The courts should absolutely stay out of scientific matters, they have ZERO aptitude or appreciation for it.
Speaking of scientific aptitude: My chemistry professor in college had a government inspection of his chem lab once where the inspector told him that there could be no ventilation going from the chemical storage room to the outside. They said that they were afraid of the fumes going into the air around campus and making students pass out. The inspector said this straight faced while STANDING IN THE CHEMICAL STORAGE ROOM. These are the kinds of people that are supposed to be in charge of safety regulations.
Kansas continues to lead the way in total absurdity. Not only are they pushing for teachers to be armed, by they are trying to make it CRIMINAL for anyone to reveal which teachers may be armed, making it totally impossible for parents to legally know if their child's teacher is carrying a weapon in the classroom:
Kansas continues to lead the way in total absurdity. Not only are they pushing for teachers to be armed, by they are trying to make it CRIMINAL for anyone to reveal which teachers may be armed, making it totally impossible for parents to legally know if their child's teacher is carrying a weapon in the classroom:
Why would anyone want to live in Kansas with policies like this? Who thinks, thank god my legislators are keeping it secret which teachers are armed! That's the smart thing to do?
Who is demanding secret armed teachers in classrooms? Nobody. Nobody thinks that's a great idea. When a Kansas teacher inevitably shoots him(or her)self or a student will be able to cover it up because hey you can't say that a teacher was armed, that's a crime! Is that what this is all about? You know they've thought about this.
Why do Republican voters keep putting these people in office? Okay, you don't like libruls! Great, you've bought that message, but what are you actually getting? Bathroom bills, religious freedom bills, tax cuts for corporations, and underpaid teachers. This is red state america priorities?
These Republicans are not representing you. Do something about it. I don't understand why people in Kansas allow this to happen, especially now. You won the "no democrat" lottery oh boy you're so lucky you got what you want, but what did ya get?
The courts should absolutely stay out of scientific matters, they have ZERO aptitude or appreciation for it.
Many people in the patent bar are upset that the US Supreme Court has been overturning the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit very frequently on appeal. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is the court that hears all patent appeals, and is specialized court with many judges who have scientific backgrounds.
They were reversed in patent cases 6 out of 6 times last year!
Speaking of scientific aptitude: My chemistry professor in college had a government inspection of his chem lab once where the inspector told him that there could be no ventilation going from the chemical storage room to the outside. They said that they were afraid of the fumes going into the air around campus and making students pass out. The inspector said this straight faced while STANDING IN THE CHEMICAL STORAGE ROOM. These are the kinds of people that are supposed to be in charge of safety regulations.
Man, you'd hope that government regulators would know at least as much as the TAs...
Trump got all worked up after watching TV yesterday on Easter and he's still tweeting about it today. This time blaming Obama because he's a baby who blames others and takes no responsibility.
Anyway, back to the original issue. You can start that he's forming policy decisions from Fox News. There is not a more slanted propaganda "News" channel in the US. They complain about other stations having biases but it's typical projection you see from these conservative types. They are the ones that are bending reality to fit a conservative narrative of fear, in this case of immigrants.
CARAVANS OF IMMIGRANTS! Sounds scary eh? So what's the truth? Not what you get on a fox news soundbite or the racist interpretation of a golf player sitting in the white house.
“He’s trying to paint this as if we are trying to go to the border, and we’re going to storm the border,” Mr. Mujica said.
Alex Mensing, project coordinator for Pueblo Sin Fronteras, added: “We’re definitely not looking for some kind of showdown.”
Mr. Mujica predicted that at most 10 percent to 15 percent of the participants would seek asylum at the border. Most of the others would drop out along the way, many over the next several days as the group traveled from Oaxaca to the state of Puebla and on to Mexico City, and many of those would seek asylum or some other protection in Mexico.
“We have a lot of people living in Mexico now,” Mr. Mujica said, speaking of participants in past caravans. “All they want is a place to live without fear.”
