Political Roundtable Part XVIII

[FAH1223]

Uhhhh so this seems like a big deal:

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Money laundering

Russian Mafia ties

That’s where all this is leading IMO

[closg00]

Trump is blocking the release of the Democratic memo. What does Don the Con have to hide? If anyone thinks this guy isn't somehow compromised I don't know what to tell you.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/373229-trump-will-not-approve-release-of-dem-counter-to-nunes-memo-report

wray blocked the memo due to national security concerns. wray has been instructed by trump to make himself available to D's and educate D's on which parts of the memo expose national security.

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You mean Republican Wray, Trumps picked guy? See how that works

[Pointgod]

Trump is blocking the release of the Democratic memo. What does Don the Con have to hide? If anyone thinks this guy isn't somehow compromised I don't know what to tell you.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/373229-trump-will-not-approve-release-of-dem-counter-to-nunes-memo-report

wray blocked the memo due to national security concerns. wray has been instructed by trump to make himself available to D's and educate D's on which parts of the memo expose national security.

Read on Twitter

You mean Republican Wray, Trumps picked guy? See how that works

The FBI said the same thing about the Republican memo yet SD20 full throated supported the release of that one. Color me shocked that SD20 is a delusional partisan hack. Trump also ignored the requests of the FBI regarding the Republican memo now all of a sudden we’re supposed to believe he gives a **** about the Justice Department? Please this is simply by partisan hypocrisy. The good thing is that the memo can be released without Trumps approval.

[closg00]

Only to add that the WH could have redacted the "offending" words and released the memo so they prove once again that they are clowning the American public.

[stilldropin20]

Only to add that the WH could have redacted the "offending" words and released the memo so they prove once again that they are clowning the American public.

wrong. dems would cry foul even moreso. this way they rewrite their memo without national security compromises. wray will tell them what is and is not a risk. R's memo had nothing. just made FBI look bad but was based in pure fact.

ftr, many reports already out that the D memo doesn't dispute the R memo. just their own version of mostly different stuff.

but we'll see. io cant wait to see it and in fact i want the entire material released that these memo's source their info. release it all. why not? i dont think any of this is national security risk. I think it is just going to make the outgoing obama and some holdover deep state FBI/DOJ look bad. some members of congress look bad. and perhaps trump look bad. perhaps obama look bad. and maybe some of those people broke laws. Whoever broke the laws, i personally want them exposed. no matter who it is.

[stilldropin20]

Trump is blocking the release of the Democratic memo. What does Don the Con have to hide? If anyone thinks this guy isn't somehow compromised I don't know what to tell you.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/373229-trump-will-not-approve-release-of-dem-counter-to-nunes-memo-report

wray blocked the memo due to national security concerns. wray has been instructed by trump to make himself available to D's and educate D's on which parts of the memo expose national security.

Read on Twitter

You mean Republican Wray, Trumps picked guy? See how that works

yes. this is exactly how it is suppose to work. the president gets his own people that lay cover for him. Thats the system. so long as no laws or broken. its fine. Its only when laws are broken or even if the spirit of the law is broken. and thats what obama's people did for Obama and the media laid cover for him as well. trumps people should do the same. Problem is trump didn't completely clean house on day one. so he opened this door for himself. But as i said many times, he may have done himself a favor by keeping them around because they continued to work against after he was inaugurated. which at some point we can call treason.

[Zonkerbl]

Dow finished up 330 points. Dammit. I mean yay!

[stilldropin20]

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Sent from my SM-N920T using RealGM mobile app

[stilldropin20]

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[cammac]

A little Bill Mahar for a Saturday Morning.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/bill-maher-mike-pence-winter-olympics_us_5a7ea1abe4b0c6726e138ef3

[cammac]

A little difference between Canada & USA on immigration to get the best & brightest!
SAN FRANCISCO—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday pitched Canadian globalism and the country’s new fast-track visa as reasons why Silicon Valley companies should consider Canada as a place to do business and spend money.

Trudeau brought his charm offensive to the San Francisco Bay area amid increasing unease over U.S. immigration policy and while talks continue over the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The heated debate over immigration since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump has provided a clear opening for Canada to promote itself.

As American employers worry about access to foreign workers, Canada is offering a two-week, fast-track employment permit for certain workers, dubbed the “global skills strategy visa.”

[Zonkerbl]

Actually...

OECD figures include state revenue. No one includes local revenue, that's silly.

Actually, to be precise, I advocate that the tax base be as broad as possible. A VAT with no exemptions is the broadest tax base you can fashion, and it doesn't have the disincentive to work built into it that the income tax does.

Four things to this. First, OECD's numbers show us at 26 odd percent - but we are really at 30+ for federal and state. Second, the 40+ percent does make a difference and is necessary in our case to understand our total receipts. Third, I agree a VAT would be a good place to start. Fourth, getting the cost drivers in hand should be done first - otherwise it won't matter - we will still outspend any new taxes as we have done in the past.

Yeah the OECD number is for 2012, you can see there's a dip there.

The only cost driver I’m aware there’s anything we could do anything about is health care. And the solution is single payer.

