Phil1111

And who do you think would fill the void? I recall when most of City Hall in Camden got sent up the river, their replacements started stealing as much as they could the moment they took office. The message they seemed to take from their predecessors was not so much that stealing was a bad thing as it was that their opportunity to do so was time-limited, so they had best get to it forthwith. It's like shooing flies away from a pile of shit. What do you expect to replace them, butterflies? There are 535 members in the house and senate. "New research on the growth in the scope and scale of felony convictions finds that, as of 2010, 3 percent of the total US population and 15 percent of the African-American male population have served time in prison. People with felony convictions more broadly account for 8 percent of the overall population and 33 percent of the African-American male population." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170928121641.htm Which suggest that representatives are several magnitudes more law abiding than the general population. Generalizing combined with the tribalization of political views. Leads to the thinking that "they are all corrupt". Which certainly can be true on some specific political issues. Core to party beliefs.

I know very little about this man or this case. But from what I've heard I have to completely agree with you. We elect people and they act like people. I agree with you but the picture was an admitted selfie. It was taken when he was 66 years old. While there is nothing illegal or immoral about this. It show as absolute lack of judgement. Lapses of judgement are human. IMO his LONG history can be properly judged by his constituents best. As they can compare that lapse against his long history of other decision making and representation. Nude selfies given the leaky nature of the internet should be properly attributed to the decision making skills of teenagers. There are the allegations of "revenge-porn" but that is all part and parcel of the poor judgement of Mr. Barton, in this instance. Further reason why this is a teen type decision making lapse of judgement.

"“To the extent the House determines to look further at these issues, I will fully cooperate with an investigation,” Conyers said in a statement. BuzzFeed News reported that the former staffer was paid more than $27,000 in the settlement in exchange for a confidentiality agreement. Settlements handled through the process run by the Office of Compliance, which handles harassment and discrimination complaints from Capitol Hill staff, are typically paid out from a special fund operated by the Treasury. But the settlement payments, in this case, were instead paid out from Conyers’s office over the course of three months. His office would “rehire” the former staffer as a “temporary employee,” even though she did not do any actual work, in order to make the payments." http://thehill.com/homenews/house/361460-democrats-stop-short-of-demanding-conyers-step-down-from-powerful-committee Seems like fraud to me. Conyers used false representations to steal funds from the state to conceal and cover up a civil wrongdoing pending action.

And education too. Remember who loves the "poorly educated". And safety in the workplace. And unadulterated food. And clean air and water. Damned progressives! I believe the liberal Democrats love the poorly educated. They are easily manipulated to buy votes. His own words. I'll call a grand slam with that one.

House overwhelmingly passes Russia sanctions bill , Tue July 25, 2017 "The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill giving Congress the power to block any effort by the White House to weaken sanctions on Russia, offering a direct challenge to President Donald Trump's authority. The vote was 419-3. The legislation moves to the Senate, but it's unclear when the Senate will vote on the measure, which includes new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker indicated Monday he may want to make some tweaks to the bill, which was negotiated between the House and Senate after the initial version he drafted sailed through on a 98-2 vote." http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/iran-sanctions-bill/index.html See the first paragraph of the post right before yours. "Lawmakers Call Out Trump Administration for Russia Sanctions Delay" It appears as if the entire senate has got the message about Russia election meddling except for three. IMO there is so much going on with budget battles and trump distractions. That not much else is going to happen this year. trump, well he has enough time to talk to President Putin for a hour and a half, the other day. But not enough yet to sign the bill. But don't forget that trump doesn't want the tapes released of his hotel room trists. In Russian hotel rooms with hookers and Russian FSB female agents.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5102349/Roy-Halladay-flying-75-feet-homes-fatal-crash.html Preliminary NTSB has been released

