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The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump

Totenkindly

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Donald Trump to pay $2 million to settle New York Attorney General civil lawsuit against Trump Foundation and his children - CNNPolitics

A judge ordered President Donald Trump to pay $2 million to a collection of nonprofit organizations as part of a settlement with the New York state attorney general's office to resolve a civil lawsuit that alleged "persistent" violations of charities law that included unlawful coordination with the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, according to a court filing Thursday.

"BRACE FOR TWEETSTORM! BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!"
 

Jaguar

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When is someone going to make him pay all those people who lost their money in his fake university?
 

Z Buck McFate

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I sure didn't, though. Someone makes their bed, they can lie in it and stare miserably at the ceiling in their own self-created dark night of whatever soul they have left. Wherever things have ended up, they are the results of many, many, many self-indulgent and ill-considered decisions.

Amen.
 

Tellenbach

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Julius_Van_Der_Beak said:
Tell that to all the the countries around the South China Sea. But I'm sure you know all about that.

China's been in existence for a very long time and for most of its existence, it's largely avoided the outside world. The saber rattling in the disputed islands haven't escalated into an actual war.
 

Tellenbach

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Virtual ghost said:
2. Also it doesn't mean there is more to spend. Since you have sent a good portion of the money to China instead to US businesses. Plus many have lost their stable production jobs and they have to do some part time minimum wage slave stuff.

Actually it does. Walmart saves the average household over $1500/year. Wages go down because of regulations and taxes. Under Trump, wages have increased because he's cut taxes and regulations.

When a democratic and undemocratic superpower are fighting for the place to define the future of the world then it is something else entirely. I always thought that the core of American mindset is that freedom has no price.

Competition benefits both China and the USA. Many Chinese have escaped poverty because of American businesses like Walmart and Americans are benefiting from lower prices. Few Americans can afford an iPhone if it were made in the USA.

And they are doing it mostly because certain parts of the country lost their income due to massive outsourcing. (on which Trump got elected)

It's a character flaw (a combination of lack of impulse control and using spending to buy votes). Basically, the vast majority of our politicians use spending to further their political ambitions. FDR's New Deal money went mostly to swing states.

And China puts democratic party to shame when it comes to being a "lefty". They don't even have the institution of elections.

It's the same stupid ideology; this is why Democrats can't be trusted with power.
 

Stigmata

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Actually it does. Walmart saves the average household over $1500/year. Wages go down because of regulations and taxes. Under Trump, wages have increased because he's cut taxes and regulations.



Competition benefits both China and the USA. Many Chinese have escaped poverty because of American businesses like Walmart and Americans are benefiting from lower prices. Few Americans can afford an iPhone if it were made in the USA.



It's a character flaw (a combination of lack of impulse control and using spending to buy votes). Basically, the vast majority of our politicians use spending to further their political ambitions. FDR's New Deal money went mostly to swing states.



It's the same stupid ideology; this is why Democrats can't be trusted with power.

I wanna join you on that plane of existence of where average working class people can personally see the monetary benefits of the fabled "trickle down" economics that the GOP consistently says exist. I'd say the stigmatization and disolvement of labor unions, coupled with outsourcing of labor shifting the balance of power in favor of employers, plays a big part of this trend.

How can you suggest wages have increased when we have the greatest income disparity since the depression? Unemployment may be trending downward but people are having to work longer hours for less and less spending power -- you have an increasing amount of households which are working poor.
 

Lark

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I wanna join you on that plane of existence of where average working class people can personally see the monetary benefits of the fabled "trickle down" economics that the GOP consistently says exist. I'd say the stigmatization and disolvement of labor unions, coupled with outsourcing of labor shifting the balance of power in favor of employers, plays a big part of this trend.

How can you suggest wages have increased when we have the greatest income disparity since the depression? Unemployment may be trending downward but people are having to work longer hours for less and less spending power -- you have an increasing amount of households which are working poor.

I think trickle down is working exactly as you could expect it to, its trickle, its not flow or cascade or even circulation, its trickle. Which if you ask me implies scarcity and restriction. Its an artifice of class struggle or simply and artifice of low risk business as usual for privileged legacies who wish to preserve their wealth which was created by the either the slavery or dynamism of an earlier age and stage of economic development.

That old money paradigm has been the west's story for too long really, eventually it'll be over turned by those economies which are either just at that dynamic stage the west has gone through or those economies that are willing to take risks with accumulated capital that the west will not or that do not have those vested interests and legacies putting the breaks on the economy and actively seeking to shrink the economy for ideological reasons.

