the failure of your president

[promethean75]

do you have the
courage, the strength for an attack upon your convictions?

Are you suggesting a MagsJ vs MagsJ thread?

[promethean75]

I put my money on MagsJ. She’s got a great chance of winning. It’s almost certain.

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

Would be reel abysmal if I lost, now wouldn’t it.

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

@Peter Kropotkin

Majs:
Is a sitting president supposed to acquire psychic abilities, in knowing what each state needs?

The Government releases the funds to the Government departments that are called on, to manage the crisis. It is the Health Department that should be procuring suppliers and supplies, whilst keeping the Government informed on progress and any issues that might need rectifying at a higher level.

What about those States that have allowed public protests, aka rioting, during the height of lockdown? Won’t that contribute to more COVID cases and/or deaths? and don’t forget the inflated numbers of COVID deaths, due to all deaths being assigned to COVID.

No need to respond Peter… I know what your response will be… ; )

K: I have no need to respond because you are so locked into your own
responses that you can’t see any other possibilities…I am a liberal because
I have engaged in, several times, a reevaluation of values where It
wasn’t just about my strength of convictions, but for the strength of courage
for an attack upon my convictions…I have held three distinct and different
political positions over my life and I have held several different philosophical
positions… I have no problem reevaluating what my values are…

can you say the same?

do you have the courage of your convictions or, or do you have the
courage, the strength for an attack upon your convictions?

Kropotkin

I’m quite content with my political and spiritual choices and leanings, so your concern about your choices aren’t mine, and so I have no need to question myself in those regards.

[Peter_Kropotkin]

K: do you have the courage of your convictions or, or do you have the
courage, the strength for an attack upon your convictions?

Magsj:
“I’m quite content with my political and spiritual choices and leanings, so your concern about your choices aren’t mine, and so I have no need to question myself in those regards.”

K: spoken like a true sleepwalker of the modern world…
waking up is a bitch however…I challenge myself every single day
and I challenge the current ism’s and myths and biases and beliefs
every single day…and why? because I consider this the true role
of what it means to be a philosopher… not to accept on faith,
any belief or ism without examination…

I am glad you are so content with yourself and your place in the world…

but you aren’t much of a philosopher by doing so…

Kropotkin

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

@Peter Kropotkin

Magsj:
“I’m quite content with my political and spiritual choices and leanings, so your concern about your choices aren’t mine, and so I have no need to question myself in those regards.”

K: spoken like a true sleepwalker of the modern world…
waking up is a bitch however…I challenge myself every single day
and I challenge the current ism’s and myths and biases and beliefs
every single day…and why? because I consider this the true role
of what it means to be a philosopher… not to accept on faith,
any belief or ism without examination…

Who said I haven’t examined my belief systems? I’ve been doing so since a kid, so been woke since young… you’re the one lagging Peter, not I.

I don’t like the politics of the Left or Liberals, and all they’ve ever done here, is cause the taxpayer, students etc. more money, and allowed 1000s of army veterans to go homeless on the streets of London whilst housing a few million illegal refugees in their stead.

I am glad you are so content with yourself and your place in the world…

but you aren’t much of a philosopher by doing so…

Now where have I heard that before Oh yea, whenever a person wants to win their argument the easy way, is when.

I’d try not to use that route, if I were you… it doesn’t work and is merely a cop-out, in place of evolving a discourse further.

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

There’s so many lies and disinformation… coming from both sides of your election camps, that it’s near impossible to tell what the current US government has actually done or achieved, and that smokescreen isn’t very helpful when a country is trying to make new trade deals and so forth.

It is not uncommon for the Leftist UK shadow government to cause similar disruption to the current sitting Rightist government, but as of recent months ago, that political smokescreen has been clamped down on and disallowed.

[Peter_Kropotkin]

@MagsJ

There’s so many lies and disinformation… coming from both sides of your election camps, that it’s near impossible to tell what the current US government has actually done or achieved, and that smokescreen isn’t very helpful when a country is trying to make new trade deals and so forth.

It is not uncommon for the Leftist UK shadow government to cause similar disruption to the current sitting Rightist government, but as of recent months ago, that political smokescreen has been clamped down on and disallowed.

K: in other words, the opposition has been silenced… very democratic of you…

Kropotkin

[WendyDarling]

Fixed Cross, as well as other people, have made posts listing numerous successes by Trump to improve the lives of the American people. Trump lowered taxes of the middle class. Got us out of one-sided trade deals. Strengthened our borders. Cut job and progress killing regulations. Got us out of numerous agreements in which the USA was the only country paying their fair share. Got us out of defense pacts that did not defend American interests. Refunded our military. Enabled legislation to keep petty criminals out of long prison sentences. He’s defended the first amendment and the second amendment in speech and actions. He’s actually done more for the country he loves and kept more campaign promises than any other president, ever. He’s made more improvements to our nation, I’ve only listed a few.

