You're not here for anything but self-fellating--as demonstrated by the fact that this isn't the first time you've been corrected about my gender. You haven't paid an ounce of attention to any other Dwellar on a personal level, and that is why no one will ever buy what you're selling, regardless of what it may be. (Kind of like the knives you used to sell, which I remember because I do pay attention. See how it works? Try not being the center of your own universe for once--I promise, it doesn't hurt.)

Most people that are still with Trump - at least in my limited set of data points - are using him as Substitute Jesus in a literal sense, and there is nothing anyone can say or do that will change their mind. It's gone from partisan to religious in nature.

Our Donald
Who art on Twitter
Hallowed be thy tweets
Thy reelection come
Thy rants be done
On the campaign trail
As they are on Twitter
Give us this day
Our daily tweets
And forgive us our fake news
As we forgive those
Who witch hunt against us
And lead us not into deposition
But deliver us from self-incrimination
Omen

You may be coming across as too smart and sophisticated for him to think you could be a woman. Try dumbing it down to being just the nice piece of ass so he can remember you. Those old folks' memories can be tricksy.

Hey, knock off those old folks generalizations. I'm older than any of you and well aware she's a nice piece of ass as well smart and sophisticated. :yesnod:

fine the true amidst the funny
 

Kudos. But who gets the credit?

HAPPY BELATED IMPEACHMENT DAY EVERYBODY!

How you say, jump the shark?




That said, there have been times outside of the Civil War when Americans wanted to kill each other over stuff. We are so connected now that it's hard to say whether a spark would be doused or fed. The Tweeter in Chief has had a great run of baiting the left but orange man has also been bad. I would gladly trade Hunter Biden for Trump. Hunter represents the legal corruption that pervades our system and Trump good old fashioned corruption.

“People in D.C. will succeed whether the rest of us succeed or fail. And that message really hit home for many, many Americans,” Yang said. “And unfortunately, the Democratic response seems to be, ‘D.C. is not the problem, Trump is the problem.’”

Putin is all upset in today's press conference. He is blaming the Democrats for attacking his chosen president.
\

The end is neigh. Not zombies, not terrorists, suicide of the US and Britain.
We're top dog, the biggest badass, nobody can hurt us but us. Damn fine job we're doing of it too.

I don't care because I'm taking you with me. Bwahahahaha

can't be bothered to do more than this
 

>insert pithy libertarian minarchist response<

Good read. But didn't you hear Bruce? The stock market is doing great!

The stock market goes up like an auction for a limited commodity. It goes up on the absence of bad news but doesn't reflect the economy until that makes the news. The economy is slowing a lot because consumers are worried, and rightly so.
The reports to Wall Street are good because of the shenanigans by corporate officers to hide downturns. Until Celedon laid off 4,000 people last week.

Of course the encouragement to BUY! BUY! has nothing to do with their cut of every transaction. :headshake

Of course it is. This is still the tail end or an Obama economy.

Meanwhile what happened to those increased tax revenues created by more economic activity due to a tax cut? Tax revenues have fallen now for the past three years. Eventually the economy will have to pay the bills and interest on that fiasco.

Well, Nixon spend money we did not have on Vietnam in 68 and 70. When did the resulting economic downturn occur? Late 70s.

Kennedy's tax cut in the early 60s resulting in a late 60s recession. George Jr's tax cut in early 2000 resulted in a recession when? 2007.

Stagflation could only be cured by a massive interest rates. Paul Volker (who just died) massively increased interest rates in 1979. When did stagflation end? Sometime after 1984 (Reagan's second term).

What affects an economy happened four and more years earlier.

The stock market crashed in 1929. When were the jobs lost? 1933. I should not have to keep repeating well proven history. This is an Obama economy. He spend his first term just undoing the mess created by Cheney. Who bluntly said, "Deficits don't matter." They matter four and more years later.

You might mean, the size of increase fell. Tax revenues have not fallen. Big difference (source)

FY 2020 - $3.64 trillion, budgeted.
FY 2019 - $3.44 trillion, estimated.
FY 2018 - $3.33 trillion.
FY 2017 - $3.32 trillion.
FY 2016 - $3.27 trillion.
FY 2015 - $3.25 trillion.
FY 2014 - $3.02 trillion.
FY 2013 - $2.77 trillion.
FY 2012 - $2.45 trillion.
FY 2011 - $2.30 trillion.
FY 2010 - $2.16 trillion.
FY 2009 - $2.10 trillion.
FY 2008 - $2.52 trillion.
FY 2007 - $2.57 trillion.
FY 2006 - $2.4 trillion.
FY 2005 - $2.15 trillion.
FY 2004 - $1.88 trillion.
FY 2003 - $1.72 trillion.
FY 2002 - $1.85 trillion.
FY 2001 - $1.99 trillion.
FY 2000 - $2.03 trillion.

Who's paying all the taxes?

While I don't disagree with you in principle, in this case, the recession occurred because we let bankers run wild with mortgage bundling.

If we're a trillion in the hole each year, what's 200 billion?

Those money games made things look better for years. Until the ponzi scheme collapsed. Making a recession almost into another great depression.

Mortgage bundling was only one of many techniques that business school graduates were using to make profits where nothing was being created. SIV, CDOs, and plenty of other vehicles were used. In every case, massive profits were appearing on spread sheets where nothing tangible was created.

