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Donald Trump, the road that might not lead to the White House!

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Because he's smart.
Well perhaps not so much, I dunno what this 'I have come to learn' thing is about.

.."I have come to learn during the confirmation review process that I failed to pay FICA and federal and state unemployment taxes on a household employee for the years 2000-2004," he said to the committee.

He then said he had paid more than $15,000 in taxes and is waiting the state tax bill, and would pay any penalties or interest to make up the loss.

He is due to go before the senate for his confirmation hearing as budget director on 24 January, and is likely to be asked about the issue...
 
Well perhaps not so much, I dunno what this 'I have come to learn' thing is about.

The real scandal is how little he must have paid this employee to only have accrued $15,000 in taxes during a 5-year period. FICA and Medicare alone is 7.55%. And if he didn't pay his part of FICA, he likely didn't pay his/her half in either. Which means that this employee is probably missing 5 years of Social Security quarters. That means that they have to work more to qualify and/or their SS payments will be less in retirement.
 
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The Betsy DeVos Hearing Was an Insult to Democracy

It was not a hearing. It was the mere burlesque of a hearing, rendered meaningless by a preposterously accelerated process that rendered all questioning perfunctory and that left all cheap evasions hanging in the air of the committee room the way cigarette smoke used to canopy the proceedings back in the day. You would not hire a gardener through the process by which Betsy DeVos likely is going to become the Secretary of Education. A public school system wouldn't hire her to work the cafeteria line at lunch. It was appalling. It was unnerving. It was a grotesque of how an evolved democracy should operate. It was business as usual these days and it likely isn't going to matter a damn.

She and her family contributed substantial sums to 10 of the 12 Republicans who were sitting on the committee that was vetting her Tuesday night.

The Betsy DeVos Hearing Was an Insult to Democracy
 
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Not only does the new president intend to build up the military, he intends to show it off. Maybe he'll have them goose step.
“Being a great president has to do with a lot of things, but one of them is being a great cheerleader for the country,”...“And we’re going to show the people as we build up our military, we’re going to display our military."..."That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing our military,"
Trump Says He'll Show Off The US Military In Parades
 
Not only does the new president intend to build up the military, he intends to show it off. Maybe he'll have them goose step.

Trump Says He'll Show Off The US Military In Parades

Something to look forward to? The US version of this, on the National Mall:




In other news, Vladimir Putin gives a shout-out to Russian prostitutes:

[Trump is] a grown man, and secondly he’s someone who has been involved with beauty contests for many years and has met the most beautiful women in the world. I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world.

Vladimir Putin thinks Russian prostitutes are "undoubtedly the best in the world"
 
Holy crap, Donald Trump is getting inaugurated as president tomorrow - this shit's really happening! If I'm in the pub and it's on TV I'm going to play the "Drink every time Trump says something stupid or disturbing" drinking game...
 
One thing we can be grateful for......despite all the stuff he said he'd do on "day one", he said in an interview on Fox News (where else?) the actual work like signing documents & stuff would begin on Monday. :D So we have Sat and Sun before the horror really begins.
 
One thing we can be grateful for......despite all the stuff he said he'd do on "day one", he said in an interview on Fox News (where else?) the actual work like signing documents & stuff would begin on Monday. :D So we have Sat and Sun before the horror really begins.
I wouldn't be so sure of that
 
Then what's with the 'we' stuff?
Like it or not the disgrace of a man being inaugurated shortly is in practice the UK's Lord of War anointed by the Electoral College no matter how unwise and unpredictable. Read Chilcot and watch British policy against much expert judgement collapse into a low kowtow in a quest for leverage in a DC. This POTUS like Bush after 9-11 also appears set on reshaping the world order arrogantly in the US's favour. May's government reversing out of Europe in the name of greater sovereignty makes lap dog eyes at The Donald in all his pomp.

