192
   

monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

 
 
maporsche
 
  3  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 02:52 pm
@Finn dAbuzz,
Finn dAbuzz wrote:

It also sounds like someone who knows they would lose painting the best picture possible.


That's precisely what he said.
BillW
 
  4  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 02:56 pm
@maporsche,
Extreme right wingers' have no principles or moral fortitude, living on a bedrock of lies. Flake had to leave this cesspool that is being created, along with Corker.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  4  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 02:56 pm
@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:
He's a self-professed liberal.

As opposed to a real one?

Quote:
Have you ever seen me use a derogatory and juvenile term like that?

No, you're too PC for that.

Quote:
And what's with the asinine "librul?"

'murika, of course.
Builder
 
  -1  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 03:53 pm
@Setanta,
Quote:
What's a "lib," Finny? Does it never occur to you that people can comment on President Plump without falling within your snarky categories?


This is always quite comical coming from you (and snooze, and glambag, and co) when you're always trying to squirrel others away in tight little compartments in your own mind.

Quote:
Don't help the conservative operatives to divert the discussion.


It's pertinent to this thread to dwell on the "how the hell did he end up there" by discussing the election that saw him win the job.

Bringing up his opponent (for lack of a better word) as often as is necessary for the discussion, is what a proper debate requires.

Nobody put you in charge of anything, and seniority in membership status and clique sycophant antics, count for diddly squat, or so it should.

It's testament to the moral and mental fiber of those who stand up to the pathetic mob mentality that this board has become known for.

Able to know, my fat aunty. More like "we'll tell you what to know" and if you don't like it, we'll attack you on a personal level, and make out, by numbers only, that you don't fit our agenda.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  2  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 03:55 pm
Only you, kids, can prevent conservative (in this case, Tory) attempts to divert the thread.
0 Replies
 
Finn dAbuzz
 
  0  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 04:29 pm
@hightor,
Quite cute
Finn dAbuzz
 
  0  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 04:40 pm
Sure you haven't.
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  2  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 05:53 pm
@revelette1,
Good Rubin piece. Thank you.
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  3  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 06:22 pm
@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:
You fools keep making the mistake that there are principled politicians.

Actually, I think we're more likely to make the mistake of imagining that someone who holds that opinion is himself principled.
blatham
 
  3  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 06:32 pm
Quote:
"The family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan received a $25,000 personal check from President Trump -- months after he offered it and dated the day The Washington Post asked about it."
USA Today

Such a classy dude, that Trump.
0 Replies
 
Finn dAbuzz
 
  0  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 06:51 pm
@blatham,
Actually, I think I'm more likely to call that idiotic comment for what it is...idiotic.

A glib but ridiculous insult.

Name me principled politicians: Clinton, Warren, Schummer, Booker...c'mon blatham.
blatham
 
  2  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 07:10 pm
Quote:
We must never regard as “normal” the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country — the personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions, the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected to serve.
Jeff Flake, today.

These remarks echo many other conservatives' warning about what is happening in the US (and in the GOP) presently. David Frum, Bill Kristol, Michael Gerson, George Will, John McCain, Mona Charen, Erick Erickson, Ben Domenech, Yuval Levin, Bob Corker and many more have spoken out.

This is not normal. None of us, in our lifetimes, have witnessed anything like this. Jeff Flake did not speak out in this serious and deeply concerned manner because he was looking at a near certain electoral loss. If that were the true motivation then politicians in the past and in that common political circumstance would have said something similar. And that is not the case. This is not normal.
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  5  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 07:29 pm
@Finn dAbuzz,
You made the claim that anyone in politics is (must be) without principle. It's not a rational nor minimally thoughtful claim. It would apply to any and all politicians you favor and have voted for or will vote for. Perhaps you'd respond that you support unprincipled candidate X because he/she runs on a platform of disempowering government because it is made up of unprincipled characters. But as that candidate X, being without principle, can lie to you about his real motivations, you're left with no means of ascertaining who you ought to vote for.

