American Politics

[EihTooms]

U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided over likely Covid origin, report shows

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/24/us-i...ndroidappshare

A long-anticipated government report on the origins of Covid-19 offered new details on the U.S. intelligence communitys findings but did not state definitively whether the source of the coronavirus was exposure to an infected animal or an event at a laboratory.

All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection, the 10-page declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.

The report laid out divisions within the Intelligence Community.

While the National Intelligence Council and four unnamed agencies found that natural exposure to an infected animal was most likely, the Department of Energy and FBIs assessment was that a laboratory-associated incident was the more likely scenario for the first human infection.

Meanwhile, the CIA and an unidentified agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting, the report states.

But almost all intelligence agencies agreed that the virus wasnt genetically engineered, and all agencies agreed that Covid was not manufactured as a biological weapon.

Congress passed legislation earlier this year requiring the intelligence community to declassify information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the pandemics origins.

The report shed light on the Wuhan institute, which has been at the center of a hypothesis that the virus escaped from a lab and began infecting people or was transmitted to humans from an animal.

In 2021, a U.S. intelligence report identified three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who sought treatment at a hospital after falling ill in November 2019 -- providing inconclusive, circumstantial evidence that appeared to bolster a hypothesis that the virus may have spread to humans after escaping from the lab.

The intelligence community in March expanded its inquiry into Covid-19, by examining whether the first human infection with the virus was the result of natural exposure to an infected animal or a lab-linked incident, according to Fridays report.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said the reports release reflects a commitment from President Joe Biden to declassify and share as much information as possible related to the origins of COVID-19, while protecting sources and methods. The spokesman added that getting to the bottom of the origins of Covid remains a top priority for the president.

Now, if only there had been some Pandemic Prevention and Response agents in that lab in November 2019 to monitor and report those first cases to the world so immediate action could have been taken to prevent or at least greatly delay its development into a Pandemic until effective vaccines had been invented, distributed and administered throughout the world. Word is just a 2-3 month heads up would have made all the difference.

I hear such agents were fully funded and maintained there during the Obama Administration. I wonder what happened to them after that.

Lololol.

[Tiny 12]

It has been years since I had to choose and current laws might be different, but I believe there are several countries around the world with an agreement with the USA that allows the expat to choose which country's federal taxes to pay. Thailand is one of them. I could have chosen to pay Thailand taxes on income rather than USA taxes. But, again, I have not looked into it in years.

I never even considered choosing to pay Thailand taxes instead of USA Federal taxes. For one thing I don't know the Thai language well enough to be absolutely certain what I would owe, who to pay and that there isn't a badly translated passage in paragraph 12 on page 1,523 of the Thai tax code that really states all of my income and property transfers to the royals at my age 70 or some such craziness. Of course, there is no option not to pay Thailand's 7% consumer VAT tax on some purchases. However, some businesses allow visitors to get that refunded at the airport on departure if you've kept all the receipts and don't mind waiting in a queue or at the airport for who knows how long to get that money back. I don't think I have ever met a USA visitor to Thailand that has done it.

But primarily it is because I have never in my life felt paying taxes in the USA was so onerous or had the least bit of more downside than upside to pay them that I needed to jump through flaming hoops to avoid it. And that was especially true when I included California State tax to the mix. My god, the upside to being lucky enough to have lived, worked, earned and invested in California USA for 50+ years so far surpassed any potential downside it was ridiculous and pathetic to spend as much as a minute whining and complaining about it.

There are dual tax treaties between the USA and Thailand and other countries. They do not give you any choice as to where you file returns or pay tax. If you're a USA Citizen, you must file a USA Tax return, no matter where you live. It's been that way during your entire adult life. The only exception is if your income is under $14,700.

If you don't have any Thai sourced income, I'm not sure whether or not you need to file a tax return in Thailand. I looked into this some time back, and Thailand used to have a territorial tax system. You didn't have to pay tax in Thailand for income realized from the USA, or any other country besides Thailand. But from a quick Google search, Thailand may now be taxing foreign income brought into Thailand from abroad, if the taxpayer is resident in Thailand over 180 days in a year.

The USA taxes your worldwide income. There is one exception. You could realize up to $112,000 per year in EARNED income (for example, from a salary) in a foreign country and not pay USA Taxes on that amount. This is not available if you spend over 30 days in the USA over a 12 month period.

