   | | Political discussion involving past and present political events, candidates and elections. Please read Msg #1 before posting. |
| Msg #75596
7 replies | Trump facism show goes on the road | By MikeC/TX on 7/22/20 5:29pm
Trump announced today that he is sending hundreds of "federal law enforcement agents" (AKA, thugs) to Chicago to get the city under control, uninvited and unwanted. This time, he's not using the pretext that was used in Portland - that they are there to protect federal property. He's straight out planning to take control of the city and then will move onto other cities that are not run by Republicans and take them over as well.
This is a violation of the Tenth Amendment - the Federal government has no authority to walk in and assert control over cities. That is the job of the state government, and that's why they have a National Guard that can be called up by the Governor when necessary.
This is apparently part of his reelection campaign - he can't campaign on the pandemic, he can't campaign on the economy, he can't campaign on his lack of accomplishments. The Wall has not been built, there is no replacement for Obamacare, there has been zero investment in infrastructure, the budget deficit is out of control and getting worse, a trade war with China has decimated our farmers nad some of our manufacturers, and he's not able to articulate what his agenda is for a second term. So now he wants to appear tough on law and order - which may work until the courts shut him down for overstepping his authority again. And once again, one of his bright ideas will blow up in his face.
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| | Msg #75581
6 replies | This is droll | By HisHughness on 7/21/20 8:24pm
Got an invitation on Facebbook to value my home. Plugged in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Got a comment back: "Wow! Nice place," and a valuation of $973,000, along with a really great video tour, so they had the right house.
My guess that pittance of a valuation probably is due to the decline in the neighborhood under the current occupant. The value should increase dramatically come Jan. 20, 2021.
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| Msg #75578
10 replies | Portland now, Chicago, Philly, Oakland and more next | By  sigtogo/OR on 7/21/20 6:41pm
if this doesn't worry you, you have definitely lost your way. Constitution, no bother. Democracy gone, no prob?
From NY Times, linked to Rueters:
http://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200721&instance_id=20482&nl=the-morning&productCode=NN®i_id=134017528&segment_id=33942&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F7f6e3eac-cf1c-535c-a382-76a4585ce7ed&user_id=beb981111a9d1126d186b6bcc274d92b
Trump’s threat of force
Demonstrators in Portland, Ore., on Monday night.Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
President Trump has been preoccupied with big-city crime for more than 30 years.
In 1989, he took out ads in New York newspapers asking, “What has happened to our City over the past ten years?” (The ads implied he favored the death penalty for five Black and Latino teenagers who turned out to be wrongly accused of a rape.)
In his 2016 presidential campaign, he made false claims about how dangerous Oakland, Philadelphia and other cities were.
And now he seems to have decided that sending — or threatening to send — federal troops to Chicago and other cities is his best hope for turning around a struggling re-election campaign.
Meeting with reporters in the Oval Office yesterday, Trump said that he planned to deploy federal law enforcement agents to Chicago, after already having done so in Portland, Ore., last week. He suggested he might also do so in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland. He was vague about the reasons, saying all of the cities were run by “radical left” Democrats.
But the politics of the move are fairly clear. Trump is trailing Joe Biden in the polls, and the move lets him try to shift the nation’s attention away from the coronavirus crisis. Instead, he can run against two of his favorite bogeymen: “the radical left” and big-city crime.
In recent weeks, he has frequently tried to portray Black Lives Matter protesters as out-of-control radicals, even though millions of Americans have participated and the protests have typically been peaceful. He has also made numerous racial appeals to white Americans, such as defending the Confederate battle flag.
Threatening to send troops into cities — most of which have large Black populations — unites the two themes and lets him cast himself as a defender of a fading America. “If Biden got in,” Trump said yesterday, “the whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.”
In response, Democrats vowed to pursue legislation or lawsuits to stop him. “We won’t let these authoritarian tactics stand,” Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said. “It’s an American crisis.”
More from Portland: As military-clad federal agents swept through the streets this past weekend, they encountered a Navy veteran who had come out to ask whether the officers felt their actions violated the Constitution. They beat him with a baton and doused him with pepper spray.
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| Msg #75574
10 replies | Trump tries to go ariubd SCOTUS again | By MikeC/TX on 7/21/20 5:08pm
After they slapped down his attempt to use the Census as a way of identifying non-citizens last year, today he signed another doomed EO saying that non-citizens are not to be counted in reapportionment.
That flies in the face of the 14th Amendment, which says that all PERSONS (not just citizens) are to be counted. Plus, the census is already underway - how do you change the rules at this point?
Just another distraction to take our focus off the pandemic...
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| Msg #75546
3 replies | should my kids and grandkids pay for others mistakes? | By Art_MD on 7/20/20 1:40pm
I worked my way thru college (with some parental help -thanks).
I knew the career path I wanted, and the cost of college was justified.
I took on debt, knew what i was doing and knew I'd have to pay it back.
I did.
But now some people want to forgive student loan debt. BULLS**T.
If someone is dumb enough to take on say $80,000 in debt to get a degree in
art history, library science, music, etc which they know doesn't pay well then it's their own fault.
you made the decision - live with it.
There is no way i want the government to take on $1 trillion to correct their mistakes
The goverment will want to pay off that $1 trillion (i hope) and that mean taxes to be paid by my kids and grandkids.
You made your bed - you lie in it.
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| Msg #75540
16 replies | $600 unemployment | By Art_MD on 7/20/20 1:01pm
I know some people are pushing for extension of $600 bonus unemployent adder.
I looked at some number - only did new jersey.
Family of 4 2 adults 2 kids
based on prior income of $15/hr or $600/week
benefits calc to $346 per week.
