Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I still find it hard to comprehend that you guys have no way to expel or suspend someone from a party, even just at a local level.
Because it's literally the will of the electorate - to get on the ballot in NY, for example, all a Congressional candidate needs to get is 1,250 signatures on a petition from those in the affiliated party. That's it.
"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"My favorite thing ever is that trump apparently accidentally
appointed someone competent and dedicated
as the head of the FBI. (Interview with NBC News.)
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Wray pushed back at criticism from some in the Trump administration and Congress who accuse his agency of favoring Hillary Clinton at the expense of the president.
"What I have seen is people fiercely focused on trying to do the right thing in the right way, free from political influence, consistent with the best traditions that I've always revered about the FBI," Wray said in the interview, which took place at the FBI's training academy in Quantico, Virginia.
"At the end of the day, we're going to get criticized no matter what."
....As for one of the FBI’s traditional missions, Wray called the 4 percent increase in violent crime in 2016 very significant. The figures for 2017 are not yet final.
"In a country our size, a 4 percent increase is essentially equivalent to about 50,000 people. So imagine Yankee stadium sold out, full of violent crime victims, and that’s the difference from one year to the next," he said.
Among the factors causing the increase are crimes tied to the opioid epidemic and the rise in ultra-violent gangs.
Wray took the reins of the FBI when it was reeling from the abrupt firing of his predecessor, James Comey, and said his foremost priority was "to try to bring some stability and calm to the organization." He said he plans to serve out the full 10-year term.
"All I am is focused on trying to see if I can make this place even better than when I found it," Wray said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna858786
Combine that interview with his appointments and actions, (appointing David Boditch, who is apparently a "mini Mueller", as deputy director, for example)
, I'd say he's firmly on the side of the FBI, and not Trump's.
Hopefully Trump doesn't catch on.
edited 21st Mar '18 9:47:25 PM by megaeliz
![]()
To be fair, that's a higher criterion than needed to show up on the ballot in the UK.
I think the point is that the parties somehow have enough formal organisation to have funding and campaigns and the like, yet are simultaneously open to people being members of said party just because they feel like it. Which is absurd.
Someone's on the defensive.
.....They can help solve problems with North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, ISIS, Iran and even the coming Arms Race. Bush tried to get along, but didn’t have the “smarts.” Obama and Clinton tried, but didn’t have the energy or chemistry (remember RESET). PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!
edited 21st Mar '18 3:38:40 PM by megaeliz
Because you don't "join" a political party in the US. There are no forms to fill out, no entrance requirements, no dues to pay, nothing like that. Just register to vote, and you can declare yourself to be a "member" of any party you want (or, in my case, none at all.)
Since the party leadership doesn't actually have the authority to accept or deny anyone, they don't have the authority to expel anyone from their (non-)organization.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.It might make sense if you imagine our parties less as parties and more as coalitions of various factions which often pretend to like each other to push their values.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
x3 Getting along with Russia is a good thing. Getting along with anyone else is a sign of weakness, and weakness isn't to be tolerated. So declares the Kremlin!
Seriously, people always use the 'Being good to your enemy is good' excuse for Trump and his Russian love, but if that were the case, why is he such a punk to everyone else; Democrats, Judges, China, Iran, North Korea, the Intelligence Community, his own freakin' party. There is no excuse for Trump's Russia love! He's working for them somehow, either willingly or unwillingly.
edited 21st Mar '18 3:44:55 PM by DingoWalley1
Not sure if this as posted,[1]
but the Pennsylvania GOP has formally introduced motions to impeach 4 of the 5 judges that tore up the gerrymandered electoral map. (use a private window)
And that is a wrap-from this point forward, every part of our government is explicitly partisan.
12 Republican lawmakers signed on, and Republicans have exactly enough votes to push this through.
I'm not sure they can count on getting every vote, especially since this is nothing but empty payback now, and they can't stop the map from going forward, but both the spite of this move and the determination to keep all government "theirs" are not good trends for the country.
Edit: A new head of the CDC has just been named. Good news: he's a doctor with decades of experience and specializes in HIV/AIDS and virology. Bad news: in the 90s he had issues with the data in his claims and studies, and stuck to that bad data even after acknowledging the errors with it
The Army in 1994 acknowledged accuracy issues with HIV vaccine clinical trials led by Redfield, but concluded at the time that the data errors did not constitute misconduct.
In an announcement Wednesday afternoon, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar emphasized Redfield's care of HIV/AIDS patients and his work as a researcher, which included the controversial research.
Yet one of the whistleblowers who first raised the matter to the Army told Kaiser Health News this week that he remains so troubled about Redfield's handling of the vaccine research that he has decided to speak out publicly.
Redfield was principal investigator over clinical trials of a treatment vaccine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The research was conducted at a time when there was intense pressure to come up with a treatment for HIV/AIDS, which often killed patients within a matter of months.
