US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8015

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley is demanding the Justice Department's Inspector General investigate whether acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe engaged in potential conflicts of interest during the Russia election investigation.

Grassley's request, sent Thursday night, follows new revelations that the nation's top cop is the subject of three federal inquires ranging from sexual discrimination to political conflicts of interest, all of which were ongoing during the FBI's probe into Russian election tampering that roiled the Trump administration.

The inspector general needs to investigate McCabe and the "FBI's handling of recent politically charged investigations," Grassley wrote. The inspector general has the authority to conduct criminal or administrative investigations into FBI andf Justice officials' conduct.

Photos disclosed earlier this week by Circa showed McCabe was engaged in political campaigning for his wife, Jill McCabe, who had an unsuccessful bid for Virginia State Senate in 2015. The Office of U.S. Special Counsel is now investigating McCabe's activities in his wife's campaign.

The photos in question were posted on social media and show him wearing T-shirts supporting his wife at public events. Documents also show his official FBI biography was used to set up a meeting with Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe before the Virginia governor supported Jill McCabe's campaign with $500,000.

The Hatch Act prohibits FBI employees from engaging "in political activity in concert with a political party, a candidate for partisan political office, or a partisan political group" but are much stricter for FBI and intelligence employees. Mccabe has said he sought ethics experts' advice about his wife's campaign.

On July 06 2017 05:49 Logo wrote:


If your old car with worth $5000 and you own $7000 (happens due to depreciation) then they'll give you $5000 to pay off the debt you own for your car then roll the $2000 you still owe into your new loan.

On July 06 2017 05:54 KwarK wrote:

You're thinking of my point 5, rolling an underwater car debt into a new loan. Point 4 was cashback. If your old car is worth $5,000 and you owe $7,000 then they'll roll $4,000 into your new debt, take the old car off your hands, let you buy a new car and give you a check to $2,000. You've not seen cashback car loans?

On July 06 2017 06:22 Plansix wrote:
I will pay you both to take it to PM. For the love of god can we not have this old argument happen again. I would rather talk about racism or something equally non-productive.

On July 06 2017 06:39 Mohdoo wrote:


I'd contribute to this gofundme

Since President Trump announced his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, hundreds of U.S. mayors have said they're committed to significantly cutting their cities' carbon emissions. More than 30 cities, including Atlanta and San Diego, have declared 100 percent renewable energy goals in the coming decades.

But is that really possible?

The story of Aspen's path to 100 percent renewable electricity shows it's complicated.

In 2006, the Colorado city's utility was one of the first in the country to declare a 100 percent renewable energy goal as part of its climate action plan to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Aspen is built around the ski industry. Mayor Steve Skadron says that behind the glitz of downtown stores like Prada and Gucci is an environmental mission.

"Put aside crazy climate zealots telling everybody to sell their cars and eat tofu," he says. "It makes economic sense for us to support these values because our economy's based on the natural environment."

The town had a good start with two hydroelectric plants it built in the 1980s. To get closer to 100 percent renewable energy, the city wanted to revive another hydroplant.

As part of that proposal, it spent millions on things like a custom turbine and generator, a move that Aspen voters approved. But some residents and groups ultimately worried the plan would reduce stream flows, and that would harm the environment. In 2012, Aspen voters reversed course and rejected the plan.

Instead, Aspen signed contracts to bring in hydropower, wind and biogas from other regions and states.

In 2015, the city utility became the third in the nation to be powered completely by renewable energy, Skadron says.

"It was really exciting," he says. "It was really hard."

All that renewable power keeps the lights on downtown. But Aspen still uses natural gas to heat homes. And when you go to ski resorts or outlying homes, the power comes from a different utility that uses some fossil fuels.

The Sierra Club is working with cities around the country to use 100 percent renewables, but Jodie Van Horn, who directs the campaign, notes "there are different factors that either enable or inhibit a city's ease of achieving their goals."

Today, only a few cities besides Aspen have achieved 100 percent renewable electricity or energy: Georgetown, Texas; Burlington, Vt.; Greensburg, Kan.; and Rockport, Mo. Kodiak Island, Alaska, is 99 percent renewable energy but uses small amounts of diesel as a backup fuel source.

Van Horn says the Sierra Club pushes cities to create their own renewable energy. But even when they buy it from faraway places, like Aspen does, it has a wider impact.

"That city is helping to shift not just the electrons consumed within that community but really helping ... the grid move toward cleaner ... sources of energy like wind and solar," she says.

The Sierra Club hopes all this will add up to lower carbon emissions for cities, and the country.

In Aspen, that's still a challenge. A decade ago the city set out to bring down all its emissions 30 percent by 2020. Despite Aspen Utilities' success, the city is not there by a long shot. Skadron says his next goal is the transportation sector. He's talking with companies about using Aspen to experiment with lowering carbon emissions from cars.

"Whoever's thinking about the transportation future whether it's Tesla or Google or Ford Motor Co. or Toyota or Apple. They would bring the transportation future," says Skadron.

After transportation, there are still emissions from the local airport and the natural gas used to heat homes. The city is working on a new climate action plan that it plans to issue this fall.

On July 06 2017 07:02 Slaughter wrote:
The anti-hillary circle jerk is like twice as loud amd numerous as her fan circle jerk but its always the anti guys who are baffled at people who "shill for her until the last breath" then turn around and anti shill 10x harder and go super hyberbolic.

On July 06 2017 06:02 LegalLord wrote:

I could see why people would choose Clinton over Sanders. They might have been wrong but seeing how the campaign went that is acceptable.

What isn't is the whole "I don't like Hillary but I will shill for her till my last breath" phenomenon. No, she was a goddamn vile choice for president and she made it worse by showing she had no intention of changing or reaching outside her core base. If she refuses to step aside now she is merely enabling the Republicans and Trump to do their shit by promising to be marginally less bad. And I don't subscribe to your "Trump is fascism and worse than Hillary murdering people in the streets" as per your hyperbole from like eight months back. Four more years of buffoon would be infinitely preferable to another decade of the Clintonites hijacking the left and hampering progress.

On July 06 2017 06:09 zlefin wrote:
legal, your claims of hillary's vileness as potential president are unfounded as usual; as is your broad claim of people shilling when in many cases they're doing far less than that yet you still call it shilling. no new ground to tread though; just old arguments you keep making over and over.

On July 06 2017 07:23 nojok wrote:

Trump supporters hated Hillary before and during the election process but once Trump has been running the White House like the mad man he is, the hate towards Hillary keeps growing up fo every mistake Trump does. It's like Trump voters have to convince themselves they did not do a terrible mistake and therefore they have to increase the evilness of Hillary all the time.

On July 06 2017 07:23 nojok wrote:

Trump supporters hated Hillary before and during the election process but once Trump has been running the White House like the mad man he is, the hate towards Hillary keeps growing up fo every mistake Trump does. It's like Trump voters have to convince themselves they did not do a terrible mistake and therefore they have to increase the evilness of Hillary all the time.

On July 06 2017 08:14 LegalLord wrote:
Safe to say that the winner is a better candidate than the loser.