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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
. Well, hopefully we have the at least the house by then, and better prospects in the senate, so the worst of the damage can be held off.
And does anyone know anything about simcha felder
? He's the one Democratic New York Senator that caucuses with the Republicans, that was mentioned. How likely is he to support closing the double jeporady loophole for Presidential Pardons? This is important, since Mueller is likely holding back charges, in case pardons are used, so that A G Schneiderman will be able to prosecute if need be, and removing this loophole would allow him to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law without worrying about pardons.
Any New York folks here should be pushing heavily for this, and contact your state congresspeople asking them to support this as well.
edited 24th Apr '18 9:39:03 PM by megaeliz
Sorry to keep harping on this, but there's already abill that has been introduced in the state legislature
, and I can't emphise enough how important it is that this it gets through.
New York’s double jeopardy laws go well beyond constitutional requirements and the standards used by many other states – and could unintentionally insulate someone pardoned by the president from subsequent prosecution for state crimes. Lawmakers have amended New York’s double jeopardy statute 12 times in recent years to close other loopholes.
“I thank Assembly Speaker Heastie, Assembly Codes Committee Chairman Lentol and Senator Kaminsky for taking swift action towards closing this unnecessary and hazardous loophole,” said Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. “New York’s current double jeopardy loophole is a recipe for trouble that would essentially allow any president to pardon individuals for state and federal crimes with a single stroke of the pen. New York lawmakers can close that loophole—and substantially reduce the threat of lawless White House action—by passing this important legislation. New York prosecutors must be able to enforce our laws, and ensure that no one who breaks New York law will escape accountability merely because of a strategically-timed presidential pardon. Long ago, the Supreme Court made clear that presidents cannot pardon for state crimes—now it’s time for New York law to do the same.”
edited 24th Apr '18 9:55:17 PM by megaeliz
Damn, New York is going to make so much money off their pay-to-stay prisons.
Federal Judge Upholds DACA, Calling White House Decision To Rescind It 'Capricious'
:
In a blow to President Trump, who has long railed against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates for the District of Columbia said the Department of Homeland Security had failed to provide an adequate rationale for why the program is unlawful.
He said that the decision to rescind DACA must therefore be set aside, but he gave Homeland Security 90 days to "better explain its view" that DACA is illegal.
If it fails to produce a more convincing argument in the three-month timeframe, DHS "must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications," the judge said.
So after reading that NY Times Op-ed by Krugman that megaeliz linked, I ended up reading a couple of other recent op-eds from him too. The best parts are the endings.
One on why the GOP Tax Scam bill isn't so popular: The Great Snake Oil Slump
True, tax cuts probably had less to do with past G.O.P. successes than many party activists seem to imagine. Other factors were often much more important. But those other factors also aren’t what they used to be.
I mean, claims to be the defenders of family values have lost their punch partly because the public has become far more socially tolerant — Americans now support same-sex marriage by a two-to-one majority! — and partly because the current resident of the White House may be the worst family man in America. Flag-waving claims to be more patriotic than Democrats worked well for Reagan and Bush, but are much more problematic for a G.O.P. that looks more and more like the party of Putin.
Still, Republicans needn’t despair. After all, they’ll always have racism to fall back on. And with the tax cut fizzling, I predict that we’ll be seeing a lot of implicit — even explicit — appeals to racism in the months ahead.
And here's a wonkish one on why Trump's trade war won't accomplish anything: Steel Tariffs and Wages (Painfully Wonkish)
Now, I’m sure that the White House carefully thought all this through before HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
edited 25th Apr '18 12:36:28 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedSpeaking of the NY Times, however, they have an article about how Sessions is Trump's most loyal supporter in his administration, despite the fact that Trump is talking shit about him regularly. Full article text
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Hmm, must have missed it. This thread moves quickly.
The sad part is that doubling down on racism is probably the GOP's best strategy. After all, there was that one Atlantic article in one of sgamer's newsfeed posts covering a study showing that a lot of Trump voters were white Christian men afraid of losing their privileged social status.
Disgusted, but not surprisedAlso saw someone posting a shot from A Bugs Life on facebook that seemed rather appropriate in today's politics ...
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The racism absolutely is their best strategy, which doesn't really say much considering their completely lack of anything else to run on.
Relatedly there's an article from Vox that's rather apropos to the given discussion, Republicans should be terrified of health care in the 2018 midterm elections
. They can bleat about racism all they want but I see no reason to believe that it will overcome their bases lack of enthusiasm and it certainly won't overcome the public concern over healthcare issues.
