caulfield12

Breaking News: Department Of Defense hasn’t been able to pass an audit since the Clinton Admin ordered one in the late 1990’s http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3614:de...n-audit-by-2017 http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/nav...ents/index.html A spate of deadly US Navy incidents in Asia since Trump became president Of course, we can blame it all on Obama. Except for the rising stock market, unemployment numbers and GDP growth. That’s all me, big time. Plus now, I can ask for billions more in defense spending than the 4 branches actually requested (don’t forget our amazing Coast Guard, they’re doing great things in Puerto Rico right now as we speak...I mean, lisp “United States”) while preparing to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security by 25% across the board in 2018. Oh, and I have no medical problems despite gorging on Vienna Fingers, Oreo’s, KFC, McDonald’s (two Fish Filets and two Big Macs and one large chocolate shake)...that’s Weak Ass Hillary, or Fainting Hillary. The Diet Coke keeps me healthy enough to play 14 rounds of golf per month and even outdrive Justin and Tiger.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 10:01 PM) Not saying this applies to anything going on, but as a young man I "played the field" and wouldn't commit to a woman because I just wanted to experience what was out there. This led to a lot of bitter young women who made up plenty of false claims to slander me. I think their motives were often "well this will get his attention and scare off other women at the same time". A scorned woman is a powerful weapon and I was smeared like crazy for loving and not committing. Not proud of my actions looking back but I had plenty of false info spread about me that I had to unfairly answer for. I'm sure many of you experienced the same thing. Not saying this applies to any of these famous cases, but that level of scorned & crazy is certainly out there in droves, men and women. Can't help but wonder. I'm proud of the women who were assaulted coming forward and i'm sorry for the men who are innocent. And we'll never know who is who since they are all guilty first. Human beings. The problem is that it's increasingly difficult to differentiate between "scorned," "legitimately scorned/aggrieved" and the victims of real abuse/harassment/violence. They're all starting to blend in together. For example, if a man's a "player" and, let's say, has slept with over 100 women in his lifetime, does that mean that by some "law of numbers" that he's an abusive personality because most of mainstream society believes that we should be limited to a "reasonable" number of partners in a lifetime? Of course, there's a pretty clear line between abusing/harassing and just being merely "insensitive/detached or unemotional/self-centered." Are men now expected to be the opposite of what I just described...and, if they're not, they're guilty of being somewhere on the spectrum of abusive behavior? Seems so many definitions are starting to get blurred in the last 2-3 months.

Still nothing to follow-up this story? According to the time/date stamp, that was 7 hours ago. Michael Trujillo‏ @mikehtrujillo SOURCES: @CNN and @washingtonpost working on exposing 20-30 congressional members 4 sexual harassment. #DC https://twitter.com/mikehtrujillo/status/938815136571129856 Here we go.

What does everyone make of the Warren Moon case? Seems the pendulum is going to swing back the other direction...that no married men (especially) dare hire any woman that's slightly attractive because the potential for things to blow up is too high to take a chance. From reading some of the background, it seems like the woman in the case was very ambitious (which is fine, in and of itself, for men or women)...but that she allowed herself to be put in situations that would potentially be compromising, that she had some sort of inappropriate relationship with Moon, she traveled with him/stayed in a resort or hotel room on at least one or more occasions, it went south, she was demoted and then she's now seeking revenge/compensation. After any workplace relationship goes wrong, does that mean that "sexual harassment" is now the umbrella for anything that's remotely inappropriate happening at work? Moon's got a very spotty track record, I think there was a case of domestic violence/battery in his past (already)...my point is more along what PTAC's been arguing, these cases are very hard to "prove" one way or the other in a court of law, so what's going to settle in as the accepted standard? Is there one standard for celebrities/elite/rich/athletes/politicians (usually settled out of court), and another for "regular" workers?

The Kochs, Mercers and Adelsons all pull in different directions. Fwiw, this was passed all the way back in 1995, when Bill Clinton was president. It's just that they haven't thought it was beneficial to the peace process to go forward with the actual physical move.