Just as too much taxation, or rather squanderous spending and corruption consuming national revenues after tax, will strangle an economy the relentless race to the bottom in wages will too.

No matter how much the middle, specifically management, boardrooms and executives (rather than investors, hedgefunds or finance) can increase their incomes by pressing and persecuting the operational staff its not a real gain, for anyone, unsustainable business practices are not a new thing though, its a huge part of boom and bust economics at the macro level.

The biggest problem, as you say, from a straight forward economic point of view is the declining spending power of the average consumer, even when its off set by loans and personal/private borrowing, which is equally unsustainable, its declining. In a mass market economy, which is the whole pitch and appeal of capitalism as we know it, that's essential. Choke it off and the economy dies. Or ossifies into something ugly that no one will have any time for and likely be tempted to throw their support behind any mad alternative that's dreamt up by a populist at the time.

Personally, for some time, I've figured that different conservative oligarchs, legacies and their, frankly, henchmen (who are not all political) have favoured this kind of thinking. Its got a whole agenda besides contenting the rich and demonizing tax though. I can see the popularization/push for abortion, low level antagonism against heternormativity, families, child rearing etc. as part of it too. Its a drive to shrink the economy and create pressures to shrink the population. Deal with all the sick, vulnerable, elderly and unloved or unwanted "useless eaters". Malthus would be proud.

This ugly as f**k thinking has been hanging around the margins for a long time waiting to make its return like the ghost at the feast.

Demographics have something to do with it too, as the bitter realization that you cant take it with you hits some people and they decide consciously or unconsciously if they cant have it then no one else will either, screw all present and future generations, after me the deluge, that kind of crap. Although that's just one variable, this thing has always been there and some have professed it as much in the rude flush of youth as in the decrepitude of decline. Freud was right about the death instinct in some people.
 

anticlimatic

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I wanna join you on that plane of existence of where average working class people can personally see the monetary benefits of the fabled "trickle down" economics that the GOP consistently says exist.
The more 'average' you are, the less you'll feel it. The more educated risks you take, the deeper you can tap into that trickle. Go into the right kind of business (the kind that people with money need, and will willingly pay for), and you can turn that trickle into a flood. Almost 100% of people in theses businesses lean right/libertarian because of this. If you want a safe and easy career as some cog for a big company that produces things of questionable value, don't expect to soak up much of that trickle.
 

Stigmata

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The more 'average' you are, the less you'll feel it. The more educated risks you take, the deeper you can tap into that trickle. Go into the right kind of business (the kind that people with money need, and will willingly pay for), and you can turn that trickle into a flood. Almost 100% of people in theses businesses lean right/libertarian because of this. If you want a safe and easy career as some cog for a big company that produces things of questionable value, don't expect to soak up much of that trickle.

I'll get on that as soon as I can remember where I left my bootstraps.
 

ceecee

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I wanna join you on that plane of existence of where average working class people can personally see the monetary benefits of the fabled "trickle down" economics that the GOP consistently says exist. I'd say the stigmatization and disolvement of labor unions, coupled with outsourcing of labor shifting the balance of power in favor of employers, plays a big part of this trend.

How can you suggest wages have increased when we have the greatest income disparity since the depression? Unemployment may be trending downward but people are having to work longer hours for less and less spending power -- you have an increasing amount of households which are working poor.

Bloomberg

An estimated 53 million Americans are earning low wages, according to the study. Their median wage is $10.22 an hour and their annual pay is $17,950.

But, yanno, they should really consider starting their own business.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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The more 'average' you are, the less you'll feel it. The more educated risks you take, the deeper you can tap into that trickle. Go into the right kind of business (the kind that people with money need, and will willingly pay for), and you can turn that trickle into a flood. Almost 100% of people in theses businesses lean right/libertarian because of this. If you want a safe and easy career as some cog for a big company that produces things of questionable value, don't expect to soak up much of that trickle.

You're right to some extent, but I can't help feeling like you're oversimplifying this.


Libertarianism's flaw is that its proponents assume the best of intentions and pure ethics will always be at play in their desired system, whilst only seeming to notice the worst elements of corruption and tomfoolery occurring in the system they oppose. They disregard or fail to consider how corruption and selfishness tends to creep into any type of organized endeavor when they insist that free market enterprises would run things more ethically and efficiently than the government. Of course the same is true about socialism and its proponents ("bUt ThE sOvIeT uNiOn WaS nOt a TrUe ExPeRiMeNt In SoCiAlIsM cUz iT gOt tAkEn oVeR bY cOrRuPt iNdIvIdUaLs wHo aBuSeD tHeIr pOwEr!!!"), or any other system, for that matter.

