Is Trump Nuts?
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 23:49
VIEWED: 120217
PAGE 18 of 100
Quote:I really love the way you think. No, not really. Trump is blessed with congressional majorities. One would expect his budget to be a fairly literal legislative proposal. Trump’s budget is different.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I wasn't posting "analogies" SECOND, I was posting FACTS: Dollar-denominated debt is somewhere in the realm of 10-1000X the entire world GDP . . .
Its military spending increases would violate the Budget Control Act of 2011, meaning that it could not actually be passed as a budget. (The law itself could be amended, but that, unlike a budget, would take 60 votes). Which is just as well, because a budget that completely ignores both taxes and the domestic entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, plus some smaller items — isn’t really a budget at all.
Instead, it’s simply an effort to translate a policy-ignorant candidate’s often nonsensical campaign rhetoric into something budget-shaped. Trump promised to balance the budget while cutting taxes and preserving entitlements — which isn’t possible. So huge swathes of the budget are simply missing. He promised a big defense hike, so it’s in there even though it’s illegal.
The blame for most of what has gone wrong with the USA ought not be distributed to the rest of the world as you, Signym, have just now done: "... the IMF, the World Bank, the Central Banks, the various heads of state but especially China and the USA .... have walked us here, step by step." The blame for what is wrong with the USA can be found within the budget. Trump's is a crazy budget from a crazy man. Remember, this topic is "Is Trump Nuts?" The topic is not "Is Somebody Not Trump Nuts?"
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:I really love the way you don't think. No, not really
I really love the way you think. No, not really- SECOND
Quote:
Trump is blessed with congressional majorities. One would expect his budget to be a fairly literal legislative proposal. Trump’s budget is different.- SECOND
Dollar-denominated debt is made of all kinds of parts: individual debt (made of mortgages, student loans, car loans and credit card debt), business debt (including private pensions, loans taken out to repurchase stock or for M&As), public debt (Federal state, city etc which also include public pensions), and financial debt- loans taken for speculation in futures, hedge funds, commodities, and derivatives. Of those, by far, the largest and scariest part of the debt problem is DERIVATIVES. Oh, and BTW- derivatives are denominated in dollars and ONLY in dollars, so only the dollar would get hit in a derivatives melt-down.
How do I know this? Well, people who deal in derivatives say so, and all of the bank regulators say so, too. The reason why nobody knows HOW MUCH debt there is ... but they know it's a lot ... is because THIS debt is "off book". It's the one category of loans that banks get let off the hook, for the most part.
The Federal deficit in a pimple on the ass of a much, MUCH larger problem. It's important, but it's not THE most important problem. Banks have a much bigger problem.
So, yeah- let's go for that balanced budget (BTW, Obama raised the Federal debt more than all other Presidents combined, so why weren't you bitching about that then?) but remember that there are much bigger fish to fry out there, and re-impose Glass Steagall so that our retail savings don't get "invested" in derivatives.
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"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake
THUGR IS A DEEP-STATE TROLL
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HEY JO! I didn't want to have this discussion get lost in the shuffle! Right now this is one of the few intelligent ones going. By topic:
THE TPP/TTIP
Quote:And the specific problems with these "free trade" agreements isn't the usual economic one (where the people at both ends suffer a reduced standard of living and only the transnationals benefit, like NAFTA) but also a POLITICAL one:
The link that you provided shows a summary of U.S. objectives, negotiating round and public forum information, T-TIP blog posts, facts sheets, reports, and press releases. But no actual. yanno, copies available for analysis....YES, IT WAS A SECRET despite your snide comment.- SIGNY
I stand corrected.- JO
A nation relinquishing control over its internal policies (where they conflict with "usual and expected profits" ... which is pretty much everywhere) to a private tribunal of transnational corporations. That's a one-way step. Now, what kind of leader (President or Prime Minister) would sign such a deal except a traitor? This is so much bigger than Trump versus Hillary. The transnationals will, for sure, attempt to negotiate something similar in the future, whether in a series of "bilateral" deals (a la Trump) or as part of a whole new multi-party package. All new trade deals need to be examined closely, no matter who is President.
Quote:What you are talking about is a regulatory requirement: make payroll receipts and tax filings a necessary submission. Let's assume that extends to subcontractors and sub-subcontractors and down the the individual who has been "scraped off" the wage system and is working as a sub-sub-subcontractor him/herself. THEY have to submit their income statements, too!
