***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[aepps20]

BEST NEWS OF THE DAY. #SmashMouthPolitics

 

[aepps20]

Crooked Hills and Obummer's wife were criminals. Melanie is a Meanie as we've said but she isn't a criminal. #METOOALSO

 

[Belgium]

 

[biggie62]

I see where you're coming from but that's actually the guy's Twitter handle. He was the one that stepped in during that racial confrontation on the train in NYC.

She sounds Eastern European to me and looks like it too . Not shocked that she would have racist outbursts either. Take it from a fellow Eastern European.

 

[sole vintage]

 

[boris]

Just keep giving the companies more money. They will do the right thing!! A few years ago, I almost took a job at a small company that J&J bought.

 

[Belgium]

Presumably this would involve GOP operative Paul Erickson, who was reported to have recently received a target letter from the DOJ.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-court-papers-hint-maria-butina-may-testify-in-another-trial
Secret Court Papers Hint Maria Butina May Testify in Another Trial
The documents show prosecutors arranging for her travel from jail to participate in a ‘pending criminal investigation.’

Confessed Russian spy Maria Butina may be gearing up to testify in another trial, according to sealed court papers briefly made public on Friday.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC filed a motion to file under seal, prosecutors asked to file an authorization for transportation in secrecy so that Butina could testify in an unspecified “pending criminal investigation." The Washington Post’s Spencer Hsu first discovered and published a portion of the document on Twitter.

Butina’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

Butina pleaded guilty this week to acting as a foreign agent for Russia and attempting to use her access to conservative groups to build a secret backchannel between the Kremlin and the Trump administration. As part of her plea deal, Butina agreed to cooperate “in any and all to matters as to which the Government deems this cooperation relevant.”

The Justice Department has not said what they might ask Butina to cooperate with but her boyfriend, conservative activist Paul Erickson, reportedly received a target letter from federal prosecutors informing him that he may also be prosecuted for acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Russia.

The motion Friday requested secrecy because its release “would pose a risk to the defendant’s safety and the safety of the community” and could be used by those who would “seek to harm or intimidate the defendant.”

Previous court documents filed as early as September showed that federal agents transported Butina for at least two visits to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. prior to her plea.

Prosecutors have taken note of the Russian government’s keen interest in Butina’s case. In court papers filed in September, the Justice Department pointed to the half dozen visits Russian diplomats had made to Butina and claimed that they demonstrated her association with and value to the Russian government.

Its release marks the second time in recent weeks that prosecutors have tipped the public off to secret proceedings. In November, prosecutors in Virginia accidentally disclosed the fact that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had been charged in the U.S.

 

[elpablo21]

 

[blastercombo]

Just keep giving the companies more money. They will do the right thing!! A few years ago, I almost took a job at a small company that J&J bought.

But but...... da trade warz





Anyway, companies drop and who’s hurt? The millionaire/billionaire owners? Nope

 

[Belgium]

Edit: More elaborate article
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/14/judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional-1066640
Judge rules Obamacare unconstitutional, endangering coverage for 20 million
A federal judge in Texas late Friday threw the health coverage of some 20 million Americans in limbo by ruling Obamacare must be scrapped because Congress struck the penalty for failing to obtain insurance coverage.

The invalidation of the landmark 2010 law is certain to send shock waves through the U.S. health system andWashington after a midterm election seen in part as a rebuke to Republican efforts to tear down Obamacare.

The decision will be immediately appealed, said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led a group of blue states in intervening to defend the law. It could ultimately become the third major Obamacare case to be taken up by the Supreme Court, which has twice voted to uphold the law.

U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee in Fort Worth, Texas, issued the decision gutting the law in response to a lawsuit from 20 conservative-led states that sought to have the Affordable Care Act tossed out. They successfully argued that the mandate penalty was a critical linchpin of the law and that without it, the entire frameworks is rendered unconstitutional.

“In sum, the Individual Mandate ‘is so interwoven with [the ACA’s] regulations that they cannot be separated. None of them can stand,’” O’Connor wrote in his decision.

The decision came a little more than 24 hours before the sign-up period for 2019 Obamacare coverage is set to close.

Republicans zeroed out the mandate penalty as part of their 2017 overhaul of the tax code. It’s slated to disappear next year.

The Justice Department took the unusual stance of partially siding with the conservative states seeking to strike down the law. As a result, 16 mostly Democratic-led states intervened in the case to try and save Obamacare. But O’Connor didn’t agree with their argument that by striking the tax penalty but leaving the rest of the federal health care law in place, Congress had clearly indicated its belief that they weren’t inseparable.

Many legal experts are skeptical that the lawsuit will ultimately succeed. But the victory at the lower court level means that there will be a cloud hanging over the future of the law for months, if not years, to come.

House Democrats, who won back the chamber after campaigning heavily on defending protections for pre-existing conditions, have been weighing different options for saving Obamacare when their new majority is seated early next month. One possibility is passing a resolution authorizing the House general counsel to defend the health care law on the chamber's behalf.

