Donald Trump " I Am 100% For Medical Marijuana"

[outsideinthecold]

Many people don't understand corporate structures. Corporations are legal entities. Similar to countries in some respects.

 

Who owns America? Who owns Exxon?

 

Who chooses the America's political leaders?

 

Who chooses Exxon's leaders?

 

In the case of corporations, the owners are the shareholders. It is the shareholders who elect the corporate leaders much as the voters choose their political leadership.

 

But much like the American democracy, the majority of corporate shareholders don't vote their shares. Indeed, most regular folks, say a retired California teacher has an interest in corporate shares held by either Calpers, the state pension fund or in mutual funds. Few, if any have a clue how their votes are cast. In effect they are unknowingly empowering actions that are often not in their own best interest.

[outsideinthecold]

The Eastern dude walks into a saloon in a dusty western frontier town. An old hound is sleeping on the floor. A few grizzled locals are at the bar. Four or five cowboys are playing poker at a table run by a well dressed gambler.

 

The dude wanders over and idly watches the action.

 

Immediately he sees the dealer is cheating; bottom dealing, deck stacking, shiners, blatantly stealing hand after hand. And the rubes remain seemingly oblivious even as they lose again and again.

 

Wisely, the dude holds his tongue. But when he sees a new player walking over to join the game, the dude intercepts the cowboy and guides him out of the gamblers earshot.

 

"good sir" whispers the dude, outraged, "that dealer is cheating."

 

"I know" the cowboy replied wearily as he turned and walked back to join the table, "but what can I do? It's the only game in town."

Edited February 19, 2016 by outsideinthecold

[Restorium2]

The Eastern dude walks into a saloon in a dusty western frontier town. An old hound is sleeping on the floor. A few grizzled locals are at the bar. Four or five cowboys are playing poker at a table run by a well dressed gambler.

 

The dude wanders over and idly watches the action.

 

Immediately he sees the dealer is cheating; bottom dealing, deck stacking, shiners, blatantly stealing hand after hand. And the rubes remain seemingly oblivious even as they lose again and again.

 

Wisely, the dude holds his tongue. But when he sees a new player walking over to join the game, the dude intercepts the cowboy and guides him out of the gamblers earshot.

 

"good sir" whispers the dude, outraged, "that dealer is cheating."

 

"I know" the cowboy replied wearily as he turned and walked back to join the table, "but what can I do? It's the only game in town."

I sure am glad Trump isn't the only game in town. Maybe it's just your town? Consider moving. 

[trichcycler]

^^ like private prisons that wish to make more laws daily to fill their for profit cells, like funding the anti cannabis companies willing to put us all behind bars when they get a chance.

 

I believe fuel, medicine, oil, and food/livestock should not be publicly traded. I believe that lobbyist firms should be outlawed, and no voted official be able to accept money from corporations towards their election efforts.  people should take responsible for where their money is used.

[Restorium2]

^^ like private prisons that wish to make more laws daily to fill their for profit cells, like funding the anti cannabis companies willing to put us all behind bars when they get a chance.

 

I believe fuel, medicine, oil, and food/livestock should not be publicly traded. I believe that lobbyist firms should be outlawed, and no voted official be able to accept money from corporations towards their election efforts.  people should take responsible for where their money is used.

Then who will be your king that decides the price of it? 

[trichcycler]

 so Bernie wont make it, 

Carson the Crystal Methodist is burying himself weekly

Clinton, well...

Bush....yeah, right, they got enough money from America already

[trichcycler]

Then who will be your king that decides the price of it?

I have no solutions in the matter, nor would any of mine be considered if did. But starving groups of people aint right, even when kings do it.

[Restorium2]

 so Bernie wont make it, 

Carson the Crystal Methodist is burying himself weekly

Clinton, well...

Bush....yeah, right, they got enough money from America already

Crystal ball or what? You have no idea because no one can see the future. The polls show a 1% gap between Hilary and Bernie. 

[outsideinthecold]

I think shareholders in corporations should vote their shares. If they did, the worst of corporate excesses would vanish rather than be self-reinforcing. Who amongst us thinks any corporate CEO is worth hundreds-of-millions a year? How can any corporate CEO leave a publically owned company and retire at sixty with billions of what are by right shareholders assets!