“We don’t promote going to the United States,” Mr. Mensing said. “It’s a challenging place to seek asylum.” -------
Asylum? People are allowed to show up at the border and seek asylum. They do so because they are fleeing violence from their home countries. It's been accepted that being accepted into the US because of murder and killings in your own country is a humanitarian thing. Humanitarian (being a human human with "feelings") is too much to ask the racist old man watching fear mongering on Fox News while blaming others for everything.
In 2017, An American Died After Coming up $50 Short for Insulin With politics and health the way they are now, it's stories like this that really hit home for me, having been a Type I (insulin dependent) diabetic for 35+ years. I have watched slin prices go through the roof over the years. *So one needs a new HHS secretary, where does one go? How about a former Eli Lilly rep., the company that was originally tasked at providing affordable insulin to people who will die without it. A terrible choice to put it lightly. When I was first diagnosed in the early 80's, I could get insulin for $8 a bottle, now it's around $500 for the 'most recommended' type for pumps. Those with chronic conditions like this seem to be considered by insulin makers as no more than money in the bank. "Well we provide life saving products for people, and the pricing is, complicated" Uh-huh, I'm sure it is. I imagine it really is complicated to figure out the newest and best way to make more and more money on a product, developed nearly 100 yrs ago, that should be no more expensive now than buying a bottle of Tylenol. Alex Azar, Trump’s HHS Pick, Has Already Been a Disaster for People With Diabetes Lawsuit Alleges Eli Lilly Used Kickbacks to Increase Use of Its Insulin Products I suppose it's just icing on the cake that many diabetes educators are repping for these companies as well.
Ya know what? I think if they help me any more, I may just die from all of that help, literally.
I suppose we should also consider it totally normal now that the President of the United States is using his platform to purposefully try to tank the stock of a company (Amazon) because he doesn't like the way the Washington Post (owned by the same person) is reporting on him. If Barack Obama had EVER specifically attacked a company the way Trump has the last few days, the Articles of Impeachment would have drawn up themselves. Many people are wondering how in the hell this isn't being viewed as a securities violation. Amazon stock holders should band together in a lawsuit post-haste. The President is using his power to personally sanction a company in a ostensibly "free" society as punishment for negative press coverage of himself. This is INSANE. This isn't about just Amazon, this is about the most basic tenants of the First Amendment. Trump is DIRECTLY attacking it. He should be marched out of office for this alone:
The funny part is that Jeff Bezos has asserted almost no influence over the editorial staff at the Post. In fact, when he took over it was Democrats who were worried that he'd take it in a more libertarian direction, of all things! All the guy has done is create basically the best company in America. Amazon rules.
The only thing Jeff Bezos has done that I don't like is create a paywall for WaPo online, leading my favorite legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, to jump ship.
I like Amazon, but it really doesn't seem like fair competition when it doesn't have to pay the same kind of taxes as other retailers. Generally it's better when companies become large because of a brilliant business strategy or product line, rather than an arbitrary advantage due to a legal issue.
@smeagolheart that's a huge oversimplification. First off, Amazon wasn't given a tax break. The corporate rates were simply cut accross the board to reflect the United States competition. That's not an Amazon-specific tax cut.
Second, the main point of contention here are sales taxes, which are collected by the states. The probe is that brick and mortar retailers pay state sales taxes, while online retailers do so only occasionally, depending on the relevant laws.
Amazon now actually does collect sales taxes in all states in which it does business, starting around this time last year. However, it does so only for its own sales and not for third-party merchants who use the Amazon website. I don't think it is useful to bash a company for tax avoidance. Every company can be expected do everything within its means to legally lower its tax burden. If people like Trump and Sanders do not like this, then they should call for a change in the laws.
People are missing the point here. Amazon's business practices are immaterial. Trump is personally trying to damage a company because he doesn't believe the Washington Post should be able to report critically on him and his Administration without financial retaliation. This makes free speech issues on college campuses look like hopscotch.
As for Amazon and the Post Office.....for one thing, it would be a vast understatement to say Amazon deals in bulk. When I recently ordered my new laptop, I learned my small-sized city has an entire division/department of the Post Office that does nothing but deliever Amazon packages til 8pm. We live in an age where almost no one needs to send envelopes for bills or needs to receive paper bills in the mail anymore. Without Amazon, the current situation at the Post Office would likely crater.