You are generally allowed to use foreign income taxes paid as a tax credit on your USA Income tax. You will generally end up paying the higher of the tax rates of the two countries. For example, say you pay 10% tax on income from a Thai rental property, and you're in the 30% tax bracket in the USA. Then you end up paying a tax of 10% on that income to Thailand, and 20% to the USA.

If you have a Thai bank account or a bank or securities account in any other country, I assume you know you need to file Form Fincen 114 with the Treasury Department, and Form 8938 with your Form 1040. The penalties for not filing are severe. A friend had about $30,000 in a foreign bank account that he didn't report. He received roughly $50 interest income over a several year period. He went through voluntary disclosure with the IRS because he hadn't filed the Fincen 114, and ended up paying about 30% of his highest bank balance, or $9000 in penalties, plus about $3000 in accounting or legal fees. Again, he only had $50 in undeclared income! If he hadn't gone through voluntary disclosure and the IRS had caught him, he figures he would have paid a fine of about $45,000, or 150% of his highest bank balance.

You seem pretty astute, so you probably have been complying with the reporting requirements for foreign financial accounts and foreign income, if you have any. If not feel free to PM me. I may be a dreaded Republican/Bothsider/Neithersider, but otherwise am a reasonably nice person. And have unfortunately had to put a lot of time in over the years on this subject.

I don't begrudge paying the state of Texas or my city or county taxes. They're efficient and don't rape me. I'd happily pay them more. I do not share your view of the taxes I pay to the federal government.

[Paulie97]

It doesn't prove lab leak? Like if I find a starnger in my house with a bloody knife in his hand and my wife dead on the floor, that doesn't prove the stranger killed her either. Its true maybe an infected bat flew in thru the lab window and infected them. Hey strange things happen!

You have both a false analogy and a non-sequitur going here. These recent revelations come from questionable anonymous sources while there remains some decent evidence to point to the wet market spillover theory. There likely will never be a slam dunk on this one thus dogmaticism is invalid.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...idence/674495/

[Tiny 12]

Every Repub who posts here say polls aren't valid. Unless, of course, the polls favor their position. I certainly don't give any credence to a poll conducted in Ukraine.

Historically Republicans have been more motivated to go out and vote. The polls may reflect voters intentions reasonably well, but not as many Democratic and Democratic leaning voters showed up at the polls. So the Republicans had a point.

That started changing around 2020 for three reasons.

Trump encouraged Republicans not to participate in mail in and absentee voting.

Democrats and many independents are mad as hell at Trump because he tried to steal an election. And Trump's the figurehead of the Republican Party.

The Supreme Court abortion decision made many Democrats and independents mad as hell too.

Now Democrats are more motivated to vote, and outperforming the polls. You saw that in 2022.

Going forward, I expect Democrats will be the ones saying the polls aren't valid.

Here are some quotes from the link above. "Before, during and after the referendum was proclaimed, the Crimean peninsula saw Russian soldiers take over public buildings and Ukrainian military installations. When the referendum was proclaimed, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People called for a boycott of the referendum. " and "A poll by the International Republican Institute in May 2013 found that 53% wanted "Autonomy in Ukraine (as today)", 12% were for "Crimean Tatar autonomy within Ukraine", 2% for "Common oblast of Ukraine" and 23% voted for "Crimea should be separated and given to Russia". ".

Yeah, that's why I posted the correction. The May, 2013 poll was pre-referendum. The post referendum polls in the Wikipedia link, all conducted by respected western organizations, showed overwhelming support for the results of the referendum.

[Tiny 12]

I had no idea that this story had broke before. I am surprised it never got much traction. Thanks for that.

It doesn't prove lab leak? Like if I find a starnger in my house with a bloody knife in his hand and my wife dead on the floor, that doesn't prove the stranger killed her either. Its true maybe an infected bat flew in thru the lab window and infected them. Hey strange things happen!

And most certainly the lab was doing gain of function, so again you just want to ignore all the evidence and "wah, wah, wah, I can't hear you!

If you don't know JustTK, eating crow is an American saying for ashamedly admitting you were wrong. I'm not quite there yet, and I already admitted you may be right. But there's some new reporting, out this week, again in the Wall Street Journal. Some of it repeats what you've already said.

The three researchers working at the Wuhan Lab back in late 2019 who fell ill were as follows.

