Posts made by pppucci

it is hard to predict when the Russia investigation will come to a head because th pace it it is so different from other presidential scandals.  In the space of 6 months we have gone from Trump and and associates indignantly denying they even had contacts with Russians to Don Jr. admitting himself that he was eager to get dirt on Hillary no matter what its provenance.  Who believes that Trump Sr. did not know of his son's efforts? That "boy" cannot take a shit without his father's permission.  I also don't think for a minute that once it was publicly announced that Russia hacked the DNC, that the Trump campaign did not use its Russia contacts to exploit that information to their best advantage.  I also think That Kushner's  regional database (based on the sale of MAGA hats) was shared with the Russians so they could micro-target their social media bots.
All of that will be, at the very least, conspiracy to violate Federal Election law.

There have been reports that Trump now wants the RNC to pay his legal fees related to the Russia . I guess it was cutting into the P & E of his presidency.
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-richest-president-lawyers-pay-636828

@raphjd:

That's still voting for their "oppression" status, not their ability.

Unfortunately most voters are shallow.  They vote on looks, sound bites, geographical region and other characteristics that have nothing to do with ability.
In fact a poll done in June 2016 showed that 18% of Trump supporters did not feel he was qualified to be president.

Damning??
Obama and Loretta Lynch let the bad lady in.  Poor Donnie, he didn't know better.  And the bad lady hurt him so bad.
Gimme a break.  Stop trying to deflect. It was Goldstone and his Russian billionaire friends that attracted Don to the meeting, not this lawyer.  She had nothing to do with the transaction to arrange the meeting. She just showed up and according to Don, provided nothing.
The damning part of the emails released is Don's enthusiasm to receive Russian Intelligence dirt on Hillary.  Let me see you explain that away.

You can read the attached report as your leisure.  For me, the most objectionable activity was the use of social media bots spreading disinformation.
According to n article in Time magazine:
American researchers have found they can use mathematical formulas to segment huge populations into thousands of subgroups according to defining characteristics like religion and political beliefs or taste in TV shows and music. Other algorithms can determine those groups' hot-button issues and identify "followers" among them, pinpointing those most susceptible to suggestion. Propagandists can then manually craft messages to influence them, deploying covert provocateurs, either humans or automated computer programs known as bots, in hopes of altering their behavior.That is what Moscow is doing, more than a dozen senior intelligence officials and others investigating Russia's influence operations tell TIME. The Russians "target you and see what you like, what you click on, and see if you're sympathetic or not sympathetic," says a senior intelligence official. Whether and how much they have actually been able to change Americans' behavior is hard to say. But as they have investigated the Russian 2016 operation, intelligence and other officials have found that Moscow has developed sophisticated tactics.
In one case last year, senior intelligence officials tell TIME, a Russian soldier based in Ukraine successfully infiltrated a U.S. social media group by pretending to be a 42-year-old American housewife and weighing in on political debates with specially tailored messages. In another case, officials say, Russia created a fake Facebook account to spread stories on political issues like refugee resettlement to targeted reporters they believed were susceptible to influence.
http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/

This should not be a partisan issue.

The Report of the DNI is too large to attach.  Here is the link:

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

@Frederick:

As for "doubling down", let's talk about a much more recent case of someone "doubling down" which has resulted in the deaths of several million innocent people.  Your heroine.. Hillary Clinton.. in the 3rd and final presidential debate in 2016, doubled down on her support of guilt-free, taxpayer subsidized, abortions on demand, of babies in the THIRD trimester, which would have survived if a c-section was done, up until the very day of delivery.    I would say that anybody who believes in a heaven and a hell, earned themselves a one-way ticket to hell if they voted for Hellary.

You accept without question whatever Trump feeds you like a sub gobbling up his master's cum.
Trump misstated Hillary's position on late-term abortions:
" Clinton’s position on abortion is that it should be legal and accessibility should be in line with Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a woman’s right to procedure up until the fetus is viable, another murky term, as viability can vary among pregnancies, but is generally understood to be between 24 and 28 weeks. It also said that any restrictions to post-viability abortions should include exemptions for women’s health.
In the past, Clinton has suggested she would be open to late-term abortion restrictions."
Some stats:
Only 1.3 percent of abortions occur at the 21st week or later, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and only 16 percent of abortion providers offer the procedure through the 24th week.

I, too,  personally oppose abortion at any time on moral and religious grounds  I think everything should be done to avoid them. But that does not mean they should be illegal.  The Supreme Court has already ruled.

I never meant to cast aspersions at you.

Of the people who voted for Obama because he was black, not all did so to promote "black power," but to see a barrier come down.  Similarly, the ones who voted for Hillary because she was a woman,  were not all staunch feminists, but  wanted to make history.

