American Politics

[EihTooms]

Senator Tom Cotton pointed out on Sunday, Kabul didn't collapse on Trump's watch, Russia didn't invade Ukraine, and Hamas didn't launch a historic terror attack on Israel.

Thanks Dirty Joe.

Love Xi.

Did he mention that Joe Biden is not the president of any of those countries, that America was actively at war on foreign soil for every minute of every hour of Trump's so-called presidency and that more Americans were killed in that foreign conflict on Trump's watch than have been killed in any foreign conflict on Biden's watch?

Yep. Thanks, Joe.

[SubCmdr]

My little teerak LUUVS me. I don't worry for a minute.

That is right Tiny12. Real men know how to handle their business. You are a fellow man in the arena. And we know the critics do not count.

I happen to know an ex-pat from USA that has a wife, child and built a country complex near where his wife is from. Does not care that is in here name. Chump change to him. Some of us have it. Some of us don't. My farm plans are to raise buffalo. The kind you eat, not the ones that post on ISG. We have enough of them already. 555.

[EihTooms]

Thanks Tooms! I think this is a first, you agree with me!

Well, only if you are agreeing with me that silly, bad, imperfect, inconvenient actions considered by Dems in response to and remedies for spectacularly disastrous problems created by Repubs are 100% on the Repubs who caused those spectacularly disastrous problems and not the Dems.

Is that what you agree with me about, Tiny?

Because if it is, then there is also no reason for you to be further impressed by Repubs not chiming in to agree with a far less damaging Dem response to their spectacularly disastrous Repub behavior, as in your apparent praise of them for their trypical Repub Deadbeat Do Nothing Know Nothingness here:

Contrary to what you posted, "every Repub and their dog," there aren't ANY Republicans on that list.

So, just to be sure you really do agree with me that the Magic Trillion Dollar Coin idea as a Dem-considered less damaging response to and potential remedy for the spectacularly disastrous repeated Repub threats to shut down the USA government and / or default on the huge debt and deficits previous Great Repub Disasters required to recover America from them is in every way all on the Repubs who created a need for such a remedy and not on the Dems who consider that remedy, here are a couple more near perfect analogies to that Dem vs Repub issue for you to agree with me about:

When firefighters have to take an ax to doors and property set ablaze by arsonists in order to possibly control the fire and salvage some of the threatened life and property, it is not a case of firefighters "popularizing" and "promoting" the idea of taking axes to doors and property but fully and completely on the arsonists for triggering such a response, right?

And there is nothing to praise the arsonists who set the property ablaze for simply because there weren't "ANY" arsonists chiming their support or standing there and handing an ax to the firefighters to help them respond to and deal with their act of arson, right?

And if Navy SEALs swoop into a compound to rescue 100 hostages taken by terrorists and in doing so they shoot and kill one of the terrorist guards, the guard's wife he was hiding behind while shooting back and even wind up inadvertently getting one of the hostages killed in the process after successfully rescuing the other 99, you wouldn't dare to suggest the Navy SEAL rescuers were the ones "popularizing" and "promoting" the idea of shooting and killing guards, guards wives and hostages and instead you would fully and completely put the blame for all of it on the terrorist hostage-takers, right?

Furthermore, you would never ever praise the terrorist hostage-takers simply because not "ANY" of them bothered to chime in or lend a hand of support for the Navy SEAL rescue operation, right?

I'm just checking to make sure we really are in total agreement about this Magic Coin idea regarding Dem vs Repub responsibility for that Magic Coin Idea so I can modulate my celebration of it accordingly. LOL.

[Tiny 12]

Goo luck hanging on the ho you gave the farm to. You will never be family in Asia.

My little teerak LUUVS me. I don't worry for a minute.

[Beijing4987]

Goo luck hanging on the ho you gave the farm to. You will never be family in Asia.

[MarquisdeSade1]

Senator Tom Cotton pointed out on Sunday, Kabul didn't collapse on Trump's watch, Russia didn't invade Ukraine, and Hamas didn't launch a historic terror attack on Israel.

Thanks Dirty Joe.

Love Xi.

