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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please. In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up! NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action. | ||
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m4ini
4215 Posts
On August 05 2016 13:46 GGTeMpLaR wrote: I've lost a lot of respect for Trump over the past week or so Props for admitting, something very few people here are able to admit if their candidate fucks up. I like how Zimmerman instantly called 911 and claimed it was unprovoked. The irony. | ||
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WhiteDog
France8650 Posts
How the Trumps Got Rich Most Americans know Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a reality television star and a celebrity endorser. But in his home state of New York, he has a different reputation: he’s a real estate shmuck. Trump inherited his business — which consists of gilded and glassed condos, clubs, casinos, office towers, hotels, and golf courses throughout New York City and beyond — from his father, Fred Trump. Like the Dursts, Rudins, Zeckendorfs, and LeFraks, the older Trump ran a family-based real estate empire. Though these families still exert a great deal of power in New York City development politics, they are beginning to be outpaced by new corporate real estate titans — like Extell, Vornado, Related, BlackRock, and others — that use global investment capital to build glitzy new developments and buy out old affordable complexes. Donald Trump bridges these two modes, combining family business with corporate kitsch. From a capitalist perspective, Trump is a hardworking — if obnoxious — businessman: he inherited money from his father and made it grow. From a socialist point of view, however, he got his wealth by very different means: theft. Ruth Wilson Gilmore argues that America’s richest families possess “twice stolen wealth – (a) profit sheltered from (b) taxes.” But in fact, Trump’s fortune is triply stolen by wage theft from the workers who build and maintain his projects; tax theft from the state that enables him; and land theft from the common spaces he encloses. While he extolls the benefits of private enterprise, Trump really got rich off public resources. His behavior is by no means unique: all capitalists profit from worker exploitation; just about all corporations try to avoid taxes in one way or another; and in a settler state, all land is stolen. But as usual, Trump embodies the most exaggerated version of a rotten system. [...] Stolen Taxes Throughout his career, Donald Trump has adeptly dodged taxes and gathered subsidies. In this way, he has not only shorted the public, but also depleted budgets for socially beneficial programs. The practice began with the money passed down from his father. Fred Trump excelled at getting public subsidies and tax abatements, allowing him to amass quite a fortune. While his son claims that his business started with a $1 million loan from his father, this isn’t entirely factual. Fred Trump had established million-dollar tax-sheltered trusts for each of his children and grandchildren, and, according to the Washington Post, Donald made $19,000 in 1977, $47,200 in 1978, $70,000 in 1979, $90,000 in 1980, and $214,605 in 1981. Trump also received about $12,000 a year from a 1949 trust set up by his father and nearly $2,000 a year from another 1949 trust created by his grandmother. He also received a $6,000 gift every December from his parents. Trump’s father didn’t give him a loan, he provided a reliable source of income that increased every year. Then, when Fred Trump died, Donald received an estimated $40 million from his $250 million estate. Donald Trump’s first big break came with the opportunity to buy and renovate the Commodore Hotel in 1980. In the process of turning it into the Grand Hyatt Hotel, he tore down the building’s landmarked sculptures, wrapped the façade in glass, and quietly demolished what he was supposed to preserve. Thanks to his father’s history of making large donations to city officials, Trump received a forty-year tax exemption from the Urban Development Corporation — double the standard, and the first of its kind. To this day, he pays no state taxes on the luxury hotel. When he began building Trump Tower, he applied to New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for a $20 million tax break. Mayor Koch’s HPD commissioner, Anthony Gliedman, denied the application. But Trump sued and won, and the city was ordered to grant the abatement in full. Three years later, Gliedman went to work for Trump, advising him on future government negotiations. In 2004, the New York City Economic Development Corporation granted Trump an additional twelve-year abatement on the commercial portion of the Trump Tower — a $164 million tax break on a property worth $237 million. As his business grew, Trump began consolidating his corporations and LLCs to a single address. The fictional companies that own 40 Wall Street, Trump Carousel Central Park, and almost four hundred other Trump businesses are not registered to his New York City headquarters, but to one sleepy office building in Delaware, America’s onshore tax haven. (Hillary