Senate The US Politics discussion

http://www.newsweek.com/russian-hacker-stealing-clintons-emailshacking-dnc-putinsfsb-745555

A Russian hacker accused of stealing from Russian banks reportedly confessed in court that he hacked the U.S. Democratic National Committee (DNC) and stole Hillary Clinton’s emails under the direction of agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

 

And now there's this.

Looks like Moore won't go quietly. Sigh.

 

And despite that, they’ll still ram through the tax bill. They couldn’t care less about everyday Americans.

 

i keep hearing every couple days "but half the country..."

no half the country does not like Trump. even a quarter of them that voted for him didn't like him

 

Meh, they don't care about that.

 

Vaderize03

Did you honestly think he would? Even after the recount shows he did indeed lose, Roy will never concede. Ever. You will never hear that SOB give a respectful concession speech congratulating his opponent. They will send out a press release (via fax) saying they will no longer challenge the election and then afterwards Moore will have a rally where we go off blaming anyone he can for his loss and will continue “to fight the good fight”.

And the tax cut bill is not about any citizen whether they be rich or poor. It’s about one thing......pleasing their donors especially the big ones. After TrumpCare fell apart, their donors gave specific instructions: Either pass a massive tax cut or the spigot to our $$$ is closed for good. GOP brass cannot risk that happening no matter what. And I am curious how this will all work as their tons of crap in it now that the main rank and file GOP redmeaters in Congress hate. I guess they realize if they do not get it done by 1/1/18, they never will see Congress is about to become even more lamer then it has been. Keep in mind too they had a whisper campaign going around that once tax cuts got through, they would “deal” with Trump. i say call them out on it. See if they got the guts to finally do the right thing...and ironically perhaps save their party long term.


And I am surprised Trump dropped that low. I figure that the 35% who has been with him since the primaries (which is what we got during the GOP primary in 2016, thank you all the also nut jobs who ran early on that made it easy for him to win states with 25% of the vote) but to see him now dropping to around 30% is honestly shocking. If it gets below 30% the GOP would be hard pressed to keep him long term especially if the tax cut rumor is true.

@Yoda’s_Roomate

And just remember, Donald Trump at his first press conference as president elect said he “did not believe” that the Russian government tried to interfere with our eleciton. And people ask me why I been insanely suspicious about the Russians and Trump ever since LOL!

Edit: And Omarosa was reportly dragged out of the WH this morning, LOL! Give her due, she knows how to get ratings on Presidential Celebrity Apprentince!!

Game3525

But at the 2012 GOP Convention (at the suggestion of Dennis Miller), they had a running tab of the natural deficit in real time running throughout it. Funny how once you are in charge, the deficit is never a problem. Guess that is why I am no longer working for the government. I used to always worry about the debt and ways to make it go lower LOL!

 

Isn’t that like the third time he’s fired her? Did Piers Morgan outfundraise her again?

 

Hell, Trump gave more of a concession speech to Jones on Twitter last night than Moore will ever give Jones.

 

I'm not a fan of taxing people higher than a rate of 50% on earnings over a certain amount (marginal rate vs effective rate), but I don't think tax breaks for the wealthy is anything but setting yourself up for the future. The disconnect here is that in America, you (as a nation) broadcast a belief that "that could be me" one day which is utterly divorced from reality, but explains so neatly why there's even thoughts about big tax cuts in the first place.

The other strange as **** thing is that on equal incomes of half a million, if mine was on investments and yours was on salary, I'd pay like $70k less tax than you because for reasons that defy explanation investments are so heavily deducted. We're not just talking franked credits here, we're talking rewarding you for investing...

Tax cuts for business is more easily defensible in some ways. If your cash rate is low - and Jesus ****, it's 25bps in the US, you clowns - then in theory borrowing to expand business is more attractive. However, if companies are already carrying debts at higher rates they may not wish to borrow so you can encourage them to invest in expansion (and therefore, job creation, more net taxes paid) by cutting their opex right down. It's not about profits, 80% of profit for most public companies is paid out in dividends to shareholders. It's about saying the pre-profit, post-revenue earnings position can take taxes provisioned for but not spent and reinvest those to the business.

