US Politics Mega-thread - Page 282

On June 11 2018 05:09 IgnE wrote:


So you think it is unlikely that she is accurately reporting that her tax burden per paycheck did, indeed, decrease? It doesn't seem that implausible to me.

On June 11 2018 05:26 IgnE wrote:
Yes, I know. But perhaps we should give someone the benefit of the doubt in knowing what they are talking about when they say something otherwise plausible.

On June 11 2018 04:57 Dan HH wrote:

It is weird. Over here even before getting the pay slip it takes a couple minutes to calculate the gross and net salary for the current month, provided you're sure about how many hours of regular time and overtime you're working in that month and variables like sick days, paid leave or bonuses if applied. I've done that a few times out of curiosity when at a new job or after a raise and it was accurate.

On June 11 2018 07:52 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
Seriously though Kwark, I don't understand this concept that you have to be an accountant to determine how to pay your tax. Nearly everyone calculates their own tax in the UK, unless you happen to have multiple sources of incomes, and even then HM Revenue runs adverts telling people that they should be able to complete it in half an hour with no fuss. I naturally assumed that all developed countries would have easily understandable tax codes for the common person.

Armed with rolls of clear Scotch tape, Lartey and his colleagues would sift through large piles of shredded paper and put them back together, he said, “like a jigsaw puzzle.” Sometimes the papers would just be split down the middle, but other times they would be torn into pieces so small they looked like confetti.

It was a painstaking process that was the result of a clash between legal requirements to preserve White House records and President Donald Trump’s odd and enduring habit of ripping up papers when he’s done with them — what some people described as his unofficial “filing system.”

Under the Presidential Records Act, the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records.

But White House aides realized early on that they were unable to stop Trump from ripping up paper after he was done with it and throwing it in the trash or on the floor, according to people familiar with the practice. Instead, they chose to clean it up for him, in order to make sure that the president wasn’t violating the law.

Staffers had the fragments of paper collected from the Oval Office as well as the private residence and send it over to records management across the street from the White House for Larkey and his colleagues to reassemble.

“We got Scotch tape, the clear kind,” Lartey recalled in an interview. “You found pieces and taped them back together and then you gave it back to the supervisor.” The restored papers would then be sent to the National Archives to be properly filed away.

Lartey said the papers he received included newspaper clips on which Trump had scribbled notes, or circled words; invitations; and letters from constituents or lawmakers on the Hill, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“I had a letter from Schumer — he tore it up,” he said. “It was the craziest thing ever. He ripped papers into tiny pieces.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren has come calling as recently as April. Kamala Harris, the first-term senator of California, has made repeated visits, starting as early as her third month in office. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is also no stranger to the big-money donor world of New York; he was here in April — his third such visit in three months.

It will be months before Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, Ms. Warren or most potential presidential aspirants will barnstorm across the farmlands of Iowa, dig into a low-country boil in South Carolina or field questions at a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire.

But with American presidential races requiring an ever-dizzying amount of money, an early, behind-the-scenes 2020 contest is already taking place: the New York money primary.

Over passed appetizers, intimate dinners and private board room meet-and-greets, a parade of nationally ambitious Democrats have been cycling through the offices and living rooms of the Manhattan money set.

Others calling and visiting include Terry McAuliffe, the former Virginia governor; Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles; former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts; Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana; and the former Missouri Senate candidate, Jason Kander. Then there are the ambitious locals who already keep their donor lists close at hand: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

The lone Democratic outlier from the money chase is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who bypassed large contributors in his 2016 presidential bid and still raised about $230 million, almost entirely from a torrent of small online donations — a model that many Democrats are trying to emulate.

On June 11 2018 03:59 BigFan wrote:
I'm glad that Trudeau is sticking with it rather than bending over. The statements made by Trump's advisor are freaking ridiculous and stupid as hell. They actually expect Canada to just take the tariffs and be quiet? Won't happen.

On June 11 2018 11:51 DeepElemBlues wrote:


What's interesting is that this is precisely the position of Europe and Canada on many issues.

The United States should just take Germany and other European countries not living up to their NATO treaty obligations and be quiet.

The United States should just take tariffs and other uncompetitive trade policies from Canada and Germany etc. and be quiet.

I have yet to actually see an argument that the trade policies Trump complains about aren't unfair, instead it is just outrage that he would even dare express displeasure with them. The double standard is quite impressive.

The simple fact is that weak countries (in relation to the United States) have been acting for decades in certain areas of relations like they are strong countries. Their entitled leaders have reacted quite hysterically to the government of the United States, the stronger country, being unwilling unwilling at the moment to let that continue, and showing willingness to use its superior strength to change the situation.

I certainly understand their position, they've had a very good deal from the United States, generally speaking, since the war. If I were them I wouldn't want things to change. But they are making a rather large miscalculation if they think their current course will succeed.

On June 11 2018 11:51 DeepElemBlues wrote:


What's interesting is that this is precisely the position of Europe and Canada on many issues.

The United States should just take Germany and other European countries not living up to their NATO treaty obligations and be quiet.

The United States should just take tariffs and other uncompetitive trade policies from Canada and Germany etc. and be quiet.

I have yet to actually see an argument that the trade policies Trump complains about aren't unfair, instead it is just outrage that he would even dare express displeasure with them. The double standard is quite impressive.

The simple fact is that weak countries (in relation to the United States) have been acting for decades in certain areas of relations like they are strong countries. Their entitled leaders have reacted quite hysterically to the government of the United States, the stronger country, being unwilling unwilling at the moment to let that continue, and showing willingness to use its superior strength to change the situation.

I certainly understand their position, they've had a very good deal from the United States, generally speaking, since the war. If I were them I wouldn't want things to change. But they are making a rather large miscalculation if they think their current course will succeed.

On June 11 2018 12:15 KwarK wrote:

Consider the example of the dairy tariffs that Trump was complaining about earlier.

The US dairy industry is having a fucking bad time at the moment. Supply has exceeded demand for a few years now so prices have fallen hard. But large farms can't easily scale back production, per unit costs to the farm are low, it's the overhead that fucks them, so they can't just produce 50% less milk for 50% of the expenses. Instead they're actually selling milk to wholesalers at a loss. The farmers are getting up, working 12 hours of hard labour, and going to bed poorer than they were when they woke up. They're just hoping that one day market conditions may improve, but it's been a few years now and it's gotten so bad that US dairy farmers get suicide prevention advice with their paychecks.
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/586586267/as-milk-prices-decline-worries-about-dairy-farmer-suicides-rise

While the American response to the problem is "let farmers kill themselves until the supply inevitably drops to meet demand #freemarket" the Canadians responded by centrally setting milk prices wholesale prices at an artificially high level so that the average Canadian consumer is effectively subsidizing Canadian dairy farmers. This can only work if everyone plays by the same rules though. The tariff that Trump is complaining about is the one that prevents US milk from undercutting the price that Canadian dairy farmers get.

They're not refusing to change because they hate America and are taking advantage. They're refusing to change because they don't want any of your suicide milk.