Current Affairs General US politics (ie, not POTUS related)

[Sassy Colombian]

Ffs, it sure is a horrible decision.

 

[Osamabindiesel]

Ffs, it sure is a horrible decision.

Why?!?! Was there a mistrial or something that they just randomly stumbled upon or did somebody pay the court off?!?! Bizarre

 

[tsubaki]

Rumsfeld is dead:

House votes to set up select committee into 6 January storming of Capitol – as it happened

Two Republicans – Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – join Democrats in voting for panel to investigate attack – follow live

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sassy Colombian]

Why?!?! Was there a mistrial or something that they just randomly stumbled upon or did somebody pay the court off?!?! Bizarre

The NY Times reported that “In their 79-page opinion, the judges wrote that a “non-prosecution agreement” that had been struck with a previous prosecutor meant that Mr. Cosby should not have been charged in the case, and that he should be discharged. They barred a retrial.

In 2005, Mr. Cosby was investigated in the case of Ms. Constand, and a former district attorney of Montgomery County had given Mr. Cosby his assurance that he would not be charged in the case. The former district attorney, Bruce Castor Jr., has testified that while there was insufficient evidence to bring a criminal prosecution, he had given Mr. Cosby the assurance to encourage him to testify in a subsequent civil case brought by Ms. Constand.

In that testimony, Mr. Cosby acknowledged giving quaaludes to women he was pursuing for sex — evidence that played a key part in his trial after Mr. Castor’s successors reopened the case and charged Mr. Cosby in December 2015. That was just days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired in the case, and it came amid a number of new accusations from women who bought similar accusations of drugging and sexual assault against Mr. Cosby.

“In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successor D. A.s to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby’s due process rights,” the appeals ruling said. “No other conclusion comports with the principles of due process and fundamental fairness to which all aspects of our criminal justice system must adhere.”

So it seems that even though the crime happened he was able to get the charges dropped because of a procedural issue. According to the Supreme Court ruling he had been denied a fair trial. I guess the SC justices didn’t care that with their ruling they were denying a fair outcome to all the women that he raped.

 

[TN Toffee]

So now we have a Tennessee billionaire sending money to South Dakota to rent troops from the state national guard for a supposed border "crisis" in Texas. Renting a total of 50 troops, mind you, at what cost no one knows and for how long they aren't willing to say to send to a border that is over 1,250 miles long.

This is crazy stupid on so many levels. Looking forward to the day we find out Ted Cruz employed an illegal immigrant to clean or paint his house or mow his lawn.

Texas governor: State, crowdsourcing will fund border wall

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that he will use $250 million in state money and crowdsourced financing to build more barriers along the U.S. border with Mexico, part of an emerging proposal that also extends his political fight over immigration with the Democratic Biden a

apnews.com

Given the ongoing electricity crisis, how can the Texas government honestly feel like it has a quarter billion dollars going spare right now?

Also, lol lol at crowdsourcing funding. Imagine feeling the urge to donate some of your hard earned dollars to someone, yet instead of choosing one of the THOUSANDS of Kickstarter/GoFundMe’s for people being bankrupted by medical bills, you choose to let the Texas government have it for a racist wall.

 

[carolinablue232]

So now we have a Tennessee billionaire sending money to South Dakota to rent troops from the state national guard for a supposed border "crisis" in Texas. Renting a total of 50 troops, mind you, at what cost no one knows and for how long they aren't willing to say to send to a border that is over 1,250 miles long.

This is crazy stupid on so many levels. Looking forward to the day we find out Ted Cruz employed an illegal immigrant to clean or paint his house or mow his lawn.

Do you not think there’s a problem at the border? Beyond the more than double of illegal crossings/apprehensions, there has been a significant increase in narcotics coming in as well.

Yes, this seems a waste of money, but it also feels your making light of a very real problem that needs very real solutions.

 

[BlueTX]

Texas governor: State, crowdsourcing will fund border wall

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that he will use $250 million in state money and crowdsourced financing to build more barriers along the U.S. border with Mexico, part of an emerging proposal that also extends his political fight over immigration with the Democratic Biden a

apnews.com

Given the ongoing electricity crisis, how can the Texas government honestly feel like it has a quarter billion dollars going spare right now?

Also, lol lol at crowdsourcing funding. Imagine feeling the urge to donate some of your hard earned dollars to someone, yet instead of choosing one of the THOUSANDS of Kickstarter/GoFundMe’s for people being bankrupted by medical bills, you choose to let the Texas government have it for a racist wall.

Honestly feel? The GOP-led government in Texas hasn't been honest about much of anything for decades.

Can you imagine the backlash if an African-American billionaire funded National Guard troops from Connecticut to guard BLM headquarters in Houston?

 

[BlueTX]

Do you not think there’s a problem at the border? Beyond the more than double of illegal crossings/apprehensions, there has been a significant increase in narcotics coming in as well.

Yes, this seems a waste of money, but it also feels your making light of a very real problem that needs very real solutions.

There's no new issue at the border. None.

The GOP in this state and nationally have avoided attempts at sane immigration policy for decades as well as avoided any attempts at ending the insane war on drugs. It's the GOP that has privatized jails and guaranteed minimum levels of occupancy which are largely filled by sentences for minor drug offenses.

