2015 American Politics Thread: The 114th Congress Is in the House!

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/simpsons-mr-burns-blocks-out-the-sun1-640x353.jpg

congress is being sworn in and everybody is kissing everybody in there

sounds gay

if you'll forgive a free beacon tweet

https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/552553710828933121

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6sXZwTCMAAqM0M.jpg

oh man, glance at that and it looks like they're waking up together on an american flag bed

lol

only thing missing is a couple of half-full glasses of whiskey on the bedstand and "you went to a concert" stamps on the back of their hands

oh...it's you...Nina? Nancy? Nadia? One of those...uuuuuugh my head

After he won, Boehner entered to a standing ovation and gave a speech calling this Congress to work together and end its gridlock. He finished with a stirring, though epically mixed, metaphor.

“So let’s stand tall and prove the skeptics wrong,” Boehner said. “May the fruits of our labors be ladders our children can use to climb to the stars.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M4ySFV-R4E

Quite a first week (so far!) for the DO SOMETHING Congress! They've relaunched the Benghazi probe (now with unlimited funding and open ended time frame!), replaced "math" at the CBO with "dynamic scoring", moved toward a vote on a dead-end bill for an oil pipeline, promised to repeal Obamacare, targeted Social Security for "reform", and now Mr. McConnell claims responsibility for the recovering economy. It's morning again in America!

ugh, wish Feinstein would retire first tbh. I hope Harris takes the seat, Newsom is a loathsome toad.

Harris might want to be governor first. If villaraigosa runs I will gladly vote against him if there is a semi viable alternative.

I more or less want Newsom to be prevented from occupying any office higher than the one he currently does, fuck that guy forever. Thankfully I think his appeal is limited... Harris is great otoh, I would totally vote for her. Everyone I know in LA seems to hate Villaraigosa.

uuuuuuugh, the dynamic scoring thing drives me nuts.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/paul-ryan-dynamic-scoring-tax

yeah this is the most outrageous thing they're going to be able to do imo

i don't know, the manufactured social security crisis is an up and coming outrageous thing that they might be able to do as well

We are bound to see many disgusting, dismaying, disingenuous, disastrous and downright diseased things coming out of Congress between now and January 2017. How could it be otherwise?

w/ Dem cooperation xp

imo Dem cooperation will probably be rare, but this lack of cooperation will be based entirely on tactical maneuvering ahead of the 2016 election. If the Dems were to win back control of the Congress in 2016 they still wouldn't improve anything beyond the margin.

Making progress via congressional action is like those childproof caps, where you have to apply a lot of pressure or else the cap just spins around, nothing underneath it budges, and you still can't get at what you want.

doesn't sound like the Dems are gonna cooperate much, and why should they, as Aimless points out it wouldn't be to their benefit in the 2016 elections

they can not cooperate and let their lame duck prez take the heat

Record-setting bridge-burning obstruction won the GOP the Senate though. I want to see Harry Reid break McConnell's filibuster record, if just for shits and giggles.

Come on, we're talking Dems, who lack that Republican killer instinct.

When Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) took to his chamber's floor on Wednesday he warned that the now minority Senate Democrats "had no intention of just rolling over" but added that the "gratuitous obstruction and wanton filibustering" of Republicans in the last Congress wouldn't be something Democrats would mimic now, pointing toward a big question about the 114th Congress.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/senate-democrats-using-filibuster-114th-congress

I assume all the Dems do in the next year or so is make dumb amendments to any legislation to use as dumb advertising fodder against a presumptive GOP nominee from the senate.

Dems will be split re voting for Obama's Pacific corporate trade bill though.

is Congress still real

Hopefully JEB Augustus abolishes the archaic institution.

Hopefully Repubs will fall short of winning over Dems to get 67 votes, but see below

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-small-band-of-moderate-democrats-could-be-key-to-the-gop-senates-success/2015/01/11/5172dfdc-9748-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html?hpid=z6

“There will be a group of about 15 Democrats who are willing to work with [Republicans] on any given issue,” Kaine predicted in an interview. He is eager to work with the GOP on authorizing military action against the Islamic State and to revamp presidential war powers.