[Tiny 12]

Your pro Repub spin that those Dems "popularized" or "promoted" the idea of minting a magic coin to pay down the massive debts that horrific Repub policies and stewardship produce is like saying people on the ground witnessing the poor souls leaping out of 100 story windows of the World Trade Center because a blazing fireball of airline fuel and shrapnel was at their backs during Bush's 9/11 Attack and commenting that they understood why they lept and would probably have done the same were "popularizing" and "promoting" the idea of leaping out of 100 story windows.

Uh. No. The terrorists who flew those planes into the World Trade Center are the ones who "popularized" and "promoted" that idea.

Same with the Repub economic terrorists who repeatedly threaten to default on their debt re the magic coin idea response.

Without Repubs repeatedly threatening to force the USA to default on the loan debts that horrific Repub economic policies and stewardship cause to be racked up more than any other factor including all the "wild coincidences" you can imagine, no Dem would ever consider Repub spiritual twin Bo Gritz' magic coin idea as a last ditch alternative to something far worse.

Thanks Tooms! I think this is a first, you agree with me!

[Tiny 12]

You are keeping it 100 my ISG Brother about the reporting requirements. And I think it is very accurate that you shared. Any one that goes off shore better know what they are doing.

But if you do not exceed 10,000 USD balance in all of your foreign accounts throughout the year you can avoid a lot of the reporting requirements just by staying below the limits. But if you earn income on those accounts then can not avoid them no matter what your balances are. But when it comes to foreign holdings, there is a really big loop hole that you can drive a truck trough. Foreign held real estate in your own name. If you do not hold it in your own name you are going to have to report it on IRS Form 8938.

Correct Subcommander. The requirement to report on 8938 only applies to financial assets, like bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and loans to your Thai sweetie to buy that special pig farm in Isaan for the two of you to retire to someday. Not referring to you here Subcommander in the last part. That's more for someone like Tooms to consider, as he lives in a place where it's illegal for foreigners to purchase land in their own names. If you loaned money to a trusted friend or set up a corporate entity to hold the land, and the total value of your foreign financial assets is greater than $50,000, then I bet you would have to file the Form 8938 and report the asset, which would be the loan or the corporation.

The corporation would open up a whole new can of worms, the dreaded Form 5471 for controlled foreign corporations. You better have a good accountant and an asset worth enough to justify paying his fees, or you'll eat up the value of what you own in accounting fees in a hurry. Actually reporting the corporation on your Form 8938 is a piece of cake, you just check a box. But the 5471, if you tried to fill it out yourself, would be an exercise in extreme masochism. One way around this would be to use a "check the box" election to treat the corporation as a disregarded entity, if you own the entire corporation, although your Thai sweetie might not go for that. Then you'd have to file a Form 8858, but that's a lot easier to do than the 5471, and the penalties if you screw it up are a lot lower. For either route, Form 5471 or 8858, you're going to need financial statements for the corporation to fill out the forms.

This is an illustration of why I hate the politicians and lawyers who are responsible for our tax code.

[Spidy]

I wanted to circle-back to your opening line and add some additional thoughts, to my previous post, as a separate, but inclusive response/post:

You Said:

I don't like the idea of children being indoctrinated by any belief system, but I really hate the idea of children being exposed to sexual freaks. ...

First, I'm sure many of us, mongers on this ISG forum, at one time or another, have been called "sexual freaks" (naturally from the women and girls we've seen and been with over the years). And I'm sure we all, still consider ourselves to be "good people" around kids. So is that really a good metric or criteria you wanna "hang your hat on" when it comes to hanging around children?

Secondly, while I acknowledge that your entitled to feel the way you do, I think your outrage, hate or dislike towards StoryBook Hour (SBH) readings, is misplaced, unfounded and simply I feel, is just overblown right-wing media hype and propaganda.

If the parents of the kids see fit to take their kids to a SBH reading hour, who are you to say otherwise? Conversely, while I may find parents who take their kids to a "Nazi" style book-ban/book-burning event/protest, very distasteful, disgusting, immoral, unethical, stupid and pathetic, I (and/or the left) will still defend their right to do so.

