Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 209: Lord of the Lies

(+) Yeah! (+)

I almost posted this yesterday because all the pieces had been out there and it wasn't exactly hard to connect them, but hey NBC News decided to do it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-was-room-during-hush-money-discussions-nbc-news-confirms-n947536

Continuing off of the AMI non-prosecution agreement with SDNY, AMI also stated that it made the $150k payment and Pecker (National Enquirer publisher), Cohen, and "at least one other member of the campaign" were in the meeting.

NBC News is confirming that the "other member" was Trump.

Which wasn't exactly a shock because WSJ had previously reported Trump was in a meeting with Pecker and Cohen about this so it was the easiest "connect the dots" ever.
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Another federal investigation to keep track of. This time, Trump's inauguration spending is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455

Articles says the investigation is in its early stages, seems to partly arise from material seized from Cohen, and that prosecutors are asking Gates - who was deputy chairman of the inauguration committee about it and is already cooperating with DoJ and Mueller.
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I wonder if at some point it will become standard procedure for Presidents to give daily blanket pardons to themselves and all their staff.
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https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/12/13/politics/melania-trump-poll-numbers-drop/index.html

People don't even like Melania.

Ouch.
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xp1337 posted...

Another federal investigation to keep track of. This time, Trump's inauguration spending is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455

Articles says the investigation is in its early stages, seems to partly arise from material seized from Cohen, and that prosecutors are asking Gates - who was deputy chairman of the inauguration committee about it and is already cooperating with DoJ and Mueller.

How could something so small be such a big fuck up?
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Peace___Frog posted...

xp1337 posted...

Another federal investigation to keep track of. This time, Trump's inauguration spending is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455

Articles says the investigation is in its early stages, seems to partly arise from material seized from Cohen, and that prosecutors are asking Gates - who was deputy chairman of the inauguration committee about it and is already cooperating with DoJ and Mueller.

How could something so small be such a big fuck up?

Clearly they were overcharging for admittance.
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In horrifically depressing news: a 7-year-old migrant girl who was taken into Border Patrol custody died of dehydration and shock.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/7-year-old-migrant-girl-taken-into-border-patrol-custody-dies-of-dehydration-exhaustion/2018/
12/13/8909e356-ff03-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html
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ICE kills another one.
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ICE wasn't involved here.

FWIW, it sounds like she was probably in an advanced state of dehydration by the time she entered Border Patrol custody, but it's still an awful story.

(Read the article for more details, but she started suffering seizures 8 hours after entering Border Patrol custody and it was determined later that she hadn't eaten or had water in several days. Unclear yet if Border Patrol gave food and water, though it is their policy to do so.)
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Lack of ice in this case
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she didnt die of shock
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If that's the case, then blame the article. I was taking that from the first sentence of the article and that later on it says:

WaPo...

The agency said it was expecting an autopsy on the child, but results would not likely be available for several weeks. An initial diagnosis by physicians at Providence hospital listed the cause of death as septic shock, fever and dehydration, CBP said.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/13/donald-trump-senate-votes-end-u-s-support-yemen-war-jamal-khashoggi/2296155002/

In rebuke of Trump

How about In support of basic human rights?
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Unfortunately, the House had already previously made it impossible for them to join the Yemen bill when Ryan jammed an amendment into the farm bill to keep the House from using the War Powers Act. Obviously that won't be a problem once the Democrats take control, but the Senate would have to reintroduce it/vote on it again I think and I'm sure McConnell would prevent them from voting on it - he opposed it this time! I suspect he only let it go because the House had already made it moot on Wednesday.

The House could take up the unanimous Senate vote blaming MBS for the murder - and that would force Trump to either sign or veto, but cynically I expect either Ryan to keep it from a vote, or only let it vote at a time when it would allow Trump to pocket veto so he can try to claim he didn't "really" veto it.
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A Texas judge just issued a ruling which claimed that all of Obamacare is unconstitutional now that Congress zeroed out the individual mandate penalty in their tax bill last year (super "coincidentally" the day before signups end). Thread discussing how insane this is:
https://twitter.com/nicholas_bagley/status/1073743858876514304
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Bye bye Obamacare
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Ah. This argument. The Supreme Court said the Individual Mandate is only constitutional as a tax and Congress repealed the tax, so the rest of Obamacare has to go with it.

