Political Randomness

[Smoove_B]

Yes, that's exactly how I would respond to an 11 year old. Jesus H. Christ.

[Isgrimnur]

Google News Fact Check

As Google’s head of news, Richard Gingras, explained in a blog post this week, the Internet giant is going to be highlighting pages in Google News that fit the criteria for fact-checking.

For some time now, Google has had a series of sub-categories that it groups articles into, including “highly cited”—which is the rough equivalent of Facebook’s Trending Topics—meaning it has been linked to a lot by prominent sites, as well as “local source.”

Now there will be a “fact check” tag as well. Sites that want their articles to be eligible just have to add a certain kind of formatting to their pages, as specified by Schema.org, an open community sponsored by Google, Microsoft, and other tech companies.
...
Google said the new feature will be rolled out first in the United States and the United Kingdom, available both on the web and through the site’s news apps.

[Max Peck]

Apparently they're using the ClaimReview schema.

[dbt1949]

Apparently asking a woman out at work is sexual harassment. If that's all there was to it I find that a little extreme.

[LordMortis]

Apparently asking a woman out at work is sexual harassment. If that's all there was to it I find that a little extreme.

Only if you hold sway over her employment opportunities in that workplace... unless something has changed.

[Smoove_B]

Apparently asking a woman out at work is sexual harassment. If that's all there was to it I find that a little extreme.

I can appreciate why you'd think that, but it's really not though. Just by putting someone in that position (asking them out) in the workplace there could be an implied expectation of saying yes, which could then be considered problematic. Not an HR expert but I don't think any HR department would label workplace peers asking each other out as problematic sexual harassment - unless it goes beyond the first encounter that was rebuffed by one of the parties. But for a supervisor to proposition a subordinate? Of if the peer has potential influence over that person's boss, I'd expect zero tolerance on that one.

[ImLawBoy]

Apparently asking a woman out at work is sexual harassment. If that's all there was to it I find that a little extreme.

That's not accurate. It has to be a lot more than just asking someone out to qualify as harassment.

[Isgrimnur]

Apparently asking a woman out at work is sexual harassment. If that's all there was to it I find that a little extreme.

Only if you hold sway over her employment opportunities in that workplace... unless something has changed.

Hostile work environment is a thing, as well.

And if it's bad enough, even a single incident can meet the criteria.

See also, e.g., EEOC v. WC&M Enters., Inc., 496 F.3d 393, 400 (5th Cir. 2007) (“Under the totality of the circumstances test, a single incident of harassment, if sufficiently severe, could give rise to a viable Title VII claims as a well as a continuous pattern of much less severe incidents of harassment.”);

[dbt1949]

When I was asking women out at work there wasn't this PC atmosphere around and they all said yes anyways so I guess I was okay.
And I didn't have any authority over them either.

[hepcat]

Then a "PC atmosphere" wasn't a factor. You could do the exact same thing today and it would be fine.

I can understand thinking people are more sensitive these days. But I believe the truth (in the majority of cases) is that folks who traditionally were considered second class citizens, or were in any way looked down upon/considered lesser, are finally speaking up and standing their ground...and others are rallying around them.

[malchior]

I heard about the property tax thing. Apparently there is an effect where NJ people move to towns en masse and eventually transform the community to resemble the voracious tax beasts here. The enemy is definitely ourselves here. Getting out of the blast radius for the general and pension issues is honestly my primary concern.

It's less sinister. You don't realize what you miss from NJ when you go to a lawless land like PA. Well, almost lawless it's against the law to buy beer unless it's a case - or to buy fireworks from all the fireworks stores. It's maddening.

In any case, NJ pays for a lot of shit. It's not all just grift.

A lot of NJ people move to PA thinking they are going to get that shit and not have to pay for it. Surprise! You just get to live in a lawless land where you can't buy beer and whiskey together, but you can buy guns and deli meats from the same counter.

It's gotten to the point now where I'm starting to hear talk of moving back from some people.

