Play Nice 47th President of the United States: Donald Trump - Part 20: Here we go again!

[Gethelred]

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USA - 2024 US Presidential Election: Trump vs Harris (pt II)

Continued from Part 1 - https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/2024-us-presidential-election-trump-vs-harris.1383317/

www.bigfooty.com

USA - Kamala Harris Concedes. God Help America

www.bigfooty.com

< - Trump 19 is back there.

 

[IlovethePies]

Concrete, specific policies alluded to above include:

1. Finish the Border wall with Mexico.
2. Deport over a million people, using the National Guard and Army.
3. Ending inflation.
4. Make America the dominant energy producer in the world (currently this is China, and by some margin)
5. Turning America into a 'manufacturing superpower' (it already is, second only to China, so to get this one up we would need to see real gains).
6. Large tax cuts for workers.
7. No tax on tips.
8. Prevent World War three (?), restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East (presumably this means ending the War in Israel/ Palestine/ Lebanon/ Iran, and ending the Russia/ Ukraine conflict 'in 24 hours').
9. Build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country -- all made in America.
10. Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders (this includes the death penalty for drug dealers).
11. Rebuild our cities, including Washington DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again.
12. Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world (current US Military spending is $841.4 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD), $32.4 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy (DOE), and $438.0 million in defense-related activities).
13. Keep the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency (although it's not like he has the power to stop the USD being the Worlds default reserve currency in any event).
14. No cuts to social security and Medicare.
15. No changes to the retirement age.
16. Cancel the electric vehicle mandate (good mate Musk is going to love this one).
17. Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.
18. Keep men out of women's sports.
19. Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.
20. Secure our elections, including same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship.

Sounds good to me.

Here is the real list of what Trump actually intends:

1. Finish the Border wall with Mexico. Yeah, probably will add crocodiles in the river and machine gun turrets on the wall as well.
2. Deport over a million people, using the National Guard and Army. (More than a million - more like 10 million)
3. Make America the dominant energy producer in the world. This is just absurd.
4. No tax on tips. (Who declares their tips to the IRS ??)
5. Prevent WW3. This is absurd. He will prepare to ignite world war 3 (Iran the first target then China).
6. Large tax cuts for workers. The tax cuts will be for the corporations and the financial oligarchy, not for the workers.
7. Build a great iron dome missile shield over our country - why would he bother doing this, when the Israeli one has already proven to be a total failure?
8. Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders (this includes the death penalty for drug dealers). There is no migrant crime epidemic, all the statistics in the US repudiate this claim. It is an utter lie.
9. Prevent World War three (?) Absolutely will not. He has already started a war with China, in its embryonic form, by announcing a program of tariffs and trade war.
10. Rebuild our cities? From the ashes of a nuclear holocaust?
11. Strengthen and modernise the military. Without a doubt he will do this. Funnelling billions of tax payers' money into the military while simultaneously cutting taxes for the financial oligarchy. Won't go down well with the working class.
12. Keep the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. That is what every US capitalist politician is aiming for. But becasue the US debt has blown out to such astronomical levels, both parties - Democrats and Republicans - have resorted to war as a state policy to annul the debt by simply seizing resources and markets from competitors. This leads to ww3, whether instigated by Trump or by the Democrats.
13. No cuts to social security and Medicare. Trump will eviscerate Medicare and social security, in a manner never before seen in US history. And this will ignite a gigantic social rebellion in the working class.
14. No changes to the retirement age. (It won't matter, because no retirement assistance will be available anyway)
15. Cancel ev mandate. Don't know much about this, but if Musk wants it, then yes Trump will do it.
16. Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children. This is a joke. Trump intends to cut federal funding for public education full stop. His program includes the abolition of the federal Department of Education.
17. Keep women out of men's sports. Part of his sociopathic brutality against minority groups.
18. Deport hamas radicals and make colleges safe. This is not much different from the Democrats, who are jailing, banning and threatening to deport anti-genocide protestors. The only difference is that the Democrats call anti-genocide protestors "anti-Semitic" while Trump calls them "pro-Hamas".
19. Secure our elections Trump has already declared that he intends to ban all future elections.

