down as the security forces were using tear gas and live ammunition."

A statement from the Baghdad Operations Command said 14 officers were wounded by a group of rock-throwing "inciters of violence " while trying to secure the entrance to Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the protest movement.

"Despite these actions our forces continued to exercise restraint and follow up on the security duties assigned to them," it said.

A security official said at least nine arrests were made after the National Security Council authorised security forces to detain demonstrators blocking main thoroughfares and roundabouts.

Protests also broke out in southern Iraq, including in the cities of Nasiriya, Karbala and Amara, where demonstrators burned tyres and blocked roads.

In the southern city of Nasiriya, protesters blocked the highway linking the city to the southern oil-rich province of Basra. At least six protesters were wounded when an unknown gunmen fired at them from a speeding car, a medical official said.

The call for action by protest organisers came amid fears that spiralling regional tensions in the wake of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani's assassination by the United States in early January would put an end to the momentum of their months-long movement.

The uprising began on October 1 when thousands of Iraqis took to the streets to decry rampant government corruption, poor public services, and a scarcity of jobs. Protesters are also demanding an end to Iraq's quota-based political system, introduced after the US-led invasion in 2003.

Hundreds of people have been killed since the protests first erupted, with rights groups accusing security forces of using excessive force against the demonstrators.

"They should stop shooting and aiming, who are they and who we are? Both sides are Iraqis. So why are you killing your brothers?" said one woman who did not give her name.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned nearly two months ago, but political parties so far have failed to agree on a successor and he has continued to run the government as a caretaker.

Demonstrators have publicly rejected the names circulating as possible replacements and are furious that other sweeping reform measures have not been implemented.

You think the Dotard followers going to pretend that this taking place on MLK day is just a scheduling coincidence?

The same kind of scheduling coincidence that has the *president with nothing planned to observe MLK day?

But don’t you think a lot of rightwingers will try to claim one thing has nothing to do with the other?

This is what America is, people fighting the government to have their voices heard and to affect change.

The newly appointed commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force has said the United States killed his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, "in a cowardly way", promising to "hit his enemy in a manly fashion".

Esmail Qaani made the remarks on Monday at an introduction ceremony held for him by top IRGC commanders to mark the formal beginning of his tenure.

"They [US] hit him [Soleimani] in a cowardly way, but with God's grace and through endeavours of freedom-seekers around the world who want vengeance over his blood, we will hit his enemy in a manly fashion," he said.

Soleimani's assassination in a US air strike in Baghdad on January 3 pushed the US and Iran to the brink of war, but fears of an all-out conflict eased when retaliatory Iranian strikes against US targets in Iraq on January 8 concluded without any fatalities.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei has since called for the expulsion of all US troops from the region.

The Quds Force is part of the 125,000-strong IRGC, a paramilitary organisation that answers only to Khamenei.

The IRGC oversees Iran's ballistic missile programme, has its naval forces shadow the US Navy in the Persian Gulf, and includes an all-volunteer Basij force.

Quote:

This is what America is, people fighting the government to have their voices heard and to affect change.

And some of those people are racists and some are neo-nazis. No doubt there are plenty of concerned gun-owners as well. But you can effectively air these views without showing up in childish camo costumes and armed to the teeth. The intimidation factor can't be overlooked.

State Constitution Article I, Section 13
That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people,trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state,therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

Some priests molest children, do you condemn them all then?

@georgeob
Fair enough. Perhaps you don't attend to Fox, though I would be curious why you don't if you don't. Maybe you just don't watch TV news at all.

But the fact of the matter is that Fox, more than any other right wing operation, sets the tone and establishes the content of most other right wing media operations and voices.

Why don't you and I, as an exercise in honesty and transparency, take note of all news sources we attend to over the next week and share them here. I'm happy to do this. I won't lie or omit anything I attend to. I'll trust you to do the same.

Are you willing to be this forthright?