That's exactly the logic behind voter suppression in-general, especially towards minorities. When you lower and keep on lowering the number of people who are able of meaningfully impacting the electoral process then passing unpopular policies are much more viable.
That's why it's so important for the Democrats to focus on electoral reform, if we can get more people voting and have their votes count better then the Republicans will be forced to moderate or more likely die.
edited 25th Apr '18 7:09:58 AM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang"Trump with more competence probably wouldn't have won the election, paradoxical though it might sound. His dim-witted bungling is part of his charm. He's the ultimate extension of anti-intellectualism; the same traits that make him awful at everything he does also make him into the champion of Joe Average. "
That only need to be fake, lok how is suporter resonate with him even when by all damn standars, is more part of the wealhty elite than Hilary ever was.
And trump with competence is just Chavez or Putin and in that case....well, you would be fuck, like seven day to sunday fuck.
You are very lucky in that way.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"Another thing that you have to account for is that the Democrats are doing very well in special elections, but they'll be launch ad campaigns all summer. These wins/substantial swings haven't occurred in a full campaign climate (well, before the whole perpetual election that has consumed the US for the past few decades).
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.Few Idaho candidates backed Trump in early 2016. Now, many invoke his name.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/election/article209483729.html
When Fulcher states, "That’s why I will support President Trump’s agenda," his mom pipes in: "Ooh, can you introduce me to President Trump?"
A Raul Labrador ad proclaims the candidate for governor "stood with Trump when others wouldn’t."
"Tommy Ahlquist is so liberal he wouldn't even vote for Donald Trump over Hillary," states a Brad Little attack ad on his gubernatorial opponent.
A number of Idaho Republicans clearly want voters to associate them with Trump ahead of next month's primaries. But some of the candidates are treading carefully, avoiding an inconvenient truth: They didn't necessarily vote for him in 2016, when his candidacy polarized the GOP.
Some candidates are now sparring over who can claim Trump. Others are quietly trying to avoid the topic altogether.
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I suppose that's true, but special elections can show voter enthusiasm which has a very strong effect on midterm results and not being in full campaign climate isn't something that I see any evidence of being noteworthy or impactful.
The What The Fuck Just Happened Today update came early today. Might be more later, given that.
Day 461: Virtually unexplained.
1/ A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must resume accepting new DACA applications, saying the Department of Homeland Security's legal explanation for ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was "arbitrary," "capricious," and predicated on "virtually unexplained" grounds and therefore "unlawful." DHS now has 90 days to better explain its reasoning for canceling the program, or the judge will rescind the government memo that terminated the program. (New York Times / Politico / Washington Post / NBC News)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/24/third-judge-rules-against-trump-daca-550092
2/ Mick Mulvaney advised bankers and lobbyists that increasing campaign contributions would help weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – the agency he runs. Mulvaney capped off his speech at a American Bankers Association conference by arguing that trying to sway legislators with campaign contributions was one of the "fundamental underpinnings of our representative democracy." Mulvaney, who is rumored to be at the top of the list when it comes to Trump’s next pick for Chief of Staff, also revealed that he would only meet with lobbyists who contributed to his campaign during his time as a Congressman. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you,” Mulvaney explained. “If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.” (New York Times / Washington Post)
3/ In 2015, Ronny Jackson drunkenly banged on the hotel room door of a female employee in the middle of the night. The Secret Service stopped him out of concern that he would wake then-President Barack Obama. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/24/politics/ronny-jackson-door-allegations/index.html
Jackson was known as "the candy man" inside the White House for "hand[ing] out the prescription drugs like they were candy." (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/24/politics/tester-va-ronny-jackson/index.html
4/ Scott Pruitt's head of security moonlighted for American Media Inc. during the 2016 presidential campaign. A.M.I. owns the National Enquirer, which purchased the rights to Karen Mc Dougal's story about her alleged affair with Trump. A.M.I.'s chairman, David Pecker, is a close friend of Trump's. Pasquale Perrotta received a waiver from the EPA under the Obama administration to hold outside employment. (New York Times)
5/ Trump praised Kim Jong Un as a "very honorable" person and expressed hope their meeting will occur "as soon as possible." Trump sidestepped the question when asked to explain his comment that Kim is an "honorable" person, whom he once mocked as "Little Rocket Man." (CNN / The Hill)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/pasquale-perrotta-epa-american-media.html
6/ Don Blankenship is running for the U.S. Senate in West Virginia while living in a $2.4 million villa in Nevada. Blankenship refers to himself as an "American competitionist," despite admiring China's state-controlled economy and expressing interest in obtaining Chinese citizenship. Blankenship spent a year in prison for his involvement in a coal mining explosion that killed 29 people during his time as a coal mining executive. He is running as a champion of miners and using ads to dispute the settled facts regarding his role in the explosion. (New York Times)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/24/politics/trump-kim-jong-un-honorable/index.html
An extremely relevant series of tweets regarding the results in Arizona
For those who can't or don't want to access twitter:
For those who don't know who he is, Nate Cohn is a corespondent for The New York Times and thus is not some ignorant neophyte.
edited 25th Apr '18 8:55:13 AM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangDrain the swamp! Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!
