Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[The Oracle]

[Da Geezer]

That Pennsylvania judge should have given a speech or two for the prison company to "earn" his million. We know that is legal.

[Da Geezer]

I ask because if the plan is a go forward, I'd be interested in seeing how many of her donors currently have divisions outside the US and are they really just creating a competitive advantage for established corps vs new companies.

Good point. Rent-seeking 101. I took it to mean retroactively in addition to prospectively, but, once you accept the concept of recouping tax advantages, the implementation would be a matter of political convenience.

[hack]

Am unclear. It common for deals to be reached including backtaxes.

[Hannibal]

IMHO there's no point in analyzing Clinton's policies because she will be an autopilot President. I don't expect her to do much. That expatriation tax or whatever you want to call it won't survive the first donation to the Clinton Foundation by Ford, Carrier, Nabisco, Exxon-Mobil, etc.

[Dr. Strangelove]

3 months ago Trump opened up a campaign office in New Jersey to much fanfare and predictions that he would win the state.

After several unreturned calls, Politico visited the office to find it had been completely abandoned. Neighbors said the Trump people had been gone for at least a month

http://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2016/08/trump-nj-headquarters-closed-not-long-after-it-opened-104651

[Dr. Strangelove]

Romney won white Catholics by 19 points and still lost PA, OH, MI, and WI.

Trump is currently losing white Catholics by 6 points.

[Wild Hoss]

This election will probably be the greatest embarrassment the GOP has suffered in my lifetime. Seeing their party hijacked by a huckster- who may have taken over their party on a lark- then getting clobbered by their most hated foe, for whom they have been preparing to defeat in this battle for over a decade, will be bitterest of pills to swallow.

But...maybe this humiliation will spurn an actual wave of self-introspection, as was hinted at after the beatdown of 2012, but not followed-up.

I honestly hope it does. If the GOP could jettison its whack-job fringe and morph into a rational, Center-Right party...I think it would be an attractive alternative for many voters. Over time, it could force the Ds to do something similar, and then we could get back to having a government that governs.

[froot loops]

I'm not sure about that, nothing about the crowds at Trump rallies point to any introspective tendencies.

[entropy]

People felt the same way about the D's in the 80's and early 90's... introspection will take time and a lot of it behind closed doors.

[Wild Hoss]

Well...those would be the jettisoned. There's plenty of principled GOP members who aren't buying the snake oil...whether there's enough, and if so, if they truly absorb the lesson, I don't know

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[Mike]

Exactly right, WH. The GOP keeps learning the wrong lesson. They think the problem is that they aren't conservative enough but they have the far right vote locked up. If they would like the WH again they need to reign in the Tea Party faction. I'd love a reasonable alternative to Hillary but the GOP instead wants to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I'll pass.

[Hannibal]

There will be no introspection from the Republican Romney types. They are gullible, useful idiots of the Liberal media who think that they should take advice on how to build a stronger Republican Party from Democrats. Their answer will be to nominate a milquetoast, pro-amnesty cuckold who condemns his own party and whose only talent is issuing apologies. And that guy will get creamed.

Edit: actually they already nominated that guy. His name was John McCain. That totally worked out great.

[Wild Hoss]

Exactly right, WH. The GOP keeps learning the wrong lesson. They think the problem is that they aren't conservative enough but they have the far right vote locked up. If they would like the WH again they need to reign in the Tea Party faction. I'd love a reasonable alternative to Hillary but the GOP instead wants to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I'll pass.

I think if the TP and the Libertarians could perform a shotgun wedding of sorts and run off together to engage in deep, meaningful academic conversations in high orbit, leaving the sane Republicans to work, we'd be in business. I don't think there's going to be any "reigning in"....those people are just lost. Like the Greens on the other side.

But I don't suspect a whole lot of change until they start losing high numbers of congressional races. That's a deeper issue of campaign finance, gerrymandering, and primary apathy.

[Da Geezer]

Am unclear. It common for deals to be reached including back taxes.

Maybe it is I who have been unclear. What I understood, and why I'd like to read more on the matter, is let's suppose Exxon received $ 100 Billion in oil depletion allowance(s) in its history. I believe she said her that if Exxon wanted to leave the country, they would have to reimburse the government the $ 100 billion. I may be wrong, but that is how I interpreted what she said, and it is in context with the point she was making in her speech.

Hack, the reason I took notice of this thinking is that taking back benefits that have already been given is just not the way things have been done. But I often try to think how the country can pay a $ 20 Trillion debt, and this might be one of the ways.

Someday we should discuss how we think the debt can be paid. I don't think anyone actually believes we will or should pay it off. Perhaps negative rates are a backdoor way of financing the debt.