Political Roundtable Part XXXII

[dobrojim]

Remember when Cons at least paid lip service to the notion of national security?

Watch on YouTube

The first part of this monologue about 'light' beer is hilarious.

The rest of it is kinda scary. The GOP faithful cannot bring itself to believe what is hitting
them upside the head, that Golfy McBonespurs simply has to be considered a walking talking
national security threat given how transactional he is and the likelihood that he is totally
desperate for money. Of course at the beginning, Golfy sold his followers on the idea that
he was so rich he couldn't be bought. Undecided if laughter or tears is the correct response
to this. Steve Bannon says Trump has been bought. Yikes.

[Pointgod]

Seems like a guy that shouldn’t be in charge of a country

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[dobrojim]

It's sad that so many people have become so disenchanted, justifiably or not, that
they believe false equivalencies about different public figures that would make your head spin.
Jon Stewart, we need you more than ever. And we really need to implement better public
education beginning at a very young age in the recognition of disinformation.

[pancakes3]

Run Someone Other Than Biden.

I'll vote for Donald Jr in 2028 so help, I will.

[dckingsfan]

It's sad that so many people have become so disenchanted, justifiably or not, that
they believe false equivalencies about different public figures that would make your head spin.
Jon Stewart, we need you more than ever. And we really need to implement better public
education beginning at a very young age in the recognition of disinformation.

This. You see it all the time where folks look at a tweet and decide their position. Almost like folks don't want an historical context to what is happening. Previously we had someone think that the "open border" which isn't was going to be the downfall of the country without the context of the push/pull.

If you don't understand the push/pulls that are going on, there is no context. And we are reduced to reacting to tweets.

We want our gardeners, our house keepers, and our in-home healthcare workers. Small businesses want folks to work in their restaurants, on their small farms to pick their crops, developers want builders, etc...

There are many reasons for the destabilization in many regions on the world. We aren’t the sole cause but we are a big chunk of the cause at least in Latin America. And climate change has exacerbated the problems (and will accelerate migration in time).

So, unless we slow down the pulls, none of it matters – folks will migrate for a better life and/or the push to stay alive. Check out Palestine, we know those folks would migrate in a heartbeat if they had a chance (vs. starving to death).

Next you have the border. Questions to ask, can you really secure the border (yep, a rhetorical question – you can’t). And how do most of the immigrants arrive? Another rhetorical question – it isn’t via the border – it is via overstayed visas.

Then you have Trump’s newfound voice on massive deportations. It may very well be rhetoric but words matter. Like with Arizona trying to pass a bill to search folks for their papers. Guess what, they aren’t going to be searching white folk.

And let’s go back in history. Have we ever had xenophobic immigration policies before? Know-Nothing Party (Catholics); Chinese exclusion act; Japanese exclusion act; Emergency Quota Act (Southern Europeans); and now onto the Trump xenophobic policies.
And we might be fine with these now, except we need a material expansion of immigration to pay off our debt that we incurred through the forever wars, Bush and Trump tax cuts and of course Covid. Not paying off your credit card is the other way to do it… but that will have some interesting ramifications.

So yes, we can be driven by the slippery slope arguments (like in each of the past xenophobic periods). Most of them turn out to be materially false but are effective in getting the base’s rabid responses (historically they have had a material affect on elections).

But like prohibition, the walls and whatnot don’t work unless you carveout the pulls.

But this is nuance, it is much easier to react to a tweet or a newscast and think that immigration is THE issue of the day, well - it may be but it shouldn't. It is just a driver of our xenophobia and a good one at that - not understanding context or how to find the context leaves the vast majority of Americans wallowing in their own verbal excrement.

So, violent agreement - EOR.

[dckingsfan]

FULLY BLAMING BIDEN FOR THESE TRAVESTIES!!!

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[dobrojim]

bottom up/middle out

[dobrojim]

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you to learn that Golfy was not being truthful when he
said he had lots of cash ($400M).

More seriously, what would not be the least bit shocking would be to learn that
many of tRump signature properties are heavily leveraged.

The GOP has shown themselves to be complete and total marks for his
grift. It seems likely, if it already hasn't happened to a considerable degree,
that folks who had been GOP donors will stop donating to the GOP since
that money is going down a major rat hole. The GOP base turns out to
a high percentage of marks and the office holders and candidates are a
bunch of cowards unwilling to tell them the truth....that they've
been lied to (for a long time) and what they believe just ain't so.

I conclude by returning to my earlier point, someone like Golfy who
is demonstrably incapable of prudent personal financial decisions,
shouldn't be making decisions for the whole country. Golfy is the
biggest mark of them all. BTW, his 100% tariff is an absurd idea.

[Zonkerbl]

Meh, people don't understand how illiquid real estate assets are. You really can't extract the cash out of a $125 million asset in a month, it takes time.

