Tag: illegal

Did Trump say flipping should be illegal?

CNBC is reporting that Trump wants to make “flipping” illegal.  Flipping is the term generally used to describe when someone is in hot water and flips on their associates in crime to work out a deal with Justice.  So did Trump really say he wants to make flipping illegal?  Or is this fake news?

As usual, there is nuance in what Trump is saying.  You can see a portion of the interview here.  Trump spoke about flipping in the context of Cohen “making stuff up”.  In fact, he reiterates several times that he’s talking about when someone gets themselves in deep trouble and makes stuff up to get a lower prison sentence.  Trump says this kind of flipping should be “almost illegal”.

Trump mentioned the curious case of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s IT guy Imran Awan, who was arrested under suspicion that he had possibly been involved in the DNC server hack and may have stolen from the DNC.  Awan struck a deal in July and was convicted for lying on a loan application.  The charges against his wife were dropped.  The case has led to plenty of conspiracy theories and there has been zero media interest as to what Awan might have given up in his plea deal.

In the interview, Trump also pointed out that Cohen’s accusations about Trump campaign violations are wrong.  Trump said that the payments to reimburse Cohen came out of his retainer paid from his businesses to Cohen.  As the John Edwards case showed, that is not a crime.  In fact, in Edwards case it was campaign donors who paid off his mistress, not his personal attorney in the process of creating an NDA.  That would make what Trump did even more innocent than what Edwards did.

Trump did in fact tweet about the payments back in May.  So Cohen’s revelation is hardly news to anyone who is interested.  Trump tweeted that he reimbursed Cohen through his legal retainer and not from campaign funds.  At the time Trump also claimed that there was no affair, that Daniels was attempting to extort him, and that they would pursue action against her based on the arbitration provisions in the NDA.  Perhaps this is why Cohen still has no cooperation agreement despite his claims of dirt on Trump.

I wonder if the question will ever come up if Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, is making these claims to affect the outcome of an election?  Davis is a Clinton ally and has been speaking on Cohen’s behalf.  He is a liberal Democrat who hates Trump and wants Republicans to lose in November.  There doesn’t appear to be any evidence at this point to support some of his outlandish claims.  But those claims being repeated over and over in the media will certainly affect the election in November.  Maybe some forms of “flipping” should be “almost illegal”.

Did Bill Nelson lie or break the law?

Rick Scott hit Bill Nelson on Facebook Friday for his unverified claims that Russia has infiltrated Florida’s election system.  Nelson claimed that the Russians had hacked Florida’s election system, but did not cite any actual evidence for the claim.  When pressed, Nelson stated that it was classified.

According to Gov. Scott, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent a letter to the US Senate Intelligence Committee asking for more information.  None has been provided.  Nelson claimed that the Trump administration is withholding information but still has no evidence for his salacious claim.  How Nelson even came across the supposed information is also unclear.  Nelson is in the toughest race of his life after 18 years in the Senate.

If the Russians have in fact compromised the Florida election system, then the intelligence community has a duty to disclose that information to the governor of Florida and the appropriate state officials.  If Nelson’s unverified claims have any merit, the government has a responsibility to help Florida identify the compromised areas and protect the voters of the state.

Bill Nelson is either lying or illegally releasing classified information in a press conference to meddle with the election.  Either way, his attempt to scare voters into thinking Russia is coming in on Gov. Scott’s side is backfiring.  Whether the 75 year old Democrat Senator is making stuff up or compromising national security for political gain, it’s a lose-lose for Nelson.

7/21/18 Comics

head on backwards

Maybe you’ve run into this argument.  Generally, I think Democrats don’t want a border wall and don’t want illegal aliens charged with a crime because they support open borders.  But if you challenge them on it, they get offended.  Ever try pointing out that Hillary Clinton supported a border “fence”? Like when she voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006?  Oh look, here’s video of her bragging about voting for it:

 

So let’s talk about the cost.  $21.6 billion.  That’s no small amount.  That’s almost twice as much as it costs to build an aircraft carrier.  So some, perhaps Libertarians and Conservatives, have a reason to think a border wall, fence, barrier, or whatever you want to call it, would cost too much.  But not Democrats.

In 2016, Obamacare cost taxpayers $110 billion.

But let’s ignore Obama’s previous spending. Let’s ignore his average deficits of $900 billion a year.  Let’s talk about the future.  Democrats, such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and nearly every other potential future Democrat Presidential candidate supports guaranteed jobs or universal basic income.  The only one who doesn’t is Joe Biden, who at his age might be struggling reading internal party polls.

A government guaranteed jobs program would ONLY cost $543 billion.

So Democrats really have no credibility when it comes to the argument that a wall costs too much.  Here’s an idea for Democrats to think about.  Guaranteed employment means people need something to work on.  Why not have them build a wall?

A Different Way To Look At “Illegal”

Here is a different way to look at illegal immigration. I saw a post from Dan Rather the other day about how Spanish speaking people rescuing others from Houston shouldn’t be thought of as anything other than American. Sure, why not? I mean, assuming they actually are Americans.  If the President of Mexico offers aid to Houstonians, we don’t automatically grant him citizenship.

The problem is that the Left has defined the debate. On their terms “citizen” means “white dude”. Immigrant means “Hispanic (regardless of citizenship)”. Illegal immigrant means you are simply a racist, privileged white dude for using that term. Nobody is “illegal”. They are “human”.  Right?

Instead of using the often confused terms of immigrant and illegal immigrant, let’s replace those terms with “Taxpayer” and “Tax Cheat”. After all, that’s what an illegal immigrant has done. They have cheated on their paperwork, or not filed at all. See how the stories change in that context.

Take today, there is a story about how immigrants are battling detection and deportation after Harvey. Really? We are deporting citizens because they emigrated to the USA? No, they mean illegal immigrants, but nobody is illegal so that is a racist term. Let’s try this instead, “Tax cheats battle detection and IRS penalties after Harvey”. Still feel so much sympathy?

Trump considers ending the Dream Act (which wasn’t actually an act, just a regulation) for children of immigrants. What? We are deporting citizen children because their parents came here legally from other countries??  No, of course not.  But again, illegal immigrant is a racist term used by citizens (privileged white dudes). So let’s try it differently. Trump considers crackdown on tax cheats filing illegitimate child tax credit claims. Ah, suddenly it doesn’t sound so bad.

So that’s the assignment. If you see an article that says “immigrant” but means “illegal immigrant”, just substitute “tax cheat”. If you see an article that says “immigrant” and means “legal citizen who emigrated”, read it “taxpayer”.

By the way, if you think this is a ridiculous idea just remember that anyone who is here illegally is either dodging taxes, committing identity theft, or filing the wrong return. Most are paid under the table or with a false tax ID. The reason businesses use their labor is because they are illegally paid less than minimum wage and don’t operate under the same overtime and labor laws that citizens…sorry, taxpayers do. So if you read every story in that lens, taxpayer and tax cheat, you won’t be that far off.