Ben Hu, who had done extensive laboratory research on how coronaviruses infect humans.

Yu Ping, a Chinese scientist who wrote a 2019 thesis that was the first to describe a new family of SARS-like coronaviruses that are most closely related to the COVID 19 virus.

Yan Zhu.

The three "published on SARS-related coronavirus experiments done at inappropriately low biosafety settings that could have resulted in a laboratory infection," according to Robert Kadlec, a former senior Health and Human Services department official who conducted a Senate study that concluded a lab leak was the more likely cause of COVID.

The article goes on to say, "The Government Accountability Office noted in a report last week that some of the research at the Wuhan Institute was funded by the USA Agency for International Development and the National Institutes of Health. Between 2014 and 2019, about $1. 4 million was disbursed for work at the institute by both agencies before such grants were suspended. ".

[PVMonger]

That's why I referred to the polling, not the referendum. The post referendum polls referenced in the link were conducted by the USA Government Broadcasting Board of Governors agency, Gallup, the Pew Research Center, and GfK, which is Germany's biggest market research organization. All showed overwhelming support among Crimeans for the results of the referendum. None of those groups were holding guns to people's heads. None were conducted under the guidance of Russian armed forces or intelligence agencies. Again, see Post-referendum polls in

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_C...us_referendum..

Xpartan, I strongly disagree with a number of your points but need to get some dinner before I have to go back to work. I'll be back with you.

Every Repub who posts here say polls aren't valid. Unless, of course, the polls favor their position. I certainly don't give any credence to a poll conducted in Ukraine.

Here are some quotes from the link above. "Before, during and after the referendum was proclaimed, the Crimean peninsula saw Russian soldiers take over public buildings and Ukrainian military installations. When the referendum was proclaimed, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People called for a boycott of the referendum. " and "A poll by the International Republican Institute in May 2013 found that 53% wanted "Autonomy in Ukraine (as today)", 12% were for "Crimean Tatar autonomy within Ukraine", 2% for "Common oblast of Ukraine" and 23% voted for "Crimea should be separated and given to Russia". ".

[EihTooms]

Tooms has already done that, left the USA. He's just extremely partisan.

A question, is that passport you mention an American one? I understand the USA and Eritrea are the only countries in the world that tax their citizens and require them to file income tax returns regardless of where they live in the world. And also that some foreign banks won't accept USA Citizens as customers, because of our government's onerous reporting requirements. So a USA citizen living abroad may have to jump through hoops to simply open a bank account. All of that seemingly would make it difficult to truly be free, just by leaving the USA.

And a second question, when you say "take the orange pill," do you mean you finally recognized what the USA government's all about? Or are you talking about crypto?

And finally, what does "Dis" mean?

Sorry for all the questions. You may be my new guru.

It has been years since I had to choose and current laws might be different, but I believe there are several countries around the world with an agreement with the USA that allows the expat to choose which country's federal taxes to pay. Thailand is one of them. I could have chosen to pay Thailand taxes on income rather than USA taxes. But, again, I have not looked into it in years.

I never even considered choosing to pay Thailand taxes instead of USA Federal taxes. For one thing I don't know the Thai language well enough to be absolutely certain what I would owe, who to pay and that there isn't a badly translated passage in paragraph 12 on page 1,523 of the Thai tax code that really states all of my income and property transfers to the royals at my age 70 or some such craziness. Of course, there is no option not to pay Thailand's 7% consumer VAT tax on some purchases. However, some businesses allow visitors to get that refunded at the airport on departure if you've kept all the receipts and don't mind waiting in a queue or at the airport for who knows how long to get that money back. I don't think I have ever met a USA visitor to Thailand that has done it.

But primarily it is because I have never in my life felt paying taxes in the USA was so onerous or had the least bit of more downside than upside to pay them that I needed to jump through flaming hoops to avoid it. And that was especially true when I included California State tax to the mix. My god, the upside to being lucky enough to have lived, worked, earned and invested in California USA for 50+ years so far surpassed any potential downside it was ridiculous and pathetic to spend as much as a minute whining and complaining about it.

[Tiny 12]

I should read links and footnotes before I post. I should have said the majority of Crimeans indisputably wanted to be part of Russia after the 2014 Referendum. The polls before had mixed results, but show support for unification of Russia or autonomy far preferred to becoming a common province of Ukraine, like Donetsk and Luhansk. Crimea did have autonomy in Ukraine before 2014. Crimea was a part of Russia until 1954.