@smeagolheart that's a huge oversimplification. First off, Amazon wasn't given a tax break. The corporate rates were simply cut accross the board to reflect the United States competition. That's not an Amazon-specific tax cut.
Second, the main point of contention here are sales taxes, which are collected by the states. The probe is that brick and mortar retailers pay state sales taxes, while online retailers do so only occasionally, depending on the relevant laws.
Amazon now actually does collect sales taxes in all states in which it does business, starting around this time last year. However, it does so only for its own sales and not for third-party merchants who use the Amazon website. I don't think it is useful to bash a company for tax avoidance. Every company can be expected do everything within its means to legally lower its tax burden. If people like Trump and Sanders do not like this, then they should call for a change in the laws.
Yes, not only Amazon was given a tax break ALL corporations were given permanent tax breaks including Amazon. To complain about Amazon's taxes when Republicans unilaterally just cut them in half is beyond stupid. Amazon collects state and local taxes so what is Trump whining about? He cut their taxes. Worried about third party not collecting state and local taxes? Pass federal or state laws like a few states have done already.
Online retailers not collecting taxes is a different argument from singling out Amazon. What's different about Amazon than others - the Washington Post
Trump is trying to be a dictator like the others he admires so much such as Putin, Ergodan, Sisi, and Duetere. He praises these guys, bashes Merkel, Trudeau, May. Fundamentally he doesn't believe in America in Democracy his whole life has been circumventing the rule of law to benefit himself. He is not to be questioned like Steven Miller said. He wants one party rule he keeps tweeting about it. How is that America. He does not want the truth he wants to do away with the free press and have his lies and spin unquestioned.
For years I have been telling people "the President has very little direct influence on the economy or the stock markets". I did not realize that I was mistaken. Of course, no other President ever sent out random, poorly-thought-out tweets like a teenager with their first smart device like Trump does.
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Alex van der Zwaan has been sentenced to 30 days in prison (lolwut?) and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine for the crime of lying to Mueller's investigative team...a crime which would not exist if the investigation, itself, did not exist. Sounds like Mueller is still trying to justify his investigation's existence.
Of course, now it is also investigating a corporation which did business in the United Arab Emirates beginning back in 2015 and which has only the most tenuous and tangential links to the Trump Administration--one representative of theirs met with one representative in the Trump Administration early last year (as I am certain a lot of people were doing) but nothing substantive came of those meetings. Why, then, is this corporation being investigated? Mueller's team is still casting a very wide net, hoping to find any smoke which might give them a hint of a fire.
This a complete lie. There is a 2006 law that PROHIBITS the post office from pricing parcel delivery below cost. At this point Amazon should simply look into suing for libel.
I know you have a healthy reflex to think that things are overblown, but it's absurd to suggest that there isn't already smoke here.
Not where they are currently looking. If the Mueller team were playing the children's game "hot or cold" then by looking at Gates and Manafort they were "hot" but by looking at this current company they are definitely "cold".
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Did I mention the Asheville, North Carolina bodycam footage of an officer chasing down, beating, choking, and tasing a black man for jaywalking? Yes, you read that correctly--jaywalking. Early in the morning (somwhere around 0230 or 0330), with no traffic on the street in question. By himself. On his way home after finishing a shift of washing dishes.
Alex van der Zwaan has been sentenced to 30 days in prison (lolwut?) and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine for the crime of lying to Mueller's investigative team...a crime which would not exist if the investigation, itself, did not exist. Sounds like Mueller is still trying to justify his investigation's existence.
Perjury also never exists until there's a trial, yet that doesn't make it any less of a crime. The point is not to justify the existence of the investigation; the point of the penalty is the same as the point of criminalizing perjury: because it discourages other people from lying to law enforcement.
The alternative to punishing people for lying to the FBI is to not punish people for lying to the FBI.
Perjury also never exists until there's a trial, yet that doesn't make it any less of a crime. The point is not to justify the existence of the investigation; the point of the penalty is the same as the point of criminalizing perjury: because it discourages other people from lying to law enforcement.
The alternative to punishing people for lying to the FBI is to not punish people for lying to the FBI.
