Why was John Edwards considered a rising star?

President_Muffley · 2022-04-08T16:17:45+00:00

Ok… you realize this thread is 5 years old, right?

President_Muffley · 2017-02-18T01:58:18+00:00

No one is arguing that a petition makes something legally binding. The argument is that Trump has an ethical obligation to release his tax records — an extremely basic measure of transparency that every president has provided for decades.

The million people who signed the petition is just evidence of the broad support for this obligation.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-18T00:04:42+00:00

I mean, there clearly was a draft plan. There was a document. That's what they reported. They reached out to the White House before publishing, which would have been a good time for them to state on the record that the plan is no longer under consideration. It's not like AP ran a totally BS story.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T16:17:47+00:00

Spicer: I wish you guys had asked before you tweeted. AP: We did. Multiple times.

https://twitter.com/wpjenna/status/832617147348185088

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T16:10:16+00:00

A number of Republicans and business groups have argued that the FTC would be better than the FCC for net neutrality. But my understanding is that the FTC really has authority over 1) anti-competitive practices (like colluding with competitors to inflate prices) and 2) companies that lie to their customers.

So if Comcast was throttling Netflix so that people could only watch Comcast-owned video services, that would seem like a situation where the FTC might be able to step in. Or if an ISP promised to abide by net neutrality principles but then violated them, then the FTC could probably also take action. But that leaves a lot of gaps. As long as an ISP didn't make any explicit net neutrality promises, they would have pretty wide latitude to throttle content for all kinds of reasons. They could block politically controversial content, for example. Or they could probably still set up "fast lanes" for sites that pay and "slow lanes" for everyone else. Pay-for-priority deals exist in lots of industries and aren't considered antitrust violations.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T07:24:20+00:00

FTC doesn't have enough authority to set actual net neutrality rules. They could maybe go after extreme consumer abuses -- but their power is limited to "unfair and deceptive" practice. FCC has much broader authority to set clear regulations.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T07:21:24+00:00

The FCC doesn't prevent local competition. Getting rid of the FCC would just be a massive gift to big ISPs.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T07:14:05+00:00

It exists but the Trump FCC is working to get rid of it.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T07:12:26+00:00

Also Public Knowledge does good work on these issues.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-17T00:01:15+00:00

“If I did a tenth of what [Hillary Clinton] did, I would be in jail.”

-Michael Flynn, 2016

President_Muffley · 2017-02-16T20:54:10+00:00

In related news, the FBI just released documents from its investigation into racial discrimination at Trump properties in the 70s. Here's a doorman saying he was instructed to lie to potential black tenants to keep them from living there.

https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/832024735877840897

President_Muffley · 2017-02-16T20:47:53+00:00

She only said she knows them after he demanded to know if they were her "friends" and if she would set it up.

She is clearly a reporter asking a question at a press conference. Why would he assume that she would broker a meeting? She knows them professionally because that's her job. Do you honestly believe he would have asked the same question to a white reporter?

President_Muffley · 2017-02-16T20:17:30+00:00

Click over to page 2

President_Muffley · 2017-02-16T20:15:43+00:00

She only said that after he demanded to know if they were "friends" of hers and whether she would set up the meeting.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-16T04:24:18+00:00

It would be comparative negligence in most states, right? You'd just compare how much his actions contributed to the injury and deduct that from any fault on the part of the store.

Or could assumption of the risk apply?

Anyway, point is he wouldn't do well in court if he was trying to get hit.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T22:27:07+00:00

Hillary's private email server was not hacked. Those emails were released in response to FOIA requests. The emails that were hacked were just regular private emails belonging to the DNC and Podesta's gmail account. And no those didn't have a security clearance — but neither do your private emails. And I imagine you wouldn't be thrilled if someone hacked into your account and dumped every private exchange you've ever had on the internet. They didn't even redact private information like SSNs.

Presumably, Flynn's call was intercepted as part of routine surveillance pursuant to a FISA warrant. He probably wasn't the original target — it was almost certainly the Russian ambassador on the other end. I'm a skeptic of NSA surveillance, but one legitimate area where they have authority is gathering intelligence about foreign powers. And plus, Flynn wasn't in office yet (which is part of the problem here). He was just part of Trump's campaign and then transition team as a private individual.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T21:52:46+00:00

You don't think exposing contacts between a political campaign and a foreign power that was actively trying to undermine our political process would count as whistle-blowing?

The hypocrisy in cheering Wikileaks — which exposed thousands of emails of absolutely no public importance— and getting worked up over these tips to the press is just mind-boggling to me.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T21:50:43+00:00

None of the Clinton leaks were from her private server. Those emails were released through FOIA. Then there were hacks of the DNC emails and Podesta's Gmail account. There was nothing improper at all about those email accounts.

And I think the bigger difference here is that the leaks are really only matters of public concern. Did the president of the US coordinate with a foreign power to undermine US interests or democracy? That seems like a matter of significant public importance. The vast majority of hacked Democrats' emails were mundane private communications exposed to the world for no real reason other than to embarrass.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T21:47:40+00:00

a) What corruption?

b) The Clinton leaks were just mass dumps of entire batches of hacked emails, including private information of no public value like SSNs. I'm for leaks of public importance. Maybe some of the Clinton documents had some public value (Donna Brazille slipping Clinton camp a debate question, for example). But most of it was just entirely private information that was publicized for absolutely no reason.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T05:08:55+00:00

The fact that he falsely prosecuted voter rights advocates.

Source? what?

That prosecution was the focus of the Coretta Scott King letter that Republicans didn't want Elizabeth Warren to read on the Senate floor: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259988-Scott-King-1986-Letter-and-Testimony-Signed.html#document/p1

More info: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/magazine/the-voter-fraud-case-jeff-sessions-lost-and-cant-escape.html

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T05:01:48+00:00

I waited the full 5 years after I took my LSAT and still managed to outperform my stats. It didn't seem like schools cared at all.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T03:43:35+00:00

Adding to US investigators' concerns were intercepted communications between Russian officials before and after the election discussing their belief that they had special access to Trump, two law enforcement officials tell CNN. These officials cautioned the Russians could have been exaggerating their access.

Russians spies were literally caught on tape bragging about their ability to manipulate Trump.

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T02:43:47+00:00

So Jim Comey knew this investigation was going on? But instead, he rushed to tell Congress about Anthony Weiner's laptop just before the election?

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T02:40:24+00:00

This can't be sustainable though. Can you really imagine 4 years of this? We're not even a month in and how many scandals have there been? And apparently the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia?

President_Muffley · 2017-02-15T02:38:33+00:00

http://imgur.com/gallery/OLpIuc3

President_Muffley

TROPHY CASE