Clinton uses the exact same building for her corporate registrations.) On top of tax breaks, Trump has finagled a number of city and state subsidies. His Bronx golf course — which sits in the middle of a public park in New York’s poorest borough — is only the most recent example. The city paid $230 million to clean up the site and develop the course; Trump was only responsible for building the clubhouse and managing the park. Yet public subsidies allow Trump to pay no rent for the first four years of his twenty-year lease; in year five he will pay 7 percent of the rent, and in year ten he will pay 10 percent. In the meantime, New York City residents are covering his water and sewer bills to the cost of roughly $1 million per year. None of the nearby affordable housing complexes have subsidies anywhere near as generous. Trump also manages to avoid paying taxes on his residence. His Manhattan apartment receives an abatement to the tune of $20,493 a year, including a small credit from the New York State School Tax Relief Program (even though that program has an income cap of $500,000). https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/trump-real-estate-theft-public-land-taxes/ I need some kind of plan to pay less taxes. | ||
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brian
United States9610 Posts
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CorsairHero
Canada9489 Posts
The US economy added 255,000 jobs in July, many more than expected, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9%. Industries including hospitality and health care saw the largest job gains during the month. The return of striking Verizon workers — who subtracted from the May jobs report — boosted the gains in July. After two huge swings — down in May, then up in June — economists had expected the July jobs report to show that the pace of job creation moved back towards trend. The number of jobs added in June was revised up by 5,000 to 292,000. Wages continued to rise for workers. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3%, and 2.6% year-on-year, the highest since the Great Recession. The labor force participation rate rose to 62.8%. It was being closely watched again to gauge whether or not a record number of job openings is drawing people into the labor force. The rate has steadily declined in recent years, partly because of baby-boomer retirements. But at the same time, there are fewer people outside the labor market finding jobs — suggesting that the economy is near or at full employment. Virtually no one is expecting the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its September meeting. But after the jobs report, fed fund futures, which reflect traders' expectations for rates, increased and showed a 50/50 chance of a rate hike in January. Via Bloomberg, here's what Wall Street was forecasting: Nonfarm payrolls: +180,000 Unemployment rate: 4.8% Average hourly earnings month-on-month: +0.2% Average hourly earnings year-on-year: +2.6% Average weekly hours worked: 34.4 Source | ||
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pmh
1351 Posts
Couldn't trump just step aside and make ivanka the candidate? | ||
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Stratos_speAr
United States6959 Posts
On August 05 2016 22:18 pmh wrote: Yup, everything is being pulled to make establishment Hillary the new president. Couldn't trump just step aside and make ivanka the candidate? She's not old enough. | ||
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OuchyDathurts
United States4588 Posts
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DickMcFanny
Ireland1076 Posts
On August 05 2016 22:31 OuchyDathurts wrote: Let Kanye slide in there 4 years ahead of schedule. On the Republican ticket? | ||
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OuchyDathurts
United States4588 Posts
Sure why not? It would honestly be the least ridiculous thing to happen this election cycle. | ||
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Toadesstern
Germany16350 Posts
she will be when the election is going to be held iirc, but no idea at what point in time you have to be old enough to "register" | ||
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Mohdoo
United States15398 Posts
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
During a 33-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, I served presidents of both parties — three Republicans and three Democrats. I was at President George W. Bush’s side when we were attacked on Sept. 11; as deputy director of the agency, I was with President Obama when we killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. I am neither a registered Democrat nor a registered Republican. In my 40 years of voting, I have pulled the lever for candidates of both parties. As a government official, I have always been silent about my preference for president. No longer. On Nov. 8, I will vote for Hillary Clinton. Between now and then, I will do everything I can to ensure that she is elected as our 45th president. Two strongly held beliefs have brought me to this decision. First, Mrs. Clinton is highly qualified to be commander in chief. I trust she will deliver on the most important duty of a president — keeping