[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

Over here we just do it by gamifying your health insurance instead. We're raising your rates, but if you perform the approved motions we'll give you a small refund.

NBC WPSD 6: West Virginia teachers: No raise, no school; strike goes on

(AP) – Unions representing West Virginia teachers and service personnel say they will stay out on strike after the state Senate voted to cut the 5 percent pay raise they had negotiated with the governor.

A joint legislative committee has been formed to address differences in the pay raise bills of the state Senate and House.

CNN: Before they went on strike, West Virginia teachers packed bags to make sure kids didn't go hungry

(CNN)Teachers in West Virginia are striking for higher wages and better benefits, but not at the expense of hungry students.

In West Virginia almost one in four children are in poverty. For many of them, free or reduced-price school breakfasts and lunches are their main meals of the day. Some schools even run Friday pantry programs to feed students through the weekend.

The teachers' strike closed all the state's public schools beginning last week. But the kids are still eating.
"Before they made the decision to strike they wanted to make sure their students' needs were taken care of," said Jennifer Wood, with the American Federation of Teachers union in West Virginia.

Newsweek: WEST VIRGINIA TEACHER STRIKE ENTERS EIGHTH DAY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Stuck in legislative limbo

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice had agreed earlier in the week to meet the demands of teachers and service personnel and give them a 5 percent raise.

However, because West Virginia is not a collective bargaining state, the raise must be first be passed as a law in order for it to be brought into effect.

The state Senate approved a bill on Saturday to reduce a proposed pay rise from 5 percent to 4 percent, which upset teachers. The House, which had previously approved a 5 percent pay rise, rejected the Senate's bill.

HuffPost: Oklahoma Teachers May Soon Go On Strike: “A walkout would be the last resort, but we want more money for education in the state, that means more money for supplies, more staff and pay raises so teachers will stay.”

Yonder wrote:

Yeah, what's this Nosedive nonsense? MeowMeowBeenz for life.

Fives have lives. Fours have chores. Threes have fleas. Twos have blues and Ones don't get a rhyme, because they're garbage.

Charity founded in memory of Philando Castile, shot by police officer, pays off school district's entire lunch debt

When Philando Castile, who was killed in his car by a police officer in 2016, was a school meals supervisor in a school in St. Paul, Minn., he was well known for paying for the lunches of kids who could not afford it.

Now a charity founded in his memory, Philando Feeds the Children, has paid off the entire school lunch debt for all 56 schools in the city’s public school system, according to local media.

"That means that no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt," according to an update from the charity’s website. "Philando is still reaching into his pocket, and helping a kid out. One by one. With your help."

The crowdfunding charity was the idea of Metropolitan State University professor Pamela Fergus, whose aim was to raise $5,000 to wipe out lunch debt for students at JJ Hill Montessori, where Castile worked.

School lunch debt...

What better way to prepare poor children for the life they're going to face by shaming them over the fact their family can't afford their school lunch. In a nation that repeatedly claims to be the richest/most prosperous/most generous on the planet.

On one note MN does have great school free lunch programs for the under privileged but it doesn't cover everyone. And folks on those programs make sure kids take food for at home as those kids often are very under-served. Agree, it is terrible that poverty strikes so easily here in the land of the wealthy,

karmajay wrote:

I knew that first ep of Black Mirror was going to come true!

Don't see how this relates to the pig?

Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier

Article wrote:

One subject that Steele is believed to have discussed with Mueller’s investigators is a memo that he wrote in late November, 2016, after his contract with Fusion had ended. This memo, which did not surface publicly with the others, is shorter than the rest, and is based on one source, described as “a senior Russian official.” The official said that he was merely relaying talk circulating in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but what he’d heard was astonishing: people were saying that the Kremlin had intervened to block Trump’s initial choice for Secretary of State, Mitt Romney. (During Romney’s run for the White House in 2012, he was notably hawkish on Russia, calling it the single greatest threat to the U.S.) The memo said that the Kremlin, through unspecified channels, had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions, and who would coöperate on security issues of interest to Russia, such as the conflict in Syria. If what the source heard was true, then a foreign power was exercising pivotal influence over U.S. foreign policy—and an incoming President.

