StrangeSox

Trump really heaping on the Russia love this morning. It's the one thing he's actually been consistent on, I guess.

WikiLeaks saw the neo Nazi (((parenthesis))) Google plugin and thought "what a great idea!"

Yes, Democrats also gerrymander and I'd love a 50 state requirement for nonpartisan districts. And nothing in that post implies that Democrats don't also sometimes use their power to obtain, maintain and expand power. But to continue to pretend that both sides are equally as bad and engage in it just as much, especially when your leading examples were nonsensical to begin with, is just as bad if not worse than the meme politics you complain about. It was the Republican leader of the Senate who threatened to turn the report on Russian hacking completely political if it was publicly released before the election, and it was the Democratic President who said nothing. It was Republicans who stole a supreme Court seat and relegated North Carolina to less than a full democracy, not Democrats.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2017 -> 10:27 AM) It really isn't though. We have seen the Dems rally behind winners like Fidel Castro, Che Guerva, and Iran in recent years. The whole Machiavelli thing is just disgusting though. But that is the overly simplisitic political system we have apparently put into place now. It seems pretty silly to try to accuse the Democrats of Machiavellian power grabs by linking them to Fidel Castro (now dead, not in power for years and not a friend of the Democrats prior to that), Che Guerva (Communist Revolutionary who's been dead for many decades and may be viewed somewhat fondly by leftists, but leftists aren't exactly welcome within the Democratic party), and Iran (nuclear deal I guess?) when Republicans have, off the top of my head and in just the last few years: 1) Heavily gerrymandered every state as much as they could, given them large majorities in the House (and state houses) even when they receive fewer total votes. This is highlighted in North Carolina, where Republicans currently hold a 10-3 lead in Congressional seats but would hold anywhere from an 8-5 lead to a 5-8 deficit in a non-partisan districting scenario 2) Stripping away as much power from the incoming Democratic NC governor as possible 3) Removing the most vital and effective parts off the VRA via one of the worst SC decisions ever written, which lead directly to 4) Ramped up voter suppression efforts across the country, from all sorts of voter role purges to changing in voting times and locations to unnecessary (for integrity, but great for suppression) Voter ID laws. 5) Using their powers in the House to launch partisan 'investigation' after partisan investigation with the admitted purpose of politically damaging Hillary Clinton 6) Unprecedented obstruction in Congress up to and including shutting down the government and threatening to blow up the world economy via debt default multiple times 7) Blocking dozens of executive and judicial appointments for the nakedly partisan reason that they can 8) Stealing a Supreme Court seat by engaging in 7) 9) Attempted to prevent a Congressionally authorized agency from coming into existence via 7) (CFPB) 10) Nominating and electing Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, the least qualified person to ever hold the office by a very wide margin Complaining about an overly simplistic political system in the very same post you try to equate Democratic and Republican political actions by bringing up three things that don't even really make sense is not the best look.

Balta posted that report last month that technically NC no longer meets the standards of a full democracy. Would be really nice for some sort of equal protection ruling mandating nonpartisan districting. I think we're one of the handful of countries that allows politicians to draw their own districts.

More evidence that Nixon deliberately sabotaged the 68 Paris peace talks to help his election. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opini...m.facebook.com/

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 05:31 PM) See that's the fun part. If it were a Republican in office, we'd hear non-stop about the two failed wars in Libya and Syria, along with reigniting the cold war with Russia. Republicans just have it so unfair, they can never get ahead!

Modern Russia is an reactionary authoritarian kleptocracy so they're probably a-okay with it.

One thing that's really confusing me with Trump is why he's so enamored with Russia. It's pretty easy to identify Putin's foreign policy goals and motivations, but I'm still left really confused as to what the US is supposed to get out of the Trumpist stance. QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 02:49 PM) http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/dona...233065?cmpid=sf Trump surrogates are claiming the sanctions are really against them. Dear lord America, you got played. no puppet no puppet you're the puppet

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 02:59 PM) You were mad about people getting paid to not work.* It seems entirely relevant to the discussion. *which I feel needs to be pointed out is not a thing that actually happened or that they were requesting.

