Is Power is everything?A successful military requires the trust and support of its citizens. The Iraq war initiated by a Republican President under the pretence of eliminating weapons of mass destruction ultimately transformed Iraq into an Iranian satellite. American citizens realized that the promised liberation had instead sown chaos and instability. Republican voters want to win, and this desire for victory is palpable. They question why should they support any U.S. wars when leadership decisions may negate the potential for enduring achievements. The conversation, regarding increasing isolationism and decline in military recruitment numbers, should include holding failed leaders accountable. While soldiers face the consequences of failed missions, higher-ranking officials often escape scrutiny. Rebuilding trust in the government's ability to conduct successful military campaigns demands accountability for our failures. Simone Ledeen Nations and institutions develop a culture based upon myths of superiority. History books in schools are a teaching tool used as a way to teach historic dates and important events. However, the history that is taught to children is not actually history. The challenge is teaching students that some of what they learned in school is false. Classifying historical people, as good or bad (binary thinking), is how you build a mythology. This creates a problem of not understanding what was the intent of those people and what living in that time period was really like. But because of such mythology being build and taught, the danger is we become ingrained in binary thinking and justify bad deeds of people we like. Historical people, who did great deeds, were also flawed people and did bad things. However, whitewashing slavery in America in recent history is dangerous for everyone, especially when there are so many people who don't understand the problem with statutes honouring confederate leaders (who found for their beliefs) in public streets. One of the great leaders, Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves, said the institution of slavery was a "moral depravity and a hideous blot." He assumed that the abolition of the slave trade would weaken slavery and hasten its end. Instead, slavery became more widespread and profitable. By the 1800s, Virginia's most valuable commodity and export was neither crops nor land, but slaves. In 1861, the contest over slavery sparked a bloody civil war and the creation of two nations—Union and Confederacy—in the place of one. The important thing to understand is that statues aren't history, but mythology of 'State's Rights', ignoring that the Confederate supporting states wrote in their founding documents that keeping black people as slaves was the reason for them to unite. Confederate leaders were not real patriots. Revisionists will cry, "states rights, states rights", but chief among the 'state's rights' was the right for white Americans to own black slaves and the right to expand slavery in new states, hence the Missouri Compromise. Statues get build to communicate the values and message of the time the statues were made. No historian believes the message behind the building of statues. Confederate statues got build to put down Black people during the 1920s wave of the KKK inspired by D. W. Griffith’s "Birth of a Nation", based on the 1905 novel "The Clansman" by Thomas Dixon, Jr.; and the 1960s during the US civil right's movement. The message behind the Statue of Liberty, is similarly not true about poor immigrants being welcomed, however it's a myth to make US society aspire to become someday. However, the Confederate statues are not what US society should be aspiring to. What sort of tactics did the John Birch Society (taking their name from a Baptist missionary who had been killed in China by communist forces in 1945) use in their early days to mobilize the conservative grassroots outside of the party apparatus of the GOP? Their mission throughout the 1960s was to try to educate the American people about the communist conspiracy, and many of the Birchers — not all, but many — were suspicious of the two-party system. They didn’t like democracy, and they believed the only way to save the country was through a kind of shock education — through controlling the kinds of texts that kids and college students and other Americans were exposed to — and through direct action: setting up front groups and committees that could attack what they saw as the weak points in the communist line. For example, they set up the Committee Against Summit Entanglements, which was a direct action protest against the Khrushchev-Eisenhower summit in 1959, and they set up the campaign to impeach Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, because they saw Warren as a communist. So it was a combination of trying to create a space where they could spread an alternative message about this alleged conspiracy, but also to shock their enemies and mobilize the public to attack what they saw as their communist foes.Matthew Dallek If you think everyone who does not vote your way is "evil", then that is not democracy, it's demonising people based on ideology and inciting violence against them. However, opposition has to be in good faith. False patriotism is the last refuge of an incompetent, dishonourable person. However, the fascist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change. If it walks like and talks like... Every fascist movement is nourished by conservative thinkers who reject modernity & the Enlightenment. They embrace lies to feel better. Fascists believe in action first, and thinking later. Disagreement is treason, and a fascist will call for the death of anyone they disagree with. They fear the 'other' who they believe they must destroy & hence, they will fearmonger about boogeymen to apply pressure so that their followers feel besieged. Fascists have to tell themselves that they are the biggest victims, and their powers are being taken from them to humiliate them. They are obsessed about a deep-secret plot or threat from illuminati-like global network. Fascists paint their enemy as, both too powerful and too weak, at the same time. They believe that life is lived for struggle. The cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. They are intolerant of homosexuality and unchastity in women, and condemn such sexual habits. In fascist movements, there is an undisputed leader who is regarded as the true interpreter of the will of the silent majority of the people. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. No leader can perfect human, but what their flaws were, should be compared to their achievements. Some politician's only skill is in the art of mud slings and smears, in order to defect from their own irresponsibility and sow doubts or discredit leaders who are far better than them, in the minds of the public. Donald suggested that although Lincoln "did good" but the end result was "always questionable". Gandhi & Lincoln were not as perfect humans as their stories make us believe. However, their shortcomings were small, and they were centuries ahead of their time. These were compassionate leaders who never distracted or complained to get ahead and dedicated their life to provide equality for those who have nothing. Remember Gandhi, who fought for our freedom through non-violence, whereas Churchill suggested that Gandhi should be “trampled on by an enormous elephant”. We can still find heroic people, but remember, no human can measure up to an idealised version in your head. There are no people who are perfect, so we need to see the action where inspirational people were great in, and compare it to their flaws in other areas. “If I could save the union by not freeing the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the Union by freeing the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the Union by freeing some slaves and not others, I would do it.” https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5060238/pres-trump-i-justicei-retribution https://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c5060238/pres-trump-i-justicei-retribution https://archive.org/details/radicalrightthen010584mbp "So even though the fringe was part of the Republican coalition — especially during campaigns — we don’t want to oversell their power historically. On some issues, the fringe and the Republican establishment aligned, especially on culture war issues. But most of the time, the Birchers and their successors were very frustrated. They loathed Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and some Birchers even said that Ronald Reagan was never to be trusted. On immigration reform, on internationalism, on military interventions, on free trade agreements, on conspiracy theories, and on the degree of explicit racism versus more coded or implicit racism, there were significant fissures. The MAGA phenomenon is a more recent development, and I try to explain how our contemporary far right essentially adopted the Birchers’ ideological legacy as an alternative political tradition and eventually took over the Republican Party." Matthew Dallek https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/books/review/birchers-matthew-dallek.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/tracing-the-origins-of-todays-ultraconservatives/2021/12/29/ae14b39a-496c-11ec-b8d9-232f4afe4d9b_story.html https://www.freedominthe50states.org/ Nixonland The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/ 'October Surprise' sabotage of Jimmy Carter's re-election: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/10/31/the-republican-party-has-lurched-towards-populism-and-illiberalism https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ https://thediplomat.com/2018/07/nixons-china-sell-out/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcconnell-says-100-of-his-focus-is-on-blocking-biden-agenda-11620257305 https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2012/09/09/when-obama-had-total-control/985146007/ https://washingtonmonthly.com/2015/02/01/a-walk-down-memory-lane-on-republican-obstruction/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama https://www.politico.com/story/2010/10/the-gops-no-compromise-pledge-044311 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/politics/transportation-secretary-elaine-chao.html?action=click&module=Intentional&pgtype=Article A single politician has vowed to make the U.S Senate a 'legislative graveyard'. Drawing out deliberations can cripple the Senate (the world’s greatest deliberative body), which is in session for only 34 weeks or so each year, most of which, in practice, are only four working days. Mitch is a tactician and a pragmatist who has become the undisputed master of the American government machinery. He understood pretty quickly, faster than others, that most politicians were more interested in being sanctimonious and grandstanding i.e being seen as supporting reform rather than actually enacting it. So he got very quickly to the bottom line. You argue on facts and when the facts are against you then you argue that the law is the law (and when you can't talk about it, then you talk about the process being unfair). The job is no longer about good legislative governance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPfrdiZlbps If this was allowed under Democrates, then Republicans would have demand he resign or be fired. Mitch is more than willing to play the villain and courting bad press, for political capital, whenever its required by the caucus. All the damages temporary and survivable. He believes that the systems and institutions is self-correcting and all that really matters is to stay determined on his agenda to get America right of center. But what have they done to solve the everyday issues apart from cheap political stunts to get votes? The distraction intended to divert attention is part of their attack. Currently, Republican party & its elected officials, is all white. Tim Scott is the sole Republican Black politician in U.S Senate. While there are powerful Black Democratic congress men & women in both houses and even 1 Black ex-President. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/business/economy/kentucky-economy.html https://www.newsweek.com/mccaul-admits-gop-has-no-evidence-1827663 http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/ https://crooksandliars.com/2014/06/south-dakota-republican-party-passes https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/republicans-had-it-in-for-obama-before-day-1/2012/08/10/0c96c7c8-e31f-11e1-ae7f-d2a13e249eb2_blog.html https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00571703 http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/110118-tv/ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ted-cruz-fec-lawsuit-campaign-loan-dc-court https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/07/mitch-mcconnell-georgia-citizens-united/ https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/09/08/2022-19344/repayment-of-candidate-loans https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-strikes-down-campaign-finance-regulation-11652711749 https://www.npr.org/2019/08/01/747368694/mitch-mcconnell-has-long-argued-for-more-money-in-politics https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/fundraising/114852-mccain-and-whitehouse-urge-high-court-to-note-impact-of-citizens-united-decision/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/24/how-citizens-united-gave-republicans-a-bonanza-of-seats-in-u-s-state-legislatures/ Republicans held up 60 judicial nominations (and 14 appeals court seats) during Clinton in 1990s, by flatly refusing to give them a hearing. These were filled up when Republican won the Presidency. When McConnell became majority leader, following the elections, judicial nominations all but ground to a halt, with McConnell confirming barely a quarter of Obama’s court picks. After Obama left, the unprecedented number of conservative-approved judicial nominees waved through the Senate stands to shift much of the burden of conservative policymaking away from an increasingly paralyzed Senate. By controlling both voting litigation and the judges on the federal bench, he could create a system where conservative donors have an avenue to both oppose voting rights and appoint judges to back that effort. The Supreme Court and circuit-courts independence has been undermined after Mitch played dirty. Merrick Garland who has been left out standing even after being nominated by Obama. Under McConnell’s leadership, Republicans insisted on confirming Obama’s nominations individually, drawing out the process enough that, by the summer of 2010, there were 99 vacancies on the federal bench and 40 “judicial emergencies” had been declared by overburdened courts. The Democratic Senate majority leader finally decided to get rid of filibusters for lower-court appointees in 2013. In the coming years, battles over voting rights, health care, abortion, regulation and campaign finance, among other areas, are less likely to be decided in Congress than in the nation’s courthouses. The excuse given by the Republican majority is because of something that happened in the year 1987 under the Democratic Senate. Justice Lewis Powell announced his retirement in 1987, and Ronald Reagan soon after nominated Robert Bork. Bork was on record defending Jim Crow era Black voter poll tax and arguing against equal voting rights for women. