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Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day.

Post your political news stories here!

Wells Fargo exec who headed phony accounts unit collected $125 million

Tolstedt was regularly praised for her unit’s ability to get customers to open numerous accounts. For a number of years, Wells Fargo’s proxy statement, which details executive pay, cited high “cross-selling ratios” as a reason that Tolstedt had earned her roughly $9 million in annual pay. For instance, in Wells Fargo’s 2015 proxy statement, the company said that its compensation committee had authorized Tolstedt’s $7.3 million stock and cash bonus that year, because “under her leadership, Community Banking achieved a number of strategic objectives, including continued strong cross-sell ratios, record deposit levels, and continued success of mobile banking initiatives.”

Silly question: Can we comment on posted stories here or is this just meant to be a repository of news?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Silly question: Can we comment on posted stories here or is this just meant to be a repository of news?

Well, the scope says that it's for ongoing discussion, so I think that means we can comment

Tanglebones wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Silly question: Can we comment on posted stories here or is this just meant to be a repository of news?

Well, the scope says that it's for ongoing discussion, so I think that means we can comment

This conversation is off topic. You're both fired!

(This is why I'm not a moderator)

As both moderator and creator of the original Political News Story thread, I say light discussion is okay, but if it gets too deep, it means it probably warrants its own thread.

This feels deserving of its own thread, but I'll put it here first.

How Big Sugar Enlisted Harvard Scientists to Influence How We Eat—in 1965

I feel like this is one of the biggest public health scandals of all time. Especially since so much of our dietary guidelines, food pyramid, etc. was based on this corrupt research. This should be as big or bigger than Big Tobacco, no?

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/lGlaM0w.jpg)

Tagging in to keep up with things.

A great success of online activism. Activists managed to get through to government that incoming pastor Steven Anderson is a purveyor of hate speech, so they denied his visa.

I know there's going to be all sorts of "free speech" and "undesirable person" herpy derp, but I'm thrilled to live in a country that has sensible limitations on speech and purveyors thereof.

On the other hand the Dalai Lama still can't get a visa.

*edit*

Department of Home Affairs statement.

One reason that this is a big deal is there has been a sense of potential roll back of LGBTI rights, so it's good to see government commit to constitutional enforcement.

And the statement is super progressive, specifically raising issues around trans* rights.

NCAA to move 7 championships from North Carolina due to HB2 law

The NCAA announced on Monday the relocation of seven previously awarded championship events — including NCAA tournament games in Greensboro — from the state of North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year as a result of the state's controversial House Bill 2.

The law prevents cities and counties from passing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And public schools must require bathrooms or locker rooms be designated for use only by people based on their biological sex. The NCAA sent a questionnaire in July concerning discrimination issues to the local organizing groups in cities that have been named to host any NCAA event in any of its three competitive divisions or are interested in staging them.

The NBA moved its the All-Star game in Charlotte for the same reasons in July and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called the law "embarrassing" in an interview with USA TODAY Sports.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin Says Conservatives May Have To Turn To Physical Violence

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) said on Saturday that conservatives may have to turn to physical violence to protect their values.

“I want us to be able to fight ideologically, mentally, spiritually, economically, so that we don’t have to do it physically,” Bevin said during his speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. “But that may, in fact, be the case.”

Bevin went on to say that he believed the U.S. would survive a Hillary Clinton presidency, but it might required bloodshed.

“The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood. Of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else? The patriots,” he said. “Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something, that we through our apathy and our indifference have given away. Don’t let it happen.”

farley3k wrote:

NCAA to move 7 championships from North Carolina due to HB2 law

The NCAA announced on Monday the relocation of seven previously awarded championship events — including NCAA tournament games in Greensboro — from the state of North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year as a result of the state's controversial House Bill 2.

The law prevents cities and counties from passing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And public schools must require bathrooms or locker rooms be designated for use only by people based on their biological sex. The NCAA sent a questionnaire in July concerning discrimination issues to the local organizing groups in cities that have been named to host any NCAA event in any of its three competitive divisions or are interested in staging them.

The NBA moved its the All-Star game in Charlotte for the same reasons in July and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called the law "embarrassing" in an interview with USA TODAY Sports.

Very happy the NCAA is taking a stand. Do we not have a remade D&D trans issues thread to discuss that in?

Ohio University President Roderick McDavis announced at Faculty Senate Monday evening that the university will remove former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes' name from the entrance to a WOUB Public Media newsroom in Athens.

