Former Guy Donald Trump

[Ken]

I'm sure everyone here will be super upset to learn about Biden doing the same bullshit.

When the recent reporting came out that billionaires paid effective tax rates in the low single digits, Biden made a statement that they need to find and charge... not the billionaires evading taxes... but the leakers. So, journalists and their sources. They don't even take issue with the tax evasion. Biden is just another piece of shit imperialist corporate shill, with a better PR team.

Just like Snowden. Oh, you wanted to reveal the rot and corruption of the American empire? Get ready to lose all of your freedoms we pretend to represent.

Sorry I may have missed the news or article you are referring to. The news I heard/read was about tax loopholes, not tax avoidance. So what exactly would they be charged *with*?

Everyone I've ever known tries to pay the least amount of taxes they can based on the laws, I've never heard of anyone sending a tip to the IRS.

Also Biden has included provisions in his plan to start working on this issue. While not perfect, at least he's doing something.

https://fortune.com/2021/06/09/propublica-taxes-bezos-buffett-musk-bloomberg/

[Teenwolf]

Sorry I may have missed the news or article you are referring to. The news I heard/read was about tax loopholes, not tax avoidance. So what exactly would they be charged *with*?

Everyone I've ever known tries to pay the least amount of taxes they can based on the laws, I've never heard of anyone sending a tip to the IRS.

Also Biden has included provisions in his plan to start working on this issue. While not perfect, at least he's doing something.

https://fortune.com/2021/06/09/propu...usk-bloomberg/

If Biden truly wanted to go after billionaires, why would he attack the source of information bolstering that case? If anything, he's echoing Republicans using the Pro Publica article as an excuse to further shield billionaires. Weird how he keeps undermining his own supposed position.

Do you feel that Biden should seek to punish leakers of legitimate information, even members of the press?

Do you honestly think Congress is passing anything that impacts billionaires negatively? Manchin has declared himself the new Mitch McConnell obstructionist, no removing the filibuster, so now you only get Republican legislation, forever. Biden always wanted this.

Here's the article where Biden officials speak of an investigation into the leakers.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/inves...ion/index.html

The language Jen Psaki uses in speaking about wealth inequality is hilarious. "More of their fair share".... uh, so they currently pay less than 4%, across the board, working class pays 20-40%... so what the fuck? How much more? It's entirely posturing with the weakest of conviction.

Edit to add: the fact that the notion that billionaires could never be forced to actually pay their fair share, only something slightly closer to resembling a fair share, is the biggest fucking joke in the universe. Like, we live in a global oligarchy, where 4 billion people earn as much as the richest few dozen. Fuck this entire system.

[Bene Futuis]

Centaur DOJ also subpoenaed records from Apple of Democrat members of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell as well as their aides and family members.

The hole of treason, sedition, and corruption has no bottom. There is no step too far.

William Barr, the most corrupt Attorney General in modern history, lying to Kamala Harris about using the powers of the DOJ to investigate political opponents:

[Ken]

If Biden truly wanted to go after billionaires, why would he attack the source of information bolstering that case? If anything, he's echoing Republicans using the Pro Publica article as an excuse to further shield billionaires. Weird how he keeps undermining his own supposed position.

Do you feel that Biden should seek to punish leakers of legitimate information, even members of the press?

Do you honestly think Congress is passing anything that impacts billionaires negatively? Manchin has declared himself the new Mitch McConnell obstructionist, no removing the filibuster, so now you only get Republican legislation, forever. Biden always wanted this.

Here's the article where Biden officials speak of an investigation into the leakers.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/08/inves...ion/index.html

The language Jen Psaki uses in speaking about wealth inequality is hilarious. "More of their fair share".... uh, so they currently pay less than 4%, across the board, working class pays 20-40%... so what the fuck? How much more? It's entirely posturing with the weakest of conviction.

