A Major turning point in the Trump Saga

And incredibly shallow. Forget the term off the top of my head "the dude who fell in love with his own image" ... arrrggg. This is Trump.

 

In Greek mythology, Narcissus (/nɑːrˈsɪsəs/; Greek: Νάρκισσος, Nárkissos) was a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia who was known for his beauty. He was the son of the river god Cephissus and nymph Liriope.[1] He was proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis noticed this behavior and attracted Narcissus to a pool, where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus lost his will to live. He stared at his reflection until he died. Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, a fixation with oneself and one's physical appearance or public perception.

 

Double exclam !! por vous ... That's the term I was thinking of

Don't you think this is a fit for "The Donald" ?

On a somewhat side note - listened to Smirconish interview with Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), -the full interview- on Sirius today. Good Stuff - Apparently Smirconish has it on his website. It is worth the 15 or so minutes.

 

Conservatism raises up the little guy

Or more accurately allows the little guy to raise himself up

Its only in lib la la land where "you didnt build that" idiocy applies

In the eorld of conservatives lots of little guys succeed

 

It's pretty simple really if they had something, anything, on Trump he would have already been removed from office. There are remedies other than impeachment that could expedite Trump's removal but if they fail there would be considerable political consequences. Impeachment would embarrass the president but would most likely fail as well guaranteeing a second term.The Mueller thing is so much theater, it is lip service to the left something to keep the Democrat party from falling completely apart. If you think about it under the circumstances what choice do they have? They have to keep up some appearance of caring about their constituency don't they?This is how they do things in Washington. Also you have to remember that there were lessons learned on both sides after the Clinton/Lewinsky fiasco and no one wants to pull the trigger on something that will ultimately fail with little or nothing to show for it. Odds of Trump resigning? Ask a bookie.

 

Only in platitude speak does modern conservatism raise the little guy. Modern history shows otherwise.

The Establishment (which includes both Red and Blue) support the Oligopolies. They implement regulations and tax laws that keep the little guy down. They love big Gov't and hate "limited Govt". Contrary to the "fiscal conservative" platitude speak, Gov't has run up massive deficits under Red President's since Reagan. Reagan was like a princess with a credit card.

Wealth has moved from the middle class to the Oligarchs.
Jobs have been shipped oversea's devastating our manufacturing sector.
They moved SS (paid by employees) interest payments into Gov't coffers - stealing from the "little guy"
Regulated the little guy to death and forced the little guy to subsidize the Oligopolies through taxation.
Neither Red or Blue has enforced anti competition and anti trust law. Price fixing and collusion is the rule rather than the exception (how many examples would you like)
Our healthcare system is legalize extortion .. presided over by healthcare oligopolies.
When the banks (owned by the oligarchs) got to greedy and blew up our financial system - the little guy was forced to bail them out.

I can continue if you like

 

Teeheehee! I am blushing right now.

 

I'm amazed how much you know about the investigation process. The same questions stands: How do you know?

 

I was careful to say that conservatism does not "raise people up" in the sense that liberals expect

Liberals want government to lift them up and carry them to a higher place with no effort on their part

Conservatives expect individuals to left themselves us with no roadblocks along the way from oppressive government

Yes and you can blame governent and globalism for that

 

What are you talking about? Trump promised to do something about immigration, which he has. The wall is in the hands of Congress now, but everyone understood that. Trump promised that he'd put America first, and I see nothing that says he isn't. Most of what Trump promised he could and has accomplished through the powers granted to the executive. You folks whine about him not getting legislation passed, but that wasn't big on his list of things to do. Getting rid of Obamacare will happen unless Congressional RINOs interfere too much. Obamacare is simply not sustainable, and getting rid of it is the only way to fix healthcare. You folks don't seem to understand how or why Trump was elected and its been months, you will do badly in 2018 and 2020...

 

Quit doing the "liberals do this" as an argument to a claim against Conservatives. Just because Liberals do "what ever" and suck in general does not change the fact that Conservatives do not generally adhere to the principles of Republicanism and the Red establishment is an anathema to Republicanism.