[Peter_Kropotkin]

@WendyDarling

Fixed Cross, as well as other people, have made posts listing numerous successes by Trump to improve the lives of the American people. Trump lowered taxes of the middle class. Got us out of one-sided trade deals. Strengthened our borders. Cut job and progress killing regulations. Got us out of numerous agreements in which the USA was the only country paying their fair share. Got us out of defense pacts that did not defend American interests. Refunded our military. Enabled legislation to keep petty criminals out of long prison sentences. He’s defended the first amendment and the second amendment in speech and actions. He’s actually done more for the country he loves and kept more campaign promises than any other president, ever. He’s made more improvements to our nation, but I can’t remember all of them.

K: well, at least somebody defended him… the problem is most of it is bogus…

show me the trades that were so bad for the country and alleged regulations that killed jobs

see the problem with your list is, it takes much on faith…like the alleged cutting
taxes… we are middle class and our federal taxes rose quite a bit with the exact same
income…my wife works for a CPA and most of the people she works with also had
their taxes go up… but there are a few very wealthy types and their taxes went down…
the tax cut didn’t benefit the middle or the working poor class, but they sure did
benefit the wealthy and the uber wealthy…but your list avoids the real problems…

the Trump Depression and the Trump pandemic… over 40 million Americans
lost their jobs in less then 6 months… that is the greatest job loss in American
history… the second quarter was the worse performing quarter in American history…
now one might claim the Stock market, but clearly given the massive economic
losses and the market still hasn’t dropped as far as it should of, tell me that the
Market has no connection to reality anymore…

and the Trump pandemic, over 168,000 dead Americans in 6 months because
of a complete failure to take this pandemic seriously…If IQ45 had taken
the pandemic seriously, right from the start, it would have saved over
100,000 lives…of course in the conservative mind, a good democrat is
a dead democrat so the right has no problem killing tens of thousands of
liberals in NY or Cal nor does the right care about the overwhelming
number of deaths in the communities with blacks or other minorities…
and given the rush to kill our children, they have more blood on their hands…

your list is a wishful thinking list that denies the reality of the current
situation…but then the right has always had a problem seeing reality…

Kropotkin

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

Thank you for the clarification Wendy… that’s a very impressive list, but yet his opposition’s supporters here keep on denying all those achievements, of better legislation, trade deals, borders, and more… which is why I asked the question yet again, because the denial is so great, that I had to try and gauge how deep the lieing goes… which is very deep, it seems.

K: in other words, the opposition has been silenced… very democratic of you…

Hi Peter… no, the opposition has been prohibited from spreading lies and misinformation, as that is not the job that a shadow cabinet is there to do… everything else, but that, is very much allowed and certainly not being silenced.

So you are advocating lies about, and disruption of, the job of a current sitting government? or so it would seem…

[Peter_Kropotkin]

@MagsJ

Thank you for the clarification Wendy… that’s a very impressive list, but yet his opposition’s supporters here keep on denying all those achievements, of better legislation, trade deals, borders, and more… which is why I asked the question yet again, because the denial is so great, that I had to try and gauge how deep the lieing goes… which is very deep, it seems.

K: the problem with the “list” is that it is not true…most of the stuff claimed to
be a success actually isn’t… it was detrimental to the U.S doing those things…
the trade agreements for example, they were actually very helpful to
Americans, not job killers…there wasn’t any better legislation nor trade deals
or anything of the like…smoke and mirrors… nothing more…

K: in other words, the opposition has been silenced… very democratic of you…

Hi Peter… no, the opposition has been prohibited from spreading lies and misinformation, as that is not the job that a shadow cabinet is there to do… everything else, but that, is very much allowed and certainly not being silenced.

K: and who decides what is lies and what is misinformation? why the government of course…
that is by definition, censorship… your Orwellian attempt to misinform us is cute…

So you are advocating lies about, and disruption of, the job of a current sitting government? or so it would seem…

K: I see censorship and attempts to silence the opposition…from your own words…

Kropotkin

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

@Peter Kropotkin

@MagsJ

Thank you for the clarification Wendy… that’s a very impressive list, but yet his opposition’s supporters here keep on denying all those achievements, of better legislation, trade deals, borders, and more… which is why I asked the question yet again, because the denial is so great, that I had to try and gauge how deep the lieing goes… which is very deep, it seems.

K: the problem with the “list” is that it is not true…most of the stuff claimed to
be a success actually isn’t… it was detrimental to the U.S doing those things…
the trade agreements for example, they were actually very helpful to
Americans, not job killers…there wasn’t any better legislation nor trade deals
or anything of the like…smoke and mirrors… nothing more…

So now I’m back at square one, in my state of not knowingness…

@MagsJ

K: in other words, the opposition has been silenced… very democratic of you…

Hi Peter… no, the opposition has been prohibited from spreading lies and misinformation, as that is not the job that a shadow cabinet is there to do… everything else, but that, is very much allowed and certainly not being silenced.

