Political Randomness

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:04 pm

I got seriously into Twitter and started following Eichenwald just a little while before that assault occurred. I'm very glad he'll be able to see justice done.

His most disturbing update today demands pause:

More than 40. WTF?

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Mar 17, 2017 8:40 pm

I'm a little surprised the number is that low, tbh.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:41 pm

Kellyanne is not entirely crazy.

Ah, how I pine for the innocent days of yesteryear, when an appliance with sensors for audio and optical input and plumbed to the intertubes seemed like a good idea.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:21 am

I really think Trump is totally baffled why people don't believe and like everything he says and does.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:32 am

African business summit in US 'has no African delegates after they are all denied visas'

There were reportedly no African delegates at a summit about sustainable development in Africa after they were all denied visas to enter the US.

The African global economic and development summit, which takes place every year at the University of Southern California was particularly quiet this year after about 100 attendees were barred from entering the country to participate in the event.

The summit aims to encourage businesses to invest in Africa and particularly to support initiative to provide clean energy, tackle the impacts of climate change and reduce poverty.

The event is opened to entrepreneurs, corporations and political and civic leader in the US and delegations from all over Africa come to showcase projects in need of technical help or investment.

Speaking to Voice of America, Mary Flowers, who chairs the summit said: “Usually we get 40 per cent that get rejected but the others come. This year it was 100 per cent. Every delegation. And it was sad to see, because these people were so disheartened.

Hrm, I wonder what would account for the change in visa rejection rates...

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:04 am

100% rejection rate? Seems reasonable considering it included government officials from several nations. Luckily it probably wasn't racism but just incompetence if I am reading between the lines right. I know that there are talks to move at least one sports competitions off-shore due to the visa situation. #MAGA.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:12 am

Creating an environment where "suspicious foreigners are trying to infiltrate and destroy our country!" is coming from the very top, and where you may get disciplined for not turning away a foreigner but probably won't get disciplined for rejecting a foreigner, is a recipe for arbitrary and cruel conduct by border and customs officials. Which Trump and Bannon are all for, because that keeps foreigners out, and in a way that's not tied to any orders from high up.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:17 am

Right but it more sounds like people got called for interviews last second and perhaps got rejected because the clock ran out in this case. Who knows...luckily we are learning about this from the foreign press. Not that the domestic press gets to talk to anyone anyway who isn't completely lying.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:44 am

malchior wrote:Right but it more sounds like people got called for interviews last second and perhaps got rejected because the clock ran out in this case. Who knows...luckily we are learning about this from the foreign press. Not that the domestic press gets to talk to anyone anyway who isn't completely lying.

Oddly enough, the "foreign press" picked up the story from Voice of America.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:54 am

Max Peck wrote:
malchior wrote:Right but it more sounds like people got called for interviews last second and perhaps got rejected because the clock ran out in this case. Who knows...luckily we are learning about this from the foreign press. Not that the domestic press gets to talk to anyone anyway who isn't completely lying.
Oddly enough, the "foreign press" picked up the story from Voice of America.

I thought that was ironic as well. Probably getting the last free word out before they get shut down. I wish that was just joking.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 7:13 am

Hawai‘i State Rep. Beth Fukumoto is Leaving State GOP

“I am going to leave the Republican party and pursue membership as a Democrat,” Fukumoto says. First elected in 2012, she says the party no longer aligns with her views or those of most of the state

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:34 am

Brian wrote:Hawai‘i State Rep. Beth Fukumoto is Leaving State GOP

“I am going to leave the Republican party and pursue membership as a Democrat,” Fukumoto says. First elected in 2012, she says the party no longer aligns with her views or those of most of the state

Good.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:35 am

You know what they say, once you lose Beth Fukumoto....wait, what do they say about losing Beth Fukumoto?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:37 am

That her ancestors REALLY hated a family named Moto.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:18 am

hepcat wrote:That her ancestors REALLY hated a family named Moto.

First chuckle of the morning from OO. Thanks!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:27 am

The name reminded me of a menu item at a local Mexican restaurant. The owner, a fanatical soccer fan, was angered years ago by a call against Mexico during a World Cup. See if you can spot the Torte that appeared on his restaurant's menu the following week:

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:04 am

538 has posted an interesting analysis of Reddit. Who could have guessed that r/The_Donald - r/politics == {Sewer of Hate}?

