Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 224: The Congressional Contempt for Political Buggery

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-A09a_gHJc" data-time="

Never forget.
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Pelosi now openly saying Democrats have to own the center left and the mainstream for 2020. Looks like we're getting candidate Biden and four more years of Trump!
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red sox 777 posted...

If you control all branches of government, you don't need to work with the other side.

Yes, and...

red13n posted...

how quickly people think it has been forgotten that the President had a hissy fit and shut down the government for it.

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Trump's approval rating up to 46 in the Gallup poll, the highest it's been since he took office. Disapproval at 50% so we're not too far off from net favorability.
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And 4 points net disapproval may well be a net approval if you exclude California, which is probably at least 40 points net unfavorable.
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red sox 777 posted...

And 4 points net disapproval may well be a net approval if you exclude California, which is probably at least 40 points net unfavorable.

California has more Republicans than any state except Texas, this is a stupid thing people keep doing
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

red sox 777 posted...

And 4 points net disapproval may well be a net approval if you exclude California, which is probably at least 40 points net unfavorable.

California has more Republicans than any state except Texas, this is a stupid thing people keep doing

Also has the most Democrats. Like, by far the most. Net is massively in favor of Dems.
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red sox 777 posted...

Net is massively in favor of Dems.

I just checked. California is not even in the top 10 bluest states. (Texas also isn't in the top 10 reddest states, if you're curious).

https://www.politico.com/gallery/10-bluest-reddest-states?slide=0

Though regardless, I see no reason to exclude California. It's not geographically isolated like Hawaii or Alaska. It's not ideologically isolated; nearby states have similar politics to the areas of California that they border. It's not religiously isolated like Utah. It has an outsized influence on culture including political culture (on both the left and on the right--Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro and Tomi Lahren all live in or moved to LA last I checked).
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metroid composite posted...

red sox 777 posted...

Net is massively in favor of Dems.

I just checked. California is not even in the top 10 bluest states. (Texas also isn't in the top 10 reddest states, if you're curious).

https://www.politico.com/gallery/10-bluest-reddest-states?slide=0

Though regardless, I see no reason to exclude California. It's not geographically isolated like Hawaii or Alaska. It's not ideologically isolated; nearby states have similar politics to the areas of California that they border. It's not religiously isolated like Utah. It has an outsized influence on culture including political culture (on both the left and on the right--Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro and Tomi Lahren all live in or moved to LA last I checked).

Because it has a huge population. Multiply that by the percentage gap and you get a huge net in favor of Dems from CA. It's about 1/8 of the population. If CA is D+40 (traditionally, it's not that high, but for Trump it probably is), and the country is D+4, the country without CA is probably going to be about R+1.

It matters if a poll of the 49 states not including CA is better correlated to the Electoral College winner than a poll of all 50 states. Which it may well be at this point.
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What better evidence that modern Nationalist Republicanism is proto-fascism, than the so so common argument that the country would be more in their favorand itd be a good thingif you excised the single most populous state from existence because its weighted heavily against them.

The population of Democrats OR Republicans in that state you hate is practically half of the states combined, if not more.

If you want to make an argument that California tips the scales, remove California and an equal number of Republican states by population, say...Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Sound fair?
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

What better evidence that modern Nationalist Republicanism is proto-fascism, than the so so common argument that the country would be more in their favorand itd be a good thingif you excised the single most populous state from existence because its weighted heavily against them.

The population of Democrats OR Republicans in that state you hate is practically half of the states combined, if not more.

If you want to make an argument that California tips the scales, remove California and an equal number of Republican states by population, say...Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Sound fair?