QUOTE (brett05 @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 08:30 AM) It makes perfect sense. Perhaps you are the one with the issue. They were not asking to be paid, they were asking to not be forced to perform.

QUOTE (brett05 @ Dec 30, 2016 -> 07:53 AM) and by refusing work, they might not get offered future work Either way, your initial response didn't make any sense.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 29, 2016 -> 12:04 PM) Comparing a job requirement to rape is pretty impressive there. President-Elect "Grab 'em by the p****" Trump would be proud.

QUOTE (brett05 @ Dec 29, 2016 -> 10:42 AM) Yes, refuse to not do YOUR JOB and expect to be PAID as if you DID. Makes sense. I'd guess that they're paid hourly or by performance rather than salaried, so that wouldn't be asking for compensation for work not performed. They just don't want to perform for Cheeto Benito.

The Republican plot to devour retirees' nest eggs http://theweek.com/articles/669573/republi...irees-nest-eggs TLDR bring balance billing to Medicare and Medicaid, which will enrich providers (hence why the AMA supports Tom price for HHS) but will seriously hurt many, many seniors.

Trump holds a Micro Press Conference, Comes Off As an Idiot Later, asked about Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Trump produced another bit of word salad that made it clear he had no idea what a settlement even was. This is probably why Trump hasn't spoken to the press in such a long time. This kind of callow blather might have been entertaining when it was coming from a buffoon candidate who had no chance of winning,1 but not when it's coming from the president-elect. In other news, Politico reports that Trump was irritated by President Obama’s comments at Pearl Harbor yesterday. Obama said, "even when hatred burns hottest, even when the tug of tribalism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward. We must resist the urge to demonize those who are different." Those are fairly boilerplate remarks, but "these felt to Trump like direct criticism of the president-elect, according to two people close to Trump." Gee, I wonder why http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/1...nce-comes-idiot Plus some lies about him bringing Sprint jobs to the US, but at least this time the press seems more skeptical than they were with his lies about Carrier

Philippines journalist killed after criticising officials over illegal drug lab

And finally, some sage words from our future president https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...src=twsrc%5Etfw

Trump Aide Partnered With Firm Run by Man With Alleged KGB Ties https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...lleged-kgb-ties This is the same aide who traffics in crazy conspiracy theories just like trump, violated the rules for handling classified materials, was working for Turkey while sitting in on Trump's security breifings, and is his national security advisor.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 10:24 AM) Op-ed piece by UNC Professor who helped develop index to judge how close to being a representative democracy countries were argues that North Carolina would by that standard no longer count as a democracy and is on about the same level of representative government as Cuba and Iran. I was at least a little hopeful earlier this year that with a less conservative supreme Court, something might be done to find equal protection or other constitutional grounds to help rectify gerrymandering, but that seems extremely unlikely since the Republicans stole a supreme Court seat. What that article didn't explicitly mention is that the same districting issues carry over to the federal level as well.

Trump: "let it be an arms race" https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC/status/81226...src=twsrc%5Etfw

On the heels of grabbing as much power as they can from the incoming Democratic governor, NC Republicans have refused to honor the deal to repeal HB2. http://slnm.us/84PfWAm

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Dec 23, 2016 -> 12:11 AM) Your model is far too simplistic and doesnt account for the fact that with people making more money they will have more money to spend. Also some of your assumptions are faulty, just because the lowest wage earner was given a raise, doesnt mean everyone else gets a raise. If jobs are scarce, then people who may have been normally paid $25 may have to settle for $17 or else be replaced by a cheaper option. That being said, in general increasing price not based on demand/supply usually ends in some sort of inefficiency. But the real problem is restricting immigration which has a much worse impact. But for some reason that is the boogeyman of the economy. Apparently it's impossible to do anything but pay most people less and give tax cuts to the rich otherwise the economy will collapse.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/201...gender-equality