Politics

[Tanks]

at the end of the day the IRS leaked information that they had no legal right to leak... and they got sued for it..

Didn't they also leak a whole lot of other billionaire's tax returns? Does this mean Musk, Bezos et al can also sue IRS for billions?

 

[Brent in Az]

Didn't they also leak a whole lot of other billionaire's tax returns? Does this mean Musk, Bezos et al can also sue IRS for billions?

An IRS independent contractor did. He was the Democrats fall guy.
It earned him 5 years in prison.

 

[Big_Easy]

the problem is you are convuluting arguments and also misstating what has actually occured..

Trump filed a lawsuit (a civil case, not criminal) against the IRS for illegally leaking his tax returns (past tense) without his consent and was provided with a settlement in that case this week..

The DoJ, recognizing that the Biden Administration weaponized the IRS and that the courts were leaning in favor of Trump in this case, in preparation for numerous lawsuits, has rolled out a $1.77B fund in preparation of paying claims against the federal government for the misuse of power that the IRS and other government agencies exhibited in the prior administration..

As part of Trumps settlement he agreed to drop some additional charges against the FBI and other government agencies that he claims were also weaponized against him (again, past tense)..

In exchange, part of what the IRS put on the table was an agreement to not pursue anything further related to Trump's personal taxes or any of his companys taxes, again, past tense..

So.. If Trump settles, and doesnt completely kick the crap out of them in court and take the full $10B he sued them for.. the IRS will drop anything/everything remotely related to any tax filings that have been completed in the past..

Nowhere does it say Trump, his family, or his companies wont be investigated for any future possible crimes..

They are simply agreeing that the past matter is now dead.. the Biden Administration was wrong.. the IRS is settling the case because they dont want the issue to end up in front of a judge... and as part of the settlement theyre agreeing not to re-open the case later or open new cases on past taxes.. the specific language used was that the agreement encompasses “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the agreement..

Seems like a pretty good deal to me... they now dont pay $10B and multiple IRS officials dont face potential criminal charges after they lose a major civil case..

So why exactly should US Citizen take up arms against a tyrinous government, when the reality is the tyrinous government is no longer in place and the IRS just got its ass handed to it for weaponizing itselt against an individual and all parties involved have agreed to settle the civil suit?

The IRS was never going to have to pay Trump $10 billion dollars. You'd have to be high on meth to think that. No jury, even a south Florida one, was going to award that, and it's equally as likely he would have lost the suit.

"the IRS is settling the case because they don't want the issue to end up in front of a judge..." No, they are settling the case because Trump is both the defendant and the plaintiff so no sh!t he'll decide to settle the case to his liking.

 

[Big_Easy]

I hope Texas republicans are motivated to vote in November - or can be made to be motivated. I despise everything I know about Paxton. I don't believe I can think of a Texas politician who is more repulsive unless it was Tom Delay (aka the Bug Man). That said, I will drag myself to the booth, hold my nose tightly, and vote for him. But, I suspect there are a lot of good republicans who will simply be busy doing something else. A good democrat turnout, and I am confident there will be one, could easily send Talarico to Washington.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2057132693058461704

"I suspect there are a lot of good republicans who will simply be busy doing something else"

Perhaps their ethics will prevent them from voting for a degenerate like Ken Paxton.

 

[mdwest]

Didn't they also leak a whole lot of other billionaire's tax returns? Does this mean Musk, Bezos et al can also sue IRS for billions?

I’d say a precedent has been set…

If a potus can sue the IRS, I don’t know why the richest man on earth can’t..

If through a settlement the IRS is exposing itself and acknowledging that it either thinks it can’t win or that the pain and exposure would be too great to defend… I think that’s likely blood in the water and the sharks are likely circling…

There’s a reason the DoJ set up that $1.8b dollar fund… and it isn’t to pay Trump…

 

[Brent in Az]

"I suspect there are a lot of good republicans who will simply be busy doing something else"

Perhaps their ethics will prevent them from voting for a degenerate like Ken Paxton.

Degenerates are on the Democrat side of the ballot. It's an exploding demographic.

 

[SaintPanzer]

Sarcasm being the lowest form of humor tends to be the place I wallow most comfortably.

Wait... I thought puns were the lowest form of humor?

