The Random Politics Thread

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

[China]

49 minutes ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

 

 

 

Science says fluoride in water is good for kids. So why are these towns banning it?

 

In the past five years, 74 cities have voted to remove fluoride from their drinking water, despite thousands of studies showing it prevents cavities.
 

It has been hailed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the top public health achievements of the 20th century. Numerous studies have proven its safety and efficacy. But fluoride — the naturally occurring compound that prevents cavities and tooth decay — is still sparking heated debates, seven decades after it was first added to America’s water supply.

 

“Anti-fluoridationists” — a small but vocal minority — are disputing long-established science to say that fluoride added to tap water lowers IQ and causes everything from acne to anemia to Alzheimer’s.

 

These anti-fluoride believers are active online but also at the polls: In the past five years, 74 cities have voted to remove fluoride from their drinking water, according to the American Dental Association. This year, there have been 13 votes around the country on fluoridation, and at least three more cities have fluoride referendums on the ballot in November: proposed bans in Brooksville, Florida, and Houston, Missouri, and a vote on bringing fluoridated water back in Springfield, Ohio.

 

The frets over fluoride are reminiscent of the unfounded fear that vaccines cause autism: disproved by science, yet steadfast nonetheless.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

This just in: there is a large number of stupid Americans that deny science.

 

[Larry]

 

 

[China]

‘They deserve it’ — FirstEnergy scandal whistleblower cheers new indictments in bribery scheme

 

The whistleblower in the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history is cheering the newly announced felony charges against three of the major players accused of selling out the Statehouse.

 

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced in a press conference Monday that three people had been charged by the state in connection to the House Bill 6 scandal.

 

Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones, former FirstEnergy Senior Vice President Michael Dowling and former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Sam Randazzo have been charged with a "combined 27 counts of felony violations, including engaging in a corrupt activity, all related to their joint enterprise to hijack Ohio’s regulatory structure for the benefit of First Energy Corporation and for themselves."

 

“This indictment is about more than one piece of legislation,” Yost said. “It is about the hostile capture of a significant portion of Ohio's state government by deception, betrayal and dishonesty."

 

Back in 2019, former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder took a $61 million bribe in exchange for legislation to give FirstEnergy a $1 billion bailout, named H.B. 6, all at the expense of the taxpayers.

 

The scheme was revealed in three main ways — two separate whistleblowers and a phone wiretap.

 

Fast forwarding to March 2023, a jury found that Householder and former GOP leader Matt Borges, beyond a reasonable doubt, participated in the largest public corruption case in state history, a racketeering scheme that left four men guilty and another dead by suicide.

 

In late June that year, federal judge Timothy Black sentenced Householder to 20 years in prison. Borges got 5 years. The two surviving defendants took plea agreements early on, helping the FBI, and are still awaiting their sentencing. The feds are asking for 0-6 months for them.

 

Until 2024, only federal indictments had been handed out.

 

H.B. 6 mainly benefited FirstEnergy's struggling nuclear power plants, but those provisions were later repealed. There are aspects of the bill still in place, though.

 

The Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) got a handout from the scheme. It expanded a bailout of the OVEC plants and required Ohioans to pay for two 1950s-era coal plants— one in the Southern area of the state and the other in Indiana. The main beneficiaries of this are American Electric Power Company (AEP), Duke Energy and AES Ohio.

 

FirstEnergy as a company has already admitted to bribing public officials in Ohio, including a $4.3 million bribe to Randazzo. Jones and Dowling allegedly paid this to him.

 

The two former executives face a dozen charges each, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, bribery and fraud.

 

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[c slag]

On 2/8/2024 at 6:47 PM, China said:

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

This just in: there is a large number of stupid Americans that deny science.

 

Because there is a large number of Americans that have internet access and believe everything written on it, 

 We have all seen, scientists agree with who is funding them and,

 All science is based on one person's opinion 

Written constantly on the interwebs 

 

[skinsmarydu]

19 minutes ago, c slag said:

Because there is a large number of Americans that have internet access and believe everything written on it, 

 We have all seen, scientists agree with who is funding them and,

 All science is based on one person's opinion 

Written constantly on the interwebs 

 

You okay?

[c slag]

3 hours ago, skinsmarydu said:

You okay?

