Soxbadger

QUOTE (raBBit @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 02:32 PM) Full disclosure: I know next to nothing about this situation. But Israel owning most of Congress probably has something to do with it. You got this way backwards. Evangelicals, Sheldon Aldeson etc have way more influence than Israel. Sheldon Adelson allegedly spent about $200 million to support Republican candidates. One of his biggest issues is Israel. Rich people drive policy, not countries.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 02:25 PM) If this would cause so much upheaval, why would this unanimously be voted on by the Senate? Genuinely curious. Political games. They can home to their base and say "We did it!" and then pass the buck onto the President to sign the waiver.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 11:55 AM) I agree. If the number of allegations are real, he would get convicted which is what should happen. He should not be allowed to skate away with just a resignation. Convictions are really hard to begin with. Convictions for something that happened years ago are even harder. For example, if we took ever accusation against Franken as true, you are likely looking at a charge of batter or sexual assault. http://www.icasa.org/docs/sol%20charts%20for%20web.pdf In IL if wasnt reported within 2-3 years its not a viable prosecution. Which is why the possibility of conviction doesnt really mean much for most of these allegations. Even if Franken said "Yeah I assaulted her 10 years ago" they couldnt convict.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 11:49 AM) If you own a bitcoin right now, why would you even want to spend it? You could by $12,000 worth of things yesterday, or you could $18,000 worth of things with the same bitcoin today. They said my tulips would be worth millions...

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 11:23 AM) Sure. But you can't go back and prove that they did or didn't take them because they weren't put on trial. These people will go to trial. You will have evidence if they committed a crime. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 11:27 AM) Al Franken will never go to trial. He'll go home and have to answer to his family at most. Someday he may write another book for all we know. That's the world we live in - the stuff he did is such a small crime that you can do worse and be President of the United States. I think the question is whether we hold elected officials to a higher standard than regular people. Its unlikely Franken ever could have been convicted, I doubt anyone would have been willing to prosecute. But if X amount of people all make similar allegations that are determined to be credible, should we hold our elected officials accountable to those accusers, even though we know that they likely would never face criminal prosecution?

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Dec 7, 2017 -> 10:22 AM) The question is how far will this go. Bitcoin isn't based on anything but perceived value, and that value is being generated by demand. There's a huge amount of demand, but it's really just beginning and bitcoins acceptance, especially globally, is still growing. I find it hard to believe that suddenly, tomorrow, everyone just stops believing that bitcoin is something valuable. $16k valuable? i dunno, but there's really no rhyme or reason here. It could drop or it could rise to a million per. Anyone claiming to know is just guessing. Jenks, My thought is that the big test will be if large investors try to pull actual money out. If there is any problem getting actual currency from the exchange it could immediately create a crisis in terms of confidence in bitcoin.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 10:23 PM) At first I thought the common thought of "well crap, people are gonna get pissed over there, there goes a chance at peace." There will never be peace. There will always be pissed off Palestinians pissed off about Israel's existence, and rightfully so. So maybe this move is a good thing. It does SOMETHING. It says "This site is not holy to you, we're taking it. So let's not fight over Jerusalem anymore." Letting everyone have their holy lands is a good place to start. And f*** the UN and their meeting and thinking another 100 years of nothing would do something. We'll see how this plays out. There will be initial rioting and unrest and hopefully not many people get hurt. Where the old temple was is considered the 3rd holiest site in the Muslim religion. So it's simply inaccurate to say it's not holy to them. But it would be fair to say it's much more holy to Jewish people.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/d...uestions-284841 Trump Jr. said he couldnt testify due to attorney client privilege. The problem is that other people were in the room and attorney client privilege only applies if no one else besides your attorney heard the statement. Unless of course they were all part of a conspiracy and that attorney was giving them all legal advice. That is pretty rare because usually in criminal cases you dont want to share counsel because many times the best defense is leveraging information against your co-defendant. That being said its an interesting comment because it basically implicates them in a conspiracy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 01:33 PM) What do you mean by "Have"? As of right now they have access to the temple but aren't allowed to pray there. They control the land and govern it, the people who live in that city only have whatever rights Israel grants them. They can't vote, they may not even be able to commute to areas where they work. Balta, Rebuilding that temple is fundamental to the religion. It is ingrained into their identity. As long as they are unable to do that, they have nothing. I dont like to bring religion into discussions because I like to base things on worldly views, but there is no way to avoid it when it comes to Jerusalem.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 01:25 PM) While that's off the table, it was never really honestly on the table in the first place. Like it or not, since the 2000 or whenever they ended talks collapsed, Israel has been gradually claiming larger slices of the occupied territories and undermining any chance at any agreement. There was no chance of an agreement. There was nothing on the table that could be done - Israel is an occupying power claiming all that territory. This takes off the table any concept of deals that were never on the table because Israel was more than happy with the status quo. Balta, Actually its quite opposite. Without East Jerusalem Israelis have nothing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 01:15 PM) While if in that position I would have preferred the status quo and I expect some angry riots, I do wonder if the "This will drive so much more terrorism!" fears are overblown. Most terrorism isn't driven by these kind of issues outside of the occupied territories, most terrorism is directly driven by occupation and violence at the site, and this isn't going to change the nature of the occupation. It will shut down the peace process, but an appropriate reply is "What peace process" as we don't currently have a peace process, we have Israel gradually incorporating all of the occupied territories into its own land. Balta, I disagree. It absolutely changes the nature of the occupation. Jerusalem is the prize. The country with the largest army in the world, who has an administration that has been antagonistic towards Muslims, just agreed to put the embassy for the "occupiers" in Jerusalem. Now this statement should not be taken in anyway as saying Israel is right or wrong about whether Jerusalem should be theirs. It is just that if I were a Palestinian or Muslim, I would see this as the first step to trying to unify Jerusalem under Israeli control. (edit) The reason being the idea of "Jerusalem as an international city" is off the table now.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 01:12 PM) Schumer is historically incredibly pro-Israel and is from New York. That pretty much explains his perspective. I vehemently disagree with it, but I don't require my politicians to be perfect. I mean his perspective to support it right now. The safer political play was to say nothing and then leave Trump with the fall out. I think his perspective is better explained in the context of his religion, as opposed to being from New York.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 12:55 PM) He dosen't just support the idea, he advised Trump to do it. He's as guilty as Trump when people start dying over this. I think that should be recognized. I think they have different motives, but Schumer should be held accountable for his support. Not sure he is as guilty as Trump, but that is a matter of perception. That being said I dont understand why you support a symbolic move like this. I dont know Schumer, but I have to imagine the ultimate endgame is for a unified Jerusalem under Israeli control. The only thing I can think from his perspective is that he thinks that if the Palestinians think that Trump is so anti-Muslim, that they will come to the table and take a deal where they get a state that doesnt include Jerusalem out of fear that if they dont they ultimately end up with nothing. Syria etc have shown that UN has no way of controlling any conflict if a security council member is against it. So US under Trump could basically end the idea of a separate Palestine and there is not much anyone could do about it.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 12:16 PM) More anti-US terrorist attacks gives Trump more authority to crack down on immigrants and Muslims and seize more control. It's pretty transparent. This is something that I was also thinking.

