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HotCoffee, you are working too hard. Relax and enjoy the view.
I thought of your fine State as I went to replace one of my small two gallon gas cans.
I had long forgotten about California back a few years past, fretting over the amount of fumes that has the possibility of escaping into the air when someone put gas in their small engines, so they pushed the EPA to create a law that forced all the manufacturers of that simple $2 red gas can to build a new style spout that made it virtually impossible to pour gas into a small engine without spilling more gas than you put in the tank resulting in more gasoline vapor in the air in one tank fill than the previous simple spout did in a year. So we are all now left with a product that works so poorly that changes must be made to it every year to satisfy customer complaints and , that simple $2 gas can is now nearly $20 and it still doesn’t work.
The good news,
Al Gores invention, the internet, has multiple solutions and capitalism and ingenuity came to the rescue. If you ever find yourself in need of a spout that actually works and will help the environment as opposed to the typical idiotic EPA solution, took to EZ Pour can spouts. I doubt they are sold in CA as you are still under communist control but I suspect you can smuggle a couple in with your next out of state plastic straw purchase.
https://fee.org/articles/the-epic-failure-of-the-government-gas-can/
Have a good one.
...continued:
"9 Ways Trump's Authoritarianism Taking Hold" by Thom Hartmann
3. Attack the Press.
British conservative (and advocate of the American Revolution) Edmund Burke coined the phrase “the fourth estate” in 1787 to describe the press when arguing that Parliament should open itself up to newspaper reporters. Along with the legislative, executive, and judicial “estates” of governance, every functional republic since that era has included strong protections of the press as a pseudo fourth branch of governance, an explicit and public check on the abuse of power.
But to an autocrat whose wealth, power, and longevity in office depend on the abuse of power, a free and independent press is a danger. This is why Hitler shut down the independent press in 1933-’34, although he kept the appearance of press diversity by allowing many of the formerly independent newspapers to be acquired by media companies his cronies owned.
Historically, the two strategies emerging autocracies use in this regard are to:
1.) Attack the credibility and right to existence of the independent media while,
2.) Consolidating and expanding the reach and power of friendly media, typically owned by cronies of the autocrat.
Between cries of “fake news” and “pull their credentials” directed at “legacy media”; a push for corporate concentration of that media that started when the Reagan administration ended the Fairness Doctrine and corporatized NPR; and the elevation of billionaire-owned/affiliated media outlets like Fox, Sinclair, and the large terrestrial radio networks that pretty much exclusively carry right-wing talk radio, this process is already far down the road in the United States.
Read more:
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/9-ways-trumps-authoritarianism-taking-hold
...continued:
"9 Ways Trump's Authoritarianism Taking Hold" by Thom Hartmann
2. Consolidate Power While Challenging or Co-Opting Institutions That Enforce Accountability.
Every authoritarian leader who’s come to power in history, from Samaria 7,000 years ago to today’s administration from the White House at the top, to the EPA under Scott Pruitt, makes this their second big move. Weaken the institutions of accountability, while intimidating your own allies into submissive servility.
That judge was a Mexican. The investigation into Trump is a witch hunt. Congress doesn't have the authority to investigate Republicans.
People in Trump’s own party, like Corker, McCain, and Flake, who are willing to challenge the president, got politically destroyed, so others became afraid to challenge him. Meanwhile, those American politicians and foreign powers that suck up to him and his relatives in the Trump Crime Family are richly rewarded.
This behavior is a calling card of tin-pot dictators, but it’s also the key to the power held by most national-scale modern authoritarian regimes. And once the allies of Dear Leader begin to bow to the authoritarian on bended knee, the process can take on a momentum that makes it unstoppable until it’s totally and irrevocably defeated by an external power (think Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan in World War II).
Packing the courts is the final step in this process, as we’ve seen in every country in history where democracy has died. Senate Majority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell set this process up by denying President Obama his constitutionally provided-for court appointments, ranging from the most routine to the Supreme Court itself. Now the GOP court-packing operation, even to the point of defying centuries-old Senate traditions like blue-slipping, has moved into hyper-gear.
Even “prison reform” efforts have been co-opted to include “mens rea” (“state of mind”) changes in the law that will insulate CEOs and billionaire corporate owners from decisions they make that lead to death or environmental destruction if the prosecution can’t prove that such an outcome was not only predictable, but was their specific intent. It will end corporate perp walks for all but the lowest-level flunkies, and is tied to virtually every Republican or bipartisan “sentencing reform” effort.
And to the extent that the electorate may hold these new authoritarians in check by voting them out of office, wide swaths of the American electorate are being purged from voting rolls with Kansas’s Kris Kobach’s Interstate Crosscheck program, or blocked from voting for lack of the “Republican-certified ID” like a state-issued concealed carry permit (students with government-issued student ID need not apply to vote).