Mulvaney, Watchdog Bureau’s Leader, Advises Bankers on Ways to Curtail Agency
“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress,” Mr. Mulvaney, a former Republican lawmaker from South Carolina, told 1,300 bankers and lending industry officials at an American Bankers Association conference in Washington. “If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.”
At the top of the hierarchy, he added, were his constituents. “If you came from back home and sat in my lobby, I talked to you without exception, regardless of the financial contributions,” said Mr. Mulvaney, who received nearly $63,000 from payday lenders for his congressional campaigns.
Mr. Mulvaney, who also runs the White House budget office, is a longtime critic of the Obama-era consumer bureau, including while serving in Congress. He was tapped by President Trump in November to temporarily run the bureau, in part because of his promise to sharply curtail it.
Since then, he has frozen all new investigations and slowed down existing inquiries by requiring employees to produce detailed justifications. He also sharply restricted the bureau’s access to bank data, arguing that its investigations created online security risks. And he has scaled back efforts to go after payday lenders, auto lenders and other financial services companies accused of preying on the vulnerable.
But he wants Congress to go further and has urged it to wrest funding of the independent watchdog from the Federal Reserve, a move that would give lawmakers — and those with access to them — more influence on the bureau’s actions. On Tuesday, he implored the financial services industry to help support the legislative changes he has requested.
He concluded the speech, which included an appeal to diminish the bureau’s power, by describing the two types of people he was most responsive to as a congressman — constituents and lobbyists who contributed to his campaign.
Mr. Mulvaney said that trying to sway legislators was one of the “fundamental underpinnings of our representative democracy. And you have to continue to do it.”
The association, which invited Mr. Mulvaney to give the keynote address at its conference, strongly backs his efforts to consider the financial burdens on banks imposed by the bureau’s actions.
Asked about the comments, John Czwartacki, a spokesman for Mr. Mulvaney, said: “He was making the point that hearing from people back home is vital to our democratic process and the most important thing our representatives can do. It’s more important than lobbyists and it’s more important than money.”
In his remarks, Mr. Mulvaney also announced a series of moves intended to reduce the bureau’s power. The agency was championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Richard Cordray, who served as the bureau’s director from its inception until last year.
Such moves include cutting public access to the bureau’s database of consumer complaints, which the agency had used to help guide its investigations.
“I don’t see anything in here that says I have to run a Yelp for financial services sponsored by the federal government,” he said.
Mr. Mulvaney also said he would begin calling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by its official statutory name, the more obscure Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Administration officials said the rebranding was an attempt to diminish the agency’s public profile.
Mr. Mulvaney’s political appointees at the agency have asked The Associated Press, which sets the style standard for many publications and broadcasters, to change how it refers to the bureau.
“I’m trying to get in the habit of now saying the ‘B.C.F.P.’ It’s really, really hard to do that when you’ve said the C.F.P.B. for so long,” Mr. Mulvaney told the bankers.
The consumer bureau was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Law as a way to prevent banks and other financial companies from preying on vulnerable consumers. But the bureau has become a target of Republican lawmakers, who complain that it has unchecked power and is too aggressive in trying to punish financial firms.
I'm seeing a headline on tv on CNN that the Supreme Court is releasing audio on their hearing regarding the Travel Ban and that Kennedy and Conservative judge seem to me backing Trump.
"U.S. Supreme Court leans toward upholding Trump's travel ban" - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-immigration/u-s-supreme-court-leans-toward-upholding-trumps-travel-ban-idUSKBN1HW0F8
edited 25th Apr '18 10:32:25 AM by sgamer82
Unsurprising. It's a Republican court and Gorsuch probably burned all his "not voting with the Republicans" capital he had with his vote on not deporting legal immigrants if they commit a crime.
Still so angry the Republicans stole a SC seat.
edited 25th Apr '18 10:37:18 AM by Larkmarn
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.

On a side note, how badly would the republicans lose their shit if trump loses the 2020 election? I predict they’d basically torch the government and run.