It does not change the fact the Republican Establishment ( in conjunction with the Dem Establishment) have pushed the little guy down rather than raised them up. THE establishment through regulations (lack of enforcing anti competition law) keeps the little guy from competing. They have imposed crushing taxes on the middle class to subsidize the Oligopolies.

The establishment has bastardized the free market economy. With this, anti competitive practices, anti trust, price fixing and other nefarious practices ... how is the little guy supposed to "raise himself up" ?

Let me give you a few examples. The first is a personal example. I worked for many years in chemical sales. In one of the sectors in which I worked it used to be that there were 8-10 companies competing for the attention of good sales people. When you sold something (making the company more money, more profit) you got paid well. You got a piece of the action that you were responsible for creating. The "company" did not build it. The salesperson did. This was recognized and compensation was accorded in recognition of this fact.

Now there are 2 companies in that sector and they squeeze every penny out of the salesperson. The finance department actually take courses in how to fk the sales force. (I am not kidding). If you do not like it ... too bad, you only have one other company to go to and they do the same thing. In reality these companies are owned by the same Oligarchs. Remember it is the BOD that controls the corporation.

If the money from excess profit generated by the salesperson goes into the pocket of the salesperson, that person then spends that money in the local economy. Instead where does this money go ? It goes to some nameless faceless shareholder that may not even live in the country never mind spend in the local economy.

In this way a little cream is skimmed out of the economy. Multiply by a billion and we are left with skim milk. Buy gas at exxon and the fellow operating the gas station does not get a penny from the gas sale. He get's the chips and the gum. If he did make money off the gas he would spend in the local economy. Instead - ?? you got it. Some shareholder living in Monaco.

We see massive mergers such as the recent Dow/Dupont merger. This should never have been allowed. This is Oligopolism/ monopolism gone wild.

I am a constitution loving hard core "free market" capitalist. I now have my own business which does well, but I experience directly anti competitive practices of the monopolies. My insurance costs are huge but,they are required to do business. The oligopolies I compete with also have insurance costs but, the oligopolies also own the insurance companies. They win both ways. The high insurance cost is due to price fixing and absurd regulations - regulations created by the establishment to keep competition out. Keeping competition out benefits the Oligopoly. At the same time the Oligopoly reaps huge profits from an artificially created insurance market and artificially high insurance. For large contracts large corporations (owned by the oligopolies) require the vendor to have a ridiculously high bond. In this way they insure that most companies can not even bid - against the oligopolies.

I can go on for hours. It is very insidious and often quite complicated.

Nike takes jobs offshore and lowers costs using slave labor. The justification for offshoring is "goods will be cheaper". Have you seen the cost of a Nike shoe lately ?? Surely a shoe that is mfg in the US will be profitable at $150.

So what happens to this profit. The shoe costs one dollar to make, 1 to ship and one for the packaging. Lets call it $10 for easy math. The gross profit is then $140 (sans business expense). This should be taxed.... no no no. The shoe gets first sold to the cayman Island shell corp for 10 bucks. That shell corp then sells the shoe to NIKE USA for 130 dollars. They write off the business expense and end up paying tax of f-all.

In the meantime you subsidize the outlet store by paying a good portion of their share of the taxes for roads, infrastructure, police and so on.

Extreme socialism (communism) and extreme capitalism meet at the far end of the political spectrum. In both cases you have a few elite controlling most resources and means of production.

 

Its all pretty simple really

When nike imports the shoe from the cayman islands slap a tariff on it of $140

They won't like that and may decide its cheaper to manufacture shoes in the US after all

Btw: the chinese and other 3rd world countries won't like it either because it takes away their business

 

The Establishment (which includes the Oligarchs) is very good at this game and has massive resources to put to bear on preventing such things from happening. We have a pay to play system and there are not many who can resist "the pay". It is the natural outcropping of self interest and greed.