If they successfully navigate all these barriers, voters (particularly minority voters, or voters in Democratic-heavy districts) still find that their voting machines, like the ones in Detroit in 2016 that failed to record over 75,000 votes for president (Trump won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes), are “defective.” If they do work at all, they’re put out in such small numbers that working people must wait in lines for 6 to 12 hours.
The speed with which these deeply anti-democratic changes are happening in America today is, to most historians, extremely alarming.
Read more:
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/9-ways-trumps-authoritarianism-taking-hold
"9 Ways Authoritarianism Is Taking Hold Under Trump
-- The president and his neo-authoritarian acolytes are following an ancient playbook."
By Thom Hartmann (Independent Media Institute May 29, 2018, distributed to Alternet.org):
As our country slides into an ugly Americanized form of neofascism, there’s good news: nonviolent protest, when in the service of progressive, egalitarian goals, almost always wins out when it reaches a national critical mass. And we may well be on the verge of that right now. But we must understand what we’re up against.
Donald Trump and his neo-authoritarian acolytes are following an ancient playbook.
Part Machiavelli, part Caesar, part Mugabe/Duterte/Mao, it always includes a few simple and primary elements of seizing and subverting normal political power.
Here's how the president is building authoritarian institutions.
1. Lie Often — Lie Big.
As President Franklin D. Roosevelt pointed out, the Big Lie technique wasn't invented by Hitler but was essential to his success, and in the 1944 election, the Republican Party began to turn it on Democrats.
FDR wasn't having any of it.
“The opposition, in this year, has already imported into this campaign a very interesting thing, because it’s foreign,” FDR told the nation during that year’s presidential campaign.
“They’ve imported the propaganda technique invented by the dictators abroad,” FDR said. “Remember a number of years ago there was a book, Mein Kampf, written by Hitler himself. The technique was all set out in Hitler’s book and was copied by the aggressors of Italy and Japan.
“According to that technique, you should never use a small falsehood. Always a big one. For its very fantastic nature would make it more credible. If only you keep repeating it over, and over, and over again.”
As George Lakoff pointed out in his brilliantly titled book Don’t Think of an Elephant, in order for us to process a lie—even knowing it’s a lie—we must first imagine it as a truth, a reality. (I also wrote at length about this in my book on using neuro-linguistic programming [NLP] in politics, Cracking the Code.)
If you hear, “Don’t run into the street,” you must first imagine running into the street to know what “don’t run into the street” means. You have to clearly visualize it.
If you hear “FBI spies were in my campaign,” you must first clearly imagine FBI spies in the Trump campaign, before you can process the fact that every intelligence agency and even the administration itself say that there were no spies (unless they were foreign) within the Trump campaign.
That simple act of creating the visualization that is then knocked down by the correction of the lie, instead embeds itself into consciousness as a temporary pseudo-reality and, for people inclined to believe, the actual belief of reality, of the asserted lie. From there, the lie makes its way to the conscious mind as a belief or “fact.”
Whether the lie is about a particular religion or race being “vermin” or “animals,” and whether it’s said in 1934 or 2018, doesn't much matter: once the mental picture is formed, reality begins to waver for even the most well-informed among us.
And trying to rebut the lie only strengths it, because the rebuttal presupposes the possibility that the lie could be true. Every time a Trump or GOP lie is rebutted, it’s also repeated: The rebuttal actually strengthens, in the minds of the already-converted, the reality of the lie, and makes it easier for the uncertain to begin to believe it.
This is why fully 48 percent of Republicans believe that over 3 million undocumented immigrants voted in the 2016 election, and similar or higher percentages of Republicans believe climate change is a hoax, the GOP tax cuts “for the middle class” were real, and that deregulating environmental and workplace protections will lead to higher wages and more jobs.
All lies; all repeated over and over again; all believed.
Read more:
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/9-ways-trumps-authoritarianism-taking-hold
Deflect, obfuscate, lie (NWO), whatever TF. Imigh leat, oinseach!
FYI....
The Official Trump Schadenfreude List
This is the Official Trump Schadenfreude List of people who made the mistake of starting a feud with President Donald John Trump. Each wound up worse for the ordeal. Check back from time to time. The list continues to grow, which proves many human beings are idiots.
1. Casey Affleck.
February 2017: "Casey Affleck Slams Trump Administration’s ‘Abhorrent’ Policies in Spirit Awards Speech."
November 2017: "Thousands Sign Petition To Keep Casey Affleck From Presenting At Oscars."
2. Alwaleed Bin Talal.
2016: "Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Trolls Trump: ‘I Bailed You Out Twice.'"
2017: "Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal arrested in corruption crackdown."
2018: "Saudi Prince Alwaleed’s Net Worth Tumbles 58%."
3. Michael Avenatti.
March 2018: "'The President May Be Able to Fire Mueller, but He Can’t Fire Me': Stormy Daniels’s Attorney Relishes His Role as Trump Nemesis Du Jour."
May 2018: "Avenatti Exposed: Stormy's Lawyer May Face Disbarment, Legal Action As Past Catches Up."
