pacino wrote:Update on Metcalfe and the case of the touched forearm:

"Staff members and other members have said they thought [Bradford] was doing it routinely throughout the meetings to try and provoke me," Metcalfe said.
He said Bradford's "constant" touching is tantamount to battery, and could justify a lawsuit--though he noted he currently has no plans to sue his co-chair.
He also bristled at being accused of homophobia.
"It's routine in our society now, that homosexuals can flaunt their sexuality in our faces," he said. "But me as a heterosexual, I say I'm a heterosexual, and somehow that's going to be offensive to people?"
Bradford, who is married with children, denied touching Metcalfe on purpose to get a rise, and said the Republican overreacted.
"The chairman's a unique guy. I've never seen anyone go from there to melting down in an anti-gay diatribe," he said.
But he also said he'll be sure not to make contact with Metcalfe in the next committee meeting

traderdave wrote:Speaking of witch hunts:

A Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee left several observers stunned on Thursday when he read off a list of names of agents to the FBI director and asked him to disclose their political biases. "As you're aware, Deputy Director McCabe was involved in highly charged political cases that have been controversial due to his political leanings," Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert said.

He was presumably referring to the involvement of the deputy director, Andrew McCabe, in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. McCabe's wife ran for a seat in Virginia's Senate in 2015 and received nearly $500,000 from a political action committee affiliated with Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who has ties to the Clintons.

"I want to ask you if you are aware of any other senior FBI executives that are aligned with McCabe's political views?" Gohmert said. "I'm not aware of any senior FBI executives who are allowing improper political considerations to affect their work with me right now," FBI Director Christopher Wray replied.

"I'm going to ask about specific executives, some of whom have been promoted by McCabe within the last few years," Gohmert said. "Are you aware of any of the following people openly aligning themselves with the political bias expressed by McCabe or openly speaking against this administration?"

Gohmert named five FBI officials, asking Wray whether they had expressed "political bias against the Trump administration." Wray said he had not witnessed any outward bias from the four whom he had interacted with directly.

McCarthyism is apparently alive and well.

Leaders or state media in at least 15 countries use the president’s favorite denunciation to quell dissent, question human rights violations.

During a July press conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump complained about “fake news” CNN, before turning to Duda and asking if he dealt with the same problems. Duda, who has cracked down aggressively on the press, smiled and nodded. That same day, after a mini-controversy over whether Duda’s wife snubbed Trump for a handshake, the Polish president declared on Twitter, “Contrary to some surprising reports my wife did shake hands with Mrs. and Mr. Trump @POTUS after a great visit. Let's FIGHT FAKE NEWS.”

Last week, Libyan media jumped on a Trump tweet accusing CNN of reporting “fake news” to attempt to undermine a report by the network on modern day slavery within the country.

The Russian foreign ministry’s website drops big red “Fake news” stamps on stories it deems untrue.

Even Spain’s foreign minister said that police violence against Catalonians during their independence referendum was “fake news,” despite photos and videos to the contrary.

The list goes on to Uganda, Somaliland, Angola, Cambodia and Turkey. Leaders in Singapore, a country known for restricting free speech, have promised “Fake news” legislation in the new year.

Trump’s go-to insult has become such a touchstone that members of far-right groups or political parties in countries like the Netherlands or Germany often write “fake news” in English in their tweets, said Cas Muddle, an international affairs professor at the University of Georgia.

“I have seen it particularly in social media used by radical right leaders who have been clearly influenced by Trump’s use,” he said. “Even if they have a tweet in Dutch, there will be a hashtag #fakenews in it.”

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:I love that McCabe is presumed to be liberal simply because his wife is liberal. As if no one ever married someone with different political views.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian police say 17 suspects have been identified in an investigation into the activities of the Hungarian National Front, a marginal ultra-nationalist group.

Police Lt. Col. Andras Opauszki said Friday that hidden caches of weapons, ammunition, grenades and explosives were also found during the probe, which lasted over two years.

Most of the suspects are believed to have been preparing for violent acts. Three are confined to their homes, while the others aren't in custody.

Opauszki said the group's website included appeals to fight against migrants. Police have handed over the results of their investigation to prosecutors, proposing that charges be brought against the suspects.

