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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#329601: Sep 28th 2020 at 3:45:30 PM

[up][up]It was posted earlier that exact page.

Edit:[nja]

Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Sep 28th 2020 at 6:45:56 AM

My musician page
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#329602: Sep 28th 2020 at 3:48:44 PM

A lot of the money seems to have been funnelled to his kids, so it’d be interesting to see if they’re genuinely rich or in the same situation as him.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#329603: Sep 28th 2020 at 3:50:36 PM

Honestly, I'd be surprised if any of the adult Trump kids aren't in it. Maybe barring Tiffany.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd taken out loans in poor Barron's name somehow.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#329604: Sep 28th 2020 at 3:53:39 PM

Ivanka notably was paid as a consultant while simultaneously having a job there, which is just part of the many outright examples of fraud in Trump's taxes.

Trump's haircuts are not actually able to be written off the way they were too.

How do you get a billion dollars in debt owning property?

Trump owns the property but...he doesn't own the property. A huge chunk of his businesses are collateral to the massive billion dollar loans that Trump takes out regularly to keep up his lifestyle.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-and-deutsche-bank-loans-2019-3

Deutche Bank loaned him two billion dollars over twenty years (and two of its Presidents involved in the loan committed suicide under mysterious circumstances).

Imagine the interest on that.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 28th 2020 at 3:56:06 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#329605: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:03:09 PM

Never mind the extreme probability that these loans were influenced in some way by the Russian government, presumably as a way to influence Trump as well as gain leverage over him.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Iaculus Pronounced YAK-you-luss from England Since: May, 2010
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
#329606: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:03:11 PM

More details from the Indy on the Parscale incident. Seems like he's been spending much of his time since July drinking, collecting guns, and beating his wife.

What's precedent ever done for us?
vicarious vicarious from NC, USA Since: Feb, 2013
vicarious
#329607: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:05:07 PM

Awful situation

Glad it didn’t end worse

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#329608: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:07:48 PM

Never mind the extreme probability that these loans were influenced in some way by the Russian government, presumably as a way to influence Trump as well as gain leverage over him.

Oh yes, because no one would have loaned him 2 billion dollars otherwise.

And while I don't think Trump could have killed those bank Presidents, we know Putin can and does kill people via assassins.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#329609: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:19:37 PM

Can someone remind me how to do folders again? I transcribed a Chuck Schumer interview I want to share, but it's long for a forum post and I want to break it up into readable chunks.

nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#329610: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:21:37 PM

[up] Two square brackets [[, "folder: FOLDER NAME" (w/out quotation marks), two square brackets ]]

After the text, it's two square brackets [[, /folder, two square brackets ]].

Edited by nova92 on Sep 28th 2020 at 4:22:09 AM

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#329611: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:22:31 PM

The Text Formatting Rules cover everything I believe.[1]

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#329612: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:28:09 PM

Thank you very much.

Chuck Schumer was on Pod Save America the other day and he talked about the Supreme Court.

    On the Best Argument Against Trump's Supreme Court Pick: 

Schumer: At the top of the list is Healthcare. Bottom line is very simple there's a Supreme Court lawsuit on November 14th that could eliminate the ACA. What does that mean? It means 10 million people would fall off their healthcare altogether. Tens of millions of senior citizens with pay more on their drugs for Medicare, and worst of all 130 million Americans who have preexisting condition, and now they are protected, could have their insurance ripped away from them. And so this matters to the American people, and we are reaching out over the next few weeks and letting people know this matters to them. But it's not just healthcare: Women's health, a woman's right to choose. Roe v. Wade could be at risk. I was glad I met with the group of younger women, 20 year olds, 30 year olds, they weren't alive when when Roe v. Wade didn't exist. I was. I remember that back alleys and the hangers and all that horrible stuff. But they knew it and they cared about it. Other things, LGTBQ rights! We learned of Ginsberg's passing at our Rosh Hashanah dinner and my daughter was there with her wife. And immediately they wondered if their right to be married would be taken away or curtailed. Labor union rights. This court, this right wing court would make America a Right-to-Work Country. No unions. What about climate? This court would eviscerate the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act."

