US Politics: Celebrating and despairing too early;No poll bump for Trump yet.

[Darth Richard II]

We're supposed to be getting a Whole Foods finally some time, Wegmans has been fighting the fuck out of it.

But anyway, back to politics, you see that New York Post cover? The fuck.

[Serious Callers Only]

It's not surprising the 'establishment' is virtue signaling their surrender to the regime now the coup is underway. They basically fear for their lives and the bosses are all in anyway.

 

America is a fascist dictatorship now; people who don't think that are just deluding themselves, much like in Russia. I think you'll learn once the journalists start disappearing like the children.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

This disgusting, horrific, and godless anti-BBQ rhetoric must come to an end!!!

[Serious Callers Only]

More fascism:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/us/avenatti-indictment.html

 

As I mentioned before, if you can and do not want to be part of the regime, or fight against it, now it's the time to leave. I genuinely think this will end very very badly for the world but most especially common Americans (and possibly Canada, Mexico, Venezuela or Iran, because the traitors will wag the dog and fascism in America always wanted to control and genocide all of it).

[Larry of the Lawn]

6 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Look, I don't want to discount the lived experience of actually have to write a check to the government, but again, I think this is a red herring.  Way back in February of 2018, the IRS put out a press release and warned people to adjust their withholding, including a calculator.  Some news outlets picked it up, but maybe not enough.  So, to say that this is interesting, when the availability of the calculator and withholding adjustment wasn't broadly reported, even though available is sort of....hypocritical?

Entirely separately, a system that encourages people to lend the federal government their hard earned money on an interest-free basis is broken.  It just is.  Now, the solution is to provide interest on all refunds (I'm ok with that).  But absent that, people "relying" on refunds basically for short term savings is DUMB and, particularly if those people are otherwise carrying credit card or mortgage debt really, really, dumb.  

Unless the IRS sent out a form stapled to, or even better had to sign with your W-4, a press release is meaningless.  This is your area of expertise but to most of us even the most basic IRS forms are completely Byzantine, even the concept of a return and withholdings is just something most people accept without really understanding.

I only have a wage earning job from Dec-March and always ask for extra withholding, but that's because my main business is as a contractor where I'm responsible for paying everything myself.  I basically use the winter job to pay into what I'll end up owing every April (or later if I file an extension).  I've found it tough to be competitive and cover operating expenses while paying quarterly, so I usually take the penalties in order to have better cash flow.  I'm sure this isn't ideal, but if it's literally 'use what i've put aside for quarterlies' or 'be able to drive to work and eat for the next month' it's not much of a decision.

Anyway, to any of you who have ever got money 'back' in the spring, kudos.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Serious Callers Only said:

More fascism:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/us/avenatti-indictment.html

We've moved more in the direction of an oligarchy than a true fascists state, with shades of authoritarianism and a thin veneer of a democracy.

That said, nothing in that link is fascist. If the allegations are true, Avenatti is a con artists and deserves to go to jail. And the inquiry into him began before the election and before the hush money setup took place. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

7 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

We've moved more in the direction of an oligarchy than a true fascists state, with shades of authoritarianism and a thin veneer of a democracy.

That said, nothing in that link is fascist. If the allegations are true, Avenatti is a con artists and deserves to go to jail. And the inquiry into him began before the election and before the hush money setup took place. 

Agree with the second paragraph, would argue that your first sentence is a distinction without a difference.

[Serious Callers Only]

 

The DOJ is a weapon now. War or tyranny. I'm pretty sure they're going to attempt to arrest Obama and kill Ginburg.

 

edit: on second thought, let's not link the russian operation, even if the depravity is true (or not).

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

45 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Agree with the second paragraph, would argue that your first sentence is a distinction without a difference.

I think it speaks to motivation. My initial fears were that Trump really wanted to set up an Authoritarian state. And make no mistakes, he is an authoritarian, but this seems to be based in part on his need to be loved. I think the main motivation was always the most obvious one: loot the country for everything it's worth.

Hell, I bet if Bezos offered him $10b after tax and gave him WaPo, Trump would be happy not to run for a second term.

[Larry of the Lawn]

They aren't going to kill Ginsburg.  And even if they were they'd wait until after the 2020 election and only if the Dems got a majority in the Senate.  The courts are a long game.  Same goes for arresting Obama - it gets them nothing and only increases opposition.  I hope Ginsberg lives to be 3,000 but it's not going to happen.  They can just wait.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Just now, Tywin et al. said:

I think it speaks to motivation. My initial fears were that Trump really wanted to set up an Authoritarian state. And make no mistakes, he is an authoritarian, but this seems to be based in part on his need to be loved. I think the main motivation was always the most obvious one: loot the country for everything it's worth.

Hell, I bet if Bezos offered him $10b after tax and gave him WaPo, Trump would be happy not to run for a second term.

Only if Bezos had to like submit to being hit over the head with a wet towel in a pro wrestling match as a contract rider.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Only if Bezos had to like submit to being hit over the head with a wet towel in a pro wrestling match as a contract rider.

So presidential:

 

Personally I thought that this meme was the best one of the early Trump presidency. If you remove the kids it jumps to 86%.

 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, larrytheimp said:

Agree with the second paragraph, would argue that your first sentence is a distinction without a difference.

