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Everything in this post is my fault.
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Just because there isn't really a better place for this:
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
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(10-13-2020, 07:51 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Just because there isn't really a better place for this:
Kinda reminds me of Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to find evidence of voter fraud, but was disbanded after failing to find any evidence of voter fraud.
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This what reaching across the aisle should look like. But Graham is a lifer who just sucks on to whomever can get him power.
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(10-13-2020, 09:48 PM)GMDino Wrote: This what reaching across the aisle should look like. But Graham is a lifer who just sucks on to whomever can get him power.
I would love to see Graham lose as much as Trump.
And he is in serious trouble.
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https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Videos-show-closed-door-sessions-of-conservative-15647473.php
Quote:Videos show closed-door sessions of conservative activists: 'Be not afraid of the accusations that you're a voter suppressor'
Robert O'Harrow Jr., The Washington Post
Oct. 14, 2020Updated: Oct. 14, 2020 10:10 a.m.
[/url][url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fnews%2Farticle%2FVideos-show-closed-door-sessions-of-conservative-15647473.php%3Futm_campaign%3DCMS%2520Sharing%2520Tools%2520(Premium)%26utm_source%3Dt.co%26utm_medium%3Dreferral&text=Videos%20show%20closed-door%20sessions%20of%20conservative%20activists%3A%20%26%23039%3BBe%20not%20afraid%20of%20the%20accusations%20that%20you%26%23039%3Bre%20a%20voter%20suppressor%26%23039%3B]
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![[Image: 1200x0.jpg]](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/14/11/57/19962865/3/1200x0.jpg) 1of2Charlie Kirk, center, and Candace Owens of Turning Point USA, listen to President Donald Trump speak in 2018.Washington Post phooto by Jabin Botsford![[Image: 1200x0.jpg]](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/14/11/57/19962864/3/1200x0.jpg)
As the presidential campaign entered its final stages, a fresh-faced Republican activist named Charlie Kirk stepped into the spotlight at a closed-door gathering of leading conservatives and shared his delight about an impact of the coronavirus pandemic: the disruption of America's universities. So many campuses had closed, he said, that up to a half-million left-leaning students probably would not vote.
"So, please keep the campuses closed," Kirk, 26, said in August as the audience cheered, according to video of the event obtained by The Washington Post. "Like, it's a great thing."
The gathering in northern Virginia was organized by the Council for National Policy, a little-known group that has served for decades as a hub for a nationwide network of conservative activists and the donors who support them. Members include Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Leonard Leo, an outside adviser to President Donald Trump who has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars from undisclosed donors to support conservative causes and the nominations of conservative federal judges.
Videos provided to The Post - covering dozens of hours of CNP meetings over three days in February and three in August - offer an inside view of participants' obsessions and fears at a pivotal moment in the conservative movement. The videos, recorded by CNP to share with its members, show influential activists discussing election tactics, amplifying conspiracy theories and describing much of America in dark and apocalyptic terms.
"This is a spiritual battle we are in. This is good versus evil," CNP's executive committee president, Bill Walton, said on Aug. 21, addressing attendees at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City. "We have to do everything we can to win."
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told attendees that same day that the left is "war-gaming" a plan to delay the election tally until Jan. 20, 2021, and enable House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to become acting president. "This is kind of like crazy talk" among political people, Fitton said. But he added: "This is not an insignificant concern."
Expressing concern about voter fraud and disenfranchisement, Fitton called on the audience to find a way to prevent mail-in ballots from being sent to voters. "We need to stop those ballots from going out, and I want the lawyers here to tell us what to do," said Fitton, whose organization is a tax-exempt charity. "But this is a crisis that we're not prepared for. I mean, our side is not prepared for."
In an interview with The Post, Fitton elaborated on his remarks. "The left has war-gamed this out," Fitton said. "And it could cause civil war."
Brent Bozell, a CNP executive committee member and founder of the Media Research Center, another tax-exempt charity, told attendees at one of the August sessions that he believes the left plans to "steal this election."
"And if they get away with that, what happens?" he said. "Democracy is finished because they usher in totalitarianism."
Bozell did not respond to messages seeking comment.
At the February meetings, attendees discussed plans for seeking an advantage in the upcoming vote. Two said the right will begin "ballot harvesting," a controversial technique that involves the collection and delivery of sealed absentee ballots from churches and other institutions.