And why would one even imagine that politicians are somehow different in this matter of principle than dentists or prison guards or lawyers or janitors or cops or military generals? Or the doctors and nurses about to perform brain surgery on your child? Or the CEO of Nabisco? Or the Koch brothers? Or Doctor Seuss?

You took my post as an insult. There is a compelling case here for projection (your assumptions that what is true for you will be true for others). But I don't really think that gets you most accurately. You have been taught to hate government and you've bought into that sick and self-destructive ideology and you are a very lazy thinker or you'd have realized your claim leaves you without any place to stand.
BillW
 
  2  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 07:50 pm
@blatham,
blatham, nice try but that is way, way over his head.
blatham
 
  3  
Tue 24 Oct, 2017 09:07 pm
Very interesting interview with Jon Chait and conservative former talk show host Charlie Sykes. Here's one important bit...
Quote:
Sykes: We disagree on this. I knew Buckley, he was a friend of mine, and Steve Bannon is no William F. Buckley. Buckley marginalized the kooks. Bannon empowered them. Unfortunately, as we found out, the kooks never really went away. And there is no one with Buckley’s clout to marginalize the new generation.

Chait: And, as you note, once you have dismissed the mainstream media as hopelessly biased, there is no longer any possibility of doing so.

Sykes: Once you have de-legitimized the MSM and discredited any source outside of the alt-reality bubble, yes, it’s nearly impossible. This is at the heart of the right’s disease.
NYMag
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  2  
Wed 25 Oct, 2017 01:13 am
Setanta wrote:

Remember, sports fans, this thread is about President Plump and relevant contemporary events. Don't help the conservative operatives to divert the discussion.



Now they're using the same tactics in Congress.

Quote:
Congressional Republicans have announced parallel inquiries into a uranium deal under President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's emails.
One committee will investigate how the Obama administration approved a 2010 acquisition that gave Russia control of 20% of the US uranium supply.
Two other panels will scrutinise the FBI decision not to charge Mrs Clinton over her private email server.
Democrats pilloried the inquiries as "a massive diversion".
Both issues to be placed under the spotlight by the committees are longstanding political grievances of President Donald Trump.
His campaign aides are currently the subject of congressional investigations into whether they colluded with alleged Kremlin attempts to sway last year's US presidential election.
On Tuesday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy announced inquiries into the previous administration.
They said there were "outstanding questions" about the FBI's investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Mrs Clinton's emails.
The congressmen said they wished to know why former FBI director James Comey chose to divulge the inquiry into Mrs Clinton, but not the one about Trump aides and Russia.
Also on Tuesday, Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced his panel's inquiry into the sale of a Canadian mining firm that had mines in the American West.
Uranium One - which owned a fifth of US uranium supplies - was acquired seven years ago by Russian state-owned company Rosatom.
The US Department of State, under former Secretary of State Mrs Clinton, helped approve the deal.
The Hill reported last week that at the time of the sale the FBI was investigating alleged attempts by Moscow to gain influence in the US nuclear industry through bribery and extortion.
The Hill and New York Times have reported that Russian nuclear officials and Uranium One's chairman donated millions of dollars to the Clinton charitable foundation.
Mr Nunes told reporters at Capitol Hill on Tuesday: "One of the things we are concerned about is whether or not there was an FBI investigation, was there a DOJ [Department of Justice] investigation and if so, why was Congress not informed of this matter."
President Trump has sought to draw attention to the story, tweeting last week: "Uranium deal to Russia, with Clinton help and Obama Administration knowledge, is the biggest story that Fake Media doesn't want to follow!"
But Democratic congressmen accused Republicans on Tuesday of creating a distraction.
"This new investigation is a massive diversion to distract from the lack of Republican oversight of the Trump administration and the national security threat that Russia poses," said Elijah Cummings and John Conyers in a statement.
Mrs Clinton said in an interview with cable network C-SPAN on Monday that the Uranium One allegations are "baloney".


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41742184
Builder
 
  -1  
Wed 25 Oct, 2017 01:56 am
@izzythepush,
Quote:
Now they're using the same tactics in Congress.


And why not? If there's a Russian connection, get it all out in the open.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  3  
Wed 25 Oct, 2017 02:51 am
More profiteering from human misery.

