Republicans

[magicalmoments]

#104 above.
We clearly have different definitions of totalitarianism.
Mine incorporates a single party govt with with secret police and prison/re-education camps for dissenters. Is this not what you had in mind when you declared the Democratic Party to be promoting a totalitarian policy.

Seems a lot of yanks, including from trumps inner circle, disagree with your opinion of NZ as a bolt hole, increasing numbers are taking out residency and buying properties here. Mind you, I get the impression that's because of trump and not the impending Democratic Party victory.

 

[jomar]

...

If they run a moderate not the lame pupped Biden....they'll kill it.

IF they run a progressive Trump will get 4 more.

...

That pretty much sums up my thinking. I just don’t see Warren pulling it off.

 

[BotanyBoy]

#104 above.
We clearly have different definitions of totalitarianism.
Mine incorporates a single party govt with with secret police and prison/re-education camps for dissenters. Is this not what you had in mind when you declared the Democratic Party to be promoting a totalitarian policy.

That's the fun stuff that always comes AFTER they take over the economy.

Largely in order to maintain control when fantasy hits reality.

Seems a lot of yanks, including from trumps inner circle, disagree with your opinion of NZ as a bolt hole, increasing numbers are taking out residency and buying properties here. Mind you, I get the impression that's because of trump and not the impending Democratic Party victory.

IDGAF what Trump and his inner circle do...it's of zero concern of mine.

It is impending, the pendulum will swing back eventually, but will it swing back for a radical socialist? Unlikely.

That pretty much sums up my thinking. I just don’t see Warren pulling it off.

There just aren't that many people outside of a handful of states that actually want to Venezuela the USA.

Unfortunately within the DNC liberal democrats that could win a general are the minority to the "progressive" democratic socialist faction.

(D)'z better figure it out quick if they want to take the WH back in 2020.

 

[gunthernehmen]

That's the fun stuff that always comes AFTER they take over the economy.

I doubt any of us will live long enough to see that scenario, but if we don't fight to slow them down, I could be wrong. Our great grandkids are definitely screwed.

 

[allison22]

Assault and battery, bank fraud, bribery, electoral fraud, extortion, falsifying government documents, incitement, lying to the FBI, marketing fraud, money laundering, Medicare fraud, obstruction of justice, perjury, sexual assault, sexual harassment, statutory rape, tax evasion, tax fraud, voter suppression, war profiteering and witness tampering.

Criminal activity by the leaders of the Republican Party has become so brazen and so commonplace, that the Republican Party has almost no resemblance to a political party anymore, and seems much more like a Mafia crime family.

Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump and Rick Scott are being so flagrant in their lawlessness, that anybody who still supports them should be considered accomplices to their criminal activities.

They’re making only the most superficial efforts to hide their felonious activities from the public. If you vote for such ostentatious crooks, you shouldn’t be able to claim that you were unaware that you were aiding and abetting a criminal. They’ve been committing their crimes in broad daylight, in full view of millions of witnesses.

I agree. The Republicans are normalizing criminal activity. They're not trying very hard to hide the crimes they've committed.


Democrats arguing for the president’s impeachment have repeatedly cited evidence that Mr. Trump conditioned military aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting with its president on an announcement by Ukraine that it would investigate former vice president Joe Biden and a conspiracy theory about the 2016 U.S. election. This is evidence Trump committed extortion.

Most Republicans responded with the diversions they have offered since the impeachment process began: spurious complaints about the process, coupled with claims that Democrats were interested only in reversing the results of the 2016 election.


Remarkably, not one GOP member of the Judiciary Committee was ready to acknowledge that there was anything wrong with Mr. Trump’s demand that a foreign government pursue false charges against one of his most likely Democratic opponents in the 2020 election.

They could have followed the example of the several Republican legislators who have said Mr. Trump’s actions were improper but not impeachable. Instead, they offered a display of blind fealty, portraying Mr. Trump as a victim of Democratic persecution while ignoring or misrepresenting the evidence against him.

