US politics general thread

[The_Assimilator]

Today I witnessed a man act on the thought "How can I make myself look more stupid than anyone ever imagined?" Not once, but multiple times, in a way that would make that person's lord and saviour Donald Trump proud.

 

[RanzB]

Trump threatens Harley-Davidson with taxes ‘like never before’ and predicts its eventual collapse

:crylaugh: The US president fights like a tiger for ZTE, a Chinese company, and threatens a US company.. I'm sure that had nothing to do with that 500m backing for one of Trump's companies hey

Where's Alan and co on this by the way, or are they too busy haranguing a transgender person somewhere?

Oh and more good news:

Jack Daniel’s price to jump 10% thanks to Trump’s trade war, whiskey maker warns

So. Much. Winning.

 

[cerebus]

Trump threatens Harley-Davidson with taxes ‘like never before’ and predicts its eventual collapse

:crylaugh: The US president fights like a tiger for ZTE, a Chinese company, and threatens a US company.. I'm sure that had nothing to do with that 500m backing for one of Trump's companies hey

Where's Alan and co on this by the way, or are they too busy haranguing a transgender person somewhere?

Oh and more good news:

Jack Daniel’s price to jump 10% thanks to Trump’s trade war, whiskey maker warns

So. Much. Winning.

Bwahahaha

[video=youtube_share;J581XFa9ec0]https://youtu.be/J581XFa9ec0[/video]

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Discriminating against a business for one of the "protected" reasons.

i.e. a law that forbids you from discriminating against businesses where you voluntarily purchase from? :erm:

Come on, dude. You know this is a dumb argument. And where did C4Cat or anyone say that there is such a law?

Can I put Obama in that range?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article213525764.html

That article contradicts itself and doesn't actually substantiate its main claim. And relies on quotes from anonymous Trump officials that also don't actually substantiate what they say. Also repeats the debunked claim that it's not a new policy.

And wait, I thought conservatives were complaining that Democrats opened the borders and are "importing" all these people? The article highlights the stuff Obama did to "enforce the border" as they claim to want.

Could it be that maybe conservatives are peddling bad faith BS, and deportations and enforcement isn't actually what they're talking about?

At least some are honest and make it plain that it's about white nationalism.

Yes.

Its wrong no matter who implements it.

This is what conservatives seem to be unable to grasp - for once it isn't about which side wins, it's about stopping something fscking evil.

You go on and on about 'whatabout when x did it?' but this simply betrays the fact that you care more about your side being right than the fact that we have toddlers in concentration camps right now in 2018.

Here's the thing, though. They don't think it's wrong. They think it's good. College students heckling some rando dipschit = PC! bad! Babies in cages = good.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

"The North Korean national anthem was played at a women-for-Trump gala, in tribute to the president’s visit with KJU."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/us/politics/trump-women-north-korea.html

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Factory workers lose jobs as steel tariffs put business in "crisis mode"

Steel tariffs that went into effect the first week of June are causing a factory in Missouri to lay off dozens of workers due to lost business from cancelled customer orders.

At the MidContinent Steel and Wire plant in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, where Magnum Fasteners products are made, 60 employees were laid off this month as certain operations were idled due to lost business from increased steel costs.

The company is the largest nail manufacturer in the U.S. and employs hundreds of people in Poplar Bluff. It is owned by Deacaro, a Mexico-headquartered firm which ships steel from its mills in Mexico into the U.S. for a variety of finished products. The administration's steel tariffs add a 25 percent penalty to the raw material.

"The imposition of these tariffs on our raw materials on June 1st has actually put our operations into a crisis mode," operations general manager Chris Pratt told KFVS in an interview.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Muh economic anxiety. Muh 'it's only silly tweets and bluster'.

Woman cites Trump while calling man 'rapist,' 'illegal' in viral rant

A Latino man and his mother who were doing yard work in California were verbally attacked by a woman who called them "illegals" and "rapists," and a video of the encounter has gone viral.

Esteban Guzman, a 27-year-old systems administrator who is also a part-time landscaper, told CNN's Don Lemon that he confronted the unidentified woman after hearing her yell, "Go back to Mexico" to his mother.

"I said 'Hey, what's your problem?'" Guzman, who said he was born and raised in the Lake Arrowhead area of Southern California, told Lemon. "And she says, 'You're all illegal. Go back to Mexico.' And I say, 'I am a United States citizen. What are you talking about?'"

Video, shot by Guzman's mother, of the encounter was posted on Twitter Monday and had garnered more than 2 million views by Monday night..

The footage shows the woman pointing her finger at Guzman's face and berating the California native.

"Why do you hate us?" Guzman asked during the encounter.

"Because you're Mexicans," the woman replied.

"We're honest people right here," Guzman said.

"Yeah, rapists," the woman said.

The woman also said, "even the President of the United States says you're a rapist."

 

[crackersa]

ANC.....take note


https://www.ksat.com/news/former-state-sen-uresti-to-be-sentenced-in-fraud-case-on-tuesday

LIVE: Former State Sen. Carlos Uresti sentenced to 12 years in prison

BREAKING NEWS: Former state Sen. Carlos Uresti was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Tuesday in his fraud case.