Right but what happens when the budget implodes. It is unimaginably bad. Moody's literally just dropped a report implying they will downgrade again - I'm assuming they are waiting for the election to pass or perhaps even giving them a chance to improve prospects in the next budget. Still they just blew a $1 Billion hole in the General Fund. And they scramble for dollars each year. Then they want to pass this insan-o Constitutional amendment that'll constitute "actuarially" mandated payments which could come to $4 or 5 Billion within a few years. Which is not available. So taxes will go up. Spending will get chopped. The economic slow down from both actions will only make the situation worse. And that is if there is a rosy future where a recession doesn't hit within the next 5-7 years; that seems pretty unlikely. A recession hits and we lose 5% of revenue probably. That is something like another $3 Billion that has to be made up plus the stress of increased social costs. The only way out is something like 4-5% revenue growth...which has basically never happened in NJ. So absent a miracle there is no path that doesn't involve deep hurting. I prefer to not be here when it hits. I don't care if I can't buy beer in less than a case. That is all surface stuff IMO.

Oh and before I forget, remember during your exit plan that if you sell your house and move out of NJ, they hit you with an exit tax. It's the most absurd thing I've ever heard of. If you don't live in NJ at the end of the year, but you sold a house in NJ there is an out-of-state tax on that transaction. A friend moved to NC a couple of years ago and got stuck with it. It would have been cheaper for him to rent an apartment to maintain residency until the end of the year.

I'm aware of it. The capital gain exclusion is something $500K so from what I hear most people don't get hit with it directly. And there are ways around it. But it is another example of the lengths this state will take to reach in your pocket. I'm done with it. My wife is on board and my job only requires me to be proximate to an airport. Or I can easily find other work in my field. Either way - I'm tidying up to get out. I don't have kids and I don't want to risk my finances on the corruption/lack of fiscal sanity here.

[Isgrimnur]

Yes, that's exactly how I would respond to an 11 year old. Jesus H. Christ.

[RunningMn9]

The capital gain exclusion is something $500K so from what I hear most people don't get hit with it directly.

My friend didn't make anything close to $500K, and got hit with it.

Edit to add: If I'm reading the summary of the law right, you have to make an estimated tax payment of 2% of the sale price at the close of the sale, no matter what. If you are buying another principle residence, I think they waive that. Presumably you can get some/all of that back after the fact? I'm not on Facebook anymore, so can't ask the guy for more details.

[Max Peck]

Three accused of plot to bomb Somalis at Kansas mosque

Three men have been charged with plotting to bomb a Kansas apartment building and mosque where Somali immigrants live and worshipped.

Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49, and Patrick Eugene Stein, 47, had gathered firearms and explosives for the attack, the US Justice Department said.

The trio, members of a militia group called the Crusaders, also carried out surveillance on their intended target.

They allegedly planned to strike on 9 November, a day after the US elections.

The suspects had prepared a manifesto and conspired to detonate a bomb at apartments where Somalis were among some 120 residents in the meatpacking town of Garden City, said prosecutors.

They allegedly discussed parking four explosives-packed vehicles at the corners of the apartment complex to create a large blast.

Mr Stein offered to provide ammonium nitrate for the bomb and contribute up to $300 for other materials, said prosecutors.

Acting US Attorney Tom Beall said the eight-month investigation had taken FBI agents "deep into a hidden culture of hatred and violence".

Friday's charges prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations to urge law enforcement to boost protection for US mosques.

"We ask our nation's political leaders, and particularly political candidates, to reject the growing Islamophobia in our nation," Nihad Awad, the group's national executive director, said in a statement.

[Max Peck]

Putin, Syria, and Why Moscow Has Gone War-Crazy

There are also the Kremlin’s alleged efforts “to interfere with the U.S. election process,” as U.S. security officials recently put it, by stealing U.S. political figures and parties’ data and e-mails and then leaking them to the public. This summer, WikiLeaks’s release of the Democratic National Committee’s e-mails was widely blamed on hackers working for the Russian state, and more recently the F.B.I. has said that it believes Russian intelligence agencies were behind the hacking of e-mails belonging to John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair. This week, I spoke to Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that investigated the D.N.C. hack and found a trail that led back to the Russian intelligence services. “It’s just like a regular criminal investigation,” he said. “If a bank gets robbed, you don’t try and solve the crime without looking at past bank robberies in the area—is this similar to things we’ve seen before?” According to Alperovitch, one of the suspects in the D.N.C. case, a hacker who goes by the name Fancy Bear, was involved in earlier cyber attacks aimed at defense targets in Georgia and Ukraine—all during times of increased tensions with Moscow. CrowdStrike believes that Fancy Bear has links to Russian military intelligence, and that the other hacker involved in the D.N.C. operation, Cozy Bear, has ties to the F.S.B., Russia’s domestic-security service. Alperovitch told me that Cozy Bear had previously targeted servers used by the White House, State Department, and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

