The bewildering cruelty of the Republican tax cut requires some time to truly appreciate.
I never thought Trump’s dysfunctional abortion of an Administration could ever manage to get the legislation through, but clearly the corporate empire of Amerika and the Military Industrial Complex have all conspired to ensure the greatest tax rort in America can proceed.
The Stock Exchange will surge making the inevitable market correction even more terrifying.
So vile tax cuts to corporations, tax cuts for private planes, reversing tax cuts for disabled workers, grotesque underfunding of education and basic health services leaving a deficit where the poor are actually subsidising the rich.
It is one of the greatest corporate muggings of equality ever.
Trying to find hope in the Flynn prosecution is an obvious place to leap to at times as horrific as this.
But we seem to get a ‘He’s-going-to-be-impeached’ conga line occur every single day now as the latest implosion or explosion of unbridled revenge fantasies/policy announcement on Twitter manages to cascade through the media.
Firstly, getting impeached, doesn’t actually mean a hell of a lot. It is the second part of the process that actually matters and for that, you need a two thirds majority in the Senate.
After this tax plan, there won’t be enough Republicans in the Senate who are going to turn on Trump, there just isn’t.
If the Republicans are seriously going to allow Roy Moore to be the Alabama Senator to keep power, they’ll sure as hell back Trump in any second impeachment hearing.
Secondly, remember these people – the Trumps – and the mentally deficient morons they employ to handle immensely complex issues far beyond their capacity are actually too stupid to be malicious in their dealings with Russia. We’ve already seen a number of times where the pure idiocy of those involved is such that being able to successfully prosecute may be one thing, but making it stick in the minds of the wider electorate as anything more than ‘they were new to politics’ is another thing altogether.
That doesn’t mean Russia didn’t try and create mayhem in their elections via social media, that doesn’t mean Trump wasn’t neck deep in Russian Oligarchy money, but when you consider that Trump’s starting point with Russia is that the American Deep State is really manufacturing conflict with Putin for their own ends, you immediately appreciate how his actions with Russia take on a lunatic fringe vibe which can almost be laughed off or cheered on in the eyes of his supporters rather than damn him.
I think the far more horrifying reality is that Trump is not going anywhere and even if he is impeached and tied up in some further prosecution, we are all simply being hopeful that this nightmare ends rather than that being the reality.
This maniac will remain in the White House because all America has governing their most powerful citizen is mere convention of how a President should act. Trump doesn’t give a damn about convention and has no trouble whatsoever in stamping all over it.
His supporters want him in there angering the ‘liberal elites’ because they despise those voices which have forever demeaned them and left them economically to the mercy of a globalisation culture they have no traction in.
This is a love affair based on hate and contempt, and it takes a lot to turn those.
I want this torture to end, but believe that is wishful thinking.
Trump and his narcissistic madness is not going anywhere.
long ago when he was talking tax before election he made the point that as US tax rates were higher in the top brackets than other jurisdictions offshore. This means that all the really wealthy Yanks register their companies offshore and the profits they make stay offshore instead of generating business in the US. It does make sense if you can’t outlaw citizens setting up offshore and you can’t force other countries to match tax rates.
Globalisation puts all countries in competition with each other to lower top tax rates and so attract all this spare cash.
The opposition is so obsessed with trying to get him impeached that they can’t do the job of opposition politics.And it might backfire.
After nearly 12 months of investigation into Russia hacking the election, The most exciting development they have made is a confession from an incoming diplomat that he spoke with his Russian counterpart about mitigating the damage caused to the relationship between the two countries by the outgoing administration’s precipitous action of “retaliation” to that very hacking that the investigation is about. It’s a perfectly self generating circle like the price of bitcoin.
D J S
David Stone: You’re 100% correct.
The latest revelation about Flynn comes AFTER Trump was elected. It is normal for a government-in-waiting to start talking with people in this manner and there are precedents aplenty in US history. A year of scratching around for evidence of wrong doing, and this is all they have?
You’re also correct in your assessment of the tax situation: If Trump cuts tax sufficiently there are potentially trillions of dollars that could come flooding back into the USA. The number is so vast that it might cause a recession SE Asia where the money has been invested for the last few decades.
Behind the highly selective headlines coming from the USA, what’s *really* going on:
He’s slashing regulations like no president before him. Regulations that constrain their economy. No wonder the DJI is at an all time high!
The inward flow of illegals is now a fraction of what it was before. This is reducing the cost of policing and medical care in southern states, particularly Ca. This is very popular, even among people who say otherwise.
His calling of Islam for what it is, is resonating with many.
Sure he’s a big mouthed blowhard. But he’s a big mouthed blowhard that might just get re-elected. At the very least he’s redefined US politics and things will never be the same again.
Andrew, I don’t agree with all of your assessment – but it’s well reasoned. Food for thought.
His calling of Islam for what it is, is resonating with many.
No he isn’t.
Trump doesn’t call out Islam, he simply attacks Muslims. He doesn’t understand the difference between people and ideologies.
I
doubt thatam sure that Trump knows jacks arse about Islam or its tenets (some of which does include vile medieval viewpoints, incompatable with the values of the enlightenment). But Trump just knows how to push people’s buttons.Wow all that and all you heard was “Islam”
Well Trump’s Tweet from a few hours ago reads:
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
It seems to me Trump fired Flynn knowing he lied to the FBI and later attempted to get Comey to drop the investigation on Flynn. So Trump knew at the time when he asked Comey to “let it go” that Flynn had committed a felony offence (i.e. lying to the FBI). That sure looks like obstruction of justice to me, which is obviously very much impeachable (it’s actually very similar to what hung Nixon in the Watergate scandal).