October 2018: "Judge dismisses Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against Trump."
4. H. Brandt Ayers
2017: "Trump breaches moral line."
2018: "Anniston Star's ex-publisher spanked female employees in the 1970s, reports say."
5. Alec Baldwin.
2016: "Alec Baldwin totally nailed Trump on the 'SNL' premiere."
2017: "Alec Baldwin Admits He's 'Bullied Women,' Calls for a Change in Hollywood."
2018: "Baldwin bombs: Alec posts dismal numbers in his talk show debut on ABC, with premiere episode featuring Robert De Niro pulling in less than 2.5M viewers."
6. LaVar Ball.
November 2017: "LaVar Ball Is Feuding with Donald Trump Over His Son's Release From China."
December 2017: "LaVar Ball sends his sons to play in LITHUANIA after pulling them both out of school in the United States after UCLA-Trump row."
7. Mario Batali.
2017: "Mario Batali Predicts a 'Violent Revolution' Could Happen in America Over Food."
2018: "Famed chef Mario Batali’s Vegas Strip restaurants will close."
8. Michael Bennett.
2017: "Michael Bennett: Trump stooped so low with his NFL attacks."
2018: "Michael Bennett indicted for allegedly injuring elderly paraplegic at Super Bowl LI."
9. Bono.
2016: "Watch U2 Blast Donald Trump During San Francisco Show."
2018: "U2 cancel concert mid-show after Bono loses voice."
10. Maddie Bowman.
2017: "Olympic gold medal skier Maddie Bowman would turn down visit to the White House."
2018: "Team USA's Maddie Bowman Finishes 11th in Crushing Blow for Former Gold Medal Skier."
11. Tom Brokaw.
2015: "Legendary newsman Tom Brokaw says he would 'call in sick' if he had to cover Donald Trump every night."
2018: "Tom Brokaw Accused of Sexual Harassment By Former NBC Anchor."
12. Chris Brown.
2016: "Chris Brown Shades Donald Trump Over His Comments About Policing Thugs."
2018: "Chris Brown Pleads Not Guilty to Nightclub Assault.'
13. Jim Carrey.
March 2018: "Jim Carrey has been trolling Trump and the GOP with paintings."
May 2018: "What has happened to Jim Carrey? Once a revered comedian with a big fan base, Carrey hasn’t made a good movie in 10 years, and the ones he’s in have been box-office bombs."
August 2018: "Jim Carrey’s Aretha Franklin tribute draws backlash: ‘Why is she so white?’"
14. Hillary Clinton.
2016: "Clinton has 90 percent chance of winning."
2017: "Hillary, I love you. But please go away."
15. George Clooney.
2016: "Clooney's Vow: Trump Will Not Be President; See Trump's Response."
2017: "Clooney's 'Suburbicon' tanks, 'Saw' sequel No. 1 with $16.3M."
16. John Conyers.
2016: "Rep. John Conyers: Donald Trump Is the Next Richard Nixon."
2017: "Rep. John Conyers Jr. resigns over sexual harassment allegations."
17. David Corn.
2016: "MSNBC’s David Corn destroys Ann Coulter for defending Trump’s decision not to release tax returns."
2017: "David Corn investigated for inappropriate workplace behavior."
18. Bill Cosby.
2011: "Bill Cosby Rips Donald Trump On Today Show."
2018: "Bill Cosby convicted of drugging and molesting a woman."
19. Joe Crowley.
January 2018: "Crowley trashes Trump, talks upcoming races."
June 2018: "Top Democrat Crowley loses in shocker."
20. Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz.
2017: "Puerto Rico mayor weeps as she begs for help while Trump congratulates himself on 'good job' with aid."
2018: "Administration of Trump-bashing Puerto Rican mayor reportedly facing FBI corruption probe."
21. Stormy Daniels.
March 2018: "How the Stormy Daniels Scandal Could Bring Down Trump."
July 2018: "Adult Film Star Stormy Daniels’ Husband Files For Divorce."
22. Robert De Niro.
2016: "De Niro: I’d Like to Punch Trump In the Face."
2017: "De Niro film scores 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. Cost $15 million to make. Had a box office of $1.7 million."
2018: "Baldwin bombs: Alec posts dismal numbers in his talk show debut on ABC, with premiere episode featuring Robert De Niro pulling in less than 2.5M viewers."
23. Lena Dunham.
2016: "Lena Dunham: I'll move to Canada if Trump is president."
2017: "Lena Dunham Apologizes for Defending Girls Writer Accused of Rape."
24. England.
July 8, 2018: "London’s Mayor OK'd a Giant Baby Trump. Blimp to Fly Over the City."
July 11, 2018: "Donald Trump handed CROATIA shirt ahead of England match."
July 11, 2018: "World Cup: Croatia beats England 2-1 in extra time as Mario Mandzukic winner secures first-ever final."
25. Eminem.
October 2017: "Eminem unleashes on Trump: The 11 fiercest lines."
