[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.

Feds spent 20 years warning Michigan dam was in danger before it failed

How much more of our infrastructure is going to follow this same fate? The penalties seem to be no more than strongly worded warnings. Not to mention the apparent actions of simply passing off the dam to new "owners" every few years which seems to indicate that no one wanted to repair the thing, simply profit from the ownership (probably in the form of write-offs).

Documents available on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission website show federal regulators warned multiple companies that the Edenville Dam was not ready to handle a massive flood. The federal government threatened large fines against one private company that operated the dam until eventually revoking its license in 2018.
Although federal regulators repeatedly warned about the dam's inability to handle a large flood, it took years for federal authorities to crack down on the dam's operator after more than 13 years of cajoling them to abide by the terms of their license.

I thought that Minnesota bridge collapse was going to wake us up to start caring about infrastructure again.

Of course I thought elementary school children getting shot would make us serious about gun control.

Stele wrote:

I thought that Minnesota bridge collapse was going to wake us up to start caring about infrastructure again.

Of course I thought elementary school children getting shot would make us serious about gun control.

The bridge was a crisis actor.

Well, I guess we know why Burr was raided by the FBI while DOJ just asked Loeffler for documents.

Sen. Loeffler’s husband cuts $1 million check to pro-Trump super PAC

Politico wrote:

Jeff Sprecher, the husband of Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), sent a $1 million check to the leading pro-Trump super PAC even as she been fending off criticism around her family’s stock trading.

Sprecher, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, donated to America First Action on April 29, according to a report the Federal Election Commission filed Wednesday evening. America First has been described as the sole “approved outside non-campaign group” by the Trump campaign.

Sprecher’s donation came as Loeffler has faced increasing criticism over stock trading during the coronavirus pandemic. She offloaded stocks shortly after a classified briefing on Covid-19 in January.

Loeffler has maintained she has done nothing wrong, saying she does not control her own stock trading. She later said she would no longer trade individual stocks.

Last week, Loeffler’s office said she turned over documents to the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Senate Ethics Committee regarding the trading. “The documents and information demonstrated her and her husband’s lack of involvement in their managed accounts, as well the details of those accounts,” a statement from her office said last weekend.

I am sure that is on top of the retaliation against Burr.

BadKen wrote:

In the immortal words of Tallahassee from Zombieland, It's time to nut up or shut up.

p.s. Zombieland: Double Tap is a hoot, but very pale-skinned which disappointed me quite a lot. It has two non-white faces in it. One is a minor character love interest for one of the leads, and the other is a door guard.

...

Maybe Jordan Peele can give us a decent horror comedy in the vein of the two Zombielands, but with 21st century sensibilities. If anyone can do it, he can.

days late. Here it is. As always comedy gold but the relevant part to both why you don't see POC in Zombiland and why we need more from Jordan Peele at 1:20 mark

Paleocon wrote:
Stele wrote:

I thought that Minnesota bridge collapse was going to wake us up to start caring about infrastructure again.

Of course I thought elementary school children getting shot would make us serious about gun control.

The bridge was a crisis actor.

What was wild was I lived right next to that bridge and worked on one side and lived on the other at the time in College. That was surreal.

I knew loads of folks who went over it and then it fell out of view behind them. Knew others who had taken a different route that day. At the time I worked in an orthopedic surgery clinic and then we had the survivors come in regularly. Pretty wild time.

Lawyer drops Reade.

:-/

This is an unfortunate turn.

Reaper81 wrote:

Lawyer drops Reade.

:-/

This is an unfortunate turn.

Apparently, she may be subject to perjury charges. She testified under oath that she had a bachelor's degree, which is apparently false.

Maybe she can get a job at the White House where she won't have to worry about such things.

trichy wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:

Lawyer drops Reade.

:-/

This is an unfortunate turn.

Apparently, she may be subject to perjury charges. She testified under oath that she had a bachelor's degree, which is apparently false.

DV offenders may get a break due to her seemingly fradulent testimony.

Very disappointing.

Yeah I saw a thread about it and some NYT quotes from the story on twitter yesterday. Just nuts.

Claimed that because of her divorce and threat from ex husband, she got a "secret degree" for her bachelor's. But the school and (former?) president that supposedly did this denied it. Her "proof" of degree was an unofficial transcript from her law school where she had told them she had an undergraduate degree. And the only transcripts from undergrad were like 50 credit hours, but you need 125 or some such for a degree. It wasn't even close.

Complete bullsh*t. No one gets a "secret degree". A degree without your name or any record at the school is worthless.

Hobear wrote:

why you don't see POC in Zombiland

"They seriously wouldn't let her eat us!"

ROFL

"the transcripts also reflect someone who – when under oath – touted Biden’s work for women...In her October 2019 testimony seven months ago, she even suggested she was involved in moving Biden’s key legislation along"

So far as I've been able to find she was never a legislative aid, so as recently as seven months ago she was... mischaracterizing the work she did in Biden's office under oath as part of being an Expert Witness.

This is a clusterf*ck for all 20 cases she was involved in.

It makes one wonder who is really behind this whole thing. I don't want to ignore her experience, but maybe she got some really bad advice from someone pushing her to move forward with legal action.

She's clearly willing to lie in self-aggrandizing ways, so the question becomes: does she get anything by accusing Biden of rape? With that kind of past, she'd be vulnerable to pressure by political opponents.... like, say, the Russian disinformation attempts to keep Trump in office.

A state surveillance apparatus might be able to profile everyone even remotely connected to Biden, and then focus on weak points, and she sounds like a potential weak point.