The ruling puts the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers in a bind. They've promised to save pre-existing condition protections if the court threw them out, but for years been unable to agree on an Obamacare alternative that would maintain the law's stringent safeguards.

Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who oversees Obamacare's insurance marketplaces, told reporters late last month the administration had a back-up plan if the court overturned the law. She declined to provide specifics at the time.

Neither the White House nor HHS immediately responded to requests for comment.

 

[IATT]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm ummmmmmmmm ummmmmmm

 

[HIM]

I Worked at wendys... currently a lawyer.... Actually black. Both parents.

Allegedly

 

[RustyShackleford]

Oh great, now we will have parade or right wing morons that don't understand the ruling claiming that the ACA was somehow unconstitutional from the jump

 

[IATT]

 

[Kimchi Papi]

If he’s black & a lawyer, I’m actually barron trump.

 

[chao7]

Serious question: What is going to be done here? This **** is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[appleheaddmv]

these cracker jacks are complete garbage... heartless...

 

[gry60]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politi...-times-rightwing-extremism-white-supremacist/

'We' Did Not Miss the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism. You Did.
The New York Times plays itself—but offers a useful window into how establishment media has enabled all this.


And, in 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security released a reportdescribing how rightist extremism was spreading into the military and law enforcement, "we" weren't shocked—nor were "we" shocked when the right-wing media machine went to DefCon1 and, eventually, got DHS to pull the report. John Boehner, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, said of the report:

"
[T]he Secretary of Homeland Security owes the American people an explanation for why she has abandoned using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe those, such as al Qaeda, who are plotting overseas to kill innocent Americans, while her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation. Everyone agrees that the Department should be focused on protecting America, but using such broad-based generalizations about the American people is simply outrageous."

 

[bigrockford]

This is the underlying racist argument that drives his worldview.

To him, a black person that complains about systemic inequality must be some sort of failure and could not "make it". Because in his world the existence of successful black people somehow is evidence the system of white supremacy does exist. That it is not that minorities succeed despite a racist socioeconomic system, they succeed mainly because no systemic barriers exist for them to trip over. This worldview not only allows him to ignore racism in general, but it also allows him to paint rich white owners of capital as a group that needs protection from all these undeserving people wanting handouts. And that the only way for a black person is not successful is through some moral failing. He can't comprehend that a black person may acquire personal success, yet still be extremely upset at the racist socioeconomic system that perist in America.

Maybe I should not call him a racist, but his arguments sure are, and if other racist read them, they would be inclined to think he is one of them.

No. To me what you call "racism" or "discriminatory" is just the basic standard EVERYONE faces. The only difference is the white dude can't say the other white dude is racist. The fact that there are black people out here making it DOES mean that "racism" isn't as big or a deal as some make it out to be. We already have some legislation built around helping black people out. NOTHING WILL EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH.

 

[gry60]

I included the John Boner quote because just in case some try to argue that the GOP was reasonable in 2009.

 

[boris]

No. To me what you call "racism" or "discriminatory" is just the basic standard EVERYONE faces. The only difference is the white dude can't say the other white dude is racist. The fact that there are black people out here making it DOES mean that "racism" isn't as big or a deal as some make it out to be. We already have some legislation built around helping black people out. NOTHING WILL EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH.

This post right here is a great example of why education is so important. Unfortunately you can't argue with ignorance.

 

[gry60]

No. To me what you call "racism" or "discriminatory" is just the basic standard EVERYONE faces. The only difference is the white dude can't say the other white dude is racist. The fact that there are black people out here making it DOES mean that "racism" isn't as big or a deal as some make it out to be.

Hahaha

We already have some legislation built around helping black people out

What are you talking about? HBCUs that were created because otherwise, Black people wouldn't have access to post secondary education?

BET that was created because MTV wouldn't play African American music on TV?

Affirmative Action that benefits all people as long as they are in an environment where they are part of the minority population?

Where are those laws that say "Black and only black folks will get x, y, and z?"

 

[cedric ceballos]

these cracker jacks are complete garbage... heartless...

Wouldn’t be the least bit mad if a disgruntled employee decided to commit an act of violence against Snyder or anyone else who played a part in getting this passed.

Straight playing with peoples well being and what have you. Work hard for a job and try to do things the right way and stuff like this happens. If someone does pop off hopefully they have a better success rate than baseball game guy did.

 

[RustyShackleford]

No. To me what you call "racism" or "discriminatory" is just the basic standard EVERYONE faces. The only difference is the white dude can't say the other white dude is racist. The fact that there are black people out here making it DOES mean that "racism" isn't as big or a deal as some make it out to be. We already have some legislation built around helping black people out. NOTHING WILL EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

No. To me what you call "racism" or "discriminatory" is just the basic standard EVERYONE faces. The only difference is the white dude can't say the other white dude is racist. The fact that there are black people out here making it DOES mean that "racism" isn't as big or a deal as some make it out to be. We already have some legislation built around helping black people out. NOTHING WILL EVER BE GOOD ENOUGH.

You have learned nothing from your past month of back and Forths in this thread.