 

[Episode IV]

Your should probably get into some specifics then. Are you happy with the current way the Australian electoral commission draws up seats? I’m guessing you would be.

Are you not happy with it?

 

[Chief]

No tax on tips. (Who declares their tips to the IRS ??)

When I've been over there, they were getting assessed based on an an assumed level of tips. Even if they didn't get that much, they were taxed at that level of income.

Not sure if it has changed in the last 10 years.

States can always add a tax on it anyway and Donny can whine about people ignoring him.

To my mind it would be a good thing, with income tax dropping they might institute better minimum wages to move from tips-based to wage-based pay.

 

[IlovethePies]

When I've been over there, they were getting assessed based on an an assumed level of tips. Even if they didn't get that much, they were taxed at that level of income.

Not sure if it has changed in the last 10 years.

States can always add a tax on it anyway and Donny can whine about people ignoring him.

To my mind it would be a good thing, with income tax dropping they might institute better minimum wages to move from tips-based to wage-based pay.

Don;t think that is really the point.

Whatever scraps workers in hospitality (paid minimum wage) might get extra from removal of tax on tips is nothing compared with the gigantic tax cuts and total deregulation that Trump intends to unleash on behalf of corporate america.

 

[Chief]

Don;t think that is really the point.

You were skeptical that people declared their tips.

I related my memory of how they were assumed to get a certain % of tips and taxed on it - so it didn't matter if they did not declare them.

I am sure you had other stuff to say, I didn't really read it, and it wasn't covered in my post.

 

[IlovethePies]

You were skeptical that people declared their tips.

I related my memory of how they were assumed to get a certain % of tips and taxed on it - so it didn't matter if they did not declare them.

I am sure you had other stuff to say, I didn't really read it, and it wasn't covered in my post.

Well maybe you should read the rest, if you intend to make a comment about my post, because then maybe you will see the actual point of the content.

 

[Chief]

No tax on tips. (Who declares their tips to the IRS ??)

This is what I was talking about. Only this. In isolation. Nothing else.

 

[Episode IV]

You realise that nobody can take you seriously while you keep being an infant?

You could think of it as an appropriately irreverent answer to a stupid question.

 

[Chief]

Whatever scraps workers in hospitality (paid minimum wage) might get extra from removal of tax on tips is nothing compared with the gigantic tax cuts and total deregulation that Trump intends to unleash on behalf of corporate america

Yes I agree with that. As a seperate point from the fact about assumed level of income from tips.

 

[IlovethePies]

This is what I was talking about. Only this. In isolation. Nothing else.

Well, I think that this approach is not effective.

One needs to approach the question of the acutal program of Trump not on the basis of one isolated point at a time, but as part of an interconnected whole.

Assuming that removal of tax on tips actually does mean something, (however infinitesmal) it is only part of Trump's program to remove all taxes, and of course the idea of "removing all taxes" means above all removing any taxation of the capitalist class.

The overall picture is always what counts.

 

[stefcep]

Don;t think that is really the point.

Whatever scraps workers in hospitality (paid minimum wage) might get extra from removal of tax on tips is nothing compared with the gigantic tax cuts and total deregulation that Trump intends to unleash on behalf of corporate america.

And no tax on overtime.

And no tax on social security benefits.

 

[IlovethePies]

And no tax on overtime.

And no tax on social security benefits.

WTF?? See above posts for enlightenment

 

[Chief]

Well, I think that this approach is not effective.

Responding to your skepticism about people declaring their tips with the facts that I recall? It was just that and nothing more. No need to get caught up on it.

 

[IlovethePies]

Responding to your skepticism about people declaring their tips with the facts that I recall? It was just that and nothing more. No need to get caught up on it.

OK fine, I understand, you want to ensure that the details are correct.
I agree. Details are important.
But what is most important is to understand how those details relate to the whole picture. And that is what I am trying to emphasize in my posts.