Oh c'mon.  Oligarchies throughout history are the rule rather than the exception.  Whereas truly fascistic states are the exception rather than the rule.  Unless we're talking about small city-states, "democracy" is always an illusion to some extent.

[Larry of the Lawn]

9 minutes ago, DMC said:

Oh c'mon.  Oligarchies throughout history are the rule rather than the exception.  Whereas truly fascistic states are the exception rather than the rule.  Unless we're talking about small city-states, "democracy" is always an illusion to some extent.

Was commenting more on the directional aspect of the quoted post, as if moving towards "oligarchic authoritarianism with a thin veneer of democracy" is either something different than the beaten track we've been on, or moving in an opposite direction. 

 

edited to ask (tongue firmly in the old cheek):  what are your thoughts re: oligarchic bureaucracies?  

[Serious Callers Only]

People still thinking the GOP doesn't want genocide lol.

[DMC]

8 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Was commenting more on the directional aspect of the quoted post, as if moving towards "oligarchic authoritarianism with a thin veneer of democracy" is either something different than the beaten track we've been on, or moving in an opposite direction. 

Fair enough.  The rise of the right is something to deal with - as is the increase in unilateral action of the president (which is why I study it) - but for the most part I say "meh" to all this.  The public's perspective on most policy is considerably moving left since Dubya was elected, in almost all facets.  That will eventually affect institutions.  *Insert Weber quote here*

[Martell Spy]

Trump Railed At Illegal Immigration But Now Owns The Worst Numbers In A Decade
His erratic decisions and inflammatory rhetoric, critics say, are actually making things worse at the Mexico border.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-illegal-immigration-record_n_5caf9020e4b098b9a2d0d281

Quote

 

WASHINGTON ― Three years after promising that he was the only candidate who could stop illegal immigration, President Donald Trump is instead overseeing a record surge of border crossings ― and critics say he has only himself to blame.

“It’s not going well for him, and it hasn’t been going well for a long time,” said Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida who came to this country as a refugee from Cuba. “Things have gotten worse. And it’s on the back of the president.”

Sarah Pierce, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said Trump’s “policies and rhetoric” both are driving Central Americans who have considered coming to the United States to do so sooner rather than later.

“They’re really creating an urgency among migrants to appear at the border as quickly as possible before the next hammer comes down,” she said.

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Pete Buttigieg Is Not “Feuding” With Mike Pence
He’s reminding everyone of the vice president’s cruelty.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence-feud-marriage-equality-lgbtq.html

Quote

 

This story, and others like it, lie in the background of the emerging narrative regarding Pence’s “feud” with South Bend mayor and 2020 Democratic hopeful Pete Buttigieg. On the campaign trail, Buttigieg has denounced the vice president’s anti-gay policies; in response, Pence and his wife, Karen, have expressed surprise given Pence and Buttigieg’s cordial professional relationship. “He knows better,” Pence said of Buttigieg. “It’s funny because I don’t think the vice president does have a problem with him,” Karen Pence claimed, “but I think it’s helping Pete to get some notoriety by saying that about the vice president.” The Washington Free Beacon’s David Rutz described the conflict as not “a feud at all, but rather one person seeking to boost his national profile [by] attacking the other person.” Time’s Ryan Teague Beckwith dismissed Buttigieg’s alleged strategy as “a very Trumpy tactic.”

Rutz and Beckwith both do admirable work as journalists, but I suspect there is something more complex afoot here than a cynical political ploy. To understand why, it’s important first to consider Buttigieg’s actual comment—the one that sparked this so-called feud with Pence:

People talk about things like marriage equality as a moral issue, and it is certainly a moral issue as far as I’m concerned. It’s a moral issue because being married to Chasten has made me a better human being—because it has made me more compassionate, more understanding, more self-aware, and more decent. My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God. …

If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade. And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: that if you’ve got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.

As Masha Gessen wrote in the New Yorker, this speech was not merely a defense of marriage equality or an attack on “the Mike Pences of the world.” It was a defense of Buttigieg’s right to exist—to exist as an equal citizen, with full access to the liberties afforded all other Americans. As the story of Niki Quasney illustrates, this right was under constant threat in Mike Pence’s Indiana. Pence vigorously supported and defended the state’s same-sex marriage ban and sought to codify it into the state constitution. He urged his attorney general to appeal the federal court decisions that first protected Quasney and Sandler’s right to wed as well as a follow-up ruling that forced the state to let all same-sex couples marry.

 

 

[DMC]

51 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

edited to ask (tongue firmly in the old cheek):  what are your thoughts re: oligarchic bureaucracies?  

Just saw this.  My thoughts on "oligarchic" bureaucracies is anyone that describes (almost*) any US federal bureaucracy in such a way needs to take my class on bureaucracies.

*You could probably convince me that the USDA is purely oligarchic and entirely replete with regulatory capture.

[Larry of the Lawn]

16 minutes ago, DMC said:

Just saw this.  My thoughts on "oligarchic" bureaucracies is anyone that describes (almost*) any US federal bureaucracy in such a way needs to take my class on bureaucracies.

*You could probably convince me that the USDA is purely oligarchic and entirely replete with regulatory capture.

Huh, would not have guessed that'd be the top candidate but will check that out.  Would have thought the SEC, EPA, or FDA, would have been likely options.