"Either he was egregiously sloppy with data or it was fabricated," said former Air Force Lt. Col. Craig Hendrix, a doctor who is now director of the division of clinical pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It was somewhere on that spectrum, both of which were serious and raised questions about his trustworthiness."
In a letter to Trump this week, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the health committee, cited the research controversy as an example of a "pattern of ethically and morally questionable behavior" by Redfield that should prompt the president to reconsider the appointment.
Redfield's appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, was leaked to the news media over the weekend. Redfield did not respond to questions.
Redfield, who denied any scientific misconduct at the time, is now an HIV/AIDS specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He has been praised by his supporters for his care of patients. He oversees a clinical program that treats 6,000 patients in the Baltimore-Washington area, according to an online bio.
But Redfield's critics said the appointment demonstrates that the Trump administration is not vetting appointees thoroughly. The first CDC head, Brenda Fitzgerald, stepped down in January after a controversy over her purchase of tobacco stocks, and former HHS Secretary Tom Price resigned late last year amid criticism over his use of government and private planes for official travel.
"The White House claimed they would do better background checks," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, founder and senior adviser of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "But that statement is dangerously laughable. If they had done a proper background check, they wouldn't have chosen Dr. Redfield."
Public Citizen, a Washington watchdog group, was a leading critic of the Army's handling of Redfield's data at the time and obtained and published documents that detailed the controversy.
Hendrix, who was the director of an Air Force HIV clinical unit when he raised the concerns, said: "Two members of his [Redfield's] team told me they had tried to replicate the analysis, but they couldn't. When they tried to go to the Army, they said they were ignored."
After Hendrix couldn't replicate the results, he drafted a letter to his superiors reporting the data problems.
Hendrix said Redfield's superiors initially told him not to send a letter detailing the concerns. Instead, the military scheduled a meeting with Redfield and other researchers so Hendrix could discuss the concerns. In the meeting, Hendrix recalled, Redfield acknowledged he had overstated how promising the results were.
"I thought it was resolved," said Hendrix, who said he later called Redfield to say he was proud to work in an organization that could openly discuss such concerns.
However, Hendrix soon heard Redfield make the same inaccurate representations of the data at a conference and decided to file an official complaint requesting an investigation into scientific misconduct.
An Air Force institutional review board also recommended that the Army launch an inquiry stating: "The committee agreed the information presented by Dr. Redfield seriously threatens his credibility as a researcher and has the potential to negatively impact AIDS research funding for military institutions as a whole."
But the Army did not appear to launch a full investigation, said Hendrix, who was interviewed at the time by the military official who conducted the inquiry. The military official declined Hendrix's attempts to provide documented evidence, telling him the investigation was "informal."
Hendrix later asked the commander of his hospital about the outcome of the investigation. He recalled that the commander called another officer to ask.
"I just remember him saying "Yes, sir," he said. "When he hung up, he told me, 'We will not be discussing this again.' "
edited 21st Mar '18 4:25:41 PM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |I don't buy that he's a useful idiot to them, I honestly think he is working with them. He never never never criticizes Russia, for anything. The most we've gotten out of Trump condemning Russia is "Looks like Russia poisoned that one ex-spy in Britain, that's a shame". And knowing Trump, and knowing how he operates and how he functions, it is a massive, massive red flag that he never does anything to criticize Russia, or specifically Putin, and has done the bare minimum to combat their hacking our election.
That and him desperately wanting back channels with Russia before he became President (and both Erik Prince and Jared Kushner tried to do so).
![]()
Fair enough.
As I said there's no functional difference between a loyal useful idiot and an agent. Maybe due to his mobster view of the world he honestly thinks that Putin is a friend or maybe Putin has dirt on him and he's acting out of his personal best interests. Doesn't really change anything.
edited 21st Mar '18 4:38:59 PM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang![]()
Fair enough.
As I said there's no functional difference between a loyal useful idiot and an agent. Maybe due to his mobster view of the world he honestly thinks that Putin is a friend or maybe Putin has dirt on him and he's acting out of his personal best interests. Doesn't really change anything.
edited 21st Mar '18 4:38:59 PM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangSo to help fight against Fake News, Google is pledging $100mil per year to help verification sites and to promote actual journalism. Full article text I hope that's good news, at least.
Also, an editorial wonders just what Stormy Daniels has on Trump, that he hasn't gone off on a Twitter rant against her, the way he has against so many other people. Could he really be that concerned about her 1-star review of his sexual prowess? Full article text
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - SilaswAll excellent points, though if he's really a narcissist (and all evidence points towards that) then he probably does care what Melania thinks in that she exists and he probably demands adoration from her.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

A lot of right-wing radicals tend to be from poor areas without actually being poor themselves. They're surrounded by poverty, and by the attitudes that sometimes accompany it, and they both absorb and exploit those attitudes in order to be leaders in their community.