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[URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/04/republicans-democrats-michigan-wisconsin-voting-midterms"]'This is not democracy': Republicans try to shrink power of incoming Democrats [/URL]
[QUOTE]A month after the midterm elections on 6 November, several states continue to be convulsed by bitter partisan fighting in which Republicans are being accused of flagrantly undemocratic attempts to steal victory from the clutches of their Democratic rivals.
The most intense battle is playing out in Wisconsin, where Republican lawmakers are attempting a power grab that would strip key functions from the state’s incoming Democratic governor and attorney general. Opponents are denouncing the move, which sparked protests on Monday, as a blatantly undemocratic negation of the November election results.
Similarly contentious efforts are afoot in Michigan, where Democrats regained three important statewide positions in November – that of governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Instead of accepting the will of voters, Republican lawmakers are now seeking to reduce the control of those post-holders over campaign finance and legal proceedings involving the state before the Democratic victors take office.[/QUOTE]
This is wrong on so many levels, yet I just realized that the Trump Presidency has shown us that a President like him can abuse his power. Can try to politicize the DOJ, can make cabinets positions self-serving and corrupt, can even order the military to take actions that no reasonable President would think of doing.
The two situations are very different.
The first are State Republicans trying to take back or hang on to power they lost during an election, by hog-tying and ham-stringing the incoming Governors and other Democrats.
The second is a Republican President who acts like a little dictator, treating all branches of Government as his own private possessions.
Yet, won't some argue that, if you try to limit the Presidents powers then what is wrong with limiting a Governors powers?
Understand, I do know the difference, yet I do worry that, if the Democrats get to the point where they can limit what a President can do, it might negatively affect future Presidents, including democratic ones. That it can be turned against them by Republicans.
Yet, if no action is taken, won't that leave the country vulnerable to another Trump-like President?
And if the Democrats do place limits on the power of the Presidency, won't that give power to the argument that a Republican controlled state legislature can also limit the power of a governor?
I think this is something that needs to be addressed, but addressed carefully and with full input from all branches of government.
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[QUOTE=Tami;4060061][URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/04/republicans-democrats-michigan-wisconsin-voting-midterms"]'This is not democracy': Republicans try to shrink power of incoming Democrats [/URL][/QUOTE]
Among their litany of sins, Republicans are also the absolute [B]WORST[/B] sort of blatantly sore losers if they're pulling nefarious **** like this.
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[URL="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bush-family-seeks-to-steer-clear-of-anti-trump-sentiment-at-41st-president%e2%80%99s-funeral/ar-BBQs3wY?li=BBnb7Kz"]Bush family seeks to steer clear of anti-Trump sentiment at 41st president’s funeral[/URL]
[QUOTE]The family of former president George H.W. Bush has planned a state funeral that will steer clear of the kind of anti-Trump sentiment evident at the recent funeral of Sen. John McCain, according to people familiar with the funeral planning.
The Bush family contacted the White House this past summer to say that President Trump would be welcome at the funeral, scheduled Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral, and to assure him that the focus would be on Bush’s life rather than their disagreements, one former administration official said.
The truce with Trump allows the Bush family, and the nation, to honor the legacy of a president who guided the United States through the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the breakup of the Soviet Union without becoming mired in today’s toxic politics. Trump in turn has been effusive in his praise of Bush since his death Friday, and paid respects Monday night at the U.S. Capitol, where the 41st president is lying in state.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]But the detente also comes after Trump’s long history of insulting and taunting the Bush family — calling his 2016 primary opponent “low-energy” Jeb Bush, saying the 9/11 attacks were partly due to President George W. Bush’s failure to keep the nation safe, and mocking George H.W. Bush’s signature “thousand points of light” volunteerism program. And it comes as Trump has fully taken control of the Republican Party, leading a bare-knuckle rejection of the traditional GOP establishment that the Bush family represented and helped build.
One person close to the funeral planning said the Bush family’s overtures to Trump were at least partly pragmatic. Trump has the final say over important funeral details, this person said, including providing Air Force One to carry the former president’s remains from Texas to Washington on Monday for the funeral and back to Texas on Thursday for another service and burial.
While Trump will not deliver a eulogy, he will be seated in the front row alongside former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Bush’s son, former president George W. Bush, will deliver a eulogy.
