US Politics Mega-thread - Page 9462

On December 08 2017 05:07 mozoku wrote:
I think you misunderstood me and that's probably my fault. I'm questioning whether "actual democracy" is preferable to a more Republic-leaning system and asserting that Hamilton, Madison, Adams, and Washington (despite their present-day popular representations) would have likely preferred that latter.

On December 08 2017 04:40 Plansix wrote:


What the fuck is this shit? Russia gets banned so Trump is going pretend he can make the US stay home too?

On December 08 2017 04:43 kollin wrote:
Somehow I had a feeling that clicking on the twitter link leading to another link would lead to a wildly differing interpretation of the events than the one originally presented.

On December 08 2017 04:50 Plansix wrote:
The law seems poorly written if it can be applied to someone simply using the word to describe themselves, but not attempting to charge for their services and a professional capacity. In the case of practicing law in my state, it is strictly defined as providing legal advice or setting legal fees. Anything else isn’t the practice of law, even saying you are an attorney when you are not licensed in the state. If the guy was charging people for his engineering expertise without being accredited, that would be something completely different.

On December 08 2017 04:54 WolfintheSheep wrote:

Feels like I've had this discussion with Danglars before. He posts an opinion of a twitter post that's an opinion of a twitter post that's an opinion of an article that, if you're lucky, links to the original article that's being commented on.

On December 08 2017 05:21 Danglars wrote:

It feels like you still don't read the links when they're present, and want to whine when they're not.

On December 08 2017 05:26 WolfintheSheep wrote:


Feels like I'm one of the few people in this thread that actual read articles that are linked. Unless they're some random internet celebrity's opinion pieces.

More than three years after it targeted Mats Järlström for, essentially, doing math without a license, the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying has admitted they were wrong to do so.

On December 08 2017 05:21 Danglars wrote:

Did you read the article?


Exactly. Writing to your local government agency asking to make a presentation about the timing of red lights should not earn you a fine. The state of Oregon finally saw reason anad said "We have admitted to violating Mr. Jarlstrom's rights." It's very different than practicing engineering in some contexts or selling your credentials.

Investigators found more than 37,000 images of child pornography on Nassar’s electronic devices last year. Images of children as young as infants were among his cache.

The 54-year-old Nassar had worked at Michigan State University and with USA Gymnastics; through his latter role, numerous current and former gymnasts, including Olympians Aly Raisman McKayla Maroney, accused him of sexual assault when they were teenagers.

Student athletes at Michigan State also accused Nassar of assault.

Nassar has also pleaded guilty to molesting gymnasts with his hands in the Lansing, Mich. area, under the guise of providing treatment. He will be sentenced in those cases in January.

Because this Nassar case involved child pornography and not the assault charges, Neff denied a request from the government to have his alleged sex-assault victims make statements, though she said there will be a time for those, once the court turns it attention to sentencing in the assault cases.

Maroney has said she was as young as 13 when Nassar began “treating” her at every chance he could get, alleging that he gave her a sleeping pill for a flight to Tokyo for a competition when she was 15. The next thing she knew, Maroney was alone with Nassar in his hotel room.

“I thought I was going to die that night,” Maroney wrote in a letter to Neff.

“As it turns out, much to my demise, Dr. Nassar was not a doctor, he in fact is, was and forever shall be, a child molester, and a monster of a human being,” Maroney wrote.

“He abused my trust, he abused my body and he left scars on my psyche that may never go away.”

On December 08 2017 05:07 mozoku wrote:
I think you misunderstood me and that's probably my fault. I'm questioning whether "actual democracy" is preferable to a more Republic-leaning system and asserting that Hamilton, Madison, Adams, and Washington (despite their present-day popular representations) would have likely preferred that latter.

On December 08 2017 04:56 mozoku wrote:

Isn't there a valid argument in the present-day that public opinion potentially matters too much? I'm not sure we're exactly blessed to live in an age where our politicians are making decisions primarily based on a combination of the whims of Twitter mobs and the advice of for-profit electoral strategists.

It's funny that such a sentiment is generally considered undemocratic nowadays but (Jefferson not withstanding probably) most of the Founding Fathers would have agreed I think.

Before someone misinterprets, I'm talking about a general principle. On this specific issue, I agree effective public pressure to remove creepy guys is a good thing.

On December 08 2017 05:38 Plansix wrote:

To be fair to the state, I don’t think they envisioned the scenario where someone would try to pass themselves off as an engineer, not charge for their work and submit a bunch of recommendations to the local engineer’s board.

This also could have all been solved by the dude going “Oh, my b. I didn’t know engineer was like an official title in this state. That is cool, do you get badges? I’ll put amateur, unlicensed engineer in my letter head. If that is cool? Can we talk about traffic now?”

On December 08 2017 05:35 Danglars wrote:

How would you frame the state's fining of Jarlstrom, who petitioned the state board to re-examine red light cameras? It really looked like the author's

was a pretty accurate summation. Just because he wrote that he's an engineer (trained electronics engineer, with BS-equivalent in Electrical Engineering from Sweden) in that piece, he was subjected to a fine. He literally used his training in producing the document. Are you relying on some kind of hyper-literalism to say that's an unfair sentence to write? A board picking some trite and specious reasoning to fine him for his research and petitioning?

