2020 American Political Scene

[DOR]

Steve Bannon the Chairman of Build the Wall PAC, has been arrested for fraud. Kris Kobach, the KK of Kansas behind purging voter registration polls to undermine democracy, is General Counsel. The Board of Directors includes mercenary Erik Dean Prince (Blackwater founder/CEO, now helping Chinese firms operate in Africa, and Miss-Education Betsy DeVos's brother); Go-Fund-Me fraudster Brian Kolfage; Michael Flynn and Roger Stone apologist Timothy Shea; and gun-nut xenophobe Tom Tancredo.

The most beautiful point of all?

He was arrested by US postal inspectors …

[TopHatter]

Steve Bannon the Chairman of Build the Wall PAC, has been arrested for fraud. Kris Kobach, the KK of Kansas behind purging voter registration polls to undermine democracy, is General Counsel. The Board of Directors includes mercenary Erik Dean Prince (Blackwater founder/CEO, now helping Chinese firms operate in Africa, and Miss-Education Betsy DeVos's brother); Go-Fund-Me fraudster Brian Kolfage; Michael Flynn and Roger Stone apologist Timothy Shea; and gun-nut xenophobe Tom Tancredo.

The most beautiful point of all?

He was arrested by US postal inspectors …

In other words, this Trump-sized and Trump-shaped fish truly is rotting from the head down.

Thankfully Trump only hires "the best people".

Edit: Trump of course, with his usual "sympathy":

I feel very badly. I haven't been dealing with him for a very long period of time.

Haven't been dealing with him at all.

Don't know anything about the project at all.

It's a very sad thing by mr. Bannon.”

Let's see, what's the scorecard for Trump's "only the best people"

Donald Trump’s first 2016 campaign manager was arrested for battery after grabbing a reporter in 2016.

His second campaign manager went to prison on a variety of federal charges stemming from the Mueller probe.

His third campaign manager was just indicted on federal fraud charges.

Axios: “Bannon’s indictment makes him the sixth person linked to the senior leadership of the 2016 Trump campaign to be hit with federal charges. The others are Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen — all of whom faced indictments under the Mueller investigation.”

Pretty sure there's a Lynyrd Skynyrd song that covers this....

[Albany Rifles]

Steve Bannon was dismissed from the White House over 3 years ago. Kolfage is not on the campaign and never has been, and ranks below Alex Jones in terms of notoriety. There is no evidence that Trump submitted fake invoices to this particular non-profit.

Meanwhile Bloomberg is busy busting a Montana-sized loophole into campaign finance laws by effectively eliminating contribution limits: just run a failed campaign, donate to said campaign, and then have the campaign send the money to the Party Committee!

Bloomberg is just playing the Koch's game in the wake of Citizens United.

[TopHatter]

Sean Hannity has reportedly privately admitted he thinks Trump is a 'batshit crazy person'

Fox News' Sean Hannity might fawn over President Trump on the air, but according to a new report, he strikes a bit of a ... different ... tone in private.

An excerpt from CNN reporter Brian Stelter's book Hoax published by Vanity Fair on Thursday delves into the Fox News host's relationship with Trump, whom he frequently hosts on his show for prime-time interviews. Hannity is one of the network's most ardent Trump loyalists, but Stelter quotes an associate as saying that when he's not on the air, he "would tell you, off-off-off the record, that Trump is a bats--- crazy person."

A friend of Hannity's similarly told Stelter, "Hannity has said to me more than once, 'he's crazy.'"

The excerpt also describes Hannity in a position where he has "counseled Trump at all hours of the day," and is even treated by Trump "like Melania," which has reportedly taken a "toll" on the Fox News host. Early on in the Trump administration, Hannity reportedly "gained weight and vaped incessantly" possibly due to "Trump-related stress," telling one colleague, "If you were hearing what I'm hearing, you'd be vaping too."

Should Trump catch a glimpse of this report, let's just say his latest interview with Hannity, reportedly set to take place on Thursday evening, might end up being a bit awkward. Read the full except at Vanity Fair.
_______________

The title of that Vanity Fair article is “HANNITY HAS SAID TO ME MORE THAN ONCE, ‘HE’S CRAZY’”: FOX NEWS STAFFERS FEEL TRAPPED IN THE TRUMP CULT

Guess that's the price of selling your soul lol.

[GVChamp]

Bloomberg is just playing the Koch's game in the wake of Citizens United.

The Koch's are in fact not playing that game, since Citizens United hasn't changed anything about directly contributing to a campaign or to the Central Party Committee, which is why Bloomberg has a complaint filed against him.