Nevertheless, this is obviously a pathetic excuse to just get out of paying the fine altogether, particularly with his "let's see if the judge is stupid enough to confuse bond agencies with mortgage lenders." Obviously bond agencies don't accept collateral. You should have thought of that before committing crimes. I guess the other option of taking out a loan (leveraged w collateral) and handing that over to the bond agency isn't really a viable option either, because it sounds illegal and no bank would make that loan anyway.

Probably the underlying problem is he is not nearly as wealthy as he says he is. I'm looking forward to the NY DA liquidating his assets and finding out he's only worth $200 million. Particularly since a lot of his so-called "wealth" is in his "brand" which conveniently he can't sell.

[dobrojim]

Let's hope he can't sell his brand given what it actually stands for.

[doclinkin]

I conclude by returning to my earlier point, someone like Golfy who
is demonstrably incapable of prudent personal financial decisions,
shouldn't be making decisions for the whole country.

He never makes decisions for the whole country anyway. It is all for himself. Prudent or not his entire aim is to polish his 'brand' and collect emoluments.

I think forensic accountants and ai assisted hacker/historians will uncover stunning sums of cash flooding in to line the pockets of Trump and underlings. Jared Kushner's billions from the Saudi's are the only open transaction. I fully expect we discover russian bitcoin lining the pockets of FOX news pundits and MAGA pols alike. The real danger with a bankrupt Trump entering office is not that he makes bad decisions, it's that he will continue to sell off our Democracy to the highest bidder. Emboldened by the Supremes supporting his kingship, and unchecked by the need to run for reelection he will strip the office for everything its worth. Pardons up for auction, the US Military rented as mercenaries, nuclear extortion, assassination of his political enemies, I don't think anything is beyond the plausible with a mentally declining and petulant Trump re-elevated to the office he never earned.

[dobrojim]

This^

thank you Doc

ps - you left out sociopathic in your adjectives at the end

[Zonkerbl]

Reminding everyone and myself of my two political predictions from earlier in this thread:
1. Dobbs has OUTRAGED women all over the country. If Democrats leverage this outrage properly they can translate it into electoral success (that manifests in voter turnout by women so it doesn't show up very well in polls). So far they seem to be taking my advice, putting abortion legalization measures on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, and Florida (among other less competitive states). Would be nice to get Florida back, if just for one election.
2. Trump is a huge political liability. Yes, he gets apathetic racist voters motivated to get out and vote, but no one else on the Republican side, and he motivates normally apathetic voters on the Dem side as well. He got lucky in 2016, treasonous help from Russia, and illegal help from the FBI. He lost humiliatingly as an incumbent in 2020 and the bloodbath will be even bloodier in 2024. The media, with cooperation from the Dems (who want, understandably, Dem voters to be concerned), will hype up how close a race this is, but it won't be. If he lets his assets get seized next week he's toast, so he'll probably sell out to Putin. Again. Will be interesting to see if Putin takes him up on it.

Biden showed during the SOTU that all he has to do is stand up and show some fire and he gains almost 10 points in the polls instantly. If he lives to November he will absolutely crush Trump. Knock on wood. I've learned that trusting important Dem people not to die is a bad strategy.

[dobrojim]

The dems appear to be headed towards having a huge money advantage for the duration
of the campaign. All the GOP money is either not being offered up in the first place
or thrown down the rat hole for Golfy's legal defense. Even his ideological allies seem to
realize they would be wasting their money to try to help him.

[doclinkin]

The dems appear to be headed towards having a huge money advantage for the duration
of the campaign. All the GOP money is either not being offered up in the first place
or thrown down the rat hole for Golfy's legal defense. Even his ideological allies seem to
realize they would be wasting their money to try to help him.

I expect a huge influx of cash from dark money PACs that keep the sources of that revenue on ironclad lockdown. And AI boosted storms of disinformation, especially on the platform formerly known as twitter. And free publicity from the media, especially when he grandstands outside his court dates. And trouble stirred up elsewhere: at the border, urban unrest, terrorist threat, some incident to try to make ordinary folks wish for a tough talking strongman.

[Zonkerbl]

so more of the same...

[dobrojim]

wondering how much Golfy's empire will shrink after the events of today play out
I don't think it'll happen immediately. One must be patient.

[pancakes3]

wondering how much Golfy's empire will shrink after the events of today play out
I don't think it'll happen immediately. One must be patient.

he got a massive windfall with his truth social stock being approved. i think he's restricted from trading for another 6 months, but he's gonna make billions when he sells that, around September, and it's going to tank pretty hard the second he divests.

[Zonkerbl]

Talk about your two tiered justice system. I knew the system was flawed but this deeply corrupt? Wow.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/25/trump-bond-reduced-new-york-fraud-case/

[Zonkerbl]

Joke's on Trump if he can't even come up with $175 million though. I imagine Putin gave the appellate court a call and told them $175 m would be fine