Disenfranchise CA, TX, TN, and KY? A tempting offer. But that's 57 electoral votes for the 3 Republican states and more after 2020 due to TX growing fast. And only 55 for CA. How about we also disenfranchise DC? That makes it 57 R votes lost to 58 D votes lost now, but probably 59 R to 58 D after 2020. But we still lose 6 senators to 2, so it's not a great trade numbers wise even if we can get CA out of the picture.
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The 2,622 counties that voted for Trump have surpassed the 490 counties that voted for Hillary in 12-month employment growth for the first time in 7 years.
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

What better evidence that modern Nationalist Republicanism is proto-fascism

"proto"
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The UK should start treating London politically the way the US treats California and New York. Let London be an economic engine, but make it a political pariah.
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I couldn't watch red sox talk to himself anymore but holy crap like 90% of the topic is gone
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should make an add-on to ignore posts that quote people in your ignore list

pages of topics gone
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https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1125792876187746305?s=21

Trump is goading us to impeach him, Pelosi said this morning, saying doing so would solidify his base

Congratulations, you played yourself
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Jakyl25 posted...

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1125792876187746305?s=21

Trump is goading us to impeach him, Pelosi said this morning, saying doing so would solidify his base

Congratulations, you played yourself

We cant act on the crimes weve said hes committed, or else his base who will never vote for us might never vote for us.

What a hollow feeling it is, being totally right about a thing that sucks this bad.
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To be fair, didn't Bernie say basically the same thing a few weeks ago, so it's not just a moderate-left thing?

Does anybody actually support impeachment because I might just support them out of principle at this point
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That's not how I'm interpreting that statement. To me it sounds like she's saying that impeachment would anger Republicans and convert Republican-leaning non-voters into Republican voters.
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Jakyl25 posted...

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1125792876187746305?s=21

Trump is goading us to impeach him, Pelosi said this morning, saying doing so would solidify his base

Congratulations, you played yourself

Well, she's about 10 steps ahead of most of the other Democrats. But still a fair ways behind the Republicans.
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My stance is that it doesn't matter if it is politically correct, it's fucking morally correct.
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Maybe if the Democrats keep giving in to the GOP on everything they'll finally find the way to convert Democrat-leaning non-voters into Democrat voters. I assume that's what they're trying to do, though the logic seems a bit off somehow.
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HashtagSEP posted...

To be fair, didn't Bernie say basically the same thing a few weeks ago, so it's not just a moderate-left thing?

Does anybody actually support impeachment because I might just support them out of principle at this point

Warren, Beto, and Harris have directly advocated for it. Buttigieg says Trump "deserves" impeachment but his role is to beat him in the election.

So this is actually Bernie not giving a shit.
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Okay, then yeah, that's gross.

This whole "Impeachment might help Trump so let's not do it" shit is pretty bad
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HashtagSEP posted...

To be fair, didn't Bernie say basically the same thing a few weeks ago, so it's not just a moderate-left thing?

Does anybody actually support impeachment because I might just support them out of principle at this point

Bernie doesn't give a shit about impeachment because he has always cared about issues first and foremost. "Enough about the damn emails", etc.

I don't give a shit about Trump being impeached (edit: I think he SHOULD be, but I'm not wasting any effort convincing others about it), because he will never be removed, so functionally it has no effect on the issues that matter.

But if you're going to say Trump is committing actual crimes, and you have the power to start impeachment proceedings, literally what are you doing but admitting you think the crimes shouldn't be punished because it might be politically tricky. Ick.
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Trump should absolutely be impeached
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NYT got ahold of some of Trump's tax info from 1985-1994. Unlikely to change anything but it's pretty funny to read:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html

Highlights (imo):

NYT says...

The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core business -- largely casinos, hotel and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade

In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 -- more than $250 million each year -- were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years

The newly revealed tax information sheds light on how those net operating losses snowballed. By 1991, they had grown to nearly $418 million, accounting for fully 1 percent of all losses that the I.R.S. reported had been declared by individual taxpayers that year.

At his nadir, in the post-recession autumn of 1991, Mr. Trump testified before a congressional task force, calling for changes in the tax code to benefit his industry.

"The real estate business -- we're in absolute depression," Mr. Trump told the lawmakers, adding: "I see no sign of any kind of upturn at all. There is no incentive to invest. Everyone is doing badly, everyone."

