USPOL Oct: So this is how the thread dies: with a Star Wars derail

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Oct: So this is how the thread dies: with a Star Wars derail

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

QuoProQuid posted:

Yesterday, a bill arrived on the floor of North Carolina's General Assembly that would have made it illegal for local municipalities to raise the minimum wage, establish affordable housing mandates, or institute landlord-tenet relations. It also would have blocked any rules against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill, originally intended to regulate the licensing of counselors, had provisions added to it moments before voting began. Consequently, representatives were preparing to vote when they received word that their previously uncontroversial bill would have, among other things, completely undone the concept of federalism in the state of North Carolina. City Lab reports:

Basically "gently caress Asheville, the Bill."

edit: oh and the NYTimes has found so little dirt from the Hillary Emails releases that they have started discussing the spam she got:

quote:

Among the emails released Wednesday were five that appear to be attempts by hackers to penetrate Mrs. Clinton�s email system. The messages appear to be notices of speeding tickets from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. But the emails are well known as phishing attempts by hackers in Russia. It is not clear whether Mrs. Clinton clicked on the malware-infected messages.

By itself, the spam directed at Mrs. Clinton�s email does not indicate that her server was infected, or that the Russian hackers suspected of originating the phishing campaign had access to her network. But it does raise questions, because the State Department itself has been subjected to relentless attacks from Russian cyberespionage experts.

The emails could have been randomly generated, rather than directed at her. But because her email address was not widely known, the attempt to lure her to respond to a fake email probably passed through someone who knew her well enough to have the address, and to be an unknowing conduit for the infected email.

Next they'll talk about how one of her backers is probably running a lesbian prostitution ring because of all the emails about hot women that want to gently caress.

Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Oct 1, 2015

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 13:12

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 05:48

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Fried Chicken posted:

Estimates are that between 1400 and 5100 people died from the added air pollution from this and we can't do anything?

VW killing people by pumping out toxic gases. What would their founder think of this behavior?

This is probably bad news for VW. If the EPA doesn't have the option of a symbolic but largely toothless criminal conviction they might do something more drastic like demand the cars be taken off the road.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 13:18

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

I like how they claim it was some super targeted email when the Clintons don't drive.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 14:02

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

The NYTimes has decided that the "Hillary got some spam" story needs thorough investigation

quote:

WASHINGTON � It turns out that Hillary Rodham Clinton�s private email account, like seemingly everyone else�s in America, was hit by spam sent to try to lure her into clicking on a malicious link � one that could have compromised the security of her communications when she was secretary of state.

But did that put her more at risk than if she had relied solely on the State Department�s internal systems? Almost certainly not. After all, in 2014 the unclassified email systems at the State Department and the White House were shut down, often for days at a time, as government security experts tried to erase the damage done by the hackers, suspected to be Russians, probably linked to the government. It seems virtually certain, investigators say, that the offenders in that case siphoned vast numbers of emails out of both systems.

Still, the evidence that Mrs. Clinton�s personal account had been on the receiving end of a �spear phishing� attempt, revealed in a batch of her emails released by the State Department on Wednesday, raises the same question the F.B.I. is trying to answer as it combs through the forensic evidence from the server that was once in Mrs. Clinton�s basement

They also seem to think that clicking on a malware link on a client computer infects the email server:

quote:

But if Mrs. Clinton�s system was successfully pierced � perhaps in some other attack � Mrs. Clinton might well not have known it, either. Other email accounts, including one for her husband, Bill, the former president, resided on the same server in their basement of their home in Chappaqua, N.Y. No one has yet explained what kind of monitoring systems were on that server, if any.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 12:33

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Those things seem like they might be the first companies to advertise themselves out of existence.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 00:26

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

That money paid out to the states will probably just get dumped into subsidizing the oil industry, similarly to what happened with the tobacco settlement money in North Carolina.

I think the best we can hope for is that it goes into subsidies for to help the poor oil companies meet those awful crushing safety and environmental protection rules.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 15:56

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

I wish Robert Costa was reporting on rhe house leadership clusterfuck instead of chasing Trump around.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 18:48

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Shageletic posted:

Research: Less Access to Guns Lead to Fewer Suicides

This isn't unique to guns either. A common method of suicide in the UK used to be via turning on an unlit oven and inhaling coal gas, which was 10-20% carbon monoxide. When the switch was made to natural gas (no carbon monoxide) UK overall suicide rates went down by 1/3rd. Evidence showed that some people switched to other methods but removing a ubiquitous and deadly option saved thousands of lives.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 16:12

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Goddamn has this been hilarious. Dumpster fire is definitely the best description.

zoux posted:

I mean as this dumpster fire intensifies, Ryan's gotta start changing his mind, right? I imagine they're going to be leaning on him hard no matter how shermanesque he is.