I just can’t see a legal mechanism for proving or disproving any of these things in a court of law. Pictures? Yearbooks? Signatures? Graphic notes/letters from the past that may or may not be forgeries? The thing that brought down Lauer was supposedly incontrovertible photographic/visual evidence that got him fired within 24 hours of disclosure. Same thing with Rep. Joe Barton’s photographic scandal, or Anthony Weiner, for that matter. As the first couple of Franken cases showed, there was bad optics but at least the possibility of explaining part of that away due to the comedic sketch element. That argument eventually disappeared when a pattern developed. With Moore, you have physical/sexual conduct, but not rape. Yet one wonders how many GOP Senators or Reps would allow their daughters to be left unchaperoned with that guy? How can you be a US Senator and uphold the Constitution when your morality is clearly being questioned by even your own party?

What "good deals" has Trump actually negotiated so far? For someone who argued that his business background was one of his key advantages as a candidate, there's almost no evidence to support this. No bilateral trade agreements, for example. TPP up in smoke. NAFTA? Mexico and Canada aren't giving in to US demands. North Korea? Iran? ISIS? Syria/Russia/Assad? Lowering prescription drug costs or getting insurance companies to take a lesser profit? Now we're almost deliberately setting the entire Middle East on fire...along with our travel ban being enforced, finally. And you can guarantee Trump won't take responsibility for a single death that this policy reversal is going to bring about.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-lousy-...-191316112.html Trump Is Doing a Lousy Job Selling Tax Cuts Most of those people who think their taxes will go up are wrong. Third-party analysis by the Tax Policy Center shows that, under the House tax-cut plan, 76% of taxpayers would get a tax cut averaging $1,900 the first year the plan goes into effect. About 7% of taxpayers would face a tax increase, averaging $2,100. For the other 17% there’s likely to be no major change. Under the Senate plan, 75% of taxpayers would get a tax cut in the first year, averaging $2,000, according to the Tax Policy Center. Seven percent of taxpayers would face tax hikes, averaging $3,100. The other 18% would see no major change. So, under the best independent estimates, roughly three-quarters of taxpayers would enjoy an immediate tax cut, and only 7% would see a tax hike. Yet the public has a completely different impression, according to the Quinnipiac poll. The portion of people who think their taxes will rise is six times larger than those who will actually see a tax hike. And less than one-third of people likely to see a tax cut think it will actually happen. If the GOP tax-cut plan were an ordinary product marketers had to convince consumers to buy, it would be a total bomb. Imagine Apple selling a phone consumers thought would be unable to place phone calls. Or Coke selling a beverage people expected to taste terrible. This is how bad the GOP’s sales pitch is for a tax-cut plan they’ve been developing for years. fwiw, not sure if that's also accounting for expected rises in health care insurance directly attributable to ending the ObamaCare mandate to buy insurance or pay a penalty...with many young people (25-35) expected to sign up for minimal coverage or dropping coverage, increasing the amount of unhealthy individuals in the risk pool and pushing up rates for the remaining individual market participants by another 15-30% beginning next year

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-labo...e-idUSKBN1DY2JH They snuck this one in about redistributing tips from servers to the business owners during the holidays when they will receive far less blowback. Imagine having money taken away via taxes for credit card tips while it’s simultaneously being redistributed...and just as likely business owners using it to subsidize lower wages for back of house staff than actually raising the pay of any of those workers. Winning.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 12:38 PM) I'm not interested in your semantics. Within the context of the American political system and the American Democratic Party, there are two factions - one that is more centrist and one that is further left. Stahp. Compare to Henry Wallace in the 1940’s or WJ Bryan. It just seems left wing, because someone has to be to the left of a party that has been increasingly centrist since the DLC days of the late 1980’s. The health care policies were passed into law by Obama were to the right of Mitt Romney or Jack Kemp. For a long time, it (the left) was basically Maxine Waters. Now you have a ton of progressives involved in local and especially state issues, like the nurses’ association in California.

The Royals obviously hadn’t planned on losing Ventura...they just made some woeful decisions. Ian Kennedy contract Soler for Wade Davis Alex Gordon falling apart Perez, Merrifield, Bonifacio...not much of an offensive core. Cuthbert and Mondesi will get extended playing time, Soler gets his last shot. Duffy and then Herrera has value if he can rebound in the first half and show more dominant stuff. Minor and Alexander will draw some interest as lefties out of the pen.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/05/opinions...lein/index.html Why Trump Is Still Winning When you sit at the top with an office in the Capitol and people lining up to tell you how wonderful you are, an academic on MSNBC going on about white privilege, toxic masculinity, and cisgender bias doesn't bother you. Nor does a school board that approves opposite-sex bathroom privileges for transgender students and casts concerned parents as "phobic." But if you're a small businessman or blue-collar worker worried about cost of living and with children to feed and educate, and who thinks little about identity issues, those charges grate on your nerves. Trump is your champion, not the lords in Congress. If Republicans don't follow his lead, more of them will share the fate of Sen. Jeff Flake, whose political career the President has called "toast."

