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PoliGAF 2017 |OT5| The Man In the High Chair

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A

Abinash117

Member
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/347943-cohn-drafted-resignation-letter-report

President Trump's National Economic Council director reportedly drafted a resignation letter in response to Trump's controversial comments after violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month left one counterprotester dead.

The New York Times wrote Friday that Gary Cohn, who serves as the president's chief economic adviser, "seriously considered resigning" from his post and had prepared a resignation letter that he ultimately did not send.

The report comes hours after the Financial Times published a new interview with Cohen where he said that "this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups."
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I'm guessing multiple senior level officials from the administration will resign if things don't go well this fall. Not much reason to stick around if tax reform fails this fall.
 
T

Teggy

Member
"Fake Indian"

DIGISdbW0AIGb7G
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N

NeoXChaos

Member
Pyrokai said:
They would if the believed in justice! ����
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Pyrokai said:
Ah, right. Gerrymandering.

So...this Supreme Court case that's supposed to be heard in November in regards to Wisconsin's redistricting........if they rule that partisan gerrymandering is illegal (and thus changing politics in a huge way), is there the possibility that these states will have to redraw their lines before 2018?

And didn't SCOTUS tell North Carolina it had to do redraw its lines as well by upholding a lower court ruling or something? I'm aware of these things happening but not the results or orders from them.

If SCOTUS stands on the right side of history and makes these states redraw before 2018....that's one way we can fix the darkest timeline....
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In an idea scenario all 50 states would have non-partisan maps for both State and U.S legislatures. Theoretically states like Wyoming, Utah etc will still be super Republican on both levels but atleast things would be fairer than what it is now.

I think gerrymanderying played the biggest roll in the midwest & southern swing states like FL, VA, NC. Some of them have been gerry'd well before 2010 and even before 2000. The maps for some these states have been awful going back decades.
 
P

Piecake

Member
Liberty University presents itself as a temple of virtue. But its founding family’s secret Miami hostel is a cesspool of vice.
​
​

At Liberty University, the Christian private school at which Falwell Jr. is the president and Trey is the vice president for university operations—and from which I graduated in 2011—all manner of vice is prohibited. Students, whether on campus or off, and whether school is in session or not—cannot consume alcohol or tobacco. Co-ed sleeping arrangements are verboten. And, in the words of “The Liberty Way,” the school’s student handbook, “homosexual conduct or the encouragement or advocacy of any form of sexual behavior that would undermine the Christian identity or faith mission of the University” are strictly prohibited. Any one of these transgressions could get you saddled with reprimands, financial repercussions, and even expulsion. And yet, here we were, in perhaps the gayest 6 square miles in the United States—South Beach, Miami—staying in Falwell’s gay-friendly flophouse with an on-site liquor store.

At least that’s the story I thought I was there to report. The more I dug into it, the larger and more byzantine the story became—and the more questions it raised. Though Liberty University officials declined to comment on the record for this story, senior-level sources at the university agreed to answer many of my questions. But rather than settling the matter, the answers they provided begat new and more serious inquiries that go beyond mere charges of hypocrisy over owning a hostel, and point to dubious behavior by Liberty University—actions which, according to several tax-law experts I consulted, could violate IRS rules.

The Falwell-owned hostel encourages behavior that would get Liberty students expelled—the drinking, the smoking, the advertising for strip clubs, the free shuttles to local bars, the possibility of co-ed sleeping arrangements, and so on. And they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to buy anything from the adjoining liquor store on Falwell’s property—an amenity the hostel touts in the self-description it provides to travel sites like TripAdvisor: “There is a liquor store connected to the hostel with almost anything you need for partying!”

For most people, this probably seems like no big deal. But there’s a more substantive concern here than simple hypocrisy: For two years, the Falwell-controlled LLC that owned the hostel (as well as the land containing the liquor store and neighboring Italian restaurant) was based on property in Virginia owned by Liberty University.

While it is possible for a nonprofit such as Liberty University to engage in financial transactions with a senior officer or close family member of a senior officer, a number of legal limitations and restrictions apply, according to Lloyd Mayer, a professor at University of Notre Dame Law School who specializes in taxation and nonprofit law. The most obvious regulation involves the nonprofit disclosing that the sale took place—which, in this case, did not happen.

