US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2763

On January 20 2016 04:22 ticklishmusic wrote:
idk gold has been dropping like crazy, you think itll go up?

It turns out that so-called “prisoner swap” with Iran didn’t involve much of a swap. When given the chance, none of the Iranians freed from U.S. custody chose to return to Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations.

As the United States and Iran secretly negotiated the terms of a deal that culminated with a “prisoner swap” this weekend, both parties agreed they would fly their prisoners to Geneva, Switzerland, for the exchange – a neutral country that for years has worked as a diplomatic mediator between the two adversaries.

After an hours-long and nerve-wracking delay, a Swiss plane took off Sunday from a military base in Tehran just before 7 a.m. ET carrying three long-held American prisoners: journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini.

That same day, a plane took off from somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, carrying the seven Iranian-Americans freed from U.S. custody who wanted to return to Iran (or so everyone believed). But not one of them boarded the plane, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the process. The plane left anyway because it was designated to bring the freed Americans on to their second destination in Landstuhl, Germany.

On January 20 2016 04:25 ticklishmusic wrote:


Source

lol

On January 20 2016 03:43 xDaunt wrote:

I don't see how she's not charged with at least gross negligence at this point.

On January 20 2016 04:37 cLutZ wrote:

Because the problem with these espionage/etc laws is they are basically 90% prosecutorial discretion. Petraus was more secure in his communications and handling than this and got charged, but people didn't like him. I don't think Petraus shouldn't have been charged, but unlike a ruling by a Court, deciding to charge/prosecute someone is not precedent setting in a legal sense. A lot of whistle-blowers have been charged for more, or charged for less, or not charged for more. The only way, IMO, we would ever find out what SHOULD be done with her case (in the event of a non-charge) is if someone who totally DGAF evaluated the evidence. Like Richard Posner.

On January 20 2016 04:32 xDaunt wrote:
Frankly, the best investments are going to be in all those highly depressed large oil companies. I don't think that the prices are going to rebound in the near future, but they will eventually and in a big way.

For decades, Alaska has relied on oil to pay its bills. In recent years, up to 90 percent of state spending came from oil revenue. With crude prices at a 12-year low, the state faces at least a $3.5 billion deficit — or two-thirds of its budget.

Lawmakers gathering in Juneau on Tuesday face some unpopular choices, including the first income tax in decades.

To understand why Alaska has a budget problem, stop by any gas station. In Anchorage, gas sells for $2.30 a gallon. A year and a half ago, people here were shelling out more than $4 a gallon. And that's the problem.

Tour guide Lynne Jablonski stopped to fill up her car.

"It's a mixed feeling, right? Because it's a great thing when I look at my credit card bill, but it's not so good for the state that the oil prices are so low," Jablonski says.

As crude prices have dropped, the state's budget has tanked. So America's most oil-dependent state is trying to figure out what to do.

Alaska always knew this day would come. When companies struck oil in Prudhoe Bay in 1968, leaders worried how to manage the windfall.

You've got to remove the money. Put it behind a rope where you cannot utilize it for flamboyant expenditures," says Jay Hammond, Alaska's governor, speaking in 1980. Hammond helped create the Permanent Fund. Call it Alaska's retirement account. Each year, a share of oil money is set aside. The fund has grown to about $50 billion — and the state isn't allowed to touch it, just the earnings.

Former reality-television star Donald Trump remains the Republican frontrunner in New Hampshire, followed by a surging Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) in second place, according to an American Research Group poll released Tuesday.

The ARG poll showed Trump in the lead with 27 percent, followed by Kasich at 20 percent. This represents a significant boost for Kasich, who was trailing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 13-14 percent in ARG’s December poll and tied with him in the same survey earlier this month at 14 percent. Rubio lost ground as Kasich gained in the poll, falling from 14 percent to 10 percent between ARG's two January surveys.


There has also been an increase in support, in absolute terms, for Trump, whose support has increased from 21 percent in December and 25 percent earlier this month.

The latest poll serves to emphasize how differently from the national contest the New Hampshire GOP primary is unfolding. Both nationally and in Iowa, the central drama of the race has become the competition between longtime frontrunner Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose support has surged since mid-December. However, this ARG poll showed support for Cruz at 9 percent, tied with the earlier January poll and down from 10 percent in December.

The ARG telephone poll, conducted from Jan. 15-18, surveyed 600 New Hampshire Republicans and independents. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

On January 20 2016 05:40 IgnE wrote:
Anyone on an internet forum who thinks they are still on the leading edge of something is a chump. There's like literally a trillion dollars out there looking for ROI.

But I think anyone here who thinks China will "recover" or that India will somehow fill China's void is delusional.