At this point, any Russian efforts to meddle in the election are likely not about trying to throw the election to Donald Trump, whose candidacy most serious Russian officials now believe is doomed. The goal, instead, is to confuse and discredit the American election process, in an attempt to weaken the country’s institutions and the likely future Clinton Presidency. (Trump himself has urged his supporters to read the WikiLeaks disclosures. They show “how unattractive and dishonest our country has become,” he said.) In their statement accusing the Kremlin of involvement in political hacking, U.S. security officials also expressed worry about potential attacks on election systems in U.S. states. Alperovitch argued, as many have, that any confusion about voting rolls or the count itself created by cyber incursions will “help create a narrative the day after election that the vote was manipulated, that it was somehow not legitimate.”

[Defiant]

Three accused of plot to bomb Somalis at Kansas mosque

Make Terrorism Domestic Again!

[dbt1949]

Maybe instead of jailing these people we should exile them to Somalia.

[Isgrimnur]

New Jersey, May 2016.

Last month, during a routine review of New Jersey’s finances, one could sense the alarm. The state’s wealthiest resident had reportedly “shifted his personal and business domicile to another state,” Frank W. Haines III, New Jersey’s legislative budget and finance officer, told a State Senate committee. If the news were true, New Jersey would lose so much in tax revenue that “we may be facing an unusual degree of income tax forecast risk,” Mr. Haines said.

The New Jersey resident (unnamed by Mr. Haines) is the hedge-fund billionaire David Tepper. In December, Mr. Tepper declared himself a resident of Florida after living for over 20 years in New Jersey. He later moved the official headquarters of his hedge fund, Appaloosa Management, to Miami.

New Jersey won’t say exactly how much Mr. Tepper paid in taxes. But according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha, he earned more than $6 billion from 2012 to 2015. Tax experts say his move to Florida could cost New Jersey — which has a top tax rate of 8.97 percent — hundreds of millions of dollars in lost payments.

Mr. Tepper, 58, declined to comment on his move. He does have family — his mother and sister — who live in Florida. But several New Jersey lawmakers cited his relocation as proof that the state’s tax rates, up from 6.37 percent in 1996, are chasing away the rich. Florida has no personal income tax.

[dbt1949]

Without looking him up I have no idea who Clinton's VP running mate is. I bet quite a few Americans don't.

[hepcat]

Quite a few Americans can't find Idaho on map. That's a low bar for disappointment in the state of things.

[Isgrimnur]

And half of those ask for her name and number.

[Max Peck]

Without looking him up I have no idea who Clinton's VP running mate is. I bet quite a few Americans don't.

Here you go.

Tim Kaine’s Radical Optimism

As governor, he mastered the political tide that pulled Virginia away from the past. Can he do the same for the nation?

On a recent morning in Washington, D.C., Tim Kaine, the Democratic nominee for Vice-President, ambled into a room at the Jefferson Hotel and introduced himself: “Hi, I’m Tim.” With thinning gray-brown hair, sensible rubber-soled loafers, and an expression of surprised contentment, he looked, at fifty-eight, like the happy customer in an insurance commercial. Despite more than two decades in politics—he has been a governor of Virginia and the head of the Democratic National Committee, and is now a member of the U.S. Senate—he is unassuming to the point of obscurity. In September, more than six weeks after he became Hillary Clinton’s running mate, forty per cent of voters said that they had never heard of Tim Kaine or had no opinion of him, according to a CNN/ORC International poll.

The absence of slickness has been mostly for the good. Paired with one of the best-known and least-trusted nominees in Presidential history, Kaine has helped the Clinton campaign look less frosty and stage-managed. Last week, as women came forward to accuse Donald Trump of groping them, the Times columnist Gail Collins suggested that “boring people have never looked better.” Kaine spent years cultivating his reputation for approachability, and he has parted with it grudgingly. Once he became the nominee, his wife, Anne Holton, a lawyer and former Virginia secretary of education, continued driving the family’s Volkswagen Jetta around Richmond, until Secret Service personnel prevailed upon her to accept a ride from them. In Kaine’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, he touted his Midwestern roots, and mocked Donald Trump’s use of the phrase “Believe me!,” inspiring a round of dad jokes online. (“Tim Kaine is your friend’s dad who catches you smoking weed at a sleepover and doesn’t rat you out but talks to you about brain development.”)

