US Politics Thread

[RupertKBD]

1 hour ago, Sabrefan1 said:

These idiots should already have been tried and imprisoned.  It's another obvious case that should have been presented 3 years ago.

 

It probably should have.....but the current AG assumed office in January of 2023. Her predecessor, (who is a Republican) declined prosecution.....

[Sharpshooter]

I thought I was in the Train Thread, I was so disappointed when I realized where I actually ended up. 

[King Heffy]

41 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:

I thought I was in the Train Thread, I was so disappointed when I realized where I actually ended up. 

There's still hope with Boebert.

[Sabrefan1]

3 hours ago, Sharpshooter said:

What in particular have you ‘liked’ that Biden has done?

 

Biden kept a major promise that Trump made, but broke, as far as mandating more affordable medicines such as insulin.  As far as I'm concerned that's his best achievement thus far.  That has saved lives and kept people from doing desperate things like taking chances with partial doses or stealing to afford needed meds.

 

Biden also got the infrastructure bill passed that Trump promised, but couldn't deliver on. 

 

Quote

What Trump policy is better? 

 

Except for the separation of kids that started with the Obama administration and accelerated under Trump, I liked Trump's no non-sense handling of the border.  The migrants started bum rushing towards Canada instead up until COVID hit and both borders were sealed off.

 

Trump may not have been liked by foreign nations, but the major bad actors were always reluctant to cross him because they didn't know if he'd drop low yield nukes on them or ignore them completely.   Also, Trump got along fairly well with OPEC.  Once Biden got into office, the Saudis started to manipulate the market more.  Biden even said he regretted following his advisor's pushing to go and visit them.

 

 

These are just the two things for each that initially popped into my head, but there are more for each that I could write about.

[Sharpshooter]

4 minutes ago, Sabrefan1 said:

 

Biden kept a major promise that Trump made, but broke, as far as mandating more affordable medicines such as insulin.  As far as I'm concerned that's his best achievement thus far.  That has saved lives and kept people from doing desperate things like taking chances with partial doses or stealing to afford needed meds.

 

Biden also got the infrastructure bill passed that Trump promised, but couldn't deliver on. 

 

 

Except for the separation of kids that started with the Obama administration and accelerated under Trump, I liked Trump's no non-sense handling of the border.  The migrants started bum rushing towards Canada instead up until COVID hit and both borders were sealed off.

 

Trump may not have been liked by foreign nations, but the major bad actors were always reluctant to cross him because they didn't know if he'd drop low yield nukes on them or ignore them completely.   Also, Trump got along fairly well with OPEC.  Once Biden got into office, the Saudis started to manipulate the market more.  Biden even said he regretted following his advisor's pushing to go and visit them.

 

 

These are just the two things for each that initially popped into my head, but there are more for each that I could write about.

Terrible, but perfect examples for a Conservative. 

[Sabrefan1]

3 hours ago, RupertKBD said:

It probably should have.....but the current AG assumed office in January of 2023. Her predecessor, (who is a Republican) declined prosecution.....

 

I remember. 

 

I still think the timing is political because these are slam dunk cases since they were publicly committed crimes, but this is different than the direct Trump cases. 

 

This is a prime consequence of eff around and find out.  The conservative Republicans have nobody to blame but themselves.

[Sabrefan1]

2 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:

Terrible, but perfect examples for a Conservative. 

 

Not really terrible depending on your views.

 

I'm a moderate who doesn't often agree with conservatives but I do agree with them that the border needs to be tightly controlled.  I'd prefer it wasn't with razor-wire though.

 

As for the bad actors being leery of Trump, that's just a fortunate side effect of his "charm".

[24K]

13 hours ago, Sabrefan1 said:

 

Not really terrible depending on your views.

 

I'm a moderate who doesn't often agree with conservatives but I do agree with them that the border needs to be tightly controlled.  I'd prefer it wasn't with razor-wire though.

 

As for the bad actors being leery of Trump, that's just a fortunate side effect of his "charm".

Well you can thank Trump for the border not tightly controlled right now thanks to him killing the bi-partisian border bill. 