This is a headline from The Hill: Fox News host rips Trump: You're the president, why don't you act like it? http://thehill.com/homenews/news/361308-fox-news-host-rips-trump-youre-the-president-why-dont-you-act-like-it Its newsworthy because its the third time in about a week where the fact that a Fox News story has attacked its star champion, trump. Is the story! Newsweek has run a feature story on this juxtaposition for Fox news, is it news or a pulpit for old christian white men: Can Fox News Survive the Trump Presidency? Embattled Network Faces Lawsuits, Aging Viewership, New Competitors The feature story is too long to summarize in a few quotes but this paragraph seems to summarize Fox. More than any other major media organization in modern American history, Fox News has found a way to appeal to those “passions of the populace.” The network represents a strain of populism that political scientist Richard Hofstadter described in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, his classic 1963 study of demagoguery. Hofstadter wrote that modern American anti-intellectualism had its birth in the erosion of the agrarian society de Tocqueville had observed a little more than a century before. “As a consequence, the heartland of America, filled with people who are often fundamentalist in religion, nativist in prejudice, isolationist in foreign policy, and conservative in economics, has constantly rumbled with an underground revolt against all these tormenting manifestations of our modern predicament.” http://www.newsweek.com/2017/11/24/fox-news-survive-trump-presidency-lawsuits-aging-viewership-competition-712543.html

Lawmakers Call Out Trump Administration for Russia Sanctions Delay Two top lawmakers remain frustrated over the Trump administration’s failure to start implementing a set of congressionally mandated Russia sanctions on time, and are considering other avenues to pressure officials to act. http://www.weeklystandard.com/lawmakers-call-out-trump-administration-for-russia-sanctions-delay/article/2010193 Well congress has provided a partial response and a end run around trump in a measure to respond to Russia, Putin. Senate sends budget-busting defense bill to Trump The Senate gave final approval to the $700 billion compromise defense policy bill Thursday that would advocate a major military buildup called for by congressional defense hawks, but would bust through strict caps on defense spending to do it.... The measure would authorize just under $700 billion in national defense spending for this 2018 fiscal year.... The bill’s topline comes in well above the Trump administration's $603 billion defense budget request. Lawmakers, however, authorized billions of dollars more to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps, build more ships and boost research and development and the procurement of missile defense technology.... While the legislation would authorize more military spending that would exceed even the hawkish Trump administration’s plans, the bill would smash through spending caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act. That law, enacted in an effort to reduce the deficit, limits defense spending to $549 billion during this fiscal year... The final compromise bill includes billions of dollars more for helicopters, fighters, ships and personnel that weren’t requested by the Pentagon in its annual budget. It would boost Navy shipbuilding by authorizing 13 new ships, five more than requested, including an extra Littoral Combat Ship, destroyer and amphibious ship. And it would authorize 24 Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, 10 more than requested, as well as 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, 20 above the budget request. Under the bill, the Army would grow by 7,500 active-duty troops over last year, and the Marine Corps by 1,000 active-duty personnel. The Air Force would increase by 4,100 active-duty personnel, and the Navy by 4,000 active-duty personnel." https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/16/senate-defense-spending-budget-trump-165974 So the response to Russia and Putin is a bill that has an increase in spending that amounts to more than 144% of the entire Russian annual defense spending budget. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

This article discusses SAD and the overall interactions of exercise and drugs re depression: https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression

So what of the future of trump and his clan of misfits. Everyday there are new exposures of additional lying and as such violations of the ninth commandment of God. That seemed to make no difference in the run-up to the election. The decadence of trump lying about donations to charity that were never fulfilled. The decadence of private jet travel, by his appointees, when the poor go hungry. The decadence of mortgaging the future of America for another $1.5 trillion. Only to lay that debt upon American children. The decadence of $1-1.5 trillion annual deficits by 2021. "In White House budget for FY 2018 released this spring, President Trump proposed ambitious initiatives in the discretionary realm, including $484 billion increase in defense spending, as well as an extra $200 billion for rebuilding America’s crumbing infrastructure. It’s far more realistic to forecast that discretionary outlays will wax with GDP. So if that happens, the CBO’s projected deficit of $879 billion in 2021, already 50% above 2016 levels, will be a lot higher. Adjusting discretionary spending upwards, and counting interest on the extra debt, will add approximately $150 billion to the shortfall in 2021, pushing the total figure well over $1 trillion. “That scenario is not only plausible, but probable,” says Riedl. It gets a lot worse. In our revised projections, the deficit would reach $1.7 trillion by 2027, 16% above the CBO’s already-alarming estimate, and America’s debt would stand at $2.9 trillion, 104% of GDP, putting the nation in the area that Medieval cartographers labeled, “Here be dragons.” http://fortune.com/2017/09/22/united-states-budget-deficit/

