US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2699

On December 28 2015 01:59 oneofthem wrote:
i have come to the conclusion that bernie fanboys are not really trying to solve any problems.

On December 28 2015 01:37 Mohdoo wrote:


GH has said he'll vote for Trump if Clinton doesn't win because he wants the country to collapse sooner than later out of resentment for Sanders losing. I'm not sure I'd put much into his characterization of the black vote.

The Republican Party is divided over whether to attack the science of climate change when opposing liberal policies.

Many of the most vocal Republicans say they have significant problems with the scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity is the main cause. The skeptics include presidential hopefuls Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Capitol Hill chairmen Sen. Jim Inhofe (Okla.) and Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas).

But others in the GOP aren’t interested in litigating the science. They say it’s more important — and far easier — to show that Democratic climate proposals would be disastrous to the economy and kill jobs.
The split comes as more and more voters, particularly young people and minorities, say in opinion polls that they believe climate change is real and want action to fight it.

Democrats have lined up firmly behind that view, with President Obama set to implement carbon dioxide limits for power plants that amount to the most significant action yet by the federal government to fight climate change.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said that since science underpins climate change policies, it’s important to examine it in detail.

“We know that there’s an ideological obsession to advance on this global warming agenda,” said Sessions.

“Good policy should reflect the best science that we have. But a lot of the predictions that were confidently made have not occurred,” he said, pointing to predictions of temperature increases and storm activity that he said did not pan out.

Inhofe, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, brought national attention to his crusade against climate science when he threw a snowball on the Senate floor during on a cold February day to mock alarmist climate conclusions.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was presiding over the Senate’s debate, as he removed the snowball from a plastic bag.

“It’s a snowball. And it’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.”

Comedians, Obama, greens, Democrats and others still bring up Inhofe’s “snowball moment” to mock the Republican Party’s “denial” of climate change.

Many of the party’s presidential hopefuls have aligned with climate skeptics, including Cruz, Carson and real estate mogul Donald Trump.

On December 28 2015 07:50 GreenHorizons wrote:


Talk to black people about it, then get back to me. I'll tell you now, Hillary's Abuela pander and then her Kwanza pander is going to drive those numbers down further.

On December 28 2015 13:50 Mohdoo wrote:


We have polls for that. If you are saying people you talk to tend to support the things you're saying, that's not exactly surprising.

On December 28 2015 16:35 Mohdoo wrote:
I think it's easy to see a really common online position and assume it represents a larger portion than it really does. I see all sorts of silly BLM memes and stuff posted, but in the end, it's about the whole population, not angry youth. If you browsed the politics subreddit, you'd think Sanders was a sure victory, yet every poll shows him to be a distraction at best.

In the end, i think you really overestimate the political power of angry youth. Young black people have been mad for a long time and it never amounts to anything. A bunch of memes on facebook about black people getting beat up by police doesn't translate to a political movement and it doesn't allow Sanders to win. The 35-50 age group still needs to be on board and that's not what we're seeing. I wish it weren't the case. I think it's easy to see overwhelming support among the internet, but remember Ron Paul? Pretty similar situation. Sanders is doing a lot better than Paul, but in the end, it's mainly just internet hype, not actual electable numbers.

ObamaCare is entering the pivotal year of 2016 on a stronger footing, with healthcare officials touting stronger-than-expected demand so far in this year’s sign-up season.

Over the past year, the Obama administration has driven the uninsured rate to record lows and beat back its last major Supreme Court challenge, helping to soften the often-sharp politics of the healthcare law ahead of a presidential election year.

Signups in recent weeks have beaten last year’s totals while also bringing in a larger share of key populations like young people under age 35, signaling good news for health insurers.

“The marketplace is strong and growing,” Marketplace CEO Kevin Counihan said Tuesday after releasing extensive data on this year’s signups.

Still, major obstacles are ahead, namely a presidential contest that could result in a dismantling of the law if a Republican wins the White House.