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) delivered a famous condemnation on the Senate floor, based on facts: "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, school children could not be taught about evolution". The Reagan's nominee lost a full vote of the Democatic Senate with the help of 6 Republican senators who believed his views were too extreme. Richard Nixon saw two nominations, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, lose confirmation votes in the Senate. Both men were segregationists, and this was back when that was still distasteful to Republicans. 15 of the 19 Supreme court judges in the last 50 years are already Republicans (Nixon & Reagan got 4 picks each) even though Democrats won 50% of the time, making the radical white conservatism the default. Kavanaugh's is Yale classmate of Rod Rosenstein (r) in FBI. Imagine if they both of them were Dems, you would be calling for heads to roll. Unregulated liberalized market economy and globalization, promotes creation of wealth, and it does not promote liberty, human rights and political freedom. Rich people help powerful people get rich, and powerful people make rich people powerful. Colonial Empire has now been replaced by a global financial empire. 20% of the people get 80% of the success and the rest 20% of the success go to 80% of the people (Pareto 80/20 principle). Democracies & empires don’t mix. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/us/supreme-court-dobbs-roe-abortion.html https://myfox8.com/news/politics/supreme-court-should-reconsider-birth-control-gay-sex-gay-marriage-rulings-justice-thomas-says/ https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-abortion-rights-supreme-court-roe-v-wade/
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus By the time election 2010 heated up, two big things had already changed. First, the conservative-majority Supreme Court issued its Citizens United verdict, removing the ban on political donations by Corporations and Unions as their right to free speech, much of it “dark money” impossible to trace back to its original source. Republican judicial adviser Leonard Leo helped conservative nonprofits raise $250 million from mostly undisclosed donors. "Judicial Education Project" alias 'The 85 Fund' alias "The Concord Fund" alias 'Honest Elections Project' is well-funded organization has deftly hidden the changes to its name from public view. “Being branded as neutral but actually having the people who know, know that you’re actually conservative puts us in a unique position.” In 2012, Leo joined the boards of the nonprofit Catholic Association and an affiliated charity, the Catholic Association Foundation. The two Catholic nonprofits launched a third organization called Catholic Voices. It is backed by Leonard Leo, Koch brothers & Betsy DeVos’ family, suddenly announced it was spending millions on ads about voter fraud and accusing Democrats of cheating in the upcoming elections. In the year Leo joined Mercer’s group, and in the two following years, the Mercer family became a leading benefactor of the Federalist Society, donating a total of nearly $6 million, tax filings show. In 2018, more than 99% of the Judicial Education Project’s funding came from a single $7.8 million donation from Donors Trust. The Judicial Education Project is closely aligned with the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) who spearheaded the campaigns to get Gorsuch and Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court. Both organizations share Carrie Severino (president of Judicial Crisis Network) & both groups have been funded by Leonard Leo's "The Wellspring Committee". Both have also paid money to BH Group (where Leonard Leo once worked). One of his client is CRC’s president, Greg Mueller’s firm, who gained prominence during the presidential campaign of 2004 for helping to promote the “swift boat” allegations, unsubstantiated claims that Democratic candidate John F. Kerry’s war record in Vietnam was exaggerated. They have bought Facebook ads that reached hundreds of thousands of users. “I spend probably close to $800,000 annually on a PR team at the Federalist Society, and we generate press that has a publicity value of approximately $146 million each year.” Leonard Leo. The story of the conservative moneybags kid's rise offers an inside look into the modern machinery of political persuasion. He has defended the practice of taking money from donors whose identities are not publicly disclosed to counter the influence of the 1960s and liberals on education, law and politics. Leo has complained that praising diversity would “disgust any conservative". He also conducts polls to help craft the most persuasive messages and arranged dozens of “background” briefings for reporters. A nameplate on his shelf reads, "The Real Boss." Republicans playbook aka the Liberty Amendments -- control Supreme court with majority conservative "voices" in order to overturn so-called civil rights laws, abolish all coal & oil regulation, & to change voting rules to indirectly elect state senators instead of by majority vote. Republicans have shown a willingness to abandon any and all norms to undermine the judicial nominations process and pack the courts with judges who will help them realize political goals they cannot achieve through the political process. https://www.scotusblog.com/2018/08/kavanaugh-on-the-executive-branch-phh-corp-v-consumer-financial-protection-bureau/
It is a real shame that the U.S. Policing system can use race when assessing suspicion of a crime, but a college admission officer cannot use race when assessing a student's contribution to a college. White folks get a hook-up, while black folks get the hook. https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-rules-against-affirmative-action-c94b5a9c As a nation, we begin by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it, “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners and Catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. Founded in 1985 by John Tanton, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has gone on to become the go-to think tank for the anti-immigrant movement, with its reports and staffers often cited by media and anti-immigrant politicians. CIS’s much-touted tagine is “low immigration, pro-immigrant,” but the organization has a decades-long history of circulating racist writers, while also associating with white-nationalists. The American patriotic song "God Bless America" was written by a naturalized American composer and lyricist, who was born in Russia (in the area that is modern-day Belarus). https://www.businessinsider.nl/justice-samuel-alito-admits-taking-luxury-fishing-trip-with-gop-billionaire-who-later-had-at-least-10-cases-before-scotus/ https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/us-elections-government/ny-supreme-court-justice-samuel-alito-undisclosed-luxury-fishing-trip-20230621-chj7njf7svafzceppq6i7boosy-story.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/us/politics/justice-alito-luxury-travel-fishing-trip.html https://theweek.com/supreme-court/1024444/alito-did-not-disclose-alaska-private-jet-trip-from-gop-billionaire-with https://www.ft.com/content/a4640200-12c1-4b3f-94ef-d71fa88b41e8
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/2013/03/18/five-takeaways-from-the-growth-and-opportunity-project-report/ Newt Gingrich's entire career was built on partisanship, mudslinging & tearing down American governing institutions! http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,982006,00.html "I have never seen Congress at a lower level of backbiting, knifing each other, partisanship, never in thirty-seven years. Nothing like this. And it's destroying Congress. Negative campaigning becomes a full-time occupation. That's not what this institution is supposed to be all about. It's not healthy. That will suit Gingrich well; he wants to destroy Congress. Then he thinks they can rebuild it." During lewinsky affair, while he talked about morality on the floor. Newt was having an affair with his staffer & 23 years his junior. Gingrich led the party into a disastrous budget fight against President Bill Clinton that resulted in a government shutdown, a move that was widely viewed as backfiring on the party. He said he had learned his lesson and worked with Clinton on a welfare reform bill and new measures to balance the budget. Newt gets $60,000 everytime he appears on Fox News. When a politician can get elected to power by getting only 10% of the votes of their districts electorates, they can do anything or nothing and still expect to get re-elected if they have the complete faith of those 10% voters. https://fox2now.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-federal-appeals-court-deals-blow-to-voting-rights-act-ruling-that-private-plaintiffs-cant-sue/ https://fox5sandiego.com/hill-politics/court-says-private-citizens-civil-rights-groups-cant-sue-under-voting-rights-act/ https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-federal-court-private-lawsuits-00b9c4bb2174aa8077db296c3edf7c79 https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-appeals-court-ruling-strikes-core-landmark-voting-rights-law-2023-11-20/ https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126619000/voting-rights-act-supreme-court https://www.propublica.org/article/the-state-of-section-5 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/13/us-conservative-group-heritage-action-video-voting-restrictions https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/515320-dejoys-former-employees-were-reimbursed-by-company-for-gop-political https://www.democracydocket.com/2021/05/republicans-use-redistricting-to-their-advantage/ https://redistricting.lls.edu/ "A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." George Bernard In 2008, Obama captured Republican stronghold after stronghold. Obama has stated himself that he is more of a Rockefeller "sane" Republican from the 1980s, rather than an old-school New Deal Democrat. Republican re-districting expert Thomas Hofeller's analysis to rig elections to get Republicans elected in down-ballot races, a full Chamber of Congress for a decade. FEC filings showed the Republican Party paid him more than $2 million for his work. Hence, rigging US elections is completely legal. With REDistricting MAjority Project (RED-MAP) Republican candidates will always outperform, even when they get fewer votes than the Democratic candidates. The project uses, previously unavailable, mapping software such as Maptitude, to improve the precision with which district lines are strategically gerrymandered in targeted 107 local state legislative races in 16 states. The project was launched in 2010 and estimated to have cost the Republican party around US$30 million. When Democrats win the popular vote by 3 or 4 points, they barely, barely win control. If Republicans were to win the national vote by 3 or 4 points, they have a very large majority. The problem comes in when you have states like Pennsylvania, in which Democrats get more votes and Republicans take 13 of the 18 seats. Or a state like Ohio, which is the bellwether state that keeps us all up on election night, a 50-50 state. The Republicans have 12 of the 16 seats. So, this is about being sure that elections matter, and that the side getting the most votes wins. And this is the difference between the gerrymander that happens in 2010 and any other gerrymander. Without voting rights, it's taxation without representation. US has become a country that allows the politicians to draw their own lines to essentially choose their own voters. This is redrawing of democracy in America itself. It's why today Republicans have a majority in nearly two-thirds of the country's state legislative chambers. Prior to Election Day 2010, Democrats controlled 60 state legislative chambers to the Republicans’ 36. After REDistricting MAjority Project (RED-MAP) ’s success on Election Day 2010, Republicans held majorities in US House seats and where the legislature played a role in redrawing the state legislative and congressional district map. REDistricting MAjority Project (RED-MAP) ’s effect on the 2012 election is even clearer. Pennsylvanians cast 83,000 more votes for Democratic US House candidates than their Republican opponents, but elected a 13-5 Republican majority to represent them in Washington; Michiganders cast over 240,000 more votes for Democratic congressional candidates than Republicans, but still elected a 9-5 Republican delegation to Congress. This means elections in “zero years” matter more than others. 2021 will also be the first time that places with a history of voting discrimination will also be able to draw districts without first submitting them to the justice department for approval because of a 2013 supreme court decision, Shelby County v Holder, that struck down a pre-clearance provision at the heart of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That federal courts could not strike down districts on the grounds that they were too partisan, giving lawmakers a green light to virtually guarantee their own re-election. Controlling the re-districting process in these states would have the greatest impact on determining how both state legislative and congressional district boundaries would be drawn for the next decade. Drawing new district lines in states with the most re-districting activity presented the opportunity to solidify conservative policymaking at the state level and solidifying a Republican stronghold. An aggressive and racial gerrymander by Governor Ron DeSantis helped provide Republicans with four of those seats from Florida alone. His map-rigging team was determined to push a 16-11 GOP edge all the way to 20-8. In Ohio, meanwhile, the state supreme court twice rejected congressional maps drawn by GOP lawmakers as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. A bipartisan majority of justices declared these maps wildly out of line with a 2018 statewide initiative backed by more than 70 percent of voters mandating that districts be drawn up with lines that did not favor or disfavor any political party, to better bring them into alignment with the state’s partisan balance. Lawless GOP officials used the maps anyway. A “ratfuck” is a dirty deed done dirt cheap. Stalling is the entire point. Steal a cycle, maybe two. And then let conservative courts handle the rest. Things will only get harder in 2024. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/the-gops-bid-to-claim-a-rigged-house-majority/ https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/09/republican-party-anti-democracy-cost.html
