Trump Acquittal Thoughts?

I’m team Flanders.

 

Bernie and Joe at the Las Vegas debate

 

Make America Okely Dokely

 

The average American family got a $900 tax break a year. The problem from a PR perspective is they just cut the taxes, so they see that $900 spread across 26 paychecks, so $34. Is that even enough to take a family out to the movies? Def not with popcorn.

Bush did it smarter, and gave his tax cut as a refund all at once. People are way happier to get a one time $900 payday. The way Trump did it, most American's don't think they got a tax cut, even though they did.

Taxes And Psychology: Americans Got A Tax Cut, Even If They Don't Believe It

 

Would Flanders have voted Trump as a conservative christian? Or Romney?

 

Pull your head in!

 

Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

From the beginning of recorded history until this very day, greed and lust for power have been part of the human existence. The U.S. democracy is the lone, stark outlier on the canvas of monarchies, dictatorships, kingdoms, autocracies, and oligarchies. If we can hold on to it. Trump has said he "admires" strong leaders like Putin, Xi, and Kim Jung Un. What is their style of leadership?? Tyrannical dictatorships. And - contrary to the U.S. Constitution, Trump has said the Congress has no right to investigate him. The Constitution he swore to protect and uphold!!! Trump has outwardly defied the checks and balances the U.S. founders laid out. Those are FACTS that CANNOT be denied.

The world in general these days is a big oligarchy, where the richest, best connected "insiders" meet in secret, highly - very highly - protected sanctuaries to set the world's agendas. (The Bilderberg meetings) The richest, most influential people discuss how THEY want the world to be. The richest control world politics by using their vast fortunes to BUY the laws and rules THEY want in place in various place worldwide. It's done by HUGE spending on publicity campaigns, political campaigns, (The Koch brothers committed $800 million to Republican political campaigns in the U.S. - a fact they were quite proud of actually), propaganda of all sorts, to convince & brainwash people into voting certain ways - where voting is even allowed. This is why, despite worldwide scientific evidence to the contrary, air & water pollution laws keep getting weakened, rules for environmental improvements keep getting "pushed back" further into the future, tax codes keep getting rewritten to favor the wealthiest people, international trade rules aren't enforced, etc.

As for those that say, "Look at how the stock market has gone up recently!" - as a defense for Trump's trampling of our rules and laws - the stock market is ALL speculation. The bottom can all fall out within hours - no matter who's President or which party is in power. All it takes is one tiny bit of negative information or any kind of doubt, uncertainty or fear, and it'll all crash in like a house of cards. Today's stock market returns are NOT a concrete barrier against financial ruin. So never feel too comfy about your portfolio's - they can disappear like a puff of smoke on a windy day.

Here's a VERY BASIC QUESTION for everyone: For the real power players - the richest people in the world - who still want more money & profit, why would you even begin to believe that they'd want to create more high-paying jobs for any of us?? They've spent the last 30+ years automating, eliminating good-paying jobs, outsourcing work to poverty level countries - SO THEY CAN HAVE EVEN MORE MONEY AND POWER. So why would you think that they suddenly want to let some of that gigantic wealth slip out of their greedy fingers to see that more "good-paying" jobs are available to us??? The trend is toward EVEN MORE automation, artificial intelligence, and job elimination. It'll take ALL workers world-wide to band together to force major changes. Just in the U.S. we're fighting among ourselves to the great delight of the power-players.

Division = weakness. (United we stand, divided we fall?) Funny how the second part of that phrase is RARELY mentioned in advertising or publicity.

STOP WITH THE FAIRY TALES AND PIPE DREAMS.

 

It IS curious that all this automation is supposedly to relieve work pressure, yet because a lot of people are laid off because of said automation (which reduces the need for actual people) the work pressure for those who are left increases, plus some people are without a job because of it. Societal advancement?

