A thread for Democrats Only
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 15:36
VIEWED: 755368
PAGE 172 of 725
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Trump administration is dismantling financial protections for the military
Predatory lenders disproportionately target military members. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will no longer supervise them.
The bureau’s supervisory staff offices have typically conducted proactive checks that make sure lenders aren’t charging military members exorbitant interest rates, pushing them into forced arbitration, or otherwise not following guidelines outlined in the Military Lending Act, a 2006 law that protects active duty military members and their families from financial fraud, predatory loans, and credit gouging.
Now the agency, under interim director Mick Mulvaney, is planning to end its use of these supervisory examinations of lenders.
The Trump administration has also proposed changes that could open service members up to predatory practices when they buy cars. The administration has proposed easing restrictions on “gap insurance,” an add-on to car insurance that covers the difference between the amount a car owner owes on the car and the car’s actual cash value.
Gap insurance is typically available from regular insurance companies for a very low price, as little as $20 to $30 a year, but car dealers often mark it up by hundreds of dollars. Current rules effectively block auto dealers from tacking on overpriced gap insurance to military service members, but the administration has sent a proposal to the Defense Department looking to revise the rules. (If the proposal does eventually make it out of the Defense Department, it will ultimately require the approval of the Office of Management and Budget, which Mulvaney also heads.)
More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/14/17684810/military-lending-ac
t-mick-mulvaney-cfpb-loans
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
I'm trying to think of a single thing he's done that benefits anyone other than himself or the wealthiest Americans. I've seen Trump defenders say they like his policies and I wonder, "what policies exactly?"
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Quote:Staying out of the TTP and TTIP and stalling NAFTA. Those are unalloyed success stories.
I've seen Trump defenders say they like his policies and I wonder, "what policies exactly?
Peace on the Korean Peninsula and bringing the troops home from Korea, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Normalizing relations with Russia? Those are success stories yet to be written.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876
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Quote:And the sun came up in the east every single day since Trump's inauguration. Give Trump credit for that, too, Signym. Except for NAFTA and withdrawing from S Korea, the same would have happened under Hillary. And Trump hasn't actually withdrawn from NAFTA or S Korea. Or denuclearized North Korea.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Staying out of the TTP and TTIP and stalling NAFTA. Those are unalloyed success stories.
I've seen Trump defenders say they like his policies and I wonder, "what policies exactly?
Peace on the Korean Peninsula and bringing the troops home from Korea, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Normalizing relations with Russia? Those are success stories yet to be written.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The state that approves of Trump the most? Wyoming. 63 percent approve of his job and 32 percent disapprove of his job. But even in Wyoming, his approval rating is down 9 percent from a year ago.
In Massachusetts, only 35 percent of residents approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 62 percent disapprove. The difference in those two numbers makes up what pollsters call a net approval rating, which locally is a negative 27 percent.
No state dislikes Trump’s job performance more than Mass. Is that because Massachusetts hates the GOP? No. The most popular governor in America is Massachusetts’ GOP governor Charlie Baker.
www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/08/14/state-dislikes-trump-job-performa
nce-more-than-mass/aPfgPJklptBCtVHfEQQ7uI/story.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Trump's lawyer confirms that Trump needs placating
White House Counsel Don McGahn did not specify any financial or other penalties for breaking the Non-Disclosure Agreement. Several signees said McGahn made it clear that the agreement was not ultimately enforceable, and was meant only to placate Trump.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/trump-confirms-omarosa-claim-u
se-ndas-west-wing
This whole time we have been dealing with a placated Donald Trump. What's an unplacated Trump? Nuking the Upper West Side?
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:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Staying out of the TTP and TTIP and stalling NAFTA. Those are unalloyed success stories.
I've seen Trump defenders say they like his policies and I wonder, "what policies exactly?
You think most Trump defenders even know what those first 2 are? Me neither. As to their value, hard to say. It means we're left out of the discussion with TTP - that's weak and "not good." TTIP - same. Folding our arms and scowling isn't deal making.
Some form of NAFTA looks like it's coming back btw. It doesn't matter what you call something unless you want to use that as a hot button disruptor (hint).
But seriously - that's it? Like I said... show me anything he's done to enrich even his base of rejects (besides making racism and hatred ok again), or the average US citizen.
"Normalizing relations with Russia" - *gasp!* I can't laugh hard enough.
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It is Wednesday and Elizabeth Warren has a big idea that challenges how the Democratic Party thinks. I predict that every Republican in Congress will be forever opposed.
Instead of advocating for expensive new social programs like free college or health care, she’s introducing a bill, the Accountable Capitalism Act.
Warren’s plan starts from the premise that corporations that claim the legal rights of personhood should be legally required to accept the moral obligations of personhood. More concretely, citizen corporations would be required to allow their workers to elect 40 percent of the membership of their board of directors.
Traditionally, she writes in a companion op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, “corporations sought to succeed in the marketplace, but they also recognized their obligations to employees, customers and the community.”
In recent decades they stopped, in favor of a singular devotion to enriching shareholders.
More at www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683022/elizabeth-warren-accountable-capitalism
-corporations
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 can't speak for "most" Trump supporters, I can only talk about myself and the ones that I know personally. I had THREE REASONS to vote for Trump, and I was very plain about what they were. This was one of them.
You think most Trump defenders even know what those first 2 are? Me neither.
As far as the Trump supporters that I know personally, they are still very much in favor of his immigration policies. And since they are universally well-educated and more than half of them are nonwhite immigrants and the rest are white and nonwhite first generation immigrants, they can hardly be blamed for being "anti-immigrant racists".
