US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2296

A YouTube video that went viral — showing a Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 911 GT3 tearing through residential streets of Beverly Hills; flying though stop signs while pedestrians waited to cross, narrowly avoiding other motorists — has caused outrage, with neighbors pleading with police to take action before someone gets hurt.

According to NBC4, the owner of said vehicles is claiming “diplomatic immunity,” telling a video journalist who asked for comment, “I could have you killed and get away with it.”

The name of the car’s owner has not been released, but he is rumored to be part of the Qatari royal family, and indeed the yellow LaFerrari — that boasts 950 hybrid horsepower and a price tag of $1.5 million — is registered to Qatar.

In the video the cars are seen screaming through residential streets, an area neighbors claim children play, before returning to the $10 million rented house in which the owner resides with smoke billowing from under the Ferrari’s hood. Video journalist Jacob Rogers told NBC4 he confronted the LaFerrari owner, and having been told he could effectively get away with murder due to his diplomatic status, he finished the brief interaction, according to Rogers, by saying, “’(Expletive) America’ and threw a cigarette at me.“

Local police are now investigating the incident which occurred last Saturday evening, telling Jalopnik that “It’s in the hands of the State Department now,” and, “Honestly, we don’t even know who was driving the Ferrari. All this driving occurred outside the presence of the police.”

Police did state that they have positively identified the driver of the Porsche.

As for the “diplomatic immunity” claims, if the correct credentialing is present, that could be a legitimate boundary to prevent the State Department from prosecuting the driver(s). It is possible for the official’s home country to waive immunity in the most serious of cases — such as in 2002 when a Colombian diplomat was prosecuted in London for manslaughter — but cases like this are rare. However diplomats may be expelled from a country where pleas to waive immunity have been denied.

In the case of the Beverly Hills LaFerrari/GT3 owner(s), time will only tell what punishment, if any, they receive. Despite the GT3 driver being identified, as of now, no charges have been made.

On September 16 2015 12:34 cLutZ wrote:


Not a lot of Native American terrorists. Or German. Or Japanese.

The Hamburg cell (German: Hamburger Zelle) or Hamburg terror cell (German: Hamburger Terrorzelle) was, according to U.S. and German intelligence agencies, a group of radical Islamists based in Hamburg, Germany that included students who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks. Important members included Mohamed Atta, who led the four hijacking teams in 2001 and piloted American Airlines Flight 11; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who conspired with the other three members but was unable to enter the United States; and Marwan al-Shehhi, who piloted United Airlines Flight 175, Ziad Jarrah, who piloted United Airlines Flight 93 and failed to hit a target in Washington D.C., claimed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to have been the Capitol. Less important members included Said Bahaji, Zakariya Essabar, Mounir el-Motassadeq, and Abdelghani Mzoudi.

The rate of uninsured Americans dropped to 10.4 percent last year, a decrease of roughly 3 percentage points from 2013, according to data released by the Census Bureau today. In addition, 33 million Americans were uninsured last year, 8.8 million fewer than in 2013.

The date from the Current Population Survey is the first released since the full implementation of Obamacare. The expansion of Medicaid in most states and the availability of subsidies to purchase private insurance through exchanges has made coverage more accessible for millions of Americans.

The Current Population Survey, which has been produced annually since 1987, is widely regarded as the most authoritative source for measuring the country’s uninsured rate. However, the Census Bureau changed its methodology last year, raising concerns from conservatives that the change was an effort to obscure the effects of Obamacare.

But with a second year of data now available under the new system, it’s clear that there’s been a significant reduction in the number and rate of uninsured Americans. Similar studies produced by the Urban Institute, RAND Corporation, Commonwealth Fund and Gallup have all produced similar results.

The Census Bureau will release another study looking at the health insurance status of Americans, the American Community Survey, on Thursday.

On September 17 2015 01:53 Toadesstern wrote:

are we forgetting about this whole 9/11 thing? If I'm not ridiculously mistaken those guys were living in Hamburg?

google tells me
(wikipedia)

Though granted, from a quantitive point of view, sure, there are very few crazies in Germany / Japan that are crazy enough for that given how good of a life they usually have with Germany / Japan being pretty wealthy in general.

On September 17 2015 03:09 cLutZ wrote:

Very interesting theory: 9/11 was committed by German terrorists. Do you know what faction they are from? Are they neo-Nazis who want Germany to return to its Pre-D-Day borders? Are they Bismark loyalists advocating for 1914 borders? Or are they descendants of the Holy Roman Empire trying to reassert the bloodline of Friedrick Barbarossa?

On September 17 2015 04:03 Toadesstern wrote:

I thought my last paragraph made it obvious enough that it wasn't meant all that serious. I just found it funny and didn't want to outright say so giving the topic at hand.

On September 17 2015 04:39 IgnE wrote:
I don't get it.

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed is a kid who loves to tinker, and was excited to show teachers at his Irving, Texas High school his latest invention: a clock with “a digital display, built into a metal case with a circuit board.” For this offense he was handcuffed and arrested, while bullying cops persisted in pointing out that the contraption “looks like a movie bomb to me.”

The mad leap to criminalize Ahmed’s clock has drawn attention to the U.S.’ knee-jerk Islamophobia and led to thousands of Twitter users sharing stories of their own actually dangerous science experiments that they were not criminalized for carrying out. Users have also contrasted images of kids with guns against the picture of Ahmed, scared and handcuffed in his NASA t-shirt.

On September 17 2015 05:04 oneofthem wrote:
this is a 12 on the how texas is it scale

On September 17 2015 05:08 Plansix wrote:

There is a pair of pictures floating around with two kids of about 10 years old holding rifles and this poor guy in hand cuffs wearing his NASA shirt. The pair is title "Yesterday in Texas." I considered getting it framed.

Also this: http://www.cnet.com/news/13-year-old-builds-working-nuclear-fusion-reactor/

Just think if our poor boy had been working on that.