Colonial American society was dominated by elites but independent citizens, neither slave nor master, made up the great bulk of Americans. Nobody had ever tried republican-ism, democracy, liberalism, and constitutionalism at the same time. Many nations had tried this experiment but they failed. US had more democratic institutions and liberal guarantees (such as a free press and no established churches). The corruption of the Roman republic into an empire weighed heavily on the Founders. It’s no coincidence that early state constitutions written by the American Revolution generation, largely favored weak executives and strong legislatures; or that the Bill of Rights largely dwells upon abuses that an executive branch would commit: like, unreasonable searches and seizures, quartering of troops, prosecution without trial by jury. The revolutionaries were fighting against arbitrary power and for checks and balances. The American Revolution was neither a revolt against a 17th-century King or an 18th-century Parliament; it was a revolt against arbitrary power. And this is why preserving a balance of powers between branches of government is at the core of the US Constitution. US had eliminated all property barriers to universal manhood suffrage (at least among white men, and in some states free black men as well) in all but 3 states by the end of the 1830s. The nation’s debates over slavery were so heated precisely because Americans after the Revolution prided themselves on being unlike the class-ridden societies of Europe and the despotisms of Asia. In contrast, Crowned heads still ruled much of Europe all the way to the WW1. Dutch republics were aristocratic oligarchies. Only in 1870–71 did France establish a durable republic, on its third try. US system right now is set up so that minor disagreements become arguments. Arguments become conflagrations. Conflagrations become feuds. Feuds become wars. It never ends Our system right now is set up so that minor disagreements become arguments. Arguments become conflagrations. Conflagrations become feuds. Feuds become wars. It never ends. Have your lines in the sand, but understand: Do you have a phone? There are probably things in the way that your phone is made that are not the greatest in terms of workers’ rights. Approaching it in that manner is not both-sides-ism. The moral high ground is absolutely there, but we can all achieve something higher. It’s too easy to point at the low-hanging moral fruit without doing the work. Every society lies to itself to some extent. Every person does. And sometimes you have to face the truth. The truth of the American experiment is that government is messy. It’s hard to manage. We are melding cultures and religions in a way that most countries don’t. You can’t point a spotlight on the anecdotal and pretend that it’s universal. That’s what drives me bananas. There is an inert racism that exists, and it’s pernicious, but I don’t believe everybody who’s part of it is evil. So it’s more a question of trying to remove a right-left axis from the conversation and instead create a conversation around conditions. Poverty is poverty. The right will talk about poverty a certain way, and the left will talk about poverty a different way, but poor people are still poor people. They’re still without political power. Jon Stewart
https://www.newstribune.com/news/2023/jun/10/indictment-trump-stored-showed-off-and-refused-to/ https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3579787-more-missing-texts-this-time-from-trump-dhs-officials-raise-new-jan-6-questions/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/key-texts-between-trump-dhs-officials-before-jan-6-missing-wash-post-2022-07-29/ https://www.npr.org/2020/02/24/808214593/off-the-record-trump-administration-criticized-for-how-it-keeps-documents https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2022-02-07/national-archives-retrieve-trump-white-house-records-mar-a-lago-4787288.html https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/former-aide-told-jan-6-committee-trump-tearing-documents-report https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/05/trump-ripping-documents/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/07/trump-records-mar-a-lago/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/12/maralago-witness-trump-boxes-moved/ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-wanted-swap-mar-a-lago-documents-russia-investigation-files https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/593645-wads-of-printed-paper-regularly-clogged-white-house-toilet-during https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/10/breaking-law-via-toilet-would-certainly-complete-one-trump-era-story-arc/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/02/10/trump-papers-toilet-haberman-book/6735023001/ https://www.axios.com/maggie-haberman-book-trump-papers-2d59d593-8b89-4edd-8623-8ef709af524f.html https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1010008/white-house-residential-staff-reportedly-found-wads-of-printed-paper-clogging https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-documents-flushed-down-toilet-presidential-records-act-2022-2?r=US&IR=T https://www.mediaite.com/tv/clearly-in-violation-of-the-presidential-records-act-cnn-commentator-reacts-to-report-mark-meadows-burned-documents/ https://www.businessinsider.nl/a-big-distinction-may-explain-why-the-fbi-searched-trumps-home-but-not-bidens-over-classified-documents/ https://www.newsweek.com/why-joe-biden-was-not-raided-fbi-over-classified-documents-1772506 Republican congress oversight committee got 51 citizens tax-returns & even release it to the public. President Obama & Vice-President Biden’s Tax Returns and Tax Receipts: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2011/04/18/president-obama-and-vice-president-biden-s-tax-returns-and-tax-receipts https://www.seattletimes.com/business/bidens-paid-24-6-taxes-on-610702-earnings-returns-show/ https://www.outlookindia.com/international/trump-s-returns-reveal-foreign-accounts-no-donations-takeaways-from-long-sought-tax-news-249752 Why be the only President in 50 years to hid his tax-return, if you have nothing to hide? Is he afraid that it will show the illegal money trail from Russian banks to Saudi kings? His top advisers Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort ($12 million in undisclosed payments), Rick Gates, Michael Cohen were all convicted and Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, Brock Long, Ryan Zinke were found to be ethically compromised. His biggest business deals were with Russian banks. Donald told Gen Flynn to go to Ukraine so that the sanctions on Russian govt. banks can be removed. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/29/us/politics/tom-bossert-trump-ukraine.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/us/politics/trump-taxes-income.html https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-organization-entities-found-guilty-all-counts-tax-fraud https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/20/us/trump-taxes-news https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64127825 https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1019520/irs-didnt-launch-audit-of-trumps-presidential-era-taxes-until-day-house https://apnews.com/article/trump-new-york-times-taxes-lawsuit-slapp-f39342501d9a2a5cfd36181f9f336215 https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/17/benton-trump-russian-vasilenko-guilty/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/28/bolton-alleges-that-trump-helped-out-chinas-leader-zte-whats-zte/ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/24/trump-biden-china-debt-205475 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/24/how-a-tycoon-linked-to-chinese-intelligence-became-a-darling-of-trump-republicans https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/business/us-budget-deficit-2022.html Trump’s Attitude Toward Russia Makes a Mockery of the United States: https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-knew-russia-bounties-2019-before-trumps-g7-invite-putin-1514259 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions/trump-administration-holds-off-on-new-russia-sanctions-despite-law-idUSKBN1FI2V7 https://www.apnews.com/470d7c2f054b44d7a3c3a5d91d851ac0 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-white-house-secret-efforts-lift-russia-sanctions-putin-619508 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-a-mcconnell-backed-effort-to-lift-russian-sanctions-boosted-a-kentucky-project/2019/08/13/72b26e00-b97c-11e9-b3b4-2bb69e8c4e39_story.html?noredirect=on https://www.ajc.com/news/gen-politics/trump-urged-comey-after-clinton-and-then-fired-him-for/KrViK1BpLr80O9IkNt3KxN/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8464901/Russia-paid-Taliban-BOUNTIES-killing-American-troops-Afghanistan.html https://www.npr.org/2018/02/21/587614043/fact-check-why-didnt-obama-stop-russia-s-election-interference-in-2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.23bdd0f03113 https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5wqd3/how-russian-trolls-screwed-with-america-according-to-the-mueller-report?utm_medium=vicenewsfacebook https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/18/mueller-report-ira-internet-research-agency/ https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-10-26/trumps-russiagate-redemption-fizzles-as-durham-probe-limps-toward-a-close
Today’s security environment is characterized by complex asymmetries, multi-domain conflict, and nine nuclear-armed states with widely divergent intentions. Nations with nuclear weapon has can engage their enemy's core strategic interests coercively, well below armed conflict, through non-contact like psychological warfare using internet, satellites, economic (sanctions) and combative diplomacy. The "enhanced" use of sanctions, as well as the so-called "colour revolutions" in the post-Soviet area, which the Russia interprets just as if it were the American "hybrid warfare". Psychological warfare has two forms. The first involves producing mercenaries, used as the new munitions of war — the strategy is to terrorise the enemy population to subjugation. Second is a more covert approach that aims to create a narrative before unleashing psychological instruments to alter the thinking and cultural values, so that they willingly offer themselves to subjugation. The narrative involves the subjugation of the minds of the people and their leaders using force and coercion. The ends of warfare have shifted from a territorial concept of physical domination to the domination of minds of the population. The Arab Spring is an example of psychological attack. In the early 1960s, Soviet intelligence agents mounted a vast anti-Semitic campaign in the West Germany, financing and coordinating with various Nazi nostalgic organizations to demoralize a democracy and undermine the credibility of their leaders. Russia has been studying this concept of psychological attack for the last 15 years and has demonstrated its prowess in Crimea and Chechnya, and through the purported meddling in the last US elections. The future of war is not fighting, but famine, not the slaying of men, but the breakup of the whole social organisation and the bankruptcy of nations. Also biological infection can accomplish precisely what the trade war is supposed to do — exports and stocks prices drop precipitously. 5th Gen War, Whoever is first to recognize, understand, and implement a generational change can gain a decisive advantage. Conversely, a nation that is slow to adapt to generational change opens itself to catastrophic defeat. Democracy can only function properly if electorate are able to make informed decisions (without doubt & confusion). They must be aware of the sources of information they base their decisions on. “a tailored mix of conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, and criminal behavior in the same time and battlespace to obtain [a group’s] political objectives.” Frank Hoffman. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/04/trump-obstruction-justice-doj-485360 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/us/politics/barr-trump-obstruction-russia-inquiry.html https://www.reuters.com/world/us/leaker-us-top-secret-report-is-released-prison-after-2018-conviction-2021-06-14/ Trump colluded with WikiLeaks to release the private e-mails hacked by Russia. By late 2016, the FBI had evidence that the Russians had signalled to a Trump campaign adviser that they could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to the Democratic candidate. And the FBI knew that Russians stole from the Clinton campaign in the beginning in July 2016, WikiLeaks released emails were from the Russians military intelligence. Fbi had also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Roger Stone among them. Roger Stone had direct knowledge of what WikiLeaks possessed and gave the Trump and his senior Campaign team a heads-up on what to expect. Congress joint committee assessed that Trump did speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his Campaign about Stone's access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions, despite telling the special counsel in written answers that he had "no recollections" that they had spoken about it. We now have a detailed picture of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Stone became a central figure in our investigation for 2 key reasons:
