EPTUS Politics Mega-thread - Page 1007
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Now that we have a new thread, in order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a complete and thorough read before posting! NOTE: When providing a source, please provide a very brief summary on what it's about and what purpose it adds to the discussion. The supporting statement should clearly explain why the subject is relevant and needs to be discussed. Please follow this rule especially for tweets. Your supporting statement should always come BEFORE you provide the source. If you have any questions, comments, concern, or feedback regarding the USPMT, then please use this thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/website-feedback/510156-us-politics-thread | ||
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chocorush
694 Posts
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Sermokala
United States14110 Posts
On December 27 2018 04:42 chocorush wrote: Good news: Dow is almost back to what it was before the executive branch created an unneeded crisis. You're going to have to be more specific. | ||
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
On December 27 2018 05:08 Sermokala wrote: You're going to have to be more specific. Steven Mnuchin called a bunch of banks and then issued a press release saying they all had enough liquidity. It is unclear why he felt that the press release should exist, but speculating is what markets do. The markets took this as sign of bad things happening, especially in the face of another goverment shut down. | ||
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Sermokala
United States14110 Posts
On December 27 2018 05:19 Plansix wrote: Steven Mnuchin called a bunch of banks and then issued a press release saying they all had enough liquidity. It is unclear why he felt that the press release should exist, but speculating is what markets do. The markets took this as sign of bad things happening, especially in the face of another goverment shut down. Wait did I miss some rumors that banks were running low on liquidity? | ||
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Nouar
France3270 Posts
On the other hand, there are doubts his Vietnam bone spurs exemption was legit (as if someone thought otherwise...), the son of the doctor who diagnosed those last minute says his father did that as a deal, since he was a tenant of Trump's father, and got direct access to Fred Trump afterwards (for all matters of the apartment complex, repairs etc). | ||
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Gorsameth
Netherlands22298 Posts
On December 27 2018 08:36 Sermokala wrote: My guess is Trump told him to, in an attempt to help the market.Wait did I miss some rumors that banks were running low on liquidity? It seems pretty safe to assume Trump is the reason whenever anything dumb happens. On December 27 2018 08:38 Nouar wrote: I see no reason to give credit for doing something every other President also did.Trump is finally visiting troops in operation (Irak). Granted, his hand has probably been forced by the recent events (Mattis, withdrawal, the missed cemetery in France because of rain, seems he was angry about the negative coverage even though he wasn't fully responsible), but I have to give credit where credit is due, he did good on that one, finally. On the other hand, there are doubts his Vietnam bone spurs exemption was legit (as if someone thought otherwise...), the son of the doctor who diagnosed those last minute says his father did that as a deal, since he was a tenant of Trump's father, and got direct access to Fred Trump afterwards (for all matters of the apartment complex, repairs etc). | ||
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
On December 27 2018 08:36 Sermokala wrote: Wait did I miss some rumors that banks were running low on liquidity? No. The press release made no sense and no one understood it. | ||
KwarK
United States43964 Posts
On December 27 2018 08:39 Plansix wrote: No. The press release made no sense and no one understood it. Best explanation I heard was the local water utility calling an emergency press conference to announce that they’d checked the water and it was definitely safe to drink now. | ||
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Adreme
United States5574 Posts
I've said before though, the market wants to go up right now, but all these pointless crises have made people want to get out about a year before the actual recession likely hits. | ||
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FueledUpAndReadyToGo
Netherlands30548 Posts
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
We live in the dumbest future where the “Smart” products are really just low key spying devices we can’t avoid. And congress has been so asleep at the switch there is no hope of meaningful regulations any time soon. But our inability to escape of "smart" products or buy a smart phone without a tracking device in it might be the best argument that the free market does not solve all problems. | ||
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ZerOCoolSC2
9049 Posts
