US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7873

On June 16 2017 14:07 ChristianS wrote:

I'm just trying to pin down what this ethic you've expressed actually means. I mostly don't think there's anything public yet to the collusion charge, and don't know enough about the legal requirements of obstruction of justice.

But it seems like your ethic is basically that you speculate if you think there's something there and don't if you don't, which is the same thing everyone else does but you've managed to feel superior about it.

On June 16 2017 14:12 LegalLord wrote:

The short version is that you should keep your head about it all. Most people don't like Trump and will believe any Billy or Bobby that says any mean thing about how much of a crook he is and how much he licks Putin's boot. This is how public trials always go.

God knows this thread has too many people who positively lose their minds at the slightest hint of a possibility of a not sure if credible leak that says that Trump did something potentially bad. That has a lot to do with simply how strongly he is disliked rather than how guilty he is. I suppose if you want fairness then you could say that the same could be said about Hillary Clinton.

On June 16 2017 14:22 GreenHorizons wrote:


What do you or people wrapped up in this think would happen if Mueller concluded Trump did obstruct justice? Because I think we know it's nothing but people keep talking about it like something big is right around the corner, but nothing is coming.

On June 16 2017 14:22 GreenHorizons wrote:


What do you or people wrapped up in this think would happen if Mueller concluded Trump did obstruct justice? Because I think we know it's nothing but people keep talking about it like something big is right around the corner, but nothing is coming.

On June 16 2017 00:21 Plansix wrote:

The cited regulation is stealing government property, which is valid. However, that regulation bases the punishment on the value of the property that was stolen and with the intent personal gain. It specifically states using the stolen goods to be converted into personal gain. Unless Comey signs a really dope book deal during the investigation, I wouldn’t hold my breath on any AG trying to bring that charge against Comey.

On June 16 2017 14:57 Leporello wrote:


Real answer is he would address this to Congress, in what would be blockbuster televsion. If Mueller gets to the point of finding the President guilty, it would be a full exposè to prove his case. But he might not present an Obstruction of Justice charge until he's done investigating the initial case of Russian-collusion.

Which, given the amount and quantity of people Mueller has hired, he is in this for the long-haul.

And if you don't think this is going to end up with a mountain of dirt on Trump, then you must've been in a coma during Whitewater.

Everyone whose last name isn't Trump should be hoping it doesn't get to that point. Nixon resigned for a reason, and it wasn't self-guilt. It was to save a lot of people a lot of embarrassment, including himself.

Germany and Austria voiced sharp criticism Thursday of the latest U.S. sanctions against Moscow, saying they could affect European businesses involved in piping in Russian natural gas.

The United States Senate voted Wednesday to slap new sanctions on key sectors of Russia's economy and individuals over its interference in the 2016 U.S. election campaign and its aggression in Syria and Ukraine. The measures were attached to a bill targeting Iran.

In a joint statement, Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern and Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it was important for Europe and the United States to form a united front on the issue of Ukraine, where Russian-based separatists have been fighting government forces since 2014.

"However, we can't accept the threat of illegal and extraterritorial sanctions against European companies," the two officials said, citing a section of the bill that calls for the United States to continue to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would pump Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea.

Half of the cost of the new pipeline is being paid for by Russian gas giant Gazprom, while the other half is being shouldered by a group including Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, French provider Engie, OMV of Austria and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall.

Some Eastern European countries, including Poland and Ukraine, fear the loss of transit revenue if Russian gas supplies don't pass through their territory anymore once the new pipeline is built.

Gabriel and Kern accuse the U.S. of trying to help American natural gas suppliers at the expense of their Russian rivals. They said the possibility of fining European companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project "introduces a completely new, very negative dimension into European-American relations," they said.

In their forceful appeal, the two officials urged the United States to back off from linking the situation in Ukraine to the question of who can sell gas to Europe.

"Europe's energy supply is a matter for Europe, and not for the United States of America," Kern and Gabriel said.

On June 16 2017 15:56 Acrofales wrote:



Pretty sure writing your own memos of a meeting you had is not even government property to begin with. A lawyer could probably argue both ways, depending on when and where he wrote the memos.

As for what was in the memos, the "content of a conversation" is not government property (or any property), and unless it is classified or you signed an NDA for all information, can be shared by any of the participating parties, even if other involved parties don't like that.

On June 16 2017 18:56 a_flayer wrote:
Can you guys in the US keep your little feud with Russia to yourselves, please? Why do you keep trying to impose sanctions on Europe in your legislation to put sanctions on Russia? Leave us alone.


Source

Sam Brody is not a real estate agent, but when his friends want to move home they get in touch to ask for advice. He is a flood impact expert in Houston – and he has plenty of work to keep him busy.

The Texas metropolis has more casualties and property loss from floods than any other locality in the US, according to data stretching back to 1960 that Brody researched with colleagues. And, he said, “Where the built environment is a main force exacerbating the impacts of urban flooding, Houston is number one and it’s not even close.”