The special counsel’s office identified 2 principal operations directed at the Presidential election:
The rise of the cyber domain; connectivity of global commerce, finance, and communications; speed and penetration of the internet; and prevalence and intimacy of social media that reaches nearly 40% of the world’s population have reshaped the competitive domain now commonly called the “grey zone”. The Republican majority in the Senate separately pointed out how WikiLeaks' ties to Russia and the campaign's interest in WikiLeaks advanced the foreign influence effort in the 2016 election. Despite "a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives" Senate Republicans insist there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7039336-Report-volume5.html TheFBI also could not directly establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. However, the investigation did, establish that the Russian government and worked to help the Trump campaign. The investigation also established that the Trump campaign expected to benefit electorally from information stolen by the Russians military intelligence and released through Russian government's efforts. We already know from Stone's prosecution that the President likely committed felony perjury in his written responses to the Mueller inquiry. Mueller, in a less redacted version of his report released in June, raised the possibility Trump lied to him in analyzing and documenting potential obstruction of justice by the President. WikiLeaks, released the Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta's emails on October 7. However, in August itself, Stone had already obtained the information that Podesta was a target. A jury later determined Stone lied repeatedly to members of Congress under oath. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks’ releases. When, in fact, he had updated senior Trump campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks. And he tampered with Fbi's witness, imploring him in order to stonewall Congress. Because his sentence has been commuted by the President, he will not go to prison. It's an unprecedented, historic corruption, as an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/22/947972044/trump-grants-slew-of-pardons-including-george-papadopoulos-and-duncan-hunter (In contrast, Marine General James Edward "Hoss" Cartwright has 4 Defense Distinguished Service Medal. He also has the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard distinguished service medals.) p.s. Since 2016, Rick Gates had been periodically sending Trump Campaign polling data to the Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik, often using via throwaway phones. Paul Manafort worked closely with Konstantin Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska. Manafort and his associate Gates had a secret meeting with Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Room members-only cigar bar, located at 666 5th Avenue, near Trump Tower. The building is owned by Trump’s son-in-law’s Jared Kushner. Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya's ties were "far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ivanka-trump-used-a-personal-email-account-to-send-hundreds-of-emails-about-government-business-last-year/2018/11/19/6515d1e0-e7a1-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html Russian govt hacked Hillary's campaign just within hours after Donald publicly appealed to Russia for their help to find her deleted emails. Obama actually called Mitch about CIA reports about Russian interference, before the election & asked for bipartisan support but Mitch refused and instead issued a weak statement which did not even mention Russia. Mitch, Reid, Ryan and Pelosi were briefed about it. The day after the election, FBI and CIA also warned the new President about Russia's election interference that tipped the scales to his favour, but he instead asked them to hid the facts from public view! Comey also another Republican, was told to go after Hillary and then fired by Donald on the grounds that he was being too tough with the Hillary investigation! Donald told McGahn to fire Mueller and "falsify records". A single ex-kgb man with a little bit of oil money and a willing fool, got so-called "party of conservatives" to punch itself in the face repeatedly. Donald tried to veto his own party on Russian sanctions so they had to pass it with super majority (419-3 in the house, and 98-to-2 in the Senate) to make it veto proof. He should also really stop using his old non-secure phone but does he ever listen to anyone? So, China if you are listening find his tax returns. Barr said that it's not a crime. You will be rewarded mightily by the media. Current law prohibits an individual from knowing and willful soliciting a foreign government to get any “thing of value” but though the Republican Robert Mueller said he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt any monetary value to the opposition research that Trump Jr. solicitated from Russian agents. Thus the FBI Special Counsel’s Office has opened the door and permitting candidates’ soliciting with foreign governments to provide opposition research on their opponents, without any consequences. Remember how a land deal investigation of Bill Clinton was turned into a perjury trap? During that time Bill Clinton had just put his head down and kept doing his job. A decade of Republican investigations into Dems, millions spent & still nothing to show. Monarchist Barr now says Donald was elected president so there should be no by judicial or legislative authority over him! The 'unitary executive' is a radical belief that there should be unquestionably No checks and balances by the Congress on any President. If the President does anything, it Must be legal, because it’s the Commander-in-chief. In his earlier stint as attorney general, during the George H.W. Bush presidency, Mr. Barr took on the role of helping to disappear the case against Reagan administration officials involved in the Iran-contra affair. Ironically, the same people are fine with wars without approval from Congress (Obama would not start a war in Syria without Congress approval after his "red line" was crossed) but believe that Obama made the biggest "imperial" move by preventing ICE from deporting 700,000 undocumented young immigrants brought to the US before they were 16 years old (and not younger than 12 years and not older than 35 years on 2012) and ONLY if they pass certain educational qualifications/served & criminal background checks (DREAMers for Alien Minors Act). DREAMers who have only known America as their home have been living in limbo when Donald ordered to stop renewing any work permits for DREAMers. Imperialism is when the ruler is above the law and the constitution; i.e. ruler is unimpeachable. That thinking led to the expanded presidential powers beyond oversight, under the guise of national security and led the unchecked Bush jr into the 2003 Iraq war, arguably the single biggest US blunder since Vietnam. In 1974, Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal wrote that “if the Executive Branch were left to itself, the practice [of executive privilege] would surely grow” because “secrecy, if sanctified by a plausible claim of constitutional privilege, is the easiest solution to a variety of problems.” The Presidency have become even more powerful again (zenith under Nixon administration) since the Patriot Act after 9/11, while the is only thing lacking is in moral authority. Today POTUS can detain anybody (even toddlers) forever, allow any prisoner to be tortured and even made order any American citizen to be killed without due process if the President labels the person a threat. You really believe everyone in public office is in on some masterplan against Donald? You think Schiff is so clever that he made Donald commit crimes? Ironically, Donald calls these civilian as traitors to the nation beacuse they have been ordered to disclose under oath about his unlawful actions. These people have the right to speak out atleast in America without fear of retaliation. The 73 yr keeps crying wolf while all his best people go to prison. Once a shady real estate developer, always will be. Where are the madisonian republicans now when devoted public servants from Donald's own administration are pointing out his lawless actions? From the 1970s through the 90s, the Five Families had a chokehold on both major construction firms and most of the unions that represented workers on job sites. Donald’s used hundreds of undocumented workers from Poland. Trump Model Management used foreign models to work ILLEGALLY. In the wake of several bankruptcies, Trump found it hard to raise money in the West, so he gathered money from Russian investors. Trump has business ties in Russia that go back to 1987, when he and his then-wife, Ivana, visited Moscow to scope out a luxury hotel joint venture with the Russian state tourism agency. Trump Jr. said in 2008 that wealthy Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of assets. It's common among Western businesspeople in Russia to be pro-Putin. Russian oligarchs aren't going to do business with anyone who bad-mouths the boss. But it's rare to hear it from someone at the top of Republican politics. Donald tried to become a player close to Russia's big leagues of power, but he didn't know the right people. Despite the lack of significant business success in Russia, his political career has made him an important part of Putin's wider strategy to weaken the West. Putin sees such political forces as useful tools to be manipulated and exploited. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/geoffrey-palmer-trump-donor-los-angeles-214130
https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/trump-cheated-on-his-sats-by-paying-someone-to-take-it-for-him-according-to-mary-trumps-new-book/articleshow/76840482.cms Donald started when his Father signed for $100 million cheap loans. The stock-for-debt tax code say any partnership company can repay just $60 million out of a $100 million loan it borrowed from bank. The company can simply swap stock for the $40 million in debt if it is unable to repay, even if the value of the stock is far less in actual market value. This is a way, in which, on paper it would look as if the entire $100 million loan had been repaid to the bank. Best of all, if that stock, when the company is effectively insolvent, can just become next to worthless. Because of massive abuse, Congress & IRS, after repeated efforts, in the 1980s, was able to ban its use by certain companies (only owned by corporations) in 1993. Trump University get-rich-quick scheme scammed people and was forced to pay $25 million for a settlement. He had paid no income taxes at all for 10 (maybe even 20) years. He did not pay any tax in 1978, 1979, 1984, 1992, 1994 and wrote off $100 million loan. That makes him a welfare queen of NY. In 2012, Donald refinanced the commercial space at Trump Tower with a $100 million loan, on which he still owes the full amount, which is due in 2022. He 'contributioned' loans to his own campaign (that paid to his own companies) which means he eventually got a full refund back from the public donations to his campaign. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/02/19/trump-has-now-shifted-19-million-from-campaign-donors-to-his-business/#2ca8994f67c3 Today, the family-owned business such as golf courses and sales of condos & resorts, has raised Donald's net assets worth to 2.5 Billion. He now paid $750 in yearly federal income taxes while his companies pay more in taxes to other nations, e.g. $188,560 in China, $15,598 in Panama, the $145,400 in India and $156,824 in Philippines. From 2013 to 2015 he paid $188,561 in taxes in China. It turns out that China is one of only three foreign nations, the others are Britain and Ireland, where Donald maintains his foreign bank account but the name of the bank is not known. He is still running his businesses. China’s biggest state-controlled bank rented 3 floors in Trump Tower, a lucrative lease, that has drawn accusations of a conflict of interest for the President. In his first 2 years in the White House Donald also got deals that made him $3 million from the Philippines, $2.3 million from India and $1 million from Turkey. Donald confirmed that he owes roughly $400 million, some of which might be owed to foreign banks. In 2018, Donald disclosure said that he had made at least $434.9 million but his tax records show a different side, $47.4 million in losses. His IRS records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president. His properties have become bazaars for collecting money directly from lobbyists, foreign officials and others seeking face time, access or favor; the records for the first time put precise dollar figures on those transactions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj01Gi22LsM Basically, using such euphemisms (double speak), you can get away with a lot more and make the obscene more palatable. He even made his campaign hold a fundraiser event which was advertised as benefiting veterans but in reality all the donations instead went to his political campaign (courts decided to fine him $2 million but not to impose any permanent ban or punishment). The chief use of euphemism (double speak) is also designed to secret signal to the initiated, and to keep strangers out. Most say it when responding rather abrasively to show they are superior and unique. Cohen is credited using National Enquirer while Stone is credited with using the "investigator" Corsi who started slanderous stories about clintons, obama, kennedys, john kerry, black militants, aclu, catholic church, vicente fox, stephen harper. Stone also generated lies through Cohen confusing facts about the clinton foundation with another unrelated namesake charity. Donald directed Cohen to threaten his high school & colleges, to not release his educational records! Whats he hiding? Donald (and his powerful billionaire Mercer clan backers) took a tiny rumour and amplified it & just won’t let it go: https://www.factcheck.org/2008/08/born-in-the-usa/ https://features.propublica.org/trump-inc-podcast/trump-family-business-panama-city-khafif/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-drug-trafficker-donald-trump-risked-his-casino-empire-to-protect https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-01-27/jared-kushner-s-felon-father-brought-two-fellow-inmates-into-company https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/03/14/trump-tax-returns-maddow-david-rachel-show-cay-johnston-million-income/#53eedf74714b https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tax-avoidance-new-york-times-fred-father-investigation-taxes-dodging-a8565991.html https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2021/05/07/trump-maralago-florida-employee/4944038001/ https://thehill.com/homenews/news/332270-eric-trump-in-2014-we-dont-rely-on-american-banks-we-have-all-the-funding-we/ https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/eric-trump-funneled-cancer-charity-money-businesses-associates/story?id=47878610&cid=social_fb_abcnp “Trump was the perfect target in a lot of ways: his vanity, narcissism made him a natural target to recruit. He was an asset. It was not this grand, ingenious plan that we’re going to develop this guy and 40 years later he’ll be president. At the time it started, which was around 1980, the Russians were trying to recruit like crazy and going after dozens and dozens of people.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/IuebAR5NeLn9WWhXtl6v7MtoSAQ=/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost/public/SVQFZMXOZNFGZN7K534GA5WGQI.jpg Joe Biden wanted the corrupt prosecutor removed along with EU & Canada because the prosecutor was no longer investigating Burisma. Also the Burisma investigations about its oil contracts were years before Biden's son Hunter joined Burisma. Biden did everything through regular legal channels. Even Barr refuses to investigate Biden. Donald politicians and non-politicians he doesn't like all the time! No other nation can investigate US citizen and soliciting such investigation without going through fbi is illegal. Do your research. FBI carries out investigations into American citizens, not Ukraine or China or Russia. Especially NEVER a politician who is an opponent of the President. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQmqyukTTCU https://www.npr.org/2016/09/16/494231607/the-trump-campaign-s-birther-statement-a-close-reading https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/sep/16/donald-trump/fact-checking-donald-trumps-claim-hillary-clinton-/ https://apnews.com/article/violence-lawsuits-race-and-ethnicity-charlottesville-01d9437ec28ed71b4bae293d7e0d815d https://www.newsweek.com/unite-right-organizers-must-pay-25m-9-injured-during-charlottesville-rally-1652644 https://www.wsj.com/articles/charlottesville-trial-verdict-jury-finds-prominent-white-supremacist-leaders-liable-11637698395 https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4081977-man-accused-of-targeting-obamas-dc-home-after-trump-social-media-post/ https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/07/21/benefited-slavery-critics-say-some-states-examples-were-never-even-slaves/
http://taxlawgazette.com/irs-audits-of-millionaires-down-72-in-eight-years/ https://www.fa-mag.com/news/millionaires--large-corporations-dodged-irs-audits-in-2020-61054.html https://www.foxnews.com/politics/irs-audited-fewer-tax-returns-in-2017-amid-shrinking-staff-criticism-over-enforcement https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/republicans-should-just-say-no-87000-new-irs-agents (the meme about hiring armed agents is years old and not related to the new hires) Republicans give too much credit to dems 'socialist' plans when it's simple things like elderly care, early child care and paid leave after child birth, and lowering drug prices finally & lowering Medicare costs, insulin at $35/month. 50:50 senate is balanced, and you need both house and the senate to pass a bill. US Soybean & Sugar industry receives as much as $4 billion in annual guaranteed subsidies. That is not free market. Nobody blinked an eye when Trillions were wasted on Afghanistan. For 40 years, GDP was 2.74%. Joe is re-building with GDP at 5.5%. Republicans who voted against Biden's bill are quick to take credit when it helps their constituents. Just like Republicans who boasted that they voted against Obama bills, however, whenever a project was finished, they showed up at the ribbon-cutting to take credit. It's like throwing a pot-luck & asked everyone to bring something, but GOP refuses to bring anything & proceed to eat all the pulled pork, drink all the beer, & eat all the cake. Republicans giddily spent 8 TRILLION IN TAX CUTS: 2.5 Trillion tax cuts budgets, twice under bush Jr. (totally, $4.5 trillion) & one (3 Trillion) under trump. Actually, under Trump, republicans also spent $1.1 trillion additionally, which would bring the total to 8.6 Trillion. Tax cuts were financed by borrowing. 50 biggest corporations have created debt from tax revenue loss. Corporations got trillions for decades, and they still moved out coz they can pay even less to their slave workers in commie China. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/americans-taxes-used-to-be-public-until-the-rich-revolted/ In 1944, the tax rate for the wealthy peaked at 94% on taxable income over $200,000 ($2.5 million in today’s dollars). The 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Over the next three decades, the top federal income tax rate remained high, never dipping below 70%. Today the ultra-wealthy pay a true tax rate of only 3.4%, compared to the high tax paying couples (higher than $628,300) pay a rate of 37% & the average household pay 14% of that in federal taxes. Currently, just over half (52%) of US families have some level of investment in the market, mostly through 401ks. Reagan cut taxes from the then-top rate of 70% down to 52% or 53%, and then, later, to 28%. The top corporate tax rate was cut in 1987 from 46% to 40% and the next year to 34%. During Donald, private investment has declined after corporate tax revenue was reduced to the lowest level in 15 years. Currently, the 50 biggest corporates pay just 0%-2%. As a result, government deficits and accumulated debt exploded, and that led to defunding funds for infrastructure and schools which important for innovation and standard of living. US standing had collapsed under trump. I draw the line at commander-in-chief getting supporters to storm the capital after being impeached twice. Trump only cried about how he was really the victim in life, watching cable tv, tweeting & playing golf... n couldn't get on a bicycle. Joe has a much thicker skin and quick to forgive, while Trump can only dish it to those who are weaker than him. Republicans did beg joe for more funds for relief, and he quickly released them. The cult still cannot accept dear leader lost to biden. Biden defeated the nazi. Joe is your President now. https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/10/21/biden-federal-deficit-republicans/ https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/federal-reserve-tariffs-manufacturers https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-09-21/mnuchin-s-2-5-billion-fund-shows-a-need-for-tougher-ethics-rules https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/steven-mnuchin-treasury-secretary-nominee-assets-confirmation.html https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-07-23/feds-begin-prosecuting-fraudulent-ppp-coronavirus-loans-some-cases-will-be-hard-to-win https://variety.com/2015/biz/finance/relativity-steve-mnuchin-co-chairman-1201557256/ https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/mnuchin-requested-plane-for-european-honeymoon-for-secure-communications-treasury Trump’s Proposed Middle Class Tax Cut Is Not Real. Merry Christmas. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/midterm-elections-trump-claims-hell-propose-cutting-middle/story?id=58670975 https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/21/18005468/trump-tax-cut-middle-class-2-0 https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/04/23/years-tax-cut-cost-some-gold-star-families-dearly.html GOP Plan Retains Tax Break for Golf-Course Owners: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/11/gop-plan-retains-tax-break-for-owners-of-golf-courses.html https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/twice-many-companies-paying-zero-taxes-under-trump-tax-plan-n993046 https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/21/fact-check-was-federal-debt-lowering-before-coronavirus-struck/114456492/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/geoffrey-palmer-trump-donor-los-angeles-214130 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/business/economy/for-the-wealthiest-private-tax-system-saves-them-billions.html?hp=&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/g1vl91/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-foreclosure-crisis https://www.ehn.org/dupont-c8-parkersburg-2644262065.html https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2014/03/28/sunday-preview-du-pont-heir-stayed-prison/7016769/ Unemployment is 4.7% under Donald before the pandemic, it had dropped from 10% to 5% under Obama. In 2020 the unemployment rate under Donald is 26.1%. For Black Americans, it's 59.2%. Job growth under Donald is slower than Obama second-term monthly average. Unemployment fell 17% among blacks under Obama. During Trump's first 35-months in office, economy gained 6.69 million jobs. While during Obama's first 35 months in office, the economy gained 19% more, with 7.96 million jobs. 250,000 jobs added each month in 2014 & 227,000 jobs added each month in 2015. Donald has not been able to top that (the average is 191,000 jobs). Compare to Donald, at this point President Carter had enjoyed more job growth than Donald! Hourly pay for line workers is same under Obama and Donald. Job loss was the highest under Bush with nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs lost. Bush took 8 years to crash the economy so makes sense Obama took 8 years to rebuild it. https://www.lisep.org/ Donald had promised the economy was going to grow at least 4% to 5% (even 6%) in his first term. The growth is Not even 4% annually. It's 2.8% in 2018 (same as Obama in 2015) and after tax cuts it decline to 1.1 in 2019, as per Donald's own dept. stats (while Obama term it rose to 2.9%). You will need magic to reverse the effects of automation on full time jobs. Remember when Donald laughed at Obama's growth? As of 2019, Donald has changed the growth measure from yearly to a new format of every 4th quarterly and if you measure it in that way then Donald growth is 3% in 2018 but (by the same model, Obama was also 3% in 2015). Unlike Obama, you cannot point to any Donald policy for the okay revenue. Donald had tweaked Obama's NAFTA-2 plan in order to not upset most interest groups. Donald only got Canada to open up its dairy market & increased wages for workers in Mexico! 1) Automobiles must have 75% of their components manufactured in Mexico, the US, or Canada to qualify for zero tariffs. 2) Labor protection such as 40% of automobile parts must be made by workers must be paid at least $16 an hour by 2023. 3) A sunset clause. Without the working people who will run into burning buildings, who will clean and cook, who will treat you when you fall sick, who will serve wearing the uniform? It's important to remember the role of those blue collar workers, technicians and machinists played to take us to the moon. How come there is always resistant to use taxpayer money on teachers raise, healthcare, small business, veterans, school kids, but there is always billions to piss away? Republicans go back to being gentler Americans. If you give corporates extra million dollar tax-breaks, they don't invest it on people but rather buy back their stocks. Where as when there is a thousand more disposable money into middle-class consumers pockets, the better the market grows. It is not only trade market and corporate tax-cuts that needs focus; there has to be more confidence measures for mass consumption in semi-urban markets to boost the national economy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/23/trump-biden-us-economy-compared/ It's better to borrow when the country was in recession and the job lost was highest, rather than borrow now when the market is up just to artificially look good. Do you understand the difference between inheriting an economy where the bottom fell off from one that economy rising? When the economy is healthy, you need to invest in it rather than spending it without paying off the debt, which is at the level of WWII. Remember when wall-street wanted public's money, to bail out their mess? Who suffered & who was sent to prison? Some people actually believe that, instead of understaffed healthcare workers, it's the Corporations that wouldn't survive without 2.2 trillion of bailouts every time there is some crisis. The money corporations saved in tax cuts went to shareholders instead of investment. Socialism for political donors is cheered on the broken backs of common people. Indirect taxes on items, collected whenever there is public purchase, is also real hard-earned money that fills the treasury. Donald had railed against the so-called 'carried interest loophole' but that tax provision loophole is still intact. Republicans have used 'Reconciliation Rules' to change the tax system. Legislation that Trump championed was the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, have already spent 1.5 Trillion of tax-cuts for stock-brokers & golf course owners for next 10 years. Whereas, tax deductions for home mortgages will expire after 2025. The annual deficits have added $7 trillion to the debt under Donald, hitting a record $26 trillion. 