At the time of the meeting, Trump, his campaign officials and other Republicans were blasting the practice as an abuse by Democrats. "GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD," Trump tweeted this spring.
But Ralph Reed, chairman of the nonprofit Faith & Freedom Coalition, told the CNP audience that conservatives are embracing the technique this year.
"And so our organization is going to be harvesting ballots in churches," he said. "We're going to be specifically going in not only to White evangelical churches, but into Hispanic and Asian churches, and collecting those ballots."
Reed did not respond to requests for comment.
J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department official and the president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a charity, described mail-in voting as "the number one left-wing agenda."
Adams urged the activists not to worry about the criticism that might come their way. "Be not afraid of the accusations that you're a voter suppressor, you're a racist and so forth," Adams said.
In response to questions, Adams wrote in an email: "I stand by what I said because it is accurate."
The partisan commentary and election-related discussions captured on the videos involved members of an array of nonprofit organizations, including tax-exempt charities. In exchange for the right to accept tax-exempt donations, charities are prohibited from actively supporting political candidates or working in coordination on candidates' behalf.
Such laws are rarely enforced, in part because of murkiness about what constitutes a violation, and because of the complex interactions between some charities and nonprofits known as "social welfare" groups, tax specialists said. Social welfare groups are permitted to engage in lobbying and advocacy but must devote less than half of their resources to political activity. An individual may serve as a leader of both a charity and an affiliated social welfare group.
Some of the sessions at the CNP conferences are designated as run by CNP Action, a social welfare affiliate that shares leaders with CNP.
Two tax law specialists who viewed hours of video at The Post's request said some of the remarks and planning on the videos could be improper for the groups that are registered with the IRS as charities.
"What was jarring was that it was pretty clear to any reasonable observer that the entire purpose of the panel was to help the Republican Party win in November, up and down the ticket," said Roger Colinvaux, director of law and public policy at Catholic University's law school, referring to a panel about health care.
Marcus Owens, a lawyer who led the Exempt Organizations Division at the IRS from 1990 to 2000, told The Post that participants' comments on the videos raise potential issues of compliance with election laws and charity rules. "I've never seen anything like it on videotape and live," Owens said, referring to the overt partisan coordination among the nonprofit leaders. "It's almost like a movie."
A spokesman for Kirk said he was there representing himself, not in his capacity as the leader of Turning Point USA, a prominent conservative youth organization based in Phoenix.
In an interview, Bob McEwen, CNP's executive director, said the Washington-based organization complies with IRS regulations and does not itself "do anything."
"CNP doesn't do ad campaigns. It doesn't do brochures. It is a meeting of leaders," said McEwen, who is also president of CNP Action, the related social welfare group. "Anything that's done is done by the membership, not by the Council for National Policy."
The sessions are closed to the public, and participants are told not to talk to the media about the group or its proceedings. "It absolutely could be open to the media, except that the media is known to be left, and then creates a distorted vision of their conversations," McEwen said.
The Council for National Policy was launched during the Reagan administration by figures in the religious right to bring more focus and force to conservative advocacy.
It has attracted conservative luminaries and front-line activists from across the country, according to internal directories obtained by The Post. In the years leading up to Trump's election, members included Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. The videos make clear that CNP maintains strong links to the White House.
Some participants spoke of a CNP-associated delegation that meets weekly with White House officials. They said the group, the Conservative Action Project, has helped to choose loyalists to run federal agencies and coordinate outside messages with nonprofit organizations to support administration policies and leaders.
"It's kind of this little secretive huddle that meets every Wednesday morning," Paul Teller, a Trump deputy and director of strategic initiatives for Vice President Mike Pence, told the audience in August.
In February, during three days of meetings in Southern California, a CNP member named Rachel Bovard described the Conservative Action Project's influence in helping the Trump administration select political appointees for the executive branch. She said the Conservative Action Project coordinated closely on these and other efforts with CNP members and the Conservative Partnership Institute, a tax-exempt charity run by former senator and tea party leader Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
"We work very closely - CAP does and then we at CPI also - with the Office of Presidential Personnel at the White House to try and get good conservatives in the positions because we see what happens when we don't vet these people," she said.
Bovard cited as examples two figures who testified against Trump last year in the House impeachment hearings: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, former director for European affairs at the National Security Council, and Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
"All these people that led the impeachment against President Trump shouldn't have been there in the first place," Bovard told the CNP audience. "We want to prevent that from happening."
