No, he really isn't an idiot. He's an opportunist, and a damn good one - which is why he is running for president, because he sees an opportunity.
USA Politics
- Thread starter Genghis Khan
- Start date
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
One thing Christie may have going for him is his popularity in New Hampshire and he has a personality that will stand out there. I read an article in politico that makes the case that is it NH or bust for candidates like Christie, Kasich, Pataki, etc as they do not appeal to voters that will go to the Iowa caucuses or South Carolina. A win (or at least a high showing) in NH, may propel one of them and a bad showing would doom the rest.
Agreed. He's definitely got to follow the McCain-Romney route and put his victory hopes on New Hampshire.
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
It will probably end up coming back in some form, but good to see it at least temporarily gone.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...xport-import-bank-expiring-congress/29468333/
WASHINGTON — The charter for the Export-Import Bank of the United States expires at midnight Tuesday, delivering at least a short-term victory for fiscal conservatives and activists who targeted the 81-year-old institution as a free market distortion.
"This is a small step toward renewing a competitive free-market economy and arresting the rise of the progressive welfare state and the cronyism connected to it," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who had led the effort to end the bank. "Now the challenge for supporters of a competitive free-market economy is to make sure Ex-Im stays expired."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...xport-import-bank-expiring-congress/29468333/
WASHINGTON — The charter for the Export-Import Bank of the United States expires at midnight Tuesday, delivering at least a short-term victory for fiscal conservatives and activists who targeted the 81-year-old institution as a free market distortion.
"This is a small step toward renewing a competitive free-market economy and arresting the rise of the progressive welfare state and the cronyism connected to it," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who had led the effort to end the bank. "Now the challenge for supporters of a competitive free-market economy is to make sure Ex-Im stays expired."
Sure, except that it is used to help fund big US business. If it stays gone, it'll hurt some major keystones.
I guess we'll see. Though considering it was a bank that gave loans at reasonable rates of return, not a series of handouts, I fail to see what the real problem with it was.
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
The issues, to me are
1) Taxpayers are potentially on the hook for these loans, admittedly not a huge risk, but some risk.
2) They are essentially subsidizing these companies by giving them discounts that other companies cannot get. This was supposed to help out the smaller businesses, but that has not been the case at all. It stifles competition in the export markets. Why would I buy a piece of farm machinery from a smaller company when I can get it from John Deere at a lower finance rate?
3) Ripe with fraud, there has been 85 indictments around activities of this bank
4) It does cost money to run, $2B over 10 years. In the grand scheme of the feds, not a ton of money, but it is not "free"
If they bring it back, and it will probably come back in some form. it needs to be seriously overhauled. I would prefer it just stay dead
It is interesting that many Dems who rail against crony capitalism and sweetheart deals for companies are coming out swinging for what is essentially corporate welfare , mostly for just 10 companies that account for 2% of exports using Ex-Im
1) Taxpayers are potentially on the hook for these loans, admittedly not a huge risk, but some risk.
2) They are essentially subsidizing these companies by giving them discounts that other companies cannot get. This was supposed to help out the smaller businesses, but that has not been the case at all. It stifles competition in the export markets. Why would I buy a piece of farm machinery from a smaller company when I can get it from John Deere at a lower finance rate?
3) Ripe with fraud, there has been 85 indictments around activities of this bank
4) It does cost money to run, $2B over 10 years. In the grand scheme of the feds, not a ton of money, but it is not "free"
If they bring it back, and it will probably come back in some form. it needs to be seriously overhauled. I would prefer it just stay dead
It is interesting that many Dems who rail against crony capitalism and sweetheart deals for companies are coming out swinging for what is essentially corporate welfare , mostly for just 10 companies that account for 2% of exports using Ex-Im
Yes, I tend to agree that corporate welfare should end. And it sounds like this particular bank was poorly run (Ie, the corruption).
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
Great city, run by total morons.
Again, proving the truth of
If it Moves, Tax it. If it Keeps Moving, Regulate it. And if it Stops Moving, Subsidize it
(this applies to Spotify and pretty much any streaming service as well)
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-cloud-tax-met-0702-20150701-story.html
Starting in September, Chicago residents will have to pay 9% more for the privilege of streaming movies on-line.
"The amusement tax applies to charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in an amusement," states the city's new ruling (pdf). "This includes not only charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in amusements in person but also charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in amusements that are delivered electronically."