And I think that almost everyone has seen the videos of Russian soldiers (with weapons) taking people to "vote" last year. Any "vote" where somebody holds a gun to your head isn't a "vote" at all.

Indisputably, no less! The first sentence in your link says it is a disputed referendum. The article goes on listing numerous issues with this so-called referendum. Did you even read it?

But sure, why not advocate a so-called "referendum" held under the guidance of Russian armed forces and intelligence agencies.

That's why I referred to the polling, not the referendum. The post referendum polls referenced in the link were conducted by the USA Government Broadcasting Board of Governors agency, Gallup, the Pew Research Center, and GfK, which is Germany's biggest market research organization. All showed overwhelming support among Crimeans for the results of the referendum. None of those groups were holding guns to people's heads. None were conducted under the guidance of Russian armed forces or intelligence agencies. Again, see Post-referendum polls in

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_C...us_referendum..

Xpartan, I strongly disagree with a number of your points but need to get some dinner before I have to go back to work. I'll be back with you.

[Tiny 12]

Bioweapons was never part of the analogy, so you can out that part aside. The point I am making is that when the actions of one party cause damage not another parties property, financial or physical, the causer is held repsonsible for those damages.

The big difference between German reparations then and USA now is that Germany had been destroyed by war and was unable to pay those reparations. USA has done nothing but cause war and is perfectly able to pay reparations. Just ask Besos and Musk to cough it up. Better still, Gates.

JustTK, You never made a good case that the USA should pay reparations for COVID in my mind. I believe the USA Role in the world was very positive during the pandemic. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and Paxlovid, mostly developed in the USA, saved hundreds of thousands of lives all over the world.

Now if you want to argue the USA Should pay reparations for war in certain instances, I believe you could make a very good case. Getting the USA, or China, to pay reparations would be next to impossible though. They're the top two economic and military powers in the world, and their politicians and people aren't going to agree to it.

Gates is giving his fortune away to charity in a way that will benefit many of the world's poorest. Musk has used his capital to pioneer developments in electric vehicles, solar batteries, and satellite technology. I believe taking money away from them and giving it to inefficient and often corrupt governments to distribute as reparations would be very unwise. Bezos' giving on the other hand might be a good argument for socialism. He gave a $100 million, probably tax deductible, gift to Dolly Parton for example. But in general I'm opposed to taking capital away from our most successful capitalists, in excess of normal taxes levied on everyone else.

[Tiny 12]

There's some damning coverage on the Wall Street Journal editorial page today, coming from whistleblower Gary Shapley, "leader of an elite team of (IRS) agents specializing in international tax investigations, (who) was brought in as supervisor of the Hunter case in January 2020." For example,

Mr. Shapley recounts that his team obtained a July 30, 2017 WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, a Chinese businessman. The testimony says Hunter wrote:

I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-whi...nion_lead_pos2

Now was he really sitting there with his father? I kind of doubt it. But that sounds a lot like blackmail and extortion.

The IRS investigators were prevented from doing their jobs by higher ups every step of the way, but still came up with a recommendation to charge Hunter with felony tax evasion, felony false tax returns, and failures to pay tax. Mr. Shapley says this was partially based on Hunters textbook tax evasion of declaring his income from the Ukrainian firm Burisma as a loan. Mr. Shapley says the team was also looking into a Foreign Agents Registration Act case. Recall that's part of what sent Paul Manafort to prison.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hun...article_inline

I would dare expect that if any of us were disguising $500,000 a year in directors fees as loans, they'd throw the book at us. Hunter got off with two misdemeanor charges.

Equal justice for all, right. We have a federal government of the politicians, by the politicians and FOR the politicians. And for their kids and grandkids. Attorneys at the DOJ refused to allow the IRS agents to interview financial transactions of Joe Biden's grandchildren, or pursue a search warrant of Joe's guest house (Hunter's onetime residence.)

[JustTK]

I don't believe COVID 19 was developed as a bioweapon, so have a tough time accepting the analogy. Forcing reparations on a country is a bad idea. We learned that from the Treaty of Versailles. The effect on Germany, and later on the world after Hitler came to power, was devastating.

Bioweapons was never part of the analogy, so you can out that part aside. The point I am making is that when the actions of one party cause damage not another parties property, financial or physical, the causer is held repsonsible for those damages.

