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

FyodorDose Since: Mar, 2018
#236376: Mar 23rd 2018 at 6:33:28 PM

Realistically, what would happen if a majority of Americans- like 9 in 10- just didn't pay taxes one year? would the federal government be able to get every violator?

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#236377: Mar 23rd 2018 at 6:38:52 PM

It wouldn't be hard to find the violators then.

ElSquibbonator Since: Oct, 2014
#236378: Mar 23rd 2018 at 6:38:53 PM

On the subject of the "religious Left", I think that should be changed to the Christian Left. Jews, Muslims, and members of other non-majority religions, after all, are already often assumed to have liberal beliefs simply because so many prominent conservatives are Christian fundamentalists.

edited 23rd Mar '18 6:39:02 PM by ElSquibbonator

LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#236379: Mar 23rd 2018 at 6:41:13 PM

Trump moves to ban most transgender people from the military. So, he's back on that, apparently.

edited 23rd Mar '18 6:41:26 PM by LSBK

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#236380: Mar 23rd 2018 at 6:43:52 PM

Predictable. He's lashing out since the omnibus didn't go his way.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236381: Mar 23rd 2018 at 6:56:54 PM

There is much talk about corruption vs. collusion. They are two sides to the same coin. Trump stole your election so that his gang of thieves could loot the Treasury.

YOUR TAXES are paying for Ben Carson's $31k table.

YOUR TAXES are paying for Trump's $3m golfing vacations.

YOUR TAXES are paying for Steve Mnuchin's private jet flights to see an eclipse.

YOUR TAXES are paying for First Class airfare from D.C. to New York.

YOUR TAXES are paying for a $1,500,000,000,000 cut for corporations.

YOUR TAXES are the prize for stealing the election.

Russia's oligarchs are rich because they seized control of a fractious weakened government and exploited public resources for private gain. They don't allow free elections so they can continue the largest heist in history.

Trump's goal is to export Putin's model to the USA.

Their racial rhetoric, war-mongering, and degradation of our civil institutions is not for any moral goal. Their positions on abortion, gun rights, and the environment are not moral stances. They're designed to divide and distract us, so they can steal YOUR TAX DOLLARS.

We need to defend our elections not out of any goal of overriding 2016. We aren't protecting them out of service to Clinton, or Soros, or anyone other imaginary enemy. We're protecting them because we want to stop their theft.

Elections are the only way Americans can say ENOUGH.

They don't care about your religion, or your morality, or your personal freedom. They care about themselves, their pockets, and how much money they can siphon from public services. Services like building roads, educating your children, and protecting you from foreign threats.

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his first Inaugural Address: "They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision. And where there is no vision... the people perish."

That is the primary reason to thoroughly investigate the Russian Election Fraud of 2016: Because we need to expose the past in order to safeguard the future.

We need vision: The vision to see that oligarchs are the enemy, whether Russian or American, The vision to know that they will drape themselves in the American flag while pocketing American's hard-earned money, The vision to understand that elections are how we fight back.

Investigating the Russian Election Fraud of 2016 isn't a distraction from solving our societal problems, addressing our economic woes, or leading a National Renewal. It is absolutely essential to achieving those goals.

Because ultimately most of our corrupt politicians aren't scared of crowds, or indictments, or rhetoric. Corrupt kleptocrats are terrified of one thing only: ballots.

Free and fair elections are not only the birthright of every American. They are the only way to stop them. [1]

edited 23rd Mar '18 7:04:24 PM by megaeliz

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236382: Mar 23rd 2018 at 7:36:40 PM

Papadopoulos encouraged by Trump campaign staffer to make contact with Russians: report

George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who has pled guilty to lying to the FBI, was reportedly encouraged by a senior-level campaign official to make contact with the Russians.

The campaign's deputy communications director, Bryan Lanza, urged the young adviser in a September 2016 email to accept an interview with a Russian news agency shortly before the election concluded, The Washington Post reported Friday.

"You should do it," Lanza wrote, pushing him to help improve the U.S. "partnership with Russia."

The exchange suggests Papadopoulos received a campaign superior's blessing to accept the foreign invitation.

He was also ushered to form ties between then-candidate Donald Trump and top foreign officials by other top campaign figures like the campaign's chief strategist Stephen Bannon as well as adviser Gen. Michael Flynn, according to the report.

Papadopoulos is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Moscow's meddling after pleading guilty last year.

The Trump administration has minimized Papadopoulos's influence in the campaign, describing him as a low-level staffer who would go on coffee runs.

After he pleaded guilty in late October, President Trump tweeted that "few people knew the young, low-level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar."

Papadopoulos, however, had far more contact with top Trump campaign and transition officials than previously reported, emails described to the Post reveal.

Thomas Breen, an attorney for Papadopoulos, declined the Post's request for comment as did a White House spokesman. Lanza also declined the outlet's request for comment.

The emails paint Papadopoulos as a young researcher who eagerly showed a strong interest in working for Trump's campaign team shortly after he announced his bid for the Oval Office, the Post reports.

Throughout the campaign, he repeatedly sought to set up meetings or interviews with foreign officials or groups.

For example, Papadopoulos told Trump's newly named national security advisory group at a meeting in March that he could set up a meeting with Trump and Russian President Vladi mir Putin, according to the report that cites court documents.

In May, he forwarded an email to campaign officials in which a Russian contact of his said Russian foreign ministry officials were open to a visit by the candidate. The proposal was rejected. Then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort emailed his longtime business partner, Rick Gates, that they needed to "communicate that DT is not doing these trips."

Papadopoulos is the only known Trump associate who has told prosecutors about that the Russians had dirt on Trump's political rival, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

It is unclear if Papadopoulos relayed to other campaign officials that the Russians had thousands of emails that could be damaging to the Clinton campaign, which he learned about from a London-based professor in April 2016, according to his plea agreement.

