US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7690

On May 31 2017 10:50 Doodsmack wrote:
Wonder how many times over his cell phone is monitored

https://twitter.com/fahrenthold/status/869730105848934400

On May 31 2017 10:57 Gahlo wrote:
I wonder if Trump himself ever said something about the importance of using 1 official device from work. If there is, somebody should play it back to him, since he's the only one he'll listen to that isn't blood related or banging his daughter.

U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance told hundreds of constituents Tuesday evening that he does not back President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, but the five-term Republican congressman remained guarded in his criticism of the growing scandals involving the administration’s communication with Russian officials.

“Regarding the budget document, I do not support it,” Lance told a packed auditorium of around 400 people during a town hall at Union County College in Cranford. “The president proposes and Congress disposes.”

Trump’s recently released budget proposal contains significant cuts to social safety net programs, including Medicaid, food stamps and Social Security disability benefits.

The proposal, Lance said, was “merely a blueprint as to how to move forward.” But, he said, cuts it calls for “are too significant.”

Lance also voiced confidence in his fellow Republican state delegation colleague, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, though Frelinghuysen’s name was greeted with a loud chorus of boos from the audience. The congressman from North Jersey has come under intense criticism for refusing to hold a town hall and for supporting the House Republican Obamacare repeal plan.

For his part, Lance broke with the GOP line earlier this month when he voted against the Obamacare repeal plan, but many of the audience members on Tuesday were pushing for him to further distance himself from Trump.

Lance represents the 7th Congressional District, which includes parts of Essex, Morris, Somerset, Union and Warren counties and all of Hunterdon County. Historically, it has been a solid Republican district. However, it swung for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and was recently changed from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican” by The Cook Political Report in the wake of the Obamacare repeal vote.

During the 90-minute town hall, Alan from Somerville, who identified himself as a registered Republican, told Lance he had lost faith in GOP, given the “clear criminality of the current administration and the lack of outcry or action from the party in control.”

Alan asked Lance when he would call on the administration to release the president’s tax returns, financial disclosure forms regarding Trump family investments and more information about Russia's involvement in the November election.

“When will you call them out? What will it take to make a clear statement?” Alan asked.

The mild-mannered Lance carefully selected his responses, gliding over some of the more charged components.

The congressman said he supported the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller by the Justice Department as special counsel to investigate the issue.

“I think that is an excellent step and I believe that Mr. Mueller will investigate the matters that you have raised and he will do so in a completely impartial and above board manner,” Lance said.

He also said he believed Trump’s tax returns “are likely to be subpoenaed by the special counsel.”

Lance kicked the issue of whether the Trump family’s financial interests violated the U.S. Constitution to the Supreme Court.

The Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution bars federal officials from accepting payments from foreign governments. Lance gave a theoretical example of whether a foreign government paying to rent the ballroom at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., would constitute a violation.

“That is an open question, ladies and gentlemen. I believe that should be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States," he said.

Pressed further by cries from the audience to denounce the president, Lance responded, “I criticize the president where I disagree with him. I indicate where I support him.”

“A fair and impartial investigation regarding the whole Russian situation should occur,” he said. “I think that Bob Mueller will do a superb job and let the chips fall where they may.”

The United States has notified the other 163 members of the World Trade Organization that it is considering putting emergency "safeguard" tariffs on imported solar cells, according to a WTO filing published on Monday.

The move raises the stakes in a global battle to dominate the solar power industry, which has grown explosively in the past five years. As production has increased, prices have tumbled, favoring producers who can take advantage of economies of scale.

The United States, China and India are vying to be the market leader, and are looking out for any perceived breach of the international trade rules by their rivals.

Last September, the WTO ruled that India was illegally discriminating against U.S. solar exports, while India launched its own WTO complaint about solar subsidies in eight U.S. states.

The United States' ability to attract renewable energy investment has been tarnished by the shift in energy policy under U.S. President Donald Trump, putting China and India on top, a report by British accountancy firm Ernst & Young said earlier this month.

The U.S. decision to consider safeguard tariffs follows a petition to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) by Suniva, Inc, the filing said.

Under WTO rules, such temporary tariffs may be used to shield an industry from a sudden, unforeseen and damaging surge in imports. They can be challenged by other WTO members.

The ITC will decide by Sept. 22 whether the U.S. industry has suffered "serious injury", and if that is the case it will submit its report to Trump by Nov. 13, the filing said.

Suniva's petition said the volume of imports rose by 51.6 percent between 2012 and 2016, while the value of those imports grew by 62.8 percent from $5.1 billion to $8.3 billion.

"The petition alleges that increasing imports have taken market share from domestic producers and have led to bankruptcies, plant shutdowns, layoffs, and a severe deterioration of the financial performance of the domestic industry," the U.S. filing said.

Suniva itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 17.

While imports have risen, U.S. producers have seen business shrivel, with 1,200 manufacturing jobs lost and a 27 percent wage decline in the four years to 2016. U.S. solar cell plants went from running at 81.7 percent of capacity in 2014 to 28.9 percent in 2016, the filing said.

"Data in the petition also indicates that (U.S. producers')domestic market share fell from 21.0 percent in 2012 to 11.0 percent in 2016, despite a $4 billion growth of the U.S. market over the same period."

On May 31 2017 09:28 KwarK wrote:

Americans really need a public ID system for dozens of reasons. SSNs aren't universal, they certainly aren't secret, the first five numbers can be worked out from public information for most people, they're routinely stolen and so forth. A system that incorporated modern infosec principles, was a part of a single database and was easily accessible to underdocumented people would be awesome.