We all tend to rank our own preferred ideologies and systems through beer goggles whilst judging those with which we disagree through a stricter, more sober lens. We don't even notice the glaring inconsistencies in logic of the systems and ideas we prefer. We assume the best about our own ideas whilst assuming the worst about those we dislike. I think this is why the alt right racial realists overlook so many points when they try to bring up IQ and race. Or why lefties just conveniently ignore any data on biological sex differences when the data doesn't support their worldviews.


We see this reflected in any ideologue when they speak of their own tribe or party being more indebted to facts and logic whilst referring to their ideological opponents as overly emotional and uncaring of facts and logic. Prime example, watch Shapiro's interview on Joe Rogan when he tries to debate Rogan on religious grounds. He stammers and struggles and you can see him realizing his own arguments are seeming increasingly thin despite his constant mantras about only caring about facts. The sense of panic exudes from his pores.
 

Doctor Cringelord

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Of course LOL to anyone who would defend Donald Tariff-Loving Trump as some defender of libertarian values. LOL to fake libertarians like Rand Paul who have continued to support him and his anti-free trade policies.
 

anticlimatic

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I'll get on that as soon as I can remember where I left my bootstraps.
🤷 If you cant hack it in this world, you can't hack it. Personally I prefer a society that rewards people with integrity ambition and intelligence. The great mass of useless sheeple that don't measure up can crawl in a hole and die for all I care- in fact I'll even dig it for them (80 dollars an hour, one hour minimum).
 

Stigmata

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🤷 If you cant hack it in this world, you can't hack it. Personally I prefer a society that rewards people with integrity ambition and intelligence. The great mass of useless sheeple that don't measure up can crawl in a hole and die for all I care- in fact I'll even dig it for them (80 dollars an hour, one hour minimum).

That philosophy really only holds merit if the playing fields are even, which would require a degree of delusion that I'm scared to imagine for one to not be willing to acknowledge that isn't the case. People can overcome their circumstances, yet it's the barrier of entry between the haves and the have nots that makes the difference.

Even Trump acknowledged he received a "modest" million dollar loan from his father to get started. Does obtaining or inheriting wealth somehow equate to or represent those traits you mentioned? Especially the integrity part....to think that some of these mega rich CEOs operate with integrity is just comical
 

Peter Deadpan

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🤷 If you cant hack it in this world, you can't hack it. Personally I prefer a society that rewards people with integrity ambition and intelligence. The great mass of useless sheeple that don't measure up can crawl in a hole and die for all I care- in fact I'll even dig it for them (80 dollars an hour, one hour minimum).

Did you really just essentially look Stigmata in the eye and tell him to crawl in the hole you dug and die?

We're all super impressed with you. Yay. Well done. You're #1.
 

Nicodemus

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🤷 If you cant hack it in this world, you can't hack it. Personally I prefer a society that rewards people with integrity ambition and intelligence. The great mass of useless sheeple that don't measure up can crawl in a hole and die for all I care- in fact I'll even dig it for them (80 dollars an hour, one hour minimum).
Aren't you afraid that in a world without sheeple, it might be you living at the bottom of the barrel, and there'd some douche hoping you'd die in a hole he's dug for you for 160 dollars an hour?

What - is the author asleep at the wheel and they are just discovering this about him? He's been that way for decades.
It's called 'A Warning', not 'A Surprise'.
 

Yuurei

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I SO didn’t want to get involved but this reaching absurdist levels.

🤷 If you cant hack it in this world, you can't hack it. Personally I prefer a society that rewards people with integrity ambition and intelligence. The great mass of useless sheeple that don't measure up can crawl in a hole and die for all I care- in fact I'll even dig it for them (80 dollars an hour, one hour minimum).


If you really thought that way you would judge people as individuals, not their political party.

I assure you, if most adult Libtards (Libertarians, see what I did there?) had the kind of responsibilities I did as a child they would have crumbled years ago. The reason they think the way they do is because they have not a single clue what responsibility and sacrifice is.
And yeah, go ahead and call me “ Hypocritical” for judging
” Libtards” the thing is, they all share one very specific, believe that deserve everything they want free of regulation. Anyone who has lived in the real world were they actually have to hear ‘ no’ constantly has no delusion. Only one so entitled that they are used to getting their way could be libertarian.
While judging ‘ all Democrats’ is a bit different, as it is a much broader definition; and yeah, some are defiantly terrible people.


