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On November 21 2018 22:45 farvacola wrote:
That take understates the effect of the Republican-passed tax legislation and I think any effort to stop stuff like that counts as a victory. The same can be said for drawing a hard line on saying no to any cuts to the safety net, federal worker pay, and other areas where Republicans like to cause havoc instead of addressing all of the unaccounted for money flowing through the defense budget. Dems have a nasty habit of giving DoD a pass too, but hopefully that changes soon given the recently failed audit.
The grifters we can actually investigate and potentially do something about, but I fear zero accountability or a blind eye to corruption.
I don't think anyone needed an audit to know that the DoD has been wasting tons of money. If that is what causes the defense budget to lose bipartisan support I'll be shocked.
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Afaik, the audit was relatively unprecedented, so I'm hoping it can prove to be some kind of catalyst. That said, you're probably right.
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On November 21 2018 23:49 Blitzkrieg0 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 21 2018 22:45 farvacola wrote:
That take understates the effect of the Republican-passed tax legislation and I think any effort to stop stuff like that counts as a victory. The same can be said for drawing a hard line on saying no to any cuts to the safety net, federal worker pay, and other areas where Republicans like to cause havoc instead of addressing all of the unaccounted for money flowing through the defense budget. Dems have a nasty habit of giving DoD a pass too, but hopefully that changes soon given the recently failed audit. The grifters we can actually investigate and potentially do something about, but I fear zero accountability or a blind eye to corruption. I don't think anyone needed an audit to know that the DoD has been wasting tons of money. If that is what causes the defense budget to lose bipartisan support I'll be shocked.
It has in the past. The Defense budget was trimmed back during Obama’s term based on public opinion of the cost of the war in Iraq, even when the Republicans held congress. You will be surprised how much the Democrats can get by just controlling the house and being able to write the budgets. We have not seen a congress use the power of the Appropriations Committee in quite some time. They effectively control the White House’s budget. And unlike the Republicans, the Democrats have people in congress that have experience working within an effective congress.
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On November 21 2018 23:53 farvacola wrote:
Afaik, the audit was relatively unprecedented, so I'm hoping it can prove to be some kind of catalyst. That said, you're probably right.
Accounting of all the money we're spending is nice and has never happened before, but what we really need to change is budgets shrinking if you save money. People waste money because it's a use it or lose it permanently game.
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On November 22 2018 00:16 Blitzkrieg0 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 21 2018 23:53 farvacola wrote:
Afaik, the audit was relatively unprecedented, so I'm hoping it can prove to be some kind of catalyst. That said, you're probably right. Accounting of all the money we're spending is nice and has never happened before, but what we really need to change is budgets shrinking if you save money. People waste money because it's a use it or lose it permanently game.
this is very true. At my work, my manager spends as much money as is given him because you never know what you will need next year and if they slash your budget you can be SOL
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On November 21 2018 23:36 iamthedave wrote:Show nested quote +On November 21 2018 23:14 JimmiC wrote:On November 21 2018 18:31 iamthedave wrote:On November 21 2018 17:49 Biff The Understudy wrote:On November 21 2018 01:28 JimmiC wrote:
I get the reactions, but lets not pretend that all Trump supporters are low IQ people that don't care about things. There are a decent amount of educated intelligent Trump supporters. Enough of them to make a difference in many of these close races if the dems court them based on this sort of hypocrisy instead of of insulting them. The high IQ Trump supporters always knew the email thing against Hillary was bullocks and probably never cared about any of that in the first place, or were cynical enough to know it was just an opportunistic way to manipulate dumber people into thinking she was definitly a criminal. Problem solved. Going by evidence on this site, this isn't the case. Several high IQ Trump supporters here fully believe Clinton should be investigated and incarcerated. As for the OP (re; being nice to smart Trump voters): FUCK EM. If you have a high IQ and voted for Trump you've got no excuse. The Dems shouldn't have to go to those people hat in hand. They should be smart enough to know what they voted for and either not vote or vote something other than Trump. If they're not, they can keep their vote. It is inconceivable that a high IQ Trump voter doesn't already know that he's a collossal hypocrite. He demonstrated it throughout his entire election campaign. They either don't care or decided it didn't matter. As for now, they can do the right thing or not. The party of 'fuck your fee-fees' don't get to complain about the Dems being mean to them for voting in the orange one. The point is not to be nice, it is about trying to win them to your side so you can move the country forward. Spite is pointless other than making you momentarily geel good, while likely creating someone who is unwilling to change their position no matter the logic or reason. Thats why I really like what Canada did. Instead of being mad that trump tore up the free trade aggreement they made some minor concessions so he could feel like he won and put in it a giant social requirememt of treating lgbt as a protect ed class. I'm not convinced that this particular Trump supporter exists in any significant quantity. We're talking about a theoretical Trump supporter smart enough to know he's full of shit yet voted for him anyway that is now going to be persuaded to vote in the favour of Democrats because that's now learned... that Trump is exactly what they knowingly voted for in the first place?
Think Orange County rich/ upper middle class Republicans. A fair number were already a little skeptical when they pulled the lever for him the first time, but hey, he's a business-friendly Republican! Then he acted the way he did and Congress nuked the SALT deductions. While the complete rout of the Republicans in OC is perhaps the most blatant example, this swap happened in wealthy burbs around the country.