Also on Friday, prosecutors charged the former leader of the extremist group, Istvan Gyorkos, in the October 2016 killing of a police officer.

Collins joined 50 of her GOP Senate colleagues Saturday in voting for tax legislation -- but only after securing what she's called a promise that Congress would pass two other bills before year's end. Both measures are aimed at shoring up insurance marketplaces that experts say would be ravaged by one part of the Senate tax bill: a repeal of the "individual mandate" imposed by the 2010 Obamacare law.

But Collins's promise came from Senate Majority Mitch McConnell -- who can't always deliver a vote in his own chamber, let alone the one across the Capitol. It's by no means clear that either of the health care bills Collins bargained for will get anywhere in the House, where conservatives regard at least one of the measures with disdain.

"I wasn't part of those conversations," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Thursday, when asked about Collins's bargain with McConnell. "I'm not deeply familiar with those conversations."

Ryan -- who wants to repeal Obamacare's mandate that individuals buy insurance or pay a federal penalty -- said Collins has "put some very productive, constructive solutions on the table" that will "invite a new conversation about how we fix health care."

Grotewold wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:I love that McCabe is presumed to be liberal simply because his wife is liberal. As if no one ever married someone with different political views.

I’ve been saying this for 20 years in the context of liberal media bias — they just fundamentally can’t grasp people acting beyond self-interest.

In response to a question from one of the only African Americans in the audience — who asked when Moore thought America was last “great” -- Moore acknowledged the nation’s history of racial divisions, but said: “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”

At the same event, Moore referred to Native Americans and Asian Americans as “reds and yellows,” and earlier this year he suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were divine punishment.

thephan wrote:Inside the gerrymandering data top Pa. Republicans fought to keep private - philly.com

This is probably familiar to you, but interesting to me

Told of the data and what it includes, four experts — Li; Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles; James A. Gardner, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Law; and Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School —said that the collection of partisanship data itself isn’t unusual or telling, but since the outcome of the mapping heavily favored Republicans, the data suggests an attempt to gerrymander.

“Given a congressional map that appears to seriously lock in members of the Republican Party, it’s a little less benign,” Levitt said.

Such data are actually required in some states, they said, for a positive purpose: To create competitive or politically neutral maps. That’s not what happened here, they said.

“So you’re left with, I guess, at least two plausible accounts: One is unbelievable incompetence,” Gardner said. “And the other is … deliberately trying to partisan gerrymander.”

Even before knowing for sure Pennsylvania lawmakers had the partisanship data, Stephanopoulos said, he was confident they had it.
It’s completely unsurprising they would have done it. If you’re trying to draw a gerrymander, if you’re trying to draw a map for partisan advantage, you need to have good partisan data,” Stephanopoulos said. “This evidence is confirmation they were thinking about partisanship when they were drawing districts.”

In response to the “so-called experts,” Miskin, the spokesman for Turzai said: “Clearly, by experts using the term ‘gerrymandering,’ and claiming that it’s gerrymandered, they are biased.”

pacino wrote:

In response to a question from one of the only African Americans in the audience — who asked when Moore thought America was last “great” -- Moore acknowledged the nation’s history of racial divisions, but said: “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”

At the same event, Moore referred to Native Americans and Asian Americans as “reds and yellows,” and earlier this year he suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were divine punishment.

Grotewold wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:I love that McCabe is presumed to be liberal simply because his wife is liberal. As if no one ever married someone with different political views.

I’ve been saying this for 20 years in the context of liberal media bias — they just fundamentally can’t grasp people acting beyond self-interest.

“Hanukkah is a time for Jewish families around the world to celebrate the miracles of the past and the promises of the future,” Trump said. “We are proud to stand with the people of Israel and renew our enduring bond.” “And right now I’m thinking about what’s going on and the love that's all over Israel and all about Jerusalem,"

Candidate Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and others in the Trump Organization received an email in September 2016 offering a decryption key and website address for hacked WikiLeaks documents, according to an email provided to congressional investigators.

The September 4 email was sent during the final stretch of the 2016 presidential race -- on the same day that Trump Jr. first tweeted about WikiLeaks and Clinton.