There is a reason why Hillary gets paid $250,000 for a 15 minute speech to a group of bankers (and she gets many of these engagements). It is called payback for a job well done.

Make it to congress and insider trading is legal. You (or better yet your buddy) can sit on a committee giving contract to ABC company and invest in that company before the news hits the street. This is a license to print money "I want in on that game" !! but you or me get's 20 years in jail for this.

Sure from time to time there is a lone voice speaking out against such practices. The establishment then point to this fellow and say (LOOK LOOK we have freedom of speech in this country - what a great system we have). That lone voice is then quickly drowned out by the cacophony on the take. It is the natural outcropping of self interest and greed.

How many times over the last couple of decades have we heard voices rail about drug price fixing and the healthcare oligopolies. Has anything changed ? It is the natural outcropping of self interest and greed.

Watch this:

 

Knowing that the system is washington is corrupt and the game is rigged against reformers how could be an anti trumpster?

 

More winning!

It’s Now Official – No President in US History has Cut More from the US Federal Debt for a Longer Period of Time than President Donald J. Trump.

 

Despite his faults, Trump is probably the lesser of the other evil options such as Hillary or Pence. This does not change the fact that Trump is an authoritarian demagogue and a control freak who does not understand the difference between having a belief and forcing that belief on others.

I personally do not want Trump to leave office as then we get Pence.

 

You want him to stay in office as the object of your hate?

Tell me who you would make president if you could

 

He is the lesser of two evils. The choice is either Trump or Pence. I will take Trump over Pence any day. Trump has his issues but Pence is a demon.

 

I think you just like to sit on the sidelines and complain

Who do you want to elect that YOU will have to be responsible for?

 

You are have just fallen in love with a stock that is on its way down and now that you are down you so not want to sell. I call a spade a spade.

Rand Paul would have been a good choice IMO.

 

I think rand paul supporters like him in part because he can never win

So they can always sit on the sideline and complain

 

Like you are doing ? You just can not deal with reality. You have this fairy tale narrative that you desperately want to belief in. When you come across information that contradicts that narrative you demonize the messenger prior to running to the playground to stick head deep in the sandbox of denial.

I just posted a new thread about Afghanistan in political opinions and beliefs. You should check it out.

 

I think you would be better off supporting trump who is the least washington establishment president we have ever had than to be the perfectionists and merely attack him for everything that does not meet your approval

But I think you just like to complain without ever having to take responsibility for supporting anything

 

Unlike you I justify everything that I say. I call a spade a spade. I do not put on blinders on the basis of partisanship. Ignoring problems is not a solution to those problems. Our country is under siege - in case you havn't noticed.

The Establishment/Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about is now a reality. In fact it is worse that what Eisenhower imagined.

Eisenhower did not just "wake up" one morning and decide to make up some ludicrous story to tell in his farewell speech. He saw the military industrial complex as a clear and present danger.

I know you are not ignorant to many of the things that are happening - stripping of individual right and freedoms,trampling of the constitution, decreased Gov't transparency, attacks on free speech, increased Gov't power, violation of the principles on which this nation was founded.

The problem is that you blame all this on "liberals - the left". Why this is a problem is not that the left Establishment is not to blame. They are. The problem is that you do not seem to realize that the left Establishment is only half responsible. The other half is the right establishment.

Voting for either then serves only to continue the status quo. What you are not seeing is that this is the "Establishment" which is bigger than the Political Elite of the Establishment. It includes the Oligarchs and leaders withing various Gov't apparatus - folks who remain for decades. This is "The Swamp".

Trump is just a small pawn in a much bigger game.

 

I have noticed

And being under seige do you feel like leaving the gate open and unguarded so the enemy can have a fair chance to succeed?

If not - and I assume you fight to win - then you will understand why I do not want to join in the constant attacks on trump and help people like you bring him down

You have the never to complain about the status quo?

The non establshment common man got a small foothold in washington for the first time in living memory thanks to trump but perfectionists like you refuse to see it