Quote:

Puerto Rico to audit power contract for Montana firm
Storm-ravaged Puerto Rico has promised a full audit of a $300m (£227m) deal won by a small electrical firm with Trump administration connections.
A US House of Representatives committee is also scrutinising the contract.
The chief executive of Whitefish Energy Holdings in Montana knows US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, while one of its investors has donated to Donald Trump.
More than 80% of Puerto Ricans remain without power more than a month after Hurricane Maria struck.
Governor Ricardo Rossello's announcement came late on Tuesday as questions mounted about the deal with Whitefish Energy Holdings, a two-year-old company that has seemingly little experience with work on this scale.
The contract, inked by Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (Prepa) in the immediate aftermath of the storm, will be paid for by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Puerto Rican authorities have said.
A Fema spokeswoman said their organisation "had no involvement" in the deal-making process between Whitefish and Prepa.
"Fema has received the project from Prepa and it is under review to ensure it is in compliance with established procurement guidelines," she said.
Congressman Darren Soto, a Florida Democrat of Puerto Rican descent, told the BBC he will be requesting an investigation from the Department of the Interior's Inspector General.
"It is concerning that the task of rebuilding Puerto Rico's energy grid - the biggest infrastructural rebuilt in the United States since Hurricane Katrina - is being contracted solely with Whitefish Energy," he said in an email.
The House Natural Resources Committee is scrutinising the agreement.
"The size and unknown details of this contract raises numerous questions," committee spokesman Parish Braden told the BBC on Tuesday.
"This is one of many things the committee is taking a close look at as it continues to work with the resident commissioner, governor's office, and oversight board to ensure Puerto Rico's recovery is robust, effective and sustained."
What happened?
Puerto Rico, a US territory whose 3.4 million residents are US citizens, was struck by two hurricanes in September - Irma and, later, the more-destructive Maria. The second storm all but wiped out the island's power grid.
In a Facebook post dated 29 September, Whitefish Energy Holdings announced that it had "received a contract from Puerto Rico Power Authority (Prepa), to rebuild the hurricane ravaged power line infrastructure".
On 19 October, the company announced that Prepa had formally approved and ratified its agreement.
Whitefish Energy Holdings said it had been working for Prepa since 26 September, six days after the storm made landfall, "to repair and reconstruct electrical transmission infrastructure on the island".
What is Whitefish?
Little is known about the utility company.
On its website, the company says it was created in 2015 is and funded by two Texas investment firms and a Brazilian transformer manufacturer.
It states that it is headquartered in Whitefish, Montana, which also happens to be the hometown of Mr Zinke, the US interior secretary.
In an email to BBC News, the US Department of the Interior said: "Neither the Secretary nor anyone in his office have taken any meetings or action on behalf of this company and played no role in anything to do with any contracts."
However, Mr Zinke does know Whitefish chief executive Andy Techmanski because "they both live in a small town (population 6,000) where everyone knows everyone", said the statement.
While it has provided regular updates on its work in Puerto Rico since its announcement on 29 September, there appears to be no posts on its Facebook page before the date of the contract announcement.
An industry trade group says it "understands that Whitefish has previously worked on the island and is familiar with Prepa's facilities".
A search on GovTribe, a site that collects information on government contracts, shows that Whitefish was awarded a $1.3m contract in July for work in Arizona.
How did the deal come about?
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) placed the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in charge of "the immediate power restoration effort".
When asked by BBC News about the contract, USACE spokeswoman Catalina Carrasco said on Monday "the US Army Corps of Engineers does not have any involvement with the contract between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and Whitefish". She referred further questions to Prepa.
Multiple emails sent by the BBC to Prepa on Monday and Tuesday were not returned.
In his statement announcing an audit of the deal, Governor Rossello explained how the island's authorities came to work with Whitefish after the passing of the first, less-destructive hurricane. He did not explain how the relationship with Whitefish changed in the run up to nor immediate aftermath of the second, stronger storm.
His office tweeted on Tuesday that "the [power authority's] investment to repair the electrical system will be refundable by @fema".
Whether Fema reviewed the deal struck between the two companies before it was signed remains unclear.
Noteworthy donations
Meanwhile, questions have been raised about whether political donations made to President Donald Trump's campaign and allied groups could have influenced the decision.
A review of federal election data showed that a founding partner in HBC Investments, one of the two Texas firms that backs Whitefish Energy Holdings - had donated $2,700 to Mr Trump's presidential campaign, as well as $20,000 to a group that supported the White House bid.
According to election data, the investor also gave $30,700 to the Republican National Committee in 2016 - after Mr Trump became the party's presumptive nominee.
A message sent to the investment firm was not immediately returned.
Members of the US business community frequently donate to political parties, and many tend to favour Republicans.
Aid offer left on the table
Also of interest to those scrutinising the deal was the decision by Puerto Rico not to request a programme known as "mutual aid".
Co-ordinated by the American Public Power Association (Appa), this scheme arranges for other utilities to offer assistance.
"When (and even before) a major disaster hits a utility's territory and the utility knows that its own crews and equipment won't be enough to restore power quickly, it calls for mutual aid," the Appa states in a document on its website.
By way of comparison, the US Virgin Islands - also damaged by the hurricane and geographically close to Puerto Rico - have requested such aid, according to the Appa.
What has the company said?
Brandon Smulyan, a representative for Whitefish, told BBC News in an email that the firm had been talking to Prepa before Hurricane Maria struck the island.
"They knew the company's experience in mountainous regions because they discussed the work previously," the spokesman said, adding that Whitefish specialised in "working in rugged, remote and rural terrain".
Mr Smulyan said that Mr Techmanski and Secretary Zinke had "no business relationship", and that Whitefish had not advised Puerto Rican authorities to avoid seeking mutual aid from other utility companies.
When will power be restored?
About 18% of customers have electricity as of Tuesday, according to the Pentagon.
The Puerto Rican governor's goal is to have 30% restored by 30 October, 50% by 15 November and 95% a month later.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41738955
roger
 