 

[allison22]

Illegal activity has become so normalized under Donald Trump that a story about how Trump agreed to pay $2 million at a court's order—while admitting he used his charity for his own gain—barely made a splash. Folks saw the headline and thought to themselves, Well, yeah, of course Donald Trump ran a crooked charity. That's just the sort of thing he does!

As part of the settlement, the president paid eight charities a total of $2 million while admitting "he misused funds raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation to promote his presidential bid and pay off business debts, the New York State attorney general said on Tuesday."

By the 2000's, the charity was largely holding other people's money, which was donated to benefit philanthropic causes. Trump used some of this money to buy a $20,000 portrait of himself.



He spent more than a quarter of a million dollars of the charity's money to settle lawsuits involving his for-profit businesses. This is not legal.


The largest donation the Foundation made in those days—and indeed ever, according to the Washington Post—was a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989. This appears generous until you learn it was used to restore a fountain outside the Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time. It directly benefited his business.

And we haven't even gotten to the veterans fundraiser. In January 2016, Trump boycotted a Republican debate just ahead of the Iowa caucuses to play up a feud with Fox News—this disagreement did not last—and counter-programmed it by holding a charity event for vets. Except, as he admitted this week, he gave his political campaign control over the event—and the task of distributing the money raised. It was a campaign event, which he now admits. While Trump did give to five Iowa charities by publicly presenting giant checks that read, "Make America Great Again," the New York judge ruled that he had used this private charity, around which there are strict rules, to pump up his political campaign.

It is a sign of how far gone we are that the President of the United States self-dealing on a veterans charity event is barely a blip on our radar. This kind of scumbaggery is just baked in. (This morning, the president openly promoted the private business he still profits from, which he's trying to brand the Southern White House, and reminding potential customers that they could get an audience with the President of the United States if they pay the small membership fee of $200,000.) That phrase, "what If Obama had done this" is instructive here. The answer is it would be fucking Ragnarok on Fox News. But now, nobody bats an eye.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a30208282/trump-admit-crooked-charity-pay-2-million/

 

[Jesus_Ateo]

Since Donald Trump was sworn into office I've heard Republicans proclaim that collusion isn't a crime, fraud isn't a crime, sexual assault isn't a crime, perjury isn't a crime and lying to the FBI isn't a crime.

Once upon a time, didn't the Republican Party claim to be the Party of Law and Order? How did they become the Party of Obstruction and Cover-Ups?

People like Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump have taken over the party.

"I Mitch McConnell do solemnly swear, that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J Trump, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God."

This is the oath Mitch McConnell must take before he can participate in the Senate trial of Donald Trump.

However, McConnell had already he has no intention of being impartial. He has told us that he intends to coordinate with Trump and that Trump will be calling all the shots and telling him what to do.

This is pretty much like if a juror in a criminal trail were to publicly announce that he had no intention of delivering an impartial verdict, but were instead coordinating with the defendant of a trial, and doing everything the defendant told him to do.

If this were a trial in a courtroom, the judge would remove McConnell from the jury and possibly find him in contempt of court.

McConnell is basically committing crimes in broad daylight and insisting that nobody has the authority to stop him.

 

[Dumpington]

Jesus Ateo complains: "If this were a trial in a courtroom, the judge would remove McConnell from the jury and possibly find him in contempt of court."

The Democratic Party isn't interested in a fair trial - as any normal judge would immediately throw-out all of their hearsay evidence as inadmissable.

Fortunately for the American people, the judge in an impeachment trial is the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court: John Roberts - which guarantees a fair trial (which is NOT exactly in the interest of the House Democrats!)

Also, in the U.S. Senate, the JURORS will be members of the Senate, who will NOT put up with the antics of the partisan House. People like Adam Schiff, Alexandria Ocasion-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and even Nancy Pelosi are NOT particularly respected in the U.S. Senate, which will show when the senators vote on whether the House impeachment effort has any merit (which it does NOT!)

