foxbat

Not particularly sure why this is some issue with a freshman representative. Trump just spent a mini-vacation with Kim and ended up totally believing that Kim had no knowledge of Warmbier's treatment. AOC isn't wrong that Elliott Abrams plead guilty in Iran-Contra activity; garnering a pardon from Bush and basically getting off pretty scot-free. Similarly, Abrams didn't have any problems with dictators back when he was backing Ríos Montt ... and given that Ríos Montt was indicted and sentenced for crimes related to and involving genocide, Omar's not completely unreasonable in raising the specter that Abrams hands don't seem to be completely clean. I'd expect more coverage/focus on folks that are much higher up the chain.

Kind of like the Harris poll summary findings on Cohen's testimony ... and the far-right spin on that ... Breitbart ... "Only 37% Found Michael Cohen’s Testimony Credible" WND [Word News Daily] ... "Only 37% found Cohen testimony credible" The least spin? Drudge and Town Hall who chose not to cover it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-suggests-cohen-hearing-contributed-failure-north-korea-015206778.html FTA: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the Democrats' decision to interview his longtime fixer, lawyer Michael Cohen, on the same day as a meeting with Kim Jong Un may have led to the North Korea summit ending with no deal. Translation: Trump walking away apparently didn't poll as high as he thought the explanation would, Kim's story doesn't mess with Trump's, and for the first time in history the world seems to be weighing whether or not to believe a North Korean dictator or a US president. Time to blame anyone else but himself.

This was actually a question that I had when I though about the amendment. I don't have an issue with doing the reporting of undocumented immigrants who attempt to buy a gun; however, are all folks who fail the check also reported similarly? In other words, let's say you are a felon under probation, and you attempt to buy a handgun. I'm assuming that, in addition to you not getting the gun, you are also reported to your parole officer, etc. Or, if you have a mental condition, that some authority is flagged that you attempted to break the law in this case. If it is ONLY undocumented immigrants that this part of the law would apply to, then I can see how some folks may object to it ... not because they don't agree with the idea, but instead with the application.

Don't know about 100%, but I think statistically close. I think she either won't run or, should she run, I think she may well have the problem that enough other women will be running to blunt that "appeal" and enough people will be concerned about giving Trump an easy cushion that she'll end up with the 2016 general fatigue possibly showing up in the 2020 primaries.

I'm not so sure I'm in agreement with an article based on reception and performance at a CPAC event. Trump's base took him to a victory that relied on several items that won't likely be in play come 2020. He won't be running against Clinton which I would contend deserves more credit for his 2016 win than his base. As a matter of fact, without Clinton as a foil, Trump is likely to become Clinton with independents this time around. He most likely won't be able to run against a perception or reality of illegal items by Clinton and, may well be running from those in his own ranks. Trump was still 3 million short on the popular vote and won three states, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, by less than 77,000. Lose those three and it goes 278-260 with Trump playing the roll of Clinton this time around. Net swings in those three states are -16 in Wisconsin, -17 in Michigan, and -15 in Pennsylvania from inauguration to November of last year ... and nets in all three of those not only had negative decrease, but are now negative in absolute. Note that in 2017, there are states in there that Trump had favorable nets, yet still lost ... like Minnesota, Illinois, and Colorado. As such, net favorables weren't enough to guarantee a win in a state and net negatives go a long way to potentially losing a state depending on the degree. Also, looking at those three states, the past two years have not played well for Trump and/or the GOP brand. Pennsylvania saw Connor Lamb snatch a special election from the GOP in an R+11. Wisconsin saw two-term governor Walker unseated as well as the incumbent GOP AG. Michigan saw governor flip, SOS flip, and AG flip and also saw a Senate pickup of five seats. AZ is another state to watch in flux too ... it had a net drop of 22 for Trump which also took him into negative ratings too. Toss in a loss of a Senate seat in the mid-terms and what promises to be a tight Senatorial race again in 2020. Of interest is a February poll of Trump vs. potential Democratic candidates. Texas has dropped 13 points, although Trump still has a net favorable there of +7. Trump beat Biden by 2 points, O'Rourke by 1 point, and Sanders by 2 points. Trump's in his element in front of his own crowd, but if Trump needs at least neutral or positive nets to pick up a state, since he won't have the luxury of running against someone with equally bad nets, the second map above puts Trump at a 296-241 disadvantage ... putting Ohio in the Trump column. To get the benefit of the base that he had in 2016 plus either the apathy or disdain influence that Clinton brought, he'd probably need to pull someone like AOC ... and that's unlikely to happen. I think 2016 is probably not a good foundation to assume will be in play in a similar fashion in 2020.

Looks like someone else is honing in on Jussie's gig: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/police-man-staged-kidnapping-tied-rope-around-his-neck-to-avoid-paying-rigged-super-bowl-squares-192908177.html FTA: Police say they found him in the backseat of his truck with duct tape around his hands and ankles and a rope around his neck that was attached to the truck’s headrest. Brandel told police that he had picked up by two men he had been in a Super Bowl pool with two days earlier when they robbed him at gunpoint of $16,000 in supposed winnings and forced him to drive around town. His story ended with his abductors leaving him tied up in his truck where troopers found him. A police investigation found otherwise. Police determined Brandel had run a fraudulent $50,000 Super Bowl pool in which he filled out fake names for some of the squares and hoped to hit and collect winnings.