In addition, Bovard described Ginni Thomas as a crucial link to the White House. "She is one of the most powerful and fierce women in Washington," Bovard said. "She is really the tip of the spear in these efforts."
Bovard and Thomas did not respond to requests for comment.
A White House spokesman said Teller declined to comment.
In another February session, Kelly Shackelford was introduced as CNP vice president, chairman of CNP Action and leader of the First Liberty Institute, another organization registered as a tax-exempt charity.
He bragged about extensive behind-the-scenes coordination by his group and other nonprofit organizations to influence the White House selection of federal judges.
"Some of us literally opened a whole operation on judicial nominations and vetting," he said. "We poured millions of dollars into this to make sure the president has good information, he picks the best judges."
Shackelford said he is among the nonprofit leaders now coordinating with the White House to support the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat previously held by Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In an interview, Shackelford said he is focused on educating Americans and providing information that will help the White House choose judges who interpret the Constitution in a literal way.
Speakers at the August conference touched on many of the cultural issues absorbing conservatives today - sometimes with more edge and heat than they do in their typical public remarks.
In one of the sessions, author and former professor Carol Swain, speaking on a panel about race relations, said that "White people have lost their voice in America."
She likened the Black Lives Matter movement to the Ku Klux Klan. "The Democratic Party is using Black Lives Matter and antifa the same way they used the KKK," said Swain, who is Black. "They created the KKK. It was their terrorist wing to terrorize everyone."
In response to questions, Swain stood by her remarks.
Some participants bridled at pandemic restrictions - and the video showed that many did not wear masks.
"You will need to wear masks in the public part of the hotel but not here," Walton, the CNP president, announced to applause.
"Yeah," Walton said. "That's great!"
A state mandate in Virginia generally requires masks at indoor public settings.
On Aug. 21, in a rare CNP open session, Trump addressed the audience, which included acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf. Later that day, Teller, the White House deputy, gave a high-spirited shout-out from the front of a conference room to Wolf's team.
"I don't know if you got to know Secretary Wolf's team, sitting in the corner, they're just a bunch of wingers. That's like the most conservative table in the entire room, is Secretary Wolf's team," Teller gushed. "Great, great, great secretary."
In contrast to his ebullience, some speakers at the meeting raised doubts about Trump's prospects in November.
Nancy Schulze, a CNP member and co-chair of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Wives Council, said the lack of a clear health-care plan from Trump poses a "huge vulnerability" for the president.
"If we don't get this right in the next 75 days, there is a question as to whether we're going to prevail at all within the presidential campaign, or the House or the Senate," she said.
Others described an elaborate social media and advertising campaign by a collection of nonprofits - some of them tax-exempt charities - to convince voters this fall that a Republican free-market approach to health care would offer more choices.
Organizers showed ads that feature doctors in white lab coats with stethoscopes. They told the CNP audience that market research found that featuring doctors engenders trust among voters.
"And so I remind people that what we're trying to do is put on theater here," said Alfredo Ortiz, president of Job Creators Network and chief executive of its foundation. "It's the stage. It's the script and the actors."
Ortiz did not respond to requests for comment.
Among those involved are former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former health and human services secretary Tom Price.
Organizers are asking allies in Congress to introduce a resolution that echoes the policy themes, such as the notion of personalized health care, Price told the crowd.
"It's urgent, but it's not too late," Price said.
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Quote:"This is a spiritual battle we are in. This is good versus evil," CNP's executive committee president, Bill Walton, said on Aug. 21, addressing attendees at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City. "We have to do everything we can to win."
This language. This is the problem with politics in our country right now. I'm not saying this group, or the right in general, has a monopoly on it. I am simply saying that this is why we are having such a problem right now. When we come from a place like this, there is no room for working across the aisle.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
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(10-14-2020, 02:50 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: This language. This is the problem with politics in our country right now. I'm not saying this group, or the right in general, has a monopoly on it. I am simply saying that this is why we are having such a problem right now. When we come from a place like this, there is no room for working across the aisle.
Yep. Agreed. I think there's evidence from both democrat and republican politicians claiming the other party is literally the enemy.
I also find it funny how many people think if Biden or Trump is elected the country is DOOMED!! I'm 45 years old. I've heard that from the losing party of every presidential election since the Democrats when George Bush was elected (may have happened sooner, just don't remember before that one) and yet, the U.S. is still standing.
