US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7437

On May 03 2017 09:07 Reaper9 wrote:
Americans need to stop fucking over Americans, we are all united under the same banner.

The Balch Springs, Tex., police officer who shot and killed Jacob Edwards, a 15-year-old black high school freshman, has been fired after an internal affairs investigation concluded he violated multiple department policies, officials announced Tuesday night.

Officials identified the officer as Roy Oliver, and said he had been with the department since July 2011.

“After reviewing the findings I have made the decision to terminate Roy Oliver’s employment with the Balch Springs Police Department,” chief Jonathan Haber told reporters Tuesday evening. “My department will continue to be responsive, transparent and accountable.”

The shooting occurred around 11 p.m. Saturday evening, after officers got a call concerning intoxicated teenagers and arrived to find a house party. Department spokesman Pedro Gonzalez said that while officers were inside the house, they heard gunshots outside.

Officers left the house, and saw a vehicle backing into the street, Gonzalez said. Officers yelled for the driver to stop, but the vehicle began pulling forward to drive away. Police opened fire and a single bullet struck and killed Edwards, who was a passenger.

Police initially said that the vehicle, in which Edwards was riding in the passenger seat, reversed “aggressively” at the approaching officers, but later retracted that statement and said that body camera video showed that the vehicle was driving away from officers when Oliver opened fire.

Donald Trump is unlikely to finish his first term as President, according to the leading Democrat on the committee looking into alleged Russian interference in the US election.

Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, privately told friends he puts the odds at two to one against the President completing a full term, the New Yorker reported.

Mr Warner's spokesperson did not deny he had made the remarks, but told the paper the Senator was "not referring specifically to the Russia investigation, but rather the totality of challenges the President is currently facing."

...

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said there was a "real and growing possibility Trump could be impeached" as he shared the New Yorker article on Twitter.

It comes after a source told The Guardian the investigation now has "specific, concrete and corroborative evidence of collusion."

President Donald Trump was "directly involved" in the quest to find the staffer from the National Park Service who retweeted a comparative photo of his inauguration crowd with that of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.

On the day of Trump's inauguration, the official account of the National Park Service retweeted a photo showing a crowd for Obama's event, compared to a smaller crowd that had gathered for Trump's that day. The retweet was quickly taken down.

According to a report from CBS News, who cited emails about the exchange released through the Freedom of Information Act, Trump contacted acting National Park Services director Mike Reynolds about the tweet.

"This has become a very sensitive issue, especially since the President has gotten directly involved and contacted Acting Director Mike Reynolds concerned about one of the images that was retweeted," National Park Services' Chief of Digital Strategy Tim Cash wrote to NPS Chief Information Security Officer Shaun Cavanaugh on January 21, according to CBS News.

The Washington Post first reported on the contact between Reynolds and Trump on January 26, but neither the White House nor the National Park Services confirmed it.

CBS News also reports that a staffer at NPS tried to find the person who retweeted the image by tracing IP addresses, and the agency became concerned the account was compromised.

The push to repeal and replace Obamacare seemed likely to fail yet again as many House Republicans on Tuesday expressed unease with how the proposed legislation would affect people with pre-existing conditions.

In a reversal of the dynamic when Republicans last attempted to repeal Obamacare in March, the new plan has received backing from the Freedom Caucus, a recalcitrant group of arch-conservatives who are more often associated with spoiling the GOP leadership’s agenda than supporting it. This time around a significant number of the holdouts are moderates who are making a rare break with the leadership to oppose the legislation.

The current bill would allow states to waive provisions that require insurers to cover “essential health benefits”, which include maternity, prescription drug treatment and mental health care. It also allows removes protections that guarantee people with pre-existing medical conditions will not be charged higher rates.

Republicans disagree publicly about how the new amendment will affect Americans with pre-existing conditions. Paul Ryan, the House speaker, has stated that sicker Americans would be “better off” under the Republican healthcare plan, and promised that there are a “few layers of protections for pre-existing conditions in this bill”. But the bill is opposed by a coalition of influential advocacy groups, including the American Medical Association.