 

[SaintPanzer]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but there is a significant difference between actually kicking someone's testicles (an actual assault) and hypothetically saying someone deserves to be kicked in the testicles.

It should also require no explanation that the humor of the statement is not based on a desire to assault but rather based on the fact that an actual woman has no testicles, whereas someone who has testicles is in truth not a woman at all.

Consider: yes, it is possible for a man to suffer from breast cancer, though I've never actually had a mammogram. However, I'm confident that I can put on a dress, grow my hair, insist others call me by a name not on my birth certificate, and otherwise try and pass myself off as being feminine, but there is 0% chance that I shall suffer from ovarian cancer, and it would absolutely be not in my best interest to skip screenings for prostate cancer and not worry about testicular cancer.

As far as free speech in the UK, one can be deliberately obtuse on the point of arresting a man for speaking of a hypothetical, but to ignore the fact that a man just died in handcuffs after being stabbed because he allegedly made a racist remark, while the actual "stabber" was not in handcuffs and the alleged murder weapon was removed from the scene and actually recovered at the "stabber's" mother's house... Well, let's just say I'm not as willing to vacation in the UK as I once was. And I do need some preventative maintenance parts for my Jaguar and Land Rover. So there is that.

And as far as saying someone is a gutter dweller who has relations with a parent or describing that person as "acting like said gutter dweller", this simple minded person considers that too clever by half.

 

[spike.t]

Wonder if he will allow it...or not to please his mate xi....

Trump says he will speak to Taiwan's president in break from protocol

It comes as the US weighs whether to proceed with a $14bn arms sales to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

www.bbc.com

 

[Tanks]

Wonder if he will allow it...or not to please his mate xi....

Trump says he will speak to Taiwan's president in break from protocol

It comes as the US weighs whether to proceed with a $14bn arms sales to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

www.bbc.com

Don't understand why he admires and caters to dictators whether it is Putin, Xi, Erdogan etc.. Kindred spirits, envy?

 

[deewayne2003]

"But then again with the UK & Oman being the gauge you are using, it's no wonder you have such a low opinion of rights......."


Au contraire but I agree with you on the UK. They have completely abrogated any concept of rights. If we had a robust mechanism to defend them such as the 2 a maybe we would still have them (though I doubt it)

Hence my interest in the topic.

At what point do people who have the wherewithal to actually step up and defend them actually do so?

Or is it like slowly boiling frogs , as in the UK where the frogs are truly cooked?

The 2A keeps the need to rise up from happening in the first place..... and you prayed your self that it never does.

Do you think that Australia would have done their COVID concentration camps before 1996?.... doubt it!

As for the UK, their gun control is so effective their now trying to ban pointed kitchen knives; which just proves that no matter what you call "Common sense regulation" the nonsensible government will never be satisfied.

Example: David Cameron, a chef was arrested for having a potato peeler in his pocket and was convicted of possessing a dangerous weapon and sentenced to 300 hours of unpaid work.

As for an actual example of Americans rising up against corrupt government with firearms......

 

[deewayne2003]

Don't understand why he admires and caters to dictators whether it is Putin, Xi, Erdogan etc.. Kindred spirits, envy?

Trump came up in the Manhattan real estate game; you don't make billions in that market without learning how to deal with unsavory people who usually want nothing more than to be seen as legitimate.

 

[Tanks]

The 2A keeps the need to rise up from happening in the first place..... and you prayed your self that it never does.

Do you think that Australia would have done their COVID concentration camps before 1996?.... doubt it!

The Branch Davidians at Waco thought the same, we know how that turned out.

 

[deewayne2003]

I hope Texas republicans are motivated to vote in November - or can be made to be motivated. I despise everything I know about Paxton. I don't believe I can think of a Texas politician who is more repulsive unless it was Tom Delay (aka the Bug Man). That said, I will drag myself to the booth, hold my nose tightly, and vote for him. But, I suspect there are a lot of good republicans who will simply be busy doing something else. A good democrat turnout, and I am confident there will be one, could easily send Talarico to Washington.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2057132693058461704

Agreed, I see Talarico as the evil of two lessers.