Neither he nor the other eulogists — former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, former senator Alan K. Simpson, and presidential historian and Bush biographer Jon Meacham — are expected to focus on the stark differences between the genteel and patrician Bush and the bombastic Trump.[/QUOTE]
I suppose this was the best way to appease the orange skinned elephant in the room who would've gone nuclear if he wasn't invited, as was the case with John McCain's funeral as Trump was told not to come and the ceremonies turned into a referendum against him. While the Bush family would've been well within their rights to have told Trump to piss off and stay away, given the animosity between them and Dolt45, they decided to take the high road and invited him instead, in the process, showing far more civility and graciousness than that miserable tangerine turd will ever know.
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[QUOTE=Kirby101;4059860]Somebody decided to hone in on one issue that the incoming Dems haven't addresses yet and decided nothing else matters and unless they act now about it they have failed at everything.
But no worries, if they do address it, there will be another issue that they don't deal with to beat them up about.[/QUOTE]
That's more or less what I said. #30 is never satisfied. Even when he gets what he says he wants, he immediately jumps to something else to whine about.
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[URL="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/exclusive-emails-of-top-nrcc-officials-stolen-in-major-2018-hack/ar-BBQu3jp?li=BBnb7Kz"]Exclusive: Emails of top NRCC officials stolen in major 2018 hack[/URL]
[QUOTE]The House GOP campaign arm suffered a major hack during the 2018 election, [B]exposing thousands of sensitive emails to an outside intruder[/B], according to three senior party officials.
The email accounts of four senior aides at the National Republican Congressional Committee were surveilled for several months, the party officials said. The intrusion was detected in April by an NRCC vendor, who alerted the committee and its cybersecurity contractor. An internal investigation was initiated and the FBI was alerted to the attack, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the incident.
However, senior House Republicans — including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) — were not informed of the hack until POLITICO contacted the NRCC on Monday with questions about the episode. Rank-and-file House Republicans were not told, either.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), who served as NRCC chairman this past election cycle, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Committee officials said they decided to withhold the information because they were intent on conducting their own investigation, and feared that revealing the hack would compromise efforts to find the culprit.
"We don't want to get into details about what was taken because it's an ongoing investigation," said a senior party official. "Let's say they had access to four active accounts. I think you can draw from that."
The hack became a major source of consternation within the committee as the midterm election unfolded. The NRCC brought on the prominent Washington law firm Covington and Burling as well as Mercury Public Affairs to oversee the response to the hack. The NRCC paid the two firms hundreds of thousands of dollars to help respond to the intrusion. The committee’s chief legal counsel, Chris Winkelman, devoted hours of his time to dealing with the matter.
Party officials would not say when the hack began or who was behind it, although they privately believe it was a [B]foreign agent[/B] due to the nature of the attack. [/QUOTE]
Well now, isn't [B]THAT[/B] all kinds of interesting. It would be deliciously ironic if it turns out the Ivans were behind the hack at the behest of Dolt45's BFF, Bad Vlad.
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[QUOTE=WestPhillyPunisher;4060333][URL="http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/exclusive-emails-of-top-nrcc-officials-stolen-in-major-2018-hack/ar-BBQu3jp?li=BBnb7Kz"]Exclusive: Emails of top NRCC officials stolen in major 2018 hack[/URL]
Well now, isn't [B]THAT[/B] all kinds of interesting. It would be deliciously ironic if it turns out the Ivans were behind the hack at the behest of Dolt45's BFF, Bad Vlad.[/QUOTE]
Army cyber dude said it bears the fingerprints of the DPRK.
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[QUOTE=BeastieRunner;4060406]Army cyber dude said it bears the fingerprints of the DPRK.[/QUOTE]
Do tell. That's kinda funny since I heard Caramel Caligula had been trying to kiss up to Rocket Man of late. Oh, that's just as rich!
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[QUOTE=WestPhillyPunisher;4059739]
[URL="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-hampshire-students-kkk-jingle-bells_us_5c05d05ce4b07aec5751aaa6"]High School Students Singing A Racist KKK-Themed ‘Jingle Bells’ Spark Outrage[/URL]
The New Hampshire 11th-graders sung lyrics such as “KKK, KKK, let’s kill all the blacks” after being assigned to create a jingle based on Reconstruction. Short and sweet: heads needs to roll over that vile ****![/QUOTE]
Ok, so 'Baby it's Cold Outside' doesn't seem like such a bad song now.
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[QUOTE=WestPhillyPunisher;4060424]Do tell. That's kinda funny since I heard Caramel Caligula had been trying to kiss up to Rocket Man of late. Oh, that's just as rich![/QUOTE]
That's all he said.