If Bloomberg wants to donate massive amounts of money to a Super PAC, along with all his friends, he is of course free to do so. Democratic-aligned Super PACs are well funded. I do not mind it at all, as it is vastly better than an America where the federal government decides at its sole discretion to ban books, films, and anything else that might be construed as "electioneering."

[snapper]

Steve Bannon the Chairman of Build the Wall PAC, has been arrested for fraud. Kris Kobach, the KK of Kansas behind purging voter registration polls to undermine democracy, is General Counsel. The Board of Directors includes mercenary Erik Dean Prince (Blackwater founder/CEO, now helping Chinese firms operate in Africa, and Miss-Education Betsy DeVos's brother); Go-Fund-Me fraudster Brian Kolfage; Michael Flynn and Roger Stone apologist Timothy Shea; and gun-nut xenophobe Tom Tancredo.

The most beautiful point of all?

He was arrested by US postal inspectors …

About the only one of the Trumpkin campaign team who has not been arrested is Carter Page who we know was involved before he worked for Trump was involved with the VTB/UN Muscovite 'spies' (they allegedly thought he was "an idiot") Victor Podobnyy and Evgeny Buryakov (SVR). That was why the FISA warrants were issued on him which the Senate report said were 'justified'. With all the others getting arrested but not Carter Page, who it would it seem at glance they had most on, it makes me wonder if he was 'turned' as is actually help shop his former pals.

[surfgun]

On the heals of Hillary’s address with have this story favoritism at the State Department.
https://okmagazine.com/news/hillary-...axwell-nephew/

[TopHatter]

On the heals of Hillary’s address with have this story favoritism at the State Department.
https://okmagazine.com/news/hillary-...axwell-nephew/

So let's burn her at the stake, and anybody else that's still in a position to show Ghislaine Maxwell any favoritism.

We can start with your favorite "anti-lefty" that keeps wishing her well...after she'd been arrested for child sex trafficking.

[TopHatter]

After Trump praise, Pence decries QAnon 'conspiracy theory'

Vice President Mike Pence is dismissing QAnon as a “conspiracy theory,” drawing a line of distinction between himself and President Donald Trump, who earlier this week suggested he appreciated supporters of the theory backing his candidacy.

“We dismiss conspiracy theories around here out of hand,” Pence said Friday on CNN's “New Day," saying he had heard Trump's comments and subsequently decrying the media that “chases after shiny objects.”

Asked on CBS' “CBS This Morning” if he was inflaming attention on the group by not going on the record to oppose it, Pence decried “spending time on a major network to talk about some conspiracy online theory,” later adding, "I don’t know anything about QAnon, and I dismiss it out of hand."

QAnon has ricocheted around the darker corners of the internet since late 2017, but it has been creeping into mainstream politics more and more. The baseless theory centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q,” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.

Trump, speaking during a White House press conference on Wednesday, courted the support of those who put stock in the convoluted conspiracy theory, saying, “I heard that these are people that love our country.”

It was Trump’s first public comment on the subject and continued a pattern of the Republican president appearing unwilling to resoundingly condemn extremists who support his candidacy.

Trump insisted he hadn’t heard much about the QAnon movement, “other than I understand they like me very much” and “it is gaining in popularity.” Days earlier, he had ignored a question about QAnon at another White House briefing.

Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts, and shirts and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans are not uncommon at his rallies.

An FBI bulletin last May warned that conspiracy theory-driven extremists have become a domestic terrorism threat. The bulletin specifically mentioned QAnon. Earlier last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center warned that the movement is becoming increasingly popular with anti-government extremists.
_____________

Uh-oh, that's not gonna play well with the Trump crowd.

Never contradict the Dear Leader, no matter what batshit crazy theory he's promoting!

[DOR]

“Congress! Congress! Don't tax me!”
William B. Shepherd, 1932

“Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree!”
Sen. Russel B. Long, 1973

We all pay far, far more tax than we did 50 years ago, right?

Wrong.

Federal personal tax revenues have barely moved in the past five decades, either as a percent of GDP or as compared to personal income.

Corporate tax, on the other hand, have not kept pace.

In nominal terms, GPD has increased an average of 6.3% a year over the past 50 years. Personal incomes rose 6.5% p.a., and total federal tax revenue by 6.0% p.a.

That's the baseline.

Customs duties (that's the tax you pay on anything imported) rose 7.1% p.a.
Payroll taxes, shared between employer and employee, rose 7.2% p.a.
Individual income taxes rose 6.1% a year, pretty much in line with our baseline.
Taxes on estates and gifts, the bane of the billionaire class, rose 3.2% p.a.
And, corporate income taxes rose 3.7% p.a…

Now that you know, how does that change what you think about taxation?

