US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Great Rumbler]

In a Monday Facebook status, Rep. John Bennett (R) shared an article on ISIS with a message about his beliefs on Islam and that Muslims in the U.S. are dangerous:

"Islam and Muslim are one in the same. They are adjectives describing their religion. Islam is the religion, Muslim is the person that follows Islam. If someone claims to be Muslim they subscribe to Islam (Quran). The Quran clearly states that non Muslims should be killed. Arab is the ethnicity, not Muslim or Islam. Be wary of the individuals who claim to be "Muslim American". Be especially wary if you're a Christian."

“We must shine a bright light on the role of the Muslim Brotherhood and its varied tentacles in the U.S.,” he responded to CAIR's letter, according to the Oklahoman. “These tentacles include un-indicted co-conspirators of the U.S. vs. Holyland Foundation trial like the Council on American-Islamic Relations here in Oklahoma. Our borders are wide open to drug and human traffickers. Terrorism could come to Oklahoma just as easily.”

"So the Council on American-Islamic Relations is reading my Facebook and demanding an apology for what I said.... well, since your monitoring my facebook... I WILL NOT apologize to you. I know who you are and what you represent and I'm watching you closely...."

"It seems as if their attack on his comments is disingenuous at best,” Oklahoma GOP chair Dave Weston told the Oklahoman about CAIR's letter. “Here’s why. If we as Americans were ruled by Islam, then Christians and Jews like you and I could only keep practicing our faith if we paid a protection tax. But if you’re Christian or Jewish and don’t immediately convert to Islam, they imminently decapitate you. This is proven by ongoing observation around the world today.”

“If they’re legitimate in wanting to come to the table and have an honest discourse, they can prove that by acknowledging the Jewish Holocaust happened, they can publicly recognize the right of Israel to exist and they can denounce the killing of Muslim converts to Christianity and other religions around the world," Weston continued.

"All members of the Oklahoma Legislature are duly elected by and accountable to their constituents, and are free to voice their own opinions. As Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, I have found that most Oklahomans welcome anyone who respects our laws and embraces our state, our culture and our people," House Speaker Jeff Hickman (R) said.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/oklahoma-gop-wary-muslim-americans

[Brehvolution]

"When you hear something on a partisan-driven program, do not believe it!" Bill O'Reilly told his audience on Wednesday.

"Distortions are how some people make a living," he warned his viewers.

[Brehvolution]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jury-reaches-verdict-mcdonnell-trial

Guilty on 11 counts.

[Joe Molotov]

Republicans' Deep Bench (of felons)

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

holy crap, he turned down a plea that would have been a single felony charge, and got his wife off scott free (she's now on the hook 8 felony convictions).

what a dumb shitbag.

[Kara]

I'm not sure if it's a sign of market pressures (this economy brehs) or that I have a modicum of self-respect that my "buy it now" price is higher than a Republican governor's. (165K vs. 250K).

[Phoenix Dark]

Obama's enemies sure have a way of imploding, going back to the days when he was a state legislator.

[Great Rumbler]

McDonnell decided to go with the "my wife's all kuh-RAZY and I couldn't control her!" defense.

[AdmiralViscen]

Wyoming signed up for the Medicaid expansion last week. If the most conservative/whitest state in the nation can do it, anyone can. Except Texas, because "fuck brown people" is too strong of a platform.

waste the opportunity to expand healthcare to your constituents with the feds eating 100% of the bill for three years because you're butthurt over Obummer, brehs

It being the whitest state probably makes it a lot easier

[benjipwns]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/why-do-newspapers-keep-publishing-op-eds-by-john-mccain/379512/?single_page=true

Why Do Newspapers Keep Publishing Op-Eds by John McCain?
Looking back at the Arizona senator's track record, it's hard to see why anyone still treats him as a source of insight into what will happen next in geopolitics.

I think just the headline was probably all that needed to be written here, Conor, but thanks for the rest I guess.

[Human Snorenado]

Kind of like all of those libertarian economists that keep yelling about the inflation bomb that's RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, huh?

[chronovore]

(Image removed from quote.)

