US Politics Mega-thread - Page 798

On January 17 2014 19:49 Danglars wrote:
ZeaL., you have to look to the news article I had previously quoted. It was Obama touting his power and his ability to do things with his pen and phone and not Congress. The real comparison here is that Boehner got pitched a softball and swung the bat at it. The man's more zombie than living in terms of leadership. If Boehner saw that slow pitch, it had to have been a flub of epic proportions, in essence.

You know where the law says what employers are required to provide their employers? Yes, Obama decreed certain aspects delayed. Or all the plans canceled for no longer adhering to Obamacare? You know illegal plans under passed law? Yeah, let's make those temporarily not illegal. Individual Mandate? Yeah well the text of the law is one thing, but let's take this pen and make it go away if you have a hardship exemption due to lost coverage.

Clarify the enforcement of laws is one thing, this is another. Wholesale changes of its content, dates, exemptions ... all post-passage ... has made the bill more of a mutating organism than a document. Power to amend existing law is rightfully vested in the legislature by voting process, not in the Executive. Previously no President has gone so far as to change existing law by fiat than this one. It is unprecedented despite jabbering to the contrary.

How A Community Bank Tripped On Footnote 1,861 Of The Volcker Rule

When people talk about the Volcker Rule, they often mention JPMorgan Chase, the giant bank where a trader recently made a bad bet that lost $6 billion. The Volcker Rule is supposed to put an end to that sort of thing, by prohibiting banks from trading with their own money.

But some banks that are very, very different from JPMorgan Chase are struggling with an obscure provision in the rule. Specifically, footnote 1,861, which bars banks from investing in something called trust-preferred securities — a rather obscure investment favored by lots of small, community banks.

Tioga State Bank is headquartered in Spencer, a village in upstate New York with a population of about 800 people. The bank mostly makes loans to local people and businesses. But Robert Fisher, bank's president, says trust-preferred securities make up a large chunk of his bank's annual income. "It's a big deal," he told me.

Nathan Stovall, who covers the banking industry for SNL Financial, says the regulators just don't want banks investing in anything that could even smell risky.

"What they're trying to do is say, 'We want you to be a lender, period. And since you're investing some of those deposits in bonds, we want it to be in really vanilla stuff,' " Stovall said.

The American Bankers Association does not consider these particular investments risky, and is challenging the rule, saying some community banks could have to close their doors over this footnote in the rules. And the regulators and Congress are reconsidering.

It turns out, it's hard to figure out which risks banks should be allowed to take, and which they shouldn't.

On January 17 2014 23:29 Roswell wrote:

No models or predictions accounted for the standstill of global temperature since 1997, now scientists claim it will continue to pause for 30 years or so...

On January 18 2014 09:34 IgnE wrote:

What are you talking about?

On January 17 2014 22:16 Nesto wrote:


No, it's just annoying to have those hypocrites wave their constitutions in to the cameras (which they always carry around in their pockets!) when it comes to the 2nd, 9th and 10th amendment, while on the other hand usually shitting over the first, 4th, 8th, 14th, 15th amendments and probably a few others as well.

You might not realize this
But every politician has a pen and a phone.
Are you suggesting that we take the pens and phones out of politics?
Or could you perhaps be... predicting the future?

But I suppose when it's time for silly buzz phrases like "amoral capitalism" to be thrown around, the time for facts to have large relevance in the discussion has passed. What exactly is "amoral capitalism"? Can you give an example of "amoral capitalism" at work and successful in modern First World society? Enron? Gone. People went to jail. Lehman Brothers? Gone. BP? 11 billion in fines and a large amount in stock value, lost, reputation, tattered. How much did the Valdiz spill cost Exxon again?

On January 18 2014 10:29 KwarK wrote:
The way it was originally intended all men being born equal and getting equal legal protection certainly didn't apply to slaves. Presumably what you mean is that you can change things, but only through the amendment system included within the constitution and not by judicial interpretation.

On January 18 2014 10:55 Introvert wrote:


Yes. Slavery was Constitutional before the appropriate amendments were passed. The legal process was followed, and the Constitution was changed, and now slavery is outlawed. Until the amendments, judicial interpretation was that slavery was in fact Constitutional, which it was. That is the proper process, not changing the meanings.

I'm assuming you disagree that this is the way it should be done?

On January 18 2014 11:38 KwarK wrote:

I wasn't passing judgement, I was just trying to confirm that you meant not that the original form and wording of the constitution was sacred but rather that the process of reforming and updating the constitution defined within the constitution was the only acceptable way.

On January 18 2014 10:18 aksfjh wrote:

Personally, I think he's pulling information out his backside. I can't find anywhere that shows the rise has stagnated or that it will "pause."

The company behind the massive chemical spill that made tap water unsafe for more than 300,000 West Virginians has filed for bankruptcy, according to documents obtained by The Huffington Post.

According to bankruptcy filings, Freedom Industries, wholly owned by Chemstream Holdings Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday. Freedom Industries owns the storage facility responsible for leaking up to 7,500 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (a coal-cleaning chemical also known as crude MCHM) into West Virginia's Elk River.

Hundreds of thousands of people in nine counties were given orders not to use water for bathing or drinking for days as the company scrambled to clean up, exposing disturbing vulnerabilities in the water supply and a lack of data about hazardous chemicals and where they're stored. A second site owned by the company was also cited for safety violations shortly after the spill.

A representative for Freedom Industries told HuffPost that the company would not be commenting on the bankruptcy.

On January 18 2014 10:21 Introvert wrote:


Wait, who is doing that? It's the left doing that. Reading those amendments with their original purpose and wording in mind isn't defacing them.

Separation of Church and state (in the way the far left means it) is a perversion of the first amendment.

Many on the right agree that the NSA is violating the 4th amendment. People all over the spectrum are on both sides of the issue. Unless you are referring to something else.

I don't believe the 8th is being violated (in Gitmo, if that's what you mean). This amendment is very much up for debate on what constitutes "excessive" and "cruel and unusual". Also, if this even applies to enemy, non-citizen combatants.

The 14th...I don't even want to go there right now. Again I don't know what you are referring to here, but I think the left likes to overstep bounds here repeatedly.

The 15th. Are you kidding me?

This is the problem with looking at the Constitution in any way other than the way than the way it was written.