Edit to add: the fact that the notion that billionaires could never be forced to actually pay their fair share, only something slightly closer to resembling a fair share, is the biggest fucking joke in the universe. Like, we live in a global oligarchy, where 4 billion people earn as much as the richest few dozen. Fuck this entire system.

It seems like you didn't actually address the points I made.

I'm all for tax reform, it's definitely needed. But the need to "find and charge" billionaires who simply followed the tax laws is.... odd. What exactly would they be charged with?

[chancellor]

If Biden truly wanted to go after billionaires, why would he attack the source of information bolstering that case? If anything, he's echoing Republicans using the Pro Publica article as an excuse to further shield billionaires. Weird how he keeps undermining his own supposed position.

Do you feel that Biden should seek to punish leakers of legitimate information, even members of the press?

Your post asks fair questions. You and I often don't see eye-to-eye, but I'll try and give you fair answers.

I'd differentiate between leakers of confidential information from the IRS and the media. Leaking confidential information from the IRS, no matter how well it bolsters an argument, is bad. We don't need Mark Zuckerberg's tax returns to make a determination on how much billionaires contribute per year - Treasury does a pretty thorough job of outlining how much each income bracket contributes to tax collections on a yearly basis.

Should the medial be punished for printing it? Nope, on that we agree.

Do you honestly think Congress is passing anything that impacts billionaires negatively?

Actually, they might. Those on the far right recognize that many of the newly minted tech billionaires are funding their opposition, and some traditional non-tech political heavyweights have moved away from Trump in a big way (see, Koch, Charles for leading reference). I believe you're incorrect on who would block it - it's not Manchin, or any Senate leadership, but rather Pelosi. My distaste for the Speaker is pretty well-known, but she's plenty smart still, and she knows which side her bread is buttered on.

The language Jen Psaki uses in speaking about wealth inequality is hilarious. "More of their fair share".... uh, so they currently pay less than 4%, across the board, working class pays 20-40%... so what the fuck? How much more? It's entirely posturing with the weakest of conviction.

I'll circle back to you on this.

[Bene Futuis]

But at least they have...*checks notes*....some company called Cyber Ninjas who has never participated in a vote count or anything even remotely similar and who is led by yet another eye-rollingly stupid right-wing conspiracist doing god's work out in Arizona proving what the sane folks couldn't. Ugh.

Sneaky puke Republicans and their amateur sleuth team at Cyber Ninjas (still seems crazy that this is a real thing) have now ferreted the Arizona ballots off to a "lab" in a remote town in Montana and are refusing access to outside observers. Look how low this party has fallen.

[revo]

Sneaky puke Republicans and their amateur sleuth team at Cyber Ninjas (still seems crazy that this is a real thing) have now ferreted the Arizona ballots off to a "lab" in a remote town in Montana and are refusing access to outside observers. Look how low this party has fallen.

So they bitched and moaned about outside observers, and now they're not letting any outside observers in? Now this is the hypocrisy I've come to know and loathe from the GOP!

[Bene Futuis]

So they bitched and moaned about outside observers, and now they're not letting any outside observers in? Now this is the hypocrisy I've come to know and loathe from the GOP!

I guess I can't even tell whether they sent ballots or, perhaps, some sort of physical hard drive or something. What's clear is that a) the Cyber Ninjas clownshow is both unbelievably biased and without any experience, and b) the Montana lab company is a subcontractor of Cyber Ninjas and is led by yet another Big Lie jackass who claimed Maricopa County had deleted their election files from their computers, an obvious and ridiculous lie parroted by dimwitted Former Guy. Total trainwreck of incompetence and stupidity. Clearly none of these "election auditors" know what they are doing and clearly they have only one goal in mind.

https://www.12news.com/article/news/politics/maricopa-county-audit-voting-system-data-was-sent-to-a-lab-in-a-of-montana-and-we-dont-know-why/75-a858a88e-e561-40f3-ba53-d530307c07b8

[Bene Futuis]

An emasculated Mike Pence appears at the “Faith and Freedom” convention to speak, only to be drowned out by hecklers screaming “traitor!!!!!”