He has to realize that being speaker would be a dead-end career move right? There is no way you can hold that position and not piss off the whackjobs too much to ever get another run at president.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 03:41

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

PostNouveau posted:

The Democrats wouldn't vote for anyone but Pelosi for speaker, but if they didn't vote at all, would the required number for a majority lower from 218? Could they just get a few concessions out of the next speaker and then all abstain to let them get elected with like 180 votes?

The Dems will (largely) vote for whoever Pelosi and the Caucus leadership ask them to. You don't have the equivalent of the purity before all else types of the Tortilla Coasters on the Dem side and I'd say the majority would even vote for a Republican if the case was made that it would be for the best.

If the speaker gets elected with Democratic support they will be very dependent upon Pelosi and her caucus to stay in power. At any point they could force the speaker to step down by going over to the 40 or so hard right folks who will be out for blood.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 14:50

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

evilweasel posted:

End of earmarks. Time was, everyone's job was partially to secure pork for their district. If you crossed the speaker, you lost your pork.

Once the caucus put an end to earmarks, the speaker suddenly lost that leverage. Now, all he has are committee seats which are way less effective at coercing people - and impossible to use to bribe someone.

Also the rise of non-party money in the form of groups like Heritage Action and the Kochs' Americans For Prosperity has played a big role. Used to be if you didn't step in line you would lose your access to the Party's campaign funds and access to the ability to raise your own but now the opposite it true - if you don't make yourself an active impediment to getting things done you will attacked by a 501(c) group while a primary challenger has millions poured into their campaign.

Earmarks were the carrots, money was the stick. Now there is no carrot and someone else has a bigger stick.

Shifty Pony fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Oct 9, 2015

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 16:06

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

It would take an absolutely insane situation for Congress to step in and override a state's redistricting. I don't even think a state abandoning popular voting for House members and having the state legislature selecting their reps would be enough to trigger it.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 17:17

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

zoux posted:

As this drags on an on and gets worse and worse and things get more and more dire for the party, I don't see how he resists becoming Republican Cincinnatus and saving their asses. The pressure from his colleagues has got to be immense.

How ambitious is Ryan? I honestly don't know if he would be willing to make his own life miserable and sacrifice future ambitions to save the party. Boehner was content to be speaker so he could ignore the impact his decisions had on a potential senate or presidential run.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 18:04

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

joeburz posted:

this is almost as good as realizing that mccarthy is a blathering moron when it comes to speaking outloud

lol theyre hosed

I really, really hope he was smart enough (or they were dumb enough) to have something written down.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 02:30

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Thump! posted:

Coffee enemas don't exactly kill hundreds of civilians every year though.

Alternative medicines and quackery likely kill or severely injure thousands a year. The deaths are just recorded as things like "cancer" or "uncontrolled hypoglycemia" instead of "the dumbass skipped chemo for a $500/week lemon oil mist and the stage I lesion metastasized" or "turns out that acupuncture isn't a replacement for insulin injections".

# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 22:46

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Luigi Thirty posted:

Obummer is giving into the Musselmen and turning our prisons which are supposed to be where you are PUNISHED into mosques for ISIS.

For some reason I can't find this important story anywhere other than here, Breitbart, Beck, and other wingnut sites.

I can see why inmates might hate pork because it is one of those things which is delicious if cooked correctly and goddawful if you deviate even slightly from the right way to cook it. It is the Brussels sprouts of meat. I'm sure prison cafeterias are overcooking it and turning it into dry tasteless lumps.

Also prices are going up due to demand from China.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 13:29

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Hollismason posted:

Lol what if she comes out as a otherkin or some crazy poo poo. That would be amazing and well I am just going to accept that as something that has now happened.

This would be worth it just to see the meltdown of reddit.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 02:57

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Torrannor posted:

I know that the USA is hosed up, but it's hard to believe just how far gone you are.

How can the regulators be powerless to do something against plainly illegal worker compensation plans? It just boggles the mind.

Here's the thing: those regulators (or at least their bosses) don't want to do something about them. The system is working as the higher ups intended.

I'm sure that any government employee who actually tried to fight the illegal provisions would find their job in jeopardy in a hurry. More likely though the law is written in a way that omits the ability to take any enforcement action, which is an intentional oversight by the architects of the bill to prevent a bureaucrat from messing up their giveaway to businesses.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 13:36

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Grey Fox posted:

Secret Service seems to turn a blind eye to underage drinking, if the Bushes (the twins and extended family as well) are any indication.

Like you said, not a huge deal. Her bodyguards would get involved if she were in any actual danger.

Evil Fluffy posted:

Don't First Kids usually have secret service assigned to them? Not that I'd be surprised to see the secret service let her go to a party (or want to crash the party too) but either way who gives a poo poo?

I believe that I read somewhere that the secret service goes out of its way to let the president and first lady know that the detail is there to prevent harm from occurring to the kids, not to be their parents. Narcing would increase the chances of the kids trying to give the Secret Service detail the slip which is something you really don't want to encourage in any way.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2015 04:34

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Hollismason posted:

Yeah, also he's on a loving bike. Bike the gently caress away.