"Accuse Biden of rape or we leak that you're falsifying your credentials," for instance, might very well work. I would expect our CIA to be able to ferret something like that out, so I can't imagine why the Russians couldn't.

After that interview with Charlemagne the other day I almost think Biden himself is getting paid by Russia to undermine his campaign.

The Black American Amputation Epidemic

Despite the great scientific strides in diabetes care, the rate of amputations across the country grew by 50% between 2009 and 2015. Diabetics undergo 130,000 amputations each year, often in low-income and underinsured neighborhoods. Black patients lose limbs at a rate triple that of others. It is the cardinal sin of the American health system in a single surgery: save on preventive care, pay big on the backend, and let the chronically sick and underprivileged feel the extreme consequences.

Another black guy was murdered by the police. This time he was choked to death as a officer crushed his throat. You can watch his murder on youtube if you want. Guys name is George Floyd. Anyway a protest went down today that turned violent. Flash bombs were thrown by the police. People breaking cars. Looked pretty scary.

This would have worked out less violently for them if they were white and demanding the right to haircuts.

Is anything happening to the cop that crushed that poor guy's neck?

I fear that I may already know the answer to that. At least all the cops at the scene were fired.

CNN wrote:

Floyd's cause and manner of death remains pending and is being investigated by local, state and federal law enforcement, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office said in a statement.

Yeah, let me save the M.E. some time there. His cause of death was that a white cop decided to murder him.

Looks like there was a small contingent of at least 16 white supremacist Boog Boys attending the protest on the side of the protestors. There were reports on twitter of some mystery gunshots during the protest and that several of the Boogs were armed with rifles and a handgun.
*it should be noted that even though the post below opens saying that it’s not a race issue, the explicit purpose of the Boogaloo movement is to start a race war so that white supremacists can openly start murdering minorities, politicians, and anyone who isn’t a white supremacist.
IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/L8Rm0WHR/5-CE4-E982-7-C87-4224-B7-E4-65397-C9-F6-E2-E.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/NMytHqx8/3830-B29-A-F323-4-D9-F-8-D6-F-2439-B4592451.jpg)
IMAGE(https://i.postimg.cc/zXwrWkTQ/A2-AF7-E2-C-8-EA7-442-B-866-E-4-AF7-CF74032-F.jpg)

It sure seems we're hitting peak America at the moment.

Heavily armed white people can angrily protest about their right to haircuts and overtly threaten duly elected politicians and the police will just stand there. Hell, protesters can even get into scuffles with the cops and still nothing happens.

But POC protest a cop straight up murdering someone and they're immediately met with riot gear, rubber bullets, and tear gas.

The only things that are giving me a sliver of hope is that the police involved were immediately fired (they need to be charged and arrested, as well) and that a Karen in NYC lost her dog and her fancy job because she tried to get the police to kill a black man who caught her breaking the law.

Also the guy who hung the effigy of Kentucky governor Beshear this weekend was fired from his job.

A "Donald" and a "Karen" both got what they deserved within 3 days.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

while it'd be better if they all go down for it, random punishment is better than no punishment.

I'm not sure I agree when the reason why one is punished and the other is spared is also corrupt.

Continuing along those lines: DOJ has announced that they've dropped the investigation into Sen. Loeffler and the other Senators who dumped stock after being briefed on covid-19. The investigation into Burr continues. If there was any doubt before, the DOJ is all about enacting Trump's personal grudges and retaliations.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

while it'd be better if they all go down for it, random punishment is better than no punishment.

I'm not sure I agree when the reason why one is punished and the other is spared is also corrupt.

Continuing along those lines: DOJ has announced that they've dropped the investigation into Sen. Loeffler and the other Senators who dumped stock after being briefed on covid-19. The investigation into Burr continues. If there was any doubt before, the DOJ is all about enacting Trump's personal grudges and retaliations.

A few days after Loeffler's husband dropped a cool million into a Trump Superpac

I always wondered how everyday citizens felt who lived in countries where officials openly bribed their way out of legal trouble. Now I know! I wish I didn't.

Serious question - how should a member of Congress set up their portfolio to avoid issues like this? Cos let's be honest, poor folk don't get voted into Congress all that often, so we have to expect that a member will have some kind of portfolio that requires managing.

If we take Loeffler at her word, her investment decisions are made "on her behalf by third parties without her or her husband's knowledge or involvement" (taken from her Twitter).

Isn't that what we'd want? What would be better?

EDIT - and assuming that you have an independent financial person making those decisions, wouldn't you hope they'd be making exactly these kinds of trades on your behalf - e.g. selling before a huge stock drop?

If they had a third party handling their portfolio, and nothing indicates they tried to influence that third party after being briefed on covid-19, then there likely is no problem.
Investigating whether she did misuse the information she had seems very appropriate though.

Selling your stocks in the months before corona virus hit globally didn't have to take amazing foresight.
Stocks started to bloat like crazy in January/February, which could already be a pretty good reason to sell. And we all did get information about what surely looked like a pandemic waiting to happen, long before the stock market reacted.

But if you sell a lot of your stocks immediately after getting a confidential briefing, that surely gives reason to be suspicious. Maybe they need to look more into the third party manager, than Loeffler.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I always wondered how everyday citizens felt who lived in countries where officials openly bribed their way out of legal trouble. Now I know! I wish I didn't.

As a random segue - one of my friends was an activities director on a Carribean cruise liner. Besides her normal duties, she was put in charge of collecting firearms and bribing foreign officials. She could relate.