119 replies to this topic

[ccabal86]

European leaders firmly reject Trump's "Muslim Ban". Open the borders, refugees welcome! - say opinion polls....or...oh fuck.

 

Spoiler

Note to European leaders: this is the tried and true way to lose the support of your constituencies. If you want to lose to Le Pen, Wilders and Hofer, keep doing what you're doing.

[Lysistrata]

Now this is a real international crisis...

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/02/08/incredibly-high-radiation-levels-discovered-at-crippled-fukushima-plant.html

Where is the international summit to solve this problem? This is a very real scary situation.

[Lysistrata]

The law returns to America today... Hallelujah!

 

Senator Jeff Sessions takes the oath today for Attorney General, and will summarily begin enforcing our long neglected immigration laws. Violent protesters that continue to assault city streets turning them to ash will be apprehended, put on trial, and imprisoned. Police will no longer fear doing their jobs. Out of control murder in Chicago, and other inner cities, will end.

 

I personally would like to see him give 90 days notice to Congress of his full intent to enforce Federal Marijuana laws. If you don't like them... change them. This will force Congress to repeal the prohibition from states, and probably levy a nice big juicy Federal tax on every smokin' bud. They can do that, or shut down every dispensary. That's called action.

 

This comes after weeks of relentless racist accusations from irresponsible Democrats. I really love the way Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have chosen to elevate Senator Elizabeth Warren as the obvious candidate to run against in 2020. I can't think of a greater gift than the Democrats nominating the most extreme far left Progressive in their entire party, that claims she's an Indian.

 

Well, aside from all that, we haven't seen the Democrats so mad since we took away their slaves.

 

Next is Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human Services... as he comes in, out goes ObamaCare. MAGA

[ccabal86]

I guess the court...is now in Session(s)

[Lysistrata]

I guess the court...is now in Session(s)

I like it!

[Sister Midnight]

Since Listeria enjoys Trump related SNL, I though we might all laugh at this one:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWuc18xISwI

[Sister Midnight]

I find it interesting that republicans were having tantrums when Obama issued a few executive orders, yet remain silent that Trump has issued 10 orders and 12 memoranda since taking office only 14 days ago.

http://time.com/4663143/donald-trump-executive-orders-president/

I am trying very hard to control the urge to make value statement about the orders, but AYFKM!?

Fiduciary Duty Rule2/3/17

Summary: The memo instructs the Labor Secretary to review a rule which requires investment advisors act in their clients' best interests.

He claims that requiring investment advisors to act in their clients' best interest may interfere with the clients' ability to make their own investment decisions. Using that logic, requiring health professionals to do no harm to their patients might interfere with their patients' ability to make their own healthcare choices. Just as medical professionals are required to discuss the risk/benefit ratio of any given medical treatment and allow their patients to make their own decisions, investment advisors currently required to discuss risk/benefit ratios and let their clients make their decisions. Why would you change that? Doesn't removing this requirement make swindling clients less risky for shady advisors? I just don't get it.

[Lysistrata]

Since Listeria enjoys Trump related SNL, I though we might all laugh at this one:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWuc18xISwI

Thank you Sister Midnight! I never saw the whole thing, just clips. The "de-turd" part was the funniest. The DeVos bit fell a bit flat, but when she starts deflating the Teachers Unions and returns the focus on educating children, I guess they will have more material to work with. As for Melissa McCarthy... this is much funnier!

[Lysistrata]

I find it interesting that republicans were having tantrums when Obama issued a few executive orders, yet remain silent that Trump has issued 10 orders and 12 memoranda since taking office only 14 days ago.

All Presidents issue Executive Orders... it's how they direct the enforcement of law. Many of Trump's EO's are created to revoke previous EO's of Barack Obama. The reason Obama got so much flak was his constant desire to bypass his Republican controlled Congress and create his own law... which he did not have the power to do.

Doesn't removing this requirement make swindling clients less risky for shady advisors? I just don't get it.

Let me check my "Do I give a shit?" file... hmmm, nope... nothing there.