 

[JackLuis]

Russia went looking for puppets in America — and they found Trump and the Republicans

We’ve got a president of the United States who praises Russian President Vladimir Putin every chance he gets, yet spent the NATO summit last week looking like his mommy was making him eat his peas and carrots. He’s pressuring the other members of the Group of Seven to let Russia back in the club. At a recent meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, he told the president of Ukraine he hoped Zelensky could “make a deal” with Putin, clearly indicating whose side Trump was on in the dispute over Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Trump and his Republican puppets have spent the last three months spreading Russian propaganda that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who hacked our 2016 election. When Trump pulled U.S. troops out of northern Syria, he turned over abandoned American bases to the Russians.

The Russians found out that they could exploit the same people as the Nazis did, Republican bankers and Pol's that felt left out. After all they only cared about "Owning the Libs", not the Rule of Law!

 

[JackLuis]

Lindsey Graham admits nothing will change his mind on Trump impeachment: ‘I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror’

In an interview with CNN International’s Becky Anderson at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) admitted he has no plans to look at the evidence compiled against Donald Trump from the House impeachment inquiry when it is referred to the Senate.

The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee explained that he wants the trial to be quick and that expects nothing to come of it, with the GOP solidly behind fighting impeachment of the president.
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During the interview Graham stated, “This thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly.”

Marsupial Justice!

 

[gunthernehmen]

Lindsey Graham admits nothing will change his mind on Trump impeachment: ‘I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror’



Marsupial Justice!

Truer than you know, but not to worry, the Senate will fix the mess Pelosi made.

 

[Perfectly_shaped_buttocks]

Once upon a time, didn't the Republican Party claim to be the Party of Law and Order?

Not anymore. The leader of the Republican Party is now out there praising war criminals like Edward Gallagher and telling us how great it was Greg Gianforte committed assault and battery. Their leader has already bragged about committing sexual assault.

He's also attacked the FBI repeatedly, angry that they've investigated crimes that he wants to be covered up.

 

[JackLuis]

Democrats just called McConnell’s bluff on a key reform — and he has no idea how to respond

One of the key policy goals that both President Donald Trump and Democrats have repeated on the campaign trail is drug pricing reform. 66 percent of Americans take at least one prescription drug, and like most forms of health care, the cost of these drugs has risen much faster than inflation in recent decades, putting enormous pressure on politicians to come up with an answer. Indeed, until now, Republicans have attacked impeachment by claiming that it leaves Congress with no time to consider drug pricing.

But Democrats just passed a sweeping prescription drug pricing bill — and according to Politico, it puts Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in a bind.

Add that to the 250 odd bills that the Senate hasn't acted on. Good Job Mitch, you've obstructed the government in all ways.

 

[JackLuis]

Internet mocks Trump for rebranding the GOP as the ‘United Republican Party’ in jumbled anti-impeachment rant

On Monday, President Donald Trump’s rant against the impeachment investigation appeared to rebrand the GOP as the “United Republican Party,” which is not the Republican Party’s name.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump

READ THE TRANSCRIPTS! The Impeachment Hoax is the greatest con job in the history of American politics! The Fake News Media, and their partner, the Democrat Party, are working overtime to make life for the United Republican Party, and all it stands for, as difficult as possible!


Cliff Potter @CliffPotter
Replying to @mmpadellan @realDonaldTrump

URP, the United Republican Party, "is defined as to vomit or is used to suggest the sound of a belch. An example of urp is a sound made to represent a belch. YourDictionary definition and usage example." Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp.

URP, URP, the sound of the Senate choking on Trumpski's bullshit!

 

[beachhavengirl]

I tend to zip it when it comes to politics but.....

Allison, you totally nailed it and everything you've said is 100% true.