The other major expenditure that could put a dent in the problem is military adventurism. Obama came in saying let’s get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan, that turned out horribly. Trump tried something similar and he failed.

[verbal8]

if the DOJ won't let the Dems release a useful memo, maybe the the IRS can release Trump's tax returns.

[closg00]

Watch on YouTube

Worse than Watergate

[nate33]

Uhhhh so this seems like a big deal:

Read on Twitter

Money laundering

Russian Mafia ties

That’s where all this is leading IMO

Here's a better article from the NY Times about it:

https://archive.fo/YYSfD#selection-237.9-249.522

Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian — who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. But instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.

It looks to me that Russia is trolling our CIA just like they trolled Christopher Steele. They pretended to have all this dirt on Trump, when in fact there's nothing verifiable there. Clearly, all this conjecture that Russia interfered in our election for the purpose of helping Trump win is false. Russians approached agents of Trump's campaign with (probably fake) "dirt" on Clinton, and they approached agents of the Clinton campaign (including Steele and the CIA) with (probably fake) "dirt" on Trump.

Russia's goal was presumably to gain blackmail leverage on either candidate. If either candidate actually took the information, Russians could then threaten to leak the interaction at a later date and stir up a controversy that the candidate was working with Russians to steal an election.

Of course, thanks to an insanely one-sided biased media, it really only worked one way. When Russians leaked to Clinton agent Christopher Steele, the biased media didn't approach the issue from the standpoint of "Clinton working with Russians" to dig dirt on Trump. Not a peep was made about that. All they cared about was the dirt on Trump. Conversely, when the Russians approached agents of Trump with dirt about Clinton, the media cared very little about the dirt itself. They only focused on "Trump working with Russians".

[nate33]

Watch on YouTube

Worse than Watergate

Here's a simple question for you to contemplate:

What if Schiff actually did include classified information that reveals sources on that memo? What exactly is Trump supposed to do?

[dckingsfan]

OECD figures include state revenue. No one includes local revenue, that's silly.

Actually, to be precise, I advocate that the tax base be as broad as possible. A VAT with no exemptions is the broadest tax base you can fashion, and it doesn't have the disincentive to work built into it that the income tax does.

Four things to this. First, OECD's numbers show us at 26 odd percent - but we are really at 30+ for federal and state. Second, the 40+ percent does make a difference and is necessary in our case to understand our total receipts. Third, I agree a VAT would be a good place to start. Fourth, getting the cost drivers in hand should be done first - otherwise it won't matter - we will still outspend any new taxes as we have done in the past.

Yeah the OECD number is for 2012, you can see there's a dip there.

The only cost driver I’m aware there’s anything we could do anything about is health care. And the solution is single payer.

The other major expenditure that could put a dent in the problem is military adventurism. Obama came in saying let’s get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan, that turned out horribly. Trump tried something similar and he failed.

Zonk - three drivers to the deficit - spending, poor tax and substandard growth.
Cost drivers in healthcare (probably #1 thing that needs to be done - don't get distracted by coverage and the like), trimming the military to 3% of GDP, get rid of baseline spending, prisons, get rid as much funding coming from federal governments to state an local governments (incredibly inefficient) and instead fund it with your VAT - directly, get rid of pensions and replace with 401Ks at the federal/state and local level (most important at the local level).

On the taxation side, KILL the carveouts! Once you have done this - then you can start to work on optimal tax rates that balance growth and receipts. As it is now - there is no control. Before we pass any new taxes we should fix our tax policy.

On the growth side, increase immigration to .75 or 1% of the population annually targeting skilled workers in the right age range. Get rid of familial and birthright based immigration.

If we do those things, we will be fine. Sadly both parties have shown that they won't touch their babies - they are playing a game of chicken where one arm of the Rs are reducing taxes to try to reign in spending. The war hawks happily trade military spending for social spending and the Ds aren't willing to tackle baseline spending or changes to immigration.

#endrant

[DCZards]

Here's a simple question for you to contemplate:

What if Schiff actually did include classified information that reveals sources on that memo? What exactly is Trump supposed to do?

There is certainly some classified info that none of us would want revealed. Problem is that Trump has already proven to us--time and time again--that he's a prolific liar. So it's right and reasonable that he not be trusted in this instance as well.

[dckingsfan]

A little difference between Canada & USA on immigration to get the best & brightest!
SAN FRANCISCO—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday pitched Canadian globalism and the country’s new fast-track visa as reasons why Silicon Valley companies should consider Canada as a place to do business and spend money.

Trudeau brought his charm offensive to the San Francisco Bay area amid increasing unease over U.S. immigration policy and while talks continue over the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The heated debate over immigration since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump has provided a clear opening for Canada to promote itself.

As American employers worry about access to foreign workers, Canada is offering a two-week, fast-track employment permit for certain workers, dubbed the “global skills strategy visa.”

And you wonder why Trump is threatening to pull out of NAFTA

[montestewart]

Watch on YouTube

Worse than Watergate

Here's a simple question for you to contemplate:

What if Schiff actually did include classified information that reveals sources on that memo? What exactly is Trump supposed to do?

a) Have someone read the memo to him
b) Pass the information on to Putin
c) Go to Florida to play some golf