The Political Quinceañera Thread

[Guard Dog]

As usual the doings on First St. are more interesting than what's happening on Pennsylvania Ave : http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/24/supreme-courts-big-public-sector-union-c

 

For my part, all associations should be voluntary. Compelling Union membership and payments for that is very mafia like if you ask me. My career (when I wasn't self employed) has been mostly professional/management so I've never had to deal with being robbed.... I mean paying Union dues. But I've always told myself I'd never work somewhere where membership in anything is compulsory.

[smjjames]

As usual the doings on First St. are more interesting than what's happening on Pennsylvania Ave : http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/24/supreme-courts-big-public-sector-union-c

 

For my part, all associations should be voluntary. Compelling Union membership and payments for that is very mafia like if you ask me. My career (when I wasn't self employed) has been mostly professional/management so I've never had to deal with being robbed.... I mean paying Union dues. But I've always told myself I'd never work somewhere where membership in anything is compulsory.

 

I agree here, if you're not in the union, it doesn't make sense that you'd have to pay dues (membership fee) for it.

[Hurlshort]

Really depends on the Union. Just like the government, the larger they are, the more useless they are for the average person. The disparities I've seen just in teacher's unions is crazy. 

[Gromnir]

Ava? srs?

am suspecting gifted is using a recent baby name list as 'posed to overall most popular names.

 

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/century.html

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-the-most-common-name-in-america/

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 26, 2018 by Gromnir

[ShadySands]

I've never met anyone with my first name and it's not that weird like Orangejello and Lemonjello or celebrity weird like Apple, Blue Ivy, and Chicago. I have seen a few schools and churches that shared my name though. I should change it to McLovin

Edited January 26, 2018 by ShadySands

[Zoraptor]

Really depends on the Union. Just like the government, the larger they are, the more useless they are for the average person. The disparities I've seen just in teacher's unions is crazy. 

 

Unions are useless right up until the point you don't have them, or need one of their services. Much as insurance is useless, unless you crash your car or burn your house down.

[Malcador]

You need a mafia to fight the mafia.

[Gromnir]

You need a mafia to fight the mafia.

 

it might be a surprise to folks, but a room full o' lawyers also does the trick.  the mafia were largely emasculated by RICO and federal prosecutors.  sure, the mafia still exists, but is only 'cause the fed doesn't care 'bout 'em much anymore. 

 

...

 

might be one o' the few real world problems largely solved by throwing money and lawyers at it.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Malcador]

Well, was a bit tongue in cheek about calling both sides in the employer-employee showdown mafia. My last employer was run like ISIS more than the Camorra, though.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Malcador

[injurai]

Nearly 100 killed in ambulance blast in Afghan capital Kabul

[Elerond]

We had presidential elections today here (current president was elected for another term ), only interesting thing in results was that people rejected only Nato supporting candidate who got less than 2% of votes. 

[Zoraptor]

Must be due to Russian Hax.

 

In further Mohammed bin Sultan- shining light of Saudi Arabia- news, the quagmire in Yemen got even worse as the South Yemeni separatists who were the only organised native force fighting the Houthis predictably decided that what they really wanted was an independent southern state rather than to pointlessly fight and die in the north for Saudi and just overthrew whatever dregs of the formal government remained in Aden. And, of course, they used their MbS supplied weaponry to do it. Truly the man is Reverse Midas.

 

Nearly 100 killed in ambulance blast in Afghan capital Kabul

 

Sadly that sort of thing happens pretty much every week- last week it was a hotel attacked. The security situation in Afghanistan is still dreadful and not improving.

[Malcador]

McCabe stepping down - https://www.axios.com/fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe-is-stepping-down-5e60dee9-3fe4-4b18-bf57-fb037c0faabb.html

 

Although I guess he's on terminal leave, burning vacation days to get to the point he'll get his pension.

Edited January 29, 2018 by Malcador

[Bartimaeus]

The Trump administration announced today that it would not enforce the sanctions voted on months ago nearly unanimously by Congress (98-2 in the Senate, 419-3 in the House...and signed in by the President). I guess that means we're in a constitutional crisis? I mean, we have checks and balances for dealing with this (impeachment via the legislative branch), but they almost certainly won't be taken, especially seeing as the GOP continues to put all its eggs in one basket in Trump, so...that'll be an interesting precedent.

[Gromnir]

The Trump administration announced today that it would not enforce the sanctions voted on months ago nearly unanimously by Congress (98-2 in the Senate, 419-3 in the House...and signed in by the President). I guess that means we're in a constitutional crisis? I mean, we have checks and balances for dealing with this (impeachment via the legislative branch), but they almost certainly won't be taken, especially seeing as the GOP continues to put all its eggs in one basket in Trump, so...that'll be an interesting precedent.

the situation is not quite as clear as it is being reported in many places.  there is a provision in the 2017 legislation which allows the president to postpone sanctions 'pon entities which is scaling back those activities which would otherwise be demanding sanctions for their dealings with russian intelligence and military.  president needs effective repeat as he did today every 180 days and he can postpone sanctions indefinitely.