Fifteen is an encouraging number to Republicans, who now have 54 seats. If every Republican agrees on a piece of legislation, they will need to find at least six Democrats to help a bill clear the chamber’s arcane procedural hurdles and pass. If a few Republicans peel away — which is likely given the inflexibly conservative views of some GOP senators — McConnell might need to rely on even more Democrats. Sixty-seven senators will be needed if Republicans want to override an Obama veto.

Keystone will be the first test

srsly have you ppl been watching them the last 23 years

Republican Sam Brownback (R-Kansassippi) is raising taxes on the middle class and the poor, to pay for his tax cuts to the rich.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/brownback-tax-revenue-increase-budget

Shocking.

it's ok though, because the tax cuts for the rich boosted the Kansas economy so much that now everyone has a lot more money.

House Dem proposal to set the ground for a 2016 campaign argument. Democrat in the House proposing now, what they and the White House should have put forward several years ago (although White House has also been squeamish about such ideas):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/democrats-in-a-stark-shift-in-messaging-to-make-big-tax-break-pitch-for-middle-class/2015/01/11/d4438468-9999-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html?hpid=z5

The centerpiece of the proposal, set to be unveiled Monday by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), is a “paycheck bonus credit” that would shave $2,000 a year off the tax bills of couples earning less than $200,000. Other provisions would nearly triple the tax credit for child care and reward people who save at least $500 a year.

The windfall — about $1.2 trillion over a decade — would come directly from the pockets of Wall Street “high rollers” through a new fee on financial transactions, and from the top 1 percent of earners, who would lose billions of dollars in lucrative tax breaks.

...Brendan buck, a spokesman for House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) dismissed the proposal.

“Just as the sun rises in the east, Washington Democrats propose another massive tax increase,” Buck said. “Here in the House our focus is going to be on cleaning up the tax code so that we can lower rates for all taxpayers and help create good-paying jobs, not scaring them off with punitive tax hikes.”

what they and the White House should have put forward several years ago

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it has been put forward now only because there is not a snowball's chance of it passing and no chance of their being blamed for its failure.

yep

lol? http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/11/7528337/senator-ted-cruz-nasa-subcommittee

boldly fighting to reduce spending in his home state, what a guy

Cruz serves a constituency in Texas, home of many NASA employees

Houston, we have a problem

LBJ fought hard to put those jobs in Texas, fool.

rick perry's legacy will make sure those high paying white collar jobs are replaced with fast food employees asap

Woo hoo, Romney may run again for prez

The Morning Squint this morning praising him for "being right" about Russia and terror.

Wait, I thought Congress broke up?

Not quite sure why HRC's last run is considered less embarrassing than Mittens', but I just wasn't made for these times I guess.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_01/warren_wins_on_weiss053697.php

Obama's wall street banker pick for a top position at Treasury , asked that his name not be re-sent to Congress for a vote. Warren and others opposed him. However, Obama's gonna put him at Treasury anyway as a "counselor", a position that doesn''t require Congressional approval.

I look forward to voting for her again

guys President Ted Cruz is gonna abolish the IRS! this is going to be so awesome

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-kerry-james-taylor-france

Now the French will love us, and terrorists and potential terrorists will repent. John Kerry brought James Taylor with him to Paris to sing "you've Got a Friend." OK, maybe it was touching

the presidential huoynhms instantly converted it to "they were announcing jihad on Facebook"

(or however Swift spelled it)

xpost
but the criticism is that they didn't catch her private messages sent BEFORE they granted the visa, right? so the thought process would have to be "OK, we have a visa application...let me go ahead and read her private messages to check for terrorism" unless they had another reason to believe that she could be involved in terrorism.