The simpl way iz to require all payroll recordz to be submitted along with their inkum tax filingz. Naturally, if they are dealing with forin vendorz, it gets much more complicated.- JO
Actually, it gets impossible. The vendors in this market (Walmart, The Gap, etc) simply "subcontract" to another company in another nation, and let THEM do the exploiting. It's called "the gig economy", haven't you heard? Everyone is paid piecework.- SIGNY
Ye, I no how it wrks. But not every company or even every industry iz able to do that and thoze that can cant do it 100%. So, wen Jimmy Lee in Shen Qua iz making 10x wut hiz nayborz are, it starts to spred. Pretty soon, even the novelty fake dog doo factory haz to start paying more to keep employeez.- JO
Hey, I work in a regulatory agency, and we demand a lot of paperwork, and yet all of that paperwork has not prevented some terrible environmental crimes. So you need actual inspectors ... people going to the shops and homes to examine their standard of living etc to make sure that the paperwork is correct. And then, assuming you find a violation, you still need to have a hearing ... at which point the vendor will devolve responsibility to those below* ... and then assign a penalty. What's the penalty?
*the problem of "shared responsibility" where each party is guilty only of a small part of evil-doing. It makes participation much easier on the conscience of the individuals and much harder to prove guilt.
Quote:So being a nation of laws instead of a "giant kleptocracy" explains why we have been destroying and exploiting nations for years and why the system that WE stand behind- the IMF, the World Bank, and Free Enterprise has created a situation where 8 people own more than the bottom 50% of the world, and we have the largest wealth gap
JO .... WHO has killed more people and destroyed more nations in the past 20 years or so? Us? Or Russia? - SIGNY
US. And yet we are still sumhow the good guyz! - JO
Good lord, how is that? Because our intentions are pure?- SIGNY
Sumthing to do with the US being a nation uv lawz (more or less) rather than a jiant corrupt cleptocrasy like Russia, China, India, Pakistan. - JO
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
There are degrees of wrongness, shades of gray. The shade you see depends on who you are. For example, if you were me, you'd see the following story as demonstrating in big black letters that "Trump Is Nuts".
The problem with "Trump hate" for me is that it's ridiculous to pretend we don't already know exactly who Donald Trump is. I remember Ivanka being born. I remember her and him being in the news nonstop for most of my life. We know exactly who he is. I was discussing the idea of Trump as a politician at RPUSA almost 15 years ago and they said "Trump is only in it for himself. And his family."
That said, I'm sure he'll do things for the inner cities, for America, but probably not unless he's getting something out of the deal.
I don't think there are dyed in the wool Trump voters. I think he's to the left of me, and I'm a moderate dem.
HINT: Lose the tax story. I mean this sincerely. I'm an undecided american, re: Trump. I think Trump is in it for Trump. Trump wants to convince me otherwise. I don't know how I vote in 2020. You want to make sure I vote for Trump? keep thumping that tax syort. And throw in a "but Russia" for good measure. And really, that's jsut my solid advice. Some arguments are losers. presidents are 1%ers, and 1%ers dodge taxes. We get that.
"Trump — would benefit from some of his tax proposals." Yes, but nothing compared to the benefit of Rex Tillerson's trillion dollar oil deal, which, btw, I support. And me a moderate dem and environmentalist. I'm almost a one issue eco-voter, but I just judge for myself what I think is bad for the earth and I know a lot about it. So, oil deal? I like it.It gets rid of a lot of bad energy policy like fracking, which I hate. Alternative Energies? I love 'em. Trump, not so much. But I think he'll be overruled on that. As I said, I'm undecided. I don't know. On Hillary? I was decided. No Hillary. Never Clinton. So, Bernie, even though I can't stand socialism, I like Bernie. And Stein, because, it's a protest vote, "Go Earth!" hug a tree, etc.
I'm not so atypical from what I hear. I like peace, prosperity, clean air, clean water, and no coporate monopolies. I don't really care whether anyone else pays their taxes. Federal Taxes are for Discretionary Spending, which means military, which means war. So yeah, no one should pay taxes,including Donald Trump. He should build hotels and casinos, that employee people. Taxes just kill people. Entitlement spending, that comes out of FICA. But this:Quote:
Trump’s proposals to eliminate the alternative minimum tax, cut the capital gains tax rate and curb income tax rates would have shrunk his tax bill dramatically if they had been in place over a decade ago. The AMT alone was responsible for roughly 86 percent of his federal tax bill.
Good for him. Get rid of the AMT, please. Why?I know what you're thinking, this guy who make <20k doesn't know what's good for him. But here's my argument
If you earn 20k, you spend it all on goods and services, commerce.
If you earn 100k, you pay at least half in taxes, and 20-40k on commerce.
people earning 1 million? they spend maybe 50-100k on commerce, and the rest they invest.