Laugh all you want, but Reagan HIMSELF shot and skinned the sofa which was then tailored into that jacket.

[AdmiralViscen]

It deserved it for letting its cushions gobble up all those jelly beans

[Trent Dole]

hmmmm

That's my Senator.

[Human Snorenado]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/more-scarborough

[Steve Contra]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/more-scarborough

[Joe Molotov]

More Scarborough, two words that should never go together.

[Brehvolution]

I'd rather scabro over mcain, graham, or flooz on mtp.

[Joe Molotov]

I'd rather have the Clap than full-blown AIDS too.

[Steve Contra]

My wife is going in hard on a libertarian friend about climate change on Facebook right now.  It's a beautiful thing.   

[Steve Contra]

That's already happening in a lot of ways, but it's not really being publicized.  FEMA and the Army Corps already are taking sea rise data into account, as well as many of the (smarter) states.

Oh and the argument is "is climate change happening?" on one hand and

"You're a fucking idiot and no one I know in my field of expertise (flood management) even discusses this anymore" on the other.

[benjipwns]

Walrus, I was reminded of this Mises book today by somebody and thought it might be one that interests you to take a gander or that you might like to hate-skim through at least. And it's free (electronically) so: http://mises.org/document/994/Economic-Policy-Thoughts-for-Today-and-Tomorrow

The 150 page book report will be due under my office door by 11:59:59 PM.

[Kara]

When he says there are no rulers, only servants, is he banking on people being ignorant of the trust era or something else.

[benjipwns]

If he doesn't cover it in that book or if he does and you skipped it, in either case I'll make it clear that Mises rejects the idea of natural monopolies. Not to the extent Rothbard does in denying any possibility of it, but Mises is definitely in the "probably not going to happen AND be harmful" camp.

I think Mises would consider the loss and the subsidies to be inefficiencies, in some book (might be one of the essays included in Clash of Interests)  Mises really hammers on corporate welfare as a negative because it's like extra inefficiencies compared to just having the state run it. I know some later Austrians, and Hayek, maybe Mises did, suggested that things like universal health care and certain welfare are more efficient than the inefficient "market-like" monster the state will setup trying to control the market forces. I could be reading myself into that since I find more honest systems like state-paid health insurance and guaranteed minimum incomes to be "better" than patchwork bureaucratic dungeons. But I'm pretty sure at least Hayek wrestled with the idea.

[benjipwns]

Oops, that's actually Clash of Group Interests: http://mises.org/document/6087/The-Clash-of-Group-Interests

I think that's actually my top favorite Mises book because it's one of the few times he doesn't write so clinically, there's a kind of exasperated "WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE NOT GETTING THIS BASIC SHIT?!?" aspect to two of the essays.

The description might sound familiar to fans of my "work."

In this thrilling essay written in 1945, Mises lays out a theory of social organization in response to the Marxist critique of the free society. He explains that the Marxist view is wrong concerning its claim that there is a clash of group interests in the market order. He explains the difference in the competition between producers and a Marxian-type struggle. He shows how the relationships between labor and capital are essentially cooperative in that interests coincide over the long run - and so it is with all groups in a free society.

However, he goes further to map out a theory of what he calls castes that form under interventionist systems. Here the privileged group really does live at the expense of the paying group in a manner which Marx suggests - but with the key difference that it is the state and not the market that makes this possible.

In this way, argues Mises, the state is the cause of social conflict; the more it intervenes in the market order, the more conflict it creates, as taxes, regulations, and legal privileges of all sorts begin to blot out the harmonious relationships that would otherwise exist on the market.

One of the other essays is kinda fun in light of the 2008 financial crisis.

I really should just switch to using this instead of other Hayek and Mises essays for the section on liberalism/libertarianism. It'd certainly be a funnier set of essays to use.

[kingkitty]

More Scarborough, two words that should never go together.

Scarborough makes Morning Joe a cringefest. Therefore, I support his addition to Meet the Press.

[benjipwns]

How fast do you think they'd cut someones mic if they brought up the time Joe was joking about that aide he DEFINITELY DID NOT KILL IN ANY WAY.

