Topics

1

General Comments / Semantic validity in 2021

« on: January 28, 2021, 10:24:48 AM »

"Robinhood nerfed memestonks" could win a prize. 

Poetic. Grammatical. Semantically valid.  Utterly meaningless in 2010.

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General Comments / Should former president Trump be indicted - or pardoned?

« on: November 20, 2020, 10:00:38 AM »

Once Trump is forced out of office, he will no longer have immunity from indictment based on DoJ regulations concerning sitting presidents.

As documented in the Mueller report, there are a number of potential cases of obstruction of justice (not to mention obstruction of Congress) for which the former president could be indicted (whether he would eventually be convicted is another matter altogether.) I have previously suggested that Biden should pardon Trump for any potential federal crimes he may have committed while acting in his role of president, if only to avoid the inevitable political earthquakes that would ensue as his cultish followers go bash!t crazy.

But is there not also an argument to be made that not even a president is above the law, if he shows sufficient disregard for legal norms and abuses the office sufficiently?  And is making that point, and holding political parties responsible for blatantly illegal actions, worth the inevitable turmoil?

3

General Comments / How to save the country

« on: October 15, 2020, 11:27:15 PM »

The whole SCOTUS debacle is seemingly intractable: Republicans have the opportunity to engineer a court favourable to the party's strongly held convictions on what is the right way for the constitution and laws to be interpreted; Democrats, feeling that the ACB confirmation process is the last straw in Republican's misuse of procedures to stack federal courts from top to bottom, may soon have the opportunity to seek retribution if they can control the levers of government, and may use that control to ignore any remaining vestiges of collegiality.

But might this be avoided?  Can the country step away from the brink?

I've seen several different options that show there are still people looking for compromise.  Here are a couple

1. A compact in the Senate, prior to the election: in this scenario, 6-10 Senators from each party, in "safe" seats, would agree that the SCOTUS confirmation be put on hold until after the election.  Should Trump win, the confirmation process would go ahead, but if Biden wins, the Republicans would agree not to confirm ACB.  In return for the Republicans agreeing to this, the Democrats would agree to preserve the filibuster if they win the Senate.

2. If such an agreement could not be made prior to the election, if ACB was confirmed either before the election or during the lame duck session, and if the Democrats win the Presidency and the Senate (which looks likely at this point): the Democrats would need to show unilateral restraint... but they could do this by "packing" the courts - or rather, expanding them.  The basic suggestion addresses the immediate cause of friction at the level of SCOTUS (the court's imbalance), but also addresses a fundamental flaw of the nominations process - that the (currently) 9 most powerful jurists in the world, and the structure of their court, can be thrown randomly into chaos as a result of an untimely death.

This proposal is to expand the court not to just 13 jurists, but rather to 25 or 30, thus making each nomination, and the position of each judge,  far less important.  And in good faith, the president should nominate a list of jurists from all parts of the political spectrum, with an eye to balancing the court.  Once inlace, there would simply be little benefit in choosing a hyper partisan judge, nor of filibustering the Senate and bringing the work of the legislature to a halt, just for 1 position out of 30.  Marry that with term limits for all federal judges and the efforts to pack the courts with hyper-partisan judges becomes less effective, too.

What other cooperative ideas do people have to climb down from the precipice?

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General Comments / Town halls and debates 2020

« on: September 18, 2020, 12:56:23 PM »

There was no thread dedicated to the presidential candidate 'performance' broadcasts, so here we go.

There are now two nationally televised town halls in the books, one by Trump and one by Biden, with at least three debates to go.  What are your thoughts?

5

General Comments / Presidential candidates, 2024

« on: August 11, 2020, 05:58:13 PM »

The first election where both main-party candidates are woman, and both of south Asian descent?

6

General Comments / Roger Stone pardon

« on: July 11, 2020, 09:21:37 AM »

So if I understand this correctly, Roger Stone was convicted by a jury of perjury and witness tampering, involving actions taken during and in support of Donald Trump's election - and Stone recently claimed that he could have "easily" turned on Trump to avoid a trial - suggesting that he actually had information that at the very least a) he thought was legally damaging to the president, and b) was serious enough that it would have been of sufficient value to prosecutors to reduce his own charges, enough for him to avoid trial.

