Gryzemuis on 29/9/2020 at 20:25
There's something more. It turns out a quarter of the expenses of Trump companies are "fees for consultancies". They are mostly unspecified. We don't know what services where delivered, and who he paid those large amount of money to.
It turns out he paid $747,622 to Ivanka for (external) consultancy regarding two projects she was also involved in as a Trump employee. The link was made by comparing the exact sums of money in and out. Something very shady going on. These tax numbers might open a whole can of worm with bribes, money laundering, illegaly shoveling money to his kids, etc.
(
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/28/politics/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-tacves/index.html)
Renzatic on 29/9/2020 at 22:26
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
These tax numbers might open a whole can of worm with bribes, money laundering, illegaly shoveling money to his kids, etc.
I'm no tax expert, but from what I've seen, and the things I've read, there are a lot of things that are suspicious, some things that could be construed as outright terrible and illegal with further evidence supporting it, but so far, the only thing we can all say with 100% assurance is that he's cash poor, a terrible manager, prone to nepotism and backscratching, personally half a billion in debt, and is guilty of some basic, sloppy attempts at tax avoision.
...though it could be said that he managed to avoid paying any federal taxes for oh so many years simply because he kept losing his shirt year and year after year, which isn't QUITE so bad.
The biggest question surrounding his tax records is who he owes all that money to. I imagine this will be a talking point regularly brought up over the next few weeks.
demagogue on 30/9/2020 at 04:22
Quote:
A CBS News instant poll shows 48% of viewers thought Biden won, and 41% think Mr. Trump won. Another 10% thought the debate was a tie.
Wow. Were people watching the same thing I was? How on earth is it that close? :confused:
That's a rhetorical question. We know why it was that close; but for the sake of some sliver of hope for the future and the expectation of basic human decency, it's important to act confused anyway.
Pyrian on 30/9/2020 at 04:55
Given that Trump's approval rating is about 43.7%, that means about 2.7% of people approve of Donald Trump and still thought he didn't win.
Starker on 30/9/2020 at 21:21
Okay, I watched this pigeon chess, and it was a complete shitshow, as expected. What I didn't expect, though, was Joe Biden doing as well as he did. I've been under the impression that he's just an average... er... politician at best and the debates at the Democratic primary didn't inspire much confidence. But here he was prepared, confident, and, the way it seemed to me, even got a couple of pretty effective punches in.
Also, it was a bit bewildering to see all the wild excuses trotted out by Lord Dampnut's supporters, like how Biden's a professional debater and uses performance-enhancing drugs and Chris Wallace gave him the questions beforehand and he was wearing a secret earpiece and Biden was not letting Lord Dampnut speak and so on and so forth. Seemed like a bit of a rerun of 2016 where they just didn't bother to change the script.
Anyway, here's the notes I made watching this:
Supreme Court
* Right off the gate Lord Dampnut accuses Biden of being a (radical) socialist -- who exactly is inclined to believe that? Has this line of attack ever worked on Biden in all these months?
* Okay, a president has the right to nominate a Supreme Court justice -- that's fine. Just because you can do something, though, doesn't mean you should. But okay, this doesn't really have as much to do with Lord Dampnut as with McConnell wishing to go out with a bang and stack the courts in order to get through policies people don't support (eg abolishing Obamacare).
* Lord Dampnut claims abortion rights are not on the ballot all the while he has stated he would only nominate justices who are willing to overturn Roe v Wade.
* Debating the moderator instead of your opponent, what a brilliant move.
* Lord Dampnut constantly interrupting and trying to talk over his opponent to the point Biden just hanged his head and went, exasperated, "Will you shut up, man." I get the feeling a lot of people who aren't even Biden's supporters feel that way at this point.
COVID
* Biden: "You did a bad job on COVID and people died and are still dying." Lord Dampnut: "It's all China's fault." Uh, I didn't know it was China who forced him to downplay the epidemic, mess with CDC guidelines and reports, discourage people from wearing masks, hold huge rallies, cajole states into opening early, and so on and so forth.
