[Chas_P]

 hrothgar, on 2019-February-03, 15:14, said:

My charitable giving last year was well over $50,000, and included donations to food banks and (primarily) to educational foundations....

The main reason that I am (continuing) to work is that I want to be able to endow one full tuition fellowship to my undergrad school every other year or so once I retire...

Good enough for you?

Very admirable. I know you like to cook, so I am sending you some Georgia pecans. They are great just for snacking or you can make pecan pies. The recipe's on the Karo syrup bottle label. Enjoy.

[Chas_P]

 jjbrr, on 2019-February-03, 14:17, said:

A privileged, bigoted, old piece of ***** like you, chas.

I want so badly to tell you to go take a flying ***** at a rolling doughnut. But I have more class than that. So I will just suggest that you go intercourse yourself. You're probably pretty good at it.

[hrothgar]

Another good article on the Stone arrest

https://www.lawfareb...ger-stones-home

[Winstonm]

 Chas_P, on 2019-February-03, 19:30, said:

I want so badly to tell you to go take a flying ***** at a rolling doughnut.

You just did by using a gutless rhetorical device instead of being honest and straightforward. Classy.

[barmar]

 hrothgar, on 2019-February-03, 15:14, said:

My charitable giving last year was well over $50,000, and included donations to food banks and (primarily) to educational foundations....

I also give plenty of money to charity (particularly relief after natural disasters), but I didn't mention it because he seemed to be talking about activity that requires you to get off your ass and work. I use my monetary gifts to assuage my guilt for being too lazy to do that.

It's the same reason I bought a condo and don't run for the board of trustees -- I'm lazy, and happy to pay my fees and let others do the work.

[johnu]

 barmar, on 2019-February-04, 09:48, said:

I also give plenty of money to charity (particularly relief after natural disasters) ...

Why bother responding to a troll post. Chas_LostAnyRemainingDignity was trying deflect the discussion by equating posters doing charitable work, with Dennison and his henchmen separating children from their parents and then saying they have low energy and are too tired to try to even try to unite them.

Even members of Congress have problems trying to get into those detention centers along the border, and it's basically a state secret about where many of the separated children are being imprisoned. Some of them are being sent as far as New England and the upper Midwest to unmarked facilities that are heavily guarded. Unless you are a skilled lawyer you aren't going to be able even start to help those separated children.

[Chas_P]

 barmar, on 2019-February-04, 09:48, said:

I also give plenty of money to charity (particularly relief after natural disasters), but I didn't mention it because he seemed to be talking about activity that requires you to get off your ass and work. I use my monetary gifts to assuage my guilt for being too lazy to do that.

It's the same reason I bought a condo and don't run for the board of trustees -- I'm lazy, and happy to pay my fees and let others do the work.

Thank you Barry and Richard for reasoned responses. Here is the point I was trying to make: Sitting around on an internet message board with a handful of people bitching at each other (and I'm just as guilty as anyone else) accomplishes nothing. Sitting around on an internet message board calling the POTUS a moron, racist, xenophobe, misogynist, homophobe, whatever, with small hands accomplishes nothing. What I would like to see is compromise and comity between our two political parties. Surely there is middle ground somewhere. I have voted for Democrats in the past and would do so again as soon as they convince me they are truly interested in improving the lives of average Americans. But all I've seen from them for over two years is a vicious attempt to regain power and undo the last Presidential election because they lost. I don't really like Trump, but let's face it. He's the Pres for about two more years (maybe 6). Jobs are increasing, wages are increasing, unemployment is low, consumer confidence is high, yada yada yada. And I do like that.

[Winstonm]

Back to Individual-1. The SDNY has subpoenaed his inauguration committee according to this from Marcy Wheeler:

Quote

The subpoena seeks information relating to a bunch of conspiracy-related crimes — parallel to the crimes Mueller looked at in the Russian investigation, but including other countries.

Quote

It discloses that prosecutors are investigating a litany of potential crimes: conspiracy against the US, false statements, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, inaugural committee disclosure violations, and violations of laws prohibiting contributions by foreign nations and contributions in the name of another person, also known as straw donors.