In the case of mortgages, they simply bundled many mortgages into a financial instrument. Then declared the financial instrument as another equity - as if it had value like real estate, a factory product, or a bridge. Suddenly a $1 mortgage on a house created many financial instruments that were also called a $1 entity. Another ponzi scheme.

When this house of cards collapsed, suddenly liquidity disappeared. Which explains is why TARP was so successful. It provided liquidity so that companies could still pay their employees, et al.

But the recession was coming anyway. Tax cuts are simply another money game to pump heroin into the economy. And then pay for it massively later. Tax cuts have never made a more robust economy. Only innovaton does that.

Worse, throwing money at innovation can even create less innovation. Just another reason why tax cuts end up paying for more European vacations. That is a better return on investment.

So Biden says he will refuse to testify if called to by the Senate. I want all the assholes to testify not just the Republican assholes. I understand that it's just to distract from Trump's nonsense but I'd like it all out there.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bid...eachment-trial

The Senate should offer Biden immunity to testify. That way if he still won't testify, It'll look like a cover-up for his son. The next step then, is for the President to grant Biden a pre-emptive pardon (whether he's been charged or not, whether he wants it or not) as the coup de grâce.

So they can have a separate trial if they can manage one. Biden is not a witness.

You have to accept a pardon, because accepting a pardon is an admission of wrongdoing.

I never thought about that, do you have a choice in accepting a pardon or not?
Maybe we don't know because nobody ever has tried to decline a pardon.
If you can't decline, can you appeal it?

I believe Trump's defense is that Biden secured Hunter's highly paid pretend job job by pressuring Ukraine, making Biden a legitimate target for investigation. He needs to testify.

Everything points to Hunter's highly paid pretend job being given on the assumption that it would be protection against investigation not a more specific quid pro quo. It is obviously corruption, just the legal kind which we excuse our team for and condemn the other team for.

Not accepting a pardon doesn't stop the President from granting one whether the person wants it or not. It only stops it from taking effect. A pardon "carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it." That would be the political value of it whether or not it's accepted.

If you're in jail and a pardon is issued will they let you stay in jail. Doubt it.
Can you stop your record being expunged? Probably not.
So I'd think it does go into effect like it or not. Of course the damage is done politically so it's really a moot point.


And believe me, I'll take the pardon in a heartbeat. :yesnod:

It has to be accepted and registered with the courts to remain in effect.

Records are not expunged because of a pardon.

Oh ok, I didn't know the details. With all the judges Trump has put on the bench it's not likely his wishes wouldn't be carried out regardless though. :haha:

Or it is a standard BoD method of giving outsiders, who they want cooperation from, by putting one of their people on the board. At that time, new management was trying to eliminate major and well known corruption. It was threatened by the US with loss of business and support if they did not stop corruption.

What better than to put an American, with contacts inside America, on their board. Then someone on their board is reporting back on how the BoDs are trying to and are addressing corruption.

BoDs are routinely paid that kind of money. Many on a BoD because of who they know - contacts that a company needs. If that is corruption, then that defines most major companies in free market economies.

In one company that I am especially familiar with, a retired General was on its board because he was involved with Pentagon operations that were the source of their new contracts. Many Directors are chosen because of who they know and the resulting contacts they bring. In this case, Biden's son was brought in AFTER that Ukrainian energy company had new management that promised to eliminate major corruption.

They wanted Americans to know what they were doing. That they were trying to correct what Amercans had accused them of. Doing so would take many years. But with an American on its board, then Americans would understand they were trying. And contacts would exist to help address that problem.

But again, reality is far more complex then a soundbyte that so many are told to believe. Most believe the soundbyte because it is easier to grasp. Other classic examples include Saddam's WMDs and that Challenger was an accident. Or that Boeing management did not know the 737Max was fundamentally flawed.

It was a conflict of interest to have the son of a US official with influence over the situation sitting on the board and being paid by THEM, not US. He was THEIR mouth, NOT OUR ears. It's not hard for any adult to discern whose interests the guy who was kicked out of the US Navy Reserve*, after testing positive for cocaine, was serving and who he was willing to use to get his paycheck (his father administered his commissioning oath).

*He had to get an age waiver and a previous drug offense waiver to get in.

Pardons can and have been refused.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Wilson

That's interesting, death for robbing the mail. :confused: And he refused the pardon, I wonder why.

Back in Jackson's day, you could get hanged for all manner of shit.

I am guessing that he flat up refused to admit any guilt.

So if your father is a US President, then you cannot have any job. Conflict of interest.

Even a wife can have a job separate from her husband. That also is not a conflict of interest unless specific evidence and events says a specific conflict exists. If on a BoD, no such conflict exists.

Biden's son is his own man. He was not representing the US government. He was his own man with his own job. He was not even in politics.

A TV show "Blue Bloods" cannot happen? Because the father is Chief of Police, then other family members that are cops or ADA is corruption? That is your reasoning - that only exists in right wing rhetoric.

Suicide by Executioner.

Only an adult who still thinks like a child cannot understand that this is about Joe Biden, not Hunter Biden.

There existed, as you stated, an adversarial relationship that created a conflict of interest. Hunter Biden has duped Joe Biden before. Joe Biden is a credulous man who should've had the integrity to excuse himself from involvement in the situation and turn it over to someone else while his son was there in an influential capacity. To wit:

Hunter Biden was hired to influence Americans to include Joe Biden by his son's mere presence there. Joe Biden's poor judgement in this and other areas will be his downfall.

I've known the kind of people that would take a dive before admitting to something they didn't do.