US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2476

Nearly $43 million of U.S. taxpayers' money was spent on building a gas station in Afghanistan — 140 times more than it should have cost, according to a government watchdog.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) also said that one of the most "troubling" issues is how the Department of Defense was unable or unwilling to explain why the "ill-conceived" project was so expensive.
"Even considering security costs associated with construction and operation in Afghanistan, this level of expenditure appears gratuitous and extreme," SIGAR said in a report issued Monday.

The agency's top official went further.

"It's an outrageous waste of money that raises suspicions that there is something more there than just stupidity," John Sopko, the special inspector general, told NBC News. "There may be fraud. There may be corruption. But I cannot currently find out more about this because of the lack of cooperation."

On November 03 2015 07:46 notesfromunderground wrote:
Only one poll short. He still had a chance under the old rules, the new rules make it so he has no chance. No reason to change the rules except to keep him off the stage.

On November 03 2015 07:46 notesfromunderground wrote:
Only one poll short. He still had a chance under the old rules, the new rules make it so he has no chance. No reason to change the rules except to keep him off the stage.

The DNC doesn't want any kind of democratic input into the primaries at all. They are terrified.

On November 03 2015 07:50 KwarK wrote:

On the contrary, there are many reasons they could change the rules

On November 03 2015 07:50 KwarK wrote:
who has not yet met the threshold of regular 1% support

On November 03 2015 07:51 GreenHorizons wrote:


It's been made abundantly clear the DNC under DWS has been a third arm of the Hillary campaign from day one. I'm not sure anyone is still under the impression it's not the case?

On November 03 2015 07:52 notesfromunderground wrote:


can you like.. give an example.

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators on Monday said Volkswagen AG had installed emissions-control cheating devices in diesel luxury vehicles in model years 2014 through 2016.

The move pulls Volkswagen's luxury brands, Porsche and Audi, deeper into the emissions cheating scandal that has engulfed the Volkswagen brand. The EPA said the new investigation centers on 3.0 liter engines used mostly in larger, more expensive models.

Among the diesel models officials named as being in violation of U.S. laws are the Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicle and five Audi models, including the A6 sedan and the Q5 SUV.

Volkswagen admitted in September it had installed software, known as defeat devices, in 11 million cars around the world that can evade emissions tests.

The emissions cheats allowed the vehicles to pass tests meant to monitor vehicles' emissions of nitrogen oxide - a smog-causing pollutant.

The "defeat devices bypass, defeat or render inoperative elements of the vehicles' emissions control system," the EPA said in a letter to manufacturers.

AUSTIN — Laura McIntyre began educating her nine children more than a decade ago inside a vacant office at an El Paso motorcycle dealership she ran with her husband and other relatives.

Now the family is embroiled in a legal battle the Texas Supreme Court hears Monday that could have broad implications on the nation’s booming home-school ranks. The McIntyres are accused of failing to teach their children educational basics because they were waiting to be transported to heaven with the second coming of Jesus Christ.

At issue: Where do religious liberty and parental rights to educate one’s children stop and obligations to ensure home-schooled students ever actually learn something begin?

“Parents should be allowed to decide how to educate their children, not whether to educate their children,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

Like other Texas home-school parents, Laura and Michael McIntyre weren’t required to register with state or local education officials. They also didn’t have to teach state-approved curriculums or give standardized tests.

But problems began when the dealership’s co-owner and Michael’s twin brother, Tracy, reported never seeing the children reading, working on math, using computers or doing much of anything educational except singing and playing instruments. He said he heard one of them say learning was unnecessary since “they were going to be raptured.”

On November 03 2015 07:59 notesfromunderground wrote:
And your idea is that they did it... because it makes ordering up podiums easier? Why else would they do it?

Obviously it's not because they thought he was going to be an "unstoppable juggernaut" (That's Bernie Sanders, thanks very much). It's because they don't want to have him pushing Hillary Clinton on campaign finance and making her look bad in comparison. DUH. Use your brain, man

They want to make this a primary season without any dissension in any shape, way, or form. They can't shut up Sanders, but they can shut up anybody else who might bring anything besides "Fear the Republicans!!!!" into the conversation

After a Sunday night meeting, in which the Republican campaigns largely agreed on a framework to negotiate as a group with TV networks for upcoming debates, the Trump campaign has decided it will negotiate independently.

"Just like the CNBC debate, we will negotiate with the media," Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski told NPR. "We're going to make sure we're going to work with the networks to make sure the candidate's interest is at the forefront to negotiate the best deal."

The Washington Post reported that Trump is rejecting the joint letter to TV networks. To that, Lewandowski, who was in the room during negotiations at a hotel in Alexandria, Va., replied, "If you can put 15 people on the letter, best of luck to you."