The problem with this theory though is that in practice the low borrowing/low interest rate/low expansion (and wage stangation) effect is contagious. It generally affects confidence, which means they've got a low risk appetite regardless.

The smart move now is to keep the tax base up to raise revenues; abandon the "debt is evil" mantra (do you think Republicans angrily masturbate over their mortgages?) and have money offset against the inevitable downturn (thanks, Obama) so you can try and kickstart growth through spending.

Of course, Donald J Trump knows more about economics than anyone, so...

 

Well Roger Stone is the first person really close to Donald Trump that thinks he is going down. Not that he believes he should just that he will:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/roger-stone-book-fall-of-trump

Interesting that Stone thinks it's the cabient, the same cabient that Bannon said was chosen to bring about one thing "deconstruction" is the one to take Trump out.

Keep in mind too that Stone was the guy who first approached Trump to run for president nearly 30 years ago. So this isn't a loose associate but instead someone he has valued and trusted for decades now even though Trump now acts like he barely knows the guy.

I did like how Roger said the only people who seem to not think Mueller is not going to charge Trump with something is Donald and his meatball lawyers LOL!

Juliet316

Agree but I am pretty darn sure (just like the rest of us) that wasn't Trump speaking. I am sure one of his handlers wrote that. It was too respectful and too well written to be Trump's handy work!

 

Maybe it was Omarosa?

 

I’m a little concerned about the FBI texts that were revealed in Congress today. It may just embolden Trump to fire Mueller, even as Rod Rosenstein says there’s no grounds to do so.

 

I think maybe Mueller wants Trump to fire him, it's one of those "if you strike me down" things. If Trump fired Mueller there could be no doubt there was obstruction of justice.

Pensivia I'll respond to yours when I get time, good question

 

Juliet316

Could very well been. Showed some humility and class for a milisecond and Trump went off. Fits into how his aides say he has been acting.

Vaderize03

If Trump did that (which btw I think he will), it will make this event in history seem like a night out to hear the local high school chor sing Christmas songs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

Like I said before, people tend to forget that Nixon was well like in the Republican Party before it became apparent he was going to get thrown out of office. Trump is absolutely loathed in the party except in the fringes of the party. Rank and file members love him but the upper party elite cannot stand him. They love nothing more then to have Mike Pence take over. Keep in mind though Mike Pence got the #2 slot thanks to none other then Paul Manafort who kept pushing it even though Donald wanted Christie for it.

 

Donald Trump drinks twelve Diet Cokes per day. He also downs Big Macs and Oreos. This increases the likelihood of dementia and strokes. Can we just say this is the most unhealthy president we've had in recent memory? This makes me glad that I have never had any cokes or Pepsis since kindergarten, and I never eat hamburgers. But now we know why Trump sleeps so little. He drinks all this Coke! And he watches four to eight hours of television. He's like a little kid.

 

I'm loving it

 

Bill Clinton had a terrible diet during his presidency, though I don't know if he reached the heights of Trump's alleged gluttony. Johnson and Nixon drank a lot. Reagan was losing his mind to Alzheimer's. I don't know if Obama ever successfully kicked his smoking habit.

In terms of what he did while in office, George W. Bush is probably the healthiest president in recent memory.

 

Trump cannot fire Mueller. He can order Rosenstein to fire Mueller, and Rosenstein can refuse, and so on down the line.

 

Trump doesn't appear to accept Sessions' recusal, so he'd probably order him to fire Mueller first.

 

Something I haven't seen brought up much (if at all) is that Trump is known to hate confrontation and to actually fire people himself. This would be required if he wanted to go on down the line. He would have to start with Rosenstein, or perhaps Sessions himself. Either way, he would have to do something he hates doing, perhaps several times without getting what he wanted.

 

Black votes matter. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/13/5705...african-americans-propel-jones-to-alabama-win African Americans chose a man who prosecuted Klan members for killing girls over a man who preyed on girls and stirred racial divisions. The lesson is as follows: humanitarian values and decency matter.

 

Bill Kristol made what I thought was an interesting point today on MSNBC when he observed that most write-in votes take place when other people are also on a ballot, along with various propositions, referendums, and so on. Over 20,000 people in Alabama went to the polls to cast a write-in vote for one person only, with nothing and no one else on the ballot.