President Donald J. Trump: Orange is the New Black, House Slytherin Rises Also Heil Trump!

[Byrthnoth]

Is it time for a discussion about the utility of the CIA and FBI, given that the president elect seems to distrust/reject their intelligence briefings?

Apparently it was: http://www.wsj.com/articles/lawmaker...nce-1483554450

[Mertron]

We tolerated him doing it for an entire year

lol

[Aerin]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/lawmaker...nce-1483554450

Our Muchkin in Chief is looking to revamp our intelligence agencies as well

So this is something I'm honestly curious what Day/Krandor or a Trump supporter (that's not a troll) think. When the entire intelligence community, Dems, and Republicans, all say that Russia was meddling with the election and Trump is really the only one saying, "Nope, don't believe it" what is your stance? What are your concerns, if any?

[Zealot]

I have some buddies in the CIA, I wonder how this will affect them.

I imagine it will be something like "Russian hacks" suddenly and inexplicably releasing Trump's tax returns.

[Niiro]

'Member when Gingrich wanted to re-create the House Un-American Activities Committee.

I 'member.

[Krandor]

I've already talked about it a decent amount on here. If you honestly gave a shit about what I think and aren't just looking to bait me by lumping me in as a Trump supporter, go look it up.

[Day]

So this is something I'm honestly curious what Day/Krandor or a Trump supporter (that's not a troll) think. When the entire intelligence community, Dems, and Republicans, all say that Russia was meddling with the election and Trump is really the only one saying, "Nope, don't believe it" what is your stance? What are your concerns, if any?

Well how much faith did you have in CIA/FBI before this election? Mines still in about the same area. These guys were pretty off base on Iraq, and it was basically a meme that CIA was just disinformation before all this.

I think Trump is taking the Russian hacking thing a bit too personal, but I also see why, they are purposely conflating DNC and Podesta emails with vote hacking by constantly saying "Russians hacked the election" over and over. All of the reports have been pretty damn fuzzy on details, but I will for sake of argument go ahead and concede Russia gave the emails to wikileaks (despite Assange's very adamant claims otherwise). It's a pretty strong narrative to push that de-legitimatizes his victory, and I guess I can see why he defends himself in that regard.

I do think it would be in his best interest to chill until he's had the full briefing, but clearly he doesn't gaf.

What annoys me was to hear Clapper say the OPM hack that affection 21 million people wasn't an attack, but just espionage, because "we do it too", but somehow DNC and Podesta emails is something entirely different. I'm not buying that.

[dasva]

OECD says the average tax revenue among surveyed countries was 34.3% in 2015 and the US is provisionally at 26.4%, but I admit our historic average is lower than I thought.

I was probably remembering the tax on the wealthiest tax bracket, which has declined sharply over the fifty years.

Should be noted that while the U.S. is lower in average taxes should be noted OECD also puts us at the highest net disposal income and wealth. Of course correlation etc. Data in that regard is fairly sporadic as some other really low tax places also are doing quite well but others not and same with high taxes.

Something interesting to note on a later tables though is where those taxes come from. For example we focus so much on income/profit taxes but we already collect a much larger portion of our taxes from there than most countries. Notably the average is 33.7% and we are 5th highest at 47.7% . Perhaps we focus too much on taxing profits and income? Meanwhile on the portion that comes social security we are slightly below average (24.1 compared to the average of 26.2%) but that's probably largely due to the higher income as 3/4 of ones that got a bigger percent from income had basically none from social security and the other 1 was canada at 15.1% and if you combine the 2 we are still way higher than the average of those 2 combined. What's really telling is we are waaaaaaaay below average on the portion of taxes coming from goods/services ( 17.4% compared to average of 32.6% which is the lowest) while way higher on property taxes (10.8 compared to average of 5.6%). Should note those are based on the 2014 table there is one for 2015 but it doesn't include averages but for the US it continues similar trends. Even greater portion of our taxes coming from income/profits and less from goods/services with SS/property budging slightly down as well. They even go into more of much more specific taxation but don't really have the time to go thru the like 4 tables per country especially when it's all in total revenue of that nations currency. Regardless if we are comparing taxation between countries perhaps we should also account for where those taxes come from because I'm no economist but I'd say where we get ours in comparison to other countries would probably tend to promote more consumption and less investing/property buying

[Ksandra]

I really don't know whether this should go in the Ms. Piggy thread or here.

McConnell: "The American People Won't Tolerate Not Appointing a Supreme Court Justice" after Democrats vow to block a bad nomination.

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement..._nominee_video

Pardon my ignorance, but can the dems actually halt it when they aren't the majority? If so I hope they do and force some kind of change to the system as this has been ridiculous.