Thirdly, when you consider the millions of sexual abuse cases, against a trusted and venerated institution, that the right hold very dear to their identity, you begin to understand the hypocrisy, behind the right-wing's hate for SBH reading hour.

What institution is that you ask?...that would be the Church and the clergymen (and women), priests, bishops and cardinals that hide their sexual perversions under the "Cloak of the Good Book/Bible" and the "Holy Church".

It's appalling and staggering, at the amount of empirical data, papers, articles, documented and reported cases of the church's sex abuses worldwide, spanning decades, that have directly (and/or indirectly), led to the ruining of millions of lives. So forgive me if I find, the right-wing attacks on SBH readings, just a bunch of sanctimonious BS.

May I suggest, you should be more worried about your kids going to church than your kids attending a (albeit prenatally supervised) SBH reading.

The data and the enormous number of sexual abuse cases, perpetrated by the church, suggests and indicates, that parents should be more concerned about, the men dressed in black white and red robes verses the men dressed in hot-pink drag.

Fun fact for you (well perhaps not fun):

• Sexual abuse in the Church, worldwide over several decades, are estimated in the millions.

• The global scale of child sexual abuse in the Church has skyrocketed over the last three decades and still remains ingrained in the Church ethos, after some 100+ years.

• The church and their clergymen/priesthood remain the #1 sexual abusers and offenders of children, worldwide.

In closing:

Personally, I'd be more worried about my kids suffering harm, from the men in robes reading from "the good book", as opposed to, the men dressed in women's clothing reading at a SBH.

So CrowExplorer, if you truly hate the "idea of children being indoctrinated" and "the idea of children being exposed to sexual freaks", then may I also suggest you take a look in your own backyard (as it were) and direct (most or a majority of) your outrage and concerns more towards, the real indoctrination, going on be behind the closed doors of your local priesthood, diocese, and/or church.

[SubCmdr]

The WSJ wrote about this a couple of days ago. The name of the Russian cypto exchange is Garantex. Russians use it to move money in and out of the country, to avoid sanctions. One of Hamas' partners, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, received millions through Garantex.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/currenci...tions-a3648357

PM me if you don't subscribe and want the text.

Thank you for sharing the WSJ article with me. It brought joy to my heart, supporting everything I have believed about cash and crypto. Not a single mention of gold and silver. Cash and crypto is the way to go. If you live in a place where the government does not fuck with it, they cannot track it. That is behind the push for CBDCs. In my opinion everyone everywhere about the world should fight like hell against them being implemented. And if we cannot carry the day then make preparations to operate off the grid.

[GDreams]

I don't like the idea of children being indoctrinated by any belief system, but I really hate the idea of children being exposed to sexual freaks. Just. Why? Are you just trying to piss people off? "look, we're coming for your children!" It's like you want people to vote the other way.

It's definitely only the left who are pretending "trans women are real women". Everyone else knows that it's a dude wearing a dress.

The number one reason I can never get on board with the left, is that they are complete moral fascists right now. They love to create new trendy "victim groups", then chastise anyone who doesn't pay the current victim group proper homage. And outright attack anyone who dares to disagree with their moralizing.

They are also the number one enemies of free speech right now. Every leftie I know is pro-censorship. They tell me we need to "stop the spread of misinformation", and "only approved experts should be allowed to have an opinion on a given subject".

It's really too bad, I actually agree with the left on a few topics, but they're like that annoying asshole at the campground who goes around telling all the other campers what the rules are, and looks for infractions to complain to management about.

So you are anti Christion for them indoctrinating children.

The left just don't care about peoples lifestyle choices unless they try and force those choices onto you as the right like to do.

The biggest victim in the US right now is Donald Trump, crybaby extraordinaire.

The left are the defenders of free speech. The right are the champions of lies and propaganda. What is anti. Wokism if not anti free speech?

[Spidy]

I don't like the idea of children being indoctrinated by any belief system, but I really hate the idea of children being exposed to sexual freaks. Just. Why? Are you just trying to piss people off? "look, we're coming for your children!" It's like you want people to vote the other way.