The city expects the June ruling to bring in about $12 million each year in the latest example of Mayor Rahm Emanuel relying on boosting various smaller fees and fines to try to help close the city's yawning budget hole. Companies will have until Sept. 1 to begin paying the taxes, but the changes allow for them to start collecting them sooner, according to the new rules.
Companies that deliver cloud-based services will be responsible for collecting taxes from their Chicago customers, according to the rules, and those eligible to be taxed cover a broad spectrum .....
Again, proving the truth of
If it Moves, Tax it. If it Keeps Moving, Regulate it. And if it Stops Moving, Subsidize it
(this applies to Spotify and pretty much any streaming service as well)
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-cloud-tax-met-0702-20150701-story.html
Starting in September, Chicago residents will have to pay 9% more for the privilege of streaming movies on-line.
"The amusement tax applies to charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in an amusement," states the city's new ruling (pdf). "This includes not only charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in amusements in person but also charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in amusements that are delivered electronically."
The city expects the June ruling to bring in about $12 million each year in the latest example of Mayor Rahm Emanuel relying on boosting various smaller fees and fines to try to help close the city's yawning budget hole. Companies will have until Sept. 1 to begin paying the taxes, but the changes allow for them to start collecting them sooner, according to the new rules.
Companies that deliver cloud-based services will be responsible for collecting taxes from their Chicago customers, according to the rules, and those eligible to be taxed cover a broad spectrum .....
That seems foolish, unnecessary, and easy for me to circumvent.
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
They are trying to collect the tax from the service providers (Netflix, Spotify, etc) .. probably based on billing ZIP code. I sense a lawsuit coming. This show how badly the city has been mis managed when they resort to this. The last set of labor contracts had negotiations over how many no-show jobs the unions would get. Pathetic, they have to pay for their graft somehow.
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
Another massive failure. When I had to do a background check a while back, I should have just CCd China and saved them the trouble. Of course the things the Feds demand companies do for consumers that were hit in corporate hacking does not apply to them (credit monitoring, a requirement to contact them ASAP, etc). Also this has gone from 2 million to 4 million and jumped to 25 million today .. that is a decent chunk of the population. Given the governments increasing demands to send them data, this is just fucking appalling and now China has my info. Assholes .. fuck them .. how they still have their jobs is beyond me, if I fucked up this bad, I would have the common decency to quit.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-government-personnel-hack-20150709-story.html
25 million people had data stolen in hack of federal files, officials say
The information belonged to current and former federal workers as well as people who had applied for government jobs or done federal contracting work, the Office of Personnel Management said.
The hackers got away with a “boatload” of highly confidential personal details, FBI Director James Comey said while meeting with reporters at the bureau’s headquarters Thursday. Stolen forms encompass personnel records and personal relationships, as well as trips overseas and contacts with people living abroad. That means the fallout from such attacks can “quickly grow far beyond the number of federal employees,” Comey said.
“It’s a treasure trove of information,” he said, “about everybody who has worked, tried to work or works now for the United States government.”
He said, “just imagine if you were a foreign service intelligence agent, and had that kind of data.”
OPM Director Katherine Archuleta declined Thursday to say who was responsible for the attacks, but other U.S. officials have said China is behind the extraordinary breach. Beijing has denied involvement.
The attackers broke into OPM’s system with the user name of a government contractor, and then used that door to move to systems in the Department of the Interior.
Beginning in spring of 2014 and ramping up over that summer, the attacks were “separate but related,” with the same actor moving between different networks, said Andy Ozment, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security. They weren’t discovered until April of this year.
Comey had testified before lawmakers Wednesday and warned as he has before about the danger of cyberattacks. He and other federal law enforcement officials stress that such an attack could shut down the U.S. economy, cripple the country’s computer grid and unplug its utility systems.
He also lamented that the OPM breach compromised his own personal information as well and that the hacker likely had data about where he’d lived and traveled as well as his family’s information.
“It’s not just my identity that’s affected,” he said. “I’ve got siblings. I’ve got five kids. All of that is in there.”
Comey put it this way: “It is a huge deal.”
Archuleta credited her office with detecting and cutting off the attacks. Asked whether she was considering resigning amid the investigation, she said she is not.
“We have a very aggressive push” underway to secure the networks, she said, adding that “we’ll continue to do so.”
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-government-personnel-hack-20150709-story.html
25 million people had data stolen in hack of federal files, officials say
The information belonged to current and former federal workers as well as people who had applied for government jobs or done federal contracting work, the Office of Personnel Management said.