November 2017: "Eminem is SKEWERED on social media after his bizarre performance on SNL."
Bonus: "Rapper Eminem ‘extremely angry’ that Trump didn’t respond to castigating freestyle rap."
26. Peter Fonda.
June 20, 2018: "We should rip Barron Trump from his mother's arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles and see if mother will will stand up against the giant a--hole she is married to. 90 million people in the streets on the same weekend in the country. F---"
June 22, 2018: "‘Boundaries’ Has Tepid Indie Box Office Launch After Peter Fonda Tweets."
27. Al Franken.
2016: "Al Franken Hilariously Mocks Donald Trump."
2017: "Al Franken to Resign From Senate Amid Harassment Allegations."
28. Morgan Freeman.
February 2018: "'Shame on you, Mr. President': Morgan Freeman blames Donald Trump for Florida school shooting."
May 2018: "Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behavior, harassment."
29. GQ.
2016: "If You Vote For Trump, Then Screw You."
2017: "Layoffs Hit GQ as Condé Nast Cuts Continue."
30. Kathy Griffin.
2016: "Kathy Griffin Thinks Comedy Should Go All Out on ‘President Piece of Shit’ Donald Trump."
2017: "CNN fires Kathy Griffin."
2018: "Kathy Griffin Snaps on Twitter, Freaks Out After Heckler Asks About Pedophile Brother."
31. James Gunn.
2017: "James Gunn Doesn’t Care If Bashing Donald Trump Loses Him Fans, Compares the President to Hitler and Putin."
2018: "James Gunn Fired From ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Franchise Over Offensive Tweets."
32. Chelsea Handler.
2017: "Chelsea Handler says Trump's presidency motivated her to leave her talk show for activism."
Actually: "Chelsea Handler's Netflix Show Canceled After 2 Seasons."
33. Alcee Hastings.
2016: "Democratic congressman calls Donald Trump 'pile of excrement.'"
2017: "Taxpayers paid $220K to settle sexual harassment case involving Hastings."
34. Stephen Henderson.
2016: "Henderson: Vote for Trump was a consent, purposeful or not, to bigotry."
2017: "Free Press’ Stephen Henderson terminated for misconduct."
35. Jemele Hill.
2017: "ESPN anchor blasts Trump as ‘white supremacist.’"
2018: "Jemele Hill is out at ESPN."
36. David Hogg.
March 4: "Florida shooting survivor David Hogg says he hung up on the White House during a call inviting him to Trump's listening session."
March 27: "PARKLAND LEADER DAVID HOGG" I'm Changing the World BUT UC SCHOOLS STILL REJECTED ME."
37. Kino Jimenez.
2018: "Bartender fired after video emerges of him angrily ripping a MAGA hat and clump of hair from the head of a boy, 16, and throwing a drink at him as he ate at Whataburger."
A day later: "Kino Jimenez Arrested, Accused of Felony Theft."
38. Megyn Kelly.
2016: "GOP Debate: Donald Trump's 'Spat' With Megyn Kelly Is Sexism."
2017: "Megyn Kelly drags down 'Today' ratings."
39. Garrison Keillor.
2016: “So, he won. The nation takes a deep breath. Raw ego and proud illiteracy have won out and a severely learning-disabled man with a real character problem will be president. We are so exhausted from thinking about this election, millions of people will take up leaf-raking and garage cleaning with intense pleasure. We liberal elitists are wrecks. The Trumpers had a whale of a good time, waving their signs, jeering at the media, beating up protesters, chanting ‘Lock her up’ — we elitists just stood and clapped. Nobody chanted ‘Stronger Togeth
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/
http://projects.thestar.com/donald-trump-fact-check/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/08/01/president-trump-has-made-4229-false-or-misleading-claims-in-558-days/?utm_term=.f603a4b263a5
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-false-misleading-claims-us-fact-check-a8474016.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/01/politics/donald-trump-mistruths-analysis/index.html
...and on and on and on, ad nauseam...
Lying feckin' gobshites even lie about lying. And turds don't fall far from the arse.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/01/12/new-filing-shows-eric-trump-raised-millions-lied-about-his-foundations-expenses/#5b1b07d139ed
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-ivanka-trump-and-donald-trump-jr-avoided-a-criminal-indictment
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/01/trump-2000-lies-kimmel-documentary
"And turds don't fall far from the arse"....makes me glad I'm not at the back of that caravan, or live en route!
Have you noticed all the new diseases in So. Ca.?
Big lies? Well lets see...
During the campaign, Trump promised to cut taxes. No lie there. He promised to renegotiate unfavorable trade deals. Done. He promised to stimulate the economy. Big check on that one. He promised to increase military spending. Check.
He campaigned on building a wall on the southern border. Not yet, so I guess you're right. Trump lied.
I heard a clip this morning of a loony lefty disturbing McConnell and spouse at dinner in Louisville.