There's no minimization on my part of these realities. The GOP isn't interested in solving immigration any more than they are interested in addressing the root causes of situations that lead to abortion. I've heard it time and time again from GOP operatives who get honest at the bars. George W. Bush wanted sane immigration reform. His own party in the House thwarted these efforts and not for any reason other than immigrant-bashing rakes in huge money for campaigns and stokes fear which drives turnout.

Now we have private sources funding the arms of government for specific political purposes. This is fundamentally dangerous for democracy.

 

[TN Toffee]

Honestly feel? The GOP-led government in Texas hasn't been honest about much of anything for decades.

Can you imagine the backlash if an African-American billionaire funded National Guard troops from Connecticut to guard BLM headquarters in Houston?

Fair enough. I just can’t even fathom Republican voters in the state putting a border wall at the head of the financial queue. Obvious exception of Ted Cruz aside, they were freezing over the winter just like everyone else, and suffocating in the summer heat now. But maybe that’s a small price to pay for some people if that means somewhere at the border, a migrant they will never meet is denied asylum and possibly sent back home to die.

You’re spot on about if the races were reversed in the NG situation. The outcry would never end.

 

[Sassy Colombian]

It must be nice to be a large business in America.

This Company Got a $10 Million PPP Loan, Then Closed Its Plant and Moved Manufacturing Jobs to Mexico

Many American businesses received millions in federal pandemic aid intended to protect workers, but exploited loopholes and rule changes to lay off those employees anyway.

www.propublica.org

 

[carolinablue232]

There's no new issue at the border. None.

The GOP in this state and nationally have avoided attempts at sane immigration policy for decades as well as avoided any attempts at ending the insane war on drugs. It's the GOP that has privatized jails and guaranteed minimum levels of occupancy which are largely filled by sentences for minor drug offenses.

There's no minimization on my part of these realities. The GOP isn't interested in solving immigration any more than they are interested in addressing the root causes of situations that lead to abortion. I've heard it time and time again from GOP operatives who get honest at the bars. George W. Bush wanted sane immigration reform. His own party in the House thwarted these efforts and not for any reason other than immigrant-bashing rakes in huge money for campaigns and stokes fear which drives turnout.

Now we have private sources funding the arms of government for specific political purposes. This is fundamentally dangerous for democracy.

I don’t care if you call them old issues or new issues. The point is crossings have more than doubled this year and the amount of hard narcotics crossing have also already surpassed the entirety of last year. You don’t think that’s an issue that deserves attention? Old or new, it’s a problem and I’m not hearing anyone taking about real solutions to any of it regardless of political affiliation.

 

[BlueTX]

I don’t care if you call them old issues or new issues. The point is crossings have more than doubled this year and the amount of hard narcotics crossing have also already surpassed the entirety of last year. You don’t think that’s an issue that deserves attention? Old or new, it’s a problem and I’m not hearing anyone taking about real solutions to any of it regardless of political affiliation.

"Doesn't deserve attention" are words you put in my mouth.

Immigration reform
War on drugs

All matters I brought up. All matters routinely shot down by the GOP at the state and federal level. All matters directly affecting the border.

 

[carolinablue232]

"Doesn't deserve attention" are words you put in my mouth.

Immigration reform
War on drugs

All matters I brought up. All matters routinely shot down by the GOP at the state and federal level. All matters directly affecting the border.

May have misinterpreted your prior messaging and if so apologies. My point is just this. If we look at the issue of drugs crossing the southern border and acknowledge they have already surpassed last years total (yahoo news reported), something isn’t working. At what point does the word crisis apply, and what should we be doing about it? Finger pointing is not going to help. For me saying there is no crisis or saying it’s the GOPs fault is sort of deflecting. What’s going on now is a problem, and we need a solution. I’ve not heard anyone actually have one.

 

[BlueTX]

May have misinterpreted your prior messaging and if so apologies. My point is just this. If we look at the issue of drugs crossing the southern border and acknowledge they have already surpassed last years total (yahoo news reported), something isn’t working. At what point does the word crisis apply, and what should we be doing about it? Finger pointing is not going to help. For me saying there is no crisis or saying it’s the GOPs fault is sort of deflecting. What’s going on now is a problem, and we need a solution. I’ve not heard anyone actually have one.

No worries.

The reason drugs (and humans) crossing the border this year is larger by any eventual measure is fairly straightforward - COVID and last year's worldwide shutdown.

The solution to a great measure of the border "crisis" has been staring us in the face for decades. End the utterly destructive and asinine War on Drugs and have immigration policies that function well for employers and immigrants. The building/construction, restaurant/hospitality, agriculture and other industries are in favor of such policies. It's not a shifting of blame or deflection to point out who is standing in the way of common sense measures.

Instead, we get talk of walls and Governors hoping to run for POTUS sending state National Guard troops to Texas for photo ops.

 

[carolinablue232]

No worries.

The reason drugs (and humans) crossing the border this year is larger by any eventual measure is fairly straightforward - COVID and last year's worldwide shutdown.

The solution to a great measure of the border "crisis" has been staring us in the face for decades. End the utterly destructive and asinine War on Drugs and have immigration policies that function well for employers and immigrants. The building/construction, restaurant/hospitality, agriculture and other industries are in favor of such policies. It's not a shifting of blame or deflection to point out who is standing in the way of common sense measures.

Instead, we get talk of walls and Governors hoping to run for POTUS sending state National Guard troops to Texas for photo ops.

Is it though? We’ve surpassed the number of seizures and encounters in 17, 18, and 19 as well during non covid times. Year is only half done.