On December 28 2018 02:46 JimmiC wrote: The craziest thing about the government shutdown about the wall is from everything I have read it would be nearly impossible to get built anyway at least not for a long time because of individual land owners rights. And most land owners do not want a giant wall on their property and with a mainly conservative supreme court set to protect individual rights I'm not sure how they force it on them. And if they do it will open up a whole can of worms that I'm sure land owner in the USA do not want opened. They could invoke imminent domain, pay the people, and seize the land. If the US government wants something, there's very little you can do to stop them, as a citizen. | ||
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ticklishmusic
United States15977 Posts
On December 28 2018 02:46 JimmiC wrote: The craziest thing about the government shutdown about the wall is from everything I have read it would be nearly impossible to get built anyway at least not for a long time because of individual land owners rights. And most land owners do not want a giant wall on their property and with a mainly conservative supreme court set to protect individual rights I'm not sure how they force it on them. And if they do it will open up a whole can of worms that I'm sure land owner in the USA do not want opened. imo the craziest thing is that there's already tons of fencing/wall/your-favorite-physical-barrier-word on the border. bush and obama built miles and miles of it. somewhat ironically arizona, new mexico, california all have more than half of their border with mexico walled while texas (the republican state) is the one that's not really walled... primarily due to the aforementioned property rights. and beyond that, trump/ the us government hasn't even spent all the money allocated to border security from 2018. check out the map here | ||
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ZerOCoolSC2
9049 Posts
On December 28 2018 02:56 Plansix wrote: So my brother tried to buy a refrigerator and TV after Christmas and found it to be a struggle to buy either that are not “Smart” and that didn’t have wifi. He is now diving into sections of the internet that discuss refrigerators that can have the smart features disabled(aka, physically removing them) without impacting the performance of the refrigerator. None of this will assure that the refrigerator he wants to buy will fit his house. He is now texting me to make sure that NFC isn’t the same as wifi and how to make sure his TV doesn’t connect to his router. My brother fixes cars and hates software based tech, but here we are. We live in the dumbest future where the “Smart” products are really just low key spying devices we can’t avoid. And congress has been so asleep at the switch there is no hope of meaningful regulations any time soon. But our inability to escape of "smart" products or buy a smart phone without a tracking device in it might be the best argument that the free market does not solve all problems. We all knew this was coming, the smart devices. Once everyone started wanting an easier, more stress free life, this was bound to happen. 1984 was on the nose with it's writing about surveillance. And then you get into the cyberpunk genre and you're not stopping global corporations from getting that private data on you to sell more shit. It's inevitable. The only way is to go off grid and that does not look like a worthwhile lifestyle in the least. | ||
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ticklishmusic
United States15977 Posts
On December 28 2018 02:56 Plansix wrote: So my brother tried to buy a refrigerator and TV after Christmas and found it to be a struggle to buy either that are not “Smart” and that didn’t have wifi. He is now diving into sections of the internet that discuss refrigerators that can have the smart features disabled(aka, physically removing them) without impacting the performance of the refrigerator. None of this will assure that the refrigerator he wants to buy will fit his house. He is now texting me to make sure that NFC isn’t the same as wifi and how to make sure his TV doesn’t connect to his router. My brother fixes cars and hates software based tech, but here we are. We live in the dumbest future where the “Smart” products are really just low key spying devices we can’t avoid. And congress has been so asleep at the switch there is no hope of meaningful regulations any time soon. But our inability to escape of "smart" products or buy a smart phone without a tracking device in it might be the best argument that the free market does not solve all problems. is it really that hard? i bought fridge, washer + dryer from best buy this summer. fridge was about 2k, washer and dryer were about 1.6k combined. they're the current generation and none are smart devices, though they have all sorts of fancy settings and features which i'll never use. fridges aren't too hard to fit, unless you have some weird custom enclosure for a very special fridge. most come in fairly standard widths with a couple inch variance, then its either counter depth or standard depth. then you have your fancy built in ones (viking, etc.). on the other hand, i have like 4 amazon alexa devices. they're quite convenient for music/ radio, smart lights and a few other things, and definitely reveal how consumers (even somewhat informed ones) are willing to sacrifice privacy for convenience. a couple were gifts, one came with my appliance purchases, one i got as a $1 deal from amazon music. i guess that deal kinda shows you how willing amazon is to give away their devices to get your data. oh well. | ||
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
