The Politics Thread

[marceline]

I'd like to see it too. I doubt Scalise will resign. The repubs just lost Grimm.

As for Duke, I hope he outs them all. If there are Democrats in good with David Duke I'd just as soon get rid of them.

[Juliajms]

Isn't the KKK down to like 5,000 members? They can't have that many hidden members can they? I feel like they are basically a joke now and the really scary groups are more underground.

[marceline]

The official Klan is pretty anemic but there are plenty of bootleg versions of the Klan out there and far from being underground, they've gotten much more visible since Obama's election. I was mildly surprised to see how many white supremacist groups there are in Ohio. There's even a branch of EURO.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map

[Juliajms]

Damn, my poor (population wise) little state (NE) has 9. I guess I'm not too surprised that a place like Ohio would have a lot. There's probably a lot of lower call disillusionment in that part of the country. It's always easier to blame another race than to face the real problems. Omaha only seems to have black separatist groups, with some Neo Nazi's too close for comfort in Lincoln.

[GMac]

Headline: Scott takes oath, urges people to move to Florida.

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Rick Scott entered the history books Tuesday as he was sworn into a second term and vowed to use it to continue cutting the scope of government while brandishing Florida’s business bona fides.

Ugh. I'm afraid to think about what Florida will look like after 4 more years of this guy...

[Juliajms]

Seriously. The last thing Florida needs is more people/development. How sad.

[marceline]

Bob McDonnell got sentenced to two years.

Less than I hoped for but more than I expected. I have to admit it's astonishing to see people online who think this is too severe a sentence. Especially since I've spent the last few months watching many of those same people say that it's okay for cops to kill people for misdemeanors. ("Don't break the law and you won't get killed.")

[Juliajms]

I'll agree with you that he had at least that much coming. Usually, I hate seeing anyone go to jail for a property crime or petty drug crimes. I think we need to say our limited resources for truly dangerous people. However, public officials who abuse their power should face the maximum sentence.

[GregNYC]

Clinton named 21 times in pedophile pimp's phone book

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/6/bill-clintons-name-found-21-times-in-sex-offender-/

Lawyers sifting through documents related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy sex offender accused of pimping out an underage girl to Britain’s Prince Andrew, stumbled across an interesting finding among the filings: 21 email and telephone contacts for former President Bill Clinton and his personal aide, Doug Band.

[DRW50]

The battle raging throughout Europe about Islam seems to have taken another dark turn.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/videos-witnesses-capture-charlie-hebdo-attack

[Sindacco]

This was bound to happen in France. The combination of mass immigration from the muslim world, an aggressive foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, and our freedom of speech, can only end with disaster.

I think we will see more of these "small-scale" attacks in Europé. I think the UK, The Netherlands and Denmark are in the biggest danger.

[DRW50]

Barbara Boxer is, after months of speculation to such, retiring. This will cause a huge power struggle in CA politics. I hope it doesn't just go to someone like Gavin Newsom.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/barbara-boxer-retires-114076.html?hp=t1_r

I'm glad she stayed around long enough to beat that hack Carly Fiorina.

Edited January 8, 2015 by DRW50

[ThePrinceOfSunspear]

Lmao I can't stand that trifling woman. Now she's pretending like she's gonna run for president...as if

[GregNYC]

She couldn't stand being in the minority party with no power, so she bailed.

[DRW50]

She was in the minority party for 12 years already (95-06), so I can't blame her if that's the case.

Edited January 8, 2015 by DRW50