All_Pro_Bills

Figures from the tax foundation for the year 2017 on the percentage of State government funds report WV received 38.1% of its funds from the Federal government and NY receive 35.9% of its funds from the Federal government. Ranks 9th and 15th respectively. https://taxfoundation.org/state-federal-aid-reliance-2020/

Based on observation in today's America conservative politicians don't care about kids after their birthday and liberal politicians don't care about them before it.

I'm not saying anything is synonymous. I'm saying the Clinton campaign and the DNC did something worse. Actual violations of the law. Purposefully presenting false evidence to the FBI, which enabled an investigation, and then used to existence of that investigation to create misinformation designed to influence the election and the voters and those responsible should be exposed and held accountable. That is what the testimony of witnesses involved in the act and aware of the act have clearly stated in court. You seem incapable of accepting the reality of it all. What you're incapable of admitting is the 3 talking points you obsess over are from the very Clinton/DNC manufactured collusion narrative they instigated. And nothing you accuse the Trump campaign of has been a crime or an indictable offense in almost 6 years of constant repetition and media carpet bombing of those narratives. Not a single charge or conviction of anyone has happened. I'm saying nothing of what you believe is true in any form consistent with reality.

First, even if those things were true, none of them absolve the Clinton campaign and the DNC from criminal conduct. Lying to federal agents. Feeding disinformation, known to be false about a political opponent to the FBI. With the intent to interfere with the election of 2016 by misinforming voters. Peddling the Russian collusion hoax and disinformation campaign while conducting their own disinformation campaign. Deception on a grand scale. Second. Other than Manifort, who was convicted on tax charges for activities which occurred prior to joining the 2016 campaign who has been charged, tried, and convicted of any of the three narratives you cling to? Who's serving time for any of those things? Exactly what sections of the criminal code or campaign regulations are you suggesting they broke? Are we all to believe there is credible and valid evidence to nail Trump to the wall but for some reason they're just letting him off the hook after going through the effort of two impeachments? That idea operates outside the boundaries of reality.

So still in denial and sticking to the scripted DQC misinformation talking points.

Given how the testimony has implicated the Clinton campaign in the fabrication of the Russia collusion hoax I'd ask how it feels to confront to truth that something you've believed in and defended for almost 6 years is a lie? I expect a major case of cognitive dissonance.

What do you expect? America is in a constant state of war with one country or another somewhere on the planet. Our society glorifies violence and killing. The education system is dysfunctional and family and social order are breaking down. Its the perfect breeding ground for psychos and misfits. Violence is the one thing America is still good at doing. Politicians can't agree on anything. But spending money and sending arms and troops to blow up crap and killing lots of people? That's something almost all of them can get behind. Militarize police departments with combat weapons and tactics and they usually wait outside while the place gets shot up. In this case one motivated border patrol agent passing by the scene decided to take charge and end it. And there's some bewilderment that shootings occur across the country on a regular basis? Its a wonder there aren't more of them. Generally, the white liberal majority and the white conservative minority only care about these mass shootings for two reasons. First, it can and might directly affect their family at some point assuming their kids attend public schools and not the usual heavily defended private schools. And two, it impacts the issue of stricter gun ownership rules and controls. But when it comes to most of those stats like people of color killing each other in the streets of the cities run by unqualified and ineffective mayors and other officials they could care less. As long as their asses are safe everything is okay. So after the obligatory "gun control" dance between the two camps with lots of moaning and groan, morning of the dead, and speeches along with some demonstrations and then its all back to "normal".

Yup, the obligatory flag pin represents you as a member of another virtue signaling group which grants you immediate moral and ethical superiority on any and all topics. But providing actual support for the Ukrainian people in need, likely not so much. I can top that. A week ago I was socializing at home with actual and certified Ukrainian born people last week for a family event. But they're a little heavy and too bulky to pin to my shirt collar!

Not slow. Just committed and frozen to a specific ideological position that give and take of opinions and facts cannot alter or adjust. That ideology based on an obsession with Trump and associating any and all issues and topics to said person and labeling any dissenters to their opinions as "Trump supporters" or "cult" members. Since I am neither of those I've learned to keep my engagement with the specific posters to a minimum.

Regardless of all the damning evidence, I'd be surprised if any of this results in a conviction as the Judge has put tight guardrails around areas the prosecution can cover and question, what evidence can be submitted, and add to that a DC jury composition being highly favorable to political positions of the defense team and their client. Either way half of the country will be happy and the other half unhappy with the result. In any event what it does is implicate the Clinton campaign in the fabrication and origin of the Russia hoax. Given this it's a mystery anyone can still believe in it.

Nothing to do with Trump. A failure to clearly articulate a roadmap and a legislative agenda along with some overall vision in contrast with the Biden agenda and record to date will undo Republican efforts to retake Congress. Just saying the other guys are doing poorly so don't vote for them isn't enough. What's the benefit to replace one group of representatives doing nothing with another group of representatives that will do nothing? But maybe that's what our system has devolved into?

The problem everybody avoids admitting exists is American's have been conditioned to love war and violence and have been desensitized from it due to constant exposure. Add in a failing education system and broken families due to a terrible economy for working people that results in lots of dysfunction and kids turning out mentally FUBARed. We had access to guns when I went to high school and lots of gripes and grievances with lots of other students and cliques but nobody on either side of these disputes went out and shot up the town because of it all. Today, there's simply was too many people running loose out there that are a couple cans short of a 6-pack. But embrace diversity. Even if they are criminally insane. Also, there's lots of guns in Switzerland too. Mass shootings not so much. Because of the culture and not because of gun control. The geniuses in our government left billions in military grade weapons in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and outside of their governments killing lots of people there aren't a lot of mass shootings perpetrated by disgruntled civilians. For the major source of violence look no further than the consensus blood lust for war in Washington's uni-party establishment. The same dick-wads that want to arm every person on Earth in every other country want to take all the guns out of hands of civilians here. How's that reconcile?

