EPTUS Politics Mega-thread - Page 7311
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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please. In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up! NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action. | ||
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TheTenthDoc
United States9561 Posts
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LegalLord
United Kingdom13775 Posts
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Gahlo
United States35143 Posts
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LegalLord
United Kingdom13775 Posts
A statement released by "the joint command operation center of Syrian allies," a group that includes Russia and Iran, warned the U.S. against further military actions in the war-torn country, following a missile strike on a Syrian air base last week. Referring to its defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the group warned that they would support Syria and its people "with all means that we have." "The United States crossed red lines by attacking Syria, from now on we will respond to anyone, including America if it attacks Syria and crosses the red lines," the statement read. "America knows very well our ability and capabilities to respond well to them, [and] we will respond without taking into consideration any reaction and consequences." The statement did not include critical details like what kind of military operation would cross such a red line, or what kind of response would be made on the part of Syria and its allies, but noted that they would work to "liberate" Syria from occupation. "Rest assured that we will liberate Syria from all kinds of occupying forces, it does not matter from where they came to the occupied part of Syria," the statement warned. "Russia and Iran will not allow the United States to be the only superpower in world." The statement warned the U.S. that allies of Syria were "closely and deeply following American forces' moves and presence" in the areas of northern Syria and northwestern Iraq, and that they will "consider them [to be] an occupying force." Source Huh. Hmm. This is what we wanted I guess? | ||
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GreenHorizons
United States23221 Posts
On April 10 2017 10:35 iPlaY.NettleS wrote: Bernie Sanders : "Yes we have to get rid of Assad but we cannot do it unilaterally" https://mobile.twitter.com/MeetThePress/status/851069274001158144 Video embedded in tweet, see link. Not that anyone cares, but I disagree with Bernie on this. Should have been more like this + Show Spoiler + https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/850413328283439104 On April 10 2017 12:23 Gahlo wrote: That would be pretty awesome. I don't know of any downside to cops having body cams. One downside is omnipotent video surveillance and post action justification. Essentially gives officers the ability to legally film everything they can see and then review the footage to see if there is any way to justify illegal actions they already took. There are some way more basic reforms that are free that police could do tomorrow if they weren't intentionally being the largest criminal gang in the US. | ||
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a_flayer
Netherlands2826 Posts
On April 10 2017 14:11 GreenHorizons wrote: Not that anyone cares, but I disagree with Bernie on this. Should have been more like this + Show Spoiler + https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/850413328283439104 Those are far too many letters, dude. No one is going to read all that. I expect that very shortly an ultimatum will be sent to Russia/Syria sort of like this one. You can basically copy it word for word, replacing Iraq with Syria and so on. Although that would also not fit in a tweet, so maybe some further editing is required. | ||
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LegalLord
United Kingdom13775 Posts
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OuchyDathurts
United States4588 Posts
On April 10 2017 18:21 LegalLord wrote: From what I've been reading it looks pretty clear that we're about to have an escalation in NK and/or Syria. The Trump FP officials all indicate as much. God fucking damn it. We won't be able to have the Trump 100 days without starting an international crisis, will we? Did anyone actually think it would be any other way? In the Republican primary debates they were all jerking themselves off over starting wars with North Korea, Russia, China, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran. I'm also pretty sure I'm forgetting a few countries the Republicans were clamoring to start wars with, the debates had us fighting over half the planet. Trump was up there saying the same shit as the rest of them, this whole Trump peacenik meme was a joke. | ||
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Biff The Understudy
France7888 Posts
On April 10 2017 18:39 OuchyDathurts wrote: Did anyone actually think it would be any other way? In the Republican primary debates they were all jerking themselves off over starting wars with North Korea, Russia, China, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran. I'm also pretty sure I'm forgetting a few countries the Republicans were clamoring to start wars with, the debates had us fighting over half the planet. Trump was up there saying the same shit as the rest of them, this whole Trump peacenik meme was a joke. But remember, Hillary was a psycopathic hawk that was going to go to war with everyone. The interesting thing with Trump is the apparent complete absence of any kind of even short term strategy with basically everything. US FP is now dictated by how Trump feels. That's a bit worrying considering he has the emotional stability of an angsty teenager. | ||
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OuchyDathurts
United States4588 Posts