McDavis said the university will return the $500,000 donation that Ailes gave to OU to fund renovation of a student and faculty used WOUB Public Media newsroom on the third floor of the Radio-Technology Communication Building. With a number of sexual harassment allegations against Ailes, and his sudden departure from Fox News, McDavis said he decided removal of Ailes' name was the "most appropriate action."

farley3k wrote:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin Says Conservatives May Have To Turn To Physical Violence

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) said on Saturday that conservatives may have to turn to physical violence to protect their values.

“I want us to be able to fight ideologically, mentally, spiritually, economically, so that we don’t have to do it physically,” Bevin said during his speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. “But that may, in fact, be the case.”

Bevin went on to say that he believed the U.S. would survive a Hillary Clinton presidency, but it might required bloodshed.

“The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood. Of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else? The patriots,” he said. “Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something, that we through our apathy and our indifference have given away. Don’t let it happen.”

Sadly, that seems to be playing very well in Kentucky.

OG_slinger wrote:

Ohio University President Roderick McDavis announced at Faculty Senate Monday evening that the university will remove former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes' name from the entrance to a WOUB Public Media newsroom in Athens.

McDavis said the university will return the $500,000 donation that Ailes gave to OU to fund renovation of a student and faculty used WOUB Public Media newsroom on the third floor of the Radio-Technology Communication Building. With a number of sexual harassment allegations against Ailes, and his sudden departure from Fox News, McDavis said he decided removal of Ailes' name was the "most appropriate action."

The first good thing Roddy McD has done in his tenure at my alma mater. I think the blind squirrel principle applies.

G.O.P. Voters Urged to Select Dead Assemblyman in New York Race

Rarely has a candidate died so close to Election Day. And even as political insiders and Mr. Nojay’s friends dissect his final days, trying to unravel the circumstances surrounding his suicide, his continued presence on the ballot has turned what was supposed to be a simple race into an Albany aberration born of an odd, little-noticed portion of the electoral rule book.

Voters are being urged to cast their ballots for a dead man. Three men in a room are preparing to pick his political heir. The funeral has yet to be held, but the struggle to replace him is already on.

This was a Republican primary race with two candidates for the seat. There is a Democratic contender who will be on the ballot in November. The "three men in a room" are the Republican party leaders in the three counties containing the State Assembly district in question.

UChicago faculty issue a counterpoint/response to the "welcome" letter that went out last month.
http://chicagoist.com/2016/09/13/uch...

Letter itself:
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/articl...

As you have undoubtedly noticed, you and your new institution have been in the media spotlight lately. We want to take this opportunity to voice our own welcome as members of the faculty. You will find the University of Chicago to be a diverse place full of strong-minded people. We encourage you to become one of them.


Those of us who have signed this letter have a variety of opinions about requests for trigger warnings and safe spaces. We may also disagree as to whether free speech is ever legitimately interrupted by concrete pressures of the political. That is as it should be. But let there be no mistake: such requests often touch on substantive, ongoing issues of bias, intolerance, and trauma that affect our intellectual exchanges. To start a conversation by declaring that such requests are not worth making is an affront to the basic principles of liberal education and participatory democracy.

...

Tagging the old way.

More leaked DNC documents are going to be a big problem for not just Hillary.

On September 13, WikiLeaks lived up to its promise of releasing more Democratic National Committee (DNC) documents. This time they were from hacker Guccifer 2.0, serving as a teaser for larger and likely more embarrassing leaks from the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.

Both the Democratic Party and Clinton campaign have attempted to insulate themselves from the content of the releases by alleging the hacks were organized by the Russian government. The claims are a mix of paranoia and PR/damage control, and will have enduring consequences. It may lead to what former Secretary of Defense William Perry referred to as a drift back into Cold War mentalities.

The leaks include more evidence of overt corruption within the DNC. One email dated May 18, 2016, from Jacquelyn Lopez, an attorney with the law firm Perkins Coie, asked DNC staff if they could set up a brief call “to go over our process for handling donations from donors who have given us pay to play letters.”

Not that it makes it right, but you realize this is, unfortunately, standard operating procedure in DC, right?

Bush did it. Most presidents appointment friends and political allies. They try to find competent people to fill these posts, but it's always been this way.

The things we thought were probably happening in DC are happening, folks! Actually, it's good to know this. Hopefully the currency that's generated with the public isn't wasted on a petty indictment of a single person or even party, but is used to help transform and/or clarify this aspect of our political system.

Still Nomad is right it will hurt the Democratic party. People will think - "see more DC shenanigans ! I should vote for trump because he is outside that kind of crap."

When you look at trump's history as a leader there are just as many red flags but they were not in DC so people think he will be better.