 

You guys need to find a way to take the House, or flip some Senate seats in 2018... which is not looking good at this point, and also there is the fact that Republicans always do much better than Democrats in the mid-terms... because we actually go out and vote. The only real hope for Democrats is for Trump to fail... but this is Donald Trump, so that's not likely to happen. So I guess the plan will be to make fun of them, smear campaigns, delay the inevitable, and lots of whining. It's cool... we can take it... we have been for decades.

[Sister Midnight]

I find it interesting that republicans were having tantrums when Obama issued a few executive orders, yet remain silent that Trump has issued 10 orders and 12 memoranda since taking office only 14 days ago.

All Presidents issue Executive Orders... it's how they direct the enforcement of law. Many of Trump's EO's are created to revoke previous EO's of Barack Obama. The reason Obama got so much flak was his constant desire to bypass his Republican controlled Congress and create his own law... which he did not have the power to do.

Doesn't removing this requirement make swindling clients less risky for shady advisors? I just don't get it.

Let me check my "Do I give a shit?" file... hmmm, nope... nothing there.
 
You guys need to find a way to take the House, or flip some Senate seats in 2018... which is not looking good at this point, and also there is the fact that Republicans always do much better than Democrats in the mid-terms... because we actually go out and vote. The only real hope for Democrats is for Trump to fail... but this is Donald Trump, so that's not likely to happen. So I guess the plan will be to make fun of them, smear campaigns, delay the inevitable, and lots of whining. It's cool... we can take it... we have been for decades.

I'm afraid I don't understand what your response has to do with the question I raised about removing the requirement of financial advisors behaving in their clients best interest. You simply don't care if the Bernie Madoffs out there thrive and get away with manipulating people against their own best interest? Really?

[Lysistrata]

I'm afraid I don't understand what your response has to do with the question I raised about removing the requirement of financial advisors behaving in their clients best interest. You simply don't care if the Bernie Madoffs out there thrive and get away with manipulating people against their own best interest? Really?

Did Bernie Madoff get away with it? No, he didn't. You really have to ask the question "What did Bernie Madoff do?

 

Bernie Madoff earned a "reputation" as a brilliant money manager. He took people's money, that willingly begged him to take it, and regularly sent them a statement that informed them they were richer today than they were yesterday. This went on for years, until banks started going belly up in 2008. People got nervous and didn't care how much their statement said they had anymore... they wanted the cash in their safe at home. Naturally Bernie didn't have all that money anymore... and those people lost their minds. This is what busted Bernie Madoff.

 

Anyone can do this to anyone... it's easy, and it happens all the time. Be careful who you trust with your money. Most of the blame was their own stupid fault. My stock investments have increased $8,000.00 since Trump was elected. That's what I care about.

[onbekende]

Lys keeps up applying for a lone island I see.

 

Anyway, POTUS just made it a national policy to be nice to his family or be affraid. How nice.

[onbekende]

so, 1 domino fell, will it drop more with it?

 

also this:

 

[Chaplain of death]

I cant help but give a half hearted chuckle at the thought that you think democrats have somehow indoctrinated our school system in order to gey kids to rebel against their parents. If we look at the reality of our country, the people currently of parenting age have historically driven our middle class and our economy into the ground. The glory years of the American middle class that conservatives say they want to bring back? 90% corporate income tax (under a Republican president).

Im also a bit amazed you'd be happy about DeVos. Its pretty blatent her total lack of experience, and that she wants to federally fund Christianity essentially. She is where she is because she donated the money, end if story. For someone promising to "drain the swamp" trump has made the swamp far worse and encouraged its existance as far as i can tell.

Then theres this stupid "war on the media" that he is waging because people are calling him on his lies now.

Oh and,
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of thr Bowling Green massacre and the Sweeden attack. #Alternativereality

[Chaplain of death]

Btw, the whole "fake media" argument boils down to this, they said something negative about him/didn't roll over and agree with him. Instead of addressing what they said trump instead just calls them fake news and is dismissive. This is called argumentum ad hominem.

[Lysistrata]

90% corporate income tax (under a Republican president).

Hi CoD! Great to hear from you!

