US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2225

Emergency workers from Australia and New Zealand are travelling to the western United States to help fight raging wildfires in five states including Washington, where Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency as massive fires are burning out of control.

Obama’s order authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. It covers 11 counties in central and eastern Washington as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation.

The specialists from New Zealand and Australia will join the nearly 29,000 firefighters working in Washington, Montana, Oregon, Idaho and California to combat daunting blazes that have overtaken the region.

“The crews being deployed are very experienced in dealing with large wildfires having handled fires on similar terrain across Australia,” Craig Lapsley, emergency management commissioner for the Australian state of Victoria, said in a statement.

The crew from across the Pacific includes 56 people from Australia and 15 from New Zealand. They are set to arrive in Boise, Idaho, for a briefing over the weekend before being dispatched across the western US.

The US Department of Defense sent more than 200 active-duty soldiers to fight fires in the region, the first time the Boise-based fire agency has used that option since 2006.

On August 22 2015 07:41 Kickstart wrote:
The fact that the government doesnt seem to have some sort of 'IT security' is pretty ridiculous tbh, any major corporation would be grossly irresponsible not to so the fact that officials are left to set things up on their own seems absurd. That said, from everything we know Hillary did nothing that wasn't commonplace among government officials (even those at that level). I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Clinton's are just shady to begin with, and we know for a fact that Bill is a raging sociopath of the worst kind. But still, some of the shit against Hillary is ridiculous and blatantly holding her to a different standard than anyone else.

On August 22 2015 07:59 zlefin wrote:
Yeah, it's just especially hard to get your boss to follow the rules, as they feel they can ignore you.
I wonder who in State department IT should be blamed for not making sure Hillary follow proper safety procedures?

On August 22 2015 07:49 Kickstart wrote:
Unabashed socialism is different from moderate socialism. Our country is already a mixed economy anyways (that is, it is both capitalist and socialist). People just get all up in arms and most of them (not accusing any one here of this) don't even know what socialism is, or what communism is, or the difference, nor much about anything that they just get all worked up about.

On August 22 2015 08:05 Gorsameth wrote:

If your boss doesn't follow important procedure and they ignore you, you go to someone higher up.

On August 22 2015 08:09 Acrofales wrote:

Higher up than the Secretary of State? That would be an episode of the IT Crowd I would die to see.

"Mr. President? Err? Sir? Obama? Mrs. Clinton won't follow our security protocols, could you please tell her to do so?"

On August 22 2015 08:16 Gorsameth wrote:

When your dealing with high level classified materials yes, that is what you should do if its needed.

On August 22 2015 08:23 cLutZ wrote:

Except Obama clearly doesn't really care. They have been slow-walking the investigation. Now, possibly that is because she knows things that means only a Republican administration can hold her accountable, but it more plausibly is because he thinks no other Democrat will hold the White House.

On August 22 2015 08:07 Danglars wrote:
You're continuing the mixup in terms by misunderstanding the point. Back in the day, you would be dead in the water overtly calling yourself a socialist and supporting the goals. If you agreed with socialism, you called yourself a liberal, progressive, moderate Democrat, and supported that agenda with waves to how compassion drove your support. Now, Bernie is an unabashed socialist that is unafraid of the boogeyman, where his predecessors would dodge the label like the plague.

A Florida judge will draw up new maps for the state's 27 congressional districts. After meeting in a two-week special session, Florida's House and Senate adjourned without agreeing on what the maps, ordered by the State Supreme Court, should look like.

This was the Florida Legislature's third attempt to draw congressional maps that comply with the state Constitution. Under an amendment adopted by voters in 2010, Florida's Legislature must compile maps for congressional and legislative districts that don't protect incumbents or political parties.

But although Florida's House and Senate are both controlled by Republicans, the two bodies were unable to come to an agreement. They adjourned amid acrimony between House and Senate leaders. It was an atmosphere similar to that when the regular session ended in April with an impasse over whether to expand Medicaid. Republican leaders denied that feud carried over into this special session.

With the failure of the Legislature to produce new maps, the job of shaping Florida's 27 congressional districts now falls to state Judge Terry Lewis, who has ordered hearings in September.

Even though finalized congressional maps are still at least a month away, redistricting has already shaken up next year's races in Florida. After the State Supreme Court said Florida's 13th Congressional was one of several to be redrawn, Republican Rep. David Jolly announced he would not run for re-election. Instead, he joined the race for the seat being vacated by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. When it's redrawn, Jolly's district is expected to lean Democratic. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Democrat who lives in the district, now says he's likely to run.

On August 22 2015 09:12 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Unabashed just means that he's not embarrassed or ashamed to call himself a socialist, and that's 100% accurate because he's never shied away from using that term (although sometimes he'll qualify it a bit more by saying Democratic Socialist).

Being unabashed doesn't say anything about the place on the spectrum a person lands in terms of severity of opinion though. It just means he's not embarrassed to use a specific label.

Therefore, I agree with Danglars on the use of the term "unabashed" for Bernie Sanders. He's owning that label of socialist, and he's doing it surprisingly well (unlike the previous generation).