Illegal activity has become so normalized under Donald Trump that a story about how Trump agreed to pay $2 million at a court's order—while admitting he used his charity for his own gain—barely made a splash. Folks saw the headline and thought to themselves, Well, yeah, of course Donald Trump ran a crooked charity. That's just the sort of thing he does!

As part of the settlement, the president paid eight charities a total of $2 million while admitting "he misused funds raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation to promote his presidential bid and pay off business debts, the New York State attorney general said on Tuesday."

By the 2000's, the charity was largely holding other people's money, which was donated to benefit philanthropic causes. Trump used some of this money to buy a $20,000 portrait of himself.



He spent more than a quarter of a million dollars of the charity's money to settle lawsuits involving his for-profit businesses. This is not legal.


The largest donation the Foundation made in those days—and indeed ever, according to the Washington Post—was a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989. This appears generous until you learn it was used to restore a fountain outside the Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time. It directly benefited his business.

And we haven't even gotten to the veterans fundraiser. In January 2016, Trump boycotted a Republican debate just ahead of the Iowa caucuses to play up a feud with Fox News—this disagreement did not last—and counter-programmed it by holding a charity event for vets. Except, as he admitted this week, he gave his political campaign control over the event—and the task of distributing the money raised. It was a campaign event, which he now admits. While Trump did give to five Iowa charities by publicly presenting giant checks that read, "Make America Great Again," the New York judge ruled that he had used this private charity, around which there are strict rules, to pump up his political campaign.

It is a sign of how far gone we are that the President of the United States self-dealing on a veterans charity event is barely a blip on our radar. This kind of scumbaggery is just baked in. (This morning, the president openly promoted the private business he still profits from, which he's trying to brand the Southern White House, and reminding potential customers that they could get an audience with the President of the United States if they pay the small membership fee of $200,000.) That phrase, "what If Obama had done this" is instructive here. The answer is it would be fucking Ragnarok on Fox News. But now, nobody bats an eye.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a30208282/trump-admit-crooked-charity-pay-2-million/

 

[JackLuis]

South Carolina Legislator Wants The State To Pay Rent On Uteruses For Forced Births

It is not often that we can get too excited about any legislation coming out of South Carolina. Especially if we are talking about laws concerning abortion. And yet, state Sen. Mia McLeod has come out with what I believe is the actual greatest bill of all time, in the history of the world — The Pro-Birth Accountablity Act.

As you may know, legislators in South Carolina have been pushing for a bill that would outlaw abortion after six weeks (before many people even know they are pregnant), with no rape and incest exceptions. They simply cannot wait to give rapists a two-for-one deal on exerting power over their victims.

In response to this, Sen. McLeod pre-filed a bill on Wednesday proposing they put their money where their mouths are and pay the people they plan to force to give birth against their will.

It's so good. It's just so good.

The gist of SB 928 is that because those they want to force to have babies are essentially acting as gestational surrogates for the state of South Carolina, they need to pay them like they are being surrogates for the state of South Carolina — which, McLeod helpfully notes, "cannot itself physically conceive or carry a child."

Dump and BB can really get behind this type of Legislation. Ends abortion and the threat of taking your shit without compensation! A Win-WIn!

 

[JackLuis]

Thanks to Trumpski and Moscow Mitch your Tax dollars do not mix with these companies.

These 91 companies paid no federal taxes in 2018

Key Points

Nearly 100 companies in the Fortune 500 had an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less in 2018, according to a new report.
The report looks at the first year since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 went into effect.
The list of companies covers a wide range of industries and includes some of the biggest companies in the United States.

Nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018, according to a new report.

The study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, covers the first year following passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act championed by President Donald Trump, which was signed into law in December 2017.

The report covers 379 companies from the Fortune list that were profitable in 2018 and finds that 91 paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less. Those companies come from a wide range of industries and include the likes of Amazon, Starbucks and Chevron.