K: and who decides what is lies and what is misinformation? why the government of course…
that is by definition, censorship… your Orwellian attempt to misinform us is cute…

Because our legislation is much more transparent than yours, what is lies and misinformation and what is not, is evident to all.

@MagsJ

So you are advocating lies about, and disruption of, the job of a current sitting government? or so it would seem…

K: I see censorship and attempts to silence the opposition…from your own words…

So that would be a Yes then?

[MagsJ (..a chic geek)]

K: there have been surveys of historians that have stated that
already IQ45 is the single worst president in American history…
and these historians are both Republicans and democrats…

Apparently the Republicans aren’t happy with Trump, because he is not Republican enough for their liking… Trump had been a Democrat prior to his Presidency, and the Republican Party were very unhappy about his election, in that he would not fulfil the whole Republican agenda for the Party, so yes… both the Left and the Right leaning historians say he’s the single worst president in American history, but not for the reasons you have presumed or eluded to. Knowledge is power… as they say.

[Fixed_Cross]

Trump fails to be the genocidal maniac his predecessors were.

Oh no!!

[fuse]

Trump won the 2016 election with direct help from Russian intelligence operatives.
A bipartisan Senate counterintelligence report was released on Tuesday.

Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate
Report: Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election

Paul Manafort was in secret communication with a Russian intelligence officer possibly assisting Moscow’s operation while it was underway. Manafort provided (and then covered up) internal Trump strategy/polling, hugely valuable to Moscow’s targeting.

@"[url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/russiagate-wasnt-a-hoax/615373/

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed what the Mueller report could not[/url]"]Manafort and Kilimnik talked almost daily during the campaign. They communicated through encrypted technologies set to automatically erase their correspondence; they spoke using code words and shared access to an email account.

It’s worth pausing on these facts: The chairman of the Trump campaign was in daily contact with a Russian agent, constantly sharing confidential information with him. That alone makes for one of the worst scandals in American political history.

The significant revelation of the document is that Kilimnik was likely a participant in the Kremlin scheme to hack and leak Clinton campaign emails. Furthermore, Kilimnik kept in close contact with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a former client of Manafort’s.

Deripaska was connected to Kremlin hacking efforts. This fact is especially suggestive: Deripaska had accused Manafort of stealing money from him, and Manafort hoped to repair his relationship with the oligarch.

@"[url=https://www.nbc12.com/2020/08/18/senate-panel-finds-russia-interfered-us-election/

Trump campaign’s Russia contacts ‘grave’ threat, Senate says[/url]"]Manafort shared internal Trump campaign polling data with Kilimnik…“some evidence” Kilimnik connected to Kremlin operation to hack and leak Democratic emails…“two pieces of information” raise the possibility of Manafort’s connection to those operations…

The Senate report…also asserts that the allegations that Ukraine interfered in the election — which President Donald Trump perpetuated — originated with Russian intelligence agencies.

Russian-government proxies and personas worked to spread the false narrative that Ukraine interfered in the U.S. election.

@"[url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/18/bipartisan-senate-report-describes-2016-trump-campaign-eager-to-accept-help-from-foreign-power.html

Bipartisan Senate report: 2016 Trump campaign eager to accept help from foreign power[/url]"]The report highlights…three allegations of potentially compromising material relating to Trump’s private trips to Russia that were unconnected to the [Steele] dossier

‘Separate from Steele’s memos, which the Committee did not use for support, the Committee became aware of three general sets of allegations,’ involving women, the report says, two of which described a tape.

Russia and other countries took advantage of the [Trump] Transition Team’s inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy

The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business executives.

Russian officials, intelligence services, and others acting on the Kremlin’s behalf were capable of exploiting the Transition’s shortcomings for Russia’s advantage. Based on available information it is possible — and even likely — that they did so.

Trump associates indicted/convicted of crimes, and additional ongiong investigations.

Bannon indicted yesterday for a $25 million dollar fraudulent crowdfunding operation “We Build the Wall”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/us/politics/bannon-we-build-the-wall.html

Putin continues to consolidate power and Russian geopolitical dominance, as has been the plan for decades.