Source: Congressional Budget Office, cbo.gov

[Double Edge]

I would suggest the trend in america over a decades time scale is clearly positive on systematic racism. There are clearly still racists and racist cops.

American gun culture is dramatically different to other western nations which alters the calculus on policing it. While you gave black people freedom, you kept the wealth you accrued from slavery and further discriminatory patterns/laws over centuries. That meant black people are disproportinately poor and poor people are more likely to commit crime. That places black people in the firing line and at the mercy of feedback loops which causes more racism, stereotypes, which festers further.

The number one issue is an economic class issue but the ideology that america holds makes that difficult to fix on, so america is stuck focusing on identity politics. The unfortunate reality is that black people are far more likely to be murdered by a black person than a cop. Overfocusing on this issue will probably lead to less policing of poor neighbourhoods, which will be bad, and a level in breakdown in trust that is not proportional to the problem, which is bad. Not to mention the opportunity cost of failing to focus on the more powerful trends at play.

Speculatively, I would guess europe has a smaller class issue, which makes the racism piece bigger proportionately. We might actually benefit more from the Black Lives Matter Movement, as I think we have more to gain and are at less risk of falling foul of large opportunity costs.

Before you guys jump in, let the Americans conduct this experiment and let's see what the results are.

BLM UK put black trans, LGBT, sex worker, muslims over single black mother. The thing with BLM is its specific to only 'some' black lives.

See, the characters behind BLM US. Remember if you are against it means you're racist

This is how the opposition works when it can't make policy. Take it to the street.

From a paper AR posted i learnt 283 cities for which data exists had protests over George Floyd.

283 cities !!!

Some say, can't talk about black without being black.

So let a black a guy do it.

The other group that believes in white priviledge is the KKK. Interesting juxtaposition that.

This guy is talking about liberation. Real empowerment. FOR ALL.

Not the cheap imitation the marxists are peddling to maintain their votebanks by keeping people back in perpetuity.

[Bigfella]

One of the 'very good people' advising Trump opines on the value of Canada's committment in Afghanistan:

"Every time that a Canadian shows up in a uniform, it's doing us a favour? How's that work?" That was a comment by Peter Navarro, an economist serving as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy for U.S. President Donald Trump, published in a new book called "The Madman Theory: Trump Takes On the World."

Navarro’s comments were aimed at Canadian soldiers who served in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. More than 40,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces participated in the NATO mission after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. During the 12-year operation, 158 Canadian soldiers died, while thousands more returned with mental and physical injuries.

"Were they doing us a favour, or were they brought into the idea they needed to do that as part of the global effort against terrorists?” Navarro is quoted in the book as saying.

"I mean, if they were just doing us a favour, maybe their government should have been thrown out of office."

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/top-tr...3PsSOGZ5NxxYxk

I vote we appoint the Colonel & some of his buddies be given the job of 're-educating' mr Navarro....in any way they see fit.

[astralis]

to add to the insanity, a 17 year old shot three people at a BLM protest, murdering two of them in Kenosha, WI.

right-wing media, like Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, and Charlie Kirk, are now saying that the murders were justified.

yeah, talk to me about the dangers of cancel culture 20 years from now.../rolleyes

[Albany Rifles]

One of the 'very good people' advising Trump opines on the value of Canada's committment in Afghanistan:



https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/top-tr...3PsSOGZ5NxxYxk

I vote we appoint the Colonel & some of his buddies be given the job of 're-educating' mr Navarro....in any way they see fit.

I mean this with all of the sincerity I can muster....Go Fuck Yourself, Peter Navarro.

I have stood side by side with Canadians like the good Colonel in the Cold War. I have cousins who served in the RCN & RCAF alongside us in NATO. The PPCLI, Paras & RCR have served along with other NATO members steadfast and true in Afghanistan. When we pulled out to go dick around in Iraq they held the line.

I say again, fuck this guy.

[TopHatter]

to add to the insanity, a 17 year old shot three people at a BLM protest, murdering two of them in Kenosha, WI.

right-wing media, like Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, and Charlie Kirk, are now saying that the murders were justified.

yeah, talk to me about the dangers of cancel culture 20 years from now.../rolleyes

There's surfgun's "TDS" in action, right there.

I mean this with all of the sincerity I can muster....Go Fuck Yourself, Peter Navarro.

I have stood side by side with Canadians like the good Colonel in the Cold War. I have cousins who served in the RCN & RCAF alongside us in NATO. The PPCLI, Paras & RCR have served along with other NATO members steadfast and true in Afghanistan. When we pulled out to go dick around in Iraq they held the line.

I say again, fuck this guy.

Why is it that anybody left in Trump's administration is a gigantic pile of shit?

Oh right, how could I forget.