StrangeSox

Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Roger stone are all under investigation for ties to Russia. Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/po...t.co/ywRGxOQ7ID

Recap of the 2016 election and how it was covered both pre- and post- election from Nate Silver, and a launching off point of a series of articles expanding on this topic. The Real Story Of 2016. What reporters — and lots of data geeks, too — missed about the election, and what they’re still getting wrong.

Recap of the 2016 election and how it was covered both pre- and post- election from Nate Silver, and a launching off point of a series of articles expanding on this topic. The Real Story Of 2016. What reporters — and lots of data geeks, too — missed about the election, and what they’re still getting wrong.

Kevin Drum took a quick look at the budget. The budget reportedly "hews closely" to a recent Heritage Foundation proposal, and this is essentially what it boils down to: Destroy our entire social safety net, destroy a huge chunk of domestic spending, and leave military spending almost 100% intact.

Oh and Republicans are also laying the groundwork to give away hundreds of millions of acres of public federal lands for pennies on the dollar. I honestly cannot comprehend what gets people to support this sort of ideology.

They don't care that we won't have a functional federal government after 12:15PM tomorrow because they're going to burn the whole thing down anyway. Great plans for the Department of Justice Nothing good at Energy or State, either: It's great that our electoral system is structured such that one party can have the power to implement a radical right-wing agenda and staff the courts with radical right-wingers despite receiving millions of fewer votes for both the Presidency and the Senate. We'll be suffering from the results of this election for at least a generation.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 19, 2017 -> 12:13 AM) Nah. I'm not one to goosestep to the beat of a racist, xenophobic demagouge. If he actually shows he cares about the American people, sure, but otherwise f*** Trump. Unlike Obama, we don't hate him because of what people say he'll do (take away guns, death panels) but because of what he say's he'll do (build a frivolous wall, ruin NATO, NAFTA, the Paris Agreement, ban Muslims from entering the country, etc.). But that's not what they say on Fox News.

JPMorgan settles federal mortgage discrimination suit for $55 million

Kansas sucks, but so does Illinois and we're losing population because of it.

‘He Has This Deep Fear That He Is Not a Legitimate President’ On the eve of the inauguration, Trump’s biographers ponder his refusal to bend his ego to his new office. much more at the link

Oh and the GOP is approaching Democrats to pull their assess out of the Repeal fire. https://twitter.com/TPM/status/821861984253...src=twsrc%5Etfw

Ahahaha how is this possible? How can this administration already be the most incompetent in history before it is even in office?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 05:10 PM) if the government gave every freed person 40 acres and a mule 151 years ago like they had promised (the equivalent of let's say $120-140,000 usd), there would be a stronger basis for your reverse discrimination argument. Instead they got Jim Crow, lynchings and the KKK in the South. Don't let the North or the West off the hook here, either. Chicago remains one of the most segregated cities, and Oregon didn't allow non whites originally to give two examples.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 04:40 PM) Where do I begin? The history of this country is wrought with racism and discrimination. I'm surprised you were not aware of this as it's common knowledge. Here's a simple google search result that could give you a high-level overview. TNC's provocatively titled "The Case for Reparations" article from a few years back detailed the history of discrimination in housing policy, both public and private, throughout the 20th century pretty well.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 07:47 AM) DeVos is pretty much universally hated in her home state and town. That says alot. I love how Clinton was the "pay to play" candidate and literally the entire cabinet is being filled with people who are paying for their positions. Conflicts of DeVos Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, and a Pay-to-Play Nomination The Daily 202: Lamar Alexander is dragging Betsy DeVos across the finish line to become secretary of education

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 03:05 PM) I will concede that the more accurate statement should be "easier than a minority in a similar situation." The ultra wealthy female, likely has it easier then the super poor white guy. I just assumed that people were reading the "similar situation" part. There's a word specifically for that sort of thing-intersectionality. You'd quickly get buried in academic jargon and I only understand it on the very surface level, but it's basically for exactly that type of situation you're describing. Poor people of any gender, race, sexuality obviously have it tough in this country, and intersectionality looks at the various ways those classifications interact in society. Being wealthy obviously gives you a pretty hefty leg up, but being black and wealthy doesn't preclude you from being accused of crimes, harassed at high-end stores, pulled over by police because you're driving too fancy of a car. edit: I've always liked Scalzi's video game difficulty level analogy

FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump The BBC has also reported that the dossier compiled by the ex-MI6 agent is not the only source of the allegations.

Maybe saying "easier than a person who's black or gay or a women [etc.]" rather than saying straight-up "easy" would be more appropriate?

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 08:37 AM) She is only the second craziest one in the family. Don't forget her brother! Notorious Mercenary Erik Prince Is Advising Trump From the Shadows Pair that with this: his private security force working along side the Secret Service, and his adulation for strongman authoritarians around the globe, and we have some pretty f***ing ominous signs.

QUOTE (Big Hurtin @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 09:09 AM) I wonder how the people who voted for him "because he's an outsider" are feeling now. One down, 61 million to go! http://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/1/18/...ump-vote-regret John Dingell is a 90 year old master of twitter

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 17, 2017 -> 03:33 PM) 5 days ago. Assange lawyer: Manning commutation doesn't meet extradition offer's conditions

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 10:11 AM) The entire DeVos family made their money on the backs of fools (Amway). Yep, and now they'll get a chance to turn our education system into Trump University. Pretty cool that our incoming President defrauded thousands of desperate people with a sham real estate school with hard sell sales tactics to get people to max their credit cards and take out second mortgages.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of charter schools at all. I just thought it was worthwhile to point out that there is support of them from communities with legitimate concerns and not just grifters and ideological crusaders. Sen. Kaine pressed DeVos on the standards or complete lack thereof for charter and private schools yesterday. She refused to say that non-public schools receiving public funding should be held to the same standards.

You see strong support for charter schools among the African American community typically because, generally speaking, our public schools are failing their communities. The idea that our public education system especially in poorer areas needs to be revamped isn't a bad one, but introducing a profit motive and stripping money from public schools doesn't magically solve problems. Instead, it tends to invite an awful lot of grifters only interested in making a quick buck, or people like DeVos who are devoted to a very particular religious or ideological education and oppose modern secular liberal arts education.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 18, 2017 -> 08:43 AM) Can someone put the vouchers system in laymans terms for me? I have read that it has pretty much failed in every state it has been tried in, but I dont really understand the concept because every article i read skips right to "it failed and cost the state a lot of money" The idea is that rather than your tax dollars going straight to the local public school district, the funding "follows the student." So you'd get a voucher of say $5k/year to use on education per child, and you can 'spend' that at the regular public schools or a charter school or, if someone like DeVos gets her way or how they did things in Louisianna under Jindal, at private for-profit and/or religious schools. Ultimately what it means is that we get to subsidize private education for the wealthy and private religious education via tax dollars that should instead be going to public schools, which leaves the public schools and those in them worse off in the end. Oh, and if DeVos has her way, you'll even be able to use these vouchers for entirely online K-12 charter schools. So, basically, really s***ty homeschooling will also steal funding from public schools. We'll get worse public schools, which will mean even more de facto economic and racial segregation in education. For higher education, I'd imagine that they're going to re-empower all of the awful scam for-profit colleges that took a big hit once Obama shut off the federal loan money firehouse because those "colleges" did nothing for their students but saddle them with massive amounts of non-dischargeable debt while posting big profits for themselves. But this is the Republican policy people voted for and want, apparently.