Several tax experts say the distinction Liberty has offered is not supported by IRS instructions.

“It’s bullshit,” says Eve Borenstein, an attorney and recognized expert on nonprofit tax law who is sometimes known as the “Queen of the 990,” as she was introduced before giving testimony at a congressional hearing in 2012. Borenstein says Liberty does not get to decide whether the sale of land to Trey Falwell constitutes a business transaction that needs to be disclosed: “That would moot the whole point of the schedule.”

Someone could argue that a $225,000 sale is a drop in the bucket for an institution with assets valued in the billions. But that justification misses the point, says Borenstein. “Liberty says they did this transaction correctly, but [POLITICO Magazine] had to uncover it—so there’s smoke. And you don’t know if there are other transactions to ask about. The logical next question is, 'What else has the school left out of its tax filings?'”
Click to expand...

Liberty University may not have debt, but its students and graduates do. A lot of it. And that’s how the school—and the Falwells—made their money.

Liberty bills itself as the world’s largest Christian university—and that’s true. But once you start breaking down its numbers, as Kevin Carey recently did for the New York Times, a much more complicated picture emerges of a place that sells itself as an educational Eden.

“Liberty is essentially a medium-size nonprofit college that owns a huge for-profit college,” Carey wrote. Although Falwell boasts that his school has tens of thousands of students, his residential program has only 14,000, a small fraction of the overall figure. Liberty’s online program has about 64,000, nearly four times as many, making it second only to the University of Phoenix in terms of the size of its online student body. On paper, the only difference between the two online schools is that Liberty’s is tax-exempt. In 2015, it received $345 million from federal undergraduate grant and loan programs—more than twice the amount received by the largest public university in the country. “Liberty’s considerable financial success—it has built a $1 billion cash reserve, and Mr. Falwell is paid more than $900,000 a year,” Carey wrote, “was underwritten largely by the federal taxpayer.” That money has blessed the Falwells with a life of considerable plenty, giving them the financial means to, among other things, purchase a $4.65 million property in Miami Beach. (A university spokesperson disputes that characterization but repeatedly refused to speak on the record about the matter.)

There’s little doubt that Liberty’s intent in requiring these courses is idealistic, as I well know from attending the university for my undergraduate degree. The school is, after all, premised on the fervent shared beliefs of all those in its orbit. But some employers seem to not think much of it—which may be why so many students have a hard time landing decent salaried jobs and paying back their loans. Within three years of graduating from Liberty University, almost 10 percent of students default on their loans, well above the national average of 6.5 percent among recent graduates of private nonprofit four-year colleges (its default rate is nonetheless slightly lower than the national average graduates of all colleges, profit and nonprofit). While most don’t default, many make almost no effort to reduce their balances, says Carey, who notes that “only 38 percent of Liberty borrowers manage to pay down as little as one dollar on their student loan principal within three years of leaving school.”

Were Liberty a for-profit school, it would have to note its lousy loan repayment rates on its promotional material, thanks to borrower protections put into place during the Obama administration. It’s not unlike a lung cancer warning on cigarette packaging, says Carey: “U.S. Department of Education Warning: A majority of recent student loan borrowers at this school are not paying down their loans.”

With this in mind, it’s not a stretch to view Liberty’s online business model—which saved the school from ruin and brings in most of its profit—as something of a slumlord scenario: Keep costs low, bring in struggling customers looking for a bargain, and give them a low-quality product. Not unlike the Falwells’ Miami hostel.

But for many alumni—and, based on my previous reporting, quite a few current faculty and students—Liberty University has come to represent what happens when religion commingles with soliciting, fundraising, politics and salesmen.

Maybe that’s why those activities aren’t welcome at the Miami Hostel. From experience, the Falwells know what strange bedfellows those pursuits often prove to be.
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http://www.politico.com/magazine/st...hostel-liberty-university-trey-falwell-215528

I'm Shocked!
 
T

Teggy

Member
Zolo said:
So is this normal or a new wave of Republicans imitating Trump now?
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There are definitely a segment of candidates that are emulating trump, although they are fringe candidates for the most part. This is the guy who claims to have invented email.