@"Aleksandr Dugin

The Geopolitical Future of Russia[/url], paraphase"]
The book states that “the maximum task [of the future] is the ‘Finlandization’ of all of Europe”.[9]

In Europe:

* Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. Kaliningrad oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term "Moscow–Berlin axis".[9]
* France should be encouraged to form a bloc with Germany, as they both have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".[9]
* The United Kingdom, merely described as an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S.", should be cut off from Europe.[9]
* Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".[9]
* Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.[9]
* Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian–Russian sphere.[9]
* Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere.[9]
* Romania, North Macedonia, Serbia, "Serbian Bosnia" and Greece – "Orthodox collectivist East" – will unite with "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".[9]
* Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.[9]

@"[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

The Geopolitical Future of Russia[/url]"]
In the Middle East and Central Asia:

* The book stresses the "continental Russian–Islamic alliance" which lies "at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy". The alliance is based on the "traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization".
* Iran is a key ally. The book uses the term "Moscow–Tehran axis".[9]
* Armenia has a special role: It will serve as a "strategic base," and it is necessary to create "the [subsidiary] axis Moscow-Yerevan-Teheran". Armenians "are an Aryan people ... [like] the Iranians and the Kurds".[9]
* Azerbaijan could be "split up" or given to Iran.[9]
* Georgia should be dismembered. Abkhazia and "United Ossetia" (which includes Georgia's South Ossetia) will be incorporated into Russia. Georgia's independent policies are unacceptable.[9]
* Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians and other minorities.[9]
* The book regards the Caucasus as a Russian territory, including "the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian (the territories of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)" and Central Asia (mentioning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).[9]

@"[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

The Geopolitical Future of Russia[/url]"]
In East and Southeast Asia:

* China, which represents a danger to Russia, "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". Dugin suggests that Russia start by taking Tibet–Xinjiang–Mongolia–Manchuria as a security belt.[1] Russia should offer China help "in a southern direction – Indochina (except Vietnam), the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia" as geopolitical compensation.[9]
* Russia should manipulate Japanese politics by offering the Kuril Islands to Japan and provoking anti-Americanism.[9]
* Mongolia should be absorbed into Eurasia-Russia.[9]

@"[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

The Geopolitical Future of Russia[/url]"]
The book emphasizes that Russia must spread anti-Americanism everywhere: “the main ‘scapegoat’ will be precisely the U.S.”

In the United States:

* Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".[9]

Germany airlifts poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny for treatment.
The U.S. government makes no statements, while the most important Russian critic and political rival to Putin is comatose from poisoned tea.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-navalny-plane/russian-opposition-politician-navalny-put-on-germany-bound-plane-idUSKBN25I02C

[fuse]

More excerpts from the U.S. Senate counterintelligence investigation.

Konstantine Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer

Evidence Kilimnik may have had a role in the GRU’s hack and leak operation is redacted

Evidence Manafort was involved in the hack-and-leak operations against the Democrats.
But the report cites two redacted pieces of information that “raise the possibility of Manafort’s potential connection”

[fuse]

Manafort, Gates, and Kilimnik used code words, maintained furtive communications, covered-up and erased communications when possible

Manafort shared internal campaign polling data with Kilimnik

It’s unclear the specificity of the polling Manafort shared with Kilimnik, according to the Senate. But if it included a state-by-state breakdown, then Moscow was quite aware of where Clinton was most vulnerable. This can have then easily informed IRA social media targeting.

[fuse]

Manafort connected to indicted Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash.
Firtash’s “translators” were Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman,
the two indicted campaign finance fraudsters who worked with Rudy Giuliani, working for Trump

More campaign connections to Russian intelligence

[fuse]

“Trump’s Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance”
nytimes.com/interactive/202 … taxes.html

One week ago, the New York Times published a massive story with specific details of the last two decades of Trump’s federal tax returns. NYT are purportedly in possession of Trump’s tax returns. The article(s) include many specific numbers and details which are important for this discussion.

Possibilities:

1. Trump is cheating on his taxes. Using his business properties as personal residences to abuse certain tax benefits; deducting personal expenses as business expenses; paying his daughter bogus $$ as an unnamed third-party contractor to Trump orgs while she also earns salary as a Trump org executive; claiming millions of dollars in tax refund that depended on his giving up all stake in the ailing Taj Mahal Casino venture while still earning from a 5% share of ownership.

2. Trump is a particularly bad business man. His core business properties have been legitimately losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, for years, pre-pandemic, such that he is able to use the losses to wipe out his federal income tax burden every year for the past 15 or so years. Trump’s finances showed the same pattern throughout the 90s. He is currently over $400 million in debt, much of which is coming due in a few years.

Or Both.

I considered the possibility that he’s neither cheating on his taxes nor a bad business man, but that Trump is making use of loopholes or favorable gaps in a very badly conceived tax code to consistently eliminate his federal income tax burden, while remaining a billionaire with sustainable income from assets that aren’t publicly known. This may certainly be the case in conjunction with one or both of the above cases, but I can’t understand how chronic losses from core businesses in the hundreds of millions, that wipe out all profit, plus $400 million in debt, soon to be due, aren’t disqualifying of “successful” business person status. In other words, based on the NYT findings, I think the pure tax loophole theory (no explicit law breaking) must still also admit that (2) is a likely possibility, i.e. Trump is not a successful business man.

Other possibilities?