Step 1 right now is to contact everyone, show them what will happen if a Republican court is in power, and get them to call, protest, picket, whatever Republican senators and try to get them to change their minds.

Step 2 is to do whatever they can to delay the confirmation hearing. Schumer talks about how they're already doing this by by stalling committee hearings. Though he admits Moscow Mitch has changed the rules to make this not much of a hurdle anymore. Interestingly, he mentions they have "other tools" they plan to use but didn't want to say what exactly on air to prevent Republicans from knowing what was coming.

    Other Options 

Favreau, the host, raises the option of Democrats boycotting the confirmation hearings altogether to protest how wrong the whole things is.

Schumer: This is something we will discuss, and we'll wait for a nominee. We have great unity in our caucus, that's how we've been able to beat back so many horrible things, and how we were able to force the Republicans to act on the CARES bill which had $600 for unemployment, PPP, they didn't want to do any of that. Their original bill was just corporate oriented. How do we do it? I'll sit down with the Judiciary Committee committee member, brilliant people on it including Kamala Harris, who will be participating. And then I sit down, I hold leadership team and it covers the whole gamut of our every caucus who meat every Monday night, and we discuss how we can come together and achieve things. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are on it, and so are Joe Manchin and Mark Warner and people in between. So this is an issue we will sit down and discuss and make a decision about once there's a nominee.

A Politico article is brought up where three senators have raised questions about Dianne Feinstein's leadership ability as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee and if Schumer still has faith in her. Schumer maintains that he still does and he's not worried about Feinstein. It's Graham he says we should be worried about since he's been so blatant about lying and going back on his words, and points out he's doing the same thing on off-shore drilling; totally for it and taking money from oil companies to get it done, but suddenly opposes it now that the election is putting his record in the spotlight.

    Covid Relief 
He attacks the Republicans "emaciated" Covid bill:

Schumer: No money for state and local governments, no money to feed kids who need food, no money to prevent people from getting kicked out of their house, no money to help the restaurants and others from opening up or closing, and on and on and on, no front line pay, no state and local mass transit. And so we we said no we're not voting for that. And so I think the fact that the CR is now done gives us a real pathway to push hard for a big strong Covid bill, you know, the HEROES bill that the House passed and we helped on, could solve a load of the problems. We also believe in keeping the $600 that has kept 10 million people out of poverty.

    Filibuster and Demographics 
Specific question from Favreau and Schumer's answer regarding his statement about "Nothing is off the table." if the Republicans jam though their court pick:

Favreau: You said that if Republicans jam through this nomination nothing's off the table next year. I know you're not going to get ahead of yourself on the filibuster or the court expansion right now, but let me ask you a broader question about the future of the Senate: Like, over the next decade or so you're going to have Senate maps that are good for Democrats or less good for Democrats but very likely you you won't have a map that gets you to 60 seats again even if we start doing well in places like Texas and Georgia. It's very hard to get all the way to 60. How do you think, long-term, how can Democrats pass any significant legislation with the Senate is as rigged as it is right now towards white, rural, Republican voters.

Schumer: Things are changing. For instance, let me give you an example; Part of the country that was never Democratic 15 years ago, you take the Rockies and West, okay? There will be if, God willing, we win in Montana, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, and in three of those seats we're way ahead. In Montana we're tiny little bit ahead, but if we win those four seats there will nine states from the Rockies west that will have two Democratic Senators. That's never happened before. The South is changing. We have a good chance to win in North Carolina, we also a good chance to win in Georgia, in South Carolina. This map is changing.

There are places we've lost. At one point, to show you how things change, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska had six Democratic senators now they have six Republican. My prediction is if you look in the West and the South, particularly if we can do strong things on voting rights and making sure poor people, people of color, are allowed to vote then I think you're gonna find that map changing. Look at Arizona! It was a Republican state now it's likely to be a Democratic state. North Carolina, the rural population used to be the largest vote, now the Raleigh-Durham area is 35% bigger than the Charlotte area which is not as progressive as Raleigh-Durham. So it's chaning. I'm not sure we would ever get to 60, but the bottom line we have to bring real change. We cannot get this majority and not bring the kind of change that's needed. The three big areas we'd focus on are climate, economic inequality, and democracy, broadly defined. Meaning making it easier to vote, getting rid of Citizens United, getting rid of the Shelby decision, stuff like that. And we're going to figure out the best way to get all that done. Because not doing things, not getting things done is not an option. That's the worst way to lose.