Yes, I was not referring to anyone on here, nor anything said by anyone on here 

Sorry if it seemed that way 

[China]

Post moved to different Criminal Justice reform thread

Edited February 25 by China

[ixcuincle]

Milei and Trump met !!

https://apnews.com/article/trump-milei-cpac-argentina-biden-f8e97d401a13318f8cc55faf29021030

Edited February 26 by ixcuincle

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

The narrative about how bad the IVF ruling is for republicans kind of misses the mark. The focus should be on how bad it is for Americans. Not on how bad it is for republicans.

There is a way to lay responsibility at the feet of the GOP with out turning them into some sort of weird victim of their own success.

[ixcuincle]

Was at an Andrew Schulz show in DC and most of his bit is about IVF

 

Just a sad story with a happy ending, glad he was able to have a daughter. But really there is nothing wrong with IVF

 

During the special he does make mention that there are embryos in the process that are discarded if they have abnormalities, which doesn't seem wrong with me

[China]

Trump gave top US firms staggering tax cuts, with some paying $0 or less – report

 

Some of the US’s most profitable corporations, including General Motors, Citigroup and Netflix, have slashed their tax bills in the years since the passage of the Trump tax cuts, with nearly a quarter paying rates in the single digits and 23 paying nothing, a report has found.

 

The 2017 law cut the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. But the new assessment of corporate tax avoidance, published on Thursday by the non-profit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (Itep), found that during the first five years the law was in effect, many profitable public companies in the US paid a far lower rate in practice.

 

Together, the 342 corporations studied by Itep paid an average effective tax rate of just 14.1%. Eighty-seven companies paid an average of less than 10%; 55 of those firms paid less than 5%; and 23 corporations, including T-Mobile US and Xcel Energy, paid zero (or less) federal income tax over the five-year period – even though they made a profit each year.

 

The Itep report makes clear that the companies listed in the report aren’t breaking the law. “Tax avoidance occurs because Congress chooses to allow it,” the report notes, “either by enacting special exceptions and breaks from the regular tax rules, or by leaving in place loopholes that are clearly being exploited.”

 

Congress is currently considering additional exceptions that could help corporations lower their 2022 tax bills even further, the report warns.

 

The Itep report makes clear that the companies listed in the report aren’t breaking the law. “Tax avoidance occurs because Congress chooses to allow it,” the report notes, “either by enacting special exceptions and breaks from the regular tax rules, or by leaving in place loopholes that are clearly being exploited.”

 

Congress is currently considering additional exceptions that could help corporations lower their 2022 tax bills even further, the report warns.

 

While limited corporate disclosures make it difficult to say precisely how much money companies could claw back, the available data suggests that this single, retroactive policy tweak could potentially save some firms billions of dollars – and that the benefits “would be hugely concentrated in the hands of a very small number of corporations”, Gardner said.

 

Meta, for instance, might be able to shave its tax bill by nearly $6.5bn, the report found, which would bring its average effective tax rate below 0% over the five-year period of the study. Microsoft could potentially save a similar sum.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Riggo-toni]

 

 

[Chew]

Shocker.  

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

How did this get missed?  ****ing epic 

 

 

 

 

[China]

On 12/13/2022 at 10:38 PM, China said:

Lawmakers Intro Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S.

 

TikTok poses a national security threat, according to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL., on Tuesday introduced bipartisan legislation that would ban the popular app TikTok from operating within the United States over national security concerns.

Rubio’s bill—the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party, or ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act—already has bipartisan support in the House, with Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., authoring companion legislation. 

 

“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,” Rubio said in a statement. “This isn’t about creative videos—this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day. We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”

 

TikTok is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance. Numerous federal officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray, have testified that the Chinese Communist Party has authority over all Chinese companies, which “allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

 

“At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad are seeking any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we do not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponized against us,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement..

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

On 3/1/2023 at 2:36 PM, China said:

 

Republican Bill That Gives Biden Power to Completely Ban TikTok Passes House Committee Super Fast

 

A fast-tracked, vague Republican bill granting the Biden administration the ability to impose a nationwide TikTok ban moved a step closer toward legality on Tuesday after passing a vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The sweeping new legislation, if passed into law, would grant the Biden administration the ability to totally ban TikTok or other foreign software companies believed to be involved in the transfer of “sensitive data.” Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say the slipshod bill, introduced just five days ago, was haphazardly written and could potentially open scores of other benign apps up to potential bans.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. gains momentum in Congress

 

Nearly a year after TikTok’s CEO was grilled on Capitol Hill, House Republicans and Democrats are joining together on legislation that would force its parent company, China-based ByteDance, to divest the popular social media company or risk the U.S. banning it from app stores.