Near the Gulf Coast, Houston is also at annual risk from hurricanes: it is now into the start of the 2017 season, which runs from this month to November. Ike, the last hurricane to hit the Houston region, caused $34bn in damage and killed 112 people across several states in September 2008.

There is little hope the situation is going to get better any time soon. Earlier this month, days after Donald Donald Trump announced the US will withdraw from the Paris accord on climate change, a new report warned that rare US floods will become the norm if emissions are not cut.

Brody, a professor in the department of marine sciences at Texas A&M University’s Galveston campus said the requests for help in Houston from people moving homes inspired him to create a forthcoming web tool so that people can type in an address and get a risk score.

“If you can see your crime statistics, shouldn’t you be able to see your flood risk also? And other risks as well, human-induced risks?” he said. The site will be named Buyers Be-Where.

In May 2015, eight people, many of them motorists, died in Harris County when a storm dropped 11in of rain in parts of the city in 10 hours.

Last year, another six lost their lives in an April storm that hurled 240bn gallons of water at the Houston area. An inch of rain fell over the county in only five minutes, with a peak of 16.7in in 12 hours.

The events damaged thousands of homes, turning major freeways into canals and piling up vehicles as if they were in a junkyard. The 2016 flood cost an estimated $2.7bn in losses and prompted more than 1,800 high water rescues.

Significant rains have always been a feature of life in south-east Texas. What bothers Brody and local environmentalists is the extent to which human activity is making things worse.

“Houston is situated in a low-lying coastal area with poorly draining soils and is subject to heavy rainfall events and storm surge events, which makes it very prone to flooding. And the climate is changing. In Galveston Bay the sea level is rising. We know the area is experiencing more heavy downpours,” Brody said.

“It pales in comparison with the other driving force, which is the built environment. If you’re going to put 4 million people in this flood-vulnerable area in a way which involves ubiquitous application of impervious surfaces, you’re going to get flooding.”

In other words: there is a lot of concrete in Houston. In 2000, 4.7 million people lived in the Houston metropolitan area. Now the population is about 6.5 million. While efforts are under way to densify and improve public transport in the urban core, much of the growth has been suburban, where houses are big and cheap and commuters drive long distances on some of the world’s widest freeways. The city keeps loosening its belt: a third ring-road cuts through exurbs some 30 miles from downtown, spurring more expansion.

To the west, idyllically named middle-class subdivisions sprout on former farmland, served by new retail complexes and multi-lane roads. Here, 3,500 square foot homes can be bought for less than $400,000, helping to explain the region’s population explosion. But it may be coming at a price – one paid downstream.

The Bayou City’s vein-like network of creeks and rivers are one of its defining features, but heavy rains turn them from subdued to seething. The Buffalo Bayou’s light brown waters meander 50 miles from west of the city through downtown to large bays in the east. The threat of catastrophic overflowing is mitigated by two dams built in the 1940s that the Army Corps of Engineers has classified as having an “extremely high risk” of failing and is now repairing.

The danger is lessened, too, by the natural defence of the western plains – but here, water-retaining grasses are being replaced by non-absorbent surfaces, which encourage water to travel downstream. Brody calculates that each new square metre of pavement in Houston on average adds $4,000 worth of flood damage.

Founded in 1992, the Katy Prairie Conservancy, a not-for-profit land trust, has a field office in bucolic land an hour’s drive from the skyscraping oil industry headquarters dotting central Houston. The Katy Prairie was once estimated at 500,000 to 750,000 acres, before Houston boomed. The Conservancy owns about 14,000 acres – an area roughly the size of Manhattan. It helps protect another 6,000, quietly working to shield fields from sprawl in a city and state better known for damaging the environment through oil and gas production than for preserving its natural resources.

On June 16 2017 20:55 Silvanel wrote:


This is great actualy. Nord Stream 2 needs to die, same as 1. Poland opposed and will keep oposing it. This is epitome of German hypocrisy. They talk about unified front, about working toghter when in fact they ignored Polish and Baltic oposition to Nord Stream. This is not about revenue, this is about politics. Nord Stream enables Russia to exert political blackmail on Poland exactly the same as they did to Ukraine. Poland already pays more than Germany for natural gas, despite transfer being cheaper due to shorter distance. If US can kill Nord Stream then all the power to them.

On June 16 2017 21:47 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Ugh. Impose sanctions due to Russian invading the Crimea see Europe groan, impose sanctions for a domestic attack on US elections, Europe groans. Christ.

Europe the international version of a wife to Uncle Sam.

On June 16 2017 21:47 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Ugh. Impose sanctions due to Russian invading the Crimea see Europe groan, impose sanctions for a domestic attack on US elections, Europe groans. Christ.

Europe the international version of a wife to Uncle Sam.