Why didn't they read Malik's diary entry from 2007 before giving her a Visa? She laid out her evil intentions in there, as well as which boys are supercute

do they still ask "are u gonna do a terrorism?" on the visa form? we should double check

do you swear you're not a terrorist?
do you swear that you're not crossing your fingers behind your back as you complete this form?
AND YOUR TOES!?!??!

yeah it wasn't social media it was just private messaging (why does anyone think this matters)

― Οὖτις, Thursday, December 17, 2015 12:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is going to be used as an argument for government access to encrypted communication

http://i.imgur.com/03P6ZV5.jpg

i answered all their riddles

and ironically i posted a screenshot of my answers on facebook

this is going to be used as an argument for government access to encrypted communication

Obama and Clinton leading the pack

looking forward to the gov't demanding access to plans scribbled on cocktail napkins

But what about the things that people just think about scribbling on cocktail napkins? There has to be a way for them to tap into those thoughts, as well, or we'll never be safe.

do they still ask "are u gonna do a terrorism?" on the visa form? we should double check

you joke but El-Al asks questions like that all the time

that screenshot i posted is from USCIS form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker

doesnt el al interrogate the shit out of you at customs?

I mean not me bc my name is Mordechai and I wear a yarmulke but yes

A Brooklyn couple discussed their El Al interrogation at a Hanukkah party I went to last weekend. "Do you go to temple? Why not?" He's a secular Jew, she's Gentile; she advised him to play it cool, she wound up losing her temper at them.

an argument for government access to encrypted communication

lol like they don't already have this

oh yeah, I think even the US re-entry form has something akin to "did you talk to some terrorists?"

they don't have a "back door," is their story? xp

take it to the gay thread, champ

there aren't any backdoors to major encryption software, the main "side door" to a lot of corporate authentication tokens was discovered (the encryption was good but the key generation was bad) and no one uses RSA tokens anymore

the majority of things people think are "encrypted" really aren't, though, or you can be legally compelled to provide access. so no, the government likely has no real way to break good encryption now, but nobody who has been a threat has actually used any encryption worth mentioning

mh u are my hero

if The Fort and The Feebs had reliable ways of cracking encryption their bosses probably wouldn't spend quite so much time bitching and whining about it in public

Tomboto u are also my hero

they're gonna have to waterboard me to find out "w33ab00bs" is my password

our government probably already has a back window they can secretly crawl though. they just want to use a door because they're getting fat

Discussion re Paris terrorists and encrypted messages

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/paris-terrorists-used-whatsapp-telegram-plot-attacks-according-investigators-1533880

Officials involved in the investigation of the Paris terror attacks have revealed they believe some of the terrorists used encrypted apps WhatsApp and Telegram to plot and communicate.

.....Those close to the investigation state "the apps were used in communication among the terrorists" – however exactly what was said may never be known as the encryption is impossible to crack. The terrorists also frequently swapped out sim cards in their mobile phones to avoid surveillance.

However some unencrypted data was recovered from at least one mobile phone, where the user may have slipped up and used a different form of communication. The investigation continues as officials attempt to string together further clues.

The news the terrorists used encrypted messaging apps to operate will strengthen the case for governments who are currently fighting tech companies with court orders to allow them access to data. Apple's iMessage and WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) are just two platforms that offer encryption even they cannot decipher.

the presidential huoynhms

footnote: the huoyhnhnms were the noble ones; the yahoos were the filthy, smelly, disgusting creatures.

you know i realized my mistake about an hour later and forgot to change it; thx

the NYT added an editor's note to their original story on Malik's use of "social media":

Editors’ Note: December 18, 2015
The original version of this article, based on accounts from law enforcement officials, reported that Tashfeen Malik had “talked openly on social media” about her support for violent jihad.

On Wednesday, however, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said that online communications about jihad by Ms. Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, involved “direct, private messages.” His remarks indicated that the comments about jihad were not made in widely accessible social media posts.