our nation safe. Second, Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security. I spent four years working with Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state, most often in the White House Situation Room. In these critically important meetings, I found her to be prepared, detail-oriented, thoughtful, inquisitive and willing to change her mind if presented with a compelling argument. I also saw the secretary’s commitment to our nation’s security; her belief that America is an exceptional nation that must lead in the world for the country to remain secure and prosperous; her understanding that diplomacy can be effective only if the country is perceived as willing and able to use force if necessary; and, most important, her capacity to make the most difficult decision of all — whether to put young American women and men in harm’s way. Mrs. Clinton was an early advocate of the raid that brought Bin Laden to justice, in opposition to some of her most important colleagues on the National Security Council. During the early debates about how we should respond to the Syrian civil war, she was a strong proponent of a more aggressive approach, one that might have prevented the Islamic State from gaining a foothold in Syria. I never saw her bring politics into the Situation Room. In fact, I saw the opposite. When some wanted to delay the Bin Laden raid by one day because the White House Correspondents Dinner might be disrupted, she said, “Screw the White House Correspondents Dinner.” In sharp contrast to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump has no experience on national security. Even more important, the character traits he has exhibited during the primary season suggest he would be a poor, even dangerous, commander in chief. These traits include his obvious need for self-aggrandizement, his overreaction to perceived slights, his tendency to make decisions based on intuition, his refusal to change his views based on new information, his routine carelessness with the facts, his unwillingness to listen to others and his lack of respect for the rule of law. The dangers that flow from Mr. Trump’s character are not just risks that would emerge if he became president. It is already damaging our national security. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was a career intelligence officer, trained to identify vulnerabilities in an individual and to exploit them. That is exactly what he did early in the primaries. Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities by complimenting him. He responded just as Mr. Putin had calculated. Mr. Putin is a great leader, Mr. Trump says, ignoring that he has killed and jailed journalists and political opponents, has invaded two of his neighbors and is driving his economy to ruin. Mr. Trump has also taken policy positions consistent with Russian, not American, interests — endorsing Russian espionage against the United States, supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea and giving a green light to a possible Russian invasion of the Baltic States. In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation. Mr. Trump has also undermined security with his call for barring Muslims from entering the country. This position, which so clearly contradicts the foundational values of our nation, plays into the hands of the jihadist narrative that our fight against terrorism is a war between religions. In fact, many Muslim Americans play critical roles in protecting our country, including the man, whom I cannot identify, who ran the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorism Center for nearly a decade and who I believe is most responsible for keeping America safe since the Sept. 11 attacks. My training as an intelligence officer taught me to call it as I see it. This is what I did for the C.I.A. This is what I am doing now. Our nation will be much safer with Hillary Clinton as president. Source | ||
KwarK
United States41991 Posts
On August 05 2016 16:29 OtherWorld wrote: Also, a question to people who know how the GOP works : what exactly, rules-wise, does being the GOP nominee mean? As in, could the Republicans hypothetically withdraw their support, both financial and political, and nominate someone else now that Trump's nominated? I'm sure they could try to stage a coup but they would do permanent damage to the party by doing so. The Republican base elected him with pretty solid support. I think the much smarter play is to accept three more months of this bullshit and then blame the Clinton government on him and kick him out on his ass. They want the Trump supporters to keep voting Republican in future, they just don't want them voting Trump. | ||
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Doodsmack
United States7224 Posts
On August 05 2016 21:29 brian wrote: I had a post about it being the same city he's 'cheating' agreeing to pay for the money they aren't getting back so who's the real villain here, but I guess Occam's razor says it's probably just some run of the mill corruption Believe it or not Trump's supporters think his corruption is acceptable, because he's just helping his businesses and bottom line. | ||
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ZasZ.