I mean, the real problem here is with Roberts' ruling in the first place. No one thought it was a tax before he tried to shoehorn it into a tax to save the law - and if it is a tax it is fairly obviously a "direct tax" on individuals which is not allowed by the Constitution. Just because the only things that have gotten called out as direct taxes in the past are land taxes and literal taxes on existing, shouldn't mean that there can't be anything else that's a direct tax, and the Individual Mandate is very very close to a tax on existing.
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But yeah, good riddance. Hopefully this will get upheld in higher courts and Democrats can come to the table on fixing healthcare instead of trying to defend their ridiculous project that provides health "insurance" that insures nothing and is outrageously expensive.
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Good.

Medicare for all time
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Simple economics:

How much would you pay for health insurance policy A if there were no penalty for not having health insurance? Let's call this amount N.

How much would you pay for health insurance policy A if there were a penalty of M for refusing to buy policy A? Answer: N+M.

Obviously, the real world is more complicated that this, but this model essentially captures what's driving prices here. Anyone can tell that N+M > N.

Obamacare is insanity. And if Democrats could admit it, like Bill Clinton did, they would do a lot better in elections.
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Always a pleasure to see that certain people just straight up don't post in this topic until something happens that they can consider a "win".
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Didn't the Supreme Court already rule ACA constitutional?
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LapisLazuli posted...

Always a pleasure to see that certain people just straight up don't post in this topic until something happens that they can consider a "win".

TotallyNotMI posted...

Didn't the Supreme Court already rule ACA constitutional?

This your reminder that whenever a so-called conservative (And make no mistake, anybody calling themselves conservative in the US is not one) rails against something, it's complete and utter projection.

Today's example: "Activist Judges" and "Legislating from the bench"

Whatever conservative posted here I can't see so my question was independent of whatever they said
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Let the gloating commence Mr. President :)

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1073761497866747904

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1073763695807877120

Obamacare has been struck down by a highly respected judge," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"The judges decision vindicates President Trumps position that Obamacare is unconstitutional," Sanders continued. "Once again, the President calls on Congress to replace Obamacare and act to protect people with preexisting conditions and provide Americans with quality affordable healthcare. We expect this ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Pending the appeal process, the law remains in place.

"The ruling seems to be based on faulty legal reasoning and hopefully it will be overturned," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted. "Americans who care about working families must do all they can to prevent this district court ruling from becoming law."

What are regular Americans going to do about it now Chuck? It's kind of out of our hands now. The Supreme Court will decide whatever they want to decide.
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TotallyNotMI posted...

Whatever conservative posted here I can't see so my question was independent of whatever they said

I was speaking in general.

It was ruled constitutional but then the GOP zeroed out the tax

A sane judge would have, at most, ruled that that part of the law was unconstitutional, and not the whole thing (my understanding is that most experts think this ruling will be overturned on appeal).

DoomTheGyarados posted...

Good.

Medicare for all time

What the fuck, I expected cheers from redsox et al but burn everything to the ground fucking over a ton of people in the process to get to the system I think is better is a really gross attitude to have.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

(super "coincidentally" the day before signups end)

IIRC, this ruling was ready before the midterms actually, the judge just chose to sit on it until now for "reasons."
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LordoftheMorons posted...

It was ruled constitutional but then the GOP zeroed out the tax

A sane judge would have, at most, ruled that that part of the law was unconstitutional, and not the whole thing (my understanding is that most experts think this ruling will be overturned on appeal).

DoomTheGyarados posted...

Good.

Medicare for all time

What the fuck, I expected cheers from redsox et al but burn everything to the ground fucking over a ton of people in the process to get to the system I think is better is a really gross attitude to have.

If you don't have someone with the guts to say it, we'll never get a better system. Give in, and it will only get worse, and worse, and worse.
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Obamacare is way better than the old system where you could be totally fucked if you has a preexisting condition

Also Medicare for All is not getting 60 votes in the Senate anytime in the near future, so I guess all of the people who get screwed in the next decade or so can just suck it up?