California teen’s grades docked for refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance

A California high schooler’s grade was dropped because she refused to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Leilani Thomas, a Native American student at Lower Lake High School in Northern California, said her participation grade was docked when she decided to sit out the daily Pledge.

“She told me I was being disrespectful, and I was pretty mad,” the teen told ABC 10 of the unidentified teacher. “She was being disrespectful to me also, saying I was making bad choices, and I don’t have the choice to sit during the Pledge.”

Thomas said she has been sitting down during the morning Pledge for years. She started her silent protest in the second grade after her parents started teaching her about their Native American ancestors and culture.

“My mom and my dad brought up what it meant to us and our people,” she said. “So I just started sitting down.”

But it was only recently — in the wake of backlash against San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick and his decision to kneel during the National Anthem — that one of Thomas’ teachers started to take issue with the teen’s defiance.

Kind of sounds like that teacher needs some more serious disciplinary action taken rather than just having kids moved out of their class.

Another horrible tragedy but one where I believe the police shouldn't be charged.

I know when you are 13 it can be scarrey to be chased by the police but the police had been told the suspects had a gun and "That’s when King allegedly pulled a gun out of his waistband — and an officer shot him “multiple times.”" Now if it turns out that he really didn't reach in his waistband and pulled a weapon that looked like a gun then I will change my mind but from what I have read the officers probably shouldn't be charged.

A white kid wouldn't have been shot.

Hell, I white kid wouldn't have been stopped in the first place. A white kid wouldn't have run because a white kid with a bee bee gun wouldn't have felt he needed to run.

Charge the officer, don't charge the officer, I kind of don't care. I care that seemingly the majority of people can't seem to figure out that the culture and training of our police officers needs to change.

A white kid matching the description of an armed robbery suspect, who pulls out a realistic looking handgun would (should?) probably also get shot.

Maybe. I'm gonna rant for a while.

Spoiler:

Do we know what "matching the description" meant (other than, I assume, they were black)? Not from the story I linked or the news story linked in the tp story. Will we ever know what "matching the description" means? I doubt it. Because they're going to cover for this cop.

dee, you're playing devil's advocate here and I appreciate it. I shouldn't go around screaming racism.

If you wanted to push devil's advocate further, maybe those kids were actually the robbery suspects? An airsoft looks a lot like a real gun, after all. Perhaps they actually did fit the description to a T (tee? tea?).

But that doesn't change the fact that a black kid got shot for having an air soft gun (and running).
It doesn't change the fact that we still, despite all these shootings and BLM and media attention and NFL protests, have a huge cultural problem that no one has even begun to address.

Give this cop a pass? Fine. I'm not saying nail him to a wall. He thought he had a suspect and that suspect pulled what looked like a real gun. I understand that. Of course, no body camera so we won't actually no what happened. Anyway.

My problem is with every step that got us to saying it was understandable he used lethal force. My problem is with a law enforcement culture focused not on being part of the community it's supposed to serve but on arresting people. And the people they tend to focus on for those arrests seem to be because of institutional racism.

My FiL was a cop. That job is incredibly tough and they deserve our respect. He's no longer a cop because while trying to break up a bar fight, he took a barstool across both knees. He's now 2 inches shorter and retired. It's not a fun job, folks.

My problem isn't with cops. My problem is with culture and training. That's what needs fixed. The onus to prove innocence should not be on the civilian. Lethal force should not be in the top list of options to consider. The kid got shot pulling what looked like a gun. I would assume the cop already had his gun trained on the kid and he chased 2 of them for a while, he would have seen that they were kids.

And seeing as we keep hearing stories about white people walking around with guns without getting shot or shooting wildly in a walmart parking lot without getting shot, OR TAKING SHOTS AT COPS WHILE DRUNK without getting shot, I think this kid has a much better chance of being alive if he'd been white. Even if that means he wouldn't have felt threatened enough to run and the whole situation is bypassed, that's still how I feel.

Democratic Mayor Andrew Ginther appeared to choke up as he called for the community to come together to help ensure children remain safe. He questioned why an eighth-grader would have a replica of a police firearm.

"There is something wrong in this country, and it is bringing its epidemic to our city streets," Ginther said. "And a 13-year-old is dead in the city of Columbus because of our obsession with guns and violence."

So a cross between victim blaming and society. Well, the mayor is half right.

tl;dr: This sh*t has got to stop.

My problem is with every step that got us to saying it was understandable he used lethal force. My problem is with a law enforcement culture focused not on being part of the community it's supposed to serve but on arresting people. And the people they tend to focus on for those arrests seem to be because of institutional racism.

This I am in complete agreement about.

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