Dissecting Trump’s Most Rabid Online Following

We’ve adapted a technique that’s used in machine learning research — called latent semantic analysis — to characterize 50,323 active subreddits based on 1.4 billion comments posted from Jan. 1, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2016, in a way that allows us to quantify how similar in essence one subreddit is to another. At its heart, the analysis is based on commenter overlap: Two subreddits are deemed more similar if many commenters have posted often to both. This also makes it possible to do what we call “subreddit algebra”: adding one subreddit to another and seeing if the result resembles some third subreddit, or subtracting out a component of one subreddit’s character and seeing what’s left. (There’s a detailed explanation of how this analysis works at the bottom of the article).

Here’s a simple example: Using our technique, you can add the primary subreddit for talking about the NBA (r/nba) to the main subreddit for the state of Minnesota (r/minnesota) and the closest result is r/timberwolves, the subreddit dedicated to Minnesota’s pro basketball team. Similarly, you can take r/nba and subtract r/sports, and the result is r/Sneakers, a subreddit dedicated to the sneaker culture that is a prominent non-sport component of NBA fandom.

This may all seem pretty abstract, but that same algebra can be applied to r/The_Donald. What happens when you break r/The_Donald up into subgroups using subreddit subtraction? What happens when you add unrelated subreddits to r/The_Donald?

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:32 am

538 does some amazing data work. I just grabbed the R code for this and will try pulling something interesting out this week.

gilraen · Post by **gilraen** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 4:29 pm

So now that he is Secretary of Energy, I'm sure Rick Perry is busy dealing with nuclear technology and doesn't have time to opine on student elections...oh wait:

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and two-time presidential candidate, on Wednesday intervened in a controversial student government election at his alma mater.

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:13 pm

gilraen wrote:So now that he is Secretary of Energy, I'm sure Rick Perry is busy dealing with nuclear technology and doesn't have time to opine on student elections...oh wait:
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and two-time presidential candidate, on Wednesday intervened in a controversial student government election at his alma mater.

That's a petty post.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 6:59 pm

I don't understand how the glow Sticks factor in.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:34 pm

Eric Garland (of "Time for some game theory..." fame) has gone on another epic rant.

It is beautiful.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:35 am

stessier wrote:I don't understand how the glow Sticks factor in.

I'm with you there. How the heck does "unreported use of glow sticks" qualify or disqualify anyone from anything?

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:48 am

hepcat wrote:The name reminded me of a menu item at a local Mexican restaurant. The owner, a fanatical soccer fan, was angered years ago by a call against Mexico during a World Cup. See if you can spot the Torte that appeared on his restaurant's menu the following week:

The truly beautiful thing about this post is that it's almost like the dish, "Off Side" is trying to distract you from the 'right answer' to the question.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:51 am

stessier wrote:I don't understand how the glow Sticks factor in.

Well, he is the Secretary of Energy.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:40 am

As tweeted by noted communist Norman Ornstein - power to the people!

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:42 am

I followed the click path so you won't have to:

HuffPo

The Senate voted 50-48 to strike down a rule issued late in Barack Obama’s presidency that requires large employers to keep an ongoing record of health and safety incidents. The Obama administration issued the rule in an effort to solidify what it considered long-standing policy at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

By doing away with the rule, Republicans are effectively cutting down the length of time that employers in dangerous industries are required to keep injury records ― from five years to just six months. Former OSHA officials say that doesn’t provide enough time to identify recurring problems with particular employers or industries.

They also say the change gives unscrupulous employers little incentive to keep an accurate log of injuries, since it will be more difficult for them to be penalized for not doing so. When employers have a track record of such injuries, it can lead to higher workers’ compensation costs and more government scrutiny.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:08 pm

It is illuminating to compare this to the SEC requirements for audit related records retention requirements.

Spoiler:

So I guess the object lesson is make sure you don't risk rich people's money.

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 2:46 pm

malchior wrote:It is illuminating to compare this to the SEC requirements for audit related records retention requirements.

Spoiler:
7 years for financial records related to audit requirements.
So I guess the object lesson is make sure you don't risk rich people's money.

I guarantee this government would love to reduce that number too.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:34 am

As Democratic attorneys general target Trump, Republican AGs target them

For years the national political organizations of both Democratic and Republican state attorneys general observed an agreement not to target the other party's incumbent office-holders in elections.

That hands-off stance ended this month when Republican AGs voted to abandon the agreement and spend money to help unseat Democrats in other states, according to the Republican Attorneys General Association. The decision has not been previously reported.