Sounds like things are about to go down. I have some theories, but going to wait until after the official announcement.

QUOTE (Brian @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 08:46 AM) WTF MAN??? 5 year rule!!! jk Haha I think 1 year is safe for spoilers QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 08:54 AM) Can we all agree on a spoiler moratorium(even with spoiler tags)? A week? Two weeks? id be willing to agree to 30 days or at least until after the 1st of the year,

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Dec 6, 2017 -> 08:59 AM) Schumer says he advised Trump to declare Jerusalem as Israel's 'undivided' capital The "resistance". This is a real touchy subject for Jewish people. I don't know him personally, but this probably has nothing to do with political teams. For thousands of years the Jewish people have tried to get back control of the Old Temple, it's an entire faith system built on this very specific goal. I'm not going to weigh on on what is right or wrong, or who has the better claim, but I can understand why Schumer would support this. I personally think this is a political stunt and that it's not leading to the annexation of East Jerusalem, so what is the point of creating a mess for symbolism.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 08:20 PM) George Soros' nefarious operatives are descending on Alabama in droves in the final week...guess we had to check the "anti-(bad) Jew" box this week. How many times have we heard that conspiracy theory repeated in the last decade or so? Just wait until they find out that Kushner and Soros were business partners.

I wouldnt even want to see it with anyone at my company. I have tickets for a 1;45 am show on Saturday. Hopefully I dont hear any spoilers on the way in. Last time as I was walking I was talking really loud so as to not hear anyone leaving, but somehow I heard "dead" and immediately thought Han Solo died. ;/

Not sure where you got that list, but Im surprised that he would touch any California or Oregon ones. That is just setting himself up for a huge fight.

QUOTE (G&T @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 01:35 PM) Investigate the investigators while the investigation is on-going. Right. We are going into unprecedented territory. So far the investigation has already resulted in 2 guilty pleas, yet certain people still dont want to put their politics aside and say "Maybe there is something here and maybe America comes first." There is a certain irony that the party who is all about supporting the "police" and "military" has completely turned on the FBI. Even more disturbing is that the people they turned on were previously self-identifying Republicans. Mueller was appointed FBI director with a 98-0 vote, yet now that he is investigating "their" team, he is basically considered a shill for the Democratic party.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 11:59 AM) Correct. but that's not how the voting works. More representative areas voted for Trump. Therefore the candidates need to concentrate their efforts in more areas other than urban, population centers to win. Those are the rules of the game. But significantly more people wanted Clinton than Trump. So its not factually accurate to say the dislike of Clinton was more than Trump. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_pol..._50_states.html This map shows the problem, someones vote in Wyoming is far more powerful than someone in Illinois. If we want to be fair about elections than a vote in Wyoming shouldnt have 4-5x more impact than a vote in California. Now I understand the fear of just having it be a popular vote, but it should be more fair. Perhaps the rule should be that it is capped at 1.5-2 and therefore larger states would get more electoral votes.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 5, 2017 -> 11:44 AM) That's the whole idea of elections, if you don't like it, change it. The last election showed that. The dislike of the Clintons was more than the dislike of Trump. Unfortunately, I'm pessimistic there will be better options for the next election. As you said none of these poiliticians are in touch with people. Technically more people voted for Clinton than Trump.

At this point I think Trump is going to really consider getting rid of Mueller. Over the last year its become clear that his supporters really dont care if he broke the law or not.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 3, 2017 -> 08:41 PM) He called the CIA Nazis shortly before he took office They are super patriots. Its totally fine that Trump wanted to let Russia get away with breaking a treaty with the US. Kind of ironic, he is so "tough" about treaties, but when Russia actually broke one by invading Crimea, he doesnt want to hold them accountable at all.