***Official Political Discussion Thread***

They really don’t know that trucking is getting automated huh? Reading something like this makes me sad how uninformed people are and how they vote with gut rather than actual knowledge and knowing what’s best for them.
 


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RustyShackleford said:
Also



https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...bf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.48d1b3d79570

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To be fair, I don't trust the median economist on a number of issues. Although, when every single economist says that free trade does or potentially could, increases total utility, that's the time to listen.


As far as the banking law is concerned, Dems played right into the hands of the GOP and the hard line leftists, the ones who refuse to support the Democratic Party. Dems made this happen and the worst thing are these red state Dems claiming that they needed this as cover for the midterms. There is no organic demand for fewer bank regulations among red State Democratic voters. There is almost no demand for bank deregulation among the typical Republican voter. Are both major parties exactly the same? No, but it is hard to make that case to voters who could vote Democratic on the one hand and could opt to abstain or vote third party, on the other hand.

This bill is bad on policy as well as politics. Just because you are a small bank, does not mean that you should not be regulated. Small banks are just as likely to gamble away depositors' savings as the big banks, if given half a chance. Small and regional banks are mostly run by men more like Gordon Gecko and less like George Bailey.

While the 2008 crash was driven by Goldman (big investment bank), Country Wide (massive home loan originator), the biggest commercial banks (BofA, Citi, Chase) and the insurance behemoth, AIG, (insurance companies were also taking money from premium payers in order to finance bad bets. Money that should have safely invested in US treasuries and used to pay out life insurance claims to widows, was used to make cocaine fulled investments into bad derivatives, subprime MBSes (Mortgage Back Securities), risky stocks and bad overseas bonds made it possible for lots of over extended, small financial institutions, to touch off the next crash. That is what happened in 1987 with the savings and loans crisis. Big Banks suck but small and regional banks can be just as bad when they are unregulated.

In 1929 through the early 1930's, the same thing happened as happened in 1987. Medium and small banks faltered (other than JP Morgan's banks, there were not any other real giants in banking at the time).It took a forced bank holiday and lots of government infusions of cash in order to stabilize things in that case. According to Milton Freidman, this chain reaction started with the Bank of the United States, a Jewish owned bank, that had no formal ties to the United States government, had been disliked by the more established, WASP banks of New York (the main complaint was not their name gave them an unfair advantage with newer immigrants). The established banks simply let the BofUS fail and the plan backfired and the fall of the BofUS took down most of the established New York Banks. The contagion spread nation wide and required a bank holiday and a lot of printed money to stop.

In short, fractional reserve banking is critical for economic growth but we must keep a close eye on it, no matter the size of the institution who is doing so. We need to extra cautious when they bank or other financial institution moves into non banking activity. The results of their inevitable bad invest and over investment is too costly.
 
biggie62 said:
They really don’t know that trucking is getting automated huh? Reading something like this makes me sad how uninformed people are and how they vote with gut rather than actual knowledge and knowing what’s best for them.
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They DON'T want to know. In some parts of this country, ignorance is valuable.

Above all, he cast his presidency in historic proportions, saying he was attracting so much media criticism because he was doing so well.
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I couldn't help but wonder which rapper he learned that from.
 
Perhaps of note, these differ from the congressional Russia sanctions bill Trump signed and declined to implement, these aren't as broad as the sanctions described in congress' bill.
But it's a good start, allthough it took an alleged chemical attack to invoke any sort of forceful response. Even though the president and the WH were continually bashing Obama for not being forceful enough while they themselves actively prevented the implementation of further sanctions until now.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/15/us-russia-sanctions-election-meddling-465475
U.S. imposes new sanctions on Russian entities over 2016 election meddling
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says America will level additional sanctions 'to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable.'
The Treasury Department on Thursday slapped new sanctions on 24 Russian entities and individuals for interfering in the 2016 election and conducting a series of damaging cyberattacks, a move that could be seen as a counterbalance to the narrative that President Donald Trump has downplayed Russia's bellicose behavior.

“The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyberattacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia.”


Mnuchin added that Treasury is planning to impose additional sanctions “to hold Russian government officials and oligarchs accountable for their destabilizing activities by severing their access to the U.S. financial system.”

The announcement comes amid a growing firestorm over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in southern England. The British government, the U.S. and others have blamed Moscow for the attack and moved this week to dispel 23 Russian diplomats. Though Thursday’s sanctions are unrelated to that attack, an administration official told reporters on a conference call that the incident “further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct” of Russia’s government.

The Trump administration has come under fire for what critics say is a slow response to Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election. The president has also faced blowback for not being more forceful in his condemnation of Russia in the aftermath of this month’s nerve agent attack, and largely leaving the job of responding to his Cabinet.