The move comes as Democratic attorneys general in states across the country have assumed lead roles in opposing some of Republican President Donald Trump's policies. State AGs in Washington and Hawaii successfully sued to block Trump's executive orders restricting travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and California's attorney general has pledged to defend the state's environmental standards.

Republican attorneys general who supported the change reasoned that AGs should join other national political campaigns which target incumbents, two sources familiar with the closed door process said. Additionally, a desire by some to roll back same-sex marriage and the potential for increased corporate contributions played a role in the decision, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the deliberations.

The so-called 'incumbency rule' observed by the state attorneys' party fundraising arms reflected a rare bit of bipartisanship in the polarized environment of U.S. politics, aimed at promoting cooperation across state lines on issues of common interest, such as consumer protection.

Attorneys general are the top public lawyer in each state, charged with defending state agencies from lawsuits as well as initiating litigation on their own. AGs took tobacco companies to court in the 1990s, and pursued mortgage lenders in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In larger states, an attorney general commands hundreds of lawyers and other resources.

Twelve Republican state AGs on Monday filed a federal appeals court brief supporting Trump's revised travel restrictions.

Scott Will, executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association, confirmed the decision to abolish the incumbency rule, but declined to discuss specifics of the vote.

"The stakes are too high for us to leave winnable races on the table," Will said in a statement to Reuters.

The vote was taken over the phone with a tally of 15-8, the two sources said. Not every Republican AG participated.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:54 am

Isn't that pretty much the equivalent to saying they no longer trust the justice system? The AGs they disagree with can file suit all they want if the Republicans trusted the justice system they would trust the proper outcome would occur. Instead they decide they need to try and gain more seats so that there are no suits filed? Lord these people are despicable.

gilraen · Post by **gilraen** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:42 pm

U. of Louisiana at Monroe decided that their Museum of Natural History takes up too much space with their collections, so surely 48 hours is enough to relocate 6.5 million specimens?

After all, when your state is facing a billion-dollar budget deficit and most funding has been cut from state universities - renovating a stadium for the track team really sounds like an urgent priority...

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:52 pm

A lawsuit will be filed. This is a colossally stupid act by the College, terrible public relations and a potential breach of several implied duties of a public, charitable institution (even if more concrete legal pitfalls are not present).

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:29 pm

They should spend the remaining hours printing one big poster that says the specimens prove the account of creation of Genesis, then send an email to DeVos about how the exhibit is threatened by a funding shortfall.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:49 pm

gilraen wrote:U. of Louisiana at Monroe decided that their Museum of Natural History takes up too much space with their collections, so surely 48 hours is enough to relocate 6.5 million specimens?

After all, when your state is facing a billion-dollar budget deficit and most funding has been cut from state universities - renovating a stadium for the track team really sounds like an urgent priority...

Wow, that's insane. Herbaria are critical, especially for botany students to learn the science.

Here at my school we plowed under our plant research facility to build a new stadium, but at least they had the decency to relocate them into a nice new facility.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:24 pm

Today, the Trump Administration submitted to Congress a report of the list of categories of data it plans to collect for the 2020 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS). In this morning’s version of the Administration’s report, while it conspicuously excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people on the list of “planned subjects” for the nation’s decennial census and longer form survey, “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” were included as “proposed” subjects in the appendix—indicating that data collection on these categories may have been in the works in an earlier version.

link

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 9:06 am

Ridiculous.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 9:13 am

It's odd, because my first instinct is that there are dangers in having a repressive-minded government tracking members of a disfavored minority group. Though yes, in terms of just keeping track of total numbers, it appears to be important to enforcing various civil rights laws.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:49 pm

Arkansas defends unprecedented bid to execute eight in 10 days

Eight inmates due to be put to death over 10 days next month in Arkansas are making last-ditch bids to halt the unprecedented flurry of executions.

Lawyers for the prisoners say the "assembly-line" of four double lethal injections is unconstitutional.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson last month ordered the death row inmates to be killed before the state's execution drugs expire.

Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005.

No US state has put eight inmates to death in such an accelerated schedule since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:52 pm

Max Peck wrote:Arkansas defends unprecedented bid to execute eight in 10 days
Eight inmates due to be put to death over 10 days next month in Arkansas are making last-ditch bids to halt the unprecedented flurry of executions.

Lawyers for the prisoners say the "assembly-line" of four double lethal injections is unconstitutional.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson last month ordered the death row inmates to be killed before the state's execution drugs expire.

Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005.

No US state has put eight inmates to death in such an accelerated schedule since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Wow.