A question that just occurred to me: If Trump suddenly resigned, and Pence pardoned him, could anyone do anything about it?

Rikkitic:

A question that just occurred to me: If Trump suddenly resigned, and Pence pardoned him, could anyone do anything about it?

 

Rikkitic:  A question that just occurred to me: If Trump suddenly resigned, and Pence pardoned him, could anyone do anything about it?

 

• First, Narcissists never resign - the loss of face would be unbearable for Trump.
  
  
• Second, if Trump resigned, Pence would probably be quickly voted out at the next election.
  
  
• Third, as Trump has not (yet) been convicted of any crimes, he can't be pardoned.

Another Trump campaign manager / advisor bites the dust.

Brad Parscale locked himself in one of his houses, with lots of guns, and was apparently threatening to kill himself.  He's been hospitalised under the Florida mental health act.

 

The New York Times reported that Parscale was paying $15,000 a month to Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the wife and girlfriend respectively of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., for campaign work.

 

Imagine that happening in any other first-world democracy, US$180k/year taken out of campaign funds and given to spouses/partners of the leaders sons.

The country is in such dire straits now. Jesus, I know some people didn't like Obama, but at least the US was (reasonably) stable when he was running the show.

Sideface:It's hit the fan ...

 

The New York Times - The President’s Taxes - Long-Concealed Records Show Trump’s Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance

 

News at 11:

tax avoidance is what property developers do, this is usually what happens - if you think this is bad, then open your eyes

rich people in America don't pay taxes like us normal people, they lobby for their own personal loopholes

the US tax system is disgusting

 

Perfect timing.  😉

 

who put the tax laws in place, that allowed him, to do this?

if we really care about it, they'd be suggesting we do something about it.  Interestingly, they're not suggesting changing anything.  I wonder why?

@nathan if people "see" that rich people are so afraid that they do anything to hide how they keep not paying taxes, perhaps things can change.

It doesn't matter who put the tax law in places. What matters is what people can do when they realise what those laws allow people to get away with.

Trump fighting to not show his tax return forms for years simply show rich people know they are not contributing to society and don't want this exposed.

All this noise is good to expose. As the Washington Post says "Democracy dies in darkness".

Your posts, on the other hand, are always trying to lay blame and sowing doubt - never actually giving a solution. 

nathan:

 

who put the tax laws in place, that allowed him, to do this?

 

if we really care about it, they'd be suggesting we do something about it.  Interestingly, they're not suggesting changing anything.  I wonder why?

 

There's no doubt that the GOP defunded the IRS, and that the number of high income/wealth individuals audited by the IRS dropped 75% during Obama's years.  But it may be similar to NZ, where crunching data has allowed our IRD to shed many jobs - if you're a "normal person" and think you can get away with tax evasion you're at dire risk of being caught. 

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted

So what about when evidence of high-level tax evasion (structured to look like "avoidance") by the very wealthy happens?  Remember the "Panama Papers"?  Nothing much happened - now it's forgotten - and that was just one of many legal firms set up in Panama , then there are many other places just like Panama.

Some of the stuff Trump did as tax-deductible expenditure is laughable - $70k for hair styling for the thing that looks like a weasel covering his pate, $100k for daughter #1's hair and makeup, but it's probably perfectly legal.  The ~ $400 million in personal loans falling due that it's alleged Trump doesn't have the cash to cover - now that's a problem - especially when Trump's got the DOJ acting as his private attorney and is "immune from prosecution" so long as he's still POTUS.

It'll be interesting to see the fallout (if any).  Trump first cried "fake news" - now he's claimed that the information was "stolen" - but he can't have it both ways.

Fred99:

 

Some of the stuff Trump did as tax-deductible expenditure is laughable - $70k for hair styling for the thing that looks like a weasel covering his pate, $100k for daughter #1's hair and makeup, but it's probably perfectly legal.  The ~ $400 million in personal loans falling due that it's alleged Trump doesn't have the cash to cover - now that's a problem - especially when Trump's got the DOJ acting as his private attorney and is "immune from prosecution" so long as he's still POTUS.

 

Exactly like a tin pot banana republic dictator.

freitasm:

 

@nathan if people "see" that rich people are so afraid that they do anything to hide how they keep not paying taxes, perhaps things can change.

 

It doesn't matter who put the tax law in places. What matters is what people can do when they realise what those laws allow people to get away with. ...

 

freitasm:

 

Fred99:

 

Some of the stuff Trump did as tax-deductible expenditure is laughable - $70k for hair styling for the thing that looks like a weasel covering his pate, $100k for daughter #1's hair and makeup, but it's probably perfectly legal.  The ~ $400 million in personal loans falling due that it's alleged Trump doesn't have the cash to cover - now that's a problem - especially when Trump's got the DOJ acting as his private attorney and is "immune from prosecution" so long as he's still POTUS.

 

 

Exactly like a tin pot banana republic dictator.

 

True - but operating in and enabled by an oligarchy - getting rid of Trump isn't going to correct that.

It's what happens when "meritocracy" goes haywire, the assumption that great wealth was acquired by great merit is true only if great wealth is the measure of merit (which seems to be broadly true)  Trump's a fraud, but would Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, etc make a better POTUS? (Nope - not that they'd want to compromise their ability to influence everything to favour themselves, they've got more power outside government - to get the system set up to favour themselves).  And that's a problem - not that the very rich can just buy lots of stuff, gulfstream jets and castles, but they control the system - globally.

Of course you'd doom yourself by criticising the oligarchy - that's why Biden is the Dem candidate.

Would I vote for him?  Of course I would, but I agree with @nathan that he's the "lesser of two evils" - (by a large margin IMO) - and that's not how democracy should work.

Fred99:

 

freitasm:

 

Exactly like a tin pot banana republic dictator.

 

 

True - but operating in and enabled by an oligarchy - getting rid of Trump isn't going to correct that.

 

QED.