These changes have alienated previously loyal members of the Republican caucus. On Tuesday, Fred Upton of Michigan, the former chairman of the House energy and commerce committee, announced his opposition to the new version of the healthcare plan, saying an amendment added to appease conservatives “torpedoes” protections for people with pre-existing health conditions.

“I’m not at all comfortable with removing that protection,” Upton said during an interview on a local radio show, WHTC on Tuesday morning. He added: “I cannot support this bill with this provision in it.”

Upton is well respected among fellow Republicans for his expertise on healthcare policy, and has been a leader in past GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. His defection is viewed as a bad sign for the legislation’s prospects. At least 20 Republicans have publicly stated their opposition to the bill and several more remain undecided. House Republicans can only afford to lose 22 votes and pass the bill, assuming all Democrats oppose the measure.

Upton’s loss follows a surprising defection by Billy Long, a Republican from Missouri and a longtime supporter of the president, who said on Monday that he could not support the bill. “I have always stated that one of the few good things about Obamacare is that people with pre-existing conditions would be covered.”

While moving the bill to the right helped Republicans gain support from members of the Freedom Caucus, it further alienated moderates who are well aware that the current bill is likely to be drastically changed in the Senate.

On May 03 2017 11:43 LegalLord wrote:
Well overall we're right back to wondering if Trump is a Russian plant. In light of that, it's hard to say that we accomplished anything with the Syria bombing other than to give the hawks something to talk about.

On May 03 2017 11:54 KwarK wrote:

Or, alternatively, there are problems with the Russian government directly intervening in US elections beyond whether or not the candidate they favoured is a plant. Obviously a plant would be bad but even if there is absolutely nothing beyond what we already know for sure, it's still pretty fucking bad.

On May 03 2017 11:54 KwarK wrote:

Or, alternatively, there are problems with the Russian government directly intervening in US elections beyond whether or not the candidate they favoured is a plant. Obviously a plant would be bad but even if there is absolutely nothing beyond what we already know for sure, it's still pretty fucking bad.

On May 03 2017 11:56 GreenHorizons wrote:


Is it really? What part?

EDIT: Oh the idea that they colluded?

A woman is standing trial on disorderly conduct charges for laughing during U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing.

The trial for Desiree Fairooz, a 61-year-old protester with the group Code Pink, got underway yesterday in D.C. Superior Court after Fairooz declined to accept a plea bargain from prosecutors, who moved forward with the case.

Fairooz laughed after Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who was introducing Sessions, said the then-junior senator from Alabama's history of "treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented," according to the Huffington Post. Video shot by a Huffington Post reporter, who said the laugh was not loud enough to be considered disruptive, is being used as evidence in the case.

Prosecutors contend that Fairooz's laugh constituted an attempt to "impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct" of Sessions' confirmation hearing, the Huffington Post reported.

Code Pink is supporting Fairooz and two other protesters charged with disorderly conduct. The protest group disseminated a statement from Fairooz on Monday.

"I felt it was my responsibility as a citizen to dissent at the confirmation hearing of Senator Jeff Sessions, a man who professes anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT policies, who has voted against several civil rights measures and who jokes about the white supremacist terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan," Fairooz said.

On May 03 2017 12:06 Reaper9 wrote:
Nations have been screwing with each other since ancient times. Spy networks and sabotage has always been a thing of intrigue. For instance, in the first unification wars in China, the Qin's intelligence and spy network is one of the main causes of the other states collapse. Fascinating stuff. Most of the time, they didn't have to do much themselves, but a gentle nudge in the wrong direction is all it takes. Like spies and corrupted officials convincing the Zhao king that a 2-3 year stalemate was blamed on a experienced general, when in fact that general was the one who was keeping the Qin at bay. So the king replaces the old general with a young, rash, inexperienced general. Guess what happened.