More political than ideological would be my guess ... despite being sensible. Similar to GOP blanket hold-ups/denials of many Obama judicial nominees. Unfortunately, this is pretty much the world that we've bought ourselves for the foreseeable future ... or unless there's a mass cleansing of both chambers, which isn't realistic at this point. Like a drug addict, we haven't quite gotten to the rock-bottom point where we're ready to seriously consider rehab on our own.

Nope. Nope.

Agent Orange ineffective 45 years later, but still just as dangerous to Americans.

This poster was on display in the West Virginia statehouse during the WVGOP Day at the Capitol \ GOP Day in the Legislature event. The WVGOP sponsors the event, but says that it had no idea that one of the exhibitors would put up this poster. This is coupled with the resignation of Anne Lieberman, the WV House of Delegates Sergeant at Arms, after allegedly saying "all Muslims are terrorists."

Looks like Roger's going to have some more splainin' to do. We'll get a chance to see just how patient Berman may or may not be with the political trickster. https://www.yahoo.com/news/roger-stone-judge-wants-know-013040005.html FTA: In a brief court order Friday, the judge overseeing Stone’s criminal case asked lawyers for the longtime adviser to President Donald Trump why she wasn’t told about the “imminent general release” of a book Stone appears to be involved with. Just eight days ago, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson reprimanded Stone for violating a gag order and threatened to jail him if he continued to talk to the media. Stone must explain by March 4 “why this matter -- which was known to the defendant -- was not brought to the court’s attention,” Jackson said in her order. I'm sure that GOP Congressional members will be equally interested in Stone's profiting from a real book as they were in Cohen's hypothetical one.

You see libertarians intimidating the masses?

Apparently Gene Healy's not seen the AOC thread on GID.

GOP had better be careful taking the bait. They'll spend a lot of time on her and miss targeting others who might be more dangerous. Folks keep underestimating Pelosi. https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-pelosi-republicans-new-boogeyman-for-2020-2019-2

Completely agree. It's not the stance that's a problem per se, but often poor technique, poor coaching, or poor demand of adherence to proper technique.

Have coached youth ball for 17 seasons now. Stance is something that we spend a lot of time on across all four years of engagement for the players. I find it strange to see that line about leading with the head in the article. It would seem that that's an issue of technique and training as opposed to body type and propensity. We teach stance long before we teach anything else about the game and before we get anywhere close to body-on-body contact. We are always working on stance all the time from 3rd grade through 6th. Like @Coach P, the kids should never lead with the heads. We teach them that it's about getting your hands on the opponent; especially if you are on offense. Similarly, when in a stance, the eyes are up and looking forward. As for the argument that kids don't bend a particular way, that's probably par for the course in other sports too ... think about a catcher's stance or pitcher's motion ... don't see that too often in the office. What we tell the kids is that it probably does feel unnatural to get in a stance and that's why it requires LOTS of practice and concentration on doing it right to build up the "muscle memory" so that it does feel more natural. I like the idea of kids learning these kinds of fundamentals early in the process. Good stances provide quicker speed off the ball which allows quicker contact of getting the hands up on/under the pads which provides leverage and makes the player much more successful while also being much more safer.

I think he said that as his ex-wife pulled out copies of his show in a custody battle.

Probably very few nowadays. We had a full-blown drivers-ed department when I went to school. There was a fleet of driving instructors and automobiles that took out three students per car to make sure that driving hours were clocked and that driving took place in different conditions ... residential, back winding country roads, and highway. We even had a full simulator on site as well and you had to log simulator hours too. Had to score a certain level on the simulator before they'd let you get into the car with a driving instructor. I like the idea of making it illegal for under 18 to have a phone out while driving ... or perhaps it has to be affixed to the dash at a particular point that makes texting much less likely, but still allows for something like GPS use. Unfortunately, the law allows for calling and driving, playing music and driving, and the various variants of having a phone in hand as a distraction which make it almost impossible for law enforcement, especially in Indiana, to make texting and driving stops stick ... except after-the-fact in crash situations which is kind of late. If the idea was no phone out while the car is engaged, it would make it easier for law enforcement to make it stick. Might also help kids develop a new habit so that, by the time they are 18, they are more comfortable waiting on using the phone while driving.

Seth Meyers had a similar line regarding Trump, Vietnam, and Cohen's testimony ... “It’s so ironic. Trump finally went to Vietnam and is getting killed back home” The best shot in the segment was Un's face when a reporter asked Trump about Cohen's testimony:

I don't know if they ever follow through on the financial aid part, but I recall getting a letter from the government back when I was a freshman in college, about three months after my 18th birthday, reminding me that in order to receive financial aid, I had to register with Selective Service.

Nope .. just a prop.

I think it was a reference to one of their more [recently] famous alumni.