 

[YDB95]

Dump and BB can really get behind this type of Legislation. Ends abortion and the threat of taking your shit without compensation! A Win-WIn!

Now you've done it. We're in for a twofer of "I'm a LIBERAL, goddammit, but fuck her for wearing a short skirt" and "something something Margaret Sanger something Klan something".

I do agree with you, though. Excellent bill.

 

[BotanyBoy]

South Carolina Legislator Wants The State To Pay Rent On Uteruses For Forced Births



Dump and BB can really get behind this type of Legislation. Ends abortion and the threat of taking your shit without compensation! A Win-WIn!

Hope you're talking about some other BB.

Now you've done it. We're in for a twofer of "I'm a LIBERAL, goddammit, but fuck her for wearing a short skirt" and "something something Margaret Sanger something Klan something".

I do agree with you, though. Excellent bill.

You still have yet to mention one thing I've been illiberal about.

Or even define what you think liberalism is despite the numerous implications that I'm not one.

 

[JackLuis]

Trump supporters humiliated when Daily Show asks them if they’ve read the Ukraine call ‘transcript’

President Donald Trump has repeatedly advised his followers to read the readout of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

However, the Daily Show recently attended a Trump rally in which it asked supporters if they had taken the president’s advice — and none of them had.

Correspondent Jordan Klepper asked multiple Trump fans what they thought of impeachment and they unanimously called it “bullshit.”

As Stephen said, "There is just one thing you've got to Know,
Trump said, "Do us a favour though!"
Nice jingle.

 

[JackLuis]

GOP’s corporate tax cuts declared an abysmal and self-destructive failure in scathing North Carolina editorial

In an op-ed published this Tuesday, the Editorial Board of a North Carolina newspaper wrote that the verdict is in: President Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cuts didn’t work.

“This umpteenth example of the false promise of trickle-down economics raises anew questions about North Carolina’s aggressive cutting of corporate taxes,” writes the Editorial Board for the News & Observer. “The Republican-led General Assembly started phasing in tax cuts in 2013 that now cost about $3.6 billion a year in lost revenue. The estate tax was eliminated and the progressive income tax was reduced to a flat tax, but the most dramatic cut was a reduction in the corporate tax rate. Since 2013 it has been reduced from a high of 6.9 percent — then the highest in the Southeast — to 2.5 percent today. Among 44 states that have a corporate tax, North Carolina’s is the lowest.”

Trickle down is a lie!

 

[JackLuis]

McConnell allies under the microscope as Trump official is investigated for awarding senator’s friends lucrative contracts

A government watchdog is calling for new legislation to remove political self-dealing from the grant application process after Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao apparently rewarded political supporters of her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Kentucky’s largest transportation grant application under the Trump administration benefited from an unfair advantage that appeared to have political implications, and the Government Accountability Office called for changes to the award process — and congressional Democrats have asked for an investigation, reported Politico.

House Democrats have asked the Transportation Department’s inspector general to investigate whether Chao and Inman had favored their home state, and Politico confirmed that review had been opened.

 

[magicalmoments]

Didn't I read somewhere that rick perry is under investigation by the FBI as well?

Update a couple of hours later: A perry campaign donor is being sued by Ukraine in regard to some oil and gas deal. What is it with USA politicians and the Ukraine? Lead story in Time website today.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Trickle down is a lie!

RAW supports a lefty having lefty rage fits?? NO WAY!!! LOL

It's not a lie, it just doesn't result in equity, which is the irrelevant factor leftist who don't understand basic economics base their ideas of what is "good" and what is "working" or not on.

 

[magicalmoments]

#128 above
I agree, "trickle down" is not a lie. It is an economic fact.
However, what is also true is that capitalists, especially those looking for base level support from the uneducated minimum wage earning majority, present "trickle down" as creating equity.
Beware anyone suggesting "trickle down" will improve your financial situation, they're lying to you.