[Dickie Dee]

Walrus, I was reminded of this Mises book today by somebody and thought it might be one that interests you to take a gander or that you might like to hate-skim through at least. And it's free (electronically) so: http://mises.org/document/994/Economic-Policy-Thoughts-for-Today-and-Tomorrow

The 150 page book report will be due under my office door by 11:59:59 PM.

I read through the Capitalism chapter and didn't really find anything that I disagree with in theory. Skipped the Socialism chapter because I basically know what it will say and probably won't disagree with him there either.

Now I'm getting to the Interventionism part. I'm generally against price controls in most instances, so I'm not going to disagree with him there. Rent controls are mostly the same. But that's about it so far. He doesn't argue against things like Social Security, public healthcare funds (which I know Germany had at the time of this writing), or other government interventions. He takes on the really easy targets and stops there.

There's one section in particular that I take issue with, page 39: "And if the taxpayers are prepared to pay higher taxes in order to make it possible for the government to operate an enterprise at a loss - that is, in a less efficient way than it would be done by a private institution..."

This does not follow from the simple fact that it operates at a loss. The post office operates at a loss, but I can send a letter to someone in a bumbfuck mountain village in the Ozarks for 40 cents or whatever it costs these days, and we have a system that works dependably when you need it. The government could raise rates on stamps, but is generally okay with running the post office at a loss because it's an important public service, and access to it is judged to be more important than miniscule deadweight losses from the taxation that makes up the operating loss.

It does not follow from this that a private company could run the U.S. Postal Service with the same degree of universal access and service for less money (including total revenues + taxpayer subsidies). It's possible that this could be the case, but the fact that the government subsidizes the Postal Service with taxpayer funds does not prove this hypothesis.

He also doesn't seem to have considered the idea of natural monopolies, or the deadweight losses that come from the fact that monopolies and most oligopolies do not operate on a traditional supply curve.

I had thought the USPS was revenue neutral (by law), and the only subsidies it recieves are quite limited and for particular services (special mail services for the disabled, etc.)

I'd be perfectly ok with running it at a loss to guarantee quality widespread coverage, and top it up with subsidies to keep it that way, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[benjipwns]

I had thought the USPS was revenue neutral (by law)

It used to be, they changed it not too long ago. They don't have to be in any area in which there are competitors.

I believe they can actually make a profit with some slight changes if they were spun-off more. Though it'd take a whole bunch of acts of Congress.

The Postal Service now is really different from how it was even ten years, let alone thirty.

Free USPS pro-tip: Don't pay for the tracking number, they print it on the receipt no matter what because they use it internally, it's just not labeled. 

[Joe Molotov]

How fast do you think they'd cut someones mic if they brought up the time Joe was joking about that aide he DEFINITELY DID NOT KILL IN ANY WAY.

I'm sure we'll get the opportunity to find out on the JoScar 2016 campaign trail.

[benjipwns]

President Barack Obama will delay plans to issue an executive order to address immigration reform until after the November election, White House officials confirmed Saturday.

Although Obama had pledged to act before the end of summer, the White House has been under pressure to slow down from Senate Democrats worried that an announcement would hurt them this fall.

[benjipwns]

[Great Rumbler]

[Great Rumbler]

Why didn't John McCain get #ISIS to release #JamesFoley & #StevenSotloff when he was w them? http://t.co/F4qy0Jf82u

(Image removed from quote.)

[Broseidon]

That shit keeps popping up everywhere

[AdmiralViscen]

Why didn't John McCain get #ISIS to release #JamesFoley & #StevenSotloff when he was w them? http://t.co/F4qy0Jf82u

(Image removed from quote.)

Is this for real?

[Joe Molotov]

Why didn't John McCain get #ISIS to release #JamesFoley & #StevenSotloff when he was w them? http://t.co/F4qy0Jf82u

(Image removed from quote.)

Is this for real?

No, but McCain's still a senile old coot who will never be president.

[benjipwns]

[ZephyrFate]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/30/california-plastic-bag-ban_n_5740332.html

what did plastic bags ever do to u, California



the state ruining the plastic bag economy with smart, sound environmental policy

Californians to cry about something that parts of the state have already been doing for a bit now

[Kara]

I'm I gonna have to take Trader Joe's bags to the everything is a dollar dollar store now.