Thursday’s sanctions go after the individuals that special counsel Robert Mueller indicted last month for participating in a sweeping plot to use online trolls to inflame social divides and undermine faith in U.S. institutions during the 2016 election.

The sanctions target the Internet Research Agency, the Russian organization that Mueller’s team alleged was responsible for the extensive online trolling effort that court documents say was years in the making, involving millions of dollars and potentially hundreds of individuals.

According to the indictment, the IRA sent Russian operatives to the U.S., creaked fake online personas to solicit American activists’ advice about targeting swing states, organized rallies on U.S. soil and wielded the United States’ homegrown social media platforms to worsen the country’s racial, religious and political divides.

On Thursday, the White House sanctioned the IRA and its alleged founder, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, for their role in “interfering with election processes or institutions.” Prigozhin, sometimes described in Russian media as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “chef,” has became one of the country’s largest state contractors, according to the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a Russia-based nonprofit that investigates corruption among high-ranking Moscow officials.

The White house also sanctioned Prigozhin’s two main companies, Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering, accusing them of providing funding to the IRA.

Trump has repeatedly avoided acknowledging the assessment of intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to benefit his campaign, most recently hailing House Intelligence Committee Republicans for a one-party report that there was "NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION" with Russia

Democrats have lambasted the administration for declining to penalize entities doing business with Moscow's defense and intelligence sectors under a separate section of the bipartisan sanctions legislation that Congress sent to Trump's desk last year.

While Thursday's announcement of cyber-related sanctions is likely to win praise from both sides of the aisle, many Democrats continue to view the White House as reluctant -- to an alarming extent -- to take a hard line against Putin's government following a 2016 election meddling campaign that Trump has repeatedly downplayed.

Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the cyber-related sanctions were “not enough.” Schumer called on the administration to specifically punish Russian entities linked to the U.K. bio-terror attack and take further steps against Putin’s regime.

“We’re still waiting for action to harden our election security, and we’re still waiting for the president, President Trump, to utter one word of public criticism for what Putin is doing to the U.S. and democracies around the world,” Schumer said on the floor. “I say to President Trump, your silence speaks on this issue.”

The administration has explained its decision to hold off on imposing further sanctions targeting Russia's defense and intelligence sector operations by sayingthat the sanctions bill itself is "serving as a deterrent" against major deals.

Thursday's White House sanctions punish Russia’s two main intelligence organizations, including the country’s military intelligence organization, known as the GRU, for being “directly involved in interfering in the 2016 U.S. election through cyber-enabled activities.”

Researchers have accused the GRU’s infamous hacking team “Fancy Bear” of infiltrating the Democratic National Committee and later stealing and leaking the party’s internal documents and communications through fake online personas and the activist group WikiLeaks.

The leaks exacerbated rifts within the Democratic Party, and forced Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign as chairwoman of the DNC in July 2016 after internal emails revealed potential favoritism for Hillary Clinton over her primary rival Bernie Sanders.

Thursday’s move goes beyond just a broad condemnation of the GRU. It specifically sanctions six individuals it says have served as GRU officials. Four of those individuals were previously sanctioned in December of 2016, as part of the Obama administration’s retaliation for Moscow’s election meddling, which also including the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S.

The White House also penalized Russia’s other intelligence service, the FSB — the country’s successor to the KGB — with penalties. The announcement accuses the organization of going after a variety of U.S. government officials, including “White House personnel.” The inclusion is notable because the FSB’s “Cozy Bear” hacking group has long been suspected of — but never officially blamed for — infiltrating White House networks in 2014.

The FSB penalties are the second time the Trump administration has targeted the intelligence unit over hacking. In March of last year, the Justice Department took the unprecedented step of indicting two FSB spies for their role in hacking into Yahoo and stealing data on 500 million users.

Thursday’s sanctions follow through on the Trump administration’s promise to punish Russia for launching a game-changing cyberattack in June 2017, which cyber researchers dubbed NotPetya.

The threat came after the U.S. joined with its “Five Eyes” intelligence partners in February to blame the Kremlin for orchestrating the attack, which spread rapidly through Ukraine last year, before spilling into Europe, Asia and America. The virus, powered in part by leaked National Security Agency hacking tools, seized computer networks around the world, disrupting banks, hospitals, shipping routes, nuclear power plants and the main airport in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital.

The White House on Thursday called the digital assault “the most destructive and costly cyberattack in history,” noting that “several hospitals in the United States were unable to create electronic records for more than a week.”

Indeed, cyber experts have described the incident as a watershed moment. Not only was the virus destructive on an historic scale, researchers believe it provided an indication of Russia’s cyber prowess that they expect to see deployed elsewhere in the future.