While I agree with the substance of your post. IMO the tribalism of political ideology lives in a big teepee. The democrats that now see Bill Clinton in a different light. The democrats that defended the Hollywood culture of the "casting couch". Is the full equal of the Christian right. As far a sexual hypocrisy: is concerned. The publicity since the Harvey Weinstein affair has brought out a needed self examination for the better. Something that Bill Cosby's accusers couldn't. Hopefully when this catharsis is complete. Those with a more flexible and less ideological political identity. Can develop a more open mindset. The Christian right in the US SE and Alabama specifically. Certainly don't seem to have learnt anything in the last year with the ethics of trump as their flag bearer. As far as lying, pecuniary self interest and a tight circle of wagons. Defending the trust accounts of the wealthiest from the betterment of all Americans and the national interest.

Fixed it for you. Making fun of men, those "practical jokes" that hurt -- that's also not cool. It's about abuse of power; those who have it just don't understand the dynamic of not having it. While they fight to keep that power. Wendy P. I agree with the principal of the concept that you are making. White men who are a little alpha on the spectrum, for which skydiving has many. Need to have an intrinsic sense of fairness for all around them. Be it for gays or straight, religious or non-religious and advantaged or non advantaged. Whey you surround yourself with similar thinking people the aspects of equal and fair treatment can go by the wayside.

This is what makes America great and other western countries with a free press. Without a free press none of this would be coming out. Since this is all being tried in the court of public opinion. Some might think and argue that its a distraction. Its not. Its the sound of rubber meeting the road of the conscious. Its not the: "Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that the House has paid out $15 million in harassment settlements over more than a decade, though a spokesperson later clarified that figure does not only account for sexual harassment claims." http://thehill.com/homenews/house/360398-jackie-speier-the-house-has-paid-out-15-million-on-behalf-of-sexual-harassers Its part of cleaning up the political, the workplace and the reeducation of men. To learn a new paradigm of respect for women.

In France its almost a given that powerful men have a mistress. I exaggerate, but such conduct is between two consenting adults. Is accepted. I personally have no issue with what consenting adults do, sexually. Monica Lewinsky was a 22 year old WH intern. The issue with Bill was started by Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill. It ended as far as the law is concerned: "While Clinton can no longer practice law in front of the highest court, it’s not accurate to say that he was disbarred from either the Supreme Court or from practicing law in Arkansas. Clinton’s license was suspended in Arkansas, but he was not disbarred, and while Clinton did face the possibility of being barred from arguing in front the U.S. Supreme Court, he resigned before the ruling was handed down. On his last day in office in 2001, Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license in order to head off any criminal charges for lying under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. Clinton has been eligible to seek reinstatement of his license since 2006, but as of 2013 he had not applied to do so. Shortly after Clinton’s license was suspended in Arkansas, the U.S. Supreme Court suspended Clinton from presenting cases in front of the highest court (which he had never done) and gave him 40 days to contest his disbarment (which Clinton did not do). Instead, he resigned from the Supreme Court bar: Former President Clinton, facing the possibility of being barred from practicing law before the U.S. Supreme Court because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, has resigned instead, his lawyer said. “Former President Clinton hereby respectfully requests to resign from the bar of this court,” his lawyer, David Kendall, said in a two-page letter to the high court’s clerk. Kendall did not elaborate on why Clinton decided to resign. Clinton’s resignation from the Supreme Court bar will have little practical impact. Clinton has not practiced before the Supreme Court and was not expected to argue any cases in the future. He also paid a $25,000 fine over the Lewinsky incident. In addition to agreeing to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license, Clinton accepted a $25,000 fine: Clinton was fined $90,000 for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones case. In April 1999, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright found Clinton in contempt of court for giving false testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment trial and fined him over $90,000: https://www.snopes.com/bill-clinton-fined-and-disbarred-over-the-monica-lewinsky-scandal/ The arguments of "what is,is" were never pursued. The fines and suspensions for perjury in the Jones case was accepted by Bill and paid. Defacto admittance of perjury by Bill, setting aside the Lewinsky perjury. The impeachment dismissal by congress set all of these facts aside for political reasons. Just more ammo for Fox, the Christian right and a skeptical American public.