Truly a cult of idiots.

[madducks]

An emasculated Mike Pence appears at the “Faith and Freedom” convention to speak, only to be drowned out by hecklers screaming “traitor!!!!!”

Truly a cult of idiots.

Now Pence knows that it was Trump who was using Pence for political gain and not the other way around. Pence is nothing more than a used wad of toilet paper to the Republicans now.

[Bene Futuis]

Now Pence knows that it was Trump who was using Pence for political gain and not the other way around. Pence is nothing more than a used wad of toilet paper to the Republicans now.

It's crazy. These people are lunatics. They wanted to assassinate Mike Pence during the attempted insurrection with former guy urging them on. And still Pence grovels around, trying to curry favor with them.

[Sour Masher]

It's crazy. These people are lunatics. They wanted to assassinate Mike Pence during the attempted insurrection with former guy urging them on. And still Pence grovels around, trying to curry favor with them.

It is unclear which group--the rabble calling for his head and Pence and his ilk of craven politicians --you are calling lunatics. I assume both.

[Sour Masher]

Now Pence knows that it was Trump who was using Pence for political gain and not the other way around. Pence is nothing more than a used wad of toilet paper to the Republicans now.

Yeah, I also believe Pence, Sessions, McConnell and the rest all thought they were using him to get what they wanted, but for many of them, the moment they chose country over party, and more specifically, Trump, they got turned on, violently. It is an odd mix of feelings it produces in me. A healthy dose of schadenfreude, with a bit of poignancy over the fact that the moment of their well-deserved comeuppance is always proceeded by a singular act of political courage. They don't suffer any consequences for their repeated lies, but the moment they tell the truth, for once, finally, they are attacked.

[revo]

This poor, poor snowflake:

Trump Wanted His Justice Department to Stop ‘SNL’ From Teasing Him

"According to two people familiar with the matter, Trump had asked advisers and lawyers in early 2019 about what the Federal Communications Commission, the courts systems, and—most confusingly to some Trump lieutenants—the Department of Justice could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers.

To those who heard it, Trump’s inquiries into what federal regulations could be used to bust the likes of Kimmel and SNL was more of a nuisance than a constitutional crisis. “It was more annoying than alarming, to be honest with you,” one of these sources recalled. However, the conversations further showed, in the pettiest of ways, how the 45th U.S. president was keen on turning the country’s top law enforcers into something more akin to his own personally retained law firm."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-wanted-his-justice-department-to-stop-snl-from-teasing-him?ref=home

[GwynnInTheHall]

This is what I don't get ..how the fuck is it NOT alarming?

Annoying? That's when someone grinds their teeth or moves their lips when they read to themselves.

He tried to silence any critical commentary about him or his admin. He surveilled and investigated journalists. He did everything in his power to be a fucking dictator. And he NEVER hid that aspiration--ever. Had he been just a bit smarter, planned ahead he could have influenced those in the Military, Law Enforcement and the Federal Govt. of whom he had support, to actually attempt and possibly succeed in an full blown insurrection/coup.

I know some of you are gonna say--well that could never happen--but it DID fucking happen. Those ass-hats on Jan 6th were a decent plan and a few more guns away from killing congress people. Or others at the Capitol, including the Vice President. They DID cause the death of a handful of capitol officers.

They also had Millions of Americans who would have welcomed a coup.

We got lucky in that he's a fucking moron who speaks before thinking (if he thinks at all) and that there are still those in our Govt that believe in the rule of Law over party/political agenda.

He and everyone who might be complicit from his administration needs to be taken to task by the current DOJ and sooner rather than later.

If not, with the anti democracy audits being conducted, the voter suppression legislation being spammed across the nation, no matter WHO wins the election in 2024, the results will be contested and violently if it's not a Trump or GOP candidate who wins.

Annoying? Fuck that, if you're not alarmed you really need to take a step back and rethink things.