The fact that there isn't a single database of Americans is a problem for things beyond voting.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn's consulting firm produced an unfinished documentary last fall to boost Turkey’s image following a failed military coup the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The film was produced by the Flynn Intel Group as part of the lobbying efforts of a Turkish businessman. While unfinished and not yet made public, the film reportedly involves a scene with Flynn's business partner BiJan Kian and the head of Turkish military intelligence meeting in a hotel room.

The work done on the documentary by Flynn's firm reportedly took place while Flynn was campaigning on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump.

The sponsor of the film paid Flynn’s consulting firm over half a million dollars for their lobbying work, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The film and his contract with the Turkish client will likely to be part of the ongoing investigation into Flynn’s business dealings after the former intelligence officer failed to disclose his firm represented Turkish efforts to the federal government until March of this year.

Flynn is under congressional, federal, and military investigation for allegations that he illegally withheld his financial ties to the Kremlin and Turkey, which stood the risk of influencing him while he served in the White House. He reigned from his top post as national security adviser earlier this year after it became known he mislead Vice President Mike Pence about his discussions with a top Russian diplomat.

A Russian state news outlet also paid Flynn in 2015 to attend a gala with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow and give a speech about U.S. foreign policy.

Last week, Flynn declined to cooperate with congressional subpoenas, citing a “public frenzy” surrounding the Russia investigations and invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

He has, however, agreed to provide documents from his two businesses, a person familiar with the matter told the Journal.

On May 31 2017 10:58 ticklishmusic wrote:


"you used to call me on my cellphone"

+ Show Spoiler +

reality imitates art?

On May 31 2017 13:29 LegalLord wrote:
Is a typo of an obviously understood rant really newsworthy?

Rubin:"Was it an ask or a tell? Because I think that's very important-"
Weinstein: "Let's be very careful about this. There was no implication that white people would not be allowed on campus. There was, however, the implication, when this was finally described, the implication was that white allies would be off campus and therefore there was the implication that if you were white and showed up on campus that you were therefore not an ally. And that was what pushed me to respond. I did not like the implication that by the very act of being there I was not allying with people of colour."

Weinstein: "There was an overwhelming reaction in public saying that I was effectively attacking people of colour. Privately there was a good bit of support. But this has now become a bit of a pattern on our campus where, especially surrounding any issue that at least nominally has a pro-equity side that there is a nuanced understanding that could only be discussed sort of ?voche? and then there is the public response that embraces this one side, giving the impression of consensus but only if you are the person that people are quietly approaching do you realize that there is no consensus. That there is wide disagreement.

Weinstein: "I do want to say that whether or not... how okay it was for white people to be on campus was accidentally tested during the event. So when the Day of Absence arrived a friend of mine, a faculty member, who has been with the college since its founding- Greek woman, misunderstood the intention. And she thought that the intention was for the opening ceremony of the Day of Absence was to include people from all races, which would make sense to me. And that then people would go off campus. And there were two hundred spaces in an off campus venue for particular events. But those two hundred spaces were not the limit of white people leaving campus.

"So anyway my friend went with her students to the opening ceremony of the Day of Absence and it was held in the longhouse which is an indigenous structure- that we're very proud of, rightly, on our campus. And she went in and apparently was approached by one of the organizers of Day of Absence and was told that while she could decide to stay that really this event was not for people of her skin tone, and she decided on that basis to leave. And as she left apparently an indigenous woman, who is affiliated with the longhouse, in dismay apparently, turned to her and said the longhouse is a place of welcome. Dismayed that she was being turned away. And she talked to her students, the faculty member turned to her students, and they had felt very uncomfortable the way they were being looked at. So there is nothing, there was no requirement of any particular person to be any particular place. But there was extreme coercion."

The US military has successfully carried out its first-ever missile defense test involving a simulated attack by an intercontinental ballistic missile, in a major milestone for a program meant to defend against a mounting North Korean threat.

The US military fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)-type weapon from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It then fired a missile to intercept it from Vandenberg air force base in California.

The Missile Defense Agency said it was the first live-fire test against a simulated ICBM for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) and hailed it as an “incredible accomplishment”.

“This system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat,” Vice-Admiral Jim Syring, director of the agency, said in a statement.

A successful test was by no means guaranteed and the Pentagon had sought to manage expectations earlier in the day, noting that the United States had multiple ways to try to shoot down a missile from North Korea.

“This is one element of a broader missile defense strategy that we can use to employ against potential threats,” the Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis told reporters.

Prior to Tuesday’s launch, the GMD system had successfully hit its target in only nine of 17 tests since 1999. The last test was in 2014.

North Korea has dramatically ramped up the pace of its missile tests over the past year, with a goal of developing an ICBM that can strike the US mainland.

The continental United States is about 5,500 miles (9,000km) from North Korea. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 3,400 miles (5,500km), but some are designed to travel 6,200 miles (10,000km) or farther.

Riki Ellison, founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, described the test as “vital” prior to launch.

“We are replicating our ability to defend the United States of America from North Korea, today,” Ellison said.

Failure could have deepened concern about a program that according to one estimate has so far cost more than $40bn.

In the fiscal year 2018 budget proposal sent to Congress last week, the Pentagon requested $7.9bn for the Missile Defense Agency, including about $1.5 billion for the GMD program.

A 2016 assessment released by the Pentagon’s weapons testing office in January said that US ground-based interceptors meant to knock out any incoming ICBM still had low reliability, giving the system a limited capability of shielding the United States.