 

The bill is co-authored by the bipartisan leaders of the select committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., who also serve on the Intelligence Committee. Both lawmakers recently returned from a visit to Taiwan and the greater Indo-Pacific region.

 

The White House has signaled support for the bill while stopping short of endorsing it.

 

On Thursday, the Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., plans to mark up the bipartisan bill and pass it, sending it to the House floor for a future vote. She said her committee has kept leadership "in the loop" and been closely working with the White House on the bill. Administration officials have provided technical assistance on the bill, she said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[ixcuincle]

TikTok is legit awful and should be banned. Anything you can do on tiktok you can do on IG anyway.

 

Maybe all the ****ing low effort "We're X of course we're Y" **** will stop or all the reused memes over and over

 

"WE'RE DC RESIDENTS OF COURSE WE'RE GOING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT TRAFFIC"

"WE'RE DC RESIDENTS. OF COURSE 50 DEGREE WINTERS ARE A NORM."

 

 

[China]

Steve Bannon Suggests Donald Trump Has Been Bought

 

Steve Bannon, the one-time adviser to Donald Trump, suggested on Saturday that the former president was paid off after a shift in stance on TikTok.

 

TikTok, the immensely popular video-sharing app known for its predominantly young audience, has once again come under scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers. The app is currently owned by Chinese tech company, ByteDance, which has spurred significant suspicion that its abundance of user data is being furnished to the Chinese government.

 

While ByteDance and TikTok have dismissed these accusations, lawmakers have continued to consider their options. A bipartisan bill put forward by members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party last week would work to "incentivize divestment of TikTok" by ByteDance by blocking it from appearing in American app stores and granting Executive Branch authority to take similar action in the future against social media companies operated by a "foreign adversary."

 

Lawmakers on the House Committee on Energy & Commerce advanced the legislation last week in a 50-0 bipartisan vote to the full U.S. House of Representatives. TikTok, meanwhile, characterized the bill as a ban, and urged users to encourage their local representatives to block it.

 

Despite his past stances in favor of action against TikTok for its Chinese ties, Trump, the leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday that he opposed the recent bill, citing his oft-repeated false claims about widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

 

"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck [CEO Mark Zuckerberg] will double their business," the former president wrote. "I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!"

 

In response to this post, reports noted that the seeming shift in stance from Trump came after a meeting with Jeff Yass, a conservative hedge fund manager who has a $33 billion stake in TikTok. Yass, according to Intelligencer, has been allegedly threatening to pull support from GOP lawmakers who back the bipartisan divestment bill.

 

Bannon, who led Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign and served as a White House adviser for the first several months of Trump's presidency, took to Gettr to make his suspicions about the situation clear.

 

"Simple: Yass Coin," he wrote in a post that included a link to an Axios story about Trump's flip on TikTok.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

You combine that with this: 

 

Kellyanne Conway advocating for TikTok on Capitol Hill

 

Kellyanne Conway, the former senior Trump aide, is being paid by the conservative Club for Growth to advocate for TikTok in Congress and has had at least 10 meetings with lawmakers in recent months about the app, according to three people familiar with the meetings.

 

Conway’s work comes as TikTok faces a groundswell of opposition in Congress. The House is poised to vote this week on a bill that would force the sale of the app by its Chinese owner or face a ban from app stores. Last week, users of the app followed a TikTok rallying cry and bombarded Congress with calls to oppose the measure. President Joe Biden said on Friday he would sign the bill if it passed.

 

Both Conway and Club for Growth confirmed the working relationship. A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment.

 

Billionaire investor and Club for Growth donor Jeff Yass holds a 15 percent stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, which is based in Beijing. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

and you get confirmation that Trump and his cadre are for sale to the highest bidder (not that we ddn't know that already).  Not what you want in a president.

[Larry]

Admiring the number of lawmakers who seem to be in a frenzy about TikTok spying on American citizens.  But who have no problem with Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and well, every other corporation in the world doing exactly the same thing.  

 

[ixcuincle]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/haiti-prime-minister-ariel-henry-resigning-once-transitional-council-formed/

 

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced early Tuesday that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created, capitulating to international pressure that seeks to save the country overwhelmed by violent gangs that some experts say have unleashed a low-scale civil war.

Henry made the announcement hours after officials including Caribbean leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Jamaica to urgently discuss a solution to halt Haiti's spiraling crisis.