 

You are so right about this. I didn't know if anything had happened for me at all until my wife, a financial whiz compared to me, was able to walk me through it. After years of being raped by the IRS for all my foreign income it has been weird getting a refund. There's nothing like writing a check for over $10K, and sending it to the IRS. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck (it hoits)

 

Not really. If we remove certain elements of our recorded history people will not know how bad they had it. They will start to look forward instead of backward. Productivity will soar and humanity will advance. Just look at the progress being made toward eliminating the history of the civil war. Soon the same will happen for slavery. With those two events wiped out, people will no longer be able to dwell on them and manifest them into reasons for why they are lacking in some way as a result.

Going forward, it may be as long as 2050 before we can hide the world wars and atomic warfare. But just imagine how much better people will feel by then without these horrible accounts of our predictably human failings dragging them down. It will be glorious.

 

Put it this way, if it weren’t for automation, we would very likely still have slavery and indentured servitude.

Sure it sucks to lose a job, but when some professions are obsolete, new ones are always created. Humans are survivors by instinct and will adapt to such changes. Not many people work as travel agents anymore, yet 10 years ago there was no such thing as a social media coordinator

 

I was more thinking of stuff like elderly care in my country where people were cut out (to save money of course) and the remaining ones have hardly enough time to properly do their job, let alone spend some time on social interaction.
I agree that with a thing like coal new jobs will be created by moving on to new tech, here its an issue that a lot of people have to move for that. Of course easier for us to say that they should simply do it

 

You are trying to argue by pointing to greater authority- not a sound polemical technique, and even some of my sixth grade students recognize that. Buffett, for all his investing acumen- hey, don't by AMZN- either misspoke or intended to deceive. Both Forbes and I have shown that in terms of his claim about taxation he is very wrong- his secretary does not pay a higher tax rate. But you do not address the argument, you simply take the intellectually lazy way out of saying "Well Buffett knows his taxes better". No, he does not necessarily know tax law better than many other people.

 

If the greater authority is the one with the tax records I'll go by that. Anyhow, I'm more interested in the larger argument. Any sixth grader can see you're dodging that.

 

If Democrats had really wanted to push for testimony, they would have gone to court to get it. Moreover, they would have permitted people to have agency lawyers accompany them, as opposed to having to hire their own lawyers. The administration was within its rights to exert executive privilege. There is a constitutionally approved mechanism- called going to court- to have resolve differences between the executive and legislative branches. Democrats did not want to go that route, and I suspect that is because they really didn't care about what testimony would have revealed. They just wanted a political theater.

Not that someone like you would care. But here is an example of how the power to interrogate is used and weaponized against people for whom no case is found. One of Flynn's staffers cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and almost broke her while "putting her through hell". Your princely Democrats in Congress wanted to impose that on anyone in the administration they chose to- and I have little doubt that you are just fine with that. Ah- but Mueller is above reproach.



Serves the Democrats right that their impeachment charge- which they knew very well was destined to fail based on the evidence they had- blew up in their faces politically.

 

No, dude- this has little to do with the specifics of Buffett's tax situation. Much more relevant are tax laws and how they pertain to people in situations like Buffetts. But I understand that realization in beyond your ken.

 

Your candor is astonishing. Snow them with fake news, a la the USSR and they'll come to love Big Brother! Which is why we need to learn from history fast while it's still there. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And those who do are doomed to stand helplessly by and watch others repeat it.

 

Most of what you say is a pretentious rationalization of: "I got mine, too bad about you." Same goes for Forbes magazine.

 

Dear srgreene, I disagree with your interpretation of these events. Trump and Barr have said all along that Trump -The President- cannot be put through a trial, or charged with a crime, nor investigated. Barr did not allow Mueller to file charges against Trump. Mueller gave a public speech to say that the constitutional crisis now falls to Congress and the Voters. Donald Trump and the Republicans have brought a crisis to America. Additionally, Nadler and Schiff told the American people that Congress is a co-equal part of government and cannot place itself below the executive or judicial branches. If they had agreed to Trump's frivolous demand, they would have placed Congress below the Supreme Court! And the Constitution of The United States of America says only the House of Representatives holds the power of impeachment. The Supreme Court has no power to get involved in impeachment. There are dozens of cases where The Supreme Court has declared they cannot rule on a POLITICAL QUESTION. Trump has been impeached! The Senate did not remove him because of Republican cronyism.