Doll Is Mine wrote:Catalan firefighters taking on Spanish police. This is how civil war starts.

Curt Schilling wrote:If this was Texas there’d be 55,000 soldiers in PR... the execution has been horrifying.

Houshphandzadeh wrote:

Doll Is Mine wrote:Catalan firefighters taking on Spanish police. This is how civil war starts.

these are from 2013

jerseyhoya wrote:His instincts are only generally right and might not be perfect

I find it incredibly naive to think the Republican leadership is going to do anything about Trump enriching himself through the Presidency. This is the party of corporate enrichment uber alles; the party whose idea of infrastructure investment is going to be giving private companies tax credits for infrastructure, plus the right to charge taxpayers for the use of the infrastructure -- effectively giving away public assets to private companies for their own enrichment (what could be referred to as the Putin Plan).

I'll say again: There are no more checks and balances. This is no longer the country you were taught it was. The last semblance of a check against abuses -- the press -- has been so marginalized, so corrupted by its own corporate influences, so focused on sensationalism that it no longer has the ability to stand up for the people in any effective or credible way.

As for the people speaking up on our own, take a look at Trump and the Republicans' attitude towards the anti-Trump demonstrators or the cast of "Hamilton" or anyone else who has spoken out in protest. Right now they're just being chastised and marginalized. Once Trump is in office, do we think dissent will be treated better or worse? When citizens (and the press) are harassed (or worse) by the Trump Administration for their views, who's going to come to their defense? Jeff Sessions' DOJ?

We are now entirely dependent upon the goodwill of Donald Trump, his henchmen and the Republican leadership. The notion that the Republican leadership -- which wants to use a Trump Presidency as a means to their own ends -- is going to stand up and fight against Trump over democratic principles or even common decency -- is breathtakingly naive.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says the Spanish region has won the right to statehood following a contentious referendum that was marred by violence.

He said the door had been opened to a unilateral declaration of independence.

Catalan officials later said 90% of those who voted backed independence in Sunday's vote. The turnout was 42.3%.

Youseff wrote:

Houshphandzadeh wrote:

Doll Is Mine wrote:Catalan firefighters taking on Spanish police. This is how civil war starts.

these are from 2013

goddammit DiM. double check shit before you post it. boo to me for believing it.

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have proposed ending the provision in their scavenger hunt for new revenue to offset the loss resulting from lowering tax rates - a key GOP objective of the tax plan the administration outlined Wednesday. They point to a 2016 report from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that showed ending the deduction would save the federal government $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

But those who favor the deduction counter that eliminating the provision would upset the balance between local and federal interests and negatively impact the ability of state and local government to deliver services and undermine economic growth. A bunch of organizations including the National Governors Association, the United States Conference of Mayors, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties all have denounced the proposal.

Berks County Commissioners Chairman Christian Y. Leinbach, who represents the northeast region in the National Association of Counties, said the idea of preventing the federal government from taxing money that citizens must pay to state and local tax collectors goes back to the Civil War, and the deduction was included in the original income tax legislation.

"The government shouldn't be able to tax money that I've already paid in taxes," he said.

Leinbach said the federal government is essentially playing a shell game with taxpayers.

"They are trying to pretend, under the guise of tax reform, that they are going to reform the structure to give the middle class and the job creators a tax break," he said. "I agree with that goal, but eliminating this will not do what they think it will."

The National Association of Counties estimates that 61,480 households in Berks County claimed the deduction in 2015, resulting in deductions of $635 million. The nonpartisan organization found that nearly 75 percent of those deductions benefitted households where residents were making less than $200,000.

Youseff wrote:I've been reading old politics threads as I mentioned. I was of course convinced Trump couldn't win. Duped by my faith in humanity, faith in America, and statisticians like Sam Wang. jersey is wrong about basically everything, he's very consistent in that. but props to Jamie for this good post.

-Only 15% of voters think Mexico is actually going to pay for a wall with the United States, to 71% who don't believe that's going to happen. Even among Trump's voters just 32% think he will be able to deliver on his promise to make Mexico pay for the wall.
Most Americans don't want the wall anyway though- just 33% support it to 56% who say they are opposed.

-A rare thing that really does bring together Americans across the political spectrum is support for DACA- 74% of voters think children brought to the US by their immigrant parents and raised in the country should be allowed to stay and apply for citizenship to only 18% who don't think they should be allowed to. That includes 92/5 support from Clinton voters and 52/34 support even from Trump voters.

-Sean Spicer has not been able to rehabilitate his image since leaving the White House. Only 23% of voters see him favorably to 41% who have an unfavorable opinion of him. Those numbers are a little worse even than the 24/37 spread he had in January right after prominently lying about the size of the crowd at Trump's inauguration.

-Finally we find that the Trump era has ushered in a huge divide among Americans...about awards shows. Overall there is a pretty dim view of awards shows, with 22% of voters seeing them favorably to 49% who have a negative opinion about them. Clinton voters have mixed feelings about them- 31% favorable, 31% unfavorable. But Trump voters absolutely hate them- just 11% see awards shows positively with 73%
having an unfavorable opinion of them.

Who do you think Russia wanted to win the
2016 election: Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?
23% Think Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election ...
56% Think Russia wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 election ....
Not sure 21%

pacino wrote:

JUburton wrote:especially when i have plenty of obama criticism!

do not criticize my god

Phred wrote:

pacino wrote:

JUburton wrote:especially when i have plenty of obama criticism!

do not criticize my god

Anybody that has zero criticism of their preferred political figure is not being honest with themselves. You can't like 100% of everything that somebody does 100% of the time. If so, then you are not looking at the policies but are blinded by party (or something else).

The former candidate whom prosecutors say U.S. Rep. Bob Brady paid to drop out of a 2012 primary challenge is scheduled to plead guilty in federal court Monday.

It's unclear whether Jimmie Moore's account of the events will present a legal problem for Brady, who represents parts of Philadelphia and Delaware County.

Brady hasn't been charged in the case, but prosecutors have said in court documents he paid $90,000 from his campaign fund to retire the debts Moore ran up beforin abandoning his run for Brady's seat.

The details matter here: if Moore were quitting anyway and got some help afterward, that's one thing. But a Sept. 13 charging document filed by prosecutors indicates Moore will say he and Brady met to discuss what Brady "was willing to offer the defendant [Moore] in exchange for the defendant's agreement to withdraw from the race."