Random Politics & Religion #08

And the fapping.

Wait, what? Whoa. Wtf just happened?

Wait, what? Whoa. Wtf just happened?

...
Clinton is more qualified to run the country yeah. But she's proven her lack of intergrity on a much deeper scale than Trump has.

Clinton lacks integrity true.

Trump has none at all.

...
But somehow they both managed to have kids that are successful in their own rights, although obviously that's easier to do when either your father is a billionaire or you can score $75,000 speaking fees primarily because of who your parents are. Still, the fact that they're all fairly well-adjusted and there's not a Paris Hilton type in the whole bunch oughta count for something.

Still, the fact that they're all fairly well-adjusted and there's not a Paris Hilton type in the whole bunch oughta count for something.

In a presidential election?

Did we miss this very important piece of evidence I previously shared?

(CNN)The Turkish government continues to take action against soldiers and institutions after this month's failed coup attempt.
Amid a state of emergency, 45 newspapers, 16 television stations and three news agencies have been closed, state-run news agency Anadolu said Wednesday.

Anadolu said nearly 1,700 soldiers -- including 87 generals -- have been fired.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week said actions were being taken to remove the "threat" raised during the attempt. Officials have fired or suspended tens of thousands as the government intensifies its vast purge.
Turkey's top broadcasting authority last week revoked the licenses for two dozen radio and television companies that it said are linked to Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for masterminding the coup, Anadolu reported.
Turkey has formally requested the extradition of Gulen from the United States, where he lives in self-imposed exile. He has denied involvement in the plot.
In total, Turkey has closed about 130 media and publishing outlets, Anadolu said.
Reporters Without Borders has lamented what it calls "growing persecution" of critical media.
In a recent statement, Johann Bihr, head of the group's desk in Eastern Europe and Central Asia said: "No one disputes the Turkish government's legitimate right to defend constitutional order after this abortive coup but democracy, for which hundreds of civilians gave their lives, cannot be protected by trampling on fundamental freedoms."

Dracondria, you always post such CHEERFUL FRICKING NEWS.

Could you at least add commentary?

Why bother, it just turns into Trump vs Hillary after one post

P. S. Trump has called for a civil service purge.

lolwut?

Why fly a kite when you can just pop a pill ?

lolwut?

If he wins the presidency, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers, Trump ally, Chris Christie, said on Tuesday.

Christie, who is governor of New Jersey and leads Trump's White House transition team, said the campaign was drawing up a list of federal government employees to fire if Trump defeats Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

“As you know from his other career, Donald likes to fire people,” Christie told a closed-door meeting with dozens of donors at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, according to an audio recording obtained by Reuters and two participants in the meeting.

Christie was referring to Trump's starring role in the long-running television show "The Apprentice," where his catch-phrase was "You're fired!"

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump's transition advisers fear that Obama may convert these appointees to civil servants, who have more job security than officials who have been politically appointed. This would allow officials to keep their jobs in a new, possibly Republican, administration, Christie said.

“It’s called burrowing," Christie said. "You take them from the political appointee side into the civil service side, in order to try to set up ... roadblocks for your successor, kind of like when all the Clinton people took all the Ws off the keyboard when George Bush was coming into the White House.”

Christie was referring to pranks committed during the presidential transition from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush in 2001. During that period, some White House staffers removed the W key on computer keyboards and left derogatory signs and stickers in offices, according to a report by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress.

"One of the things I have suggested to Donald is that we have to immediately ask the Republican Congress to change the civil service laws. Because if they do, it will make it a lot easier to fire those people," Christie said.

He said firing civil servants was "cumbersome" and "time-consuming."

Christie also said that changing the leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency, long a target of Republicans concerned about over regulation, would be a top priority for Trump should he win in November.

Trump has previously vowed to eliminate the EPA and roll back some of America's most ambitious environmental policies, actions that he says would revive the U.S. oil and coal industries and bolster national security.

Christie added that the Trump team wants to let businesspeople serve in government part time without having to give up their jobs in the private sector. Trump frequently says he is better equipped to be president because of his business experience.

Although Christie was repeatedly asked during the meeting, he declined to name any potential Cabinet picks. He said Trump was not ready to do that yet.

Responding to Christie's comments on targeting political appointees on Wednesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that allowing appointees to apply for career civil service positions was "a longstanding precedent."

"If you want to stack up the ethical record of President Obama and his political appointees against the ethical record compiled by Governor Christie and his political appointees, that we'd welcome that kind of comparison," he said.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union in the United States, said while it was concerned about the practice of "burrowing," current law protected most federal employees from at will firing.

"The federal government is a serious undertaking. It’s not a reality TV show, with ‘You’re fired!'" said Jacqueline Simon, policy director at AFGE.

“Just as we don’t want to hire anybody for political reasons, we don't want anybody to be fired for political reasons,” she said.

As of March 2016, there were a total of 3,164 political appointees, 852 of whom were presidential appointees.

In its most recent report on the topic, the Government Accountability Office said in 2010 that 143 former political appointees and congressional employees converted to career positions between May 1, 2005, and May 30, 2009.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating the practice of burrowing.

It sent letters dated Wednesday to 23 federal departments and agencies, asking them to document all cases of burrowing that have occurred since Sept. 1, 2015.

Exclusive: Trump could seek new law to purge government of Obama appointees
Reuters

(CNN)The Turkish government continues to take action against soldiers and institutions after this month's failed coup attempt.
Amid a state of emergency, 45 newspapers, 16 television stations and three news agencies have been closed, state-run news agency Anadolu said Wednesday.

Anadolu said nearly 1,700 soldiers -- including 87 generals -- have been fired.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week said actions were being taken to remove the "threat" raised during the attempt. Officials have fired or suspended tens of thousands as the government intensifies its vast purge.
Turkey's top broadcasting authority last week revoked the licenses for two dozen radio and television companies that it said are linked to Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for masterminding the coup, Anadolu reported.
Turkey has formally requested the extradition of Gulen from the United States, where he lives in self-imposed exile. He has denied involvement in the plot.
In total, Turkey has closed about 130 media and publishing outlets, Anadolu said.
Reporters Without Borders has lamented what it calls "growing persecution" of critical media.
In a recent statement, Johann Bihr, head of the group's desk in Eastern Europe and Central Asia said: "No one disputes the Turkish government's legitimate right to defend constitutional order after this abortive coup but democracy, for which hundreds of civilians gave their lives, cannot be protected by trampling on fundamental freedoms."

And this is the way a democracy dies, not with a coup, but a purge....

Why bother, it just turns into Trump vs Hillary after one post

Now I'm like get off Trillary's ovaries and get back to mocking Trump, Kaine.

...
I thought you meant civil servants in general, though....

"One of the things I have suggested to Donald is that we have to immediately ask the Republican Congress to change the civil service laws. Because if they do, it will make it a lot easier to fire those people," Christie said.

He said firing civil servants was "cumbersome" and "time-consuming."