|
virtualboyCOLOR posted:Doesn’t this actually point out that the left wing faction of the dem party would have been better off stonewalling Pelosi since the end result demonstrably shows a slim majority creates concessions? Um yes? But they didn't. Which was dumb. But that was when they were in the majority. Now that they are in the minority I feel like the best thing they could have done for the sake of the American people is make it easier for the "moderate" Republicans to govern (and by govern I mean do slightly less evil things) instead of allowing the mega chuds to hold the speaker hostage and take a disproportionate amount of power. But I seem to be in the minority in that opinion and I fully admit I might be (probably am) naive. I know the "optics" of it would have looked terrible but Jesus Christ isn't MGT on the homeland security committee now? That just sounds terrifying.
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 03:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 20:33 |
|
|
Charliegrs posted:Um yes? But they didn't. Which was dumb. But that was when they were in the majority. Now that they are in the minority I feel like the best thing they could have done for the sake of the American people is make it easier for the "moderate" Republicans to govern (and by govern I mean do slightly less evil things) instead of allowing the mega chuds to hold the speaker hostage and take a disproportionate amount of power. But I seem to be in the minority in that opinion and I fully admit I might be (probably am) naive. I know the "optics" of it would have looked terrible but Jesus Christ isn't MGT on the homeland security committee now? That just sounds terrifying. The last remnants of "moderate Republicans" either retired, or were primaried or voted out. There is no constituency of which you speak. There's only maga chuds and maga chuds who are better at hiding it in polite company.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 03:44
|
|
|
Rigel posted:The committee chairs and the speaker don't actually matter if a majority of the house wants something badly enough. If those few idiots were opposed to increasing the debt ceiling on do-or-die day, a majority of the house can sign a discharge petition to force the debt ceiling increase to the floor, and then pass it. If they play games with the speaker vote, then just vote for a new speaker then proceed as described above. I think it's worth pointing out that given the effect this has on things, there are more and perhaps greater forces of interest or coercion to compel the votes than just the democrats. BRJurgis fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Jan 20, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 03:49
|
|
|
Oxyclean posted:I don't believe in the death penalty but... America shouldn't have a death penalty if I can't think it should be applied to horrible lying scammers preying on people in really emotionally difficult positions. No but really, this poo poo really touched a nerve. It's an absolutely horrible thing to do to another person. Like I generally believe there needs to be prison reform and whatnot, but like, it's really hard not to want to see this guy locked up given how many other people get locked up for far less.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:13
|
|
|
Zero_Grade posted:He's relatively young for the Senate at 64, so if he does retire I've would imagine he's got his eyes on the governor's seat again. I suppose he could also be thinking about taking a shot at President in '24, but I don't see him as the type to directly challenge Joe like that. Kaine has long Covid and is probably retiring for health reasons.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:14
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1616118423704010752?s=20&t=DNcomyBwQycc_a0qcCTswQ Let's see how well this goes
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:38
|
|
|
a.lo posted:https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1616118423704010752?s=20&t=DNcomyBwQycc_a0qcCTswQ Ah yes, the sales tax, possibly the most regressive of taxes. Surely this will make things cost less
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:41
|
|
|
a.lo posted:https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1616118423704010752?s=20&t=DNcomyBwQycc_a0qcCTswQ Wouldn't this be a massive tax hike for literally everyone except expats? Does anyone pay more than 30% federal income tax on their entire gross income?
