Current or modern politics in the United States

[hound dog]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

I'll be damned if I will let a bunch of fat cats who inherited great wealth take it away.

Maybe an easier way would be to put the inheritance tax at close to 100% and
eliminate all loopholes so the conspiring uber rich can't pass along their vast fortunes to their children. Use it or lose it when it comes to an empiracal family fortune.

Personally, I think nepotism is the foundation for a society's downfall. Leaders trying to ensure the success of ones children, even when they are dolt's and moron's, to the detriment of ones country, or business for that matter.

[tsunamiSD]

reverse seen on Disaster Funding is the head line assigned to this article by my local paper. I think that a lot of Republicans will have to do some back-tracking on this...

President Donald Trump is promising billions to help Texas rebuild from Harvey-caused epic flooding, but his Republican allies in the House are looking at cutting almost $1 billion from disaster accounts to help finance the president’s border wall. The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account is part of a massive spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when lawmakers return from their August recess. The $876 million cut, which is included in the 1,305-page measure’s homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump’s down payment on the U.S.-Mexico border wall that the president repeatedly promised Mexico would finance.

The disaster relief cut was proposed well before Harvey and the politically bad optics are sure to lead lawmakers to do an about face, though that would create a money crunch in homeland security accounts.
The FEMA cut is the handiwork of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. — the major force behind a $50 billion-plus 2013 Superstorm Sandy recovery package — and Rep. John Carter, whose home state of Texas is suffering badly from Harvey.
“Circumstances have changed significantly since the bill was drafted earlier this summer,” Appropriations Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Hing said Wednesday. “Given the current situation, the committee is reassessing the issue.”

Despite Trump’s promise at a rally in Phoenix last week to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border even “if we have to close down our government,” congressional Republicans are optimistic of averting a politically damaging shutdown after the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
For one thing, most Republicans, including Trump, want to move on to a sweeping revamp of the tax code, and a shutdown debacle would only make tax legislation more difficult. A tax overhaul, cutting rates for individuals and businesses while erasing numerous tax breaks and loopholes, is difficult enough as it stands.

[tsunamiSD]

[url=http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/books/sd-me-trump-frances-20170831-story.html]Local psychologist wades into debate about Trump's mental health with a surprising diagnosis[\url]

When it comes to narcissistic personality disorder, Dr. Allen Frances wrote the book.So the 75-year-old Coronado resident and retired Duke University psychiatrist perks up when he hears the increasingly open speculation about whether President Trump has the disorder or some other form of mental illness.
His verdict: No.

“Blaming Trump for all our troubles misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent,” Frances writes.
By societal sickness, he means the “delusions” that deny the impacts of climate change, overpopulation, resource depletion, income inequality — problems that will “bequeath to our children an unlivable planet.” He was concerned about those before last November’s election.
“I don’t think Trump is the problem,” Frances said. “He’s the symptom of the underlying disease.”

After the election, Frances couldn’t understand “how so many Americans could possibly be so gullible.” Then his wife, Donna Manning, also a psychiatrist, called him out as a hypocrite.
“She said it was easy enough for us to feel superior to the Trump crowd, because we were so insulated from the problems and dangers they were facing,” he writes in the book. “Trump might be the worst of all possible messengers, but that shouldn’t allow us to discredit his message or disrespect those who were sending it.”
So he explores issues like the outsourcing of jobs, stagnant wages, immigration, rapid cultural change.
“I understand completely why people voted for Trump,” Frances said. “They’re suffering. They’re angry. The system is not working for them. But they hired a fox to guard the hen house.”

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by tsunamiSD

reverse seen on Disaster Funding is the head line assigned to this article by my local paper. I think that a lot of Republicans will have to do some back-tracking on this...

Do you think Trump appreciates the irony of Mexico providing disaster relief and humanitarian aid to Harvey victims?

[tsunamiSD]

How the iPhone revolution gave us President Trump is the title used in the print version of this article. I think that the most important part of the article is that both parties now have to change the way that they do things, or face the consequences...

Democratic bosses narrowly avoided a similar loss of control. Only their insider system of superdelegates cushioned them from the threat of a takeover by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Powered by smartphone connectivity, Sanders supporters were able to crowdfund a nearly $230 million primary challenge that almost ousted the choice of the party leaders, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
In the cloisters of the Senate, Abbot McConnell’s scribes are his 51 fellow Republican senators, who, to one degree or another, must be asking themselves what this revolution means for them. If they fall into line behind their party leader on such difficult issues as debt, taxes and immigration, can he shield them from the critics who mobilize at the touch of a screen? Of course not — McConnell can’t even shield himself from the president’s tweets.
Perhaps Democrats could help him through his legislative minefield? That path is no easier. McConnell’s knack has always been discipline, not compromise. Reaching across party lines is unnatural for a man whose devotion to the Republican Party is as pure and permanent as a monk’s vow.
Moreover, it’s highly uncertain how much compromise is possible in this new age of direct connectivity. Any Democrat who votes for legislation that frees McConnell from a jam and gives the president an occasion to brag is likely to face a storm of Internet opposition.

[edgarcasey]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

It never occurred to me that there was a scheme afoot to disenfranchise the great mass of us and systematically impoverish the greater part of the nation.

The bottom 70 percent have been completely disenfranchised. (It's no wonder most of them don't vote. Why bother?) The next 20 to 25 percent or so, well, they may have some influence. The upper tier (in terms of income level, of course), this is where policy is written.

[Puhbear69]

A French street artist (J.R.) has build a poignant peace of art at the US-Mexican border :
A installation depicts a toddler on the Mexican side of the border, where President Trump vowed to build a wall to stop illegal immigrants crossing into the US.

The installation is a protest against "The Toupee’s" scrapping of the DACA scheme which protects young undocumented immigrants – known as ‘Dreamers’ – who came to the US as children.

[Roubignol]

[Roubignol]

[Devius]

The Twitter account representing Republican Senator Ted Cruz "liked" a hardcore porn video late Monday night
Cruz claimed an aide was responsible for the accidental 'like' and joked that he could have used the social media attention during the 2016 primary
He "unliked" the controversial post just 40 minutes after it went up
FYI: In July of 2016, Cruz said: 'Pornography...has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life [sic] of millions'

Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...porn-like.html
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3...tmare-scenario

In response, Porn stars Joanna Angel, Mercedes Carrera, Dana DeArmond, Mandy Muse, and Jaclyn Taylor stated that porn is for all adults - except Ted Cruz:

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzqMssU0qco