For the good of the country and the children, I hope Trump and Congress make some money available for mental health outreach. These pitifully deranged people need help badly.
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DS,
I counter your vox maybes, iffies and slander with.....
https://youtu.be/7KOdYHyvnjU
I agree follow the money...and that means the Clintons money too. :)
How come the Dems had no problem with the Russians when Hillary was handing off her tacky red button?
I thought you said you read John Perkins ...and you still support the NWO???
The Following article by Thom Hartmann was posted on July 22, 2018 by Vox Populi:
Thom Hartmann: There Are 3 Main Theories That Explain Trump’s Approach to Putin and Russia—Which One Makes the Most Sense? Time for Occam’s Razor.
There are three general theories to explain Trump’s behavior toward Russia (and other hard-right broadly autocratic regimes), and for unknown reasons the two most likely ones are almost entirely absent from our electronic media. The three theories, in ascending order of likelihood, are:
The Manchurian Candidate: He’s being blackmailed or has been a Russian asset for years.
The Wannabe Dictator: He believes that countries should be run like companies—essentially autocracies.
The Deadbeat: He’s not only not rich, but he’s badly in debt, and Russian billionaires are among his main creditors.
The Manchurian Candidate theory was largely the one Democrats implied during the election, and most have implicitly embraced since then, along with many commentators on MSNBC and CNN. It’s the least likely, although if it’s true Robert Mueller will probably be letting us all know soon. But there’s little in Trump’s past that would suggest this is the case other than his embrace of Russia over the Obama administration’s reactions to the annexation of Crimea and activity in Ukraine.
But it’s far more likely that his support of Russia during the Obama administration had everything to do with hating on anything our nation’s first Black president had done (impose sanctions on Russia and expel diplomats, etc.) as well as wanting to trash the presumed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Even his dislike of NATO is the sort of standard-variety right-wing stuff that’s been promoted within the Republican Party from the days of the John Birch Society to Steve Bannon’s recent reign, and reflects an isolationist fear of alliances rather than an affection for non-NATO actors like Russia.
The Wannabe Dictator theory has a lot more credibility, and explains much of why Trump gravitates to strongman types like Putin, Turkey’s Erdogan, the Philippines’ Duterte, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, and China’s Xi.
Trump knows very little about the history behind democratic republics (it would be shocking if he could even identify Thomas Hobbes or John Locke, or define the Enlightenment) and virtually nothing (based on public pronouncements) about the fundamental reasons why “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Businesses are basically serfdoms. The CEO is the king, the board and senior executives are the courtiers and landed gentry, and the workers are the serfs. This has been Trump’s experience ever since he inherited his daddy’s business, and he’s never in his life been accountable to any principle (like “democracy”) or to any persons.
So, much like George W. Bush’s “joke” that, “If this were a dictatorship it would be a heck of a lot easier… as long as I’m the dictator,” Trump not only may think it would be easier, but, even more ominous, may think it’s desirable for the country.
Republicans have long used false analogies of “government as business or home” (particularly with regard to debt) that completely distort the real reasons for the existence of, and functions of, government. So it wouldn't’t be at all surprising if Trump were to believe this nonsense, out of both ignorance and temperament.
The Deadbeat theory is the most likely, although it doesn't’t preclude either or both of the above.
When given a variety of possible explanations for something happening, usually the most simple and direct answer is the correct one. And there’s one huge, simple, straightforward explanation for Donald Trump’s perpetual unwillingness to even hint at a direct criticism of Putin. And it’s not the pee-pee tapes.
Here’s how and why.
We all know that Trump is both a terrible negotiator and a terrible businessman. Dozens of his companies have gone down in flames, thousands of small businesses and workers have been screwed out of money he owed them, and his bankruptcies are legendary.
If the American people didn't seem to think this was a big deal, the American banks sure did. After Trump’s last bankruptcy, so far as press reports indicate, he could no longer borrow money at reasonable rates here in the U.S., and a real estate developer who can’t borrow money is rapidly out of business.
So Trump, as his son Eric tells it, turned away from U.S. banks and went to a number of Russian billionaires for his money. In 2014, when asked directly how he could have acquired $100 million in cash for new golf course acquisitions, Eric Trump famously said, “Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
So, if President Putin were to order his own billionaires to get their money back out of Trump’s properties and refuse to give him any more, Trump could well end up broke.
Really broke.
As in, losing all his properties, from Mar-a-Lago to Trump Tower.
It could wipe out all of his remaining businesses.
His kids would have to get real jobs, and no more big-game safaris.
His wife might leave him, and take their son.
He could end up living in a cardboard box on skid row.
Trump isn't afraid of being exposed as a lout or a racist; he’s afraid of being financially wiped out if Russian oligarchs pull out of Trump properties.
If he’s seeing that collection of pictures in his head when he looks at Vladimir Putin, it would go a long way to explain his prayerful body posture and cringeworthy sycophancy.
This also would explain why Trump has been so unwilling to release his tax returns, even after he won the election.
