Politics Thread

[Masterofreality]

There is not a businessman in the country without a vested interest in Washington. Maybe that's the image of Trump you bought into, but there's no way you can argue his policies have not directly benefited his businesses. I'm with you on China, but get real arguing that his business background makes the questions of conflicts of interests stupid. If anything it makes them more valid.

My comment about the business background had really to do with the continuing demand to "SEE HIS TAX RETURNS!!!!"
Look folks. That is just stupid. The guy, like everyone else, has to file his taxes every year. We actually have an agency- called the IRS- which has been under a Democratic President's control from 2009-2016. That IRS "seemed" to target Conservative leaning organizations during that time. To think that if something was questionable about Trump's taxes during that time, and the IRS wouldn't have flagged it or find a significant break of the law is juvenile thinking. Just another convenient diversion for the left to get outraged about.
And yeah, guess what? A multi-national businessman who develops properties all over the world, happened to want to develop properties in Russia. Wow, what a shock, but that had zero to do as to why he was elected. By the way. How exactly has Trump's election "Benefited his Businesses?" anymore than Bill Clinton's election benefited his & Hilary's now HUGE bank account, or any other successful politician for that matter? Any politician who takes lobbyist money is benefiting, BIG TIME. Don't kid yourself.

[Masterofreality]

Said this morning:

…."I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected."

Yeah, so? Russia actors have been proven to have done stuff...that Obummer's lousy policing allowed to happen. That right out of the Mueller Report and why there were Indictments returned against 17 Russian Nationals. But Trump had nothing to do with it as shown by Mueller.
If you want to place a blame, how about Obummer not taking action when the intelligence community knew that crap was going on. Or How about the Democratic National Committee not being so casual with their email security? Or Hilary not using a non-secure server....etc. ?

[Masterofreality]

Holy smokes. Did Trump write this?

I disagree with virtually all of this, with the exception of the China stuff. I will, however, take the time to address the specific issues you mentioned instead of lapsing into some sort of apparent fugue state and spewing talking points from cable news with limited punctuation.

1. Tax Returns - Why does him being 'a businessman' mean that we shouldn't want to see his taxes? I understand that they will likely show losses that aren't entirely 'real' etc. but I still would like to see his books. Do businessmen not have taxes? I'll give you some leeway on the whole 'not putting his businesses in a blind trust' thing, but allowing him to retain control of his business interests while also not really caring to know what they are is crazy. Try to think objectively and logically through that. Has the IRS found something illegal or untoward? NO? They are responsible for "Looking at Tax Returns. Case Closed.

2. Russia - I purposefully made no mention of the Russia collusion narrative since nothing has been proven. I agree with you (for the most part) that all the theater around impeaching for collusion is stupid. I think he probably obstructed justice. It seems to just be how Trump 'works'. I don't know that he believed or knew that he was asking people to obstruct justice. I also think the whole point is moot, because there is no way Senate would convict. See: Clinton, William. You "Think" You don't know. You have zero evidence. Case dismissed

3. Bernie Sanders - Isn't he worth like $2MM? That really isn't much for someone his age who is considered even relatively successful. He is mostly talking about the 1%, which is people who have over (I think) $12MM in assets. His $2MM doesn't even put him in the top 5% by most measures I don't like his politics. In fact, he is one of a very small list of people that might make me consider not voting against Trump if he were to receive the Democratic nomination. Having said that, I think it would be difficult to intelligently argue that Bernie Sanders is a charlatan while Trump is not, which is a pretty direct comparison you made. Trump is all smoke and mirrors. Bernie has been relatively consistent. Generally wrong, but consistent. Oh, so now we'll just use a convenient measure of "wealth" to fit your narrative. I sure would like $2 million, as would 95% of Americans. I guess that actually being a 5%er is now acceptable for Bernie while he rails against them--and by the way, gives almost nothing to charity. Case dismissed

