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Details, details...
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@Rembrandt said in US Politics:
I think the real question is was this Sheriff guilty of the charge that Trump is now pardoning him for. Everything else is irrelevant if there were no charges.
As to the truth, who knows. It looks bad but Trump doesn't care what the media thinks which isn't necessarily always a bad thing.
Trump's base is in turmoil rebelling against him & his policies, the Arpaio pardon was throwing them a bone, it was a Big F.U. to the leftists and their media cohort. But again, it was about placating the base who are in open revolt.
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Pearl-clutching limousine liberal Dem Minority leader in House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi goes where mainstream lib news media and even Republicans don't dare go -- she unequivocally condemned antifa thug violence and didn't make excuses, called their behaviour "hate" and said they should be prosecuted.
http://www.democraticleader.gov/newsroom/82917/
Credit where credit is (surprisingly) due.
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... it was about placating the base who are in open revolt.
FMI see: Mike Cernovich's
Dispatches from Trumpland — Part 1
and
Dispatches from Trumpland Part 2— Mike Pence, the Silent Killer -
@Salacious-Crumb said in US Politics:
Pearl-clutching limousine liberal Dem Minority leader in House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi goes where mainstream lib news media and even Republicans don't dare go -- she unequivocally condemned antifa thug violence and didn't make excuses, called their behaviour "hate" and said they should be prosecuted.
http://www.democraticleader.gov/newsroom/82917/
Credit where credit is (surprisingly) due.
Good political move. And morally right.
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Interesting piece from The Eocnomist on the impact of Harvey. Here's an extract:
Houston, which has almost no restrictions on land use, is an extreme example of what can go wrong. Although a light touch has enabled developers to cater to the city’s rapid growth — 1.8 million extra inhabitants since 2000 — it has also led to concrete being laid over vast areas of coastal prairie that used to absorb the rain.
According to the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, a charity that finances investigative journalism, since 2010 Harris County has allowed more than 8600 buildings to be put up inside 100-year floodplains, where floods have a 1 per cent chance of occurring in any year. Developers are supposed to build ponds to hold runoff water that would have soaked into undeveloped land, but the rules are poorly enforced. Because the maps are not kept up to date, properties supposedly outside the 100-year floodplain are being flooded repeatedly.
Government failure adds to the harm. Developing countries are underinsured against natural disasters. Swiss Re, a reinsurer, says that of the $US50 billion or so of losses to floods, cyclones and other disasters in Asia in 2014, only 8 per cent were covered. The Bank of International Settlements calculates that the worst natural catastrophes typically permanently lower the afflicted country’s GDP by almost 2 per cent.
The US has the opposite problem — the federal government subsidises the insurance premiums of vulnerable houses. The National Flood Insurance Program has been forced to borrow because it fails to charge enough to cover its risk of losses. Underpricing encourages the building of new houses and discourages existing owners from renovating or moving out. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, houses that repeatedly flood account for 1 per cent of NFIP’s properties but 25-30 per cent of its claims. Five states, Texas among them, have more than 10,000 such households and, nationwide, their number has been going up by about 5000 each year. Insurance is meant to provide a signal about risk; in this case, it stifles it.Re: floodplains, I've seen the same issue with new developments here too. Every time a tropical storm/ cyclone turns up I reiterate my advice; live on a floodplain, buy a boat. The problem for consumers is their ability to determine whether they are in fact on a historical floodplain and then find their insurance doesn't cover them when they wake up to water flowing inside.
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@Baron-Silas-Greenback They ran an op-ed by a congressman calling for prioritising defence spending, without disclosing any possible conflicts of interest. He receives the most money from defense industry lobbyists of any member of the House of Representatives.
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@Tim said in US Politics:
@Baron-Silas-Greenback They ran an op-ed by a congressman calling for prioritising defence spending, without disclosing any possible conflicts of interest. He receives the most money from defense industry lobbyists of any member of the House of Representatives.
That makes him like 90% of fellow House members (at least). And Secretaries of State.
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Beautiful!
Today's New York Times:
Bound to No Party, Trump Upends 150 Years of Two-Party Rule
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@Salacious-Crumb said in US Politics:
Beautiful!
Today's New York Times:
Bound to No Party, Trump Upends 150 Years of Two-Party Rule
Declaring that he has upended the two party system is a bit premature. Wait until he manages to pass legislation of note through the two party system first.
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@Salacious-Crumb said in US Politics:
(Btw for those keeping track on same anniversary, it was a year ago Hillary Clinton collapsed and was thrown into a van -- where Secret Service reports she pooped her diaper and had to be taken to Chelsea's condo to change.)
Strange things catch your interest that's for certain.
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Not so much "strange things" as inconsistencies, contradictions and outright lies -- especially when it's completely laughable. I can't help but enjoy stories like that.
A year ago Hillary collapsed and was thrown into a van like a sack of potatoes. She later claimed it was from pneumonia. Yet an hour after her alleged pneumonia -- which is contagious -- she was hugging a small girl for a photo-op, allegedly a stranger who just ran up to her on the street. Totally believeable.
Then a Secret Service agent told a reporter the reality was she got overheated, shit her diaper and had to rush to Chelsea's condo to change her clothes. Deplorable.
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@Salacious-Crumb Hardly deplorable. Some things really don't need to be explained to all and sundry.
And what kind of asshole is the secret service agent to make that public (if the story is true)
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@Crucial said in US Politics:
@Salacious-Crumb Hardly deplorable. Some things really don't need to be explained to all and sundry.
And what kind of asshole is the secret service agent to make that public (if the story is true)
What kind of asshole...? I already called him (or her) a "deplorable" asshole, but you swatted that away with a definitive "hardly." So, I dunno. If not deplorable, then maybe he (or she) is a Truth-Telling Anonymous Set-The-Record-Straight Whistleblower kind-of-asshole.
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I take that claim with a grain of salt unless the Secret Service person is identified.
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I'd like to know the name of any anonymous source in the greatest year of leaks in living memory. You're not going to get one. It might be as legit as Rooskie hookers performing golden showers for Donald. Dodgy dossier redux. Ya never know. But Hillary did collapse, that is real, and she was ready to "power through" a collapse-inducing bout of pneumonia and hugging small children only an hour later - all on videotape. That pneumonia-nosestretcher is almost as believable as her shitting her diaper. Almost.
US Politics