As David Cay Johnston has pointed out on multiple occasions, Trump is almost certainly nowhere near as rich as he brags that he is, and has a long history of connections with shady/mafia characters to get the money he needs.
But this is not about just being embarrassed by being caught about inflating his net worth—Trump’s a man who has little ability to feel shame, as we have seen over and over again. Similarly, it’s not about the pee-pee tapes.
After bragging that he can grab women by the crotch—and having dozens come forward and accuse him of variations on just that—he must know that if he’d paid a couple of white Russian hookers to urinate on the bed that our nation’s first Black president and his wife had slept in, it may well actually help him with his base. It surely wouldn't hurt him politically, and he knows that as well as anybody.
Trump isn't afraid of being exposed as a lout or a racist; he’s afraid of being financially wiped out if Russian oligarchs pull out of Trump properties.
It’s why he’s even willing to take the risks and political hit by defying the Constitution and hanging onto the Trump Hotel in D.C.—he needs the money to keep his businesses afloat.
In 2016, Fortune magazine analyzed his federal public filings, and concluded that he’s both less wealthy than he says and appears, and that he regularly lies about it.
Occam’s razor dictates that, like with everything else in Trump’s entire life, this is all about money and its relationship to his own fragile self-image. If a few Russian oligarchs said, “Nyet,” he would suffer severe damage, both reputational and business-wise, and it may well be damage from which he could'’t recover.
It may also explain why Russia (and a few other countries with billionaire oligarchs and/or Trump business interests, from the Middle East countries with Trump properties, to China with Trump’s daughter’s manufacturing) were enthusiastic about Donald Trump becoming president.
A man who depends on you for his financial lifeblood is a man more willing to give in around governmental and policy areas.
Now that Robert Mueller has, according to some reports, acquired access to Trump’s business records, all this may be coming out, which may explain why Trump seems so obsessed with, and frightened by, Mueller’s and the FBI’s “witch hunt.”
If Mueller exposes financial fragility on Trump’s part, it may tip the first domino that then causes the entire Trump empire to collapse.
It’d be interesting to see if the Chinese, for example, would then claw back the billion dollars they just pledged to Trump’s Indonesian property, or his daughter’s hundred-million-dollar Chinese trademarks, which coincidentally preceded by days Trump’s decision to let ZTE resume selling spy-able phones to U.S. citizens.
Equally interesting will be if the Middle Eastern billionaires and state wealth funds that are loaning over a billion to bail out Jared Kushner decide he’s no longer a good bet, either.
This is one of the few scenarios that explain pretty much everybody’s behavior within the Trump Crime Family, as well as the people in their immediate orbit.
As Mark Felt (“Deep Throat”) famously said to Bob Woodward: “Follow the money.”
https://voxpopulisphere.com/2018/07/22/thom-hartmann-there-are-3-main-theories-that-explain-trumps-approach-to-putin-and-russia-which-one-makes-the-most-sense/
This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
DS,
https://www.federalobserver.com/2018/10/19/hanson-epitaph-for-a-dying-culture/#more-39174
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/03/glenn-greenwald-the-bane-of-their-resistance
https://www.truthdig.com/videos/glenn-greenwald-trump-is-a-continuation-of-american-political-culture-video/
Glenn ...not right wing DS.
While acient history is interesting, then was then and now is now. If the Dems were as they were in the Days of JFK I would get your point. I've never had any use for the Bush Cheney crowd so it's not that I was in love with Repubs.. However I never saw the side of Dems that I have since the pants suit lady ran for the second time. She brought a level of corruption and hatefulness I really didn't know the Dems had. Couple that with the disgusting mess California has become, all while being run by Dems. Now look at the rest of the country, the most run down trashed parts of the country, with the most violence have been governed by Dems. The nanny state Dems, straws...cow farts...really? Thats going to fix the world??? You can hardly take a piss in Ca. without accounting to the Government. The most taxes and power plays with the worst results, dems....et al.
So how are the Dems dealing with it? By scratching and screeching on Supreme court doors, wearing pussy hats, advocating violence against their own bothers & sisters across the country that don't agree with them. Hating and disrespecting the middlle of the county that puts the food on many countries tables. Sick!
Dems want medicare for all, while letting all who want to come here have free medical and still have the nerve to complain about the deficeit. Just how does that work, free medical for the world paid for by U.S. taxpayers who have such high deductibles they can't use their medical? Where's your logic???
Dems think it's fine for Soros and Styner to spend billions while whinning about the repbub billionaires.The hyprocracy is so blatant!
So today is medicare and tomorrow the Dems will find something else to complain about but the truth is the dems have been in office plenty long enough to fix it, they just didn't care ...UNTIL Trump became POTUS. Their main concern has been gender politics instead. Very important to decide if we should call our children theys or thems. Really?