Aren’t we a bit to obsessed with the politics of the US. Why do we care what they do to their country? It’s a democracy, in a few years or this year they can change course with elections, if they want to. They are a sovereign country after all. US in not NZ.
Then we complain about the Americanisation of NZ politics and life.
How about talking about the politic intrigue of Laos and Bhutan?
Because what our American cuzzies get up to affects every other man, woman, and child on this planet.
Iran. Vietnam. Chile. Nicaragua. Iraq. Just a few example of how the American Empire reaches into other nations.
How about more about Chinese politics then? Russian politics?
US is 20% of the world economy and decreasing. US military is contrained long-term by their budget deficits. China is the largest green gas emiter and India is hot-on-its-tails to overtake.
It is because CNN/FOX/general media and cultural closeness, that makes US politics seem so germaine.
If I hear about Americanisation of NZ politics again, you have my contempt.
… and Libya. But on the flip side you forgot WWII, Korea and Yugoslavia… i.e. US intervention is not always reprehensible, although I’ll grant you most of their recent track record isn’t exactly stellar.
There is no flip side.Russia defeated the Nazis, not the U.S.Japan was drawn into a war with the U.S. because the U.S.imposed sanctions on Japan for wanting to have a colony in China.At that time in history colonies were only for the Superior White Man, not uppity Orientals! Korea was just another case of regime change in which the true target was China,in which the U.S.exterminated one third of the Korean population , which is why the North Koreans still hate the U.S. And Yugoslavia was the main ally of a weakened Russia in 1980.To guarantee their hegemony the U.S. manufactured a split-up of the federation with false flag events, distortions of the truth, economic pressure ,false news etc in such a way that you now should be familiar with considering Libya and Syria!
Through a cynical eye I can see how both Yugoslavia and Korea were more about anti-Russian influence reasons than humanitarian, but their sacrifice in the European theatre in WWII is a tougher sell. The US lost around 300,000 soldiers in Europe but “only” 100,000 or so in the Pacific (Japanese) conflict.
I wonder if the Nanking Massacre might have been a minor trigger 1937-38(sarc). American missionaries and all that. Not to mention sacred trade.
America is important because they interfere in the governments of every other country . This can be seen in Ukraine Hungary North Korea South Korea Japan Saudi Arabia Yemen Somalia Niger Venezuela Argentina Chile Russia and so on. It is not a democracy. It is a pretend democracy. The republicans and democrats generally make a few superficial changes but the military industial ,banker, corporate conglomerate continues on regardless raping and pillaging throughout the world. That is why Trump is so important. He represents a viewpoint that is capitalist to the core, and therefore antithetical to most sensible people, but it is not corrupt like Obama, the Clintons and the Bushes. He does not maintain the politically correct facade necessary to please the liberal left. Neither does he wish to risk nuclear annihilation of the planet in order to advance American hegemony. He does behave with childish simplicity in regard to North Korea Iran and Israel but given the antipathy of the security agencies that are supposed to be advising him but actually are trying to bring about his downfall, some understanding could be extended.
It would be nice to ignore the US but unfortunately they do not return the favour.
Interesting. There is a series on Al Jazeera called “The Coming War on China”, by John Pilger. One of the commentators – Eric Li (describerd as a “political scientist and entrepreneur”) explained the difference between a market-economy like China and a capitalist system which is the US. A fascinating insight, and well worth watching it just for that quote.
“That doesn’t mean Russia didn’t create mayhem in the elections via social media”. Well, actually unless you have some tangible evidence for this, and I would like to hear it as no-one else has produced any,it does mean Russia didn’t create mayhem in the elections.All the progressive independent journalists in the U.S., without exception regard this as complete crap.So, produce your evidence!!!
Here Here.
Didn’t they find tangible evidence; about $100 000 worth of advertising from sites within Russia. Most of them after the election. An overwhelming influence for sure, but not tied to the Russian government.
Richard Christie
I doubt very much that Trump knows or cares about Islam or Moslems. He is seeking to stop people from coming to US from countries that the US has given it’s citizens every good reason to want to harm America in any way they can at whatever cost to themselves.
D J S
We agree on your first sentence but,
… I’ve fine tuned the second for you.
The reason he is specific in targeting Muslims is is not for any altruistic reason such as protecting the US (because it won’t), it is simply because he sees cheap political gain in for himself from his base. He is a demagogue through and through, a narcissistic demagogue.
There we are Trump and the Republicans finally took another chunk out of Obamacare. What a merry Christmas!
Now we can all sit back with our buttered popcorn and waitwaitwait for the curtain to go up on the re-creation of American manufacturing. Not.
Wait for Pruitt to turn back the clock for dirty fuel.
Wait for the meanies at the IRS to deny teachers their hard-won rebates for spending money to provide writing and course materials to kids too poor to supply their own in a public school system being run into the ground.
Wait for 13m more Americans to be deprived of affordable health care – or have to wait until the ‘free’ health trucks turn up at a local parking lot so kids can have cavities filled and blokes can get help for hernias.
Wait for the reversal of casual laws that directly lead to water pollution.
Wait for California to get help for people burned out of homes, work, businesses by the recent fires.
How did the Republican party become so amoral and corrupt?
100% Historian Pete. As a businessman in times square said when asked whether the Russians had skewed the election. Vlad stood behind me and told me who to vote for. lol
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