I also understand there was low unemployment on John Gotti's block. I also remember that George Wallace of Alabama was a Democrat, as the entire south was Democratic back then.

[johnu]

 Chas_LostAnyRemainingDignity, on 2019-February-04, 19:59, said:

...

Why is he still posting?

More mind blowing news in the latest news cycles.

Scoop: Insider leaks Trump's "Executive Time"-filled private schedules

Quote

This unusually voluminous leak gives us unprecedented visibility into how this president spends his days. The schedules, which cover nearly every working day since the midterms, show that Trump has spent around 60% of his scheduled time over the past 3 months in unstructured "Executive Time."

So that's what watching TV and talking to Hannity, Coulter, and Fox and friends is called. Clearly Dennison is not the James Brown of politics. Dennison must be a fan of that 1980 movie "11 to 5".

'Willful Ignorance.' Inside President Trump's Troubled Intelligence Briefings

Quote

The officials, who include analysts who prepare Trump’s briefs and the briefers themselves, describe futile attempts to keep his attention by using visual aids, confining some briefing points to two or three sentences, and repeating his name and title as frequently as possible.

Quote

Two intelligence officers even reported that they have been warned to avoid giving the President intelligence assessments that contradict stances he has taken in public.

These are not new allegations as previous reports have pointed out Dennison's lack of focus and frightening short attention span.

[hrothgar]

 Chas_P, on 2019-February-04, 19:59, said:

What I would like to see is compromise and comity between our two political parties. Surely there is middle ground somewhere.

Chas,

Spending years acting like an ignorant asshole is an incredibly bad way to encourage compromise and comity, and this is precisely what you have done.

Moreover, its not a position that you get to put aside, because I don't know whether asshole Chas or reasonable Chas is the sock puppet and, sadly, bad money drives out the good...

[hrothgar]

 Chas_P, on 2019-February-04, 19:59, said:

Jobs are increasing, wages are increasing, unemployment is low, consumer confidence is high, yada yada yada. And I do like that.

Assume for the moment that Trump has anything to do with the current state of the economy (which is far from clear)...

Mark says it best: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

[Winstonm]

It is finally starting to dawn on some people that they have been conned:

Quote

Dennis Jordan
@DennisMJordan
Replying to @GOPChairwoman @GOP
I am a Republican voter. I just did our taxes.

The @GOP tax bill cost my family THOUSANDS of dollars this year on our return due to changes, thereby hitting us with the LARGEST tax increase of our lives.

We are middle-class homeowners, and you raised our taxes.

Infuriating!

96
7:57 AM - Feb 5, 2019

Quote

Iamnewatthis
@sandynewtothis
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
I have to pay $2000 MORE in taxes this year! What happened?? I voted for you and thought you were fixing this, not making it worse!? I thought I would get money back this year!?

1,653
1:56 PM - Feb 1, 2019

Quote

Nycgirl
@nlnp99
Replying to @WhiteHouse @POTUS
Voted for you . Family of
2 hard working N.Y. cops. Did taxes for years we would pay more and get a refund at the end of the year to help pay debt . First time in 30 years We had to pay more in Federal
Taxes. I’m disgusted

16
8:13 PM - Feb 4, 2019

Quote

Joel Serbin
@JoelSerbin
@POTUS thank you for screwing the middle class with your tax reform. I have never in my life, I’m 49 years old, had to pay into the IRS until this year. We have a combined income of 150,000. The middle class voted for you. I will not make the same mistake twice.

4
11:15 PM - Feb 3, 2019

Quote

Shelby Kuh
@ShelbyKuh
Replying to @realDonaldTrump
I voted for you the first time but after you screwed me on my get tax break I won’t vote for you again especially after I started on my 2018 return it’s a joke the taxes you are keeping from a working person good luck in 2020

22
7:23 AM - Feb 2, 2019

Just wait until a recession starts and the base will fall to about 22% - all the hardcore racists.