As a kid who was basically a guinea pig I learned that you take your medication - at 3am- no matter how noxious it is, no matter how awful it is and when you vomit it up you do it all over again. And when they tell you to do it four times a day for the rest of your damned life, no matter how much it utterly destroys your body you’re damned grateful to do it because without it, there would be no “rest of your life” and you don’t fucking cry about it. As I was often reminded, they did not HAVE to help me and could refuse me treatment for not saying “Thank you sir, may I please have another.”

I did poorly in school not for a lack of ambition or intelligence but because I was ill 24/7 and no one believed me. So I was just as a ‘ bad kid with a bad attitude’ and tossed in the back corner ( yes, the ACTUAl corner ) of the soec ed class . I am on not disability not because I had shown inability to work, but because my Grandmother has kinda Munchousen thing going on and put me on disability even before I got out of HS. So, sometimes shit happens regardless of skill, regardless of tegurdy. If no one gives you a single chance, it doesn’t matter how much you can ‘ hack’.
This ‘lazy Democrat used to get up at 4-goddamned thirty in the morning- to get to my job at 8 ( despite the agony I was in due to all of my permanent back injuries and deformed knees, and from serious injuries I obtained from working when I was told not to because I didn’t want to be a burden on anyone) where my co-workers tried to grab my ass on a daily basis and the drugged out fuckwits treated me like a Goddamned child, before I hopped back on that bus, and sat in a parking lot, wasting what little free time I had waiting on the second bus to take me to Dialysis where , my most basic human rights ( the things you entitled whine about at the most insignificant inconvenience) and again, I didn’t complain. I was just happy to work. Then I’d spend the rest if my evening with a migraine that’d put most people down. (On a really good day I might not vomit) while doing the cooking and cleaning for my abusive Mother.
I worked six hours a day after I had failed spine surgery and afterwards I sat in the dialysis chair for four Goddamned hours after that same back surgery-the pain was total hell- while not allowed a single pain killer single and without complaint. I went back to work one weekend after a kidney transplant I ( after a druggy co- worker was finally fired) I covered SO many of their shifts when they were out on a drug binge.
This lazy democrat, dragged her deathly ill ass out of bed, migraine, fever, vomiting and all, up hill two miles-this democrat, who can barely walk one mile on flat Earth- through heavy hail, rain and wind, to the polling place ( and back)) to vote.

Despite these things, I can say with certainty, that I have never, ever chose to do something against my better judgement due to a moment of lapse in judgement, or weakness in favor of immediate satisfaction. My stoicism and insistence on not ‘ treating myself’ because I was just doing what needed to be done , disturbed even my Irish-Catholic Grandmother.

Most people who whine about the govment, or ramble about ‘bootstraps’ have never had to deal with anything more than the most basic of responsibilities: get up, go to work, pay the bills. Things which I have done while dealing with everything else, and you know what? It was a friggen cake-walk. I would gladly do it again if I had the privlage of being allowed to work and be self-sufficient.

If ANYONE had the right to be angry at the government, it’s people in my situation, who have actually had to DEAL with the worst parts of it .
It is mostly people who know NOTHING about it go on and on about ‘free money’ but it isn’t. It costs you you’re freedom, freedoms so many take for granted( and to the extent that they aren’t even aware they have them. You work at any job you qualify for, you spend your money how you like, you marry, you buy property, and you don’t need to ask the government if it’s okay to do anything. You don’t have Drs threatening to let you die if you don’t live your life according to every single asinine rule put upon you by the medical industry because avoiding lawsuits is their top priority.
The actual reason I do not work currently, is because I could only work part time and I would lose insurance which I NEED to live. And no, that’s not ‘ cuza government rulz’ those rules exist as a safety net for people who fall through through the cracks created in this extremely capitalist system where one’s very life depends on an entirely manmade concept, and due to it corporate refuses to hire people like me because they can ‘ hire three physically capable illegals for one me’ or because I simply cannot be forced to work overtime for no pay like the rest of their low-wage work force.
Really, the vast majority of my troubles in life have nothing to do with irresponsible choices, rather, not being given the time of day by a bunch of judgmental asshats who think they understand every possible situation.

In short, Libtards who go on about ‘ responsibility’ have no IDEA what real responsibility or sacrifice is and I have no doubt that if fir some reason, something should happen to put you in my situation, you would fall quicker than a house of cards.

The next time yo have to choose between sick as absolute fuck or being denied treatment over the basic human needs cone back and talk to me. You can borrow my bootstraps, though I warn you, I can’t afford new ones so they’re probly a bit too broken-in. If you find them hard to walk in, there are plenty of ditches for you to take a rest in.
 
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