Forgive the two posts in a row, but I forgot to attach the table and the edit function does not allow attachments.

Interesting Hypothetical, but actually there are more new case of breast cancer than any other, although Lung cancer is a close second and is deadlier ( see attached table)

https://www.cancer.gov/types/common-cancers

But outside of access, healthcare should not seek gender or racial equality with funding simply because the healthcare needs will vary based on their genetic makeup.  Even the transgendered are still susceptible to the diseases associated with their birth genders.  For example, a man who becomes a woman will still have the increased risk of developing heart disease seen in males.

@raphjd:

Obama and Clinton pardoned domestic terrorists.

On the grand scale of things, which is worse; a belief that 4 people are guilty or pardoning a large number of domestic terrorists?

Are you talking about Oscar Lopez Rivera (I lived i Puerto Rico for 8 years, so I am quite familiar with his crimes) who already served 35 years of a 55 year sentence? And Clinton's FALN Commutation of 1999 for those that had served 20 years.
You are technically accurate, but these domestic terrorists had already served major time.

What you say may be true, but the converse is also true.  How many people did not vote for Obama because he was black?  How many people chose to "otherize" him and claim he was not a citizen because he was black?  How many could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary, no matter how moderate they were or how much they hated Trump simply because she was a woman?  The voting for the best candidate argument runs both ways.

Interesting that the left is always being blamed for playing "identity politics.," yet you are willing to throw 50% of the population under the bus on the basis of gender alone.

In all fairness to Frederick and Trump, the NYC police and Mayor Bloomberg refused to settle the case for 12 years because they asserted that the five must have been accomplices to the original crime.  They certainly were not upstanding members of the community, but they were jailed for a crime they did not commit.  For those of you who are fans of the death penalty, they might have been executed before they were exonerated, which would have been a real tragedy

What Frederick  says is true, but it was Trump who injected him into the case for political gain.  At the time, he used it to promote the death penalty.

After they were exonerated of the rape by DNA evidence, he refused to acknowledge it because they had "confessed."
Although they were exonerated in 2002, the city did not settle the case until 2014, and Trump managed to inject it into the Presidential campaign
"Despite Reyes' confession, Donald Trump was campaigning to be President in October 2016 when he refused to acknowledge the Central Park Five's innocence and stated that their convictions should never have been vacated. Trump told CNN: "They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same."
So, Fred, we are not blaming Trump for everything.  He revived the case as apolitical talking point.  That is why we can talk about it. Why he would bring up that case during the campaign is anyone's guess, but I can think of a few.

@aadam101:

The problem isn't so much that the cost is too high.  It's really that all of the prices are just made up.  If you go to the ER right now with no insurance you will be getting multiples bills in the mail for months to come with just totally make up prices.  Nobody pays those prices.  Insurers don't pay those prices.  Medicare and Medicaid don't pay those prices.  Even the uninsured don't pay those prices.  It's a crazy system where nobody knows what anything costs.  I work in healthcare finance and have for most of my career.  I have no idea what anything truly costs.

Healthcare providers know very well what healthcare costs.  They enter into contracts with and negotiate fees with insurance providers all the time based on those costs.
But what you say is very true.  The inflated fees that people without insurance are charged dates back to a time, now over 25 years ago, when some insurance companies paid bills without question, except with some very high limits.  Providers set their fees so that they were never lower than what the most generous insurance provider was willing to pay.  Now things are very different.  Insurers, especially Medicare, which sets the standard, determine fees.  Most private insurance companies ay about 85% of Medicare, some less.  Medicaid pays bout 30% of Medicare.
This part of healthcare costs has essentially been controlled.  Any further savings will need to affect utilization, especially of high-priced technology and new drugs.  The anticancer drug Keytruda (which you may have seen advertised on TV) costs each patient $200,000 a year. As long asa drug has a patent, they can charge whatever they like with no competition. Any talk of rationing care is met with great resistance from across the political spectrum. Yes, heakthcare is cimplicated.

His approval  rating  among Republicans right now is 85%.  It would have to drop below 50% for them to drop him.  Otherwise, he could support primary challengers in their safe, gerrymandered seats.

This issue was brought up several times during the campaign.  No one seemed to care….

Unless he actually does go out on 5th avenue and shoot someone, he won't be impeached by this Congress. If the Democrats win back the House in 2018, that is a different story.  Even under those circumstances, he would never be convicted in the Senate.67 Senators would have to vote to convict, a very high bar indeed.

This says it all…

Interesting how far each party has evolved (or devolved) from their founding principles.  OUCH!!!