 

Only way to fix it on the short term is to reduce that giant backlog and decide if an asylum seeker should be kicked out or granted full work authorization unless you want to start shoot on site policy. 

[Coconuts]

On 4/23/2024 at 6:14 PM, Sabrefan1 said:

This is big news in favour of skilled workers if it survives the legal challenges from the US Chamber of Commerce.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/23/success/ftc-bans-non-compete-clauses/index.html

 

Here's hoping it does

 

On 4/23/2024 at 6:18 PM, Bob Long said:

 

Canada will be forced to follow this.

 

That would be a good thing, people should be free to job hop as they see fit, particularly in these economic days

 

There's more money in switching up your job/role every few years than there is sticking with one company/organization 

 

Waiting it out at a job and hoping for raises won't typically earn folks as much as they'll get for signing on with someone new 

 

I've seen it countless times, folks walking in fresh and jumping right to what tenured workers are making, if not more 

 

Loyalty doesn't pay

Edited April 25 by Coconuts

[The Arrogant Worms]

[bishopshodan]

On 4/23/2024 at 3:45 PM, BarneyKook said:

 

If he goes to jail does he get a cavity search?

 

Really doubt it. That's in the yesteryear. 

 

The proceedure (in Canada anyway) is to perform a visual, no-contact skin frisk ( strip search) to make sure you dont have any large contraband. Then the individual is dressed and put through a body scanner, like they have at the airport, to see if they have anything inside them.

 

Random note. I know some officers that have  a music group....they go under the moniker 'Contra-band'

[Gurn]

38 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

 

 

 

I've seen it countless times, folks walking in fresh and jumping right to what tenured workers are making, if not more 

 

Loyalty doesn't pay

B.C. Ferries:

"Hello fella working as a Chief Officer, would you please train this new guy, to do the job you are currently filling, but will never actually get?"

That would be great, thanks.

[Rook]

50 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

 

Here's hoping it does

 

 

That would be a good thing, people should be free to job hop as they see fit, particularly in these economic days

 

There's more money in switching up your job/role every few years than there is sticking with one company/organization 

 

Waiting it out at a job and hoping for raises won't typically earn folks as much as they'll get for signing on with someone new 

 

I've seen it countless times, folks walking in fresh and jumping right to what tenured workers are making, if not more 

 

Loyalty doesn't pay

You must not own a business.  We 10’s of thousands training staff every year.  Companies won’t be bucking up for educations of people that can just hop ship once they compete said training.  It’s a two way street. We pay for loyalty, but loyalty also goes two ways. 
 

side note, hopping around just insures another factor of inflation. I pay more in labour, you pay more in product, and the vicious cycle continues

[NewbieCanuckFan]

19 hours ago, Sabrefan1 said:

 

 

Biden kept some of the Trump admin's tariffs after he took office.  Tariffs are a tool.  They aren't inherently bad.  Trump will just likely take aim at mostly China again.  Hopefully American corporations will be forced to move their manufacturing out of China even faster as a result of the tariffs.  Countries like Vietnam are starting to see more and more factories and jobs popping up.

 

Tax cuts for people who are very wealthy are a huge sticking point with me for sure.  It's politician's return on the legal bribes they get from the rich.  Don't think that the Democrats are innocent in that issue.  There's a reason why they have been beating Republicans in fundraising for some time now.

 

The election will hinge on swing states.  The states with firmest abortion laws are the deep red ones that Biden isn't going to win anyways.

 

The abortion issue will influence congressional control, not executive.  For people like me, that's perfect.  That likely means a split government.

Here in BC, the "Taxi lobby" held a huge amount of influence (especially in keeping out such services like Uber, etc., for the while) because they weren't stupid.  In our "two party" province (it's either the center right or center left - those are your choices), the taxi lobby greased the palms of whoever was in power.

 

[Coconuts]

30 minutes ago, Rook said:

You must not own a business.  We 10’s of thousands training staff every year.  Companies won’t be bucking up for educations of people that can just hop ship once they compete said training.  It’s a two way street. We pay for loyalty, but loyalty also goes two ways. 
 

side note, hopping around just insures another factor of inflation. I pay more in labour, you pay more in product, and the vicious cycle continues

 

Nah, I don't. And business's aren't a monolith. 

