Let the truth be known

[slimslob]

you actually visit that piece of shit satire site? damn you just lost a notch in my credibility scale.

I share posts from them all the time.

[slimslob]

More Americans voted for Clinton than any other losing presidential candidate in US history.

More people also voted against her than any other candidate in history.

[slimslob]

For decades, Republicans at the State and Federal levels have been shaping electoral laws to give themselves every opportunity to take an unfair advantage at holding onto the levers of power.

Many years ago, people with Democratic leaning beliefs are more populous than Republicans in the USA. If the Republicans ever were to face a straight up fair election, they will usually lose. Trump will certainly lose the popular vote by a wide margin in November.

Therefore, like 2016, he needs to rely on the Electoral College to find a path to re-election.

While many have heard of gerrymandering electoral districts, not many people are aware of the efforts that Republican lawmakers are making to preselect Electoral college representatives who are Trump sympathizers. While the norm is for Electoral college representatives to cast their votes in line with how the general population votes, they are not legally bound to do so.

Trump is desperate to win re-election because he knows that as soon as he leaves office he will be attacked by many criminal and civil lawsuits for the crimes that has committed while in office.

It now seems probable that the final results of the Nov 3 General election will not be decided that night and maybe not until weeks later with all mail in ballots not being counted right away.

This is why Trump has set the stage to declare a contested election. Russia, a clear Trump supporter, is actively working to sew doubt in the election results via social media.

If Electoral College representatives do not cast their vote in sympathy with the popular vote, there will certainly be immediate legal challenges that will likely end up at the Supreme Court.

The rush for Trump to nominate Justice Barrett is very much to imbalance 6-3 the Supreme Court with Judges who are sympathetic to keeping Republicans in power and voting in Trump's favor.

Again proving that you as a Canadian no absolutely nothing about US political structure. The Electoral College, although not referred to as such - the term Elector was used, was create along with the original Constitution.

"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number
of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the
State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person
holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an
Elector."

It has been modified 2 times by Amendments, the 12th and 22nd. Originally there were no party tickets. 2 or more individuals may be on the ballot for President.

"(The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of
whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they
shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which
List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the
United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall,
in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and
the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be
the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed;
and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of
Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them
for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the
said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the
Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; a
quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two-thirds of the
States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case,
after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the
Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have
equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice-President.) (This clause
in parentheses was superseded by the 12th Amendment.)"

As party politics became present, having a President and Vice President from different parties became a problem.

Amendment 12 - Choosing the President, Vice-President. Ratified 6/15/1804.
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and
Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with
themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in
distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists
of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of
the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed
to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;
The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if
such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person
have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding
three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose
immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be
taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a
majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve
upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall
act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the
President.
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if
no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall
choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the
whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a
choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible
to that of Vice-President of the United States.

The 22nd Amendment limited the President to 2 terms in office.

[slimslob]

We now know what Trump was trying to hide by holding back his tax returns


The New York Times’ major new story reveals that Trump had political, legal, and financial reasons to hold the returns back.


One of the biggest secrets in American politics — what’s in the tax returns that President Donald Trump has refused to release for so long — has at last been revealed, by the New York Times.


Times journalists Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Mike McIntire obtained “tax-return data extending over more than two decades” related to the president, and have revealed their findings in a bombshell new report. (They are not posting the documents themselves, to avoid jeopardizing their sources.)


For years, the political world has speculated on just what Trump was trying to hide by holding back his returns, and by falsely claiming that he can’t release them until the IRS finishes an extended audit. Was it that he paid no income taxes at all in some years? Was it that he was far less successful of a businessman than he let on? Was he claiming legally dubious deductions?


The answer, it turns out, is all of the above.


The Times story makes clear the supposedly wealthy president often paid no income taxes, while his businesses regularly lost vast sums of money, and he himself was on the hook for increasing sums in loans. All that is politically damaging enough to Trump’s image, and likely a sufficient reason to work hard to keep the tax returns secret.


But there’s likely another reason behind Trump’s reticence — because reporters would scour his returns for legally dubious claims, and put the pieces together as to how he was trying to snooker the IRS.


That’s just what ended up happening here. Just to name one example, Buettner, Craig, and McIntire sussed out that mysterious write-offs for consulting fees on certain Trump projects matched the amounts of payments to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump. And there’s far more in the Times’ excellent piece.


One major theme of the Times piece is that the IRS audit of Trump is extremely serious, and that he could end up owing the US government more than $100 million. So reporters’ scrutiny of his tax returns might not just be politically problematic for Trump — they could also be financially and legally problematic.


The tax returns reveal that Trump paid little taxes, that his businesses lose lots of money, and that he’s deeply in debt — none of which looks good politically
Back when Trump first ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he came under an enormous amount of criticism from his rivals for not releasing his tax returns, as past presidential nominees have. Initially, he had promised that he would release them. But he kept making excuses, his main one being the false claim he could not yet release the returns because he is under audit.