Law enforcement officials subsequently told The Times that Ms. Malik communicated with her husband in emails and private messages, and on a dating site. Ms. Malik’s comments to Mr. Farook about violent jihad were made on a messaging platform, officials said. Neither Mr. Comey nor other officials identified the specific platforms that were used. (This article and headline have been revised to reflect the new information.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/us/san-bernardino-attacks-us-visa-process-tashfeen-maliks-remarks-on-social-media-about-jihad-were-missed.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2015/12/28/deep-south-4/

Other factors add to the difficulty of the poor finding work. Those who can’t afford to live in city centers often must depend on walking, hitching rides or laborious public transportation commutes. A 2011 Brookings Institution report ranking public transit in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas found that 15 of the weakest 20 systems — judged by coverage and job access — were in the South. They included systems in Birmingham, Ala.; Greenville, S.C.; Baton Rouge; and Atlanta — where, in earlier decades, majority-white suburbs voted against the expansion of a transit system they viewed as being primarily for black residents.

The lack of physical mobility feeds into the deeper but related problem of economic immobility: Areas throughout the South — and Atlanta in particular — provide among the lowest chances that someone born into poverty will move up the income ladder.

Over the past 20 years, Atlanta’s wealthiest areas, spread along the north of the city, have changed little. But formerly middle-class suburbs to the south — areas of modest single-family homes — have been deluged by newcomers who lost homes as city officials dismantled dozens of housing projects in the hopes of reducing concentrated poverty. Experts who have studied Atlanta’s economic geography say the change has been partly successful; class no longer changes so clearly between neighborhoods, but meanwhile, the poor — given modest vouchers to help subsidize their housing costs — must head far from the city to find places they can afford.

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/president-barack-obama-just-tell-him-you-re-the-president

"centrist" POS Steve Israel, D-NY, not running for House reelection

but don't fuss, Debbie endures

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41011/debbie-wasserman-schultz-abortion/

I gotta say, Obama was at his best in yesterday's town hall:

"I'm sorry, Cooper, yes," the President laughed. "It is fair to call it a conspiracy. Are you suggesting the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so we can impose martial law is not a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. I would hope that you would agree with that." President Obama then turned the question back on Cooper, asking, "Is that controversial?" "There are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to go further and further and further," Cooper countered. Incredulous, Obama reminded everyone that he's only going to be in office another year. "When would I have started on this enterprise?" he asked.

lol yes

nu thread for a nu year of the s.o.s.

"Debbie endures"? Say rather, The Deb Abides.

paul lepage, everyone. wtf.

what a great wiki

4 Governor of Maine
4.1 2010 election
4.2 2014 election
4.3 Tenure
4.3.1 Overview
4.3.2 Hiring of family members
4.3.3 2011 MLK Day activities
4.3.4 "Little Beards"
4.3.5 Renaming conference rooms and removing murals
4.3.6 Criticism of state employees
4.3.7 Education reform efforts
4.3.8 "The new Gestapo" remark
4.3.9 Jobless benefits work
4.3.10 Alleged censorship and office move
4.3.11 Vaseline comment
4.3.12 Views on newspapers
4.3.13 President Obama
4.3.14 Federal government shutdown response
4.3.15 Meetings with a group alleged to be connected with the "Sovereign Citizen movement"
4.3.16 Good Will-Hinckley funding threat

can we poll those

4.3.11 Vaseline comment

Little Beards are the hot new band out of DC

on calling the IRS the 'New Gestapo':

"On July 12, while at a fundraiser for Vermont gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock, LePage was questioned about his comment. When asked by a reporter if he knew what the Gestapo did, LePage said that he knew they "killed a lot of people" and that he thought the IRS, while not there yet, was headed towards killing many people as well. LePage clarified that he did not think the IRS would intentionally kill anyone, but that he meant the IRS would eventually ration the medical care of Americans, which would result in deaths."

so it would act like republicans?

American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money