With $600 bonus, for 4 months (16 weeks) received $15136
this was $5536 over income prior to unemployment
Add in $3200 in bonus checks (1200+1200+500+500), the income for the 4 months
exceeded what would have been earned if not unemployed by $8,736.
someone making $23 per hours would still have more income from unemployyment
So, I don't believe all the "news" about people not being able to pay rent, buy food etc.
anyone in NJ earning less than $48,000 per year had no lose of income.
Since estimated 40% of US workers earn less than $20/hr (google it ), and a dis proportion of
current unemployed fall into this group (my opinion based of where jobs have been lost - restaurants, small retail etc) probably half the unemployed have higher incomes than before unemployment.
Consider the above when thinking about extending the unemployment bonus
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| Msg #75539
1 replies | Good news today. | By CH2inCA on 7/20/20 10:02am
"Promising news out of UK on treatment and vaccine research. Lancet says Oxford vaccine candidate: "The early stage trial finds that the vaccine is safe, causes few side effects, and induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system"
https://t.co/krqRzXMh7B?amp=1
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| Msg #75525
3 replies | This just came across my radar | By MikeC/TX on 7/19/20 5:07pm
Some folks in the Texas GOP are seriously proposing that we eliminate direct voting for legislators in Texas and replace it with an Electoral College. We'd be voting for a slate of electors, who would then decide who should be elected.
Because it's worked so well in the Presidential election, I suppose...
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| Msg #75514
10 replies | Biden's plan for COVID | By Luckydog on 7/19/20 3:52pm
Over the last four months, Joe Biden has laid out comprehensive plans with five basic elements that he would do as President to address COVID-19: (1) test-and-trace, (2) sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) for all, (3) science-based treatments and vaccines, (4) steps to reopen safely and effectively, and (5) protecting those at high-risk, including older Americans.
Who can tell me how this is different than what we are already doing?
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| Msg #75494
17 replies | Speaking of erasing history... | By MikeC/TX on 7/18/20 6:55pm
Trump is all up in arms about the removal of Confederate statues, saying that this is somehow erasing our history (what other country honors traitors the way we do?).
Meanwhile, the WH has quietly removed the official portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and consigned them to a linen closet so they can't be seen.
The pettiness and jealousy of this President is astonishing at times.
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| | Msg #75461
28 replies | Secret police in America | By MikeC/TX on 7/17/20 5:49pm
I never thought I'd see the day, but here it is - we now have a secret police force in America, te sign of an authoritarian, fascist government.
What is going on in Portland is outrageous. The feds have the absolute right to send personnel to protect federal property - I have no quarrel with that. What they do NOT have the right to do is to roam the streets dressed in tactical gear with no identifying insignia, refuse to identify themselves or their authority, and use unmarked vehicles to snatch American citizens off the street without cause or warrant. Americans don't get disappeared on American soil, at least until this administration.
If this doesn't scare the hell out of you, it should. We don't know who these federal officers are, other than that the US Marshall's Service says it's not their people. The best guess at this point is that they are CBP. The question is, why do they have no insignias on their uniforms to identify their authority? Who authorized them to do this? What act of Congress suspended the 4th Amendment?
A DHS spokesperson said they were targeting "extremely violent Antifa", but that's a lie. In most cases, the people snatched were bystanders. The "extremely violent" who were caught were charged with... wait for it... graffiti. Graffiti. I come from the NYC area, where graffiti is an art form. Apparently, in Portland, it's an act of extreme violence.
Neither the Governor of Oregon nor the Mayor of Portland asked for federal help. The Mayor has demanded that the federal personnel either confine themselves to the federal property they are there to protect or leave the city. It is NOT the job of federal troops to patrol an American city, and it is definitely not their right to snatch American citizens off the street for no reason.
This has to stop, and Congress has to act immediately to make sure it never happens again. We cannot allow a secret police force to exist in America.
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| Msg #75445
31 replies | Just finished reading Mary Trump's book | By MikeC/TX on 7/16/20 5:42pm
Well-written and a quick read. She confirms a number of things I've read in other books, fleshes some of them out further, and she's the source who gave Fred Trump's tax papers to the NY Times, which they then used to write a scathing article about the Trump family's tax frauds over the years (she came by them legally - they were part of discovery in a lawsuit she and her brother had filed against the family).
The interesting part is that the villain of the story is Fred Trump, not Donald (although she had plenty to say about Donald). Fred Trump used Donald as a front-man because of his charm and charisma, something Fred Trump never had. So while Donald was putting on a show, Fred was behind the curtain pulling the levers.
Mary Trump has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, and she is not shy about her opinions of Donald Trump's personality quirks because she was able to observe his behavior first-hand over many years. She lays the blame for it squarely at the feet of her grandfather, who she said ruled with an iron hand over a dysfunctional extended family. The storyline about Donald Trump as a successful businessman is a myth created by his father; everything he ever succeeded at was due to Fred Trump's money and influence.
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| | Msg #75433
21 replies | the latest from the idiots on the left. | By bagger on 7/15/20 7:05pm
Now these anti-American socialistic dickwads want to stop playing the National Anthem before a football game.
Where and when is this going to end?
Move to Russia or China, or shut up!
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| | Msg #75418
1 replies | Best argument for opening schools!! | By CH2inCA on 7/14/20 3:38pm
CDC Director Robert Redfield: “I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be the probably one of the most difficult times that we experienced in American public health.”
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| Msg #75407
11 replies | LA California's 1st largest and SD 2nd largest | By CH2inCA on 7/13/20 4:51pm
And San Bernandino - Will start the fall school semester fully digital.
We'll see what Trump and DeVos have to say about that.
Good solid decision making on the part of the superintendents as far as I'm concerned.
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