Right on the money. Now the US is paying for this lying, acceptance of a moral swamp and license. That politicians have been given. I remember when Billy-a-bob-Clinton said "I did not have sexual relations with that woman". The start of a license.

And one more time: The average American voter is uninformed and prefers to stay that way. I have been saying that for more years than I can remember; and it is still true. Jerry Baumchen Because of the corruption of the process. American elections ranked worst among Western democracies. Here’s why. "As well as repeated procedural flaws, there has been speculation that public disgust with the role of money in politics, and the role of major donors in buying access to Congress, is one of the major factors driving the primary campaigns.,,, In the 2012 National Election Survey, for example, when the public was asked whether ‘Rich people buy elections’, two-thirds of Americans agreed with this statement.... Americans often express pride in their democracy, yet the results indicate that domestic and international experts rate the U.S. elections as the worst among all Western democracies. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are at the top of the ranking, all scoring over 80 on the 100 point PEI Index. Several democracies from diverse regions and cultures – for example, Israel and Canada – are ranked in the middle of the pack. But the U.S. scores 62, a full 24 points lower than Denmark and Finland. The UK also performs fairly poorly, along with Greece and Australia. One reason for this is that proportional electoral systems – which translate votes into seats on a proportional basis – usually tend to score higher as they provide more inclusive opportunities for smaller parties. All of the Nordic countries, for example, use a proportional system. ... The 2012 U.S. presidential election ranks 60th out of 180 elections worldwide, close to Bulgaria, Mexico and Argentina. .. This is no one-time shortcoming. The 2014 U.S. Congressional elections rank even worse, 65th out of 180 worldwide. .. The results show that the worst problem across most states involved gerrymandering of district boundaries to favor incumbents. The mean score for American states was just 42 on a 100-point scale. Other weaknesses concerned whether electoral laws were unfair to smaller parties like the Green Party, favored the governing party, or restricted voter’s rights. Campaign finance – for example, whether parties and candidates had equitable access to public subsidies and political donations – was also seen by experts as a problem. " http://theconversation.com/american-elections-ranked-worst-among-western-democracies-heres-why-56485

Its called investigative journalism. Thanks to the WP. The story was widely circulated in Ala-praise-the-lord-bama. But the local papers for sure knew they would ruin their subscriber base by covering such a story. Locals obviously knew about it because he was banned from the YMCA and the mall. Both for the same reasons. In the absence of the NYT and WP many of these stories would remain "covered up'. Its like the same stories regarding trump and Russia. In the absence of investigative journalism. Together with leaks from the FBI,CIA and NSA. trump and his tribe would still remain unexposed.

Good post. If Fox kept that up it might become a real news organization.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/14/canada-us-ice-hockey-rivalry-ends-as-former-captains-have-child-together Jeff Sessions Thinks It Should Be Legal to Fire You for Being LGBT https://www.aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/lgbt-nondiscrimination-protections/jeff-sessions-thinks-it-should-be-legal-fire-you

A more accurate headline would read: "More than 50 Alabama pastors sign a letter supporting someone credibly accused of sexual abuse and/or harassment of a minor, thus publicly sacrificing Christian morality on the altar of politics." Above from the first tweet in the story. Its a good summation of the hypocrisy of the Christian right. A GREAT example as to why so many walk away from the church. A outstanding reason why there needs to be a WALL between religion and the state.

Well given that Volvo is a Chinese company and trump has given the green light that China is now good. Good to take advantage of the US market. Good to manipulate its currency vr world currencies. I'd have expected more advertising on the whole Fox-Breitebart, group of companies.

Its the Christian right in Alabama. Why should anyone be surprised.