 

Companies do it all the time. For example, there's a call center back in my home town that bleeds employees, I know several folks who've gone through the training while looking for something else just to get some pay. But they need folks to do the job, so the hiring cycle continues. 

 

I can't tell you how many folks I trained while I was working at a bottle depot for example, in my nearly four and half years I think I had nearly 70 different coworkers come and go, I used to keep a list of names. Many of them came around and made what I was making, close to it, or more. I can only imagine how much my old boss spent in terms of wages for folks who didn't end up lasting six months, which was most of them. But the alternative was having staff openings and pissing off the workers who did stick around by expecting them to take on more work for the same pay. 

 

Companies aren't paying for loyalty, they're paying for labour. Employers who want to retain their employees will find ways to make it appealing to stay. Maybe folks hopping does affect larger scale things, but ultimately people are going to look out for themselves more often than not. 

 

Some of it also boils down to folks changing roles and the profession folks have pursued, in social work there are a ton of different things that social workers can do so it's really not all that uncommon for folks to mix it up. But I promise you, there are absolutely employers who will happily pay to train social workers up to fill a position they need filled, the same can be said of many other professions. 

 

I'd wager most folks don't expect loyalty from their employers, they expect to get paid to do a job, and if someone is willing to give them better working conditions/benefits/pay to do a similar job folks will often jump ship. More folks should view themselves as free agents, particularly when they have education and a specialized skill set. 

Edited April 25 by Coconuts

[The Arrogant Worms]

 

Trump’s Lawyer Tries to Convince a Stunned Sotomayor: President Has Immunity to Order Assassinations of Rivals

 

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trumps-lawyer-tries-to-convince-a-stunned-sotomayor-president-has-immunity-to-order-assassinations-of-rivals/

[The Arrogant Worms]

David Pecker Testifies He Spoke With Sarah Sanders and Hope Hicks About Extending Hush Money Payments After Trump Was Elected

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/david-pecker-testifies-he-spoke-with-top-white-house-officials-about-extending-hush-money-payments-after-trump-was-elected/

[The Arrogant Worms]

MAGA faithful starts to doubt Trump's ability to serve another term: columnist

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-mental-decline-2667879186/

[Gurn]

6 minutes ago, The Arrogant Worms said:

MAGA faithful starts to doubt Trump's ability to serve another term: columnist

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-mental-decline-2667879186/

Big burn at the end of this article.

Ouch.

[The Arrogant Worms]

Matt Gaetz vows Trump will give pardons and 'money settlements' to Jan. 6 convicts

https://www.rawstory.com/matt-gaetz-trump-jan-6-money-settlements/

[Sabrefan1]

2 hours ago, 24K said:

Well you can thank Trump for the border not tightly controlled right now thanks to him killing the bi-partisian border bill.

 

 

If it was up to me, the border would be locked down again same as it was during COVID.  Take on enough skilled immigrants to keep the population stable and let in the seasonal farm workers to take the jobs others don't want.  Hopefully the rules stopping that from happening will change.

 

The bi-partisan bill was at least better than the status quo and it's unfortunate that the MAGA faction played chicken with the issue and lost in the end since the foreign war money bill got passed anyways without them.

 

Quote

Only way to fix it on the short term is to reduce that giant backlog and decide if an asylum seeker should be kicked out or granted full work authorization unless you want to start shoot on site policy. 

 

I'd like any non-skilled people and the illegal border crossers turned away immediately.  They're already criminals the second they step into the country.

 

Even when Canada was taking in migrants during the Trump years, it ended up turning down plenty of people.

[Rook]

2 hours ago, Coconuts said:

 

Nah, I don't. And business's aren't a monolith. 

 

Companies do it all the time. For example, there's a call center back in my home town that bleeds employees, I know several folks who've gone through the training while looking for something else just to get some pay. But they need folks to do the job, so the hiring cycle continues. 

