A thread for Democrats Only

POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
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SECOND

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 10:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Of course it's a tape. That sneaky Billy Bush. Always luring Trump on buses and getting him to say the wildest things about secret trade deals with Chinese, secret plans to overthrow Democracy with Putin and grabbin pussy. What a kidder.

I remember this one time I was riding the bus with Billy Bush and he got me to to say on tape that being electrocuted through my nips is a huge turn on for me. And I ain't even tried that before. Still on my bucket list though, cause I know it would be. Maybe next time I'm sitting on Billy's lap on the bus? Man we were high.

Starlord for President in 2020. He didn't mean it ya'all.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

This is how you comment about Trump being either incompetent or crooked when he is negotiating trade deals with China? Trump took a half billion dollar bribe from China.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/news/companies/mnuchin-zte/index.html
In a vote of 23 to 2, the Senate Banking Committee overwhelmingly approved an amendment that would block Trump from reducing penalties on Chinese company ZTE without first providing Congress proof the company is following US laws.

Trump Indonesia project gets Chinese government partner
www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/the-associated-press-trump-indonesia-project-g
ets-chinese-government-partner.html
A Chinese government-owned company has signed on to build a theme park in a vast development in Indonesia that also features a Trump hotel and condos, a deal that stands to benefit President Donald Trump's company just as top Chinese envoys head to Washington for trade talks.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

SIGNYM

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 11:40 PM

ABOUT BANKS

Quote:
Bank profits hit a new all-time record as Congress is poised to roll back post-crisis regulations. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced Tuesday that America’s banking sector hit a new record high of $56 billion in net income in the first quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives is set this afternoon to pass a bill killing financial regulations to help out a financial services sector that they see as ailing under the status quo.

Yes, the same sector that just posted record profits. Now, of course, if you talk to proponents of the regulatory rollback, they’ll tell you they have no intention of helping out the Wall Street giants whom everyone hates. But with less regulation coming down the pike, there’s every reason to believe that the future will only be brighter for America’s banks.

www.vox.com/2018/5/22/17380490/fdic-bank-profits-dodd-frank

THIS IS REUTER'S INTERPRETATION

Quote:
Congress’s tweak to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial rules mostly eases restrictions on small and “community” banks, allowing them to make mortgages more easily and loosening some troublesome red tape. Lenders with assets between $50 billion and $250 billion will no longer automatically face tough oversight from the Federal Reserve, but some still may anyway; bonds issued by local authorities will be treated a little more favorably.

This is consistent with what I've been hearing over the past year or so: Complying with Dodd-Frank's 2,300 pages of regulations is a nightmare for small and community banks which don't have access to offices-full of lawyers and accountants.

Quote:
It’s more milestone than real change, and less than many Republicans in the House of Representatives wanted. For mega-banks like Citi, JPMorgan or Wells Fargo, the revisions offer almost nothing – although with industry profit hitting a record $56 billion in the first quarter, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, they’re not in a position to complain.

What comes next could be more interesting to them, if it involves changes to the Volcker Rule – the restriction on deposit-takers trading for their own gain rather than that of clients. Five regulators, including the Fed, want to change the current presumption that all short-term trades are considered speculative unless there’s a paper trail to show otherwise. JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon once complained traders would need a lawyer and a psychiatrist sitting next to them to gauge the intent behind any given transaction.

Banks certainly made money from their prop trading desks – but even so, the idea that they would rush to reopen them should the rules change seems far-fetched. Some of that trading still happens, under the guise of hedging, but most big banks are more interested in fee-generating businesses like securities underwriting and consumer lending. Much speculative activity - and the star traders driving it - have migrated to hedge funds. Automation means many trades don’t even go near a human any more.

The second is more significant, and once again represents the commingling of depositors' funds with speculative investment.

It pisses me off. Congressional Republicans COULD HAVE done this the easy way: Offer banks the option of choosing to either abide by Dodd-Frank, or abide by Glass-Steagall. But what do you expect from politicians who're living in the pockets of big business?

HOW THE SENATE VOTED

Quote:
The measure crafted by Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, passed 67 to 31, marking a rare occurrence of old-fashioned legislating on a bipartisan bill that nevertheless sharply divided Democrats.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/politics/banking-bill-vote-mike-crapo/i
ndex.html So 17 Democrats voted for the bill.