[Zetanio]

Pardon my ignorance, but can the dems actually halt it when they aren't the majority? If so I hope they do and force some kind of change to the system as this has been ridiculous.

No.

[Aerin]

I've already talked about it a decent amount on here. If you honestly gave a shit about what I think and aren't just looking to bait me by lumping me in as a Trump supporter, go look it up.

Wasn't trying to bait you, I honestly don't recall you talking about it but I may have missed it. I do care about all points of view, but do give snarky replies sometimes when I see snarky comments. A bad habit I know but sometimes I just can't help myself. I apologize from distracting you from being a cunt for the sake of being a cunt. Carry on.

Well how much faith did you have in CIA/FBI before this election? Mines still in about the same area. These guys were pretty off base on Iraq, and it was basically a meme that CIA was just disinformation before all this.

I think Trump is taking the Russian hacking thing a bit too personal, but I also see why, they are purposely conflating DNC and Podesta emails with vote hacking by constantly saying "Russians hacked the election" over and over. All of the reports have been pretty damn fuzzy on details, but I will for sake of argument go ahead and concede Russia gave the emails to wikileaks (despite Assange's very adamant claims otherwise). It's a pretty strong narrative to push that de-legitimatizes his victory, and I guess I can see why he defends himself in that regard.

I do think it would be in his best interest to chill until he's had the full briefing, but clearly he doesn't gaf.

What annoys me was to hear Clapper say the OPM hack that affection 21 million people wasn't an attack, but just espionage, because "we do it too", but somehow DNC and Podesta emails is something entirely different. I'm not buying that.

I've always had some faith in them, individually I'm not sure. But on the world stage their jobs are as serious as they get, so I do have some confidence in them. I agree Iraq was a failure, did all the intelligence agencies agree in thinking that Sadam had WMD's? I don't remember exactly, I thought they weren't in unanimous agreement and Bush (with the help of Cheney of course) made the decision that it was best to go in.

I can see Trump taking it personally as a way for some to try and de-legitimatize his win, but think it's very dangerous for anyone in that office to cast aside such things. It will only open him up to such attacks down the road, which I don't want to see. I do believe, in this particular area regarding Russian meddling in general, that if he loses we all do.

[Darus Grey]

Pardon my ignorance, but can the dems actually halt it when they aren't the majority? If so I hope they do and force some kind of change to the system as this has been ridiculous.

Yes and no.

Confirmation requires a simple majority(51), but without 60 votes it can be filibustered by the democrats.

That said, Filibusters aren't part of the process constitutionally, so if it passed with 51 they could just force it through and ignore the filibuster. This is rarely done out of deference to the senate's self imposed rules, but is entirely legal.

[6souls]

The 4 black assailants have been identified;

Jordan Hill, 18; Tesfaye Cooper, 18; Brittany Covington, 18; and Tanishia Covington, 24

Charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery, and hate crime, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. Hill also was charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. Hill, Cooper, and Brittany Covington also were charged with residential burglary.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/01/...ok-live-video/
https://twitter.com/Chicago_Police/s...87523210096641 (Pics)

[Zetanio]

Holy shit they got the hate crime charge?

[Headspace]

So this is something I'm honestly curious what Day/Krandor or a Trump supporter (that's not a troll) think. When the entire intelligence community, Dems, and Republicans, all say that Russia was meddling with the election and Trump is really the only one saying, "Nope, don't believe it" what is your stance? What are your concerns, if any?

If you want to know Days thoughts, just follow Glenn Greenwald on Twitter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Niiro]

Holy shit they got the hate crime charge?

Well it fits the definition.

Hate crime laws were generally meant to protect vulnerable minorities but that's not de-facto their only application.

[Day]

If you want to know Days thoughts, just follow Glenn Greenwald on Twitter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You are so butthurt lmao, I bet your post history in this thread is 85% crying about my posts.

[6souls]

Probably got it because the victim was a "special needs."

[Zetanio]

Well it fits the definition.

Hate crime laws were generally meant to protect vulnerable minorities but that's not de-facto their only application.

I agree but I'm fucking amazed they actually did it.

EDIT: 6souls is right.

[archibaldcrane]

Pardon my ignorance, but can the dems actually halt it when they aren't the majority? If so I hope they do and force some kind of change to the system as this has been ridiculous.

Supreme Court appointments still require a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate which Republicans don't have. So either Dems filibuster like crazy (if they can hold together, would likely depend on the specific nominee) or the Republicans change the filibuster rules and eliminate it for Supreme Court nominees.