Random Politics & Religion #08

Flavin, when you want to get back to the topic at hand, let us know, ok?

I'm just going to ignore your ramblings for now on.

Flavin, when you want to get back to the topic at hand, let us know, ok?

I'm just going to ignore your ramblings for now on.

Well let's walk that one back a little.

I promise you I'd have lower benefits and far less PTO. Probably similar income but I'd likely be working ~10 more hours a week for it.

Are you absolutely positive about that?

Within a degree of reasonable certainty.

I mean, the only think I'll state with confidence and certainty is "I think therefore I am," because this could all be one big hallucination of a sentient desert mouse, but.

Within the context of what we're discussing, "yes."

#drunkrednecklivesmatter

Desert snake, tripping his balls off on desert mouse peyote.

Desert Bald Eagle, because America, *** Yeah!

You didn't respond to GC and my Rick Rolling Josi in RT!

A committee that raises money for Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives confirmed on Friday it had been hacked, a cyber intrusion that may be linked to Russian hackers, like an earlier one targeting another Democratic Party group.

In an incident likely to raise concerns among party donors about their personal information, Reuters first reported on Thursday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the hack at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC.

The committee said it has hired cyber security firm CrowdStrike to investigate. "We have taken and are continuing to take steps to enhance the security of our network," the committee said in a statement.

"We are cooperating with federal law enforcement with respect to their ongoing investigation," it said.

The DCCC hack may be related to an earlier hack against the Democratic National Committee, which raises money and sets strategy for Democratic candidates nationwide. The DNC and DCCC occupy the same office building in Washington.

Potential links to Russian hackers in both incidents were likely to heighten accusations, so far unproven, that Moscow is trying to meddle in the U.S. presidential election campaign to help Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The Kremlin denied involvement in the DNC cyber attack.

The DCCC breach may have been intended to gather information on donors, rather than steal money, sources said on Thursday.

The hack may have begun in June, when a bogus website was registered with a name resembling a DCCC donation site. For some time, donation-related internet traffic that was supposed to go to a donation-processing firm instead went to the bogus site, said the cyber sources who asked not to be identified.

The sources said the numerical Internet address of the spurious site resembled one used by a Russian government-linked hacking group, one of two suspected in the DNC breach.

Cyber experts and U.S. officials said on Monday there was evidence that Russia engineered the DNC hack to release sensitive party emails and influence U.S. politics.

The DNC hack raised concerns among Democrats at the party's convention in Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton was nominated as the party's candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

The new hack at the DCCC could add pressure on the Obama administration to make a public accusation or retaliate. The Justice Department and other agencies have said it is important for deterrence to "name and shame" cyber adversaries.

"Any efforts on a nation state’s part to interfere with U.S. politics through cyber attacks would appear to cross a line that would demand a response from the U.S. government," said D.J. Rosenthal, a former Justice Department and National Security Council official.

A former White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any formal accusation would require overwhelmingly certain evidence.

Staffers for the Republican National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said separately that those campaign organizing groups had not been hacked.

Long live the united banana republic!

Grandma Chanti is high again!

In the USA many unions were taken over by the mafia and turned into a extortion racket of apocalyptic proportions creating what is known now as "The Rust Belt" much of which looks like hiroshima after it met "little boy"

American manufacturing was going to decline regardless of unions considering Asia, the ME and Africa came online as part of post-WWII technological developments and America becoming the standard bearer of capitalism.

With aircraft and shipping containers becoming larger, more efficient with the oil to back it and advancements like telecommunications and eased trade barriers there was no reason to pay Americans high anymore when you could farm it out practically anywhere for less.

But if it wasn't for the unions demanding abnormally high wages for little productivity, the regions where unions were strong wouldn't have been as greatly impacted as they were when globalization started to take it's stride.

I mean...maybe...?

It's not like steelworkers were living in the lap of luxury.

They can't go to the bargaining table individually against a team of lawyers and expect a fair shake...

It cannot all be laid at the feet of unions though. Manufacturing industries like autos, machine parts, technology and consumer goods are far cheaper to produce overseas and no amount of free wheeling would change that.

The industries that died quickest in America were mostly consumer goods and parts. Auto had a bit of a buffer since the slander about Asian cars was true... at first but it wasn't long before Asian cars were par or better than American autos. American car companies got complacent and let the competition get ahead.

Labor wise you have Americans with American sensibilities competing with Asian workers who as far as industry was concerned were living 50 years behind the curve. The region was ripe for exploitation. You can work people to death with no regulations and the government was fine with that so long as growth continued.

It's the lifecycle of industry in capitalism in action. We're currently in the consumer, high-tech phase of production here. The gravy train that was American manufacturing will never again reach such heights without some serious protectionism.