Schumer goes on to say he would definitely approve of of statehood for DC and Puerto Rico and reassures the listeners that Trump's plan to make Republican legislatures appoint pro-Trump electors even he doesn't win the state is a pipe dream because of state laws or governors who will oppose any attempt to do so.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#329613: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:40:06 PM

I'm currently doing my absentee vote. Aside from straight Democrat, we have three law adjustments with the first two being page long descriptions meant to confuse you on what the vote is about ("victims rights" and "expanding term limits" respectively). You can tell which ones the Republicans want to obfuscate because the third is simply, "Do you support the sale of alcoholic beverages in Boyd County?" [It is not presently].

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 28th 2020 at 4:40:14 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#329614: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:46:57 PM

[up] Any interesting downballot elections? (Besides McConnell, of course.)

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#329615: Sep 28th 2020 at 4:57:07 PM

A couple of judges are ideologically competing.

1. The term limits one is actually important because it is designed to extend term limits for Federal employees and circuit judges (uniformly red) to eight years, allowing Mitch and the GOP to get a stranglehold on the state even further.

2. The second is to add Marsy's Law to Kentucky in order to make the state even harsher on "criminals."

https://ballotpedia.org/Kentucky_2020_ballot_measures

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Sep 28th 2020 at 5:00:14 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#329616: Sep 28th 2020 at 5:16:56 PM

Ah, the law that conflates the rights of the victim with the rights of a defendant, even though the point of a defendant's rights is protection against the government and a fair trial?

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#329617: Sep 28th 2020 at 5:36:08 PM

Yes, hard pass on this one from me.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
nova92 Since: Apr, 2020
#329618: Sep 28th 2020 at 5:40:58 PM

[up][up][up] Thank you :)

Yeah, I think Marsy's Law is one that looks reasonable on the surface (who doesn't want to support victim's rights), but when you dig deeper, it has many unintended consequences (at best) with regard to criminal justice.

Edited by nova92 on Sep 28th 2020 at 5:42:34 AM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#329619: Sep 28th 2020 at 5:43:02 PM

The single most idiotic inclusion is saying victims have the right to withhold evidence or testimony.

Codafett Knows-Many-Things Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Waiting for you *wink*
Knows-Many-Things
#329620: Sep 28th 2020 at 6:00:31 PM

First debate is going to be tomorrow at 9PM Eastern Time

Well if nothing else, it's great that the two are finally going to speak to each other instead of trading barbs in interviews multiple states away. Here's hoping that people actually care about the points that'll get brought up and not just mindlessly cheer about their guy as if it's a football game.

Just Having Fun
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#329621: Sep 28th 2020 at 6:11:16 PM

[up]Bold of you to assume that Trump will actually make points.tongue

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
PurpleEyedGuma Since: Apr, 2020
#329622: Sep 28th 2020 at 6:12:23 PM


This post was thumped by the Merciless Hammer of Doom

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#329623: Sep 28th 2020 at 6:13:54 PM

[up] You can do that properly by including {{thump}} in a post. At least, I think it was that, it's been a while. Might be different brackets.

Edited by RainehDaze on Sep 28th 2020 at 2:14:22 PM

Balmung Since: Oct, 2011
#329624: Sep 28th 2020 at 6:16:17 PM

Isn't it square brackets, not curly braces?

lewattoo The IRL Madeline plushie from Planet Auguste Since: Apr, 2013 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
The IRL Madeline plushie
#329625: Sep 28th 2020 at 6:41:37 PM

It is square brackets, yes.

Actually, I'm not quite sure how that kind of markup is supposed to work. tongue

It might be square brackets though

Edited by lewattoo on Sep 28th 2020 at 6:42:58 AM

Transferred my essence into a Madeline plushie back in May

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