zeke5123a
1mo ago
We are always told “discussion doesn’t validate whether a top level post is good or not.” What makes you think it is great? It reminds me of Tom Friedman talking about his cab driver.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
I think his support for free speech is something every conservative can get behind. Also there has always been a strain of “no foreign entanglements” amongst conservative thought for a long time.
Doesn’t mean RFK agrees with all or even most of conservative thought but there are some key overlaps there and it shows that the Republican Party can appeal to disaffected democrats. It also could be big for the election. Assume RFK was polling 5% in battleground states. Assume 60% of his voters vote and they break 2-1 for Trump. That’s a net 1% bump for Trump.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
I could easily say “acting to divert faith in/circumvent the legal means of deciding court cases / elections is not only breaking the rules of the system, it threatens to undermine the whole thing”
Court packing is a core attack on separation of powers — the key bedrock of our constitutional republic. Similarly importing voters (either via DC statehood or immigrants) is fundamentally at odds with the democratic part of our system and historically raised issues (eg between slave and free states).
zeke5123a
1mo ago
If we are talking vibes and just random anecdotes, then republicans are very excited about the RFK and (to a lesser extent) Tulsi endorsement. Both RFK and Tulsi are big in the Rogan orbit. Could help Trump and helps with enthusiasm. Listen to the roar of the crowd when RFK walked on stage Friday in Arizona. That’s vines.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
Yes they frequently lived for a long time in places like DC. It is in the water. If the republicans were smart, they would campaign on making DC poor (eg move the house to say Tulsa and the senate to say Orlando).
zeke5123a
1mo ago
This is absurd. Candidate choice is not an internal party matter. We have these state run things called primaries that have determined nominations for a long time in this country. I know it’s convenient to say “internal matter” but most internal matters don’t require the local Secretary of State to get involved.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
No one begrudges him retiring per se. It’s how he retired and what he said afterwards.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
The kind of Ukraine win you are talking about probably leads to nuclear weapons being used. Which is bad.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
See it seems to me that a dem victory brings us closer to autocracy. Schumer has already promised to break the filibuster for abortion and voting rights. Why not for court packing? Why not for DC statehood? Why not for PR statehood? The Dems could take a tiny lead and end the constitutional republic.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
I work in a specific heavily statutory / reg based area of the law.
I have asked it difficult questions about statutory interpretation and found that it missed a lot. So YMMV.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
Would they? No. How did you react? Does it have a negative on your interaction with that business?
zeke5123a
1mo ago
So she thought crime and criminals were l bad and that makes Princess Sarah somehow bad?
zeke5123a
1mo ago
As opposed to the state actors who are selfless paragons of virtue and love for mankind?
By and large, you get ahead by serving your client. If you don’t, you don’t get ahead in business.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
Citing to Nixon ignores the last 45 years of tax policy which has been broadening the base while lowering the rates. So yes, you can have higher capital gains rate without expropriation if while you own a company you can extract a bunch of value out of it tax free. But that is different compared to now.
In the context of a broad base, the relevant example is Clinton. And that rate was much lower.
And the details matter a lot less about the proposal put forth here. It is a campaign document; not legislation. The key point is she is supporting a 25% tax on unrealized gains. The rest is details that will change if this bill goes forward. But it is noise that tries to let supporters weasel out of this difficult discussions.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
Well I think it is more than rhetoric. I think it is an insight to their psyche. They think men of commerce are greedy me first people who therefore need to be crushed by the state to get them to do the right thing. But you can’t do well in commerce unless you care a helluva about your customers. Crushing state regulations make it harder to serve your client.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
Yet not the argument made by your interlocutor. Isn’t charity something that is in the rules here?
zeke5123a
1mo ago
You just messed up again.
I said you got your facts wrong. Then you changed that to “don’t accuse me of playing fast and loose.” So I responded now after two mistakes that you are playing fast and loose.
But now you are claiming you only got one thing wrong. Well you got two. And you made a third mistake in your post. You said you got a fact wrong that actually weakened your point. You were saying 44% tax isn't confiscatory because the tax rate under Clinton wasn’t confiscatory and was only 9 points off.
But in reality it was between 16 and 24 points off. That factual mistake undermines your whole argument in a very material way. The core of your argument goes poof. But now you are claiming your mistaken fact actually weakened your argument?
Maybe it isn’t malicious but your posts and arguments on this topic are very sloppy and unaware of basic facts (eg that California freezes property taxes or the tax rate under Clinton).
zeke5123a
1mo ago
Bro — you made a whole post saying “Clinton was a moderate and had tax rates at XYZ.” Your rates were massively off and despite that probably won’t change your conclusion. So yes you are playing fast and loose with the facts.
zeke5123a
1mo ago
You could solve this with indexing basis to CPI. But right now we have a relatively simple system. Low rate of tax on gain (in part to reflect not all book gain is economic gain). It isn’t perfect but it functions and works. Trying to tax gains at higher rates and then indexing basis is a new system that create problems not the least of which is the complexity.
I’m not suggesting it is likely to happen and hope it doesn’t. But I’m just saying that would break out
More options
Context Copy link