13% increased under Donald in 2 years. Republicans, who shut the entire govt. because of Obama rising the debt, has now silently "fallen in line" as usual. “The king of debt” promised during his 2016 presidential campaign he would pay off the national debt “so easily”. Obama left with the second-biggest improvement to the economy. Donald had already failed at the federal recovery during Hurricane Maria, which led to thousands of American deaths. His actions and falsely statements exacerbated the chaos. During the deadliest wildfires in California, he threatened to withhold federal aid. US has been slow to improve and develop the human capital. In some instances, the economic has exacted significant costs to both national security and American communities. The U.S. government will also need fresh approaches to managing talent. The largest growth of middle-class and world-class infrastructure after ww2, was due to govt. assistance. During the war, women ran the factories and there was a better ratio of women engineers passing out of universities. Right after the war, more people could afford colleges. Providing greater funding, data, computing power, and other infrastructure support to university researchers, as described above, would open opportunities for students. The federal government should also work with states, universities, and businesses to incentivize job-training pipelines and potentially scholarships or debt-forgiveness programs. An even more ambitious path would be to renew the National Defense Education Act, which helped spur American innovation. Finally, any effort to improve America’s talent pipeline must include reforming K-12 education from a young age. In 1962 (the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis) the top tax rate was 91%. Since then, it's gotten worse for the 1% of poor who actually send their children to enlist. Just 3 people in the US have more wealth than 63 million American families. People have more jobs but no money. Donald lied to the troops in Iraq when he said they will receive a 10% raise. He has done nothing for contaminated toxic water in 126 US bases. https://www.wkrg.com/northwest-florida/more-women-service-members-report-illnesses-after-deployment-to-contaminated-airbase/ Under Trump, the US Army has quietly terminated contracts for immigrants after promising citizenship to those who served. Commander-bone-spurs pretended a disability to avoid serving during war-time and used that to send someone else's son had to go in his place. Trump has lied about veterans health care more than 150 times and claims he created the Veterans Choice program, but in reality, he only modified Obama's 2014 Choice program, using the VA MISSION Act in 2018. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2023-04-26/veterans-debt-ceiling-spending-cuts-9930863.html https://taskandpurpose.com/news/veterans-affairs-budget-cuts-debt-ceiling/ https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/04/24/va-warns-of-potential-harm-veterans-ahead-of-house-vote-gop-debt-ceiling-plan.html Why borrow so much if the economy is so good? The Fed has already cut interest rates twice in response to the loss of momentum in the US economy. Those rate cuts, down to a range of 1.75% to 2%, have eroded the Fed’s limited firepower to fight the next recession. The result is that the US printing of money and the borrowing will leave US with a lot of debt and debt monetization. What has he done but start tariff wars? Instead, higher tariffs = higher tax for the public. The only difference is that the same Chinese manufacturer products are now made 99% in China and then shipped off to a second country, where the 1% is added and that country's label gets stamped to make the product. Donald has appointed ex lobbyist in interior, drug lobbyist in charge of health, energy lobbyist in charge of environment, big bank executives in charge of finance & advisors in treasury, defence executive in charge of defence. Why is it even legal to lobby lawmakers? Republicans refused to pass a law that makes "gifts" to any politicians a crime after they leave office, or to make it illegal for family members of an elected politician from benefiting. https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-11-30/mercenary-donor-sold-access-for-millions-in-foreign-money His 5-year government officials ban applies only to lobbying in their former agency and not becoming a lobbyist. He is not draining the swamp. It was never this bad under Obama. Hours before leaving office, Trump undoes one of the few measures he took to ‘drain the swamp’ https://itep.org/notadime/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chicago-banker-gets-year-prison-bribing-trump-campaign-official-2022-02-07/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lobbying-executive-order/2021/01/20/4a2afd16-5ae9-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html Millions flow to fast-growing lobbying firms with ties to the Trump administration. https://www.opensecrets.org/trump/lobbyists https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-ethics/white-house-unveils-list-of-ex-lobbyists-granted-ethics-waivers-idUSKBN18S3P9 https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/at-least-182-high-ranking-congressional-staffers-have-violated-a-federal-conflict-of-interest-law-with-overdue-disclosure-of-their-personal-stock-trades/articleshow/88256865.cms https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/richest-americans-pay-almost-no-income-taxes-report-finds-n1270069 Happy Tax Day: Here Are 60 Giant Corporations That Paid Less in Taxes Than You Did http://money.com/money/5641759/tax-day-2019-amazon-netflix-pay-no-taxes/ https://fortune.com/2019/02/14/amazon-doesnt-pay-federal-taxes-2019/?utm_campaign=fortunemagazine&utm_source=twitter.com&xid=soc_socialflow_twitter_FORTUNE&utm_medium=social https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/amazon-netflix-chevron-ibm-federal-taxes-trump-tax-law https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/twice-many-companies-paying-zero-taxes-under-trump-tax-plan-n993046 The ultra-wealthy pay a true tax rate of only 3.4%, in contrast, the highest income couples (higher than $628,300) pay a rate of 37% & the average household pay 14% of that in federal taxes. In 2020, under Donald, the gap between richest and poorest citizens in the US has become the largest in 50 years! https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/us-economy-workers-paycheck-robert-reich https://www.gazettenet.com/Trump-cancels-pay-raise-due-to-federal-workers-in-January-19836569 https://time.com/5836487/real-estate-tax-break-coronavirus-kushner/ https://itep.org/the-35-percent-corporate-tax-myth/#whospaying https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/23/new-mexico-big-oil-gas-industry https://hbr.org/2020/01/why-stock-buybacks-are-dangerous-for-the-economy https://www.newsweek.com/under-donald-trumps-watch-national-debt-increased-78-trillion-1561627 https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/interactive/2023/national-debt-31-trillion/ Food banks buckle under demand and warn they will run out as millions of Americans go hungry and huge lines for hours form across the country: https://twitter.com/ShannonMFox4/status/1250807741989388289 https://www.foxnews.com/us/feeding-houstons-hungry-1m-pounds-food-daily https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/thousands-of-cars-form-mile-long-line-at-us-food-bank/ https://www.foxnews.com/us/more-americans-shoplifting-to-survive-amidst-coronavirus-pandemic https://www.today.com/food/50-million-people-may-experience-hunger-year-these-organizations-are-t203672 https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/hungry-americans-are-waiting-in-miles-long-lines-as-food-banks-struggle-to-keep-up-with-demand-hereaposs-a-look-at-how-rising-unemployment-and-dwindling-volunteer-pools-are-impacting-us-food-pantries-/slidelist/75210096.cms#slideid=75210815 Overdraft Fees Suck Money Out of the Pockets of Those Who Need It the Most: https://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/06/11/yes-banks-are-reordering-your-transactions-and-charging-overdraft-fees/?sh=56b2b5816daa https://www.americanbanker.com/list/these-10-banks-are-rethinking-overdraft-fees-heres-why-and-how https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-bank-overdraft-fees-costing-consumers-billions/ “Why should the people and taxpayers of America be bailing out poorly run states (like Illinois, as example) and cities, in all cases Democrat-run and managed, when most of the other states are not looking for bailout help? I am open to discussing anything, but just asking?” Trump wrote on Twitter. 93 of the 100 poorest counties are in rural parts of the US (mostly Texas, Georgia and Kentucky). Mr. Trump set the tone early with the signature tax cut legislation that passed in 2017 and limited the federal deduction for state taxes, effectively raising taxes on many high-income earners in blue states called “an economic civil war” between blue states and red states. Federal income tax levies higher rates on filers with higher incomes. The American dream of a big house with a backyard and a couple of cars is much more achievable in Arizona than in Massachusetts. States, like Texas, Georgia and Utah, can offer a higher standard of living (food, cost of housing, leisure) since they spend far more in federal dollars than they collect in taxes, which is called high 'balance of payments' (IRS data). Mississippi and Kentucky receives $2.39 (Montana and South Carolina receives $1.92) from the federal government for every dollar it pays (each gets $19 to $37 billion more than what they give). 44% of Louisiana, 41% of Tennessee and 33% Indiana, fundings comes from federal dollars. The states with the lowest income per capita are Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, New Mexico and Kentucky. Despite this support, Mississippi has the highest homicide rate, highest infant mortality rates and lowest median household income of any American state. Many Mississippians receiving federal assistance would not be considered “poor” compared to their state’s cost of living, while many Hawaiians not receiving federal assistance may be considered “poor” because of how expensive Hawaii is compared to other states. West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the US. Every year New York City puts in $29 billion more than than they take out. (https://taxfoundation.org/federal-aid-reliance-rankings/) About 60% of National Flood Insurance Program "socialist" policies were issued in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, which all voted for Trump in 2020. The federal program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families provides cash assistance to fewer than 1% of Americans! And even programs relied upon mostly by the poor end up helping a large portion of us because roughly one-third of all Americans are poor at some point in their lives. No wonder, Republicans don't support the minimum wage bill. The minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is nearly 40% lower than in the 1970s, adjusted for inflation. Minimum wage jobs like in restaurants, get paid by their employers in all other countries from the World except the U.S. Tipping, as way to make a living, is only found in US. Only in US it is Not the restaurant employeers responsibility to pay wages for service, so, in U.S customers have to tip. Currently, employeers can actually pay their staff just a min of $2 and 13 cents as wages. Tipping was started in U.S during the 1920s (18th Amendment) when the Italian Mafia controlled the black market. Within the two decades, restaurant employeers began to only hire poor Black freed former slaves, only if they did not have to actually pay them wages. So customers tipping was created for the freed slaves to work like before, but now they had to buy their own uniforms too. Also, the difference between a customer's tip for a good service & and bad one is just 1%. Do you want serfs? The Bracero program, instituted in a bilateral agreement in 1942 amid anticipation of a labor shortage in WW-2, gave contracts to Mexican workers to be employed in the U.S. agricultural sector. Many of the farm workers are reported to receive a fraction of the wages of American laborers. Lee G. Williams, the last director of the program under the Department of Labor, refers to the system as "legalized slavery." Amid mounting pressure from activists, the U.S. government lets its Mexican guest worker program expire after 22 years. The end of the Bracero program results in an acceleration of illegal immigration across the border. In 1965 the Hart-Celler Act was passed, suddenly whole groups of Mexico and Latin America people who were already been living in US and whose entrance to the US was considered legal before suddenly became illegal. Ironically, this is when illegal immigration multiplied for a decade. Currently, immigrants made up just 17% of the US workforce. Empires are the product of nation-states who believe that their type of government should be forced on everyone for reasons that usually having to do with making imperialists richer while maybe improving the condition of the conquered areas. Saudi government has worked assiduously to try to block the lawsuit by the 9/11 families, and it has largely done so with the backing of the Trump administration’s Justice Department. Before he became president, Trump had expressed strong support for the 9/11 families and sharply criticized the Saudi government calling the Saudi kingdom “the world’s biggest funder of terrorism.”