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:46
|
|
|
Charliegrs posted:Um yes? But they didn't. Which was dumb. But that was when they were in the majority. Now that they are in the minority I feel like the best thing they could have done for the sake of the American people is make it easier for the "moderate" Republicans to govern (and by govern I mean do slightly less evil things) instead of allowing the mega chuds to hold the speaker hostage and take a disproportionate amount of power. But I seem to be in the minority in that opinion and I fully admit I might be (probably am) naive. I know the "optics" of it would have looked terrible but Jesus Christ isn't MGT on the homeland security committee now? That just sounds terrifying. The thing is it wasn't Democrats who put Q freaks on committees, it was Republicans (and mainstream Republicans at that). Whoever passes for moderates in the GOP could take the speaker hostage just as easily and force a clean debt ceiling hike or whatever, but they don't because they don't want that. I mean MTG voted for McCarthy every time.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:47
|
|
|
KillHour posted:Wouldn't this be a massive tax hike for literally everyone except expats? Does anyone pay more than 30% federal income tax on their entire gross income? Not for people who only spend money on buying stocks. For that matter, money spent on rent and such wouldn't be taxed. Obviously still a terrible policy that would instantly crash the market for basically every consumer good
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:51
|
|
|
BougieBitch posted:Not for people who only spend money on buying stocks. For that matter, money spent on rent and such wouldn't be taxed. Obviously still a terrible policy that would instantly crash the market for basically every consumer good The rent thing is an interesting point, although I'm not sure buying stocks would help much because A: income from long-term investments are already taxed at a very low rate and B: If you can't ever spend the money for fear of taxes, does it even really count? The only people I see coming out ahead in this scheme are people who don't buy a lot domestically vs what they do internationally. And people rich enough to live in the US but not spend any of their money here already have extremely low real tax rates.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 04:54
|
|
|
It's a bill that will raise taxes on literally every American. The bottom set aren't paying income taxes and neither are the jet set. The people in the middle brackets are paying well under 30%. A reminder that the future thinkers of the party include Rick Scott, and illustrates why McConnell doesn't bother to put forward a party platform anymore.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 05:30
|
|
|
KillHour posted:Wouldn't this be a massive tax hike for literally everyone except expats? Does anyone pay more than 30% federal income tax on their entire gross income? and except rich people because they buy less things that are applicable to sales tax as a % of income. Any sales tax is regressive by nature.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 05:34
|
|
|
KillHour posted:Wouldn't this be a massive tax hike for literally everyone except expats? Does anyone pay more than 30% federal income tax on their entire gross income? You don’t spend your entire income on things that are subject to sales taxes. If e.g. half your income goes towards rent, you’re now paying an effective rate of 15%. Sales taxes at similar levels are also not unheard of - some EU countries have VAT in the 20ies. The reason it’s a problem is that’s it’s regressive as gently caress. Unless your average federal income tax rate is above 15-20%, this is a tax hike.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 05:42
|
|
|
When the primary driver of discontent has been sticker shock at inflation adjacent price hikes on consumer goods and groceries this seems suicidal.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 05:47
|
|
|
Unormal posted:and except rich people because they buy less things that are applicable to sales tax as a % of income. Any sales tax is regressive by nature. Yep, the ultra-rich tend to hoard their wealth, and 30% of spending.... what maybe 20% of their income at the very most for someone who brings in 8 figures.... is paying 6%. And hell, if you are that wealthy you can just buy all your rich guy toys in some other country and bring it in. This is yet another example of the GOP being very mad at people who "pay nothing in Federal taxes, and no FICA doesn't count for stupid reasons we made up".
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 05:48
|
|
|
a.lo posted:https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1616118423704010752?s=20&t=DNcomyBwQycc_a0qcCTswQ Putting this up for a vote was one of the things McCarthy ended up promising the HFC in exchange for their support, so this'll be a good chance to see how much the rank and file are willing to play along. Note that the rules package only committed him to putting it up for a vote - it didn't require that the bill pass, nor did it require him to whip for it. He might have privately promised to whip for it, but he didn't put it in writing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 06:20
|
|
|
Main Paineframe posted:Putting this up for a vote was one of the things McCarthy ended up promising the HFC in exchange for their support, so this'll be a good chance to see how much the rank and file are willing to play along. Do we know if this was a request from one or more specific people, or just a generic HFC requirement?