He didn't outright reject the notion that Trump could sign on but called negotiating as a group "not based in reality." He added, "I don't know if it's a reasonable thing to do. We're not going to wait for 15 people. We're going to do nothing different than we've done in the past."

Lewandowski continued, "We're going to make sure Mr. Trump has his best interests taken care of."

On November 03 2015 08:10 notesfromunderground wrote:
I'm sorry, by logistics you mean the thing you were saying about podiums?

Whatever. I have better things to do than argue with you. It's pointless. You're right. The DNC is a shining beacon of democratic transparency.

On November 03 2015 07:57 KwarK wrote:


Sure, picture the following exchange in the DNC headquarters.

"The guy from the debate called, he wants to know how many podiums we'll need. How many will we need?"
"Well, now Biden is out there's only really two candidates but due to the way we structured the rules it's actually impossible to know if someone qualifies until the debate begins."
"Well that was dumb, why didn't we set the cutoff earlier? Can we change it?"
"We can change it but it'll piss of the guy who isn't currently in the debate anyway and who nobody has heard of."
"Do it, fuck that guy."


The idea that they got together to change the rules to exclude a guy who wasn't qualified under the current rules because they were afraid that if he managed to get 1% support within his own party he might then be an unstoppable juggernaut is a little far fetched.

On November 03 2015 07:52 notesfromunderground wrote:


He had just collected three (?) polls showing one percent and was on the threshold of qualifying under the old rules. You're wrong (as usual).

On November 03 2015 08:22 KwarK wrote:

His own video which you posted actually states that he has just two polls with 1% support. If he'd had three he would have qualified. But he didn't so he wasn't. That was like most of the point of the video did you posted. That he had two and the old cutoff was three by the time of the debate. Did you watch it?

A Muslim-American student pushed the issue of Islamophobia in the US into the spotlight last week, when she asked Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to address the subject before an audience of hundreds at George Mason University.

Remaz Abdelgader, a senior at GMU, in Virginia, wanted to know more about Sanders’ stance on what she called “the growing Islamophobia in this country”.

“If you look at all the Republican candidates,” she said, “in order to feed into their constituents, they’re talking about Islamophobia and they’re constantly bashing Muslims in the media ... Ben Carson, Donald Trump, the biggest bigots.”

Abdelgader was interrupted by thunderous cheers. Sanders waved her on to the stage and embraced her, before she continued.

“As an American Muslim student who aspires to change this world,” she said, “hearing the rhetoric that’s going on in the media makes me sick … I’m constantly trying to raise awareness and make sure that everyone is treated equally in this country. So to the next president of the United States, what do you think about that?”

Sanders’ response lasted several minutes.

“Our job is to build a nation in which we all stand together as one people,” he said. “And you are right. There is a lot of anger being generated, hatred being generated against Muslims in this country … There is hatred being generated against immigrants in this country.

“And if we stand for anything, we have got to stand together and end all forms of racism and I will lead that effort as president of the United States.”

Sanders’ comments about marijuana at the event made headlines, but the video of Abdelgader’s question struck a chord on social media. A video of the exchange on Sanders’ Facebook page has been viewed nearly 300,000 times; a video posted by AJ+ has been shared by more than 8,000 users.

“This wasn’t just a question that I had, this spoke to the reality of so many Muslims across America,” Abdelgader said. “I’m taking back my story, our story, for hundreds and thousands of Muslims in America. I’m speaking to create this change.”

The issue of Islamophobia in the US did make headlines in September, after the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old high school student in Texas whose homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb by teachers. Democratic presidential candidates were quick to express support.

On November 03 2015 09:31 notesfromunderground wrote:


That's a really excellent point.

You see, I forgot whether he had two and needed three, or had three and needed four. But instead of going back and looking, I put the word "three" and followed it with a question mark in parentheses, to indicate my uncertainty about this highly crucial detail. Clearly, this invalidates my entire argument, and by process of elimination we can conclude that it must be the immense logistical difficulty in the procuring of podiums that motivated this rule change (see, the word "Biden" has five letters in it, which is pretty easy to put on a podium, but a six-letter name like "Lessig" really changes the whole game. If you calculate one week per letter, it's necessary to have a six week notice in order to put his name on a podium. Furthermore, for this debate, the podiums must be constructed from a solid block of marble, sourced from the desert of Inner Mongolia, dragged by teams of children with ropes over the steppe, and then labored over by a master craftsman and his team of plucky apprentices for six weeks. There's simply no room for haste or half measures in an endeavor like this).

But I really don't think you actually believe this. You just don't like me and are trying to get me angry so you can have an excuse to ban me. So I just want to take this opportunity to say, I really respect you Kwark, and value you as an interlocutor. I really learn a lot from talking to you, especially when you teach me about Science and the Enlightenment, and how great an idea it is to invest in an equities market trading at a P/E ratio about 1.5 times the historical median.

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