The big difference between German reparations then and USA now is that Germany had been destroyed by war and was unable to pay those reparations. USA has done nothing but cause war and is perfectly able to pay reparations. Just ask Besos and Musk to cough it up. Better still, Gates.

[PVMonger]

I should read links and footnotes before I post. I should have said the majority of Crimeans indisputably wanted to be part of Russia after the 2014 Referendum. The polls before had mixed results, but show support for unification of Russia or autonomy far preferred to becoming a common province of Ukraine, like Donetsk and Luhansk. Crimea did have autonomy in Ukraine before 2014. Crimea was a part of Russia until 1954.

And I think that almost everyone has seen the videos of Russian soldiers (with weapons) taking people to "vote" last year. Any "vote" where somebody holds a gun to your head isn't a "vote" at all.

[Xpartan]

The USA provided 1.94 billion in "selected" military assistance to Ukraine during its 2016 to 2021 fiscal years. See Table 2 in the link below. Add in contributions from other NATO countries and any categories of funding not included in the table, and you're in the billions, like I wrote. I don't imagine Russia was envisioning Ukraine might become a member of NATO at the time the Budapest Memorandum was signed. We were pretty friendly with Russia back then. Unfortunately, in no small part because of neocons in the USA, that's not the case right now.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040

Yes, non-lethal assistance after the non-provoked Russia's invasion of Crimea and Donbass. That cowardice has come back to bite us in the ass because if we had armed Ukraine to the teeth, the February 24 wouldn't have happened.

Your analogy is backwards. The USA stole California, Arizona and Utah from Mexico. Texas was an independent country at the time.

Seriously, it was "independent" for 9 years or so. But that's besides the point.

Furthermore, indisputably, the majority of Crimeans wanted to be part of Russia, before and after the 2014 Referendum and the Russian takeover. See Polling, here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_C...tus_referendum

Indisputably, no less! The first sentence in your link says it is a disputed referendum. The article goes on listing numerous issues with this so-called referendum. Did you even read it?

But sure, why not advocate a so-called "referendum" held under the guidance of Russian armed forces and intelligence agencies.

If Mexico had taken back Southern California in the 1880's, when Mexican Americans were still a majority of the population, and if the majority of the population wanted to be part of Mexico, would I argue that the United Kingdom should be pumping billions into this imaginary war on the side of the USA? No.

You've masterfully evaded my question. Bravo!

The preceding was replying to my comment, "Gorbachev thought he had a commitment from the USA not to expand NATO. " This is another one where I believe I'm indisputably right.

From the link below, which goes into a lot more detail.

USA Secretary of State James Baker's famous "not one inch eastward" assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified USA, Soviet, German, British and French documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

The documents show that multiple national leaders were considering and rejecting Central and Eastern European membership in NATO as of early 1990 and through 1991, that discussions of NATO in the context of German unification negotiations in 1990 were not at all narrowly limited to the status of East German territory, and that subsequent Soviet and Russian complaints about being misled about NATO expansion were founded in written contemporaneous memcons and telcons at the highest levels.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-b...-leaders-early

I've got it, you just like the word "indisputably".

Read:

Did NATO Promise Not to Enlarge? Gorbachev Says "No".

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-fr...bachev-says-no

TL; DR.

NO, Baker has never ever, ever, ever, ever, but wait, let me repeat once again -- ever -- promised Gorbachev or anyone else that NATO wouldn't expand eastward.

And did I fucking say NEVER?

Whatever they were discussing was in the terms "what if". No promises were given. Ever!

We now have a very authoritative voice from Moscow confirming this understanding. Russia behind the Headlines has published an interview with Gorbachev, who was Soviet president during the discussions and treaty negotiations concerning German reunification. The interviewer asked why Gorbachev did not insist that the promises made to you (Gorbachev) particularly U.S. Secretary of State James Bakers promise that NATO would not expand into the Eastbe legally encoded? Gorbachev replied: The topic of NATO expansion was not discussed at all, and it wasnt brought up in those years. Another issue we brought up was discussed: making sure that NATOs military structures would not advance and that additional armed forces would not be deployed on the territory of the then-GDR after German reunification. Bakers statement was made in that context Everything that could have been and needed to be done to solidify that political obligation was done. And fulfilled.