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(10-14-2020, 03:35 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Yep. Agreed. I think there's evidence from both democrat and republican politicians claiming the other party is literally the enemy.
I also find it funny how many people think if Biden or Trump is elected the country is DOOMED!! I'm 45 years old. I've heard that from the losing party of every presidential election since the Democrats when George Bush was elected (may have happened sooner, just don't remember before that one) and yet, the U.S. is still standing.
The USA was supposedly dine for when that dastardly Catholic JFK was elected 60 years ago. I guess the usa crawling back to Nixon saved us?
Call me biased but the latest rnc and some comments by our sitting president have me thinking rhe doom sayers have gone full mainstream now, though. Things seem pretty insane.
You have to admit the incumbent saying there will be no god if he isn't reelected is noteworthy. I mean, I've always heard people claim we are doomed if candidate X is elected and candidate y isn't, but I'm not sure I've ever heard one of the actual candidates be that voice of doom, ya dig?
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(10-14-2020, 05:39 PM)Nately120 Wrote: The USA was supposedly dine for when that dastardly Catholic JFK was elected 60 years ago. I guess the usa crawling back to Nixon saved us?
Call me biased but the latest rnc and some comments by our sitting president have me thinking rhe doom sayers have gone full mainstream now, though. Things seem pretty insane.
You have to admit the incumbent saying there will be no god if he isn't reelected is noteworthy. I mean, I've always heard people claim we are doomed if candidate X is elected and candidate y isn't, but I'm not sure I've ever heard one of the actual candidates be that voice of doom, ya dig?
It's definitely been ratcheted up a bit. Makes the GOPAC memo seem almost tame: https://web.archive.org/web/20130902053532/http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/GopacMemo.html
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
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(10-14-2020, 08:50 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: It's definitely been ratcheted up a bit. Makes the GOPAC memo seem almost tame: https://web.archive.org/web/20130902053532/http://web.utk.edu/~glenn/GopacMemo.html
As I've said before, I don't think it's a coincidence politics has gotten crazier after we put Trump in the white house. We all have heard people say crazy "the world will end if my candidate doesn't win!" stuff, but Trump doing it himself does seem like a bold new step towards normalizing this insanity.
Then again, Michael Dukakis may have spent all of 1988 warning that a George HW Bush presidency will kill god, for all I recall.
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/520871-aei-bidens-proposals-would-cut-taxes-for-most-households-in-2021
Quote:The tax proposals of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would raise $2.8 trillion over 10 years and reduce taxes for most households in the near-term, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
"Overall, Biden’s tax proposals would make the US tax code more progressive," AEI researchers said in their paper.
Biden has offered a number of tax proposals aimed at raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. These include undoing portions of President Trump's 2017 tax-cut law that cut taxes for people making over $400,000, subjecting earnings over $400,000 to Social Security taxes, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and changing how U.S. companies' foreign profits are taxed.
Biden has also proposed expanding the earned income tax credit and reintroducing and expanding a tax credit for first-time homebuyers. In an effort to provide relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, Biden has proposed to temporarily expand the child tax credit.
AEI estimated that Biden's plans would increase federal revenue by $2.8 trillion from 2021 to 2030, with most of the revenue gain coming from tax increases on businesses.
In 2021, Biden's proposals would increase taxes for households in the top 5 percent of income but reduce taxes for those in other income groups, according to the analysis. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of income would see their after-tax incomes reduced by 14.2 percent, while those in the bottom 10 percent would see their after-tax incomes increase by 11.3 percent. The sizable tax cut for low-income households "is primarily due to the large, temporary expansion of the child tax credit," AEI said.
The think tank said that in 2030, after the child tax credit expansion expired, those in the top 1 percent of income would still see a sizable tax increase. However, households in other income groups would see small tax increases, with their after-tax incomes decreasing by between 0.1 percent and 2.1 percent.
"The modest tax increases for the bottom 95 percent of tax filers in 2030 are primarily attributable to business tax increases," AEI wrote.
The Biden campaign in the past has argued that the experience with Trump's tax law raises questions about the notion that part of the corporate tax ultimately is paid by workers.
AEI estimated that Biden's proposed higher effective tax rates on wealthy individuals and businesses would reduce gross domestic product (GDP) in the short run when compared to the baseline, but that Biden's plan would increase GDP in the medium-term because of a reduction in debt.
"In the long term, his plan would not raise enough to stabilize debt-to-GDP and would lead to a 0.18 percent smaller economy," AEI said.
