The Laughable Defects In The Argument That Trump Can Reform Tax Law

Given what Christie and Guilani are saying on TV I have to assume it's true that Trump paid no federal taxes for perhaps all those years. They (and Trump) are claiming that because Trump paid no taxes that TRUMP ALONE is in the best position to reform these tax laws.

Now, if Trump had been saying since he got into the race that he's paid no federal income tax for X years, that was OUTRAGEOUS.... and the tax system needed to be reformed... we might believe these clowns that Trump was the best person to reform the system. BUT TRUMP HAS BEEN TRYING TO HIDE NOT PAYING ANY FEDERAL INCOME TAXES.

Instead they are portraying Trump as a business genius for pulling out of these business bankruptcies... businesses that failed BECAUSE HE WAS INCOMPETENT... without mentioning that he could only do so because he was a tax code "welfare queen".

And, seriously... where would business be today in the US if not for government FREEBIES? Freebies such as free limited liability protections for corporate owners and free intellectual property monopolies such as patents, copyrights, and trademarks? Why isn't liability protection purchased from the private sector AS INSURANCE so legitimate creditors aren't shafted in corporate bankruptcies while the personal wealth of corporate owners is shielded?

GUILANI ORWELLIAN BULLSH*T ALERT

On Meet The Press Guilani... with a straight face, just declared Trump a GENIUS for using the tax code to get himself out of financial trouble... while sweeping under the carpet Trump's total incompetency as a business man.

The obvious contradiction in this desperate Orwellian argument is that if NOT for generous tax code... TRUMP'S INCOMPETENCY IN BUSINESS WOULD HAVE COMPLETELY DOOMED HIM.

Keith Scott: It makes no sense for police to yell... "DROP THE GUN" if there's no gun

Time will tell... but in the shooting of Keith Scott...

I can see where dirty cops might want to plant a gun on someone they killed by accident. But if they are screaming repeatedly at Scott to drop the gun... there's no point in pretending there's a gun as an excuse to just murder him in cold blood... then plant one.

It's very possible that Scott had a gun his wife did not know about. She might have hated guns and Scott may have thought it was necessary to protect his family... or he may have had other issues. So he hid it from her. Who knows.

Time will tell. And until we do see those other videos... coming to conclusions says more about us than what happened.

MUST HEAR: Thomas Frank "Listen Liberal" Podcast!

OFFICIAL THREAD: DEBATE ZINGERS FOR HILLARY

Of course this isn't "official" anything... but it ties in with an old idea to harness some of that DU energy into something to akin to a "think tank" aimed at some specific issues... in this case what could be some memorable if not devastating zingers for the upcoming debate? I'm sure many of us are old enough to remember Loyd Benson's JFK zinger. Dukakis didn't win in 88... but who knows what points the Dem ticket got from a zinger that deflated that pipsqueak dimwit what's his name... only to have it undone when Dukakis blew a question of whether he'd support the death penalty if his wife were raped and murdered.

Given that Trump is both a loose canon and a moron... I suspect any zingers fall into several categories... something to counter one of his unpredictable rants... countering his evasiveness, countering his lies, countering his immaturity...

Any thoughts?

If Ivanka Weren't My Daughter

This has probably been posted before... but if you've never seen this pic... WTF is going on? Is Ivanka even 15 in this pic?

I'm Just So GODDAMN PROUD Of LIZ WARREN!!

Being from Massachusetts... I'm am just so goddamn proud of Liz Warren.

Just yesterday there was her grilling of the Wells Fargo perp... and did anyone else see her on Rachel Maddow last night?

Partisan Hypocrisy Is Often Shameless

I debate some rather rabid right wingers on another forum, and for months they've been screaming... without evidence, that the Clinton Foundation (CF) was the Clinton's slush fund. Some go as far as to accuse the Clinton's of stealing from it. They come to this conclusion from the dishonest combination of Hillary's statement that they were "dead broke" when they left the Whitehouse... and bogus numbers that the CF only pays out 7% of donations. Poof! In the minds of the Orwellian Right... the Clinton's have been stealing the money. (Let's sweep under the carpet those financial statements that prove the Clinton's money came from book deals and speaking fees. As for being broke it was because of all of the legal bills leftover from the GOP's attempt to impeach Bill Clinton.)

And yet... I'm sure they are doing everything they can to dismiss Trump's very REAL theft of money from his foundation.

HAVE CAPITALIST and NEOLIB IDEAS COMBINED TO BECOME CANCEROUS?

There's always been a sociopathic side of corporate behavior... and if you haven't seen the 2003 documentary called The Corporation... it's still a must-see. https://freedocumentaries.org/documentary/the-corporation

But the corporate form only has the options the governing political system allows. It has several routes to break free... by propagandizing the public/politicians... and through courts decisions.

We could always expect the GOP to side with wealth and business but once these forces became organized in the 70's they needed to further mold the GOP base to buy into the rationalizations needed to justify irrational Reagan's policies. It's not that irrationality has built in limits... it tends to feed off itself... and this is what we saw with the continued radicalization of GOP politicians.

But I can't excuse the Dems. They exhibited a certain amount of cowardice in not standing up for the working and middle classes. By the 90's neoliberalism had a strong foothold in the Democratic Party. Deregulation under Clinton went a long way to set the stage for the 2008 Bush Crash. And we could not expect the Bush Junta to effectively monitor those corporations they so trusted.

I had such high hopes for Obama. How could he not set the nation back on a sane course? And yet, as Liz Warren just said on MSNBC the Obama admin did virtually nothing when the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission made its report. Unlike FDR who signed legislation to reform Wall St in 90 days... it took 18 MONTHS to pass the rather weak Dodd Frank. And Obama refused to prosecute a single Wall St perp.

This is not to beat up on Obama... but an ideology. Getting back to the GOP... I can't help but think the underlying pathology has continued to grow... and combined with Trump's psychosis... have we reached the end stage of capitalism... where corporate behavior and the beliefs of the entire GOP have become so disconnected with the real world that to protect profits they'll destroy their host societies... and perhaps the planet?