As fantastical as the memo sounds, subsequent events could be said to support it. In a humiliating public spectacle, Trump dangled the post before Romney until early December, then rejected him. There are plenty of domestic political reasons that Trump may have turned against Romney. Trump loyalists, for instance, noted Romney’s public opposition to Trump during the campaign. Roger Stone, the longtime Trump aide, has suggested that Trump was vengefully tormenting Romney, and had never seriously considered him. (Romney declined to comment. The White House said that he was never a first choice for the role and declined to comment about any communications that the Trump team may have had with Russia on the subject.) In any case, on December 13, 2016, Trump gave Rex Tillerson, the C.E.O. of ExxonMobil, the job. The choice was a surprise to most, and a happy one in Moscow, because Tillerson’s business ties with the Kremlin were long-standing and warm. (In 2011, he brokered a historic partnership between ExxonMobil and Rosneft.) After the election, Congress imposed additional sanctions on Russia, in retaliation for its interference, but Trump and Tillerson have resisted enacting them.

It's a doozy of an article.

Gremlin wrote:

Over here we just do it by gamifying your health insurance instead. We're raising your rates, but if you perform the approved motions we'll give you a small refund.

Oh wait, companies have found a better way: now your bonus will be a randomized loot box!
CBS: United Airlines reconsiders swapping employee bonuses with lottery

Three days after saying it would replace quarterly bonuses with a game show-style lottery offering its employees a chance to win cash and prizes, United Airlines (UAL) has rescinded the plan in the face of an employee backlash.

"Our intention was to introduce a better, more exciting program, but we misjudged how these changes would be received by many of you," United President Scott Kirby said in a note to employees.

The Chicago-based carrier on Friday said it would axe its program of giving quarterly bonuses to those qualified to receive them in favor of a lottery-style drawing, according to the Chicago Business Journal. On Monday, United is "pressing the pause button" as it considers employee feedback, Kirby said.

The short-lived concept had United saying that so long as United hit at least one performance goal, there would be a quarterly drawing for prizes including luxury cars, vacation packages or cash from two grand to $40,000, with one employee getting a grand prize of $100,000, the Chicago journal reported.

But the notion that those not lucky enough to win a prize would be left with nothing to show for their efforts seemingly did not go over well with rank-and-file workers at United.

"Now?"

I was going to respond to your post in some other thread of constant horror (I forget which) that with this news cycle nothing matters anymore. Probably the Russia/Trump one because of Nunberg and his probable book deal.

News and public opinion have ceased to matter. Pick a 45-adjacent scandal in the last 3 business days, magically apply it to Obama, and fox news would still be running exposes on it 7 years later.

Just the smoke from all those investigations coming back to offices in trump tower, just that implication, would have the alex joneses of the world ripping their shirts off and screaming about how gay frogs (funded by soros) are running a russian-allied cartel from the heart of the greatest city on earth... if it were Obama. or Clinton. or at this point, possibly W.

Too many scandals. We've become immune. There isn't outrage left, at least nothing that would move the House to get off of their asses. They can't even ask the ridiculously partisan and obviously corrupt Nunes to step back and let someone else get a handle on a dumpter fire of an investigation. Like, he served on the transition team! HE SERVED ON THE TRANSITION TEAM AND NOW OBVIOUSLY OBSTRUCTS AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE WORKINGS OF THAT TEAM! He said he's step down and then didn't!

It's unbelievable the mental gymnastics we're going through as a nation.

Wow, that was a rant.

oilypenguin wrote:

News and public opinion have ceased to matter. Pick a 45-adjacent scandal in the last 3 business days, magically apply it to Obama, and fox news would still be running exposes on it 7 years later.

On a somewhat related note, I was in a pizza place this weekend and Fox news was on. Their advertisement on the bottom right of the screen was for, apparently a Fox show, called "Scandalous" and had Bill Clinton's face next to it. A quick look at the website gives this description:

About the Show
"Scandalous" is a historical documentary-style series that chronicles the sequence of events that enveloped Washington and ultimately led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton during the 1990’s.

So yeah, they're still going strong on Clinton.

Kehama wrote:

So yeah, they're still going strong on Clinton.

There are a number of conservative pundits-turned-demagogues who have been trying to push an investigate-Obama angle. He's, uh, not president anymore y'all. I'm disappointed I ever listened to them in the first place. It's kind of pathetic, really.

Meanwhile, the wheels of justice grind slowly on...
Shkreli ordered to forfeit $7.36M in assets, could include Wu-Tang Clan album

The crazy thing is, in a more sane world congress would have empaneled a 9/11 style commission that *would* investigate the Obama administration. Not as a witch hunt to prove Nunes bullsh*t theories, but to get to the bottom of how badly they failed at protecting the US and why they failed.