Not sure what the idea is, you are trying to communicate? Are you saying, their "life style choices" will ONLY make other people vote a certain way? The Republican or right-wing way?

I miss the 90's. When you'd see these men dressed as women on Jerry Springer and everyone would have a good laugh. Nobody was pretending the emperor had clothes, we all knew it was a sex kink with these people.

It's definitely only the left who are pretending "trans women are real women". Everyone else knows that it's a dude wearing a dress.

Never did see the appeal myself. That being, taking the pis-s (or taking pleasure) from other people's differences, anguish or duress, is IMHO the "lowest hanging fruit" and the lowest form of entertainment. Anyways, I think (maybe) their target audience with was more geared towards viewers, with a grade 10 level education.

But in reality, such shows only serve to blind, weak minded viewers into passive believers of "fake indoctrination" and of course, all in the name of TV ratings. But also, to obfuscate "the real indoctrination", happening behind close doors, they don't want you talking or thinking about. More on this, later!

It's definitely only the left who are pretending "trans women are real women". Everyone else knows that it's a dude wearing a dress.

No I think you're wrong. Believe it or not, most of us the left also know its a "dude wearing a dress". However, I think (IMHO), those on the centre-left/left, will tend to empathize more with people who are different, make different "life style choices" or have different "cultural norms", than the prototypical "straight male gaze".

Put differently, the left are just more tolerant and more accepting of people who are different than themselves. I think in general, the left is amoral about the "life style choices" of others and more importantly, the left is always willing to defend their right to live said choices. Provided of course, they follow and obey just laws and they aren't harming anyone but themselves or other consenting adults.

The number one reason I can never get on board with the left, is that they are complete moral fascists right now. They love to create new trendy "victim groups", then chastise anyone who doesn't pay the current victim group proper homage. And outright attack anyone who dares to disagree with their moralizing.

They are also the number one enemies of free speech right now. Every leftie I know is pro-censorship. They tell me we need to "stop the spread of misinformation", and "only approved experts

should be allowed to have an opinion on a given subject".

While I disagree with assessment of the left here, any so called "leftie attack" would most likely only be mostly verbal in nature, with only perhaps either a verbal insult and/or bruised ego to their victims.

Compare that with an "attack" from the right, and you're more than likely left (pun intended) for dead. Possible outcomes for their "victim groups" include, AR-15'd, gunned down, stabbed, flag-poled to death, vehicular manslaughter while protesting, punched and kicked to death, beaten with blunt object...etc, get the picture?

I'll take my "verbal assault" from the left and live to fight another day verses a "beat-down" from the right and pray my healthcare premiums are paid up in full. That is of course, if I manage to survive. Is it any wonder your very own Repub congressmen and women are paying like $5K/day for security, to protect themselves against QAnon/MAGA right-wingers, just because they don't agree with the rest of their right-wing colleagues on being loyal to Trump and/or related issues?

It's really too bad, I actually agree with the left on a few topics, but they're like that annoying asshole at the campground who goes around telling all the other campers what the rules are, and looks for infractions to complain to management about.

Interesting analogy! Name one (or some) of those topics on the left that you would agree with? Cause right now it's very hard for me to find anything the Repubs (or the right) have done, that I could in good conscience agree with. But then again it's hard to find policies that have benefited most middle/working class Americans, if you've done nothing in the way of passing said policies, for the past several decades.

More to come...

[EihTooms]

Tiny wrote - Let's stick to Tooms' philosophy, that something like a pandemic, or presumably a war, is no excuse for an increase in the debt.

Where in the world did you come up with that one? Of course, Trump's Pandemic was cause to increase the debt, as was the Great Repub Depressions, Great Repub Recessions, the Great Repub Jobs Destructions, etc.

Spidy, It's pretty obvious what you meant. See the bold text below. You meant every Republican and his dog wants to mint a trillion dollar coin to pay down the debt.