 

[Techne]

Russian pop star who arranged Trump Tower meeting makes music video about colluding with Trump
I

f you thought the Trump-Russia scandal couldn’t get weirder, think again. A player in the various investigations — Russian pop music star Emin Agalarov, who helped arrange an infamous meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in 2016 — has put out a music video jokingly portraying himself as involved in all sorts of shady activities connected to American politics.

The video, flagged by CNN’s Hunter Schwarz on Twitter, features Emin carousing with impersonators of Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Hillary Clinton, and even Stormy Daniels. Emin hands over mysterious briefcases and envelopes, as he repeatedly sings “You got me so good, you really got me so good.” Here’s the video.

[video=youtube;8cs4tKdiiI4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cs4tKdiiI4[/video]

 

[konfab]

i.e. a law that forbids you from discriminating against businesses where you voluntarily purchase from? :erm:

OK, imagine if a bunch of racists created a page that listed all businesses that they should boycott based on the race of the individuals who own that business. In your non-racial utoptia, what crime would you charge them with?

 

[greg0205]

OK, imagine if a bunch of racists created a page that listed all businesses that they should boycott based on the race of the individuals who own that business. In your non-racial utoptia, what crime would you charge them with?

You’ve been asking folk to use their imagination a lot these past two days.

In this corner of your New 52 universe, your hypothetical would *still* not be a crime, rather some racist douchbaggery... or possibly, as it is in your case, a public stupidity misdemeanor.

 

[konfab]

You’ve been asking folk to use their imagination a lot these past two days.

In this corner of your New 52 universe, your hypothetical would *still* not be a crime, rather some racist douchbaggery... or possibly, as it is in your case, a public stupidity misdemeanor.

Can you make an argument without getting personal?

So if it is just "racist douchbaggery", then why isn't the case with the cake "homophobic douchbaggery"? I want a logical explanation why a business which is clearly not operating as a monopoly is not allowed to discriminate against customers. Yet customers are allowed to discriminate against businesses.

Saying it is the law allows/forbids it is not an answer btw.

 

[RanzB]

You’ve been asking folk to use their imagination a lot these past two days.

It's how the right wing stay outraged 24/7. Make up weird scenarios about how things that could positively effect others keep the right 'downtrodden'.

 

[RanzB]

Yet customers are allowed to discriminate against businesses.

Oh my word. If you don't get that a customer has a right to choose where to shop as a private individual, but that a business has to serve the public without discrimination, there's no point to this conversation.

 

[greg0205]

Can you make an argument without getting personal?

So if it is just "racist douchbaggery", then why isn't the case with the cake "homophobic douchbaggery"? I want a logical explanation why a business which is clearly not operating as a monopoly is not allowed to discriminate against customers. Yet customers are allowed to discriminate against businesses.

Saying it is the law allows/forbids it is not an answer btw.

For two days now you have failed to acknowledge that customers have a choice to shop wherever the Hell they want. Free of coercion no less... Until you can wrap your head around that, there is *no* discussion to be had.

 

[cerebus]

For two days now you have failed to acknowledge that customers have a choice to shop wherever the Hell they want. Free of coercion no less... Until you can wrap your head around that, there is *no* discussion to be had.

Or that using Obamacare as an example of forcing customers to shop where they don't want to is an absurd false equivalency.

 

[greg0205]

Or that using Obamacare as an example of forcing customers to shop where they don't want to is an absurd false equivalency.

It's just been ridiculous, and it looks like we're heading for a septuple or octuple down today.

 

[RanzB]

It's just been ridiculous, and it looks like we're heading for a septuple or octuple down today.

Still can't get over this:

Specifically, lets say a homophobic person found out a wedding cake shop was run by gay people. Would they be **allowed** to refuse to use the shop's services?

:wtf:

 

[RanzB]

What did corporate America do with that tax break? Buy record amounts of its own stock
The White House promised '70 percent' of the tax cut would go to workers. It didn't.

President Donald Trump signed the bill in December last year, saying the corporate tax cut would make it favorable for companies to bring back into the U.S. cash stashed in foreign operations.

"More than 70 percent of this [tax cut] will be returned to workers," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a January press conference after the bill came into effect.

However, companies have instead used the extra cash to spend billions of dollars buying back their own stock, boosting the value of shares held by investors. Buybacks reduce the number of shares on the market, immediately increasing the value of the shares that investors already hold.

Before the tax cut:
Report: Companies Will Use Tax Cut Savings to Buy Back Stocks, Reward Investors
GOP: No they won't, it'll trickle down into wages and buff the market to increase 401ks.

After the tax cut:
Report: Companies Used Tax Cut Savings to Buy Back Stocks, Reward Investors
GOP: What a crazy turn of events. Well, water under the bridge, right? Now we have to pay for it by slashing Medicare and Medicaid.

 

[Cray]

Specifically, lets say a homophobic person found out a wedding cake shop was run by gay people. Would they be **allowed** to refuse to use the shop's services?

Should a Vegan be **allowed** to refuse to use the services of the local butcher....?