* Lord Dampnut saying Biden would have done a worse job is like a man saying that the new guy his unsatisfied girlfriend is taking an interest in would have been worse in bed than he was.
* There was nothing sarcastic about Lord Dampnut suggesting that injecting bleach might cure COVID and, in any case, if it was meant as a joke (which it clearly wasn't) why would you even make a joke like that at a press conference.
* That little rant Lord Dampnut did about the word 'smart' was very cute. Not very smart, though. The insecurity just oozed through.
* Lord Dampnut claims that so far he has had no problem with COVID at his rallies. Herman Cain unavailable for comment. Also, answering, "Because I get big crowds," to the question why he holds rallies during a pandemic might not have been the most reassuring answer.
Economy
* Lord Dampnut: "I've done more in 47 months than you in 47 years." Credit where it's due, that was a good line. What are his accomplishments again, though?
* Getting the feeling Lord Dampnut just wants to dump any and all oppo research on Biden. And he's not doing it very well. I'm sure it went over well with his base who are well versed in the conspiracy theories, but not quite so sure a regular viewer picked up anything from that rapid fire dump on China and Burisma and whatnot.
* "It's hard to get any word in with this clown." Sleepy Joe is on fire today.
* Biden addressing the viewer instead of his opponent seems like good move. He's more media savvy than Clinton, at least.
Race / Law and Order
* Lord Dampnut falsely claiming Biden called black people superpredators (which he has never done) while he has still not apologised for his treatment of the Central Park Five is just fantastic. "No, don't you see, he's the one who's racist." Classic move.
* Claiming Biden can't even say the word 'law enforcement' due to how radical a leftist he is... What.
* Lord Dampnut is more disciplined than I would have thought, but Biden is just killing him by simply denying his crazy claims about what Biden believes in... Lord Dampnut: "Biden opposes Law and Order." Biden: "No, I don't. And I don't support defunding the police either." Bam!
* Wait, why is it Biden's responsibility to stop violence in Portland? Are these kinds of things typically resolved by former vice presidents in the US or something?
* Lord Dampnut once again fails to condemn white supremacists. I mean, not that I'm surprised or anything, but why? They can't be that big of a voting group? And sure, the Proud Boys were thrilled about (at least what they interpreted as) his support, but it just looks bad when he tells them to stand by and says someone must do something about anti-fashists.
Job record
* Lord Dampnut claims that Obama left him lots of judges. No, that was clearly Mitch McConnell who thought no judge nominated by Obama should be considered for a seat and did everything in his power to block any and all nominations.
* "Under this president we have become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided, and more violent." Clearly a rehearsed line, but damn, what a stinger.
Climate change
* At this point, Biden's "Look...", "The fact is...", "Here's the deal...", and "Number one... Number two..." are really getting repetitive. Is it because my patience with this debate is growing every thinner?
* Lord Dampnut "You support the New Green Deal." Biden: "No, I don't." The end.
Renzatic on 30/9/2020 at 21:43
All I know is that I've been banned from posting on Facebook because I threatened to punch Demagogue in the neck.
To be fair, he threatened me first.
demagogue on 1/10/2020 at 01:37
Fuck yeah! :D
Edit: FB's crackdown on Renz would have made more sense if it weren't such an endearing bro moment ... I mean as far as neck punches go. XD (The only thing I have in my defense is that the website I linked to did have a notice up front about what was coming, but I grant not clearly about the volume. Mea culpa.)
Renzatic on 1/10/2020 at 02:57
I think we all know that moderation by algorithm is pretty much bullshit. I've been called out by it a few times for some of the most inane crap imaginable.
Now here I am, stuck and unable to comment or upvote posts. If I'm truthful about it, I'm not sure if it's that bad of a thing.