I know you have a healthy reflex to think that things are overblown, but it's absurd to suggest that there isn't already smoke here.
Not where they are currently looking. If the Mueller team were playing the children's game "hot or cold" then by looking at Gates and Manafort they were "hot" but by looking at this current company they are definitely "cold".
*************
Did I mention the Asheville, North Carolina bodycam footage of an officer chasing down, beating, choking, and tasing a black man for jaywalking? Yes, you read that correctly--jaywalking. Early in the morning (somwhere around 0230 or 0330), with no traffic on the street in question. By himself. On his way home after finishing a shift of washing dishes.
Of course, we haven't even mentioned the man shot to death by 8 police bullets while attempting to enter the back door of his own residence in Sacramento. Of course, he didn't have a gun, but a cell phone, and the autopsy shows that he was likely shot in the back 6 times. Again, for attempting to enter his grandmother's house carrying a cell phone. Being an African-American in this country means your very right to EXIST as a normal citizen is an illusion that can shatter at any time.
Per usual, the cops said they were looking for a burglar. Cops seem to be perpetually looking for amorphous burglars. And the reason I am sensitive to this bullshit excuse is that TWICE in the last decade I have been offered the same excuse when confronted by a cop when unloading my car late at night moving into a new apartment. I'm beginning to wonder if I would have even survived those encounters if I was black.
If a black man is shot and killed by cops, you can bet anything that a phantom burglar terrorizing the neighborhood will be part of the story. Incidentally, it certainly doesn't appear any of these burglars are ever caught.
Trump says he's going to order the military to guard the southern border. Until his wall is complete. No word on the Northern border for some reason. Why?
He plans to have the military guard the border against women, children and asylum seekers. Trump last week invited Vladimir Putin to the White House. Vladimir Putin owner of anti-American propaganda troll farms who infiltrated national and state elections in the recent past and are still active today. The guy who launched an assassination in the United Kingdom causing most countries to kick out their ambassadors. But the problem facing America is asylum seekers and women and children. This guy is nuts.
@smeagolheart that's a huge oversimplification. First off, Amazon wasn't given a tax break. The corporate rates were simply cut accross the board to reflect the United States competition. That's not an Amazon-specific tax cut.
Second, the main point of contention here are sales taxes, which are collected by the states. The probe is that brick and mortar retailers pay state sales taxes, while online retailers do so only occasionally, depending on the relevant laws.
Amazon now actually does collect sales taxes in all states in which it does business, starting around this time last year. However, it does so only for its own sales and not for third-party merchants who use the Amazon website. I don't think it is useful to bash a company for tax avoidance. Every company can be expected do everything within its means to legally lower its tax burden. If people like Trump and Sanders do not like this, then they should call for a change in the laws.
Yes, not only Amazon was given a tax break ALL corporations were given permanent tax breaks including Amazon. To complain about Amazon's taxes when Republicans unilaterally just cut them in half is beyond stupid. Amazon collects state and local taxes so what is Trump whining about? He cut their taxes. Worried about third party not collecting state and local taxes? Pass federal or state laws like a few states have done already.
He wasn't complaining about their corporate tax, but their sales tax practices. That's why I think pointing out the corporate rate is an unrelated issue.
Comments
Speaking of scientific aptitude: My chemistry professor in college had a government inspection of his chem lab once where the inspector told him that there could be no ventilation going from the chemical storage room to the outside. They said that they were afraid of the fumes going into the air around campus and making students pass out. The inspector said this straight faced while STANDING IN THE CHEMICAL STORAGE ROOM. These are the kinds of people that are supposed to be in charge of safety regulations.
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article207339619.html
Who is demanding secret armed teachers in classrooms? Nobody. Nobody thinks that's a great idea. When a Kansas teacher inevitably shoots him(or her)self or a student will be able to cover it up because hey you can't say that a teacher was armed, that's a crime! Is that what this is all about? You know they've thought about this.
Why do Republican voters keep putting these people in office? Okay, you don't like libruls! Great, you've bought that message, but what are you actually getting? Bathroom bills, religious freedom bills, tax cuts for corporations, and underpaid teachers. This is red state america priorities?