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The complete loss of Orange County has been very satisfying. That is a big, very wealthy region of the country that completely abandoned the Republicans due to Trump. Also the tax cuts too. I don’t think cutting taxes and trying to force down spending by whining about the federal deficit has won over any Republican that can balance a check book.
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United States43210 Posts
On November 22 2018 00:16 Blitzkrieg0 wrote:Show nested quote +On November 21 2018 23:53 farvacola wrote:
Afaik, the audit was relatively unprecedented, so I'm hoping it can prove to be some kind of catalyst. That said, you're probably right. Accounting of all the money we're spending is nice and has never happened before, but what we really need to change is budgets shrinking if you save money. People waste money because it's a use it or lose it permanently game.
The audit included disclaimers. When you disclaim you’re basically saying “shit’s too fucked up for us to tell you what’s wrong, or even if anything is wrong”. It’s not a negative finding of “this should be X but it’s Y”. It’s “we don’t know what we’re looking at or what it was meant to look like”. Things can actually be fine and still get a disclaimer. I gave one recently where they just didn’t keep good records but I didn’t have any cause to suspect anything was missing. Obviously that’s it’s own separate issue still.
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An audit is more about financial and accounting controls and procedures, plus looking at a few sample items. If you really want to go deep you need to hire forensic accountants or do a QofE type project, which is a whole different animal.
A qualified opinion isn't necessarily a huge deal and I'd guess many many companies have those. There's stuff like inventory valuation which is just really labor intensive so the company decides to not include it within the scope of their audit, even though audit standards typically call for it.
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United States43210 Posts
Just as a reminder on actual world leaders taking the piss out of the US president, remember when five leaders of Scandinavia got together to make a parody of the Trump Saudi Arabia orb photo? Actual world leaders of allied countries collectively mocking the President. The stature of the US among her allies has fallen so far. It’s not just Iran, who we would expect it from. Everyone takes the piss out of Trump.
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I want to have faith in Roberts as a good Justice that will prevent the court from ruling imperial over what the federal goverment is allowed to do. But then I remember his garbage decision on the Voter's Rights Act and lower my expectations.
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On November 22 2018 05:18 Plansix wrote:
I want to have faith in Roberts as a good Justice that will prevent the court from ruling imperial over what the federal goverment is allowed to do. But then I remember his garbage decision on the Voter's Rights Act and lower my expectations.
Dont forget Citizens united too...
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On November 22 2018 07:38 Trainrunnef wrote:Show nested quote +On November 22 2018 05:18 Plansix wrote:
I want to have faith in Roberts as a good Justice that will prevent the court from ruling imperial over what the federal goverment is allowed to do. But then I remember his garbage decision on the Voter's Rights Act and lower my expectations. Dont forget Citizens united too...
I took Roberts' statement as an attempt to maintain the appearance of legitimacy for the Supreme Court. Conservatives have spent forty years working to place judges who will issue the rulings they want in the federal court system, and between Trump's Supreme Court nominations and starting to fill the host of judicial vacancies they kept open while Obama was in office, they've recently achieved something that can be called victory. Trump continues making partisan attacks on judges that can undermine the populace's belief in the courts being legitimate right after conservatives won, so of course Roberts wants Trump to stop.
EDIT: Legitimacy isn't quite the right word, but I still don't have a better one.
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Fir anyone who has even the faintest notion of what Finland looks like, that Trump rake comment is the most underrated comedy he has yet produced. It’s like saying you should shovel the snow out of Groenland every winter.
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On November 22 2018 04:08 KwarK wrote:
Just as a reminder on actual world leaders taking the piss out of the US president, remember when five leaders of Scandinavia got together to make a parody of the Trump Saudi Arabia orb photo? Actual world leaders of allied countries collectively mocking the President. The stature of the US among her allies has fallen so far. It’s not just Iran, who we would expect it from. Everyone takes the piss out of Trump.
I have to say that at least from Scandinavia, the image of the US has gone from a “slightly messed up but truly great country” to “a bunch of dangerous clowns” in two years and a half. The damage made to the country’s image will take decades to heal.
One could be tempted not to care, but a lot of US soft power in the last three decades has been built on the image of the country as a force of good and reason in a frightening world (one could argue GWB already blew that up, but I think Obama did a remarkable work at repaoring the brand).
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On November 22 2018 19:43 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On November 22 2018 04:08 KwarK wrote:
Just as a reminder on actual world leaders taking the piss out of the US president, remember when five leaders of Scandinavia got together to make a parody of the Trump Saudi Arabia orb photo? Actual world leaders of allied countries collectively mocking the President. The stature of the US among her allies has fallen so far. It’s not just Iran, who we would expect it from. Everyone takes the piss out of Trump. I have to say that at least from Scandinavia, the image of the US has gone from a “slightly messed up but truly great country” to “a bunch of dangerous clowns” in two years and a half. The damage made to the country’s image will take decades to heal. One could be tempted not to care, but a lot of US soft power in the last three decades has been built on the image of the country as a force of good and reason in a frightening world (one could argue GWB already blew that up, but I think Obama did a remarkable work at repairing the brand). Bush was a freak accident that happened once and things were fine again after.
Trump showed the problem is not only worse then the rest of the world feared but also that it is persistent.
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It also showed that US can not be trusted with longterm deals.
It is truly an astonishing drop in foreign soft and hard power for US when supporting the US president is the same as political suicide in most western democracies
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EPT