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(10-14-2020, 08:57 PM)Nately120 Wrote: As I've said before, I don't think it's a coincidence politics has gotten crazier after we put Trump in the white house. We all have heard people say crazy "the world will end if my candidate doesn't win!" stuff, but Trump doing it himself does seem like a bold new step towards normalizing this insanity.
Then again, Michael Dukakis may have spent all of 1988 warning that a George HW Bush presidency will kill god, for all I recall.
I agree. Trump triggered a lot of folks before he ever stepped foot onto Pennsylvania Avenue. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Usually the losers will say "well we'll get 'em in 4 years" but this time was different.
I think a lot of it started because some folks think celebrities have enlightened political minds.
Madonna wanted to blow up the White House even before Trump unpacked.
De Niro wanted to fight him on day 2
That one stupid comedian cut off his head off
![[Image: tumblr_orvfwvvVex1qgvqxoo3_r1_400.gif]](https://68.media.tumblr.com/071ad94c3916004492d5b3dc08d11f08/tumblr_orvfwvvVex1qgvqxoo3_r1_400.gif)
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(10-14-2020, 09:24 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I agree. Trump triggered a lot of folks before he ever stepped foot onto Pennsylvania Avenue. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Usually the losers will say "well we'll get 'em in 4 years" but this time was different.
I think a lot of it started because some folks think celebrities have enlightened political minds.
Madonna wanted to blow up the White House even before Trump unpacked.
De Niro wanted to fight him on day 2
That one stupid comedian cut off his head off
I think a lot of it started because of how inflammatory Trump was from the onset. Most people couldn't care what celebrities think about it. They may give them some validation, but they came to it on their own.
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"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
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(10-14-2020, 09:24 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I agree. Trump triggered a lot of folks before he ever stepped foot onto Pennsylvania Avenue. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Usually the losers will say "well we'll get 'em in 4 years" but this time was different.
I think a lot of it started because some folks think celebrities have enlightened political minds.
Madonna wanted to blow up the White House even before Trump unpacked.
De Niro wanted to fight him on day 2
That one stupid comedian cut off his head off
No one you are complaining about going ape is president, though. That's the point. People and celebrities are always going ape about the president and now we have a president who is just as loud and full of crap as any other celebrity blowhard.
It's possible democrats dropped the ball by running a boring politician against Trump instead of one of those loudmouth celebrities you cited. Fight fire with fire and all that.
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(10-14-2020, 09:34 PM)Nately120 Wrote: No one you are complaining about going ape is president, though. That's the point. People and celebrities are always going ape about the president and now we have a president who is just as loud and full of crap as any other celebrity blowhard.
It's possible democrats dropped the ball by running a boring politician against Trump instead of one of those loudmouth celebrities you cited. Fight fire with fire and all that.
I'm going to need examples of celebrities going ape like those I cited.
Seems I recall how tickled they were when Trump's predecessor won.
It's fair to state Trump added to the shit show, but let's not pretend he flew solo on the flight.
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(10-14-2020, 02:50 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: This language. This is the problem with politics in our country right now. I'm not saying this group, or the right in general, has a monopoly on it. I am simply saying that this is why we are having such a problem right now. When we come from a place like this, there is no room for working across the aisle.
The question is not really whether one side has a "monopoly" though. Nor whether "both sides do it."
The question is whether one side has been primarily driving the language and the "us vs them" framing that you singled out.
And that is an empirical question which can be answered with some across-the-spectrum research into political speeches and commentary.
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(10-14-2020, 09:24 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I agree. Trump triggered a lot of folks before he ever stepped foot onto Pennsylvania Avenue. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Usually the losers will say "well we'll get 'em in 4 years" but this time was different.
I think a lot of it started because some folks think celebrities have enlightened political minds.
Madonna wanted to blow up the White House even before Trump unpacked.
De Niro wanted to fight him on day 2
That one stupid comedian cut off his head off
LOL Pretty sure Madonna didn't really want to blow up the white house. And no one cut off Trump's head.
What were the "triggers" that set all these celebrities off?
Did you notice, or were you just focused on the response?
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(10-14-2020, 09:56 PM)Dill Wrote: LOL Pretty sure Madonna didn't really want to blow up the white house. And no one cut off Trump's head.
What were the "triggers" that set all these celebrities off?
Did you notice, or were you just focused on the response?
Hillary lost
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