 

Why do politicians of both parties support this disconnect?

 

A few years back there was a movement to make shares of publicly traded companies available to individuals through their Social Security accounts. This proposal went nowhere so your social security trust funds remain totally invested in Federal government securities.

 

Understandable but ever wonder what changes would be effected if citizens could own and VOTE shares rather than let the government use your contributions to buy bonds they can never afford to pay off?

[Restorium2]

I think shareholders in corporations should vote their shares. If they did, the worst of corporate excesses would vanish rather than be self-reinforcing. Who amongst us thinks any corporate CEO is worth hundreds-of-millions a year? How can any corporate CEO leave a publically owned company and retire at sixty with billions of what are by right shareholders assets!

 

Why do politicians of both parties support this disconnect?

 

A few years back there was a movement to make shares of publicly traded companies available to individuals through their Social Security accounts. This proposal went nowhere so your social security trust funds remain totally invested in Federal government securities.

 

Understandable but ever wonder what changes would be effected if citizens could own and VOTE shares rather than let the government use your contributions to buy bonds they can never afford to pay off?

That was the dumbest idea the Republicans ever thought of. This idea was garnered before the stock market crash in '08. If we would have followed this dumb advice everyone's SS check would be cut in half. Everyone should know that. If you don't learn from the dumb ideas then you will fall for it in the future. 

[outsideinthecold]

Allowing citizens to choose alternatives to Treasury bonds in their SS trust accounts has been successfully stigmatized to the point any suggestion to reconsider is dismissed out of hand.

 

But if you had the choice between 30-yr U.S. Treasuries paying 3% or Detroit Edison or AT&T common shares paying 5%, or AA corporate bonds paying 7%, which would you choose?

 

There is a massive difference in return over the longer term thanks to the magic of compounding. And unlike treasuries, or bonds, corporate equites have an added attraction as a hedge against inflation.

 

The folks most likely benefit from the current SS Treasuries strategy are the politicians and public sector employees who have alternatives to SS not available to the beleaguered hourly workers that currently fund SS.

Edited February 19, 2016 by outsideinthecold

[outsideinthecold]

Pleae explain what is so dumb about letting folks choose alternatives to U.S. Treasuries with at least some of the holdimgs in their SS accounts if they choose to do so?

 

Are you against personal choice?

 

Are you against increased benefits for those willing or able to accept the risk?

 

Are you afraid of the future?

 

Do the math. Who can't count?

Edited February 19, 2016 by outsideinthecold

[+Malamute]

Stocks lose principal. Bonds/treasuries do not.

 

Security over risk.

[Restorium2]

Could you imagine the housing crisis and then wallstreet dumping those bad home loans into our SS portfolios?  I'll bet that when they proposed the SS to be put into the stock market it was supposed to cover up the housing crisis. The timing is right for that. 

[t-pain]

thats the reason, if people controlled their own social security, they would invest in many many ponzi schemes and lose it all.

 

but yeah there should be some leeway right? ???

[+Malamute]

No leeway. SS is an income supplemental for all working americans. You can invest every other penny you have in anything you want. But SS is a guarantee, even though the interest rates are lower and regardless of the economy or stock market it is guaranteed.

 

Even the social security administration will tell you it may be smart to have other retirement accounts. It is only meant to be a rock bottom for people. Invest 10% of your net income elsewhere is what people should also do to guarantee a degree of stability.

[Restorium2]

Social Security is there so that if you worked enough to qualify, and have not had your ship come in, then you are covered so that you will have the necessities to survive in a dignified manor, no matter how hard life gets. The money has to come from somewhere. They were smart enough to accomplish this monumental task for society. It has to be guaranteed and secure, not like the stock market.

[trichcycler]

some dignified ss incomes, some not so much.

[t-pain]

unless the republicans cut social security.

 

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/most-2016-gop-presidential-candidates-would-push-seniors-poverty-cutting-social

[cristinew]

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/trump-is-accused-of-financially-threatening-woman-170253552.html 

 

Trump is accused of financially threatening woman during secret deposition3 hours ago 

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Real estate mogul and TV star Donald Trump appears at a press conference in 2005 to announce Trump University, which offered real estate seminars for business professionals. (Photo: Dan Herrick/KPA/ZUMA Press)

Donald Trump, embroiled in a long-running legal battle with former students of his defunct Trump University, has been accused in recently filed court papers of threatening to financially ruin the woman who is a lead plaintiff in the suit. Trump’s comments, according to the filings, came in a secret deposition he gave just two months ago, on Dec. 10 — the same day he was making international headlines over his pledge to ban Muslim immigrants from the country.