So the president used his constitutional authority to reward somebody who explicitly claimed to have shielded the president from legal jeopardy.

Is this a purpose for which the presidential pardon power is usually exercised?  Is it outside the norm?

 

7

General Comments / Eastern Oklahoma: Native American land

« on: July 09, 2020, 01:33:07 PM »

Wow.

Supreme Court rules broad swath of Oklahoma is Native American land for purposes of federal criminal law

Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court said Thursday that a large swath of eastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa, is Native American land for purposes of federal criminal law in a decision that the state argued could call into question thousands of state prosecutions for serious crimes.

Justice Neil Gorsuch penned the 5-4 opinion joined by the liberals on the bench.
"Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law," said Gorsuch, who was appointed by President Donald Trump. "Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word," he said.
Under the law, crimes involving Native Americans on a reservation are under federal, not state, jurisdiction.

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General Comments / SCOTUS maintains local law enforcement independence from Feds

« on: June 15, 2020, 11:06:28 AM »

Interesting.

ACLU: The Supreme Court just denied the administration’s attempt to force local law enforcement to do ICE’s bidding.

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General Comments / SCOTUS protects LGBTQ workers

« on: June 15, 2020, 11:01:01 AM »

Supreme Court rules that LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination

Interesting - the conservative court has ruled 6-3 in support of LGBTQ workers rights.

The Supreme Court handed a big win to the LGBT community Monday, ruling in a 6-3 decision that an employer who fires a worker for being gay or transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act -- which already protected people from employer sex discrimination, as well as discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.

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General Comments / Defending one's home in North Carolina

« on: May 12, 2020, 10:35:39 AM »

So, would these homeowners have been legally in their rights, while defending their home and themselves, to shoot to kill?

WaPo: Deputy led armed group to black teen’s home

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina is facing criminal charges after authorities said he led a group of armed people to the wrong home in a search for a missing girl.
New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Friday that Jordan Kita, who worked in the New Hanover Sheriff’s Office, will be charged with trespassing and breaking and entering.
Kita led an armed group May 3 to the home of Dameon Shepard, a senior at Laney High School in Wilmington, according to James W. Lea, a lawyer for Shepard’s family who is preparing a civil lawsuit.
The all-white group tried unsuccessfully to force its way into the home of Shepard, who is black, news outlets reported.

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General Comments / 2 Triiiil-lion dollars!

« on: April 02, 2020, 03:46:35 PM »

So, there is this new 2-trillion dollar stimulus package...

Anatomy of 2-trillion $$

But what exactly is available to people, maybe workers/employees, those less employed, the unemployed, and what are the restrictions?

What about corporations: is money going directly to corporations, are there strings attached, how much is in loans vs subsidies..?

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General Comments / Silver linings

« on: March 29, 2020, 09:21:53 AM »

So... I'm guessing there are probably some beneficial side effects of the pandemic...

For instance, our use of fossil fuels is way down - that's not a bad thing.

The crime rate (maybe with the exception of fraud) must be way down... Strangely Chicago shootings were up, although the crime rate dropped...

Overall consumption of crap is also way down...

What else springs to mind?

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General Comments / Trump Justice Department Clears Clinton

« on: January 10, 2020, 01:17:06 PM »

OK, technically, CNN reports that the Justice Department has not found enough evidence to recommend opening a criminal investigation: Clinton Investigation Allowed to Languish.

So, will Trump stop calling for Clinton's incarceration? Clearly not; but will posters on Ornery cease implying that Clinton's activities were criminal?  Only time will tell...

What's interesting is that Trump supporters continue characterizing the Mueller investigation as a "hoax" and "witch hunt", even though it has led to hundreds of indictments and numerous convictions; whereas they still have no trouble chanting "lock her up" even in the face of a Trump Justice Department finding insufficient evidence to even open a criminal investigation.

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General Comments / Boeing Design Team Clown Car

« on: January 10, 2020, 10:21:08 AM »

Email and message dump from Boeing concerning (and I use that word advisedly) the 737 max: CNN: Boeing releases 737 Max documents

"Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't."  "No," the other worker responded.

"designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys."