Speaking from experience dogs can easily catch you when you are on a bike even if you are booking it at 25+mph (which you tend to do when a big dog is beelining for you).

Yes biking away and seeing if the dog gives up when it has chased you out of its territory or a water bottle squirt to the face are the best solutions. But a loose dog coming at someone in an aggressive manner is absolutely a self defense situation, although I've never heard of a rider carrying anything more than pepper spray even in loving Texas.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2015 16:56

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

evilweasel posted:

Interest rates are also still stupefyingly low so people with good credit can get one hell of a mortgage.

What I want to know is what happens to housing prices when interest rates go up? The only reason people can afford to bid things up to where they are now is to mortgage themselves to hell and back which they can only do thanks to the low rates.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2015 00:51

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

zoux posted:

Professional dipshit Jennifer Rubin has a new dark horse candidate that she thinks is poised to make gains.

At least she's consistent.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 19:26

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Raskolnikov38 posted:

Mark Penn will make an appearance somewhere.

And you just know Larry Summers would be hanging around hoping for a job too

# ¿ Oct 22, 2015 21:55

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Joementum posted:

He probably is. There's enough money at stake in the assumption that the US will never default that there'd be a collective agreement to just ignore it if it ever happened.

Like when the credit rating was downgraded and everyone just rolled their eyes.

Well things are so automated now that "ignore it" might not be practical. But it also is entirely possible that many of the financial software systems in use just straight up can't account for a US treasury bond default. Hell during the housing bubble a bunch of them were unable to deal with declining house prices and that's an event orders of magnitude more likely than the US government defaulting.

So maybe they would just coast along happily as though nothing happened, or maybe they would completely freeze all of the affected institution's purchasing and lending while attempting to firesale their liquid assets to meet reserve ratios. We just don't know.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 21:57

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Carson appeals to Iowa because it is Iowa and they love plain spoken religious nut candidates. He won't fare so well once the contest advances into places like SC.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2015 19:10

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

LeeMajors posted:

The real answer? Because insurance companies have shareholders to impress and the sick and elderly serve as convenient piggy banks.

There is no ethical reason for this to be the case. Healthcare is a human necessity and should be treated as such.

Insurance companies get most of the public blame but let's remember that they aren't the ones actually billing $6k for an MRI because you mentioned your knee was sore. Insurers are limited to a certain maximum profit margin while a hospital can and will bill you $300 because someone they pay $30 an hour looked at your chart for 10 minutes.

Most of the power of single payer is that the government calls the shots on reimbursement from a position of power so the medical providers are unable to abuse their regional monopoly to jack up prices. If for some strange reason you wanted to keep insurance as a thing make Medicare reimbursement rates standard and mandatory, ban balance billing, and watch costs plummet right along with the salaries of hospital system boards and pharmaceutical company CEOs.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 16:01

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

It could always be worse.

Example: the Washington Post still employs Jennifer Rubin.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 18:54

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Gravel Gravy posted:

NC is vinegar based.

SC is mustard based.

False. Tomato based and Alabama's....mayonnaise based sauces are not ok.

I swear the mayonnaise sauce is Alabama playing a joke on bbq tourists. It has to be, the alternative is just too awful.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2015 14:46

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Mooseontheloose posted:

Also, the Medciare Part B going up was for 30 percent of Part B participants because there was no COLA adjustment this year. If there is COLA incrase, then the premiums are taken from the COLA but because there is no inflation, in trigger an increase.

This was from a law from 2005 I think.

One major problem is that the COLA depends on CPI-w was a measure of inflation and that doesn't in any way reflect how retirees actually spend (most glaringly only 6.15% of the index is healthcare related, and 19.4% is transport).

# ¿ Oct 28, 2015 18:56

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Mooseontheloose posted:

I agree with you but to put that at the feet of Pres. Obama is silly.

I agree. It is mostly a side effect of outdated inflation measures which don't track how the economy actually effects people.

Now had we gotten chained CPI as part of the grand bargain it would be perfectly valid to blame Obama.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2015 19:15

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Suitaru posted:

It probably was. But, you know, someone's kid mentions offhand "they were talking about the transgender kid at school today" to a bigoted parent and the fuse is lit.

Kids can be hateful shits if they were raised that way. If the parents are vocally transphobic odds are the kid will be as well, and the kid likely go to the parent to complain about it because they know the parent is a friendly audience (and/or that bringing it up will score them brownie points by proving how much they hate transgender people too).

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 14:19

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 05:48

Shifty Pony: Dec 28, 2004; Up ta somethin'

Samurai Sanders posted:

I was thinking more like, I never pay attention to the details of who comes and goes from public bathrooms, not enough to know if someone is transgender. Who does?

E: seriously though "men in women's bathrooms!!" is the go-to conservative freak out over nondiscrimination policies covering transgender persons.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 14:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL Oct: So this is how the thread dies: with a Star Wars derail