 

I can't tell you how many folks I trained while I was working at a bottle depot for example, in my nearly four and half years I think I had nearly 70 different coworkers come and go, I used to keep a list of names. Many of them came around and made what I was making, close to it, or more. I can only imagine how much my old boss spent in terms of wages for folks who didn't end up lasting six months, which was most of them. But the alternative was having staff openings and pissing off the workers who did stick around by expecting them to take on more work for the same pay. 

 

Companies aren't paying for loyalty, they're paying for labour. Employers who want to retain their employees will find ways to make it appealing to stay. Maybe folks hopping does affect larger scale things, but ultimately people are going to look out for themselves more often than not. 

 

Some of it also boils down to folks changing roles and the profession folks have pursued, in social work there are a ton of different things that social workers can do so it's really not all that uncommon for folks to mix it up. But I promise you, there are absolutely employers who will happily pay to train social workers up to fill a position they need filled, the same can be said of many other professions. 

 

I'd wager most folks don't expect loyalty from their employers, they expect to get paid to do a job, and if someone is willing to give them better working conditions/benefits/pay to do a similar job folks will often jump ship. More folks should view themselves as free agents, particularly when they have education and a specialized skill set. 

So the two examples you give are not at all the types of where employers have them sign non competes.  Non compete agreements are meant to protect the companies intellectual properties.  You think it’s fair for companies to depend millions developing companies, sales contacts, program, just to have someone go to another company and steal that intellectual property?  Call centres are just above macdonalds as far as skilled workers. And why would a social worker need a non compete?   No disrespect but you are speaking out of pocket in this regards, and clearly don’t understand what goes into running Fortune 500 companies. I’m not even sure you fully understand why they are important. 

[Cerridwen]

Drive-by.....

 

 

[Gurn]

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-john-dean-nixon-no-criminal-immunity/

"The conservative Supreme Court wants to hand Donald Trump immunity, but it has to get around a past Nixon case to do so, former Richard Nixon White House counsel John Dean said on Thursday afternoon.

 

Dean, who has previously mused about the ex-president's legal issues, took to social media following a bombshell Supreme Court hearing that saw Trump's lawyer arguing that a president may be able to order the assassination of an opponent without being held liable criminally.

"Today’s SCOTUS argument on Trump’s criminal immunity revealed an activist conservative majority that wants to provide presidential immunity," Dean said. "To do so, they must get around Nixon v Fitzgerald (1982), which clearly states there is no criminal immunity for presidents."

Dean continued:

"For example, as stated in Nixon v Fitzgerald, in Chief Justice Burger’s concurring ruling in the 5-4 decision creating civil immunity: '… there is no contention that the President is immune from criminal prosecution in the courts under the criminal laws enacted by Congress, or by the States, for that matter. Nor would such a claim be credible. The Constitution itself provides that impeachment shall not bar ‘Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.’ Art. I, § 3, cl. 7. Similarly, our cases indicate that immunity from damages actions carries no protection from criminal prosecution.'"

In a separate post, Dean drew attention to one of Nixon's most infamous arguments.

"Lawyers used to laugh when they heard Nixon’s analysis during Frost/Nixon: 'When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.' Listening to the arguments before today’s Supreme Court, it appears the Republican Justices are all in with Richard Nixon," Dean said on social media on Thursday evening. "American democracy may be unraveling quickly…"

[Gurn]

Seems Drumpf's lawyers can't respect a gag order- even when they are in court:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/whoa-prosecution-shouts-over-defense-during-trump-s-hush-money-trial/ar-AA1nFsfV?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=bff220895cf04a4c8061ec76eec58611&ei=7

"The heightened tensions began when Trump's lawyer Matthew Russell mentioned text messages between former National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard and an unknown relative, Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee said in a post to X, pointing out that Judge Juan Merchan told the prosecution and defense some of the contents of the texts messages could be redacted.

 

Trump lawyer Emil Bove then spoke up, but was quickly interrupted by someone on the prosecution's side, who shouted, "Whoa!" as Bove mentioned a name.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that," Bove said in response to the interruption.

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mal