On December 08 2017 05:53 Danglars wrote:

Maybe it was a well-intentioned law originally, but fuck, as the board's utilizing it that law needs repeal. I mean, seriously, multiple people with bachelor's in fields of engineering investigated because they weren't specifically licensed to practice it in Oregon? He's running for political office, not trying to pass off his signature on an environmental impact report or a bridge or whatever.

On December 08 2017 05:53 Danglars wrote:

Maybe it was a well-intentioned law originally, but fuck, as the board's utilizing it that law needs repeal. I mean, seriously, multiple people with bachelor's in fields of engineering investigated because they weren't specifically licensed to practice it in Oregon? He's running for political office, not trying to pass off his signature on an environmental impact report or a bridge or whatever.

On December 08 2017 05:55 WolfintheSheep wrote:

Yes, that's an inaccurate summation. The Oregon State Board so-on-and-so-forth is overaggressive with its enforcement of the Engineer title, and that's about it.

The fine was wholly undeserved, but it has nothing to do with math or doing math without a license, or really anything to do with any content of his petition short of saying he was an engineer.

Also not the first time they did this.

On December 08 2017 05:59 WolfintheSheep wrote:

He is not running for political office.

You're referring to the other guy.

In 2014, the state board investigated Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman for publishing a campaign pamphlet that mentioned Saltzman's background as an "environmental engineer." Saltzman has a bachelor's degree in environmental and civil engineering from Cornell University, a master's degree from MIT's School of Civil Engineering, and is a membership of the American Society of Civil Engineers. But he isn't a licensed engineer in the state of Oregon.

On December 08 2017 05:53 Danglars wrote:

Maybe it was a well-intentioned law originally, but fuck, as the board's utilizing it that law needs repeal. I mean, seriously, multiple people with bachelor's in fields of engineering investigated because they weren't specifically licensed to practice it in Oregon? He's running for political office, not trying to pass off his signature on an environmental impact report or a bridge or whatever.

On December 08 2017 05:08 KwarK wrote:
Actual democracy is definitely preferable to the system the Founding Fathers preferred and put in place. Because of the whole letting women, slaves, and people other than rich landowners vote thing.

The whole slavery issue would have been solved exceptionally quickly had anyone taken the time to get input from the slaves themselves. But instead y'all had to fight a war over it.

On December 08 2017 05:10 Plansix wrote:
Mobs are what caused the Founding Fathers to push for the constitution in the first place. The inability to levy taxes under the articles of the confederation resulted in an inability to pay soldier’s wages. And not being paid caused them to march of Philadelphia during one of the conventions, raid the armory and surround the building. Washington and Hamilton talked down the mob of armed soldier and assured them that they would be paid. The convention then relocated to New York and the push for a federal government got some wind behind it. So the founding fathers were super afraid of mobs. This was the era of tar and feathering, after all.


I think you interpreting their fear of mob justice and violence as a dislike for democratic rule. Hamilton in particular grew up in the Caribbean , which was an incredibility brutal environment for a child. The treatment of slaves was beyond even the brutality of the South. Most of the founding fathers encountered a violent mob at some point in their life time. Several of them stood up to them. Hamilton himself stood up to one trying to kill his Tory employer, who escaped lynching.

On December 08 2017 05:39 urmomdresslikafloozy wrote:
USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar sentenced to maximum 60 years in prison.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/former-usa-gymnastics-team-doctor-larry-nassar-sentenced-maximum-60-years-prison-175601603.html

This isnt the greatest time for the US to enter the winter olympics.

In a recruiting victory for Democrats, former Gov. Phil Bredesen announced today that he will run for the open seat created by the retirement of GOP U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. Bredesen's announcement puts the race into the Toss Up column, a rating change that has larger implications for the 2018 Senate map.

Bredesen was Mayor of Nashville from 1991 until the end of his second term in 1999. He ran for Governor in 2002, winning with 51 percent of the vote, and was re-elected in 2006 with 69 percent and winning every county in the state. Bredesen is the last Democrat to win statewide office. Bredesen's electoral road hasn't been without its potholes. He made unsuccessful bids for Nashville Mayor in 1987, a special congressional election in 1987, and Governor in 1994.

Many Democratic strategists believe that Bredesen can appeal to voters across party lines in a state that has become increasingly more Republican in recent years. He also has a demonstrated ability to raise money (and has plenty of his own) and the remnants of a political organization.

Democrat James Mackler, an attorney and Iraq War veteran, has been in the race for months. While Mackler is getting good reviews, he is a political newcomer, who remains largely unknown to voters and has struggled with fundraising. At the end of the third quarter, he had yet to raise $1 million, and had $320,788 in the bank as of September 30. Some of Mackler's supporters take issue with the idea that Bredesen is the party's best bet in the Senate race, arguing that voters are ready for new blood. One even referred to the former Governor as the Evan Bayh of 2018, a reference to the disastrous comeback attempt former U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh made in Indiana in 2016. There are other Democrats who say, though, that they think that Mackler, who is 44 years old, has a bright future and losing a primary to Bredesen is not something he needs on his political resume.