Because Britain unlike say Turkey is a very subservient US ally. The Frogs at times have nakedly bucked Pax Americana. The Israelis flagrantly pursue their own interests and are beloved and respected in the US. In contrast many post-Imperial Brits often given to ranting about Brussels cherish the illusion of the Special Relationship with the US not felt by many Septics.

London's, run on a shoe string, defence policy is mostly based on scurrying behind Uncle Sam's skirts if anyone really cuts up rough. Well it sort of worked in two World Wars. The UK's last few freely elected governments have been rather characterised by belligerent support of NATO expansion and obediently serving Uncle Sam in most things even out at the edge of his empire. In the whole debate the largely unaccountable NATO tended to held up as a shining success in comparison with a problematic EU. The people have spoken! Or at least nodded along in multiple trips to the ballot box. So it's "we", there isn't an escape clause from collective responsibility in a democracy when we fuck up.
 
Bruce Springstein played a farewell gig for Obama and his staff:
Bruce Springsteen plays farewell gig for Barack Obama at the White House

The Setlist seems to have been designed to settle a certain issue forever:

The full setlist:
Working on the Highway
Growin’ Up
My Hometown
My Father’s House
The Wish
Thunder Road
The Promised Land
Born in the USA
Devils & Dust
Tougher Than the Rest (with Patti Scialfa)
If I Should Fall Behind (with Patti Scialfa)
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Long Walk Home
Dancing in the Dark
Land of Hope and Dreams
 
Trump and Brexit eh -quite a combination.

So Putin is his new best friend and they go to Iceland to do what Ronnie and Gorby couldnt.

And part of that is the removal of US missiles from Europe and Vlad says ok trumpypoohs what about refusing to maintain triident as well and say you wont replace when the time comes.

We look pretty silly eh what.
 

...
The Trump team has not yet named senior deputies for the State or Homeland Security departments. Meanwhile, dozens of important posts at the Defense Department remain vacant in part because of a growing feud between Trump’s advisors and James Mattis, the retired general picked to serve as the next defense secretary. As for the White House, the Trump team has yet to name a national security advisor for Vice President-elect Mike Pence and other key posts, officials told FP.

The absence of a national security advisor for Pence is all the more significant given the prominent role he appears to be playing in the new administration, including receiving a highly classified daily presidential intelligence briefing. Trump has chosen to receive the briefing about once a week.

The Trump team has either failed to fill key jobs or put forward people who lack the experience or appropriate expertise to do the job. More than one administration official called the transition effort “anemic.” Previous administrations, including Barack Obama’s and George W. Bush’s, were much further along this close to the inauguration.

The troubled transition has stunned career civil servants and former officials who say no previous administration in recent decades has proceeded in such an incoherent way.
...
Mattis has opposed prospective appointees pushed by Trump’s inner circle in New York, which includes Steve Bannon, named as a senior White House strategist, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and prospective White House advisor. At the same time, candidates the general wants for Pentagon posts — including Republican experts who signed “Never Trump” letters last year — have been rejected or obstructed. As a result, not a single second-tier position has been named, and concern is growing among Mattis’s Republican supporters in Congress, who see him as a seasoned and moderating influence in a White House led by an inexperienced commander in chief.
...
Oh good, back to yeehaw for a foreign policy with the added comfort of a Tweeting conspiracy theorist as POTUS.
 
And part of that is the removal of US missiles from Europe and Vlad says ok trumpypoohs what about refusing to maintain triident as well and say you wont replace when the time comes.We look pretty silly eh what.

not at all ...just send Liam Fox over to North Korea to do a trade deal & buy some of theirs
 
So it's "we", there isn't an escape clause from collective responsibility in a democracy when we fuck up.
What absolute crap. Of course people aren't responsible for what their governments do. The people of the UK no more supported Iraq than they support the privatisation of the railway system, they aren't given a choice. To argue as you do is to argue that the very governments that assist capital in exploiting workers are the responsibility of the workers is bullshit.

By your logic the Greek people are responsible for the policies that have caused their life-expectancy to drop.
 
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