 

If Betsy DeVos has the courage to swiftly, and totally, eliminate the Federal Department of Education... root and stem... I would nominate her face to be placed on the $50.00 bill. Ulysses Grant kicked the crap out of the Democrat slave owners, but he was a horrible President. The DoE is a place that was created to take responsibility of educating our children... but like all Federal programs it turns out to be a huge bloated mess that just sucks money out of our eyeballs, and ignores why it exists.

 

Most of the blame lies with my generation of parents. Not all of us were good parents, and we treated our public schools as babysitters instead of education facilities. We took away all ability for Teachers to properly discipline and mentor our children, and over time created a manufacturing factory of awful kids, coddled and brainwashed, by awful people... and then we turn them loose on our country. I am proud to say my wife and I never gave up our responsibility to raise our children, and that is why they are all smart, honest, and productive adult American citizens today. It's time to return the responsibility of children to their parents.

 

There has never been a "90% Corporate tax", under any President... but before we talk about taxes we have to have an understanding of the purpose of taxing. The purpose of taxing is to pay for what the Government spends... I know you're a "Progressive", and to a Progressive the purpose of taxing is to redistribute wealth, but we have to step into the realm of reality if we're going to have a conversation. You guys think you have some kind of self granted power to determine when someone makes too much money and it's your responsibility to take it from them and give it to someone else... you're wrong.

 

The highest the Corporate tax rate has ever been was 53%, and it was to pay for World War ll. We used to have to balance budgets and be responsible... you know what I mean... pay for what we spend. Now the individual income tax rate was as high as 94%, but that was because of World War ll, and it was Franklin Roosevelt... but I don't care who the President was, because it doesn't matter... we had to pay for World War ll. The tax rate stayed high to pay for the war until John Kennedy lowered them.

 

History of Corporate Tax Rates

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02corate.pdf

 

History of Federal Income Tax Rates

http://bradfordtaxinstitute.com/Free_Resources/Federal-Income-Tax-Rates.aspx

 

I'm a Conservative... we love to pay our taxes! We just have a big problem with wasting money and paying for the wrong things.

[Chaplain of death]

My mistake, it wasn't the corporate tax rates that were that high, it was the upper end of the personal income tax brackets (which encouraged business owners to keep their money invested in their businesses rather than cash it out to themselves like they do these days). https://mises.org/library/good-ol-days-when-tax-rates-were-90-percent

 

Not sure why you choose to harp on what one party or the other stood for 150 years ago. The parties have essentially reversed sides as far as who is liberal and who is conservative since then. In those days the Republican party were the liberals who pushed forth the agenda of equality, while the opposition represented the established hierarchy. If you wish to continue to call back to those days I fail to see how you can look at the current Republican party and support them. I'm not saying that you should necessarily therefore support the Democratic party, but the current Republican party is about as opposite to Lincoln and the Republicans of the 1860's as possible without outright saying we should re institute slavery.

 

I don't actually believe in a "redistribution of wealth". You choose to define it as such, but I see it as one's duty to society. I don't think that a rich person should be stripped of all their wealth, I don't think they are inherently evil or anything like that. What I believe is that it is morally irreconcilable to ignore the suffering of the less fortunate in our society while we have people stock piling wealth for themselves at the expense of others. Will there be those who take advantage of such a system and choose not to work? Always. There isn't much you can do to stop that. Does that mean that we shouldn't help anyone? I don't believe so. There are many ways in which we could move towards that goal, unfortunately most if not all of them get blocked by the right wing. We could raise the minimum wage, but corporations do their best to oppose that because it would likely negatively effect their bottom line (until the increased revenue streamed back into the economy.) We could also levy taxes and just do it on a federal level but people don't like paying taxes even if they go to good causes.

 

"but we have to step into the realm of reality if we're going to have a conversation." 

I'm kind of shocked that you would even make that comment given Trump's total lack of regard for the realm of reality. He lives in his own little world with his fragile ego and his tiny sausage fingers. In your reality why is it okay that we spend more than half our federal budget on defense, on things we don't really need that don't work properly? Why is it acceptable to cut funding to federal programs that spend fractions of a percent of the federal budget in the name of balancing the budget, but to leave defense spending unchecked? 