  1  
Wed 25 Oct, 2017 03:20 am
@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

More profiteering from human misery.

Quote:


snip

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) placed the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in charge of "the immediate power restoration effort".
When asked by BBC News about the contract, USACE spokeswoman Catalina Carrasco said on Monday "the US Army Corps of Engineers does not have any involvement with the contract between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and Whitefish". She referred further questions to Prepa.

snip


Now, isn't this odd?
hightor
 
  7  
Wed 25 Oct, 2017 03:42 am
@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:
If you're living near rednecks, count yourself lucky or move. (Try reading what they guy wrote)

I did read what the guy wrote, I just didn't come away as impressed as you did. (And I think I've read his account before — if not, it was something very similar.) I don't care if the author is a self-described liberal from NPR — he's also a multi-millionaire. His life has little in common with my own and I'm sure he arrived at his ideas differently. For instance, I doubt that he was ever drafted, I doubt that he grew up poor, I doubt that he worked in ship-building and construction for most of his working life.

The fact is, I don't have to fly around the country dropping in on selected "rednecks" to learn how the other half lives. I find his examples both patronizing and trite. Ooh, NASCAR — like I really want to pay to see guys driving loud cars at high speeds when the same idiocy is on display on stretches of rural roads where I live. We don't have wild boars here — yet — but shooting them is not anything I'd consider particularly exotic as they are an invasive species capable of inflicting severe damage to both private property and natural ecosystems. The idea that there's something noble about unemployed workers hanging around abusing opiates in some depressed area twenty f-ing years after the mills closed and crying about not reading stories about themselves in the media just seems wacky to me.

Having lived and worked around people who don't share my political perspective has never been particularly challenging. For the most part the operating philosophy is mind your own business and live and let live. We don't get into heated arguments. Sharp differences, if discovered, are usually laughed over. (Unlike behavior in online forums where these differences are probed and highlighted.)

Basically, the labels we give to people are somewhat fluid and actual individuals diverge from the stereotypical characterizations we commonly employ. Duh — so what else is new?
0 Replies
 
 

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