The report comes a month after Gates agreed to cooperate with the special counsel after he issued a series of new charges against him and Manafort - charges that took place before the presidential campaign. Manafort, however, continues to battle Mueller's team in court.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/380002-papadopoulos-encouraged-by-trump-campaign-staffer-to-make-contact?amp

edited 23rd Mar '18 7:47:36 PM by megaeliz

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#236383: Mar 23rd 2018 at 7:58:46 PM

Jews, Muslims, and members of other non-majority religions, after all, are already often assumed to have liberal beliefs
Most people I know assume that Muslims are conservatives, just the wrong kind of conservatives.note 

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Joesolo Indiana Solo Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Indiana Solo
#236384: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:10:20 PM

Fair number of right wing people are firmly convinced Allah is supposed to be some kind of moon god, not the capital G God of Jesus and Abraham. Though given the core of (at least Trinitarian) Christianity is that Jesus is/is also God, at a minimum the argument that it's a different god isn't completely baseless.

Technically they're also labeling Mormons as following a different god then, though the few of them who actually know Mormon theology likely wouldn't have much issue lumping them in(out?) too.

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:11:30 PM by Joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#236385: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:14:02 PM

Those people don't understand the concept of other languages.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236386: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:50:09 PM

Here's what I don't get.

A certain segment of Far Right twitter users seemed convinced that an omnibus bill is not binding like a budget bill.

That is false, but they all seem to be getting it from one particular, poorly worded, nonsensical ?reddit? Post.

edited 24th Mar '18 1:20:49 AM by megaeliz

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#236387: Mar 23rd 2018 at 8:56:29 PM

I hope that the trans military ban fails again.

Do not obey in advance.
rikalous World's Cutest Direwolf from Upscale Mordor (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
World's Cutest Direwolf
#236388: Mar 23rd 2018 at 9:07:49 PM

From that 538 link on the other page:

A poll from Monmouth University found that 74 percent of Americans believe the “deep state” — defined as “a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy” — either definitely or probably exists.
Damn, three-quarters? Thought it was more fringe than that.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#236389: Mar 23rd 2018 at 9:48:22 PM

Fox News is State Run Media. (or is it the other way around?)

Big Brother Facebook helped get Obama reelected, now they’re doing damage control

Omnibus spending bill: A score for the swamp?

Mainstream media push another Trump-Russia collusion theory

Just declare your alliance to Putin, and be done with it, since you are already doing their job so well.

And, just to put the cherry on top, they also have this little story.

Is the politicization of our intel community intensifying?

edited 23rd Mar '18 10:10:16 PM by megaeliz

Wariolander Since: Nov, 2017
#236390: Mar 23rd 2018 at 9:54:29 PM

[up][up] They probably believe they are aligned more with the GOP than the Democrats, though, and when you consider people like Ajit Pai and John Bolton, who are unelected and do manipulate or direct national policy...

edited 23rd Mar '18 9:55:27 PM by Wariolander

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#236391: Mar 24th 2018 at 12:49:32 AM

Oh I agree, though I think most likely what would stop up any potential war plan is the fact that the military has little interest in fighting that war. Any first strike would have to be advised on, planned and wargamed by the Do D, and the Joint Chiefs have made it pretty clear they consider North Korea a no-win scenario when it comes to military force.

While true, there's nothing stopping Trump from going on Twitter and saying, "I've ordered my men to take the fight to Little Rocket Man. We'll be attacking North Korea within the hour."

That actually launching such an assault is significantly more complicated than that will be of little consolation to the victims of North Korea's pre-emptive retaliation strike.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Imca (Veteran)
#236392: Mar 24th 2018 at 1:05:21 AM

Actualy, if Trump wanted too, he could attack North Korea, without a tweet misunderstanding and without having to go through congress to declare a war if my understanding of how the president plays into war is correct.

Namely since he can order attack in a war.... there is the major fact that well....

The Korean War never officially ended.... Its been running from the 1950s until today because there was only an armistice, never a peace treaty.

edited 24th Mar '18 1:05:37 AM by Imca

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#236393: Mar 24th 2018 at 1:10:19 AM

Let's hope Fox News doesn't tell him that.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#236394: Mar 24th 2018 at 1:56:38 AM

[up][up][up] North Korea isn't going to strike first, that much is sure. Any military action on their part essentially guarantees the end of their country. If Trump tweets that we're gonna start bombing, they'll just take the advantage to make him look weak.

If we attack it won't be announced by a tweet. There's no realistic scenario where we attack at this point though.

edited 24th Mar '18 2:07:12 AM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#236395: Mar 24th 2018 at 2:54:31 AM

@236309: What's the rationale they're hiding behind this time?

"Yup. That tasted purple."
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#236396: Mar 24th 2018 at 3:02:45 AM

The Guardian: "the administration has concluded that the “accession or retention” of trans people “presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality”.

When Trump originally announced the ban on Twitter, he claimed that the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption” of trans service members"

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#236397: Mar 24th 2018 at 3:06:05 AM

I think Trump thinks that transgender servicemembers are getting gender reassignment surgery while on duty and making the army pay for it.

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#236398: Mar 24th 2018 at 3:16:39 AM

I swear we'd established before that treating erectile dysfunction costs the DoD and VA far more, but eh.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#236399: Mar 24th 2018 at 3:29:59 AM

This is sheer pettiness. I would bet money that the main reason — maybe the only reason — he's doing this is because he's mad about signing that Omnibus Spending bill that didn't give him his precious wall.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#236400: Mar 24th 2018 at 3:37:38 AM

So distraction politics then?

"Yup. That tasted purple."

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