US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7605

On May 23 2017 01:59 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
This argument appears to be uniquely American. I think I just uncovered a disturbing "meme" of some sort, probably propugated by the healthcare and pharma lobby.

I was interested so I randomly read many different sources. By any metric, be it documents produces, and money devoted, per capita nearly every other rich country match or exceed the US. Of interest seems to be the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and Singapore which appears to completely blow USA out of the water proportionally. I think only in citations per capita does USA lead any other country, but USA normally leads in citations and UK matches it. It is only because USA has 5 times the population of the nearest country that it could be said to be leading medical research.


I am pretty sure I read that exact phrase or similar every time healthcare is discussed in the US thread.

On May 23 2017 02:39 Mohdoo wrote:
The solution to the alt-right problem is discourse and lots of it. People on the other side of the aisle should be setting up debates and other instances of idea battles. The solution is to engage with them in excess, not to dismiss them. This should be a really active thing that extends beyond shouting matches. Universities are well equipped to put on debates and I'm surprised it isn't happening more often.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Republicans in North Carolina unlawfully took race into consideration when drawing congressional district boundaries, concentrating black voters in an improper bid to diminish their statewide political clout.

The justices upheld a lower court's February 2016 ruling that threw out two majority-black U.S. House of Representatives districts because Republican lawmakers improperly used race as a factor when redrawing the legislative map after the 2010 census.

The decision came in one of a number of lawsuits accusing Republicans of taking steps at the state level to disenfranchise black and other minority voters who tend to back Democratic candidates.

The justices found that the manner in which the North Carolina voting district boundaries were sketched violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The ruling may offer a roadmap for challenging similarly drawn districts nationwide.

The Trump Taj Mahal casino broke anti-money laundering rules 106 times in its first year and a half of operation in the early 1990s, according to the IRS in a 1998 settlement agreement.

It's a bit of forgotten history that's buried in federal records held by an investigative unit of the Treasury Department, records that congressional committees investigating Trump's ties to Russia have obtained access to, CNN has learned.

...

The 1998 settlement was publicly reported at the time, and the Associated Press noted it was the largest fine the federal government ever slapped on a casino for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

...

According to a dozen anti-money laundering experts, casinos often run into these problems. But getting caught with 106 violations in the casino's opening years is an indicator of a serious problem, they said.

The violations date back to a time when the Taj Mahal was the preferred gambling spot for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn, according to federal investigators who tracked organized crime in New York City. They also occurred at a time when the Taj Mahal casino was short on cash and on the verge of bankruptcy.

...

There were also financial issues at a second location in Atlantic City, The Trump Castle Hotel Casino, according to a 1991 New Jersey Gaming Enforcement report.

In the report, regulators described an incident on December 18, 1990, the day Trump owed an $18.4 million interest payment.

An attorney named Howard Snyder walked into the Castle casino with a certified check for $3.35 million drawn from a bank account belonging to Fred C. Trump. Snyder exchanged the check for 670 of the casino's gray gambling chips, which he put into a case. He then walked out of the casino.

By not cashing out the chips, the transaction amounted to a loan, regulators said.

On May 23 2017 02:44 Plansix wrote:


As the article says, there is a fine line and a lot of thought needs to be put into how to respond. There is room for debate, but only if it is in good faith. One of the goals of Nazism was to use public, democratic platforms as a method of recruiting and pushing their ideas. It is the "all press is good press approach" to spreading your ideas. And since they style themselves as repressed and assaulted by the main stream/establishment, public discourse might backfire.

In short, they can lose the debate and still claim victory, because the main stream education establishment rigged it. And since they are the masters of denying reality, that won't be a huge leap for them or their supporters. Do engagement might not always be the answer.

The Trump administration appears to be providing the New York Times with fake news, after Donald Trump accused the news organisation of peddling false information.

Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the The Times, suggested that Mr Trump’s team had tried sending reporters false material for stories, but that their efforts had been in vain because journalists “actually vet” the information.

On May 23 2017 03:13 warding wrote:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/then-trump-new-york-times-fake-tips-maggie-haberman-news-lies-a7749821.html

DIdn't someone here bring this up recently as a hypothetical? Funny how it actually happen.

On May 23 2017 03:21 ChristianS wrote:

Lol. Yeah that was me. Good to see it not working

On May 23 2017 04:34 Grumbels wrote:

On the other hand, we don't know if it's actually really difficult to mislead reporters or if the Trump administration is uniquely incompetent.

On May 23 2017 04:51 a_flayer wrote:

We don't know that? Where have you been in the past few months?