So, my income goes to commerce, where i buy things. The price of those things is determined by the value of the dollar (a mix of how much America is producing as an industrial power, and how much oil* we own) and how much Tax the merchant who is selling me goods and services has ot pay in taxes. And AMT is 7% of that. So, it's just a chip, but we can knock it down, then good. No one in this country wants to pay it, and I don't want to pay the higher prices that result from them paying it.Quote:
The Trump administration has said it would make up for lost revenue by closing loopholes, but the specific deductions Trump’s plan would elimin
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
HEY JO! I didn't want to have this discussion get lost in the shuffle!
It iz lost. A plastic needle in a haystack uv endless Trump topics. unfindabl unless you no exactly where to look.
So I'll move it over to the 753 for Prez topic.
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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
http://www.7532020.com
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Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon is calling for a war to reset the entire world, a war bigger than Vietnam or Iraq.
Steve Bannon’s advice is that America can return to its previous Greatness only after a devastating war. Do you remember “Make America Great Again”? That is how Bannon does it.
Before he worked in the White House, Bannon was writer and director for nine “documentaries” propagandizing his theme of redeeming America with a World War.
You can watch a 9 minute video about the themes within Bannon’s propaganda films at https://qz.com/933459/to-understand-steve-bannon-you-need-to-watch-thr
ee-of-his-movies/ or on youtube.
Trump is nuts for hiring Steve Bannon. If Trump starts Bannon’s War for the good of American Christians, Trump is extra nuts.
Trump's first budget proposal will call for $54 billion increase in defense spending. It's a step toward war. The budget could be indicating that Bannon has already convinced Trump that war will fix everything, make America great again.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I'm not happy seeing an increase in military spending, but 54 billion is a drop in the bucket really...
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_spending
After inflation that's about a 4-5% increase, and still well under its peak during the early Obama years.
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Second,
the video strikes me as mostly honest, except the bit about the necessity of war and that bannon is the at the center of power. Bannon is there to get people on board, not because Trump believes in him.
That said, bannon is a little distorted. here's some origins of that kind of thought.
Winter is Coming. LOL.
The Crisis Prosperity Decay. this is a take on the stand conspiracist model
French Revolution IS the beginning of evil, it's the dawn of rationalism
Socialism soon follows, and those "evils" are a result. That's just a common conservative perspective, which I agree with. I'll go so far as to say nazi in japan were part of it, but not japan by itself. I happen to think we were wrong to go to war with japan, we should have just tried to cut off german control of japan.
Cold War=Third world war. that's a neocon thing. Neocons themselves are commies, and this is a way of them saying "but russia"
islam? no, we created radical islam using religion, that's just a bogus idea. I think that along with the pro-christian thing is a snow job, probably of zionist origin, to lure people into a crusade.
However, we've been in that crusade for some time. We've been at war all over the muslim world since 2003.
When did these movies come out?
I'm not convinced that this is calling for a new war, but maybe just setting up to claim victory over radical islam to get that reaganesque glow of herosim.
just my spot thought on the video
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Quote:Drop in the bucket my ass. $54 billion is enough to build Trump's Wall two and a half times. Trump border 'wall' to cost $21.6 billion. Trump can build a wall, then another behind that, then another behind the second one. Some places along the border really won't need a third wall for triple redundancy.
Originally posted by 6STRINGJOKER:
I'm not happy seeing an increase in military spending, but 54 billion is a drop in the bucket really...
www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-wall-exclusive-idUSKB
N15O2ZN
And $54 billion is not a onetime increase. Next year there will be another $54 billion or more. And if Trump starts the war Steve Bannon wants, a World War that resets everything, there will be emergency appropriations. Iraq cost $823.2 billion in emergency appropriations. Steve Bannon is selling Trump on a War bigger than Iraq. Is Trump nuts enough to buy what Bannon is selling? Maybe.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/11/us-public-defrauded-hidd
en-cost-iraq-war
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I’ve got proof Trump is nuts. He can’t show that Obama used Americans to spy on Trump, so now he is claiming that Obama asked the British to do the spying. Trump is certifiably nuts.
www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/03/british-prime-minister-latest-b
e-pissed-donald-trump
Trump needs to get it through his head that he's now the president of the United States. When he tosses off random crap because he's bored and wants attention—and then refuses to back down because Trump never backs down—as President he is wasting everyone's time and risks far more than just his own tattered reputation.
The result so far of Trump's nuttiness is that the House and Senate are wasting time pretending to investigate Obama for a crime worse than Watergate; the Justice Department is wasting time responding to the House and Senate; the conservative media is wasting time inventing ever more crap to defend Trump's original crap; the White House communications shop is wasting time desperately trying to research spin to back up their boss; and the prime minister of Great Britain is pissed off. All because nutty Trump got bored one morning.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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