On December 28 2018 02:58 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote: They could invoke imminent domain, pay the people, and seize the land. If the US government wants something, there's very little you can do to stop them, as a citizen. Imminent domain can still be tied up in litigation for years with the sole purpose of outlasting the political will to take the land. And given how Trump administration has handled everything else, I bet they screw up the process of imminent domain somehow. This is why I always supported the wall. There was nothing I wanted more than the Republicans to have to carry this 32 billion dollar pile of shit built on seizing property rights from red state voters. Because no one on the border states wants this wall, because they know how the border works. | ||
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
On December 28 2018 03:10 ticklishmusic wrote: is it really that hard? i bought fridge, washer + dryer from best buy this summer. fridge was about 2k, washer and dryer were about 1.6k combined. they're the current generation and none are smart devices, though they have all sorts of fancy settings and features which i'll never use. fridges aren't too hard to fit, unless you have some weird custom enclosure for a very special fridge. most come in fairly standard widths with a couple inch variance, then its either counter depth or standard depth. then you have your fancy built in ones (viking, etc.). on the other hand, i have like 4 amazon alexa devices. they're quite convenient for music/ radio, smart lights and a few other things, and definitely reveal how consumers (even somewhat informed ones) are willing to sacrifice privacy for convenience. a couple were gifts, one came with my appliance purchases, one i got as a $1 deal from amazon music. i guess that deal kinda shows you how willing amazon is to give away their devices to get your data. oh well. I told him to shop around for a fridge at other stores. My bet is that the store he went to carries a bunch of high end smart devices because its rich people country. The fridge will go in a pocket in the kitchen(daughter of a contractor) that can be adjusted if necessary, but it is a fucking chore. He almost had to enlist my wife to help him last time around, so he is avoiding doing it again. I am not sure about the TV. He just doesn't want it connecting to the wifi or trying to. I will never own a smart speaker. I have a proper radio that is tuned into NPR and a bunch of local music sections. I want to get a HD antenna and get some local TV stations too, just to be that guy. | ||
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Ayaz2810
United States2763 Posts
This is a follow up to an early McClatchy scoop in April. A Cohen visit to Prague would be monumental, as it is allegedly where Trump directly paid Romanian hackers that had targeted the Clinton Campaign. Here is the new information: A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say....During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said....Both of the newly surfaced foreign electronic intelligence intercepts were shared with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, people familiar with the matter said. Mueller is investigating Russia’s 2016 election interference and whether Trump’s campaign colluded in the scheme. Mueller also is examining whether Trump has obstructed the sweeping inquiry...Four people spoke with McClatchy on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of information shared by their foreign intelligence connections. Each obtained their information independently from foreign intelligence connections. There was no indication in April where this information came from. Mueller doesn't leak, so the speculation at the time was that it was inferred from witness questioning. Now we know the information came from a foreign intelligence service. This would obviously be a game-breaking development, but a few reasons to be cautious: The Prague meeting was in Steele's very last memo, and Steele himself suspects Russia learned of his first memo shortly after he submitted it, and could have deduced his sources and begun feeding him disinformation. Greg Miller at WaPo says his sources at FBI and CIA are skeptical of the Prague meeting. Then again, it's possible this information did not get disseminated widely, and this article indicates that the intelligence was shared directly with Robert Mueller. Cohen's personal arc that he is trying to build, where he is not a villain of history, relies on him telling the truth from here on out, and he is still denying the Prague trip. Then again, (1) it may be that Cohen is hoping to avoid admitting to an event that is this close to treason and (2) it's Lanny Davis who is issuing the denials nowadays, and Davis is no longer representing Cohen. Edit: The McClatchy article includes this on the topic of Davis' denials: Another former Watergate prosecutor, Nick Akerman, said Davis’ denials about a Prague trip can’t be taken too seriously because it would be “standard for Mueller to tell Cohen and his lawyers not to discuss publicly the details” of the investigation. This is a major story, but one to treat carefully. Scott Stedman is reporting that at least one news organization has corroborating reporting and are working on articles right now. I know "sources on future reporting" sounds hokey, but Stedman is reliable on this sort of thing. McClatchy won't be alone on this island for much longer. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article219016820.html | ||
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