"piss poor design."

The response to the released communications by Boeing is... ambiguous:  the company wrote that the communications "do not reflect the company we are and need to be, and they are completely unacceptable."

 "We regret the content of these communications, and apologize to the [Federal Aviation Administration], Congress, our airline customers, and to the flying public for them,"

What I'm trying to get my head around is whether the company is decrying the existence of these emails, the actual content, that their employees would be so crass, or that the company did not have a process to address the concerns brought up in the communications.

The wording would suggest the former, not the latter, which would be as or even more damning than the actual initial emails, to my mind.  One would hope that this is a misrepresentation by CNN... thoughts?

15

General Comments / In any other administration...

« on: November 08, 2019, 04:43:07 PM »

 Trump Ordered to Pay $2 Million to Charities for Misuse of Foundation

Among Mr. Trump’s admissions in court papers: The charity gave his campaign complete control over disbursing the $2.8 million that the foundation had raised at a fund-raiser for veterans in Iowa in January 2016, only days before the state’s presidential nominating caucuses. The fund-raiser, he acknowledged, was in fact a campaign event.

To summarize:

• The Donald J. Trump Foundation gave all proceeds of this charitable event to Trump's presidential campaign.
• Trump used the sympathy for the needs of veterans to acquire money from donors for his own, personal uses.
• This event was always planned as a campaign event, notwithstanding how it would be sold to the donors.
• Trump did this knowingly.

Of course, it's not like Trump has a pattern of using other people's money (ahem, $400M in military/security assistance to Ukraine, access of foreign leaders to the president of all the USA) as bribes to advance his personal electoral chances...

16

General Comments / 12-year old non-violent criminals

« on: February 20, 2019, 05:10:24 PM »

AKA "black and brown children".

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/opinions/florida-pledge-arrest-what-about-the-teacher-jones/index.htmlSetting aside the opinion portion of this opinion piece, and taking the school's allegations at face value (though they are disputed by the student) what we have is a 12-year-old boy being arrested for using his words and being verbally disruptive - even verbally threatening.

What is not in dispute is that the boy acted according to school policy in not standing for the pledge, and that the teacher, against school policy, interfered with the student.  The student then, again, using words and not actions or violence, disagreed with the teacher; at which point the teacher had the student removed from class, leading to (eventually) the student being arrested by the police for allegedly making threats.

People will be people, and people will be stupid.  It happens.  But why is it seemingly a default position that a 12-year-old, being unfairly treated by an adult and in an escalating situation, but where there is no violence, why is the default position to arrest him?  Angry 12-year-olds say stupid,  impulsive things - it's part of being 12, angry and with a brain not fully equipped to filter itself in all situations. 

17

General Comments / Comrade Trump and Russian insurgent hackers

« on: December 12, 2016, 06:18:00 PM »

I don't see this topic being discussed anywhere - does everybody here believe that Russia interfering in US elections, to the point of possibly affecting the outcome, is really not worthy of discussion?

And if not that, what about the president-elect getting into public, 140-character fisticuffs with the CIA in its official capacity of informing the incoming administration?

From the Washington Post: Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.26488fc7bfd5

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General Comments / Is the US Congress populated by elementary school children?

« on: September 30, 2016, 08:08:17 PM »

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/29/politics/obama-911-veto-congressional-concerns/index.html

Just one day after these lawmakers led the first override of a veto during Obama's presidency they publicly called for making changes to the law. But even as they admitted they agreed with some of the White House's concerns, GOP leaders quickly blamed the President for "dropping the ball" for failing to engage with Congress on the legislation before it passed.

You can't make this stuff up.  Pure comedy gold...

19

General Comments / Wells Fargo ~5300 member class action upcoming?

« on: September 21, 2016, 03:06:35 PM »

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/21/investing/wells-fargo-fired-workers-retaliation-fake-accounts/index.html

So, Wells Fargo fires 5300 "low level"employees for the whole fake accounts/fake charges sales scam - but then, it looks like at least some of those employees who actually did refuse to go along to get along, and who did report the illegal/unethical practices they were being directed to undertake, were fired for reporting the abuse (or so they claim).

I don't see WF CEO John Stumph surviving the month at the company...