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Nov 2023 Mod notice:


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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#277701: Apr 18th 2019 at 5:28:03 AM

[up]Bets on whether his replacement is worse? Because whoever replaces him will almost certainly be worse.

Disgusted, but not surprised
HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#277702: Apr 18th 2019 at 5:30:43 AM

"And then it got worse".

That pretty much sums up the entire Trump administration, doesn't it?

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#277703: Apr 18th 2019 at 5:36:45 AM

We can be almost certain that the replacement will be another oil industry shill and climate change denier. They will probably have some other no doubt horrible thing about them too.

Edited by M84 on Apr 18th 2019 at 8:36:52 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277704: Apr 18th 2019 at 5:47:51 AM

‪Quick reminder: the Mueller report drops today, with “limited” redactions. Barr is having a press conference at 9:30am, before anyone gets to see the report, which isn’t released until the afternoon.‬

The entire point of Barr’s press conference is to spin the narrative. The report is about 400 pages, so speed reading is a particularly bad idea, but some media will likely do shoddy reporting while trying to race to be first to publish.‬

So please, ‪be cautious with your news today, and be cautious with what you share. It’s easy to accidentally spread a false or hasty narrative, but hard to change people’s minds if that first impression turns out to be wrong.

Edited by wisewillow on Apr 18th 2019 at 5:51:47 AM

Pseudopartition Screaming Into The Void from The Cretaeceous Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Screaming Into The Void
#277705: Apr 18th 2019 at 5:57:00 AM

Could there be any reason why they chose to do this before Easter Weekend? Just wondering. Also, hope I didn't pick a bad weekend to be driving through the US...

Edited by Pseudopartition on Apr 18th 2019 at 7:57:22 AM

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277706: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:01:03 AM

Yes. Thursdays/Fridays are often used to dump information at the end of the week so it receives less coverage; dumping info right before a holiday is also used to try to reduce the attention it receives while people are distracted/busy.

Oruka Since: Dec, 2018
#277707: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:12:45 AM

I'm reminded of Operation Cast Lead, a.k.a. "Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year; here's something for you to celebrate".

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#277708: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:21:40 AM

Since we were talking about the 2019 Oscars, the really infuriating about Green Book winning best Picture, is how they went for that Over Spider-Verse, which actually deserved best picture.

Edited by megaeliz on Apr 18th 2019 at 9:28:08 AM

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277709: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:23:14 AM

Wrong category. Though it’s an insult that Green Book was nominated and If Beale Street Could Talk wasn’t.

Edited by wisewillow on Apr 18th 2019 at 6:23:52 AM

DrunkenNordmann from Exile Since: May, 2015
#277711: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:41:17 AM

The U.S. Is Planning to Allow Lawsuits Over Properties Seized By Castro's Cuba

Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro during an address in Cuba after Batista was forced to flee. Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro during an address in Cuba after Batista was forced to flee. Keystone—Getty Images By DEB RIECHMANN AND MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN / AP April 17, 2019

(WASHINGTON) — Stepping up pressure on Cuba, the Trump administration will allow lawsuits against foreign companies doing business in properties seized from Americans after the island’s 1959 revolution, a senior administration official said.

The move marks a change in more than two decades of U.S. policy on Cuba.

President Donald Trump has been taking steps to isolate embattled Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, who is holding power with help from other countries, including Cuba, China and Russia. The new policy against Havana could deal a severe blow to Cuba’s efforts to draw foreign investment, and spawn international trade disputes between the U.S. and Europe.

The administration official who provided details of the shift spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement Wednesday by the State Department.

After that announcement, national security adviser John Bolton is expected to discuss the new policy during a midday speech Wednesday in Miami, which is home to thousands of exiles and immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

The speech at the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association is to be delivered on the 58th anniversary of the United States’ failed 1961 invasion of the island, an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government.

Johana Tablada, Cuba’s deputy director of U.S. affairs, said on Twitter: “Before they try to euphorically ride a wave of wickedness and lies, they should take a dose of reality. The world has told John Bolton and the U.S. government to eliminate the criminal blockade against Cuba and the Helms-Burton Act.”