The sad fact is guns or no guns, Americans are a very violent people and our civil and social order are breaking down as a result of all the wars and conflicts brought to us by the Washington uni-party, Hollywood & video game industry violence peddling, and a general breakdown in family and civil order along with a failing educational system. Blame who you want but that's where it stands.

I can't imagine that anyone on this message board, or Americans in general, are rooting for more mass shootings. So when it comes to mass shootings there are no sides. The problem is that when one of these events happens with all too often regularity, the conversation immediately turns to a political crusade full of the usual talking points about white supremacy ideology and the need to suppress and weed it out or the need for more stringent gun control laws. In this case we can scratch off the first one but I'm almost certain somebody, somewhere out there will attempt to make that case. And as for gun control as long as the solution is always focused on infringing on the rights law abiding citizens to legally defend themselves its just a non-starter. And that's because most gun owners and many non-gun owners conclude the purpose of activists demanding more stringent gun laws is not to stop these shootings but instead to use them as an excuse to address their long-standing desire to disarm the private citizen. Which they believe will leave them living in the same type of shooting gallery environment that exists in cities like New York and Chicago which nobody in charge in those jurisdictions appear eager to address. And at the mercy of public officials who through the pandemic have demonstrated though their zeal for authoritarian control that they can't be trusted. A good start might be identifying and getting the nuts off the streets reversing the policies of letting them run loose.

So moving on from the 2020 campaign theme of racism to the 2022 theme for the mid-terms of class warfare. Along with the DNC's top slogan, "sure food and gas costs a lot more but think how thin you'll look from dieting and how healthy you'll be from walking everywhere". These people are so clever!

The beef is the Democrats are likely to get slaughtered in the mid-terms so they need to make up a bunch of imaginary issues and bullsheet to scare voters away and keep them in control of Congress.

Can't it be both?

In a restaurant I overheard one of the campaign officials requesting Russian dressing for their salad. One of the servers mentioned they've met with Russian dressing over 140 times. Clearly a 'red flag' national security issue. I immediately contacted Adam Schiff and the FBI which respectively responded by scheduling hearings and initiating an investigation. NBC and other major networks expressed interest in exposing the story.

When the goal of the disinformation team is to protect the disinformation generated by the government from scrutiny, challenge, and inspection its hard to spin it as some kind of public service initiative. Why not just call job title as "Czar of making sure we can get away with lying to you about everything".

A flat tax absent lots of exemptions, deductions, exclusions, and schedules like depreciation and amortization would be much more convenient and simple but also hugely disruptive to the accounting and tax preparation professions. I've traditionally itemized but since Trump screwed individual payers in high tax states with SALT limitations the standard deduction has been the best option and my effective tax rate has been higher the past few years.

Is there anything in the tax code that prohibits the wealthy from voluntarily paying more? If not, then cut a check for 20% of your net worth and hand it over to the tax man. Frankly, I always find these statements made by the rich as buillsheet publicity stunts intended to curry favor and popularity with the activist mob but absent any real intent to pay "more".

Well, I agree with you completely, my back and forth with Tibs is about an unrelenting obsession that America is acting to protect democracy. I think that's an ideological fantasy. My position is the US is acting purely out of self-interest. Like it or not the US sets the rules governing the world order and whether or not a country is a democracy or not is not important. The most important fact is either they follow the rules set by the US or they do not follow the rules set by the US. Russia, and a few other countries, dangerously a growing number, do not want to or do not follow the rules. Rule breakers must be put down. So like the Romans sending a couple legions to a far away province to put down a rebellion the US deploys various State department diplomats, intelligence operatives, and scores of military advisors and boatloads of armaments and financial aid. To restore the order. In this case by intervening through proxy state Ukraine letting them do all the fighting and dying while most likely compensating their leadership very well under the table. That's all this is about. Maintaining the business arrangements and rules of the Empire. But the primary goal of supporting democracy? You can't be serious!

In my view Trump's tariffs did nothing but make consumer goods cost more and provide some "raw meat" for his base. But how many U.S. companies actually on-shored their operations? They mostly stuck to their Chinese operations or moved to someplace else in Asia. Maybe the supply chain mess will force some to evaluate their sourcing strategies now?

Self government! Ukraine is completely controlled by Washington consistent with how previous versions of Ukrainian governments were completely controlled by Moscow. You really think Zelensky is calling the shots? If he engaged in peace talks or a deal with Russia without US permission he'd be killed.

Do I? I had absolutely zero input into the decisions that moved critical production over to Taiwan while becoming totally dependent on that island nation for our supply of necessary components. Nor did I have a hand in granting China favorable trade status or encouraging US companies to move their operations to China, allow the CCP to steal proprietary technology as part of the arrangement, or allow the US mainland to become dependent on Chinese imports. Lots of US companies and their executives got rich, lots of US workers lost their jobs, lots of US cities and towns turned into welfare centers. Meanwhile, Chinese oligarchs and the CC party got rich too. So here we are on the verge of more war threats which could have been avoiding with a little forward thinking. But today's corporate leaders believe 3 months ahead is long term planning and politicians only worry about the next election. China plays the long game of boiling the frog over 40 plus years and the dumb-dumbs running US policy wake up one day to realize we're painted into a corner. So now we've got the choice of giving in to China or sending our sons and daughters to die in order to defend an island some 8 to 10 thousand miles away? Who could have seen this coming when dealing with an authoritarian communist dictatorship while being armed with a nonsensical theory that through "engagement" they'd become "more like us"?