(Though in reality I think this ruling is almost certainly overturned as far as totally killing the ACA goes, and is *probably* overturned in totality, including the preexisting condition stuff. But if Im wrong, it will be *really* bad for millions of Americans).
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Obamacare is way better than the old system where you could be totally fucked if you has a preexisting condition

Also Medicare for All is not getting 60 votes in the Senate anytime in the near future, so I guess all of the people who get screwed in the next decade or so can just suck it up?

(Though in reality I think this ruling is almost certainly overturned as far as totally killing the ACA goes, and is *probably* overturned in totality, including the preexisting condition stuff. But if Im wrong, it will be *really* bad for millions of Americans).

So repeal Obamacare, and then bring up a bill in Congress immediately reinstating the provision about preexisting conditions. It will be wildly popular, and will pass. We can worry about paying for it later. Once preexisting condition bill is passed, the insurance industry will be first in line to suffer, and they'll have more motivation than anyone to get a long term solution in place.
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And if you're worried about Republicans wanting their pound of flesh, I'm sure cutting the top tax rate from 37% to 36% will provide enough sweetener to get it done.
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Next we can offer to cut the top marginal tax rate to 35% in exchange for Republicans acknowledging that global warming is anthropogenic and taking concrete steps to fight it! 34% to reform the prison-industrial complex!! 33% to impeach and remove Trump!!!!

Or we can acknowledge that congressional campaigns receive donations from corporations, and therefore that it is unreasonable to expect Congress to pass a bill about health insurance without at least the tepid approval of insurance companies. Obamacare got there through compromise: they had to accept pre-existing conditions, but also everyone had to buy health insurance. You're offering nothing.
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MalcolmMasher posted...

Or we can acknowledge that congressional campaigns receive donations from corporations, and therefore that it is unreasonable to expect Congress to pass a bill about health insurance without at least the tepid approval of insurance companies.

If only there were a solution to the problem of corporations killing laws they don't like.

the solution is publicly funded elections
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MalcolmMasher posted...

Next we can offer to cut the top marginal tax rate to 35% in exchange for Republicans acknowledging that global warming is anthropogenic and taking concrete steps to fight it! 34% to reform the prison-industrial complex!! 33% to impeach and remove Trump!!!!

Or we can acknowledge that congressional campaigns receive donations from corporations, and therefore that it is unreasonable to expect Congress to pass a bill about health insurance without at least the tepid approval of insurance companies. Obamacare got there through compromise: they had to accept pre-existing conditions, but also everyone had to buy health insurance. You're offering nothing.

34% marginal rate to fix healthcare, climate change, and criminal justice? Sign me up! If I'm a Democrat in Congress and that's the offer, I'm taking it, and screw you to any health insurance companies that gave me donations.
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Oh, the Democrats would be willing to make that tradeoff, sure. It's the Republicans that will balk. Lower the top marginal tax rate, in return for... admitting they've been wrong about major issues for decades? "RINO!" Primaried. And oh look, they offended the corporations that would have been willing to offer them cushy speaking gigs. Even Fox, 'cause RINO.
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Its sad seeing all my Right Wing friends sharing pro-Yellow Vest memes and cheering it on, because if/when similar protesters did the same for similar reasons here, theyd be roaming at the mouth calling them traitors, and the hypocrisy drives me crazy.
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https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1073540390404481025?s=21

Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed This was not a big crime, Giuliani told The Daily Beast, re alleged violations of campaign finance law.

https://twitter.com/kevinmkruse/status/1073603818678566912?s=21

Rudy is the gift that keeps on giving
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I hope that tax cut for the middle class comes back. Raise taxes on the upper class, lower them for the middle!
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lol scott adams. apparently, if you google image search "scott adams" you get photoshopped pictures of him in a nazi uniform at the top now. but the funny part is that he's literally threatening to destroy google because of this in one of his latest podcast episodes. "i'm the last person you want to piss of," "i will come up with more trouble for google than they ever have in the history of the company," etc.

RIP google i guess :-(
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Google being gone wouldn't actually be the worst thing in the world.

But lol
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What's wrong with Google that it needs to go away
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Google has pretty bad practices when it comes to recording user information. If you care about privacy there are better search engines.
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StealThisSheen posted...

What's wrong with Google that it needs to go away

Literally everything that's not directly in their R&D department.

Do
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You
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Know
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The
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Muffin Man!?

Let's Go UNC! Fuck Dook!

TARRRR

HEEEEELS!
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