United States2911 Posts
On August 05 2016 22:18 pmh wrote: Yup, everything is being pulled to make establishment Hillary the new president. Couldn't trump just step aside and make ivanka the candidate? I've seen this sentiment in other places as well, but that's not how the nomination works. He can't just abdicate it to his daughter on a whim. Not to mention, she's more of a Democrat than Republican anyway, so the RNC would never allow it. I find it strange that his support is evaporating now, when he has been saying and doing vile things for over a year. Is it solely because he refused to endorse Republican leaders? If so, so much for the "party of values." Unless a major terrorist attack happens on US soil and he leverages the resulting fear like he does, we're leading up to a blow out in November, and I couldn't be happier. Hopefully it is bad enough that it signals to the racist subset of his base that their views are not as widespread as they thought. The more likely scenario, unfortunately, is that they go berserk. I never thought I would need or want a gun but I'm thinking about having one by November 9, just in case. If Trump's response is even a fraction of his response to the 2012 election, of which he wasn't even a part, there will be violence and rioting from those of his supporters who are delusional enough to believe they are a majority and should have won this election. Regardless, the history and reputation of our great country has been damaged merely by him being nominated. God help us if he is able to win. | ||
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KwarK
United States41991 Posts
On August 05 2016 20:46 WhiteDog wrote: Pretty good article about Trump's wealth. It's pretty long, I just selected a part about taxation. Because Jacobin is not quoted enough and because it's relevant : https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/trump-real-estate-theft-public-land-taxes/ I need some kind of plan to pay less taxes. Come to America. I don't pay Federal income tax. That said, if I were to start a political career I would absolutely start paying taxes. At that point it's an investment. | ||
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Gorsameth
Netherlands21368 Posts
On August 05 2016 23:39 ZasZ. wrote: I've seen this sentiment in other places as well, but that's not how the nomination works. He can't just abdicate it to his daughter on a whim. Not to mention, she's more of a Democrat than Republican anyway, so the RNC would never allow it. I find it strange that his support is evaporating now, when he has been saying and doing vile things for over a year. Is it solely because he refused to endorse Republican leaders? If so, so much for the "party of values." Unless a major terrorist attack happens on US soil and he leverages the resulting fear like he does, we're leading up to a blow out in November, and I couldn't be happier. Hopefully it is bad enough that it signals to the racist subset of his base that their views are not as widespread as they thought. The more likely scenario, unfortunately, is that they go berserk. I never thought I would need or want a gun but I'm thinking about having one by November 9, just in case. If Trump's response is even a fraction of his response to the 2012 election, of which he wasn't even a part, there will be violence and rioting from those of his supporters who are delusional enough to believe they are a majority and should have won this election. Regardless, the history and reputation of our great country has been damaged merely by him being nominated. God help us if he is able to win. I don't believe it is the leader endorsement. No one outside of Washington cares about that. No, Trump made the mistake of treading on the most sacred of grounds. Veterans and those who died in service of the USA. His attack on the family of a dead US soldier is what finally broke the camels back. | ||
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KwarK
United States41991 Posts
On August 05 2016 23:50 Gorsameth wrote: I don't believe it is the leader endorsement. No one outside of Washington cares about that. No, Trump made the mistake of treading on the most sacred of grounds. Veterans and those who died in service of the USA. His attack on the family of a dead US soldier is what finally broke the camels back. Even if you don't worship the veterans the way some Americans do you still have to know how to be a politician. The people with no problem with what he said still should take issue with the fact that he decided to say it at the expense of his other agenda. Agree with what he said or not, it just wasn't smart. Even if he was right he should not have said it. What's amusing is how often he's played the "the veterans" card earlier in his campaign. Demanding that tv channels give their revenue to "the veterans". Not going to debates because he was hosting his own event for "the veterans". Pledging to give speaking fees to "the veterans". He knows damn well that veterans are a sacred class, that's why he has exploited it so shamelessly in his campaign thus far. | ||
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TheTenthDoc
United States9561 Posts
It really helps downballot races, too, since anti-endorsing Trump wins you points with key demographics in most of the battleground states and takes away a very valuable weapon from your state-level opponent. I think his support falling is the straw breaking the camel's back with him CLEARLY illustrating he is simply not able to control himself or think a day ahead and his "best people" are utterly useless. | ||
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Mohdoo
United States15398 Posts
In the end, Trump got here because of rural whites and the sorts of things rural whites believe. I don't think he has a mechanism for a bounceback here because his surge in popularity in the primary was largely due to his ability to devour the rural white population. | ||
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