So, why is Trump doing so well in my opinion....Dems are fed up with Dems and Repubs got fed up with Repubs and Trump is neither Dem or Repub. He just happened to pick the Repub side to run on, possibly because of the intrenched corruption was worse on the Dem side. I'm waiting for FBI & DOJ to quit taking the 5th and refusing to show docs to the rightful committees.
Dems also want to turn our country over to the NWO Repubs do not.
So here we are...waiting for Nov. 6th.
DianeR,
Mitch and Grahm have suprised me the most! Seems Pelosi got a tiny taste of Maxine's politics...finally.
I haven't checked yet to see if Nancy has a new perspective on " get in there faces". I don't think they will like their own medicine.
The wetlands are awesome...good for you... I love the wildlife. I don't have wetlands but I do have a river aprox. 400ft from my home with a couple of ducks that come back every season and a busy otter. The good life!
And I pictured you hangin with the roadrunner!
Gotta do chores spent to much time wasting my breath on DS.
Cheers enjoy you bloody mary!
Morning HotCoffee, hope the turkeys and quail are fed. I have 40 acres of wetlands just 30 feet out my walkout lower level and the wildlife is fed by me on a daily basis. Everything from deer to wild mink and numerous species of ducks are just a few feet away.
Here is another example of people gone wild.
Another angry individual spewing the phony leftie/socialist meme, "the Republicans are going to take away your SS and Medicare". A verbal attack on Mitch McConnell who I personally never had a thought about until he crafted the Garland holdup in the senate and then dazzles them with history while doing so. His dinner, in what looks to be a fast food restaurant, and suddenly a crazy starts spouting the usual leftie BS only to be shouted down by a few sane diners thank God.
I await the day when one of these assholes crosses the line just far enough for it to become assault and they find themselves on the floor sobbing while covered in their own urine and feces. Believe me, we are very close, and Mad Maxine Waters and a host of other democrats who pushed this agenda may wish they had never uttered a word of encouragement to these idiots. They would all do well to shut up, stay home, and knit pink pussyhats in preparation for another futile march to nowhere.
http://www.tmz.com/2018/10/20/senator-mitch-mcconnell-confronted-restaurant-protesters/
Old Mitch is tougher than Dolly Partons minipad and he handled it well and after his recent clever offering to the senate to choose between approving 15 more conservative judges and go home, or stand by their principals and spend the 30 hours per judge holding up the process for weeks as they have others, they instantly caved, and the US court system won. Who cannot admire his brilliance as leader of the Senate.
Have a great one.
More of Thom Hartmann's discourses on the origins of modern liberal and conservative thought:
https://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/thomas-hobbes-was-wrong-our-core-nature-good
https://books.google.com/books?id=fo1ZYwn43bMC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=Thom+Hartmann+on+Thomas+Hobbes+and+John+Locke&source=bl&ots=SC5ilwboMJ&sig=1BK2xzOM25YfRIoFrT-V3OuHmjg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7iYOX6pbeAhVEFzQIHekRAx4Q6AEwDHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Thom%20Hartmann%20on%20Thomas%20Hobbes%20and%20John%20Locke&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=SD2WCRgsw94C&pg=PT134&lpg=PT134&dq=Thom+Hartmann+on+Thomas+Hobbes+and+John+Locke&source=bl&ots=5lDskuBOQa&sig=TUjyrDheCO172DTcRkE0X28LoyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7iYOX6pbeAhVEFzQIHekRAx4Q6AEwDXoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=Thom%20Hartmann%20on%20Thomas%20Hobbes%20and%20John%20Locke&f=false
Here's another source on what John Locke thought would constitute legitimate revolution (which would behoove us all in these modern times, when everyone is armed to the teeth, to interpret as meaning nonviolent revolution at the ballot box):
http://www.academia.edu/35005013/John_Lockes_Right_to_Revolution_and_his_Theory_of_Consent
Excerpt from Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" transcripts for 6 February 12:
"... And so the question is, what is the natural state of humankind? Whether you take the religious story or not. Hobbes thought that the natural state of humankind was the same thing that he thought he saw out in nature, where animals ate each other. He said if we did not have the iron fist of state or church controlling us, then...
'In such condition, there is...no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.'
This is the core conservative world view. People are evil and therefore you need these constraining forces. And this is why, you know, Chris Matthew's old joke - Republicans are looking for a leader, Democrats are looking for a meeting - is true. Because this was the conservative view.
Then John Locke came along and in 1689 John Locke suggested that the “state of nature” might not be what Hobbes described, that it might be different than other animals. Why? Because we have reason. The ability to reason is what separates us from claw and fang. Now, actually, modern research shows the whole claw and fang thing ain't all that true but there's democracy in nature. But nonetheless, this is the evolution of democracy. And what John Locke wrote in his State of Nature, was...
'Men living according to reason without a common superior on earth, to judge between them, [and that] is properly the [uniquely human] state of nature.'