HOW THE HOUSE VOTED
Republican 225(Y) 1(N) 8(NV)
Democratic 33(Y) 158(N) 2(NV)
You can see how YOUR Representative voted here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2018/roll216.xml

---

SIGNYM

Thursday, May 24, 2018 12:17 AM

ZTE PHONE

As usual, you're presuming to know what's going on with ZTE phone. My first thought was that this had more to do with China's help with getting N Korea back on track than anything else, but in reality none one of us know for sure.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

SECOND

Thursday, May 24, 2018 1:05 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
ZTE PHONE

As usual, you're presuming to know what's going on with ZTE phone. My first thought was that this had more to do with China's help with getting N Korea back on track than anything else, but in reality none one of us know for sure.

And the reason why we do not know for sure is that Trump is not forthcoming with complete information. Even if he was completely forthcoming, how would we know if he was truthful? He is impossible to pin down to one story. He has a reputation of twisting the truth that nobody has done since Nixon. Philip Roth, who died yesterday, parodied Nixon answering questions. Roth's Nixon is how the real Trump talks. Trump must have read the book. See Philip Roth, Our Gang, 1971.

CITIZEN: I wonder if I may ask you a question having to do with Lieutenant Calley and his conviction for killing twenty-two Vietnamese civilians at My Lai.

TRICKY: Certainly. I suppose you are bringing that up as another example of my refusal to do the popular thing.

CITIZEN: How’s that, sir?

TRICKY: Well, in the wake of the public outcry against that conviction, the popular thing—the most popular thing by far—would have been for me, as Commander-in-Chief, to have convicted the twenty-two unarmed civilians of conspiracy to murder Lieutenant Calley. But if you read your papers, you’ll see I refused to do that, and chose only to review the question of his guilt, and not theirs. As I said, I’d rather be a one-term President. And may I make one thing more perfectly clear, while we’re on the subject of Vietnam? I am not going to interfere in the internal affairs of another country. If President Thieu has sufficient evidence and wishes to try those twenty-two My Lai villagers posthumously, according to some Vietnamese law having to do with ancestor worship, that is his business. But I assure you, I in no way intend to interfere with the workings of the Vietnamese system of justice. I think President Thieu, and the duly elected Saigon officials, can “hack” it alone in the law and order department.

CITIZEN: Sir, the question that’s been troubling me is this. Inasmuch as I share your belief in the sanctity of human life—

TRICKY: Good for you. I’ll bet you’re quite a football fan, too.

Etc. much more Trumpish stream of consciousness bullshit from Roth's parody Nixon, who is constantly complementing himself for his high standards of excellence as does real Trump.

Roth on Trump, in January of this year: “a massive fraud, the evil sum of his deficiencies, devoid of everything but the hollow ideology of a megalomaniac.”
www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/books/review/philip-roth-interview.html

JJ

Thursday, May 24, 2018 1:06 AM

It's as simple as you've pointed out SECOND. Trumps corrupt, and it's both funny and sad to see his supporters realize he cares nothing about making America great, or them. Therefore they keep making excuses for him because they don't want to lose face by admitting it. To late for that, losing face I mean. They couldn't look any dumber or corrupt themselves.

T

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, May 24, 2018 2:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by JJ:
It's as simple as you've pointed out SECOND. Trumps corrupt, and it's both funny and sad to see his supporters realize he cares nothing about making America great, or them. Therefore they keep making excuses for him because they don't want to lose face by admitting it. To late for that, losing face I mean. They couldn't look any dumber or corrupt themselves.

T

Hey. You know what's corrupt? Probably every single word of those big money speeches that Hillary gave to the banks before the election that she somehow managed to keep secret from the American people while 33,000 emails were leaked.

None of us know exactly what was in them, but I'm willing to wager everything I own that she wasn't being paid millions of dollars by the banking elite to tell them all about how she was going to shut down their American economy ruining practices and how she was standing up against Wall Street for all of us living on Main Street.

But sure, you Lefties just keep banging that Democratic Drum until your arms fall off. Just make sure that you've got the money to pay the huge deductible increase that you've got to pay now since Obamacare went into effect when you get some outrageously overpaid doctor to glue them back on for you.