These Republicans are not representing you. Do something about it. I don't understand why people in Kansas allow this to happen, especially now. You won the "no democrat" lottery oh boy you're so lucky you got what you want, but what did ya get?
They were reversed in patent cases 6 out of 6 times last year! Man, you'd hope that government regulators would know at least as much as the TAs...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/climate/epa-pruitt-pipeline-apartment.html?smid=tw-share
Sessions said catch and release ended last year. Staying up to date it hard when you're old.
He also wants to blame Democrats for DACA but he's the guy that ended it. A coward doesn't take personal responsibility.
Trump warns of migrant caravan following Fox News report, but organizers say reality far from their portrayal.
Anyway, back to the original issue. You can start that he's forming policy decisions from Fox News. There is not a more slanted propaganda "News" channel in the US. They complain about other stations having biases but it's typical projection you see from these conservative types. They are the ones that are bending reality to fit a conservative narrative of fear, in this case of immigrants.
CARAVANS OF IMMIGRANTS! Sounds scary eh? So what's the truth? Not what you get on a fox news soundbite or the racist interpretation of a golf player sitting in the white house.
-------
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/world/americas/caravans-migrants-mexico-trump.html
“He’s trying to paint this as if we are trying to go to the border, and we’re going to storm the border,” Mr. Mujica said.
Alex Mensing, project coordinator for Pueblo Sin Fronteras, added: “We’re definitely not looking for some kind of showdown.”
Mr. Mujica predicted that at most 10 percent to 15 percent of the participants would seek asylum at the border. Most of the others would drop out along the way, many over the next several days as the group traveled from Oaxaca to the state of Puebla and on to Mexico City, and many of those would seek asylum or some other protection in Mexico.
“We have a lot of people living in Mexico now,” Mr. Mujica said, speaking of participants in past caravans. “All they want is a place to live without fear.”
“We don’t promote going to the United States,” Mr. Mensing said. “It’s a challenging place to seek asylum.”
-------
Asylum? People are allowed to show up at the border and seek asylum. They do so because they are fleeing violence from their home countries. It's been accepted that being accepted into the US because of murder and killings in your own country is a humanitarian thing. Humanitarian (being a human human with "feelings") is too much to ask the racist old man watching fear mongering on Fox News while blaming others for everything.
With politics and health the way they are now, it's stories like this that really hit home for me, having been a Type I (insulin dependent) diabetic for 35+ years. I have watched slin prices go through the roof over the years.
*So one needs a new HHS secretary, where does one go? How about a former Eli Lilly rep., the company that was originally tasked at providing affordable insulin to people who will die without it. A terrible choice to put it lightly.
When I was first diagnosed in the early 80's, I could get insulin for $8 a bottle, now it's around $500 for the 'most recommended' type for pumps.
Those with chronic conditions like this seem to be considered by insulin makers as no more than money in the bank.
"Well we provide life saving products for people, and the pricing is, complicated"
Uh-huh, I'm sure it is. I imagine it really is complicated to figure out the newest and best way to make more and more money on a product, developed nearly 100 yrs ago, that should be no more expensive now than buying a bottle of Tylenol.
Alex Azar, Trump’s HHS Pick, Has Already Been a Disaster for People With Diabetes
Lawsuit Alleges Eli Lilly Used Kickbacks to Increase Use of Its Insulin Products
I suppose it's just icing on the cake that many diabetes educators are repping for these companies as well.
Ya know what? I think if they help me any more, I may just die from all of that help, literally.
The only thing Jeff Bezos has done that I don't like is create a paywall for WaPo online, leading my favorite legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, to jump ship.
Trump's claims about Amazon "taking advantage of the USPS" is false, as packages "are one area that's growing for the postal service, bringing in more than $19 billion in revenue last year even as volume of letters and magazines declined" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-contract-usps-fact-checking-trump-tweets-amazon-post-office-03-31-2018/
To top it all off, Bernie Sanders is now also commenting on Amazon, saying they are too big and getting involved in too many areas of commerce. He's worried about the decline in brick and mortar retail. http://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-amazon-is-too-big-2018-4
I would not be surprised to see congressional hearings on Amazon and sales taxes soon, with bipartisan support.