ObamaCare also remains a political loser, with 40 percent of voters approving and 52 percent disapproving of the law, according to a New York Times/CBS poll released this month.

The next administration will also have to quell uncertainties about the still-fledging healthcare marketplace while tackling rising prescription drug costs and trying to spread the word about the law to increasingly harder-to-reach populations.

“It’s been a great success, a greater success than a lot of people expected,” said Anne Filipic, president of Enroll America and a former Obama administration health adviser.

On December 28 2015 18:14 RenSC2 wrote:
Iowa will pretty clearly go to Clinton. The interesting one will be New Hampshire. Right now Sanders has a small lead over her. If he can hold that lead and get the vote there, then things get interesting.

On the national level, up to this point Sanders has been a non-story. He's the old politician who's polling 20 points behind Clinton and doesn't have a legit shot despite being the #2 contender. However, if he can get that one win in New Hampshire, it suddenly makes him legit.

Unless the media is even worse than I think, Sanders winning New Hampshire becomes a big story. All the networks will start running the "Who is this guy?", "coming out of nowhere" underdog stories. Suddenly Sanders gets publicity and recognition. If he can leverage that coverage into momentum, he could possibly carry it to a national victory.

Or he could act "crazy" while getting that coverage and Howard Dean (verb) himself right out of the race. Or the media could really be worse than I think and continue to treat Sanders as a non-story and never give him coverage even after a win... then I'll start believing conspiracy theories. Until then, I'll continue to think that the media is interested in money and pushing whatever story they think will get them eyeballs.

If he doesn't win New Hampshire, then that closes the door on his best opportunity to really make this a race. Him losing Iowa is a non-story and not worth getting upset about, but losing New Hampshire should probably be the end of the Sanders campaign.

Donald Trump, billionaire Republican presidential frontrunner, has changed his mind about wages: Americans aren’t earning enough. He’s also not keen on Wall Street. The shift has Trump on a collision course with Democrat Bernie Sanders – while oddly agreeing with many of his points.

“Wages in are [sic] country are too low, good jobs are too few, and people have lost faith in our leaders. We need smart and strong leadership now!” Trump tweeted on Monday.

The opinion appeared to reverse what the Republican frontrunner said in November during the fourth Republican debate. Asked if he was sympathetic to the protesters demanding a $15-an-hour minimum wage, Trump said: “I can’t be.”

“[T]axes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave [the minimum wage] the way it is,” Trump said at the time. “People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum. But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it.”

Sanders, a senator from Vermont and self-described socialist, used those comments to criticize Trump while appearing on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday.

“This is a guy who does not want to raise minimum wage,” he said of Trump. “In fact, he has said that wages in America are too high.”

Trump lashed back at Sanders, tweeting: “[Bernie Sanders]–who blew his campaign when he gave Hillary a pass on her e-mail crime, said that I feel wages in America are too high. Lie!”

In the days after the fourth Republican debate, Trump attempted to clarify that he was not speaking of wages in general, just about the US federal minimum wage which has remained at $7.25 since July 2009.

After more than a year of investigation, a Cleveland grand jury declined to bring charges against either of the two police officers involved in the November 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was playing with a toy weapon in a park.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty announced the decision Monday afternoon, adding that he did not recommend that grand jury bringing charges

On December 29 2015 05:18 GreenHorizons wrote:
Absolutely disgusting...



Source

What kind of prosecutor goes to a grand jury to defend the accused...? I know! A corrupt one!

On December 29 2015 05:30 JumboJohnson wrote:


Is anyone really surprised?

On December 29 2015 08:03 Deathstar wrote:
This is what Tamir Rice's toy gun looked like. Is there reasonable evidence that the cops felt their lives were in danger? Reminder, Tamir Rice is 5' 7" and 195 lbs at the time of the shooting holding what looks like a real gun in broad daylight. Whether he should have been shot or not is different from whether this was an injustice.

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