[AWS260]

Please let this be true.

Curt Schilling planning Senate run against Elizabeth Warren

[Kraken]

Please let this be true.

Curt Schilling planning Senate run against Elizabeth Warren

Interesting. Bostonians love their sports heroes, but we take our politics seriously, too.

Of course this presumes that Warren won't take a seat in Clinton's cabinet first. I hope she stays right where she is, but one never knows.

[gilraen]

Please let this be true.

Curt Schilling planning Senate run against Elizabeth Warren

ESPN fired him, apparently that's the only job he can potentially find...

[Max Peck]

Guess who scored an invite to President Obama's final State Dinner tonight:

Laetitia Garriott De Cayeux, co-founder, Escape Dynamics
Richard Garriott De Cayeux

Lady British, and her plus-one.

[Max Peck]

Judge in ‘El Chapo’ Case Gunned Down While Jogging

Judge Vicente Bermudez Zacarias — who was presiding over the case of serial prison-escapee Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — was shot in the head on Monday while jogging near his home in Metepec, just outside of Mexico City. He died later that day in the hospital.

Zacarias, 37, worked on a series of high-profile cases involving drug kingpins, including Miguel Treviño, a one-time leader of the Zetas Cartel, but had not been assigned any police protection.

[hepcat]

Guess who scored an invite to President Obama's final State Dinner tonight:

Laetitia Garriott De Cayeux, co-founder, Escape Dynamics
Richard Garriott De Cayeux

Lady British, and her plus-one.

Trump guest list also released:

Armless wonder
Bearded lady
Camels
Elephants
Fiji mermaid
Half-Man Half-Woman
Human blockhead
Human dartboard
Midgets
Monkeys
Piercing acts
Rubber Man
Snake charmer
Strongman
Sword swallower (placard reads: no wife jokes, please)
Two-Headed Man

[LordMortis]

Judge in ‘El Chapo’ Case Gunned Down While Jogging

Judge Vicente Bermudez Zacarias — who was presiding over the case of serial prison-escapee Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — was shot in the head on Monday while jogging near his home in Metepec, just outside of Mexico City. He died later that day in the hospital.

Zacarias, 37, worked on a series of high-profile cases involving drug kingpins, including Miguel Treviño, a one-time leader of the Zetas Cartel, but had not been assigned any police protection.

Clinton support were quick to note this was coincidence and no direct ties could be made to her, her campaign, or the DNC. Clinton, herself, could not remember if she had any relationship to El Chapo or the judge.

[Max Peck]

Judge in ‘El Chapo’ Case Gunned Down While Jogging

Judge Vicente Bermudez Zacarias — who was presiding over the case of serial prison-escapee Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — was shot in the head on Monday while jogging near his home in Metepec, just outside of Mexico City. He died later that day in the hospital.

Zacarias, 37, worked on a series of high-profile cases involving drug kingpins, including Miguel Treviño, a one-time leader of the Zetas Cartel, but had not been assigned any police protection.

Clinton support were quick to note this was coincidence and no direct ties could be made to her, her campaign, or the DNC. Clinton, herself, could not remember if she had any relationship to El Chapo or the judge.

Nah, Clinton would use a drone strike. Trump is the one that's all about using 2nd Amendment tools to fix problems.

[The Meal]

Guess who scored an invite to President Obama's final State Dinner tonight:

Laetitia Garriott De Cayeux, co-founder, Escape Dynamics
Richard Garriott De Cayeux

Lady British, and her plus-one.

Trump guest list also released:

Armless wonder
Bearded lady
Camels
Elephants
Fiji mermaid
Half-Man Half-Woman
Human blockhead
Human dartboard
Midgets
Monkeys
Piercing acts
Rubber Man
Snake charmer
Strongman
Sword swallower (placard reads: no wife jokes, please)
Two-Headed Man

[malchior]

In a move that will not surprise any NJ resident, a phone tax that has been collected for the last decade hasn't actually been used to create the 911 system it was designed to fund:

A Onion-like headline only NJ can manage. Lawmakers pledge overhaul of N.J. 911 system but have no plan to pay for it. Let me think. How about using the money you are *EXPRESSLY* collecting for a 911 upgrade. And their first idea to get more money for it is from another tax. I don't think I can handle this state anymore.

[hepcat]

And Duterte is at it again.

"I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world - China, Philippines and Russia. It's the only way," he added.