Moscow has frequently used Ukraine — and Eastern Europe more broadly — as a testing ground for their next-generation cyber weapons. In recent years, Kiev has twice blamed its neighbor for shutting down portions of its power grid using increasingly dangerous digital weapons that hackers had never successfully deployed on that scale.
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"In a Dec. 4 internal email obtained by the AP, Jake Leinenkugel, a senior aide installed as part of a Cabinet-wide program to monitor secretaries’ loyalty, said Shulkin was becoming increasingly distrustful and regarded Camilo Sandoval, a senior adviser in VA’s health arm, as a White House “spy.”
https://apnews.com/5061a8e30e974e68...ithin,-VA's-Shulkin-hangs-on-as-support-wanes
Trump considers ousting his VA secretary in Cabinet shuffle
President Donald Trump is considering ousting embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who has faced an insurgency within his department and fresh allegations that he used a member of his security detail to run personal errands.

Trump has floated the notion of moving Energy Secretary Rick Perry to the VA to right the ship, believing Shulkin has become a distraction, according to two sources familiar with White House discussions. The sources were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Shulkin has faced several investigations over his travel and leadership of the department, but until now has received praise from the president for his work to turn it around. The news comes after Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday.

Trump raised the idea with Perry on Monday but did not offer the job to him, according to one White House official. Trump has been angry with Shulkin, the official said, but is known to float staffing changes without always following through.

Shulkin did not respond to requests for comment via phone and text message. He has been holding on to his job by a thread since a bruising internal report found ethics violations in connection with his trip to Europe with his wife last summer. A spokeswoman for Perry also had no comment.

The VA inspector general also is looking into a complaint by a member of Shulkin’s 24-7 security detail that he was asked to accompany the secretary to a Home Depot and carry furniture items into his home, according to two people familiar with the allegation who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Within the agency, a political adviser installed by Trump has openly mused to other VA staff about ousting the former Obama administration official. And a top communications aide has taken extended leave following a secret, failed attempt to turn lawmakers against him.

“The honeymoon is ending with a crash that hurts veterans most of all,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who has been a close observer of VA for more than a decade. “VA always has bad news, but Shulkin’s ethical and leadership failures are still significant — despite any internal attacks.”

Senior administration officials describe a growing frustration that Shulkin repeatedly ignores their advice, only to beg for their help when he runs into ethical trouble. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to describe sensitive internal discussions, say Shulkin has been given a final warning to end the swirl of distractions. The administration is currently seeking to push Trump’s agenda of aggressively expanding the Veterans Choice program, which major veterans groups worry could be an unwanted step toward privatizing VA health care.

The issue came to the fore at a White House meeting last week, when chief of staff John Kelly told Shulkin to stop talking to the news media without clearing it first with the White House and to stay focused on fixing veterans care.

Shulkin was escorted from that meeting to the Oval Office, where Trump questioned him about his efforts to push the Choice expansion, which lawmakers are now seeking to include in a massive spending bill that must be approved by next week to avert a government shutdown.

With Shulkin present, the president telephoned conservative Pete Hegseth, a “Fox & Friends” contributor who was vetted in late 2016 for VA secretary, to get his views on how to proceed with the expansion. The scene was first reported by Axios. Hegseth, a former president of the conservative group Concerned Veterans for America, declined to comment for this article.

Dan Caldwell, executive director of CVA, lauded the White House focus on Choice amid the ongoing controversies involving Shulkin. “Despite the internal drama going on in the VA, which has been a distraction, Congress has continued to work to a solution that everyone can rally around,” he said.

Shulkin is blaming the internal drama on a half-dozen or so political appointees whom he had considered firing, only to be blocked by Kelly.

“I regret anything that has distracted us from what we should be focusing on, which is serving veterans,” Shulkin told the AP shortly before release of an inspector general report that faulted the VA for “failed leadership” and an unwillingness or inability of leaders to take responsibility for accounting problems at a major VA hospital that put patients at risk.

It wasn’t always this way.

Early in the administration, Shulkin was often seen at Trump’s side, waving to crowds at campaign-style events in Pennsylvania or addressing reporters in a doctor’s lab coat as he tutored Trump on telehealth. Trump called him the “100-to-nothing man” — a reference to his unanimous Senate confirmation vote — and publicly teased that he probably would never be fired because he had successfully shepherded legislation to improve accountability at the VA and speed disability appeals.

By December, relations at the VA between Shulkin and several political appointees began to fray over philosophical differences.

In a Dec. 4 internal email obtained by the AP, Jake Leinenkugel, a senior aide installed as part of a Cabinet-wide program to monitor secretaries’ loyalty, said Shulkin was becoming increasingly distrustful and regarded Camilo Sandoval, a senior adviser in VA’s health arm, as a White House “spy.”