First, you’ve got to get the right attorney general. The hard part arises if you screw up initially, starting with someone who’s not up to the task, and your fixer doesn’t come in until the major investigation is well under way, maybe even done. Having one who is ideologically sympathetic to you isn’t good enough—after all, if you’ve made it this far, your main concern should be loyalty, not ideological consistency. Even having one who slavishly worships you isn’t good enough. Such a person, after all, might still recuse himself. He may leave things operationally in the hands of some deputy who actually cares about his reputation, if only a little, and who’s constantly looking over his shoulder worried about what the career folks think of him. You need someone who does not need to be all things to all people—who will, like a honey badger, just not care if the legal community disapproves of him or if the press is appalled or if members of Congress call for his impeachment. You want someone who knows his way around how the department works, who knows what levers to pull, and who will be totally fearless about pulling them. Your right-hand man (or woman) in this endeavor needs to be someone who is willing to reach down to the level of individual prosecutions to get his way. This point is crucial. Because scuttling an investigation isn’t a high-level policy task. If your guy is not willing to do the dirty work, then he’s not serious. If you’ve got this person in from the beginning, you’re golden. There won’t be an investigation to start with—because you’ll have squashed it. This is the ideal outcome. This brings us to step two. Once the investigation concludes, make sure your attorney general snips off any remaining loose threads. You don’t want to leave hanging the possibility that your friends—or you yourself—could face criminal charges when you eventually leave power. Here’s where a really sly operator can turn the Justice Department’s traditions against it. There’s a pretty strong norm against doing this without new evidence, which means that it will be significantly more controversial for some future administration to pursue charges against you with this record on the table. And if a future administration decides to go for it anyway, you’ll be able to point to that contrary record in complaining that you’re facing political harassment. Third, you’ll want to begin a Justice Department investigate the first investigation which you can deploy against any possible counterargument. The longer your investigation of the investigators goes on, the more shadowy and ominous it will seem. And don’t be shy about duplicative investigations either. When one is done, start another. Keep a constant low buzz going about about the conspiratorial nature of the original investigation. Use these investigations to discredit all of the convictions even if the evidence behind them is overpowering and clear. Finally, there’s a last tool for when everything else fails—for the case in which its out of the Justice Department’s hands. You still have the power of clemency. This will actually seem like justice to a lot of people. Bill Barr's first “opinion” as AG was in June 1989, where he reasoned the US President had the right to dispatch FBI agents abroad to arrest foreigners even in violation of international treaties. The second document was issued as US forces geared up to invade Panama, gave a patina of legality to the president’s desire to use the military in similar overseas operations. Together, the two memos enshrine what has come to be known as the president’s “snatch authority.” Writing in the memo, Barr argued that both the president and, through him, the attorney general have an “inherent constitutional power” to authorize certain overseas operations, including abductions (going against provisions of the UN Charter), to fend off “serious threats” to domestic “security” from “international terrorist groups and narcotics traffickers.” When Congress first got wind of these astonishing theories, in November 1989, Barr insisted that they represented no policy change. Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the legality of that action and the conservative majority approved it. Next, Former members of the Reagan & the first Bush administrations were heavily influenced by Project for the New American Century (PNAC) principles developed from Kristol and Kagan's article published in the New York Times under Foreign Affairs titled "Reaganite" and suggested that the US should adopt a stance of "benevolent global hegemony" using pre-emptive "military strength" for "constabular" duties to shape the world and by promoting regime change in Iraq for political and economic "international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles." According to one of PNAC 90-page report advocated the cancellation of "roadblock" defence programs which absorb "exorbitant" amounts of Pentagon funding, but favored the development of "global missile defenses," and the creation of a new sixth military service for "space control." Pentagon planners estimate that the future Space Force will cost $13 billion. 60% of the federal government’s discretionary budget is now spent on the military budget and the 40% is divided among judiciary, education, environmental, agriculture and law enforcement. It is time to stop equating military spending with patriotism when most of it gets wasted by the Pentagon. Long-term US military & government spending, totalled roughly 10 times the country’s GDP. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/budget/2023/03/10/gop-blasts-inadequate-biden-defense-budget-as-it-vows-spending-cuts/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-rein-in-inflated-military-budgets/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/07/18/americas-indefensible-defense-budget/ https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2022-11-16/pentagon-financial-audit-8075353.html https://taskandpurpose.com/news/pentagon-fails-audit-again https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pentagon-audit-idUSKCN1NK2MC https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-fails-audit-sixth-year-row-2023-11-16/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSLpwYCByQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVKYceDLA2c https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2017/11/10/cost-911-wars-taxpayers https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/11/14/post-9-11-wars-have-cost-american-taxpayers-64-trillion-study-finds.html Bush's "war on terror" has cost the taxpayers $6.4 trillion. It did not "fall on his head" because of Democrats. Besides Pentagon also gets to maintain a separate slush fund, formerly known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account (only half goes to actual wars, $25 billion is meant to pay for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world). Donald wants 1 Trillion for his military budget which is already stated as $780 billion (half of total U.S. budget), the annual 'black budget' is $500 billion on top of it, at a time when the Cold War is over. Big new agencies like a new Space Force & ICE instead of raising federal workers pay (President refused to raise their pay on Labour Day). That money could have been used to fix all the crisis like lead pipes, fixing healthcare, rebuilding after natural disasters, investing in infrastructure in the past 20 years. The idea during the Cold war, was to break the Soviet economically weak society, as they outspent on their military. The Pentagon’s own Defense Business Board found that cutting unnecessary overhead, including a bloated bureaucracy and a startlingly large shadow workforce of private contractors, would save $125 billion over five years. The Military needs only $50 million to be lean, mean & ready to defend the nation from any attack on the nation's soil. More money doesn't mean better defense (it means more wastage); it's how you optimize the funds. You cannot reduce defense funds simply because readiness, training and maintenance are the first things that go out as this is seen as the easiest to cut. You cannot cancel a ship production because then you alienate a certain amount of people who are sponsors of that project. (https://ourworldindata.org/military-spending) Kim and Putin are laughing now. In 4 years, there is No National intel chief and No head of Homeland security adviser. The largest number of vacancy in history of US ambassadors. Did you know US tax-dollars subsidize defense corporations & also buy the world's most expensive military equipment? DoD employs private contractors doing jobs that could be done far more cheaply by government employees. None of the wars started by neocon hawks (practically, all lost) since WW2 have been legal since has not been approved by the congress, as required by the Constitution. The taliban are back in power in 75% of rural Afghanistan. If it was possible to kill your way to victory than the US would have succeeded in Vietnam, Korea & Afghanistan. "A Republic if you can keep it." Donald-Kim summit failed. North Korea tested perfectly their nukes, are building bombs & fired their new longest-range missiles under Donald. Donald wanted a Nobel prize for picking up the check for the 2 photo-ops with Kim that All Hat & No Cattle, but Donald declared in his tweet that he already managed to solve everything. Failed Yemen & Niger raids. Never imagined the day Russia will be in South America, in the backyard, without getting any push back. Kim & Putin, who made a fool out of him. If Obama was President, Republicans would be chest-thumping that Russians should never be given an inch inside America's backyard. Donald is clearly Not competent. (https://time.com/5565120/russias-presence-in-venezuela/) Trade war with everyone by Donald has already harmed small farmers (down 16% after bailouts) for decades to come. Trade war is an indirect tax but nevertheless raise in tax on the public. Give handout subsidies to farmers is also Socialism. In fact, Farm bankruptcies went up 25% in 2019. (Trump administration is getting sued because USDA has rolled back protections for small farmers https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-10/farm-groups-blast-trump-competition-rule-as-favoring-meat-giants). When you start picking winners & losers instead of trusting the markets to self-correct; everyone ends ups with losing, and the effects are never what you intended. Systemic inequality is when one group of people, gets more advantages than everyone else, just because they have more money. It's always somebody else's fault like BLM, CRT, fake media, dems hoax, it's obamas fault, china, mexico, nato etc. Keep on dreaming, if you trust Donald that Mexico will pay a single peso for the wall. The money comes from taxes to treasury as always. Anything you buy already has tax included, so everyone who buys pays some taxes that go to the treasury. GOP's budget had deep cuts of aids for low-income and first-gen college students. The budget eliminated the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, a 50-year-old program which goes to more than a million poor college kids each year. The budget also reduce Federal Work Study program that helps to ensure that college students who are truly in need of the money get the jobs. Meanwhile, they have cut funds to AmeriCorps, Senior community service employment programs, AIDS programs & Americans with Disabilities (ADA). There is a reason why programs to help the poorest Americans fall under mandatory expenditures. In 2018, the CDC cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks because it was running out of money (and US disease fighting experts went from working in 49 countries to just 10 and cutting the agency's