 

[Chief]

OK fine, I understand, you want to ensure that the details are correct.
I agree. Details are important.
But what is most important is to understand how those details relate to the whole picture. And that is what I am trying to emphasize in my posts.

And the people who read them will do so, no doubt.

 

[Episode IV]

Yep,
and their media choices will reinforce and hammer more deeply those conservative opinions that it is great for them.
Out of all the literature I was subjected to in high school half a century ago, two have had a life-long, real world impact: Brave New World and 1984.
Have the local GOP white trash gotten around to banning them yet from their parishes? Probably need to to squelch any concepts of plans for resistance.

I'd suggest you read them again.

 

[Todman]

Hope they don't come our way.

 

[Chief]

Here come the cringe memes from boomer accounts.

 

[IlovethePies]

View attachment 2162355

Hope they don't come our way.

So you think Trump and Bannon's threats against all political opponents is something to joke about?

 

[Episode IV]

Here come the cringe memes from boomer accounts.

I'd heard that the Boomers were getting rather savvy with the internet, but the idea that they're now on a par with younger generations in the realm of cringy meme posting is a real eye-opener. Give them a couple of months, and they'll be flooding the internet with enough cringe to rival the ones posted in this thread.

Just as well you weren't running for President, really.
A quick Google search has about 72 million of the Boomer generation living in the USA right now.
72 million potential voters, around 20% of the population, looking at you side-eyed and wondering what it is you're offering them more beneficial than the disrespect.
Hot on their heels, another 20%, being Gen X, wondering when it'll be their turn for ridicule - if it hasn't already come.

So with a note that I'm not actually talking to you directly here, as I'm sure you're aware, perhaps it might become a little easier a little easier to understand how Trump has come to power.

This is just another one of those reasons.

 

[Chief]

Just as well you weren't running for President, really.

Strong take. Start a Twitch stream.

 

[Episode IV]

Strong take. Start a Twitch stream.

Thought about it, but the games I play are mostly older ones where reflexes aren't so much in play. Arthritis, poor eyesight, you know. Strategy games and the like.
That, combined with the thought that I'd end up with only about 20 followers, those being those older folk who've figured out what Twitch is and how to use it, presumably with the assistance of their grandchildren, sort of put me off the idea.

 

[Chief]

So with a note that I'm not actually talking to you directly here, as I'm sure you're aware, perhaps it might become a little easier a little easier to understand how Trump has come to power.

This is just another one of those reasons.

But this is GOLD!

Boomers voted for Trump because their cringe pro-Trump memes were ridiculed by youthful lefties!

You could be as popular as HasanAbi with this material!

 

[Blue1980]

So where does this leave the rest of the world Trump says he will make it so all birth certificates will only have male or female on it, all pronouns will be null and void, no Transgender women will be allowed to complete in any female sport i guess no one will be cancelling anyone in the US.

Sounds like trans people are cancelled reading the above.

 

[Episode IV]

Pentagon preps for possible Trump order to deploy troops on Americans: report

The Pentagon is bracing for "major upheaval" ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's second term, according to CNN, with officials already holding informal talks about how the Defense Department will respond if Trump orders it to deploy active-duty military troops on his own citizens and makes...

www.rawstory.com

Bit of a worry, isn't it.
America has a history with the Guard and Military being called out to quell civil disturbance.
Here's a list of civil disturbances in general, I'd imagine militias and military of one strip or another were involved in quite a few of them. Police, definitely.

List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Brings to mind possible consequences of that sort of action - Kent State, Jackson State, et al.
The other side of all that, of course, is events such as the BLM protests back in 2020 or so. In that instance, there were reports of guardsmen and Police not only standing back, but on occasion joining in. Weeks of protests resulting in, from memory, somewhere around $20 million in property damage*, and some lives lost anyway.

During the Capitol riots, the Guard was criticised for not arriving on time, and in inadequate numbers.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Given the propensity of the Western democracies to start protesting at the drop of a hat, and for American protests to involve large numbers and sometimes not behave all that well when things don't go their way, why is it such a surprise that the Guard is getting ready?

*edit - wow. Over a Billion, actually.