Mostly, I think it's F'd up that a bunch of people who ran around talking about 'draining the swamp' are suddenly so OK with so much cronyism, nepotism, and lack of transparency. Why not hold Trump accountable for those things? You don't have to canonize him because you agree with his economic policies. Just because he is 'your guy' doesn't mean that you can't demand some level of transparency or respect for the office of the President of the United States of America. Why not hold the Democrats accountable for attempting to destroy a man's life over patently false allegations like justice Kavanaugh? Why not hold them accountable for a patent lie that there was no border crisis that shut down the government in January, when there was absolutely a crisis brewing, that Trump tried to warn about, but there was inaction? Why not hold them accountable for the continuing time wasting "investigations" and divisive impeachment rhetoric that will go nowhere rather than addressing problems? And Lack of transparency? Where was the "transparency" over 8 years of OBummer when the press gave him a quiet free pass. Trump gets grilled on 4 networks every night. Case dismissed due to false equivalence.

Answers ^

[bobbiemcgee]

If your're a foreign govt and you wanted something from trump, where would you stay? Motel 6? Corruption. No wonder he loves the Saudis when they fill up his hotel for weeks.


https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...e-house-2019-5

[Masterofreality]

If your're a foreign govt and you wanted something from trump, where would you stay? Motel 6? Corruption. No wonder he loves the Saudis when they fill up his hotel for weeks.


https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...e-house-2019-5

Is that a crime? NO! #CaseClosed

Seems like his hotel waaaaay pre-dated his election. The Saudi's can stay where they want. Just like you can choose not to stay in his hotel.

[Caf]

My comment about the business background had really to do with the continuing demand to "SEE HIS TAX RETURNS!!!!"
Look folks. That is just stupid. The guy, like everyone else, has to file his taxes every year. We actually have an agency- called the IRS- which has been under a Democratic President's control from 2009-2016. That IRS "seemed" to target Conservative leaning organizations during that time. To think that if something was questionable about Trump's taxes during that time, and the IRS wouldn't have flagged it or find a significant break of the law is juvenile thinking. Just another convenient diversion for the left to get outraged about.
And yeah, guess what? A multi-national businessman who develops properties all over the world, happened to want to develop properties in Russia. Wow, what a shock, but that had zero to do as to why he was elected. By the way. How exactly has Trump's election "Benefited his Businesses?" anymore than Bill Clinton's election benefited his & Hilary's now HUGE bank account, or any other successful politician for that matter? Any politician who takes lobbyist money is benefiting, BIG TIME. Don't kid yourself.

You seem to think the IRS has way more oversight than it does. Maybe someone is asking for them because they think he committed tax fraud, but they're probably idiots. Most are asking for them, just as GOP primary candidates in 2016 did, for transparency. The number of business dealings he has makes these concerns fairly valid, the lengths he's gone to make sure they don't get released makes them very valid.

[vee4xu]

Never mind.

[noteggs]

You seem to think the IRS has way more oversight than it does. Maybe someone is asking for them because they think he committed tax fraud, but they're probably idiots. Most are asking for them, just as GOP primary candidates in 2016 did, for transparency. The number of business dealings he has makes these concerns fairly valid, the lengths he's gone to make sure they don't get released makes them very valid.

Great point and I used to agree releasing them for transparency sake. However if we had a sane Congress (Democrats and Republicans), I don’t see how political gain doesn’t out weigh transparency at this point.

Also more importantly, all the politicians who have run for the presidency before hardly ever get their records scrutinized like Trump will. Why would they since they’re all on the same gravy train. Don’t want to bite the hands that feed them.

[scoscox]

obama had more sealed records than the vatican

[paulxu]

Patently false allegations against Kavanaugh?

Well, that explains why the Republicans failed to call the witness who was in the room.
We can just go with the time honored "he said...she said" and decide her allegations were patently false, because...well, because he said they were.
No need to call the witness.

Come on, for Christ sake.