3rd party sellers on amazon do not always collect state and local taxes but Amazon itself does.
If you think Amazon is not paying enough taxes that's true because Trump and Republicans cut corporate taxes.
and besides being wrong about their taxes...
First off, Amazon wasn't given a tax break. The corporate rates were simply cut accross the board to reflect the United States competition. That's not an Amazon-specific tax cut.
Second, the main point of contention here are sales taxes, which are collected by the states. The probe is that brick and mortar retailers pay state sales taxes, while online retailers do so only occasionally, depending on the relevant laws.
Amazon now actually does collect sales taxes in all states in which it does business, starting around this time last year. However, it does so only for its own sales and not for third-party merchants who use the Amazon website. I don't think it is useful to bash a company for tax avoidance. Every company can be expected do everything within its means to legally lower its tax burden. If people like Trump and Sanders do not like this, then they should call for a change in the laws.
As for Amazon and the Post Office.....for one thing, it would be a vast understatement to say Amazon deals in bulk. When I recently ordered my new laptop, I learned my small-sized city has an entire division/department of the Post Office that does nothing but deliever Amazon packages til 8pm. We live in an age where almost no one needs to send envelopes for bills or needs to receive paper bills in the mail anymore. Without Amazon, the current situation at the Post Office would likely crater.
Online retailers not collecting taxes is a different argument from singling out Amazon. What's different about Amazon than others - the Washington Post
Trump is trying to be a dictator like the others he admires so much such as Putin, Ergodan, Sisi, and Duetere. He praises these guys, bashes Merkel, Trudeau, May. Fundamentally he doesn't believe in America in Democracy his whole life has been circumventing the rule of law to benefit himself. He is not to be questioned like Steven Miller said. He wants one party rule he keeps tweeting about it. How is that America. He does not want the truth he wants to do away with the free press and have his lies and spin unquestioned.
*************
Alex van der Zwaan has been sentenced to 30 days in prison (lolwut?) and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine for the crime of lying to Mueller's investigative team...a crime which would not exist if the investigation, itself, did not exist. Sounds like Mueller is still trying to justify his investigation's existence.
Of course, now it is also investigating a corporation which did business in the United Arab Emirates beginning back in 2015 and which has only the most tenuous and tangential links to the Trump Administration--one representative of theirs met with one representative in the Trump Administration early last year (as I am certain a lot of people were doing) but nothing substantive came of those meetings. Why, then, is this corporation being investigated? Mueller's team is still casting a very wide net, hoping to find any smoke which might give them a hint of a fire.
This a complete lie. There is a 2006 law that PROHIBITS the post office from pricing parcel delivery below cost. At this point Amazon should simply look into suing for libel.
*************
Did I mention the Asheville, North Carolina bodycam footage of an officer chasing down, beating, choking, and tasing a black man for jaywalking? Yes, you read that correctly--jaywalking. Early in the morning (somwhere around 0230 or 0330), with no traffic on the street in question. By himself. On his way home after finishing a shift of washing dishes.
The alternative to punishing people for lying to the FBI is to not punish people for lying to the FBI.
Per usual, the cops said they were looking for a burglar. Cops seem to be perpetually looking for amorphous burglars. And the reason I am sensitive to this bullshit excuse is that TWICE in the last decade I have been offered the same excuse when confronted by a cop when unloading my car late at night moving into a new apartment. I'm beginning to wonder if I would have even survived those encounters if I was black.
If a black man is shot and killed by cops, you can bet anything that a phantom burglar terrorizing the neighborhood will be part of the story. Incidentally, it certainly doesn't appear any of these burglars are ever caught.
He plans to have the military guard the border against women, children and asylum seekers. Trump last week invited Vladimir Putin to the White House. Vladimir Putin owner of anti-American propaganda troll farms who infiltrated national and state elections in the recent past and are still active today. The guy who launched an assassination in the United Kingdom causing most countries to kick out their ambassadors. But the problem facing America is asylum seekers and women and children. This guy is nuts.