The email to Sandoval alluded to White House efforts to gain more control, including ousting Shulkin’s chief of staff, and said the secretary had been “put on notice to exit” once the administration gets the Choice legislation through Congress.

There were other signs.

At a Jan. 17 hearing, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., openly blamed the deadlock over Choice to Shulkin’s ever-shifting positions. “I am of the opinion that our inability to reach an agreement is in significant part related to your ability to speak out of both sides of your mouth, double-talk,” Moran said. A grim Shulkin denied the accusation, but the White House was later forced to clarify its position on the bill due to lawmaker confusion.

Last month, the inspector general released a blistering report finding ethical violations in Shulkin’s trip last July to Denmark and England that mixed business with pleasure. The IG found that Shulkin’s chief of staff Vivieca Wright Simpson had doctored emails to justify his wife accompanying him at taxpayer expense. Wright Simpson retired after the report was issued.

Seizing on the report, John Ullyot, a top communications aide, and VA spokesman Curt Cashour told the Republican staff director of the House Veterans Affairs Committee that Shulkin would be out by that weekend and asked if Republicans would push for his removal.

The staff director, John Towers, told Ullyot “no,” and made clear that committee Chairman Phil Roe had expressed support for Shulkin, according to a House aide familiar with the phone conversation. That aide also requested anonymity in order to discuss a sensitive internal matter. In a statement, Cashour and Ullyot deny that account, saying the call was intended instead to warn the committee that some of Shulkin’s denials of wrongdoing were unfounded.

Asked this week about Ullyot’s current leave of absence, Cashour released a statement saying, “there are no personnel changes to announce at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

For now, Shulkin appears to be hanging on. At a Cabinet meeting last Thursday, Shulkin took a different seat reserved for him — next to the president.
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Paging aepps20 aepps20 and @whywesteppin
You'd think these people would've learned something about emails by now
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/14/carson-involved-expensive-furniture-purchase-417326
Carson was involved in $31,000 furniture purchase, emails show
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was involved in selecting a $31,000 dining table set for his office suite, emails show, despite Carson and HUD’s statements that he had no knowledge of the costly request.
A cache of emails obtained by the advocacy group American Oversight show a HUD employee referring to “print outs of the furniture Secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out” on Aug. 29, 2017.


In the same email chain with Carson’s executive assistant and chief of staff, HUD administrative officer Aida Rodriguez provided a price quote of just under $24,666 for the set.

“I think this is a very reasonable price and the funds are available,” Rodriguez wrote. “We also have a justification for the cost (as you know, the furniture hasn’t been changed since 1988) so this should not be a problem.”

Federal law prohibits the head of a department spending more than $5,000 on refurnishing an office without getting advance approval from Congress.

The emails, first reported by CNN, also indicate that Carson’s wife, Candy Carson, came to the office to weigh in on the redecoration plan.

When asked on Wednesday evening for comment on the emails, HUD spokesman Raffi Williams said, “When presented with options by professional staff, Mrs. Carson participated in the selection of specific styles.“ He did not elaborate.

After news of the planned purchase surfaced late last month, a HUD spokesman said that career staff made the decision to replace the current table without consulting the secretary.

Carson elaborated in a Facebook post on March 5.

“I was as surprised as anyone to find out that a $31,000 dining set had been ordered,” Carson wrote. “I have requested that the order be canceled.”

The post to his personal page lamented that “character attacks on us have increased in an attempt to claim that a scandal has occurred.” A former HUD employee filed an ethics complaint, claiming she’d been demoted for refusing to help Carson circumvent spending caps to redecorate.

In the post, Carson said that once staff told him the current table, purchased in 1967, was “unsafe” and “beyond repair,” and he initially pushed for the purchase of used furniture, but “our acquisition process did not allow for that.”

He also suggested he had dropped the matter with a final exhortation to be frugal. After looking at the catalogs, he wrote, “I made it clear that I was not happy about the prices being charged and that my preference would be to find something more reasonable. I left this matter alone to concentrate on much bigger issues.”

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened a probe into the expenditure, giving Carson until Wednesday to provide all documents and receipts related to the redecoration of his office. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and two other Senate Democrats made their own request for documentation last week.
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Belgium said:
Paging aepps20 aepps20 and @whywesteppin
You'd think these people would've learned something about emails by now
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/14/carson-involved-expensive-furniture-purchase-417326
Carson was involved in $31,000 furniture purchase, emails show
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was involved in selecting a $31,000 dining table set for his office suite, emails show, despite Carson and HUD’s statements that he had no knowledge of the costly request.
Click to expand...

As I said before COMRADE, it sometimes be your own family. Candy should've went with the beautiful decor I'm sure they have in their own home. She didn't need to email Barson on this topic. THIS is why I commend Rusty for his relationship with Tomi. Tomi would've neva made this kind of mistake.
 
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