[barmar]

 Chas_P, on 2019-February-04, 19:59, said:

Thank you Barry and Richard for reasoned responses. Here is the point I was trying to make: Sitting around on an internet message board with a handful of people bitching at each other (and I'm just as guilty as anyone else) accomplishes nothing. Sitting around on an internet message board calling the POTUS a moron, racist, xenophobe, misogynist, homophobe, whatever, with small hands accomplishes nothing. What I would like to see is compromise and comity between our two political parties. Surely there is middle ground somewhere. I have voted for Democrats in the past and would do so again as soon as they convince me they are truly interested in improving the lives of average Americans. But all I've seen from them for over two years is a vicious attempt to regain power and undo the last Presidential election because they lost. I don't really like Trump, but let's face it. He's the Pres for about two more years (maybe 6). Jobs are increasing, wages are increasing, unemployment is low, consumer confidence is high, yada yada yada. And I do like that.

Isn't that exactly what it was like during the Obama presidency as well? The Republicans in Congress made it very clear that their only goal was to obstruct anything he proposed. Getting the ACA passed required enormous concessions from the Democrats (some of which are now being exploited by the Trump administration to weaken it even more, making failure a self-fulfilling prophecy).

I really wish POTUS and Congress could act like adults and work together. But that's not how politics is played these days. Trump is apparently willing to hold innocent children and government workers hostage for his stupid pet projects. How can reasonable people be expected to deal with someone like that?

Trump has always called himself a great deal maker. But what he actually is is a big bully. In his businesses, his "great deals" have often involved paying his suppliers a fraction of what he owes them, and daring them to fight him over it.

[y66]

Happy birthday to the official corporate sponsors of this thread.

[Winstonm]

In what kind of world do we want to live?

Quote

The gravity of the threat to global freedom requires the United States to shore up and expand its alliances with fellow democracies and deepen its own commitment to the values they share. Only a united front among the world’s democratic nations—and a defense of democracy as a universal right rather than the historical inheritance of a few Western societies—can roll back the world’s current authoritarian and antiliberal trends. By contrast, a withdrawal of the United States from global engagement on behalf of democracy, and a shift to transactional or mercenary relations with allies and rivals alike, will only accelerate the decline of democratic norms.

[Chas_P]

Quote

Getting the ACA passed required enormous concessions from the Democrats (some of which are now being exploited by the Trump administration to weaken it even more, making failure a self-fulfilling prophecy).

IIRC, before the bill's passage all the polls showed that the majority of Americans, which I assume included Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, opposed it. Yet the Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and her enormous gavel crammed it down our collective throats anyway. And after it's passage Jonathan Gruber, the law's chief architect, stated publicly, "This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the 'stupidity of the American voter' or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass." So apparently the will of "we the people" was completely ignored by the people we elect to represent us.

Quote

I really wish POTUS and Congress could act like adults and work together.

So do I.

[Chas_P]

 hrothgar, on 2019-February-05, 04:37, said:

Chas,

Spending years acting like an ignorant asshole is an incredibly bad way to encourage compromise and comity, and this is precisely what you have done.

Moreover, its not a position that you get to put aside, because I don't know whether asshole Chas or reasonable Chas is the sock puppet and, sadly, bad money drives out the good...

As previously stated, bitching on an internet message board accomplishes nothing. Neither does name-calling unless perhaps it makes you feel better about yourself.

[Winstonm]

 Chas_P, on 2019-February-05, 18:54, said:

IIRC, before the bill's passage all the polls showed that the majority of Americans, which I assume included Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, opposed it. Yet the Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and her enormous gavel crammed it down our collective throats anyway. And after it's passage Jonathan Gruber, the law's chief architect, stated publicly, "This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the 'stupidity of the American voter' or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass." So apparently the will of "we the people" was completely ignored by the people we elect to represent us.

This is absolute BS. The reason the ACA went as it did was because no Republican was allowed (by McConnell and Co.) to vote for it in the Senate and Ted Kennedy died so The only way to get the bill passed was for the House to send it back exactly as it came from the Senate - which it did.

[Chas_P]

 Winstonm, on 2019-February-05, 19:13, said:

This is absolute BS. The reason the ACA went as it did was because no Republican was allowed (by McConnell and Co.) to vote for it in the Senate and Ted Kennedy died so The only way to get the bill passed was for the House to send it back exactly as it came from the Senate - which it did.

So the polls were wrong? The majority of Americans were all for it? I'm just askin'.

[PassedOut]

The Public’s Views on the ACA

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.