GW Hayduke

Wrong. The right doesn’t troll because the left are dumb. That makes no sense. The right trolls because they are dishonest, lack values, and are consistently in weak positions. If they were honest and had values, the right would modify their positions, rather than having to troll

Benghazi! Right wing trolling is such a joke. Anyone know why trolling is prevalent on one side?

Trump doesn’t want to solve our immigration problems. Immigration is one of the few issues that consistently motivates his base. Trump feels he needs this issue to maximize 2018 turnout and then his 2020 turnout.

Don’t feed the obvious troll. This thread is lame

What is the possibility that this sentiment is the result of persistent criticism by republicans? We are all influenced by media in some way shape or form.

This may be in hindsight, but the best action would have been to follow the policy and not disclose while evaluating/analyzing the emails on weiner’s laptop. Since there was nothing incriminating on the laptop, they would have never needed to disclose anything and no one would have skewered anyone. i do agree it was high profile and the GOP was pushing; however, policies are made to assist in those times.

Comey broke from policy because he thought a different action would be best for the FBI and everyone’s perception of the FBI. Comey’s action has ended up harming the FBI and our perception of it. This is a tragedy. I feel sorry for the guy

What was unprecedented about it? I understand the FBI/DOJ have conducted investigations and inquiries into parties involved with campaigns in the past. This seems simple to me. There was a policy that prevented disclosures near elections. Comey chose not to follow the policy. He had his reasons, but still chose not to follow the policy.Policies are in place to aid decision makers during difficult times. They are also in place to protect the decision makers.

Flynn plead guilty. Why is this hard? Flynn plead guilty to lying in exchange for corporation and for not being prosecuted for worse crimes.

It is separate from the Mueller investigation; however, if Cohen is cooperating with federal prosecutors, he will be sharing everything about Prague.

Axios: The American Medical Association has formally — and overwhelmingly — endorsed a slate of gun control measures, calling gun violence a public health crisis. Why it matters: The AMA isn’t as powerful as it once was. But in the uphill climb to frame gun violence as a public health issue, having the AMA on board certainly can’t hurt. According to AP, the policies the AMA endorsed at its annual policy meeting yesterday include: Banning gun sales to people younger than 21. Requiring safety training along with licensing and registration. Expanding limits on gun ownership — for example, allowing families of potentially suicidal people to seek a court order removing guns from their possession. https://www.axios.com/american-medical-association-endorses-gun-control-16b9e100-ff8d-4b92-a056-1712bac958b7.html

I know there is an affinity to look at this as BoTh SIDeS but that isn’t an accurate comparison. Trump has repeatedly gone against our democratic allies (canada, UK, Germany, France, Mexico, Australia) while showing openness to and never attacking anti-democratic authoritarians (Putin, Erdogan, Duterte). Trump loving dictators while attacking democracies isn’t equivalent to Obama’s approach.

I suspect this is a reflection of critical thinking skills along with the ability to differentiate between news and opinion and the ability to gauge the differences in quality journalism. I would be interested in someone taking a look at the media consumption habits of these different groups.

I get that some folks feel illegal immigrants are SPOOKY these days. Please note that Trumpism has embraced immigration as an emotional wedge issue to divide our country. Putin did the same thing in his country concerning homosexuals, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. First, Trump is pushing the republican party to not just be on a war footing against illegal immigrants but also against legal immigrants. Trumpism is against ALL immigrants. Second, our country is a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. This is who we are. This is our history. Third, everyone wants to enforce our immigration laws and all sides feel that our immigration system needs massive reform. There is lots to debate on this issue. However, I understand that you are concerned by the potential economic impact by illegal immigrants. I hope that this is a legitimate concern for you and not just an emotional appeal to tribalism. You provided sources showing that California has a high homeless population and a high level of out-migration. I'm not sure how that is relevant. Your other source is a Fox News piece seems to cite a few studies. For a more balanced perspective, the below Wikipedia page does a fare job. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_illegal_immigrants_in_the_United_States

This is your assumption that I believe most don't agree with. We need patience. See Mueller. See the 2018 midterms. See the 2020 presidential elections.

I understand there are legitimate reasons to split a family during initial processing. There needs to be a determination that the child is safe and that they are really a family. However, this is the first time that family separation for the purpose of deterrence is used. The UN has spoke out against this practice. There was a time when the UN spoke out against other countries. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/05/un-says-us-must-stop-separating-migrant-children-from-parents

I agree. Lies, dishonesty, hypocrisy, adoption of un-American values aren’t going to be tolerated by the Democratic Party. Trumpism has bought into tribalism, us-vs-them, identity politics that put winning above country. Democrats need to be the alternative to trumpism.

Patience. Citizens United has had consequences. Media deregulation has had consequences. Disinvestment in education has had consequencses. Republican debasing of American values have had consequencses. Elections have had consequences. The great American ship has turned a dark course. It will take time to fix ills and correct the course. However, we still have the drunken captain with his cronies locked in the control room and they will be there for a bit unfortunately. Gotta take steps. Step one is to make the 2018 Republican ticket pay a price for what has occurred. Patience.