[onbekende]

 

Most of the blame lies with my generation of parents. Not all of us were good parents, and we treated our public schools as babysitters instead of education facilities. We took away all ability for Teachers to properly discipline and mentor our children, and over time created a manufacturing factory of awful kids, coddled and brainwashed, by awful people... and then we turn them loose on our country. I am proud to say my wife and I never gave up our responsibility to raise our children, and that is why they are all smart, honest, and productive adult American citizens today. It's time to return the responsibility of children to their parents.

 

 

Yes the schools of today are used as daycare centers, filled with students who's parents won't think twice to take their childs side in any argument about education or upbringing. Who think a school is a place of not just knowledge and social interaction, but also of basic upbringing and building a model citizen. The parents of today have long forgotten their own obligation to educate, to nurture and to mold their children into citizens of the nations society.

 

Homeschooling should work only when the parents are good teachers of knowledge. These days parents are losing the ability to be parents all together. Seeing the current graduates, I have small hope for this trend to be changed. Just don't think you should solely blame the DoE/schools/teachers for that, you would just be the same kind of bad as parents who cuddle their children into societal dropouts.

[Lysistrata]

Hi CoD! I have no problem going back to the good old days of 90% tax rates... if it's to pay off the debt. I don't care if it's 100%... if it's to pay off the debt... but it better be everybody paying it, not just the people you don't like. I despise progressive tax brackets. It's real easy for poor people to keep voting for Progressives that keep creating new ways to spend rich peoples money... because they know they will never have to pay for it themselves. They would be more careful if it was their money at stake.

 

The Republican Party was founded on the abolition of slavery. Progressives are working pretty hard to make sure no one ever learns that in school, and our worthless educators will lie to our kids by instructing them that Republicans "changed", and turned into a bunch of racists. There was a pretty big fight between Republicans and Democrats over race equality... and Republicans won that fight. Our position on equality has never changed... it's Progressives that have worked so hard to keep social division on the front line of all their platforms. They do it by making them feel like they are still not equal, and it's shameful.

 

On taxation you really have to go to the Constitution to find out that defense spending is the responsibility of the Federal Government, and social programs are not. So really the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Coast Guard are all things I'm happy to pay for. Educating kids in Montana is the responsibility of taxpayers in Montana... not my responsibility in Nevada.

 

If Trump lies about something that really causes harm to the country or American citizens... then you will hear me complain. The personal attacks you guys hurl at him don't earn the respect of anyone, except maybe other people that don't like him. I do understand how you feel about it and I am just as shocked that he won as you are... but he did win. It's our turn to run things for awhile.

[Chaplain of death]

They aren't equal though are they. They are better off than they were 100 years ago but racism still exists.

Taxation is done in percentages for a reason, however, at a certain point people can't afford to pay it even if its only a percentage of their income. That's because the wealthy have bought out our government for years in order to keep them from doing anything that might hurt their ability to continue to make money. Wages in the US are half way between third world nations and first world nations while our cost of living is as high as first world nations in most places. This wasn't always the case but the minimum wage didn't increase with inflation at the same rate as prices so over the years due to inflation the minimum wage has essentially fallen, which makes it harder for people to succeed. It allows a barrier to be built essentially between the wealthy and the rest of the populace, because to get anywhere in this society now you have to either get incredibly lucky, or inherit.

So we're shutting down the press and arresting peacefully assembled people, but suddenly the constitution is relevant. Why am i not surprised.

Trump has lied. Trump continually misleads people on the right into thinking hes serving their interests while he puts millions of taxpayer dollars in his pockets. Secret Service is being forced to rent 2 floors of his tower from him in order to protect his family. The nation paid 30 million for the 3 months between the election and his inauguration for security at his tower. 30 million! For someone who's concerned about how his tax dollars are spent you seem oddly unconcerned by that. Compared with that or helping pay for the education of a child, ill pick the child. Id rather invest in improving peoples lives than making a rich asshole richer.