It bears noting when Russia hacked and influenced Ukraine, they made it look like the DPRK. Till FAncyBear got mad that the PNest got all the credit.
My wife works for the NSA and pretty much says everyday that we need a Cyber Force, not a Space Force. "We're gonna get buttf****d in the face," per her words.
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Stock market hit -1K but has rebounded to -750.
Those tax cuts were great ideas, Mr. POTUS. Great job in China, too.
[URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-director-briefs-senators-on-saudi-role-in-khashoggi-killing/2018/12/04/e6d6498c-f7d5-11e8-8d64-4e79db33382f_story.html?utm_term=.3314e3b77bd6"]Also, the US Senate unanimously condemns the Saudi prince.[/URL] The Rs came out swinging, basically calling 45 a fucking moron. That it would take a jury "30 minutes" to convict.
Flynn is being sentenced.
Bad day in Trumpland!
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[QUOTE=BeastieRunner;4060468]That's all he said.
It bears noting when Russia hacked and influenced Ukraine, they made it look like the DPRK. Till FAncyBear got mad that the PNest got all the credit.
My wife works for the NSA and pretty much says everyday that we need a Cyber Force, not a Space Force. "We're gonna get buttf****d in the face," per her words.[/QUOTE]
The Missus sure has an interesting way with words. Heh! Meanwhile, she's spot on right, bad guys are out to wreck our infrastructure, banking, utilities, communications, financial institutions, stock market, satellites, you name it via cyberspace. Why drop nukes on our cities, rendering them uninhabitable for decades when the country can be quietly crippled by foreign hackers in a basement using fifty dollar keyboards thousands of miles away? It's amazing few, if anyone in Washington understands that danger we face.
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[QUOTE=WestPhillyPunisher;4060500]The Missus sure has an interesting way with words. Heh! Meanwhile, she's spot on right, bad guys are out to wreck our infrastructure, banking, utilities, communications, financial institutions, stock market, satellites, you name it via cyberspace. Why drop nukes on our cities, rendering them uninhabitable for decades when the country can be quietly crippled by foreign hackers in a basement using fifty dollar keyboards thousands of miles away? It's amazing few, if anyone in Washington understands that danger we face.[/QUOTE]
My wife has a potty mouth. That is rather tame. FYI. She constructs new colorful metaphors everyday! She calls the POTUS the, "Bowel Bukakke Bed Bro" all the time. Another tame one.
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[QUOTE=BeastieRunner;4060474]Stock market hit -1K but has rebounded to -750.
Those tax cuts were great ideas, Mr. POTUS. Great job in China, too.
[URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-director-briefs-senators-on-saudi-role-in-khashoggi-killing/2018/12/04/e6d6498c-f7d5-11e8-8d64-4e79db33382f_story.html?utm_term=.3314e3b77bd6"]Also, the US Senate unanimously condemns the Saudi prince.[/URL] The Rs came out swinging, basically calling 45 a fucking moron. That it would take a jury "30 minutes" to convict.
Flynn is being sentenced.
Bad day in Trumpland![/QUOTE]
[B]DAMN[/B]! When Grouchy Graham is calling for the arms sales to the Saudis to stop, and he's been [B]THE[/B] biggest Trump buttmunch since the Kavanaugh hearings, you [B]KNOW[/B] the **** has hit the fan for Donnie Smallhands!
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[QUOTE=Tendrin;4059665]Greenwald is scum and much of the reporting at the Intercpet exists to enflame divisions within the American left.
There need be no further proof of Greenwald's scummyness than his reaction to Trump versus his reaction to Bolsanaro. It's different when it hits closer to home, eh Greenwald?
Salon is where journalism goes to die.
I've seen good reporting from the Intercept from time to time but one must remember who decides. Greenwald's outlet is not to be trusted.[/QUOTE]
I disagree with ya on some things, and Salon has changed over the years, but I don't think the American Left has an issue when it comes to Greenwald. The American lefts problems are much deeper. You have two to three camps in the American Left.
You have the Centrists and the Tip O'Oneal (Can't leave the 50's) types.
You have the Corporate Democrats who want more donor money at the expense of the base, but give us lip service.
You have the Progressive base which is the future, but will need some time to get their footing as a coalition.
All 3 agree on much of the social aspects of the country. But when it comes to money and power, two of the three want the money, all three want the power.
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This is a Fantastic interview by Meek, and how the WAY you ask a question, matters as much as what you ask.
[video=youtube;EWtX4u-gbEE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWtX4u-gbEE[/video]