On April 10 2017 18:47 Biff The Understudy wrote: But remember, Hillary was a psycopathic hawk that was going to go to war with everyone. The interesting thing with Trump is the apparent complete absence of any kind of even short term strategy with basically everything. US FP is now dictated by how Trump feels. That's a bit worrying considering he has the emotional stability of an angsty teenager. I'm not saying Hillary isn't a hawk, but she's also not mentally unbalanced and retarded. She's not dumb enough to just start a war with Russia (a huge meme from the right at the time) and she (along with every other person with a brain on earth) knows that its best to leave NK alone as they're a threat to no one. Just let them stomp around and think they're tough to impress their citizens but everyone on earth knows they're a joke who is harmless....besides Trump that is. Good lord if he hates refugees and humanitarian aid just wait for the fresh humanitarian hell and millions of refugees that getting involved with NK will make. Syria will look like a walk in the park. They're all talk, let them run their mouth, no one cares. | ||
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a_flayer
Netherlands2826 Posts
On April 10 2017 18:47 Biff The Understudy wrote: But remember, Hillary was a psycopathic hawk that was going to go to war with everyone. The interesting thing with Trump is the apparent complete absence of any kind of even short term strategy with basically everything. US FP is now dictated by how Trump feels. That's a bit worrying considering he has the emotional stability of an angsty teenager. This makes it doubly worrying that people in the media are saying things like what Fareed Zakaria said on CNN (see the spoiler) in response to the bombing: + Show Spoiler + "I think Donald Trump became President of the United States." That is just going to encourage him to keep bombing shit. | ||
micronesia
United States24676 Posts
On April 10 2017 19:00 OuchyDathurts wrote: Are you talking about the country with an unstable leader who has been purging tremendous amounts of leadership? The country with tons of conventional weaponry aimed at Seoul, SK? The country that is literally starving its people in order to accelerate development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile delivery systems?and she (along with every other person with a brain on earth) knows that its best to leave NK alone as they're a threat to no one. Just let them stomp around and think they're tough to impress their citizens but everyone on earth knows they're a joke who is harmless....besides Trump that is. I agree that NK's bluster should not be taken at face value, but to say they are a harmless joke considering the amount of damage NK does to its own people and the potential for miscalculation resulting in deaths of many thousands or millions is misguided. Further, to assert this is the opinion of everyone save Trump is kind of out there. | ||
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farvacola
United States18826 Posts
On April 10 2017 19:20 a_flayer wrote: This makes it doubly worrying that people in the media are saying things like what Fareed Zakaria said on CNN (see the spoiler): + Show Spoiler + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCM3TM2Iq4k "I think Donald Trump became President of the United States." That is just going to encourage him to keep bombing shit. I was surprised to see Zakaria take this line, as in the past, he's been one of the only respectable CNN FP contributors. Now it looks like not even that is the case any longer. | ||
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Dangermousecatdog
United Kingdom7084 Posts
Each of these cameras cost $4640? A GoPro camera only costs $500. Obviously there need to be changes to battery life and the like, but how does that equate to roughly 10 times the cost. | ||
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farvacola
United States18826 Posts
On April 10 2017 19:45 Dangermousecatdog wrote: Each of these cameras cost $4640? A GoPro camera only costs $400. Obviously there need to be changes to battery life and the like, but how does that equate to 10 times the cost. Two things: 1) police body cameras are sold as components of "systems"; I bet that's where they're getting that cost figure. 2) government contracts always add on a silly premium, particularly where police and military are concerned. | ||
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a_flayer
Netherlands2826 Posts
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
A coalition of government watchdog groups plans to sue the Trump administration on Monday with the aim of compelling the White House to continue President Barack Obama’s practice of releasing logs of lobbyists and others who visit the complex. Since President Trump took office in January, the website where such records had been publicly available has gone dark, and White House officials will say only that the policy is under review, making no assurances that they will operate with the same openness. Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the same group whose legal actions led to a settlement with the Obama administration in 2009, opening up the White House visitor logs for the first time. “It is crucial to understand who is potentially influencing the decision-making of the president, particularly when you have a White House that tends to lean toward secret decision-making,” said Noah Bookbinder, the organization’s executive director. After initial resistance from the Obama administration, nearly 6 million names of White House visitors were made public under the deal crafted in 2009, released in batches roughly 90 to 120 days after the visits occurred. Last week, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say whether the Trump administration would continue that practice, which has not been universally applauded. Some past and present government officials have argued that White House officials should be permitted to conduct meetings outside the public eye. “I tend to feel it’s the prerogative of the White House to have people come visit, and the public doesn’t need to know who they are,” said Andrew H. Card Jr., chief of staff under President George W. Bush. “We don’t have a log on everybody who visits Congress, and they’re a coequal branch of government.” Public access to the logs can serve as a deterrent to some “prominent people” who might otherwise be inclined to counsel the president, Card said. “They’ll say, ‘I’d love to meet with the president, but I don’t want my name to appear in a log.’ ” News organizations routinely used the logs, which are generated by the Secret Service, to shed light on the Obama administration. In 2012, for example, The Washington Post reported on a single day in January of that year when a steady stream of lobbyists were among the thousands of visitors to the White House and surrounding executive buildings. The logs’ existence burst back into the news last month when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) went to the White House grounds to review intelligence reports on which he later briefed the president. Both Nunes and White House officials initially declined to say whom Nunes had visited and who had cleared him onto the grounds, information that is typically contained in the logs, along with the length of the stay. The 2009 agreement permitted some exceptions to disclosure, including purely private visits to the Obama family, such as friends arriving for sleepovers with the president’s school-age daughters. The Obama White House also maintained the prerogative not to release records of particularly “sensitive” meetings, such as interviews with potential Supreme Court nominees. There were also reports of attempts to get around the disclosure requirements. In 2010, for example, the New York Times reported that a Caribou Coffee location just outside the White House grounds had become a popular destination for meetings with lobbyists that wouldn’t show up in the official logs. But by and large, advocates for making the logs public say they were pleased with the Obama administration’s practices. “We’re only asking for the same Secret Service data that Obama published routinely,” said Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, another plaintiff in the lawsuit against the government. Blanton’s organization is an independent nonprofit group that collects and publishes U.S. government documents. Also joining the lawsuit is the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, a new entity that seeks to preserve and expand freedom of the press. Among the legal questions at issue is whether White House visitor logs are controlled by the White House or the Secret Service. The distinction matters because White House records are not subject to freedom of information requests and can be shielded from public view. Executive agencies, including the Secret Service, on the other hand, are subject to the disclosure law. The most recent court decision on the subject came in 2013, in a case in which Judicial Watch, a conservative group, sought visitor logs from the Obama administration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the records are controlled by the White House. That’s one reason plaintiffs in the new action have chosen a different venue for their lawsuit, which is being filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit lists the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, as the defendant. A spokesman for the department declined to comment Sunday. The plaintiffs say their interest in Trump visitor records extends far beyond the White House complex, given that the president often holds meetings at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and other properties he owns in the New York and Washington areas. It is unclear what kind of records the Secret Service generates regarding members and guests at Mar-a-Lago, which is a private club, when Trump is on the property. Blanton said the agency should have a similar logging system in place there. “Either they have one or they should have one,” Blanton said. “Maybe this lawsuit will speed up the process of getting such a system in place.” Source | ||
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OuchyDathurts
United States4588 Posts
On April 10 2017 19:28 micronesia wrote: Are you talking about the country with an unstable leader who has been purging tremendous amounts of leadership? The country with tons of conventional weaponry aimed at Seoul, SK? The country that is literally starving its people in order to accelerate development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile delivery systems? I agree that NK's bluster should not be taken at face value, but to say they are a harmless joke considering the amount of damage NK does to its own people and the potential for miscalculation resulting in deaths of many thousands or millions is misguided. Further, to assert this is the opinion of everyone save Trump is kind of out there. NK is a threat to absolutely no one outside of NK. Starting a fight with them ends up with millions upon millions of refugees that no one wants. Along with millions dead in NK and SK and possibly Japan. They're a joke which is why everyone with a brain leaves them to their own devices where they'll never do anything but bark in their corner. Messing with the Korean peninsula would end up as the biggest humanitarian nightmare since WW2 surely and with literally zero up shot at all. You got rid of the Kim's, killed millions, unleashed millions of refugees no one wants to take in, on top of throwing geopolitics into chaos, decades of rebuilding, great job. It's like Iraq, it sucks but going in there is a million times worse for everyone on earth. Sadaam was a monster but his country, the region, and the planet were in better shape when he was in charge. I hope we've learned that lesson finally. | ||
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LightSpectra
United States1452 Posts
The scary thing to ponder is if Trump is aware of that fact and confident of it. | ||
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Sermokala
United States13925 Posts
On April 10 2017 12:11 WolfintheSheep wrote: So you don't think any governing body should be able to say "no more weekly Resort vacations that are costing millions of dollars"? Again political football. Of course that makes sense but there isn't a real way to do it. The second you start actually thinking through that proposal past scoring points in the political game you'd see how dumb it is. | ||
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