Maybe you'll get really lucky and they'll glue them on the wrong shoulders and you can sue the shit out of them and all of our premiums will rise accordingly to cover your new life on easy street since everybody talks about Tort Reform, yet nobody on either side ever does anything about Tort Reform.

I'm sure they'll get to Tort Reform right after we do something about Campaign Finance reform.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

SIGNYM

Thursday, May 24, 2018 2:57 AM

Quote:
And the reason why we do not know for sure is that Trump is not forthcoming with complete information.

Oh, like Obama was? I don't seem to recall any speeches where he told us that he was going to authorize universal surveillance, or run a drone program in Pakistan and Yemen, or maintain a "kill list" including American citizens, or give the banks 17 trillion to make them whole, or run CIA destabilization programs in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and Sudan, or do the 100-and-1 OTHER nefarious things that HE did as President. Any of those speeches in YOUR recollection?
No?
You whine, bitch, and moan endlessly about Trump. I'd take it a lot more seriously if you didn't have such a big fucking double standard/ hole in your head.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

America is an oligarchy
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876

1KIKI

Thursday, May 24, 2018 10:09 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yes. At the absolute best, it's redundancy.

Redundancy to what? To the non-existent national training and jobs programs? To the non-existent public works projects?

Quote:
And that's only if it were done on a temporary basis as a program to transition existing military service members out of an active duty role.

Why? just because you say so doesn't make it so.

Quote:
I don't agree, but not because it necessarily represents an numeric expansion (i.e. numbers of military volunteers increasing) but because it expands the scope of "military code of justice" to non-military situations even further. If there's any reason at all for putting recruits under "martial law" it's because they will be forced into a wartime situation, where obedience is required. But there's no reason to put people under "martial law" because they're learning how to make their beds, brush their teeth, and run a bulldozer.

This will STILL be the military. People will go for basic training. They will be called up for combat duty if they need to defend the country.

Quote:
That's kind of my point. If the end goal here is not actually lowering the existing numbers in the military

It's not. And I never said it was. It's to get us more value at home for government money spent on the military that would otherwise be wasted.

Quote:
I fear that the numbers would rise because of how desperate people are going to become for any sort of meaningful jobs as more get shipped overseas or replaced with automation. ... I don't believe the Government would put any limits to how many people could join this program since the labor would be extremely cheap ... Who's to say that this wouldn't grow?

Are you saying the government would somehow be 'forced' to admit the flood of applicants?

And. Wait. Weren't you arguing this was such a bad deal no one would go for it?

Do you think you can keep your arguments straight?

Quote:
... and they'd be signing over their lives on contract to the Government until their time was up. These "employees" would have no real say about the direction their lives go while enlisted ...

You mean, JUST EXACTLY LIKE HOW THINGS ARE NOW?

Quote:
Everybody here knows how corrupt our Government and businesses are.

Do you have a point?

Quote:
and by the time they could leave there might not be a whole lot of good paying jobs utilizing the skills they learned

And that's different from now ... how exactly?

Quote:
if there are now twice as many new recruits in there as well as a waiting list, so they're probably much more likely to re-enlist for a small bonus or bump in pay for the next 4 years of their lives. This circle only stands to get more vicious as the ranks become professional caliber after re-enlisting 1 or 2 times because it's better than the alternatives.

And how's THAT different from now?

You just go round and round, and go nowhere.

SECOND is a troll because it constantly misrepresents what people post, fails to address their actual positions, and resorts to personal attacks when its brain isn't working (which is most of the time).

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, May 24, 2018 2:39 PM

This theoretical conversation is boring me now. It's never going to happen anyhow, and getting into these stupid little arguments with you no longer makes my dick hard.

Sorry Kiki. It's not you, it's me.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

CAPTAINCRUNCH

Thursday, May 24, 2018 4:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You whine, bitch, and moan endlessly about Trump. I'd take it a lot more seriously if you didn't have such a big fucking double standard/ hole in your head.

I'd take you a little more seriously if you realized that Obama is no longer president. You and people of you ilk, constantly defend Trump (omg) by blaming someone who's out of work and has zero effect on your life. "If only you'd criticized John Tyler like this..." Big fucking transparent hole in your head.

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