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 06:32
|
|
|
Agents are GO! posted:So, according to Reuters, George Santos allegedly competed in Drag competitions in Brazil. Someone fwded this to me today with the line about the cliche of closeted republicans being caught soliciting in men’s bathrooms. But with Santos it’s weirder and more interesting than that. Since he is already openly (supposedly) gay, albeit declining to mention he was married to a woman for years. So for him the issue isn’t the reveal that hes gay, it’s that he’s trying to walk the line of the character he’s made of "George Santos gay (maybe) Jewish (no) republican" presenting as the kind of gay that republicans can palate. 100% born that way gay, monogamous, not bi or queer or questioning or gender non conforming. massive spider fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Jan 20, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 09:04
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:Do we know if this was a request from one or more specific people, or just a generic HFC requirement? No one's named a specific person who demanded it. It was one of the demands of the holdouts, but we don't know how many of them actually wanted it. https://twitter.com/sarahnferris/status/1612931558662365184 And actually, I was wrong about it being in the rules package. The rules package did specifically call for a half-dozen bills to be brought to a vote, but the sales tax wasn't one of them. So this was a purely verbal promise from McCarthy.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 09:20
|
|
|
Main Paineframe posted:No one's named a specific person who demanded it. It was one of the demands of the holdouts, but we don't know how many of them actually wanted it. So have we finally sorted out which of the rules yet are the publicly documented rules, which ones are the secret invisible ink actual rules that were stapled to the public rules after the vote was finished, and which ones are just IOUs and pinky swear promises that Kevin made in a flop sweat in advance of Speaker Vote #15? This congress feels like it's gonna be a game of Yu-Gi-Oh, where like Matt Gaetz pulls out a surprise trap card like once a month and goes "Actually THIS is now a rule!" and stuns the poo poo out of everyone and they all turn to McCarthy like "YOU PROMISED HIM WHAT?!  "
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Jan 20, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 09:40
|
|
|
It's funny how the GOP is just so utterly hellbent on destroying the IRS. Taxes still have to be collected by someone and that money still has to fet to the Treasury, but the IRS itself is just the dragon they want to slay. The agency would just get parted out to a bunch of privately-owned tax collection servicers and nothing would really change besides some people getting rich off of it (just like student loan servicers and banks). What a world.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 12:01
|
|
|
Star Man posted:It's funny how the GOP is just so utterly hellbent on destroying the IRS. Taxes still have to be collected by someone and that money still has to fet to the Treasury, but the IRS itself is just the dragon they want to slay. Because theoretically they could have way more control over a company then the irs as it is now.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 13:04
|
|
|
You're mistaking the bug for the feature. Conservatives want government agencies entirely under the control of the ultra wealthy, yes.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 13:59
|
|
|
Yeah, they very explicitly want to move to more inefficient privatization of the services so that the wealthy can profit and corruption will be easier. They're not idiots sawing the bridge out from under themselves. They know what they are doing. They just have goals that don't help anyone but themselves.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 14:22
|
|
|
I realize the point is to privatize government services through austerity. It's why our student loan payments have to be paid to a loan servicer first before they transfer it over to the Department of Education, minus their cut. iunno, it's just nuts how they have it out for the IRS so badly and so singularly (for now), but that appeals to their base
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 14:40
|
|
|
Star Man posted:I realize the point is to privatize government services through austerity. It's why our student loan payments have to be paid to a loan servicer first before they transfer it over to the Department of Education, minus their cut.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 14:42
|
|
|
The point of the Fair Tax isn't to privatize government services. It's just to provide a large effective tax cut for the rich while shifting the tax burden to the lower and middle class. "The IRS" doesn't exist under the Fairtax, but that is because it just renames the IRS. It still exists to collect the sales tax and distribute the rebates. 20%+ sales taxes are also one of those ironic situations where the GOP wants the U.S. to be more like Europe.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 14:49
|
|
|
Ruben Gallego is officially launching a primary campaign against Krysten Sinema next week. https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1616439151796142083
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:19
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Ruben Gallego is officially launching a primary campaign against Krysten Sinema next week. So Sinema goes Independent then, right? Does she even bother with the primary or jump ship soon? And I know her poll numbers in Arizona are abysmal, but surely the most likely outcome is Sinema and Gallego (or whoever) splits the Dem vote, handing the seat to the GOP. And that's not to suggest Gallego shouldn't run and she shouldn't be challenged, it's just another indictment of our Godawful electoral system.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:45
|
|
|
Judgy Fucker posted:So Sinema goes Independent then, right? Does she even bother with the primary or jump ship soon? Sinema already went independent a month ago. Polls show it is basically a very close three-way race (close between Gallego and the Republican - Sinema gets low double digits), but polls 2 years out aren't really worth anything. So, who knows?