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 10:06 PM) Just wait until they find out that Kushner and Soros were business partners. A Breitbart story in September about a “George Soros-backed organization attacking Roy Moore.” The story was actually about the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan legal group that’s received funding from Soros’ son, filing a complaint against Moore’s foundation for violating laws relating to charities. Just last week, Breitbart, a conservative website that serves as a platform for white nationalists, posted a story titled “Soros Army in Alabama to Register Convicted Felons to Vote Against Roy Moore.” In reality, the story was just about the American Civil Liberties Union helping register felons to vote in Alabama. Felons in the state recently regained a legal right to vote. The conspiracies are clearly affecting Moore’s supporters, some of whom told HuffPost last week that they think Soros is paying women to accuse Moore of sexual misconduct. https://www.yahoo.com/news/roy-moore-fuelin...-211204093.html Does the WH Believe That All Muslims Should Be Banned from Congress? http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/05/politics/tru...ress/index.html

George Soros' nefarious operatives are descending on Alabama in droves in the final week...guess we had to check the "anti-(bad) Jew" box this week. How many times have we heard that conspiracy theory repeated in the last decade or so?

Sanders' moment has passed, largely due to age and the fact that foreign policy issues are going to be even more and more critical with the way Trump is running the country (and that's Bernie's biggest weak point). That said, he's right up there in the "Holy Trinity" with Biden and the Obamas, with Elizabeth Warren arguably #4 in terms of national star power on the Democratic side. Biden also has more symbolic power...as soon as he starts to run an actual campaign, he manages to upset more and more with his "foot in mouth" moments. There needs to be new blood to contrast with Trump's physical/deterioration. Looking at the numbers, another woman makes sense, but right now the choice is far from clear. Still have at least 2 years for someone to emerge...whether the opponent is Trump, Pence or Ryan. It's most certainly NOT going to be Martin O'Malley or Tim Kaine.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 09:54 AM) That was my personal favorite part of this. Hooray for fiefdoms. With extreme gerrymandering, why would it be a surprise that 80-85% of Congressional districts aren't even competitive every two years? This always works both ways. Many gathered inside Oak Hollow Farm's barn have dismissed the allegations (against Moore) as fake. Some didn't seem to mind them, even if true. "What girl hasn't been kissed at 17 years old?" asked Diane Myrick, 69, of nearby Bon Secour. "I know a girl who got married at 14." https://www.yahoo.com/news/moore-foe-fought...--election.html

Stronger, about Jeff Baumann and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was solid...much different way of telling the story than Patriots Day. Jake Gylenhaal was excellent. Only the Brave 3.5/4 Roman J. Israel, Esq. 2.75/4 Wonder 3.5/4

The funny part was Trump pretending that having a rally in Pensacola, because it's technically in another state...doesn't constitute campaigning for Moore. In fact, that particular city is closer to Montgomery than Tallahassee, and comprises something like 10-15% of the total AL media market (South AL). Lara Trump -- Eric's wife -- even recorded a robocall that is making its way around Alabama. The President's daughter-in-law invites Alabamians to attend Trump's campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida. Lara does not mention her father-in-law's endorsement of Moore, but, make no mistake, Trump's rally has everything to do with the Alabama Senate race. Pensacola is 15 miles from the Alabama border and even Alabama's GOP Chairman Terry Lanthan has urged Alabamians to attend the rally. It's rather deflating that Laraa, who headed "Women for Trump" during the 2016 campaign, recorded that robocall. She has long insisted her father-in-law respects women. "This is a man who has always championed women," she told CNN. "I know that there is another narrative that people suggest out there," she said, adding that his support for women is why she decided "to come out to speak on behalf of this man." http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/opinions/iva...ello/index.html

One week to go, any predictions on Jones vs. Roy Moore? It's still hard to imagine a Republican losing that seat, and the VA/NJ election results were pretty overwhelming, but all bets are off in the Deep South.