[Rufus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/

WTF kind of banana republic shit is this?

[Phoenix Dark]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ronald-reagan-economist-slavery

[Kara]

The Economist also staned for doing nothing to alleviate the Irish Potato Famine IIRC.

Though at least that was while the genocide was ongoing instead of revisionist historiography after the fact.

[Phoenix Dark]

nothing wrong with a no starch foreign policy

[I'm a Puppy!]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ronald-reagan-economist-slavery

I for one am shocked. SHOCKED at this news.

[benjipwns]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ronald-reagan-economist-slavery

Important takeaway: Reagan in another bitchin suit.

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/america-cannot-continue-to-function-as-the-worlds,36873/

[Eric P]

conservative SEO, the movie

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2747965/I-ve-never-seen-Border-Patrol-Filmmaker-shows-Ebola-infected-ISIS-terrorist-sneak-Lake-Erie-Canada-Cleveland-RICIN-Rock-Roll-Hall-Fame.html

[Joe Molotov]

James O'Keefe: Imagine a World Without Him

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

you mean a world where Acorn is still functioning and still helping desperately poor people out of poverty?

[Brehvolution]

Okeefe showing ISIS how it's done. Is he training them under the guise that there is weak security?

[Rufus]

http://www.gregpalast.com/how-barack-obama-could-end-the-argentina-debt-crisis/

Huh.

[Kara]

http://www.gregpalast.com/how-barack-obama-could-end-the-argentina-debt-crisis/

Huh.

(Singer's spokesman responded that corruption in the Congo-Brazzaville government, not his lawsuits, have impoverished that nation.)

Nice guy.

[Great Rumbler]

FUD! Only poor people are hurting the economy with their minimum wages and SNAP benefits! Stop hating on hard-working job creators!!

[Kara]

RIP America

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Wednesday that will require most California employers next year to provide up to three sick days for millions of workers, a policy long-sought by labor unions but opposed by business groups.

"This is the least we can do," Brown told reporters after signing the bill at a ceremony in downtown Los Angeles, alluding to a growing income gap that has left many Americans struggling to make ends meet.

Supporters said as many as 6.5 million workers — including temporary and part-time employees — will benefit from the law that takes effect next July.

"Whether you're a dishwasher in San Diego or a store clerk in Oakland, this bill frees you of having to choose between your family's health and your job," Brown said in a statement from his office.

The law will require most employers to provide paid sick leave to employees who work 30 or more days within a year, and workers will earn a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

Glad I'm exempt from (most of) big gummint's labor laws. Who would want to be paid for not doing work?

[Phoenix Dark]

Man ISIS has a great PR team. Troy Ave needs to hire them to convince everyone he's the hottest rapper in the game, just as ISIS is now the most dangerous threat to the world since COBRA.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Republicans need help this election bro

[Phoenix Dark]

"Obama never talks about American exceptionalism!"

[Kara]

Ah we're sending "military advisors" to Iraq? I read a history of the Vietnam War too, though I feel like we're not respecting the order of events here or are playing the role of both the Fourth Republic and the U.S. this time?

[Boogie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/

WTF kind of banana republic shit is this?

I am not opposed to proper asset seizure powers in theory.  Attacking the proceeds of crime is an appropriate goal, as it hits organized crime at its core.

But when I read some shit about how it is carried out in practise, especially and specifically this little gem:

Half of the seizures were below $8,800.

I go....."Really?   Fucking really?"

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing saying that $5,000 being driven around can't be the proceeds of crime, that there weren't indicators/grounds for it being proceeds, but....

Seriously?!   Fucking half of all asset seizures under this law in the past 13 years have been under 8k?

Sure, someone driving around with 4k in their glove compartment is automatically an idiot, but with such a low amount, how on earth do you have the grounds to demonstrate criminal intent with that?  Enough to seize it?  Really?

If it's the result of solid policework, I have no issues with it.  But that $8k average seizure, combined with a 41% return rate on cases where it is challenged, makes even me go "C'mon son."