He reminds me of Grover Dill from A Christmas Story.

[Smoove_B]

In a move that will not surprise any NJ resident, a phone tax that has been collected for the last decade hasn't actually been used to create the 911 system it was designed to fund:

A Onion-like headline only NJ can manage. Lawmakers pledge overhaul of N.J. 911 system but have no plan to pay for it. Let me think. How about using the money you are *EXPRESSLY* collecting for a 911 upgrade. And their first idea to get more money for it is from another tax. I don't think I can handle this state anymore.

That's amazing. They did the same thing with a portion of cigarette / tobacco tax money that was specifically earmarked for public health programs so this really doesn't surprise me at all. At some point we contacted the state to find out how to gain access to the money that had been collected to fund education, public cessation, etc... and were told that all that money had been applied to budgetary shortfalls and was unavailable. I have no idea how they're able to do that. Collect a tax designed to fund [X] and then spend the money on [Y]. Apparently I should have become an accountant.

[Isgrimnur]

LOCKBOX!

[L]ast week the [Chicago]Tribune ran an editorial that could have a very concrete negative effect. They’re urging Illinoisans to vote against the proposed Safe Roads Constitutional Amendment, which will be on the November 8 ballot. The proposal would create a “lock box” for state transportation funding, making it illegal for politicians to raid Illinois transportation dollars to cover budget shortfalls.
...
The article argues that the bill is a devilish scheme by lawmakers to ensure that highway projects remain a road to riches for the construction companies and union workers that build them. In return, the crooked politicians can count on campaign donations continuing to roll in.
...
Reilly argued that passing the amendment could help garner political support for raising the gas tax hike and other fees to fund transportation infrastructure. “Right now if people ask, ‘Can you be sure this will be used for that purpose,’ well, the answer is no,” he said.”

As for the Trib’s conspiracy theory that politicians are in cahoots with the road lobby? “Well, if that was the case, the legislature would provide adequate transportation funding in the first place,” Reilly said. “Nothing stops them from doing that now. But the road builders have had a lot of problems in the last few years due to inadequate funding, so that theory doesn’t seem to hold water.”

[ImLawBoy]

That article misrepresents the major thrust of the Tribune's editorial, which is that this is not something that should be in the state constitution. I haven't read up fully on this to determine my vote (I've still got, like, 2 1/2 weeks left!), but as a general principle, I do have to wonder whether the state constitution is an appropriate place for budgeting issues.

[Isgrimnur]

One would imagine that it would be harder to get rid of in the future. I don't know much about Illinois politics, but things get shoehorned into inappropriate bills all the time to skate by without anyone being able to suitably address them.

[dbt1949]

Pussygate.

[Enough]

So it looks like a plurality of Republicans prefer Trump over Ryan.

When asked in the latest Bloomberg Politics poll who should be the face of the party nationally in the event of a Hillary Clinton victory, likely voters who are or lean Republican splintered down a list of five options.

A plurality, 27 percent, picked vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. Trump got 24 percent, ahead of Texas Senator Ted Cruz at 19 percent, House Speaker Paul Ryan at 15 percent, and Ohio Governor John Kasich at 10 percent.

When asked which leader better represents their view what the Republican Party should stand for, 51 percent of likely voters who are or lean Republican picked Trump, while 33 percent picked Ryan and 15 percent said they weren’t sure.

[ImLawBoy]

One would imagine that it would be harder to get rid of in the future. I don't know much about Illinois politics, but things get shoehorned into inappropriate bills all the time to skate by without anyone being able to suitably address them.

Absolutely it would make it harder to get rid of. It would also remove flexibility of the state to manage funds in emergency situations.

I do have to point out here that the editorial I read on this ran yesterday, and the piece that you linked to was apparently referring to earlier article/editorial/column. Here's the money quote of the editorial that ran yesterday:

Yes, we wish lawmakers would stop dipping into that money. Again, that is completely within their control. But a constitutional amendment would take away the flexibility required if there's an unexpected drop in revenue, a serious emergency or a crushing recession. It would be a mistake to protect road-building at the expense of education, social services, health care and other needs.

Who doesn't want safe roads? We all do. But transportation needs should not be enshrined in the constitution and prioritized above all others.

Apparently all but four legislators voted to put this referendum on the ballot. If there's such great bipartisan support for this issue, why not just handle legislatively instead of via an amendment?