Warren Buffett and Larry Fink criticize Trump's tax plan "We have a lot of businesses... I don't think any of them are non-competitive in the world because of the corporate tax rate," Buffett, thechairmanand CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC. Fink said a corporate rate as high as 27 percent could satisfy U.S. businesses' need for tax relief, while avoiding an increase in the federal deficit. "What is being proposed is a pretty large expansion of our deficits," Fink told Bloomberg TV. Larry Fink with $5.7 trillion under management and Warren Buffet with $620 Billion. But what do they know?

The Lineman Got $63 an Hour. The Utility Was Billed $319 an Hour. SAN JUAN — The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s tattered power grid had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers. For their trouble, the six electrical workers from Kissimmee are earning $42 an hour, plus overtime. The senior power linemen from Lakeland are earning $63 an hour working in Puerto Rico, the Florida utility said. Their 40 co-workers from Jacksonville, also linemen, are making up to $100 earning double time, public records show... But the Montana company that hired the workers, Whitefish Energy Holdings, had a contract that allowed it to bill the Puerto Rican public power company, known as Prepa, $319 an hour for linemen, a rate that industry experts said was far above the norm even for emergency work — and almost 17 times the average salary of their counterparts in Puerto Rico... The Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing power restoration in Puerto Rico, did not hire Whitefish because its prices were more than double what the agency considered reasonable, according to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.... Prepa agreed to pay Whitefish three times the going rate for aviation fuel, and about double what a helicopter specially equipped for transmission line construction should cost, according to industry insiders and people with knowledge of the Whitefish contract. The company is also billing about $4,000 an hour to rent a helicopter; companies that specialize in transmission line construction said that price is more than double what they charge... Jacksonville Electric Authority said it had billed Whitefish for additional overhead to cover things like administrative costs and insurance, bringing the bill to about half what Whitefish was charging Prepa. A spokeswoman for Jacksonville Electric said she was not concerned about the markup because Whitefish was also handling food and lodging. (However, Whitefish is also charging Prepa another $412 a day per worker for food and lodging.).. In Puerto Rico, the reaction was more harsh and skeptical. Mr. Rodríguez, the former utility worker, says out loud what many critics say privately: that markups like those have been used in the past to pay kickbacks to corrupt officials... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/12/us/whitefish-energy-holdings-prepa-hurricane-recovery-corruption-hurricane-recovery-in-puerto-rico.html

Correct. trump wishes he could have a country where be could order LE to kill. Philippines' Duterte sings love song for Trump: 'You are the light' ...“Ladies and gentlemen, I sang uninvited, upon the orders of the commander-in-chief of the United States,” Duterte said later, according to the ABS-CBN news channel.... More than 3,900 Filipinos have been killed in a war on drugs that Duterte declared when he took office last year. His government says the police act in self-defence, but critics say executions are taking place with no accountability. Duterte said last week he would tell the US president to “lay off” if he raised the issue of human rights when they met.... Trump, who has been criticised at home for neglecting rights issues in dealings abroad, praised Duterte in May for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/13/you-are-the-light-philippines-duterte-sings-love-song-for-trump Duterte and Putin have both received regular praise from trump specifically for their leadership. Both have killed journalists and critics. "At a press conference in mid-February, Arturo Lascanas, a retired senior Davao police officer, detailed the existence of the “Davao Death Squad,” a vigilante group Duterte put together to get rid of political rivals and criminals, and admitted his own involvement as a ringleader. He said that Duterte personally paid him $20,000 for killing a broadcast journalist and commentator who openly criticized Duterte on his radio show. “Here ends my blind obedience and loyalty to one person, Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte who is now president of our country,” Lascanas said, at one point breaking down when he confessed that he had ordered the killing of his two own brothers, who were involved in the illegal drug trade. The report corroborated the earlier testimony of Edgar Matobato, a 57-year-old self-confessed triggerman, who told a Senate panel last September that he was a member of the Davao Death Squad. Several senators are now calling for a new probe based on Lascanas’s confession — a turnaround from his earlier testimony last October where he denied the existence of the gun-for-hire group and called it all “media hype.” https://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/28/14727614/rodrigo-duterte-philippines-drug-dealer-obama-trump-catholic-church