Kehama wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

News and public opinion have ceased to matter. Pick a 45-adjacent scandal in the last 3 business days, magically apply it to Obama, and fox news would still be running exposes on it 7 years later.

On a somewhat related note, I was in a pizza place this weekend and Fox news was on. Their advertisement on the bottom right of the screen was for, apparently a Fox show, called "Scandalous" and had Bill Clinton's face next to it. A quick look at the website gives this description:

About the Show
"Scandalous" is a historical documentary-style series that chronicles the sequence of events that enveloped Washington and ultimately led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton during the 1990’s.

So yeah, they're still going strong on Clinton.

I don't patronize places that have Fox News on. I just don't. I can be out with a group of 20 people from work and if it is showing at the bar, I'll walk out and grab a sandwich from the Panera drive thru on the way home instead.

Paleocon wrote:
Kehama wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

News and public opinion have ceased to matter. Pick a 45-adjacent scandal in the last 3 business days, magically apply it to Obama, and fox news would still be running exposes on it 7 years later.

On a somewhat related note, I was in a pizza place this weekend and Fox news was on. Their advertisement on the bottom right of the screen was for, apparently a Fox show, called "Scandalous" and had Bill Clinton's face next to it. A quick look at the website gives this description:

About the Show
"Scandalous" is a historical documentary-style series that chronicles the sequence of events that enveloped Washington and ultimately led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton during the 1990’s.

So yeah, they're still going strong on Clinton.

I don't patronize places that have Fox News on. I just don't. I can be out with a group of 20 people from work and if it is showing at the bar, I'll walk out and grab a sandwich from the Panera drive thru on the way home instead.

Obligatory link to TV BGone, a keychain device about the size of a carkey fob, that will turn off most any TV.

Apparently a flu shot can send you to hell. Who knew?

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that a county-owned nursing home in Wisconsin discriminated against a former employee's religious objections to receiving a flu vaccine.

The suit alleges that Barnell Williams, a former nursing assistant at Lasata Care Center, requested an exemption from a center policy requiring flu vaccinations "because of her sincerely held religious belief that Bible-based scriptures prohibited flu shots," according to a statement from the department.
...
The complaint also alleges that Williams experienced "severe emotional distress" and suffered sleep problems, anxiety and "fear of 'going to Hell.'"

I can totally see why her religious beliefs justify putting her elderly patients more at risk of dying from the flu.

Kehama wrote:

Apparently a flu shot can send you to hell. Who knew?

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that a county-owned nursing home in Wisconsin discriminated against a former employee's religious objections to receiving a flu vaccine.

The suit alleges that Barnell Williams, a former nursing assistant at Lasata Care Center, requested an exemption from a center policy requiring flu vaccinations "because of her sincerely held religious belief that Bible-based scriptures prohibited flu shots her from being employed to care for sick people," according to a statement from the department.
...
The complaint also alleges that Williams experienced "severe emotional distress" and suffered sleep problems, anxiety and "fear of 'going to Hell.'"

Fixed that for her.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
karmajay wrote:

I knew that first ep of Black Mirror was going to come true!

Don't see how this relates to the pig?

That episode already came true

Gremlin wrote:
Kehama wrote:

So yeah, they're still going strong on Clinton.

There are a number of conservative pundits-turned-demagogues who have been trying to push an investigate-Obama angle. He's, uh, not president anymore y'all. I'm disappointed I ever listened to them in the first place. It's kind of pathetic, really.

The Australian Foreign Minister (aka Secretary of State) worked with the Clinton Foundation in 2006 to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa.

This means that the Russia investigation is tainted.

https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/s...

Wow--per this new report, the Australian diplomat that supposedly prompted the Russian collusion investigation has ties to the Clintons. Every week it seems to become more clear: FBI leaders have not been upfront with us about this entire investigation.

It may be important to note that Alexander Downer is from the Liberal Party which is actually the conservative side in Australia.

The Australian Government has made multiple contributions to Clinton entities over the past decade or so, both Liberal and Labor governments through multiple different Ministers for Foreign Affairs. Any major funding of aid like this to any group in the world would have his signature on it. If the Bushes had any major funds like this that the Australian Government supported, then you will find his signature on those agreements too.

Opioid crisis: overdoses increased by a third across US in 14 months, says CDC

Opioid overdoses increased by roughly 30% across the US in just 14 months between 2016 and 2017, according to a new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC called the data a “wake up call to the fast-moving opioid overdose epidemic”. It recorded 142,000 overdoses in US hospital emergency departments between July 2016 and September 2017.

