StrangeSox

hmmm From two weeks ago: Trump wants to expand business empire to Taiwan, creating another potential conflict of interest

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 2, 2016 -> 10:01 AM) I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of this from Trump. It's a smart move by him. Makes him look like he is for the working man. Going to these companies and saying he worked out these great deals to keep jobs. Then someone like Bernie Sanders has to explain why the thing is a sham, but by then people have already made up their minds "Trump saved jobs". They read headlines, not articles explaining why its actually bad for workers. I think if you can distill the response down to "he paid companies to move jobs offshore," it could be effective, but ultimately I do agree that, right now, this looks like and is being presented as "Trump fulfilling his campaign promise!" even if it's sort of the exact opposite of what his promise was and is just a really predictable corporate handout.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 2, 2016 -> 09:54 AM) Yes, but history is always on the incumbent's side, and this playbook of individually meddling with handshake deals on small factories and promoting it like crazy is something that has been very successful in other countries. Why would someone that flipped from voting Obama to Trump switch again in 4 years if he "proved" what he said he'd do. Facts don't matter with him, the economy as a whole could be worse but if the voters that put him in feel like he is working for them then it won't matter. Is there evidence that this actually happened in any meaningful numbers? I thought the story of Trump's victory in MI/WI/PA was driving higher turnout of rural conservative whites while Clinton's support levels from typical Democratic areas dipped a bit, not that people switched from Obama to Trump. I'm not saying that there's no chance he could win a second term or even if it's 50/50, better or worse, just that giving Carrier a bunch of tax and regulatory breaks to save a handful of jobs isn't going to have an impact on 2020 and talking about discrete instances improving or lessening his chances seems a bit early because it's still 2016. f*** me, the next President hasn't even taken office and we're already talking about the next election. By 2020, we'll be ending the year talking about candidates for 2028.

She's going to end up with close to Obama 2012 numbers or maybe even slightly higher. Trump won narrow victories where he needed to win them, but this was a very close election in the states that mattered. If she got Obama 2012's numbers in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, we're discussing a Clinton win by a pretty crushing margin. Talking about a second term being increasingly possible when we're not even four weeks into what's been a dumpster fire of a transition seems to be a bit premature. The Carrier thing and the way it's being reported are ridiculous and a positive for Trump politically, though, I'll concede that. Here's Sanders on Carrier, fwiw Bernie Sanders: Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 09:37 AM) Really sad to see the stories coming out of Gatlinburg and the area with the wildfires. My family vacationed down there last year. While I wasn't a huge fan of the tourist strip, the area surrounding the town is just beautiful country. Amazing park lands, mountains and waterfalls are all over the place there. QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 30, 2016 -> 08:34 AM) When I was in Idaho this year, I drove through many forests that had been victims to forest fires over the years. It's crazy to see the destruction, 10-15 years later, it's all just dead trees & plants. These wildfires were hot enough that they melted car wheels. I've enjoyed hiking through burn areas and seeing the regrowth, but that's always been way out in the middle of nowhere and not somewhere where there's been massive property damage and loss of life.

The new Secretary of Health and Human Services is a member of a fringe medical organization. Here’s what that means.

The Day After: Obama on His Legacy, Trump's Win and the Path Forward Rolling Stone interviewed Obama the day after the election. Some interesting thoughts from him there on the path forward for progressives, Democrats' challenges in winning state and Senate elections, and the "information bubbles" people increasingly are closing themselves off in.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 1, 2016 -> 07:16 AM)

You can make that 10,001 as my wife's reported the same feelings at her school from her Hispanic and Muslim students.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 02:24 PM) No, not necessarily. They can be very methodical and deliberate with their propaganda, so they don't just jump out and claim everything. This one they waited 24 hours, sometimes they wait even longer. True, but there have been other attacks where someone connected to ISIS did nothing more than encourage someone over the phone or intrawebs. Attacks like Paris are very expensive and time-consuming and risky to plan. Grabbing a steak knife and driving your car up on the sidewalk can be done by anyone and requires little money or planning. It's why they issue all those videos and call to action, trying to persuade anyone who might be disgruntled or easily convinced. Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing here.

Yes, you can maybe say they're "ISIS-inspired" which is the whole self-radicalization problem, but it's substantively different from being an actual planned ISIS operation a la the Paris attacks.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 06:01 AM) Trump to nominate Georgia rep tom price for hhs. Price has been a strong Obamacare critic and has advocated for deregulation, tort reform (ie limiting doctor liability) and health savings accounts as the fix to our broken health care system. https://www.google.com/amp/www.cnbc.com/amp...android-verizon Any republican plan will almost definitely gut the medicaid expansion, throwing millions back into the ranks of the uninsured. Price is also a proponent of privatizing Medicare along the lines of Ryan's proposals. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom-...verhaul-in-2017

Falwell says Trump offered him education secretary job

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 10:30 AM) He probably saw something on TV about flag burning and decided to respond to it. He has the mind of a toddler. or with the idiot savant media manipulator angle, you can say that he's baiting people to protest him via flag-burning which, rightly or wrongly, will be viewed by a majority of the country as disrespectful and un-American, helping to delegitimize anti-Trump movements. It's probably the former https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/803618...src=twsrc%5Etfw

Somewhat related, Texas, Oklahoma Divided Over How To Handle Earthquakes Linked To Oil Drilling

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 10:53 AM) http://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/...dustry-michigan Is the $3.33 cited from michigan.gov for coal here before or after any regulatory costs? If costs are removed is cost of coal closer in line to natural gas? I don't see 3.33, I see $133/MWhr, and the referenced report explains where the number comes from: So based on a 2008 study but still believed to be accurate circa 2015. Removing regulations so that coal plants can spew more mercury and other heavy metals (including radioactive particles!) into the air would drop costs some, but since that Vox piece doesn't include the typical new MWhr cost of a natural gas plant, it's hard to say how much coal prices need to come down. this is from a nuclear industry lobbying group, but it's at least a baseline for new generation costs given typical nuclear cost overruns, probably tack 50% on top of that estimate.

Swamps are cool and good ecosystems, need to stop dumping toxic waste into them though.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 10:29 AM) What is he trying to distract from this time? I think I've come to the conclusion that Trump doesn't just say this s*** for the sake of it most of the time. There's almost always an ulterior motive. He probably saw something on TV about flag burning and decided to respond to it. He has the mind of a toddler. or with the idiot savant media manipulator angle, you can say that he's baiting people to protest him via flag-burning which, rightly or wrongly, will be viewed by a majority of the country as disrespectful and un-American, helping to delegitimize anti-Trump movements.

Trump picks Elaine Chao for transportation secretary

Oh and Trump decided to declare today that flag burning, which is protected 1st amendment speech, should be punishable by revocation of citizenship.

Trump to do more rallies to feed his ego. Pence may effectively be the President along the lines of what was allegedly offered to Kasich.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 09:50 AM) Thats literally the opposite of whats going to happen.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 29, 2016 -> 09:08 AM) So, scrolling through this thread after working for a day...that was a useless line of 5 posts with nothing really in them but links to stuff I've read elsewhere. No commentary, nothing of interest. I'm sorry those posts weren't up to your standards.

Unintended consequences... Protected forests in Europe felled to meet EU renewable targets – report