The accusation was made in a motion by the woman — Tarla Makaeff, a California yoga instructor — to withdraw as lead plaintiff, asserting she has been “put through the wringer” by Trump and his lawyers and forced to “suffer daily with the fear that she could be bankrupted by Trump.”

Exactly what Trump said in his December deposition is unclear. The transcript is sealed and the excerpt cited by Makaeff’s lawyers was blacked out in the copy of the filing obtained by Yahoo News. The motion in support of Makaeff’s effort to back out of the suit claims she needs protection “from further retaliation” by the billionaire, who is leading in the polls for the Republican nomination for president.

The underlying class action lawsuit, filed in 2010, charges that Makaeff and thousands of other students were “scammed” into maxing out their credit cards and paying up to $60,000 in fees for seminars in hotel ballrooms and “mentoring” by Trump’s “hand-picked” real estate experts. The lawsuit against the school, which is no longer in business, alleges the seminars turned into little more than an “infomercial” and the Trump mentors she was assigned offered “no practical advice” and “mostly disappeared.” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a separate suit in 2013 alleging fraud on the part of the “university,” which was never an accredited institution and awarded no degrees.

Trump’s lawyers have vigorously denied the claims and vowed to contest both suits.

“None of it is true. No one was defrauded,” said Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s general counsel, in an interview about the fraud cases last summer. “The people that take these classes go into it with their eyes open. A lot of people did very well with [Trump University.] A lot of people enjoyed it. But, like everything else, if people don’t put the effort into it [they don’t succeed].”

Trump’s new lead lawyer against Makaeff, Daniel Petrocelli, best known for representing one of the murder victims in a civil suit against O.J. Simpson, declined to answer any questions about the deposition when reached Thursday by Yahoo News. “I don’t think the lawyers should be talking about the case,” Petrocelli said.

A lawyer for Makaeff, who, according to her LinkedIn profile, is a Los Angeles yoga instructor and former model, also declined comment. A “protective order” in the five-year-old case allows either party to keep testimony and documents in the case under seal.

Trump has made little secret of his inclination to strike back hard — on the campaign trail and in the courts — against anybody who opposes him. But the secret deposition in the San Diego case calls attention to the danger that a Trump presidency could turn into what one lawyer who has sued Trump called a “litigation circus” in which a sitting president would be forced to submit to multiple depositions and even jury trials as a result of ongoing civil lawsuits.

Little noticed while he has emerged as the Republican frontrunner for president, Trump remains mired in litigation on multiple fronts. In addition to defending the Trump University suits, he has initiated legal action in the past year against restaurateurs and the Univision network after they pulled out of business deals over his comments about Mexican immigrants. He has also recently threatened to sue rival Ted Cruz on the grounds that he is not eligible to be president because he was born in Canada. At a CNN forum Thursday night, in response to a question about his propensity to threaten opponents with lawsuits, Trump replied, in part, “I have wonderful lawyers. I like to send letters.”

Just last week — three days before Makaeff made her court filing — a judge in Washington, D.C., overruled the objections of Trump’s lawyers and ordered him to submit to a deposition in a suit he filed against one of the restaurateurs.

As Yahoo News noted in August, none of these cases would go away were Trump elected president. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that presidents are not immune from civil litigation while in office, rejecting Bill Clinton’s claim that he should not be subjected to a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones.

Republican presidential candidate Trump gestures at a regional police union meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., Dec. 10, 2015. (Photo: Charles Krupa/AP)

That ruling would very much apply were there to be a President Trump, said Robert Bennett, who was Clinton’s lawyer in the Jones case. “Given the state of the law, he would be at substantial risk of being embroiled in these lawsuits while serving as president,” said Bennett.