So we've established that the following famous people promoted the idea of a trillion dollar coin, for the purpose of paying down the national debt or, in the case of Tlaib, two coins to pay $1,000 a month to most Americans:

Paul Krugman: Renowned Democrat economist.
Lawrence Tribe: Renowned Democrat attorney.
James Galbraith: Well known Democrat economist, where I live anyway.
Jerry Nadler: Famous Democratic Congressman.
Rashida Tlaib: Famous Democratic Congresswoman.

No, neither you, your links, we, nor anyone else have established any such thing. They responded to questions about it and made the case for it only as a silly or bad idea that isn't as silly and bad as what Repubs repeatedly propose for dealing with it; Not paying the debt they racked up and allowing USA to default.

Repub spiritual twin and running for POTUS too soon to be the far and away front runner for the Repub Party nominee Bo Gritz was the first politician and as far as I know the only one so far who promoted the magic coin idea without that economically disastrous Repub threat at his back.

Your pro Repub spin that those Dems "popularized" or "promoted" the idea of minting a magic coin to pay down the massive debts that horrific Repub policies and stewardship produce is like saying people on the ground witnessing the poor souls leaping out of 100 story windows of the World Trade Center because a blazing fireball of airline fuel and shrapnel was at their backs during Bush's 9/11 Attack and commenting that they understood why they lept and would probably have done the same were "popularizing" and "promoting" the idea of leaping out of 100 story windows.

Uh. No. The terrorists who flew those planes into the World Trade Center are the ones who "popularized" and "promoted" that idea.

Same with the Repub economic terrorists who repeatedly threaten to default on their debt re the magic coin idea response.

Without Repubs repeatedly threatening to force the USA to default on the loan debts that horrific Repub economic policies and stewardship cause to be racked up more than any other factor including all the "wild coincidences" you can imagine, no Dem would ever consider Repub spiritual twin Bo Gritz' magic coin idea as a last ditch alternative to something far worse.

[Tiny 12]

In yet another twist to the one (1) Trillion dollar coin, debt, this article (below) suggests, ex-Pres Ronald Reagan (GOP/Repub), should be the "face of the coin".

What an interesting and novel idea. Why didn't I think of that? (...kkkk!)

Why Ronald Reagan Should Be on the $1 Trillion Platinum Coin
https://ourfuture.org/20130110/why-r...platinum-coin?



I nominate Trump, as butt-end (or tails) of the coin...kkkk!

Great idea! But your article is way too subjective. We need a systematic and fair way to pick the presidents, for the trillion dollar platinum coin to pay down the debt. And Tooms has given us just what we need!

U.S. Debt by President: Dollar and Percentage.

https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt...entage-7371225

Let's stick to Tooms' philosophy, that something like a pandemic, or presumably a war, is no excuse for an increase in the debt. Do we look at the run up in the debt in dollar terms or percentage terms?

Well, if it's dollar terms, then yes, Trump's the tail! And Obama, who presided over a $7. 6 trillion increase in the debt, larger than Trump's $6. 7 trillion, is the head!

If Biden wins re-election and gets to govern again with a Democratic House and Senate then I bet he'll edge out Trump, and maybe Obama. So maybe we should wait. Tooms' link must be a little old, as it only shows a $2.5 trillion run up in the debt under Biden, but it has really been $4.2 trillion so far.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEBTN

On the other hand we could look at the percentage increase. Then Franklin Roosevelt's the head and Woodrow Wilson is the tail.

Again, please, no argument about the basis for selecting the winners. If we're not going to use a pandemic as an excuse, we darn sure shouldn't use war as an excuse. A war is often avoidable and a pandemic is not.

[Spidy]

In yet another twist to the one (1) Trillion dollar coin, debt, this article (below) suggests, ex-Pres Ronald Reagan (GOP/Repub), should be the "face of the coin".

What an interesting and novel idea. Why didn't I think of that? (...kkkk!)

Why Ronald Reagan Should Be on the $1 Trillion Platinum Coin
https://ourfuture.org/20130110/why-r...platinum-coin?

"... If the White House decides to mint the coin, the Treasury should put Reagan's picture on it. And if I were president Obama, just for fun I'd drill a hole through it, put it on a chain, and wear it around my neck at the next State of the Union."

I nominate Trump, as butt-end (or tails) of the coin...kkkk!