The answer here is very simple. Michigan State and Ohio State got rolled the last two years in the CF Playoff, whereas there's considerable excitement about yet another match-up of Clemson and Alabama. Whether it was getting blown out at Iowa City, or letting Oklahoma shred them in Columbus, the argument wasn't really there for OSU unless they just completely spanked Wisconsin on Saturday. Granted, Bama had the weaker non-conference due to the FSU collapse this year, and they only had a couple of victories over ranked SEC teams because the SEC was also down (overall) this year due to programs like Florida, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Arkansas being in free-fall. At any rate, I hate Alabama and Saban, dislike Meyer almost as much...but Ohio State didn't belong in that game. You can argue perhaps more passionately for Auburn, UCF, USC, etc. Was it even a certainty their QB was/is going to be 100% healthy before the bowl game/s?

More embarrassment for the state of Iowa... https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-senator-impl...-022808743.html In an astonishing defense of dropping “death taxes” for individual estates worth more than $5.5 million, GOP Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley implied that people not currently affected by that tax are “spending every darn penny ... on booze or women.” “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing — as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies,” Grassley told the Des Moines Register in an interview published Saturday. Grassley, who serves on the Finance Committee, made the remark when asked about the Senate tax reform measure which would double the exemption for estates to $11 million for an individual and $22 million for a couple. Heirs would inherit the estates tax-free. Grassley’s comment triggered a wave of criticism on social media. Many complained that the working class is, in fact, spending “every darn penny” on raising their kids, caring for elderly parents, health care and putting food on the table. One Twitter user complained that the GOP was turning America into a version of “The Hunger Games.” Interestingly, we've moved from protecting "medium sized family farms/businesses" (which make up a TINY percentage of those touched by the current estate tax levels to protecting those hard-working investors. That's an extremely tough point to sell in the Heartland. Pretty tone deaf, but Grassley's ancient and has been out of touch for decades. https://twitter.com/roguecats7/status/93745...4858880/photo/1 According to IRS data from 2016, just 682 tax filers in the entire country who owed estate taxes owned any farm assets. That represents about 13 percent of the 5,219 estate tax returns in which taxes were owed. And even that figure likely overstates the number of primarily farm operations subject to the tax. A 2015 report from the Congressional Research Service projects that just 65 farm estates annually across the U.S. face an estate tax liability. Less than a quarter of these, the congressional report finds, have insufficient cash to pay their tax bills. A U.S. Department of Agriculture analysis published earlier this year found a somewhat higher number of farm estates owed the tax in 2016: 0.4 percent, or about 160 nationwide. Kristine Tidgren, the assistant director of the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State University, said she’s not aware of any Iowa estates forced to sell land since the estate tax exemption was raised to its current level in 2012. desmoinesregister.com

Who is the fourth team in now? Alabama, Ohio State, UCF (unlikely)...? If I’m Oklahoma, no way I want anything to do with either team...and it’s almost impossible to beat an Urban Meyer team twice in one season.

Has anyone seen The Disaster Artist or The Shape Of Water yet? Btw, you absolutely have to see the loving ineptitude of The Room to fully appreciate that first film...from all the reviews, seems like it might be up to the standard of Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Dec 2, 2017 -> 07:55 PM) Can you give an example of what he's done over the last year to "lead" this movement? http://www.whio.com/news/bernie-sanders-ca...mtDw5J/amp.html Traveling to Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania this weekend...four total stops. Where is the centrist/moderate wing?

If either political party was thinking rationally, all three would be gone (Conyers, Franken, Moore). The problem is the GOP is too concerned with their margin being trimmed down to just one vote in the Senate in the short term, but that’s a seat they should win 95% of the time. (And once tax giveaways are done, it really doesn’t matter as far as 2018 goes...Pence might even be president, or Ryan.) Same with the other two, although one could argue Minnesota is actually becoming more competitive now for Republicans. Ideologically, the Dems need to stand for something...such as the rights of women, and fighting for the working class. Letting both those guys stick around sends a terrible message. And Conyers should have retired due to age alone, he has been in Congress nearly 50 years now. Very few Supreme Court justices have made it to 88.