According to Makaeff’s suit, she enrolled in Trump University, which the reality show star launched in 2005 with a promotional YouTube video. Advertisements boasted, “I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you,” and lured students with lines like, “Are YOU my next apprentice?” and “Learn from my hand-picked experts how you can profit from the largest real estate liquidation in history.”

In her court filing this month, Makaeff’s lawyers say she has been “forced to endure a high stakes and very public battle with Trump … just for standing up to him.” The businessman’s “aggressive tactics,” they wrote, include subjecting her to four “grueling” depositions, “taunting” her in the media, threatening to sue her lawyers and countersuing her for defamation. That last case, a so-called SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) suit, was rejected by a judge who also ordered Trump to pay her $800,000 in legal bills — an order Trump is contesting. The filing says Makaeff’s health and job prospects have suffered and she now wishes to let the other plaintiffs in the case “carry this ball over the goal line.”

[zaphod]

Cruz scares me far more than Trump.  Dominionist theology and a theocratic state with the inherent authoritarian attitude makes me think of Nehemiah Scudder and then I sit and shudder.

 

>>Scudder was previously mentioned in passing in the short story "Logic of Empire" and later on in Heinlein’s final novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset. A story about the rise of Scudder, "The Sound of His Wings" is contained in the Future History timeline, but was never written by Heinlein, who stated in the afterward to "Revolt in 2100": "I will probably never write the story of Nehemiah Scudder, I dislike him too much". Also a story called "The Stone Pillow", which would have depicted the earlier foredoomed opposition to the Theocracy, never got written, Heinlein noting that there was "too much tragedy in real life".<<

 

 

 

[+Malamute]

Hmmm, a neoconservative fascist or a theocratic dominionist. Both are complete authoritarians.

 

The republicans really have done themselves good this time around.

 

 I will take the democratic socialist any day.

[imiubu]

Not so sure living on my ssdi is what I would call dignified.

I'm not sleeping under a bridge, so there's that I suppose.

It's almost impossible to "save" $$ as something always

happens to snatch that lil savings away, sigh.

 

Oh... and lets not forget that if you own a motor vehicle

it cannot be worth more than $2k, or... if you have more

than 2k saved up (in the bank)... they cut benefits...

ie food stamps... housing etc...

[outsideinthecold]

Woke up this a.m. To find Bloomberg reporting on the Japan's PM Abe repeating his intention to raise taxes even though their economy has contracted last quarter and exports have fallen.

 

That report was followed by another story reporting on the EU bank crisis. The negative EU interest rates are killing their profitability. Stresses similar to those that precipitated the 2008 Great Recession are building.

 

The U.K. Will be voting on the Brexit June 23. The vote results are being shaped by the worsening refugee crisis. Across the EU the flood of helpless hopeless continue to flood out of Syria, and across the broader area stretching from Africa to Afghanistan.

 

If one can ignore the human misery and de facto genocide, it is the Japanese situation that is truly concerning for Americans. The Japanese debt levels as a percent of GDP are much higher than ours and their bonds tend to be more closely held, but we are following the same road. Japan's economy is still some distance ahead but we are slowly overtaking them. Hopefully Tokyo will arrive there first and give our beleaguered policy maker some idea of what destination awaits ours. Pretty apparent the world's central banks and the Fed policies are akin to hoping whistling past the graveyard will protect them from the zombie apocalypse.

 

Changes to SS and SSDI are inevitable. SSDI benefits are underfunded. SSDI would have been cut by 11% this year but the short-fall was funded from the SS Trust fund. The CBO now estimates the SS Trust fund will run out in 2033 instead of 2034. Seventeen years.

 

Everyone here planning on dying before then, right?

Edited February 20, 2016 by outsideinthecold

[Restorium2]

Hmmm, a neoconservative fascist or a theocratic dominionist. Both are complete authoritarians.

 

The republicans really have done themselves good this time around.

 

 I will take the democratic socialist any day.

Never underestimate the;

 

Lunatic Fringe

I know you're out there

You're in hiding

And you hold your meetings

I can hear you comin'

I know what your after

We're wise to you this time

(Wise to you this time)

We won't let you kill the laughter

 

Lunatic fringe

In the twilight's last gleaming

This is open season

But you won't get too far

Cause you gotta blame someone

For your own confusion

We're on guard this time

(On guard this time)

Against your final solution

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Ab7udnIN8