The 1996 act gave Americans the right to sue the mostly European companies that operate out of hotels, tobacco factories, distilleries and other properties that Cuba nationalized after Fidel Castro took power. The act even allows lawsuits by Cubans who became U.S. citizens years after their properties were taken.

Canada, France, Spain, Great Britain and other countries with large investments in Cuba have ferociously protested the law and threatened to sue in the World Trade Organization if Washington tries to interfere with the business ties between Cuba and another sovereign nation.

“The extraterritorial application of the U.S. embargo is illegal and violates international law,” said Alberto Navarro, the European Union ambassador to Cuba. “I personally consider it immoral. For 60 years the only thing that’s resulted from the embargo is the suffering of the Cuban people.”

U.S. airlines and cruise lines that bring hundreds of thousands of travelers to Cuba each year appear to be exempt from the key provision of the Helms-Burton Act.

Every U.S. president since Bill Clinton has suspended the key clause to avoid those trade clashes and a potential mass of lawsuits that would prevent any future settlement with Cuba over nationalized properties. Cuba has said it is willing to reimburse the owners of confiscated properties, but only if the communist government is also reimbursed for billions of dollars in damages generated by the six-decade U.S. trade embargo.

The announcement comes at a moment of severe economic weakness for Cuba, which is struggling to find enough cash to import basic food and other supplies following a drop in aid from Venezuela, and a string of bad years in other key economic sectors.

Foreign investment in Cuba increased slightly in recent years, but it remains far below the levels needed to recapitalize the island’s dilapidated, often collapsing infrastructure. The Trump administration’s decision is not expected to drive out major foreign players like Pernod-Ricard of France, which makes Havana Club rum, or Spanish hotel chains Melia or Iberostar, but it could prove a major obstacle to new investment from foreign companies.

“It will harm prospective investment in Cuba. It will not cause people who are invested in Cuba already to pull out now,” said Phil Peters, director of the Arlington, Virginia-based Cuba Research Center, who advocated for closer relations with Cuba and has consulted for U.S. companies looking to invest.

Peters said he also believed the new measure could hurt the Trump administration’s effort to force Maduro from power with help from allies like Spain.

“There are plenty of countries that are interested in helping Venezuela find a soft landing after Maduro, but they are not interested in waging an economic war on Cuba,” Peters said.

The U.S. official said the administration also plans to start enforcing the section of the act that allows the U.S. to deny entry visas to Cubans and citizens of other countries involved in trafficking in the confiscated property.

We learn from history that we do not learn from history
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#277712: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:51:24 AM

The Attorney General's conference continues to drone on and on about how the Mueller Report should be interpreted.

The public version will set sail at 11 AM.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#277713: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:58:05 AM

GET READY FOR a presumably mild to moderate impact now that Barr's had time to redact anything particularly condemning.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#277714: Apr 18th 2019 at 6:58:58 AM

[up][up] Why even bother listen to it, then?

Edited by megaeliz on Apr 18th 2019 at 9:59:44 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#277715: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:05:09 AM

I listened for only a bit and am just waiting for the report.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#277716: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:09:23 AM

Apparently Congressional leaders will get an almost unredacted version, but since this is Barr talking... I'll wait for Congressional Democrats to respond.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#277717: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:15:15 AM

If the "almost" wasn't in there, I'd be fine with that.

I can respect why the American public doesn't get an unredacted version, but Congress should receive the full report in its entirety. Nothing less.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#277718: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:36:14 AM

Collusion, Collusion, Collusion!

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#277719: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:39:45 AM

No Collusion!

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#277720: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:42:18 AM

@Tobias, considering that Congress get access to really sensitive shit on a regular basis, yeah its sketchy.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#277721: Apr 18th 2019 at 7:43:58 AM

Given that Trump calls Congressional Oversight 'Presidential Harassment' not surprising, though

"You can reply to this Message!"
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#277723: Apr 18th 2019 at 8:18:32 AM

I hope the Justice Department has provided some extra bandwidth or their site is about to crash hard.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#277724: Apr 18th 2019 at 8:44:48 AM

So this is what the "Conclusions" sub-section to the obstruction of justice investigation section has to say: "The evidence we obtained about the president's actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him".

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#277725: Apr 18th 2019 at 8:47:07 AM

In short: the investigation was incomplete.


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