The hackers got away with a “boatload” of highly confidential personal details, FBI Director James Comey said while meeting with reporters at the bureau’s headquarters Thursday. Stolen forms encompass personnel records and personal relationships, as well as trips overseas and contacts with people living abroad. That means the fallout from such attacks can “quickly grow far beyond the number of federal employees,” Comey said.
“It’s a treasure trove of information,” he said, “about everybody who has worked, tried to work or works now for the United States government.”
He said, “just imagine if you were a foreign service intelligence agent, and had that kind of data.”
OPM Director Katherine Archuleta declined Thursday to say who was responsible for the attacks, but other U.S. officials have said China is behind the extraordinary breach. Beijing has denied involvement.
The attackers broke into OPM’s system with the user name of a government contractor, and then used that door to move to systems in the Department of the Interior.
Beginning in spring of 2014 and ramping up over that summer, the attacks were “separate but related,” with the same actor moving between different networks, said Andy Ozment, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security. They weren’t discovered until April of this year.
Comey had testified before lawmakers Wednesday and warned as he has before about the danger of cyberattacks. He and other federal law enforcement officials stress that such an attack could shut down the U.S. economy, cripple the country’s computer grid and unplug its utility systems.
He also lamented that the OPM breach compromised his own personal information as well and that the hacker likely had data about where he’d lived and traveled as well as his family’s information.
“It’s not just my identity that’s affected,” he said. “I’ve got siblings. I’ve got five kids. All of that is in there.”
Comey put it this way: “It is a huge deal.”
Archuleta credited her office with detecting and cutting off the attacks. Asked whether she was considering resigning amid the investigation, she said she is not.
“We have a very aggressive push” underway to secure the networks, she said, adding that “we’ll continue to do so.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/donald-trump-nazi-accident-1.3152065
I love Trump. Nazis in his campaign ads, awesome.
I love Trump. Nazis in his campaign ads, awesome.
Cornfed Hick
Ancient Mariner
Rick Perry is a doofus in his own right, but he had a great quote today about Trump:
"What Trump is offering is not conservatism, it is Trump-ism -- a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense." (NYTimes)
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
More Islamic Terrorism that we will call something else
Four U.S. Marines were killed and three others injured Thursday when a gunman attacked two U.S. military recruiting centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The FBI has identified the gunman as as Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old native of Hixon, Tennessee. He is the son of Youssuf Abdulazeez, a 57-year-old originally from the Middle East. The Abdulazeez family home was raided by authorities on Thursday evening. Mohammad studied engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chatanooga. Family photos suggest he graduated in December 2012.
The U.S. Attorney in Tennessee said the incident is being investigated as “an act of domestic terrorism” by federal, state, and local officials. An Army recruiting center was hit first with more than a dozen gunshots. The same suspect is believed to have then traveled to a nearby Navy recruiting center and shot a police officer in the ankle. Abdulazeez was armed with multiple weapons and killed by police. Authorities have also detained two women who were inside a house in Hixon.
Four U.S. Marines were killed and three others injured Thursday when a gunman attacked two U.S. military recruiting centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The FBI has identified the gunman as as Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old native of Hixon, Tennessee. He is the son of Youssuf Abdulazeez, a 57-year-old originally from the Middle East. The Abdulazeez family home was raided by authorities on Thursday evening. Mohammad studied engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chatanooga. Family photos suggest he graduated in December 2012.
The U.S. Attorney in Tennessee said the incident is being investigated as “an act of domestic terrorism” by federal, state, and local officials. An Army recruiting center was hit first with more than a dozen gunshots. The same suspect is believed to have then traveled to a nearby Navy recruiting center and shot a police officer in the ankle. Abdulazeez was armed with multiple weapons and killed by police. Authorities have also detained two women who were inside a house in Hixon.
The Aurora theater shooting was three years ago this coming Monday. The shooter was found guilty of 165 counts today:
http://www.denverpost.com/theater-s...verdict-reached-aurora-theater-shooting-trial
Trial now goes to penalty phase: jury decides if he gets the death penalty.
http://www.denverpost.com/theater-s...verdict-reached-aurora-theater-shooting-trial
Trial now goes to penalty phase: jury decides if he gets the death penalty.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And Perry - or another lower-ranked candidate - has a chance to rise up by being the anti-Trump.
It very well could be Islamic terrorism, and it could be for a host of reasons. Let the investigators investigate.
They'll stick him. It's what Americans do.