The kind of funny thing about him calling her a "fake indian" is he immigrated from India, making him a "real Indian."

I guess he didn't call he Pocahontas, at least.
 
B

Box of Kittens

Banned
Massachusetts is one of ten states where Clinton got a higher share of the two-party vote than Obama did in 2012. To say the least, running as a Trump Republican is not the path to victory there. Then again, Warren's seat is as safe as safe can be (despite what some sensationalist articles would have you believe) so it doesn't really matter.
 
A

AntraxSuicide

Banned
Pyrokai said:
Ah, right. Gerrymandering.

So...this Supreme Court case that's supposed to be heard in November in regards to Wisconsin's redistricting........if they rule that partisan gerrymandering is illegal (and thus changing politics in a huge way), is there the possibility that these states will have to redraw their lines before 2018?

And didn't SCOTUS tell North Carolina it had to do redraw its lines as well by upholding a lower court ruling or something? I'm aware of these things happening but not the results or orders from them.

If SCOTUS stands on the right side of history and makes these states redraw before 2018....that's one way we can fix the darkest timeline....
Click to expand...

Whatever the Court rules won't matter if there isn't also a punishment for violating its ruling. The GOP does this shit all the time. Draw up illegal maps, run sketchy election, get sued, lose the case but the election results stand, get ordered to draw new maps, draw different but still illegal maps, repeat.
 
A

Aaron Strife

Banned
Spoiled Milk said:
Did Katrina help with the 2006 midterms, Aaron?
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It hurt Bush's approval ratings badly. I think it was the first real fuck-up of his second term.

06 had like a million things going for the Democrats though. Growing sentiment that the Iraq War was a failure, the attempt to privatize Social Security, massive corruption scandals in the House leadership, conservatives zeroing in on dumb shit social issues like Terri Schiavo, six year itch, probably some other things I'm forgetting.

The GOP is really bad at overplaying their hand - 60,000 votes in Ohio could have swung the presidency but they acted like they had a mandate. Even with actual mandates there's always going to be some pushback so the Bushies acting like they could gut Social Security and ban gay marriage with these bare ass majorities was probably their downfall. You're seeing that now with Trump who has even less power, gets along terribly with the establishment and didn't even win the popular vote.



A new poll has Democrats leading in a GOP-held Florida Senate district special election next month, but a few caveats: At just 42-38, it's within the margin of error and there are plenty of undecideds.

http://floridapolitics.com/archives...taddeo-slight-lead-jose-felix-diaz-sd-40-race

A Democratic polling firm says Democrat Annette Taddeo has a four-point lead over Republican Jose Felix Diaz going into the Sept. 26 special election in Senate District 40, but the margin of error makes it a dead heat on the first day general election campaigning.

The survey — which was conducted between June 21 and June 26, one month before the special primary — showed Taddeo led Diaz, 42 percent to 38 percent. The poll of 400 likely special election voters was completed by Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, a Washington, D.C.-based firm. It has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.

...

President Donald Trump could be a factor in the race. The president's popularity is underwater in Senate District 40, with 56 percent of respondents saying they had an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Half of the respondents said they had a ”very unfavorable opinion" of Trump. According to the polling memo, 40 percent of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of the president.
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If Democrats swing this seat, the Florida Senate becomes a 24-16 R majority.
 
F

Futurevoid

Member
It's going to be interesting to see the shit storm that develops over DACA in the near future. Outside of everything else going in, it looks like Trump is considering two options for the program:

https://twitter.com/DavidWright_CNN/status/901049485635268608

David Wright‏
@DavidWright_CNN

Trump's DACA Option 1: Grandfather people in the program & end it for newcomers
DACA Option 2: End it altogether
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David Wright‏ @DavidWright_CNN 9h9 hours ago
More
Replying to @DavidWright_CNN
Same source tells @CNN it's not believed Trump will choose option 2, though, and is said to be looking at option 1
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David Wright‏ @DavidWright_CNN 8h8 hours ago
More
DACA decision not expected today, but closer to Sept. 5th, which is the deadline the attorney general has given the administration
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The question is - if he goes for option 1 - what happens when time for renewal comes up? What does "grandfathered" in really mean? Will they be renewed, etc.?
 
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