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:49
|
|
|
Judgy Fucker posted:So Sinema goes Independent then, right? Does she even bother with the primary or jump ship soon? Sinema already made the jump in early December. The most likely outcome is going to be Sinema getting low teens and the GOP getting beat if they run another candidate with loser-stink.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:50
|
|
|
Twincityhacker posted:Amazon just cancled their Amazon Smile program, where you donated .5% of the items price to a charity of your choice. Discendo Vox posted:Amazon smile was always remarkably badly integrated into the platform, operating as a quasi-parallel storefront. This may have been partially motivated by a preview of the cost of proper integration and/or upkeep, when the company's certainly got other ways to maximize its charitable deductions. If this Reddit post is accurate, the parallel storefront was on purpose, so Amazon didn't have to pay Google for each person who got there via Google search, or pay anyone who used Amazon referral links. https://hachyderm.io/@mrzaius/109719017646579986 
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:51
|
|
|
Judgy Fucker posted:So Sinema goes Independent then, right? Does she even bother with the primary or jump ship soon? Sinema left the party and registered as Independent in December. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/politics/kyrsten-sinema-leaves-democratic-party/index.html quote:And I know her poll numbers in Arizona are abysmal, but surely the most likely outcome is Sinema and Gallego (or whoever) splits the Dem vote, handing the seat to the GOP. And that's not to suggest Gallego shouldn't run and she shouldn't be challenged, it's just another indictment of our Godawful electoral system. Sinema as spoiler is the likely outcome (although it will probably be more about having 3 candidates splitting up independents rather than a split amongst Democrats), but she already left the party so there's no point in anyone from the Democratic Party holding back just to appease her. I don't know if that dynamic is really about our electoral system as much as it is about our crummy overall political setup. Sinema is basically following the money and has apparently been able to build up enough connections with wealthy donors from the private equity/hedge fund sector. If she didn't have that, it'd be a lot easier to just consign her to the dustbin.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:53
|
|
A Wheezy Steampunk posted:If this Reddit post is accurate, the parallel storefront was on purpose, so Amazon didn't have to pay Google for each person who got there via Google search, or pay anyone who used Amazon referral links. Thanks for the info, that makes a lot of sense.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:58
|
|
|
Also, not really surprising, but it is now "official" that Biden plans to run for re-election and announce it officially sometime after February 7th. https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1616022793656623105
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 15:59
|
|
|
It's almost certain that Krysten Sinema will never have to work another day in her life regardless of outcome at this point, for the record. It pays to sell out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 16:05
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:It's almost certain that Krysten Sinema will never have to work another day in her life regardless of outcome at this point, for the record. It pays to sell out. Yeah. If you aren't getting paid to sell out, then it is just donating out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 16:07
|
|
|
Trump was fined $1 million dollars for making "multiple and repeated frivolous" court filings and immediately afterwards withdrew his lawsuit against the NYS AG for pursuing a case against him. The judge in the case also warned him that he might follow the other judge and declare this suit frivolous as well. quote:Former President Donald Trump withdrew his lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday. https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1616452822240829444
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 16:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 8, 2024 20:33 |
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:It's almost certain that Krysten Sinema will never have to work another day in her life regardless of outcome at this point, for the record. It pays to sell out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 16:21
|
|