Here is the interview with Gorbachev. Will that be enough for you to stop this nonsense?

https://www.rbth.com/international/2...lls_40673.html

The people in Crimea, and probably in some parts of Donetsk and Luhansk would have preferred to be part of Russia before the 2022 war. Ideologically, it would make sense for Ukraine to cede those areas. Practically, if Ukraine cedes more, the end result will be much preferable to the status quo right now, where people are dying and the economy is suffering.

I could rant and rant about your hypocrisy (Russia and her proxies have KILLED the economy of Donbass in the last 9 years; it's one ghost town after another now), but since you don't insert "indisputably" I'll let it slip.

With respect to any territory retained by Russia, it may turn out very much like what happened in those areas Mexico ceded to the USA in the 1800's. Undoubtedly the Mexicans living there preferred to be governed by Mexico, and some must have fought against the USA. But California, Utah and Arizona are much more prosperous than they would be if still part of Mexico. Russia's per capita GDP is about 2-1/2 times that of Ukraine.

All Russia's GDP is in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Russia is a 3rd world country everywhere outside a few large cities. Very soon it'll be a failed state. Every part of Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine is a hot mess, and it was a mess long before the war started. But that's beside the point. It's not their country, period!

Historically on average Democrats have been somewhat more anti-war than Republicans.

They have? Well, FDR wasn't anti-war when the choice was to fight Hitler or let him have his fun. Maybe Democrats know what wars are worth fighting and what wars are unnecessary like Iraq. I wonder if you remember the administration that started that war.

[EihTooms]

I do not agree with anything you wrote in your post. I have not paid attention to American Politics for over 10 years and I left the country. I felt it was deteriorating rapidly and feel that if you are not going to do anything for me, at least do not fuck with me. I am now truly free and I go where I am treated best You should get a passport and use that birth privilege that your mama gave you to see that the Dis (United States of America) is not the center of the world. Only those that have never left it shores think that. The most important vote is the vote of my USD. And that USD does not get spent in the Dis (United States of America). People that think that their vote at the ballot box means anything when the executives in countries around the world do not control things tells me they need to be WOKE up and deal with the reality of the world as it is. Not fantasies of what they would like it to be. I have taken the orange pill. And the world looks completely different now.

I moved out of the USA to retire in Thailand almost 11 years ago and have not returned since. I worked, made money and invested in the USA and still have rental property there. I vote and care about what happens in the USA because I have friends, family and investments there. And because what happens in the USA does not stay in the USA. Obviously.

Ok, if executives in other countries control everything then my votes for Dems have been empowering executives to produce virtually every result that has presented me with more, better and higher paying income, business and investment gains over the years while some numbskulls' votes for Repubs have empowered executives to produce the only meaningful crap results, income, business and investment losses I have experienced in the past 70 years. And any historical data record you've got shows I was clearly not alone in that experience.

So if it makes you feel better, here is a big Thank You for the executives in other countries pulling the strings on Dems. Piss on the executives in other countries pulling the strings on Repubs.

[Tiny 12]

I do not agree with anything you wrote in your post. I have not paid attention to American Politics for over 10 years and I left the country. I felt it was deteriorating rapidly and feel that if you are not going to do anything for me, at least do not fuck with me. I am now truly free and I go where I am treated best You should get a passport and use that birth privilege that your mama gave you to see that the Dis (United States of America) is not the center of the world. Only those that have never left it shores think that. The most important vote is the vote of my USD. And that USD does not get spent in the Dis (United States of America). People that think that their vote at the ballot box means anything when the executives in countries around the world do not control things tells me they need to be WOKE up and deal with the reality of the world as it is. Not fantasies of what they would like it to be. I have taken the orange pill. And the world looks completely different now.

Tooms has already done that, left the USA. He's just extremely partisan.

A question, is that passport you mention an American one? I understand the USA and Eritrea are the only countries in the world that tax their citizens and require them to file income tax returns regardless of where they live in the world. And also that some foreign banks won't accept USA Citizens as customers, because of our government's onerous reporting requirements. So a USA citizen living abroad may have to jump through hoops to simply open a bank account. All of that seemingly would make it difficult to truly be free, just by leaving the USA.

And a second question, when you say "take the orange pill," do you mean you finally recognized what the USA government's all about? Or are you talking about crypto?

And finally, what does "Dis" mean?

Sorry for all the questions. You may be my new guru.