The only positive thing I can say about Paxton is that he is not Talarico and rather annoyed that he's forcing me to vote for Paxton.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Don't understand why he admires and caters to dictators whether it is Putin, Xi, Erdogan etc.. Kindred spirits, envy?

Bingo. This confounds and frustrates the crap out of me. To me it's like a playground pecking order. He's happy to kick those he can - rebellious Republicans, Zelensky. But he rolls over like a puppy for those he perceives as bigger dogs.

 

[deewayne2003]

The Branch Davidians at Waco thought the same, we know how that turned out.

Actually the Branch Davidians thought the end of days would come when......

"The dark army of Satan would appear to enslave all of man."

Which I believe shows just how tone deaf the ATF was when they pulled up in cattle trailers filled with agents clad in all black; after they alerted the news media before hand because they wanted a highly publicized public spectacle for the country to see how the ATF was justified in not being absorbed by the FBI.

We all know how it ended; but they put up enough resistance where the federal government had to inject lethal amounts of highly flammable gas into the structure after they knocked holes in the up wind and down wind sides of the building(classic arson technique) and then fired 40mm rounds that were known to cause fires into the up wind side of the structure......

Then spent the next 20 years denying federal agents ever fired those 40mm rounds despite photographic evidence to the contrary.

Remember, the warrant was granted based on the sale of a shotgun with a barrel that was 17.75" despite having undercover agents imbedded in the compound that were reporting on the child abuse taking place.

FYI - People who were in that compound still meet every Thursday in Waco Texas for Bible study.

 

[WAB]

Any chance Cornyn eeks it out?

The IRS was never going to have to pay Trump $10 billion dollars. You'd have to be high on meth to think that. No jury, even a south Florida one, was going to award that, and it's equally as likely he would have lost the suit.

"the IRS is settling the case because they don't want the issue to end up in front of a judge..." No, they are settling the case because Trump is both the defendant and the plaintiff so no sh!t he'll decide to settle the case to his liking.

If you think Trump is on both sides of this case, you clearly don’t understand how our three branches of government work. Are you truly as uninformed as your posts would indicate, or are you just trying to stir the pot?

 

[Wheels]

Evidently 80% of Americans want the Senate to pass the Save Act. Old mainline Republicans have proven to be the primary obstacle.

This year Tillis, Cassidy and probably Cornyn are gone. Their constituents, part of the 80% have/are making a decision. Some Senators seem to have forgotten this. Others like Grassley and Graham, like them or not, understand it.

Paxton offered to drop out if Cornyn passed the Save Act. It didn’t happen. Senators are reaping the consequences of their actions/inactions.

A Democrat hasn’t won a statewide race in Texas since 1994. Paxton has won three statewide races. I have no clue what will happen in the Texas Senate race but it looks like Texas Republicans have grown tired of the old guard and are looking for a change.

 

[mdwest]

Evidently 80% of Americans want the Senate to pass the Save Act. Old mainline Republicans have proven to be the primary obstacle.

This year Tillis, Cassidy and probably Cornyn are gone. Their constituents, part of the 80% have/are making a decision. Some Senators seem to have forgotten this. Others like Grassley and Graham, like them or not, understand it.

Paxton offered to drop out if Cornyn passed the Save Act. It didn’t happen. Senators are reaping the consequences of their actions/inactions.

A Democrat hasn’t won a statewide race in Texas since 1994. Paxton has won three statewide races. I have no clue what will happen in the Texas Senate race but it looks like Texas Republicans have grown tired of the old guard and are looking for a change.

Im not a Paxton fan...

BUT... I think a pretty substantial number of working class R's and certainly most of the far right R's in Texas are significant supporters.. He is certainly a household name throughout the Lone Star State.. His name is heard (for better or worse) every bit as often on the radio, TV, in the papers, on the local news stations, etc as Greg Abbotts is..

I dont think the R's that dislike Paxton are a problem.. as @Red Leg , myself, and others have said, we will absolutely go to the poles and pull the lever for him, like him or not.. because the other option is beyond the pale bad for Texas (and the US as a whole)..

The problem is simply motivating people to go to the poles at all.. R's have got to start pushing hard to remind people that November is coming sooner than they think.. etc..etc.. and let them know just how important it is to vote..

 

[PARA45]

Rs are too complacent during the midterms. We need to change that, and remind everyone that every election is important!