US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6834

WASHINGTON — Weeks before President Trump’s inauguration, his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, discussed American sanctions against Russia, as well as areas of possible cooperation, with that country’s ambassador to the United States, according to current and former American officials.

Throughout the discussions, the message Mr. Flynn conveyed to the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak — that the Obama administration was Moscow’s adversary and that relations with Russia would change under Mr. Trump — was unambiguous and highly inappropriate, the officials said.

The accounts of the conversations raise the prospect that Mr. Flynn violated a law against private citizens’ engaging in diplomacy, and directly contradict statements made by Trump advisers. They have said that Mr. Flynn spoke to Mr. Kislyak a few days after Christmas merely to arrange a phone call between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Mr. Trump after the inauguration.

But current and former American officials said that conversation — which took place the day before the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia over accusations that it used cyberattacks to help sway the election in Mr. Trump’s favor — ranged far beyond the logistics of a post-inauguration phone call. And they said it was only one in a series of contacts between the two men that began before the election and also included talk of cooperating in the fight against the Islamic State, along with other issues.

The officials said that Mr. Flynn had never made explicit promises of sanctions relief, but that he had appeared to leave the impression it would be possible.

Mr. Flynn could not immediately be reached for comment about the converations, details of which were first reported by The Washington Post. Despite Mr. Flynn’s earlier denials, his spokesman told the Post that “while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

During the Christmas week conversation, he urged Mr. Kislyak to keep the Russian government from retaliating over the coming sanctions — it was an open secret in Washington that they were in the works — by telling him that whatever the Obama administration did could be undone, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified material.

Days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Vice President-elect Mike Pence also denied that Mr. Flynn had discussed sanctions with Mr. Kislyak. He said he had personally spoken to Mr. Flynn, who assured him that the conversation was an informal chat that began with Mr. Flynn extending Christmas wishes.

“They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia,” Mr. Pence said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

Some officials regarded the conversation as a potential violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments in disputes involving the American government, according to one current and one former American official familiar with the case.

On February 10 2017 22:31 pmh wrote:
The PNAC, project for the new American century seems to have been put on hold for a while,it probably was to much anyway. 1600-1700 was the dutch century, 1700-1900 the English century,1900-2000 the American century, 2000-2100 is going to be the Asian/Chinese century.

On February 11 2017 00:19 ticklishmusic wrote:
looking at the list, i could say that i eat like people on food stamps (minus soda because i get that for free at work so i refuse to pay for it), or people on food stamps basically eat the same as other americans.

On February 11 2017 00:24 biology]major wrote:


6 weeks rotating through a ob/gyn clinic as a student, it was my experience. I did not once see an abortion case out of medical necessity, it was mostly people who didn't know they were pregnant for a while (usually overweight). It's anecdotal, but I know mishaps aren't a minority case, they are the majority.

Yes I sympathize with the people on this issue, I'm not black/white here, there should be leniency in early trimester.

On February 11 2017 00:24 biology]major wrote:


6 weeks rotating through a ob/gyn clinic as a student, it was my experience. I did not once see an abortion case out of medical necessity, it was mostly people who didn't know they were pregnant for a while (usually overweight). It's anecdotal, but I know mishaps aren't a minority case, they are the majority.

Yes I sympathize with the people on this issue, I'm not black/white here, there should be leniency in early trimester.

On February 11 2017 00:12 biology]major wrote:


That's exactly what happens in a lot of the cases

Wind power expanded so much in 2016 that it is now the largest source of renewable electricity capacity in the United States, an industry group reported Thursday.

In a study, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said wind energy grew at its second-fastest pace ever during the last three months of 2016. Wind passed hydropower dams to become the largest source of renewable electricity capacity in the U.S., and the fourth-largest energy source overall.

“American wind power is now the number one source of renewable capacity, thanks to more than 100,000 wind workers across all 50 states,” AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan said in a statement.

“Growing this made-in-the-USA clean energy resource helps rural communities pay for new roads, bridges, and schools, while bringing back manufacturing jobs to the Rust Belt.
Electricity capacity is one of several metrics used in the energy sector, measuring the maximum potential electric output for a generator.

Electricity generation is the amount of electricity a source actually produces. At the end of 2015, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, wind power accounted for 4.7 percent of electricity generation in the United States, behind coal (33 percent), natural gas (33 percent), nuclear (20 percent) and hydropower (6 percent).

AWEA said it expects to generate enough wind power to account for 10 percent of the U.S.'s electricity by 2020.

The report — and AWEA’s goals for the industry — is likely to serve as fodder for congressional debates over the energy mix in the United States, as well as long-term disputes over tax incentives for renewable energy.

A wind production tax credit — a key incentive for the industry — is set to expire in 2019, though Congress has renewed it several times in the past.

On February 10 2017 16:34 oneofthem wrote:
yea no, give me 2 minutes and i can predict what milo says next on a particular topic. it's not rocket science. neither are you

On February 11 2017 00:51 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


Agreed. I find that many pro-life advocates seem to believe that pregnant women make the decision to have an abortion very easily/ in a flippant way/ with no loss of sleep/ with a huge smile on their face, rather than the frequent reality that the women understand the severity of the situation and get depressed or even feel badly/ guilty doing it but still realize that they should do it/ need to do it for certain reasons. These women aren't cackling wildly as they abort their fetuses, nor do they treat the process with indifference.

On February 11 2017 00:45 LegalLord wrote:
On the "welfare queen eating lobster" matter: lobster is very cheap if you know where to get it; this is a non-issue.

On February 11 2017 00:54 IgnE wrote:


rocket science isn't that hard either comrade. but you must have watched a lot of milo to be able to predict everything he says. that's a lot of fascination for someone so disdainful.

On February 11 2017 00:47 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
"King Coal" is dead.



Source

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is preparing a major overhaul to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would place it squarely under President Trump’s authority, according to a memo obtained by The Hill.

Hensarling is overhauling his broad legislation to rework the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, putting in place changes that would significantly curtail the CFPB’s powers and make it answer directly to the president. [...]

Under the plan, the agency also would no longer be able to regulate entities already regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. And it could no longer levy fines against institutions, seeing its enforcement powers limited to cease and desist letters and subpoenas.

On February 11 2017 00:54 IgnE wrote:


rocket science isn't that hard either comrade. but you must have watched a lot of milo to be able to predict everything he says. that's a lot of fascination for someone so disdainful.

On February 11 2017 00:44 ticklishmusic wrote:
cases with medical necessity are rare, but the consequences are rather easier to weigh compared to a woman who may not have sex ed, accidentally got pregnant, and lacks the means to care for her child.

in an idealized world abortion would not be necessary except for medical necessity (in an ideal world it would probably not be needed at all). however, given that people don't get sex ed let alone the medical training bio has, abortion is an arguably necessary stopgap to prevent a lot more hardship.

On February 11 2017 00:12 biology]major wrote:


That's exactly what happens in a lot of the cases