Folks that use a lot a fallacies, that usually means your positions are weak. Changing positions is preferable to using fallacies

I think folks are ok with the article. The issue is what you are trying to show based on the article. The article is not about Canada "cracking down" on anything. The article is about Canadian officials spreading the word that Canada has immigration laws and follows them and why they are doing that. You seem to be making the point that Canada enforcing their immigration laws is somehow notable and somehow means something. All countries have immigration laws and enforce them. IMO it is more telling that immigrants/refugees are trying to leave the US and get to Canada. Another point you seem to be making is that Canada's "strict" immigration laws and enforcement somehow makes the US's laws and enforcement look easy, less strict, more humane, or something. Why do you feel you need to make the US's immigration situation look a certain way? Points from the article: - Canada is expected to increase their total number of admitted immigrants and total number of refugees. - The trump administration is decreasing the total number of admitted immigrants and total number of refugees. - Canada and the US are expected to accommodate almost the same number of refugees. Considering our differences in total populations, this is rather significant. The article didn't even paint the entire picture of US's current immigration situation: trump ran on an anti-immigrant platform inline with the alt-right, trump has attempted various muslim bans, and his administration has implemented the policy of splitting up families in the name of deterrence. Your main evidence that Canada is "stricter" seems to be that they use qualifications/skills when evaluating immigrants. This wasn't described in the article. If you are interested in having an intelligent conversation on the pros and cons of US's and Canada's approach, another article would probably be more relevant - one that preferably provides some grounding in the basics. I would advise that immigration is a wedge issue that is often used to inflame emotions, so care should be taken if you want to have a productive discussion.

Are folks expecting to see our defense run a lot of four-man fronts?

Canada is having an election in 2019, and they are currently a top target for the alt-right, xenophobic, Russian disinformation campaigns. r/canada on reddit has a huge alt-right presence now. I don't believe this particular piece by USA today is straight up fake news or xenophobic propaganda, nor do I think phdhorn is a witting alt-right troll. However, news articles like this can easily be re-framed into a divisive, misleading discussion. Taking legitimate news and turning it into a wedge between groups is classic tribalism, identity politics.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article212299529.html A new Russian influence operation has surfaced that mirrors some of the activity of an internet firm that the FBI says was deeply involved in efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. elections, a cybersecurity firm says. A website called usareally.com appeared on the internet May 17 and called on Americans to rally in front of the White House June 14 to celebrate President Donald Trump’s birthday, which is also Flag Day. FireEye, a Milpitas, Calif., cybersecurity company, said Thursday that USA Really is a Russian-operated website that carries content designed to foment racial division, harden feelings over immigration, gun control and police brutality, and undermine social cohesion. The website’s operators once worked out of the same office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency had its headquarters, said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis for FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence. “We’re not saying it (USA Really) is the Internet Research Agency but there are a number of indicators that suggest it is,” Foster said. Russians involved in the website work for the Federal News Agency, which is known by its Russian acronym FAN and closely follows the Kremlin line on international issues. Ownership of the agency is not publicly known. The new website may be part of a pending broader campaign, Foster said. “There are a bunch of other domains as well that play on USA Really that we are monitoring that haven’t launched,” he said. But so far, he said, Russians haven’t been pushing the website and its stories using robotic networks, or botnets, to promote them on social media, and they may be holding back. The House intelligence committee recently released thousands of Facebook posts that they said were Russian creations. USA Really has created a Facebook page and a Twitter account. On Friday afternoon, after a McClatchy reporter queried Facebook about the USA Really page, the company said it disabled it. The Twitter account remained active, with 385 followers. “They may also be contemplating what risks are involved if we were able to positively ID Russia trying to influence the 2018 mid-terms. To what extent does that undermine denials about 2016 activity? I’m sure that’s something that’s playing around in their minds as well,” Foster said.

Collusion isn't defined, and neither side is ever going to agree on whether collusion occurred. 30% maybe 25% of the population that make up the core base of trump will always deny collusion because it means trump is winning and it wouldn't matter what evidence is ever presented. Colluding with Russia makes him smart, or trump is being framed. They would believe 2+2=5 if it meant Trump is winning. On the other side, there is maybe 35% of the population that already thinks Trump and his campaign colluded. They don't need any more evidence. The middle 30% will be swayed by what else comes out. A question is at what point will evidence start to sway them in the midterms and in 2020. Another question is is there even a tipping point at which republicans in Congress will step up to remove him.

Its not that the stats were skewed during 90s. I’m not excusing the rates from the 90s. We just have an understanding of why we had a big spike during that time. My point is that just comparing two points in time (one in peak crack cocaine era and the other today) and concluding that rates of violence has plummeted and therefore we don’t have a problem, isn’t the best way to look at it. Hence, a need to look at a range of stats/information to come up with an understanding of the gun violence issue in the US. Looking at how we compare to other countries is an attampt to do this. Vox attempted to do this. See items 6 and 7 in the below vox link. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts See page 5 of the BJS study I linked earlier today. Blacks have a higher rate of homicides when compared to whites, and Hispanics have a higher rate when compared to non-Hispanics. IMO no one should be saying that we don’t have a gun violenece problem because non-white people are involved. Blacks and Hispanics are still part of our community. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fv9311.pdf The opposite occurs when looking at suicides. Whites make up more of suicides by firearm then blacks. Basically, most suicides by firearms are whites and most homicide by firearm are blacks.