Right? In other words, reason. That idea of Locke's was taken by Rousseau and Voltaire and turned into the Enlightenment, a truly revolutionary period of time. And this is when we saw the real clear definition of liberal and conservative. The British were the conservatives - the Kingdom - the liberals were the revolutionaries here in the United States. ..."
Read more:
https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2012/03/transcript-thom-hartmann-ows-revolutionary-vs-reactionary-6-february-12
1) FYI: #41 is Thom's piece, not mine.
BTW, a "hit piece" implies that what he wrote is not based on solid evidence.
It is.
Why not do your homework and study his articles and sources before posting such inane replies to his work? Ignorance is an unbecoming mistress.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/10/17/fascists-are-coming-your-social-security-and-medicare
2) Your "Business Insider" link only further supports Thom's point about Republican Party leadership intentions -- in their own words! They're all about drastically reducing benefits and federal subsidies, and/or jacking premiums and withholding for Social Security and Medicare, while reducing federal payments (through block grants) to the states' Medicaid programs. The point was not whether they could fulfill those wicked intentions.
That's why it's so important to vote for Democrats these next two cycles -- to act as a counterweight, which is a vital point the Business Insider article, intentionally or not, poignantly demonstrates.
3) Employ multiple sourcing from credible outlets:
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/best-fact-checking-websites/
First: Your "Snopes" link is outdated and only rated Trumps remarks during his 2016 campaign, when of course he wasn't going to say anything about cutting popular programs. To peel off low-information voters, he was merely stealing the progressive talking points about the most important and popular Democratic Party platform issues of all time. That's a sleazeball tactic right out of the Republican Party Playbook: Before a close general election, run as a Democrat on the issues; once elected, legislate as a Republican.
Second: Since squatting in the Offal Office, he's lied directly to the face of the American People over 5,000 times; so, you can't believe a goddamn thing he says anyway.
Despite any of his claims to the contrary, and the fact that he's an extremely poor negotiator -- being untrustworthy, spineless, mercurial, impulsive, indecisive, and easily persuadable by the last person with whom he happens to chat -- chances are high that this fake wannabe "leader" (Hah!) will sign any bill that promises to underhandedly slash any and all -- earned -- "entitlements" (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) the moment it hits his desk -- that is, if the party of the rich gets its way and maintains enough of a majority to ram through their crap in their fake democratic process, as they did with the tilted tax cuts and the nominations of thoroughly corporatized and extremely right-wing SCOTUS justices (one flat-out stolen from a Democratic president and another -- a f*cking liar -- who was very poorly vetted).
Republican leadership on the whole has been emphatically against all of these wildly-popular, DEMOCRATIC programs from their very inception -- no matter what they say right before an election.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/06/19/house-gop-plan-would-cut-medicare-social-security-to-balance-budget/?utm_term=.22eb90f6217c
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/17/trump-vows-lot-cutting-after-midterms-americans-urged-protect-social-security
https://thinkprogress.org/republicans-voted-tax-bill-cut-medicare-social-security-pay-488a9bcbba7d/
4) Per right-wing Twitter thread, i.e., worthless opinion: Yeah right. No one is holding their breath for that pie-in-the-sky, false campaign promise right before the midterms, again cynically devised to trick naive and low-information voters into voting Republican. Besides, why would anybody in their right might believe a damn thing coming from the forked tongue of an on-the-record pathological liar?
Republicans already blew their budget, and political capital, on unpaid-for tax cuts for the super rich that did almost nothing, comparatively, for the middle class. So now, how do they plan to pay for a Trump middle-class tax cut that would actually mean anything to the average Jane and Joe? LMAO! The chances of getting that false campaign promise through the misnamed "Freedom Caucus" (read tea-baggers) in the House are Z-E-R-O, as it would be in McConnell's Senate. Dream on, naive voter...
5) And finally, Paul Pauker is yet another far-right ideologue (You really love those guys, don't you?) who, to match his extremist opinions not borne out by facts, rewrites history with no compunction. He can't hold a candle to the veracity of Thom's numerous dissertations on our Founders' thinkings, feelings, and intentions backed up by decades of deep-dive research.
Conclusion: The best way to preserve Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is to vote Democratic. Unless you are foolish enough to leave yourself, the young, the old, the poor, and the sick to the tender mercies of Republicans and their billionaire donors.
Mitch McConnell's call to cut Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid also perfectly laid out why it won't happen anytime soon
https://www.businessinsider.com/mitch-mcconnell-medicare-social-security-medicaid-cuts-trump-2018-10
Nice hit piece DS....the Thom drama continues.
It's not popular and it won't fly!
Here try this one
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-social-security/
you seem to like snopes :)
https://twitter.com/prayingmedic/status/1053749250822103040
For Dems, it could be the last nail in the coffin.
POTUS: "We are looking at putting in a very major tax cut for middle-income people. And if we do that it'll be sometime just prior to November...” pic.twitter.com/c1ihgsCL8W
And finally,
The decline of the liberal mind
http://www.thecasellp.com/2017/07/05/the-decline-of-the-liberal-mind/