Although not all overdoses in the study were fatal, they are part of the grim toll opioids have taken. In the US in 2016, illicit and prescription drug overdoses killed 64,000 people.

“Our results through September 2017 show opioid overdoses are increasing across all regions, most states for most men and women and most age groups,” said Dr Anne Schuchat, acting director of the CDC.

“We’re currently seeing the highest overdose death rates ever recorded in the United States.” Schuchat later added: “The infrastructure to fully tackle this problem is fragile.”

The CDC’s Vital Signs study looked at two data sets. The first, the Enhanced State Opioid Overdose Surveillance (ESOOS) program, is a snapshot of emergency department data from 16 states.

Eight of those states included saw “substantial” overdose increases of at least 25%. Two states reported overdoses more than doubled – including in Wisconsin with 109% and Delaware with 105% increases. Another dramatic increase occurred in Pennsylvania, where overdoses went up 81%.

Overdoses also increased in “cities and towns of all types”, the report said. Overdoses are often associated with rural America but metropolitan areas with 1 million or more people saw the steepest increase, at 54%.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

The Australian Foreign Minister (aka Secretary of State) worked with the Clinton Foundation in 2006 to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa.

This means that the Russia investigation is tainted.

https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/s...

Wow--per this new report, the Australian diplomat that supposedly prompted the Russian collusion investigation has ties to the Clintons. Every week it seems to become more clear: FBI leaders have not been upfront with us about this entire investigation.

I'm continually amazed at how all-seeing and all-powerful Hillary is.

In this case Hillary masterminded Downer's career for nearly a decade to make sure he'd be in a London nightclub so he could hear a drunken Papadopoulos bragging about how the Russians "dirt" had on her in the form of thousands of emails.

She made sure Australia's Liberal Party lost power in 2007 so Downer would lose his position as Minister for Foreign Affairs. She then pulled strings to make him the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus, a position Hillary stashed him in from 2008 to 2014. And then, sensing that she'd need him two and a half years later, Hillary made Downer Australia's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Then Hillary arranged for an Israeli Embassy official to introduce Papadopoulos to another Australian diplomat in London who then introduced Papadopoulos to Downer so that Downer could finally execute the mission Hillary had saved him for all those years--hearing a drunken idiot brag about state secrets. Then Hillary commanded Downer to sit on that information for two months before turning it over to the FBI.

If Hillary is so brilliant then maybe she should be our president.

Hockosi wrote:

If Hillary is so brilliant then maybe she should be our president.

But she has cooties!

Unless... maybe Obama's plan was to distribute cootie shots through the ACA so that Hillary could be President!

And people laughed when she discussed a vast rightwing conspiracy...

muttonchop wrote:
MrDeVil909 wrote:
karmajay wrote:

I knew that first ep of Black Mirror was going to come true!

Don't see how this relates to the pig?

That episode already came true

I have to think someone on the writing team knew that story when they wrote the episode before it become known to the public at large..

OG_slinger wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

The Australian Foreign Minister (aka Secretary of State) worked with the Clinton Foundation in 2006 to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa.

This means that the Russia investigation is tainted.

https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/s...

Wow--per this new report, the Australian diplomat that supposedly prompted the Russian collusion investigation has ties to the Clintons. Every week it seems to become more clear: FBI leaders have not been upfront with us about this entire investigation.

I'm continually amazed at how all-seeing and all-powerful Hillary is.

In this case Hillary masterminded Downer's career for nearly a decade to make sure he'd be in a London nightclub so he could hear a drunken Papadopoulos bragging about how the Russians "dirt" had on her in the form of thousands of emails.

She made sure Australia's Liberal Party lost power in 2007 so Downer would lose his position as Minister for Foreign Affairs. She then pulled strings to make him the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus, a position Hillary stashed him in from 2008 to 2014. And then, sensing that she'd need him two and a half years later, Hillary made Downer Australia's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Then Hillary arranged for an Israeli Embassy official to introduce Papadopoulos to another Australian diplomat in London who then introduced Papadopoulos to Downer so that Downer could finally execute the mission Hillary had saved him for all those years--hearing a drunken idiot brag about state secrets. Then Hillary commanded Downer to sit on that information for two months before turning it over to the FBI.

Look that's great and all, but what about bangazi buttery males? See now all your dominoes are falling like a house cards. Checkmate.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
karmajay wrote:

I knew that first ep of Black Mirror was going to come true!

Don't see how this relates to the pig?

I was talking about the one where everyone rates every interaction on an app. Possibly it is the 1st ep of a different season?