Quote:It's an excellent tactic when presented with a "deal" that should never have been negotiated in the first place.
As to their value, hard to say. It means we're left out of the discussion with TTP - that's weak and "not good." TTIP - same. Folding our arms and scowling isn't deal making.
Apparently, you STILL don't know what was in the TTP/TTIP, or you would immediately understand the "value" pf staying out of them. So let me explain for what seems like the dozenth time, and maybe you'll "get it" this time.
These trade agreements both contained a provision that any government entity at any level .. city, county, state, regional or Federal ... could be sued by any business for interfering with a business's normal and expected profits. Furthermore, these lawsuits would be decided in a secret trade tribunal by a group of corporate lawyers and a corporate judge, not according to the laws of the nation involved but simply according to the provisions of the trade agreement
So, let me provide you with one real-life example and a few theoretical ones:
Australia is sued by Phillip Morris for introducing plain packaging laws for tobacco products, making smoking less attractive, improving Australians' overall health, and cutting into Philip Morris' profits. The case is heard in a secret room in Singapore.
In their bid to fight global warming, San Francisco wants to ban the burning of "dirty" oil ... that is, oil which requires a large amount carbon to extract and process, such as tar sands and "fracked" oil. San Francisco is sued by Suncor, a Canadian tar sands company, for interfering with their normal and expected profits, and the case is heard under TPP in Singapore by corporate lawyers and a corporate-appointed judge.
New Hampshire is very concerned about food safety, and wants to ban all GMO foods. They are sued by Monsanto, and the case is heard in Brussels under TTIP provisions in a secret trade tribunal which is presented and adjudicated by corporate lawyers.
Now. I hope that BY NOW you can see that under TTP and TTIP, all environmental, child labor, food and pharmaceutical safety, worker safety, global warming, equal protection etc laws passed by any government agency would be unenforceable and therefore meaningless if a company objected to it and took that agency to tribunal.
I thought, GSTRING, that you were all for environmental protections, equal rights, worker safety, food and pharmaceutical safety; government regulation under democratic control etc. How can you possibly "not know" the "value" of staying outside of the TTP/TTIP unless your commitment to democratically-controlled government regulation is paper thin? (Like MOST of your commitments, it seems!)
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876
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I'm just going to make a general comment here ...
It seems to me that I spend a lot of posts repeating the same things over and over. I have a general understanding of what I think is good for Americans and how I think we can get there. It's certainly not 100% correct, but at least I took some time to think it through to its fundamental principles ... what am I "for" more? Corporations or democracy? Foreign money or peace? Efficiency or robustness? Globalism or nationalism? Meritocracy or privilege?
Many of you OTOH just endlessly splatter the board with undigested, contradictory bits and pieces of ghafla. As soon as one of your (mostly) stupid points is dispatched, you bring up another (mostly) stupid point. Quite often, you'll recycle a (mostly) stupid point from a previous post without, apparently, even realizing that that point has already been eliminated several times by some of your other (mostly) stupid posts.
It would be nice if you would, some day, sit down and THINK. Yanno, track down what you feel, and - especially - WHY you feel that way. What or who are you defending? Why?
Bird-dog the essential principles that are driving that reaction. Look at how that principle behaves at the extremes; whether or not it conflicts with other essential principles (most likely it does); and resolve that conflict.
I know ... thinking. It's hard work. So best get to it; sooner is better.
****
I just gave GSTRING a[nother] run-through on the conflict between "government regulation" and "free trade"; I hope it sticks this time, and maybe he will (finally) resolve the contradiction between his own two positions and decide how much of each he wants.
Let me give you another quick example: Say that you sympathize with illegal immigrants. You think their influx should be unlimited. Therefore, you're an advocate of "open borders". How does that work at the extremes? What if we had 40 million people crossing our borders next year? How does that work? How could we MAKE it work? Do we WANT to make it work? What does this position conflict with? How do we resolve the conflict(s)?
Give it some thought. Stop reacting: Think.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:I think that Trump should deport as soon as possible all illegal aliens living long term in America. I think he should keep a monthly total estimate of how many are still in American. I think he is not doing that. Instead, he is concentrating on captures along the border. I think Trump is not serious about reducing the number of illegal aliens from 11 million to zero as soon as possible. I'll be generous and define "soon as possible" as meaning before the 2020 November election. That means he needs to remove at least a million between today and the 2018 election. I think he could do it if he really meant what he said and wasn't simply pandering to his base.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Let me give you another quick example: Say that you sympathize with illegal immigrants. You think their influx should be unlimited. Therefore, you're an advocate of "open borders". How does that work at the extremes? What if we had 40 million people crossing our borders next year? How does that work? How could we MAKE it work? Do we WANT to make it work? What does this position conflict with? How do we resolve the conflict(s)?
Give it some thought. Stop reacting: Think.
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
www.factcheck.org/2018/06/illegal-immigration-statistics/
www.statista.com/topics/3454/illegal-immigration-in-the-united-states/
I think Trump should shutdown the government if he doesn't get the Texas/Mexico wall authorized by Congress. He said, “We come up again on September 28th and if we don’t get border security we will have no choice, we will close down the country because we need border security.”
www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-government/trump-threatens-govt-s
hutdown-in-sept-if-no-funding-for-wall-idUSKBN1I0018
As you asked for it, Signym, I gave it some thought. I stopped reacting. I told you what I think. But I predict Trump won't do it. He is all talk and no do.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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