 

will be interesting to see what is done with the so-called oligarchs report. putin has been providing $billions in amnesty for those anticipatory oligarchs who repatriate their monies.  capital flight during the recent russian economic crisis were extreme and traumatic.  unfortunate, fear o' possible additional US sanctions of those identified in the oligarch report has been enough to drive many russian nogoodniks back to putin, which is exact the opposite o' what the legislation intended.

 

will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Bartimaeus]

That seems pretty lame, but at least it sounds like a semi-legitimate squirming out of doing it. I am a little more concerned about the apparent groundwork that the GOP is laying as a reason to fire Rosenstein and Mueller. I don't see anything preventing them from getting away with it, either. Hmm. A few Republican senators might support protecting him and possibly re-appointing him, but unless they actually force a re-organization in the Senate, it'll never come to a vote.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[BruceVC]

Guys its Trumps  "State of the Union " address tonight

 

I am planning on watching, anybody else doing the same ?

[Guard Dog]

Meh, it's a farce. Political theater. The Panthers are playing the Islanders tonight. I'm much more interested in that. I'll read what he said later.

[Elerond]

I thought that EPA was initialism of Environmental Protection Agency, but it seems that it more of Executive Priorities Agency   

 

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/371190-records-show-epa-chiefs-role-in-removing-climate-web-pages

 

Records show EPA chief’s role in removing climate web pages

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt was personally involved in the process to remove sections on climate change from the agency’s website, records obtained by a green group show.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said the records it obtained via the Freedom of Information Act show a high degree of involvement by Pruitt in the April process of removing climate sections and replacing several of them with a section on President Trump’s executive order to roll back the Clean Power Plan.

Environmentalists have been highly critical of the EPA’s decision to remove the pages, some of which still haven’t been replaced and instead forward to a page about the removal process.

In one April email to colleagues in the EPA’s communications office, Lincoln Ferguson, an adviser to Pruitt, asks how close they are to removing and replacing the Clean Power Plan section.

“The Administrator would like it to go up ASAP. He also has several other changes that need to take place,” Ferguson wrote.

J.P. Freire, then the head of communications, responded, “You can tell him we ... are just finishing up.”

Ferguson then asked if the change could happen that day: “Just asking because he is asking.”

In another email change, Susan Fagan in the EPA’s Office of Environmental Information asks another staffer if people searching for the Clean Power Plan can be directed to the section on Trump’s climate executive order, which the staffer obliged.

The EDF said the records further prove the danger in hiding the climate information from the public.

“Obscuring information thwarts meaningful public participation in EPA’s work to protect Americans’ health and safety,” Ben Levitan, an EDF attorney, said in a statement. “It reinforces serious concerns that Pruitt has predetermined that he will repeal the Clean Power Plan, and that the current rulemaking process is a sham.”

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox defended the changes and said that the old information is still available to the public.

“We are constantly updating our website to reflect new initiatives and projects of the agency,” he said. “Of course the site will be reflective of the current administration’s priorities — with that said, all the content from the previous administration is still easily accessible and publicly available-through the banner across the top of our website: www.epa.gov.”

[HoonDing]

thehill, is that the librul equivalent of prietprat?

[Elerond]

The Hill is news paper, owned by registered republicans 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Elerond

[ShadySands]

thehill, is that the librul equivalent of prietprat?

I don't think there is a "good" equivalent to Brietbart on the left. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of far left rags but none of them are nearly as popular or taken as seriously as the far right ones.

 

I'm sure some of our far right forum members will disagree but that's generally what I've found to be true 

[injurai]

Equivalent on what metric?

 

Salon is equally schizophrenic in it's world view. Huffpo has equally low quality publications.

[Gromnir]

That seems pretty lame, but at least it sounds like a semi-legitimate squirming out of doing it.

it is lame, as is the administration's "proof" supplied regarding russian and russian actor scaling back of illegitimate behaviors seems to fly in the face o' recent intelligence testimony... and as far as we can tell, there were no proof provided other than some kinda generalized observation 'bout how the passage o' the legislation has already acted as a deterrent. is all lame.  unfortunately, this is the kinda nonsense which happens when you got a chief executive who fancies himself as the next andrew jackson, sans the unnecessary clutter o' decades o' battlefield bravery and political arena experience.

 

...

 

to be fair, Congress abandoning its role for the past couple decades is part o' what made a trump presidency possible. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Hurlshort]

HuffPo probably has a similar reach to Breitbart. Actually probably even broader.