staff by more than two-thirds in China. The NSF closed all foreign offices in 2018 and transferred the manager of animal disease monitoring program in Chinese ports). The Clean Water Act was passed to protect downstream states from upstream states' pollution. Donald has now rolled back Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Protection for Endangered Species, and Protection of Federal Lands. There is a reason why only debt and the programs to help the poorest Americans fall under mandatory expenditures in a well-functioning government. Donald's lies, misinformation, corruption, and sheer incompetence are in full display during the pandemic and recession. And when he could no longer ignore the crisis, he shifted his focus to helping big corporations and the wealthy, while regular Americans and small businesses continue to suffer the worst impacts. Meanwhile, his Treasury department allowed stimulus funds to be diverted directly to private debt collectors. He has sent $1 billion in aid intended for small businesses to large corporations, e.g. Clay Lacy Aviation, the donor’s private jet company, took $27 million in “small business” funds. https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/trump-donors-private-jet-company-reportedly-gets-27-million-bailout-the-largest-of-any-other-private-jet-company/articleshow/75745652.cms "I believe strongly in alliance. I think that's our unique strength. When this town was hit on 9/11 back in 2001 within 60 days I was fighting in Afghanistan; and joining me there were troops from Canada, United Kingdom, Norway and Germany; Turkey and Jordan; New Zealand and Australia. Now, none of their cities had been attacked. They were there, because we were there, because we had been attacked. We don't talk about the values we share among allied nations. We only talk about the things we don't share." Jim Mattis, Former U.S. Defence Secretary in 2019. It was Franklin Roosevelt and a Democratic congress, not the GOP, that had the nation unprepared for war before Pearl Harbor. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, after President Franklin Roosevelt had not squeezed the Japanese into initiating the attack with his oil embargo on Japan.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/488069-obama-officials-walked-trump-aides-through-global-pandemic-exercise-in-2017 https://www.ajc.com/news/obama-warned-pandemic-threat-2014-but-republicans-blocked-funding/dh2H9HxiuBY05T5uPqtqpI/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/coronavirus-fema-medical-supplies.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intelligence-reports-from-january-and-february-warned-about-a-likely-pandemic/2020/03/20/299d8cda-6ad5-11ea-b5f1-a5a804158597_story.html https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-s-bungled-vaccine-rollout-forcing-governors-get-creative-political-n1257174 https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/01/01/mitt-romney-says-trump/ https://www.newsweek.com/vaccine-distribution-plan-did-not-really-exist-under-trump-says-biden-chief-staff-1563988 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/15/trump-vaccine-reserve-used-up/ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/29/nation/personally-im-incredibly-frustrated-dr-ashish-jha-comments-slow-vaccine-rollout/ Trade since WW2, as a share of global GDP, has roughly doubled relative to the 1970s, but quality of life for families in the US has declined. Profits have skyrocketed since 1980s, but medium household wages have hardly increased (vs 400% increase for CEOs) which means families are working harder by getting less because companies are using their yearly tax-breaks to buy back more stocks. What has he done but help his greedy donors in the stock-market? Stocks doesn’t matter when 10% of households owned all 87% of stocks & mutual funds (compared to Black households who own just 1.6%). https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/the-white-house-botched-a-deal-to-lower-prescription-prices-because-drug-companies-wouldnt-budge-on-its-request-to-pay-for-100-gift-cards-that-wouldve-been-mailed-to-seniors-before-the-election/articleshow/78197859.cms Biden had to rescind Trump's executive order because it was only for enhanced coverage plans (with higher premium), and it did not lower prices at the drug store, as it not provide how his executive order was going to factor in regulatory actions (or pricing complexities to come up with a “most-favored nation price”). Trump's order had no teeth to be implemented. Actual drug prices, including speciality drugs, under Trump increased, just at a slower pace. Trump administration had also proposed to allow states and manufacturers to import lower-cost versions of the drugs they sell in other countries. This “gimmick” is a concept has not been embraced by FDA or by HHS. The Canadian government also has expressed reservations, saying it will protect its domestic supply of medication. Allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies is an approach widely endorsed by Democrats and, historically, Republicans. It has bipartisan support of 92 percent among Americans. Biden lower prescription drug prices by allowing the government to negotiate prices, while also capping out-of-pocket and insulin costs in Medicare. Under Nancy Pelosi's Inflation Reduction Act (passed by Democratic-majority in Congress and signed into law by Biden), if you’re on Medicare, your insulin will be capped at $35 a month at Walgreens and CVS; and also caps out-of-pocket drug costs for those enrolled in Medicare at $2,000 per year, starting in 2025. Dems wanted to cut the cost of insulin for everyone, but Republicans voted to strike that out of the bill. Trump's executive order was an empty gesture, whereas the Inflation Reduction Act was a comprehensive drug pricing reform. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/overnights/3678682-health-care-gop-targets-democratic-drug-pricing-law/ https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3678314-senate-republican-bill-would-repeal-dem-drug-pricing-law/ Donald made home ownership more expensive for US households by cutting the mortgage interest deduction, while at the same time driving up interest rates to make mortgage payments more expensive. In fact, Donald has created a $70 Billion deduction for real estate investors. Job loss was the highest under Bush Jr. and Reagan. For all the talk about unemployment being falling to 4%, understand that it fell from 10% to 5% under Obama. He saved the auto industry jobs, but he wasn't perfect. Falling unemployment does not drive up wages anymore. Wage growth has stalled compare to housing costs under Donald. Which means people have more jobs but no money. Reagan took the deficit from $70 billion to $175 billion. Bush 41 took it to $300 billion. Clinton got it to zero. Bush 43 took it from zero to $1.2 trillion. Obama halved it to $600 billion. Trump’s got it back to a trillion. The 2 to 3 Trillion added debt is a future tax that everyone and their grandchildren will be paying long after Donald is out of office. It's artificial juiced up by borrowing and the compounded, the interest will have to be paid sooner or later. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/one-in-five-american-households-have-zero-or-negative-wealth-2017-11-11 It's become Republican politician's wet dream to cut SS, FEMA, Medicare & CDC for an income-tax rate that helps donors so that donors get bigger write-offs & permanent tax-breaks. Over the next 10 years, Trump’s 2020 budget proposal aims to spend $25 billion less on Social Security, and $575 billion less on Medicare (of which $269 billion of that figure is reclassified to Department of Health & Human Services). 85% of these cuts will come from reductions in provider payments. The cuts to benefits are being called necessary reform to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. Donald has envisioned changing Medicaid altogether within 10 years; by spending $800 billion less on Medicaid and transforming the current pay-as-needed system to a block grant, where states are given a capped lump-sum fund that doesn’t grow with increased need or rising costs, but which could leave millions more uninsured. https://gizmodo.com/fema-wants-to-cut-disaster-aid-at-the-worst-possible-ti-1845877762 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/republicans-and-trump-owe-east-palestine-apology https://www.khou.com/article/news/verify/government-verify/ohio-train-derailment-ecp-brake-system-mandate-trump-dot-administration-fact-check/536-d0ad26f7-84b6-4707-bcb1-7dc6e0a9f09f https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/feb/17/occupy-democrats/obama-era-safety-rule-high-hazard-trains-was-repea/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-22/trump-s-ohio-visit-prompts-review-of-his-own-rail-safety-record Donald's pay cheque to charity is peanuts (255% more than his salary) compared to how much tax money, one of his children & wives, uses every month. His campaign is giving millions of government/taxpayer's money & Republican donor's funds to pay to his properties for his political events, which goes into his pocket as personal profits. $81 million was spent in his Florida resort alone. The net effect is that the taxpayers' money has turned into his personal money. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/09/11/trumps-businesses-raked-in-19-billion-of-revenue-during-his-first-three-years-in-office/?sh=2cb3344c1e13 Secret Service has paid rates as high as $650 a night for rooms at Trump's properties. $500,000 tax dollars per day for security for NY tower alone has to be paid to him. Ethics laws apply to every government employee except the President and Vice-President. It is an honour system. Normally, federal employees are barred from promoting products, including the President and anyone who is officially his advisor (like his daughter). Do we know how much it tax dollars were spent to fund those vacations to Europe for Donald's sons, daughters, wives & party? He works 3 hours per day. He has played for 575 days in 3 years (86 days in 2019). https://trumpgolfcount.com/displayoutings Donald has spent 1 out of every 5 days as President in his resort. Donald has cost the taxpayers $110 million in 2-years, pumping millions into his own private golf clubs. i.e. Taxpayers have paid the highest bill for this US President's vacation than any in history. Each, Trump’s trip to Ireland, cost taxpayers some $3.6 million, out of which $1.3 million was just for his rental cars. Meanwhile, Obama has played 333 days of golf during 8 years while in office (8-years total cost $90 to $106 million). Obama paid for his own trip whenever he golfed & they were at military bases that DON'T require the use of jets, helicopters, and transport planes to move his motorcade. (source: Freedom of Information Act lawsuits). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-super-bowl-party-mar-a-lago-cost-taxpayers-a9315296.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/09/16/the-numbers-dont-lie-why-lowering-taxes-for-the-rich-no-longer-works-to-grow-the-economy/#170014b64bf4
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2008/11/bad-day-gipper-reaganomics-runs-its-course/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1982/02/06/cbo-sees-big-jump-in-deficit/69bcf4fe-50f6-451b-8453-a9d15bdee0ed/ https://www.fool.com/retirement/2019/03/30/3-big-problems-with-raising-social-securitys-full.aspx https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jL66Rc8aIZYJ:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2014-12-18/i-hear-america-singing-never-pay-taxes-the-inversion-operetta+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
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