Everyone, perhaps, except his father, Fred Trump.

While Donald Trump reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for 1990 and 1991, Fred Trump's returns showed a positive income of $53.9 million, with only one major loss: $15 million invested in his son's latest apartment project.

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Hell, forget the criminal stuff. Maybe people realizing he's actually a terrible businessman might do more damage, since that's always something people love to tout, how "successful" he is.
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He is successful. No one is so good at losing money year after year after year. Well, Elon Musk is better I suppose - Tesla has run nonstop losses every year and Elon is getting paid 40,000 times the wages of the median Tesla employee.
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Tesla had positive earnings the last 2 quarters of last year. Now you're just getting lazy with your pointless non-sequiturs.
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kevwaffles posted...

Tesla had positive earnings the last 2 quarters of last year. Now you're just getting lazy with your pointless non-sequiturs.

But was it profitable for the year? I don't know if the auto industry would be terribly seasonal but there are definitely industries (like gaming and Q4) where it's common to get most or all of your net profits for the year from one quarter, and lose money the rest of the year.
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At a glance, it looks like this tax information is exactly what I've been saying/thinking Trump's taxes would show for a long time now.

The newly revealed tax information sheds light on how those net operating losses snowballed. By 1991, they had grown to nearly $418 million, accounting for fully 1 percent of all the losses that the I.R.S. reported had been declared by individual taxpayers that year. And the red ink continued to accumulate apace.

Trump is a true one-percenter.
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Executive Privilege
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Matt Gaetz reminds me so much of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and not in a good way.
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https://thebaffler.com/salvos/teenage-pricks-pareene

A really good read.

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1126078422797602816?s=21

...is he admitting to tax fraud via tweet as a defense against the idea that he is literally the worst businessman in the country?
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LordoftheMorons posted...

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1126078422797602816?s=21

...is he admitting to tax fraud via tweet as a defense against the idea that he is literally the worst businessman in the country?

Normally his twitter sycophants are the first to rally behind his fraudulent ass in the twitter replies, but I am scrolling down and they are eerily silent. Says a lot when even the most deluded of his online base has nothing to say.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1126078422797602816?s=21

...is he admitting to tax fraud via tweet as a defense against the idea that he is literally the worst businessman in the country?

He is bragging about tax avoidance. He is not admitting tax evasion.
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While Donald Trump reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for 1990 and 1991, Fred Trump's returns showed a positive income of $53.9 million, with only one major loss: $15 million invested in his son's latest apartment project.

I immediately thought of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHEyeYWSiys" data-time="
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So, next question for Donald: why did your father show a big profit in the same industry? Was he less savvy at tax avoidance?
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That said, with the way the tax law is, it is not a big surprise that a real estate developer would show losses for tax purposes, and Trump was one of the biggest real estate developers in the country.
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I don't know about one of the biggest so much as one of the most famous if not the most famous of the modern era. Hate Trump as much I as like but the man knows how to promote himself.
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I'm surprised Trump would have it structured so that so much of his business was in pass-through entities that would show up on his own tax returns, rather than corporations where it just wouldn't show up unless he issued dividends or sold shares. I suppose, if you expect to show losses you want it to pass through to offset income elsewhere, and he wasn't thinking about hiding his tax returns in anticipation of a run for public office that long ago.
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https://twitter.com/wsbtv/status/1126227018767486977

Damn prostitutes and their... being murdered!
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Jesus Christ this GA anti-abortion law:

https://twitter.com/davidastinwalsh/status/1126265702237855744?s=21
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Jesus Christ this GA anti-abortion law:

https://twitter.com/davidastinwalsh/status/1126265702237855744?s=21

I went into this assuming you meant "bill" and not "law" and was very horrified when I learned otherwise

But I guess it shouldn't be surprising that an unconstitutional and deliberately fascist law would be signed by a illegitimate governor

Living in Atlanta, definitely had some interesting conversations about that bill past few days. Metro atlanta is a lot dumber than inside the perimeter, but ya whatever