So Trump’s tax returns became the white whale of his critics, with everyone from reporters to House Democrats to New York state prosecutors trying to get ahold of them.


After more than four years, Buettner, Craig, and McIntire of the Times got the goods.


Their story reveals the following: Trump did indeed pay zero in income taxes from 2011-2014, and the paltry amount of $750 in 2016 and 2017. He pulled this off by claiming that his businesses lost massive amounts of money. He has $421 million in debt coming due in the next few years, and he could owe $100 million more to the US government if he loses his audit battle with the IRS.


There are ample political reasons in here for Trump to have been so reluctant to release these tax returns.


For one, there’s the fact that he paid so little income taxes, which will look bad from the perspective of many Americans who paid much more in taxes than he has. You might wonder why Trump would care about this given his long-standing ability to wriggle free of political scandals — but that ability wasn’t so clear in 2016, when he first started holding back the returns. Additionally, Trump’s first campaign came just a few years after Mitt Romney was dogged by then-Sen. Harry Reid’s false allegation that Romney had paid no taxes for ten years. The political conventional wisdom was that a wealthy candidate having paid little to nothing in taxes would be punished electorally.


But the specific reason Trump paid no taxes is embarrassing — it’s because his businesses lost tons of money. (At least, that’s what he claims — keep in mind that the tax return information is his representation of his businesses to the IRS.)


To be clear, some parts of Trump’s business really do make money — for instance, The Apprentice sent cash pouring in, and Trump Tower is profitable. But he avoids paying taxes on these profits because he’s claimed such massive losses from other parts of his business empire.


Trump may also have held back the returns to avoid legal and financial jeopardy
The other big reason Trump was probably reluctant to release the returns is that there’s clearly some legally questionable stuff in there.


For instance, the records obtained by Buettner, Craig, and McIntire show that Trump wrote off $26 million in supposed consulting fees as a business expense between 2011 and 2018. But the reporters took the added step of uncovering where some of that money was going — and they figured out that some of those write-offs matched payments to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, as revealed on her own financial disclosure forms.


Now, Ivanka was an executive vice president of the Trump Organization — not some outside consultant. And sources told the Times that there were no outside consultants involved in certain of the projects for which Trump’s businesses wrote-off consulting fees.


The Times story also mentions other questionable practices — Trump dubbed a Westchester, New York mansion an “investment property” so he could write-off property taxes on it, but Eric Trump called it “our compound.” The Trump Organization also wrote off Donald Trump Jr.’s legal fees for the lawyer who represented Don Jr. in the Russia investigation.


This is probably just scratching the surface — the Times reporters say they have more stories coming. But the larger point is that Trump has a history of questionable tax practices, is facing an audit where he has a lot on the line, and appears to be in a financial situation in which having reporters closely scrutinize his tax returns can only be a problem for him.

According to CBS news the numbers reported by the New York even if they are true do not reflect all taxes paid by Donald Trump. Not included are FICA and Medicare taxes. It also did not includes the minimum alternative tax which most individuals with large investment incomes and losses pay. In fact it most likely included the amount that had to be submitted with the tax return and not any Quarterly Estimate taxes paid during the year.

[bsm2]

Tax bombshell reveals Trump's image is a sham
It was the moment when Donald Trump's "Art of the Deal" fabulism, billionaire tycoon bluster and populist standard-bearing for forgotten Americans was revealed to be what it always looked like: a sham.


A stunning New York Times exposé of the President's tax returns Sunday revealed a pitifully inept businessman and a serial tax avoider crushed by massive debts that could expose him to conflicts of interest given his position as President and power to help undisclosed lenders.
New York Times: Trump paid no income taxes in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000
New York Times: Trump paid no income taxes in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000
Trump refused to talk about his tax returns and blasted the Times report as "totally fake news" on Sunday. But the article portrays the anti-elite crusader who rails against a corrupt system as actually using its loopholes to avoid paying any federal taxes at all in 10 of 15 years beginning in 2000 by writing off his own staggering losses.
In 2016 and 2017 each, Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes -- far less than many Americans who are working hard amid a deep recession to stay afloat. Trump took huge deductions -- including $70,000 to take care of his hair -- and also appeared to write off hundreds of thousands of dollars paying his daughter Ivanka as a consultant to the Trump Organization, according to the Times report. The story also reveals the extent to which Trump's status as President is being used to shore up his losing ventures — for example his hotel in Washington, DC, and his golf resorts.

[bsm2]

[bsm2]

[BillyCarpenter]

I am sorry but Babylon Bee does not do "jokes." They do political satire. They also do Christian News.

I have no idea what they do. I never read the site. It just happen to pop up on my twitter feed and I thought it was funny.

[bsm2]

Why a private section of the border wall is allegedly failing

Why a private section of the border wall is allegedly failing - 60 Minutes - CBS News

[BillyCarpenter]

Fact Check: True



White House Press Secretary @KayleighMcEnany
: Under Obamacare premiums went up, drug prices went up

Under President @realDonaldTrump, drug prices went down for the first time in 50 years