Bogus Tax Bill Follows Bogus Alabama Election

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The Post & Email
By: Ron Ewart

More news on the bogus Tax Bill process.

The RepubliCrats are seeking a way to kill it before they take their Christmas Recess, so, having succeeded with the GOP/DNC collusion to give Sessions' seat to a Democrat, the end-game now continues.

As Stalin noted:

"It is enough that the people know there was an election.  The people who cast the votes decide nothing.  The people who count the votes decide everything."

The Senate margin is now razor-thin, but, surprise -- McCain has suddenly taken ill and has taken up residence in Walter Reed Military Hospital and will be "unable" to vote on the Tax bill; that "brain cancer" thing is a terrible burden.  

We salute the good senator since most people enduring brain cancer  deteriore quickly and have long since passed away, but, he seems spry as a new rooster.  

Is it cancer, or just a deformed brain.

So, essentially, the Bill will now take one of two paths:

1) It will fail to pass because the GOP now has no clear majority

2) In order to pass, the Bill will have to undergo considerable compromise with the Democrats, and the newly unacceptable Tax Bill will be sent over to Trump for signature.

-- Either way, we lose!

Pass or not, both Parties will walk away with plenty of pork, and the tax breaks we anticipated will now be corrupted so that deductions and credits will be replaced with new scales and add-ons.  It looks as if the AMT [Adjusted Minimum Tax] has already crept back into the Bill, and we're certain many of the tax hikes buried in ObamaCare will be revived.

You jerks in Congress
screwed up my Tax Reform

The end result will be that both Parties will then attack Trump for HIS inability to get the Tax Bill through as promised in his campaign.

This will annoy the voters, and distract the voters from the current scandals implicating Schumer for his involvement in sex scandals, and the overwhelming evidence being presented indicating the absolute corruption of Deep State politicians now resigning in noticeable numbers.

Note to Congress and the Senate:

2018 is an election year, 

and we'll identify and evict you bastards who sabotaged this tax bill!

Draining the Swamp is tough business;

I'd suggest to Mr Trump that he speed up the process with a little napalm.

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning"

Trump's Hatchet Job

We publish commentary which is incisive

 and applicable to current events. 

This was written by an author who prefers 

anonymity, but the content is a superb 

analysis of President Trump's business 

management style as applied

to Washington politics.

How things work in the real world of business and corporate America; most notably. the concept of the "hatchet man."

Say you are a business tycoon. You just successfully completed a large-scale acquisition and merger, bringing together multiple smaller companies into one conglomerate. After the merger, you want to put your own people in charge of everything. 

However, all those smaller companies had their own executives - and, at least for the short term - you need to keep many of them around the keep things running. 

So, you keep many of those executives around, and let them retain their own senior staff. You even appoint one of them - the head of the largest of the companies you acquired - to be the CEO of the conglomerate, and he pledges to get all the departments working together harmoniously.

After a transition period, some of them are doing fine in the new conglomerate - but others are clearly causing trouble. In fact, the one you appointed CEO is clearly a disaster. The newly merged departments are working against each other.

Furthermore, you have good suspicion he is dealing in insider trading - nothing you can take to a prosecutor, but there is a lot of circumstantial evidence building up. Worse, he is not only doing his own dirty dealing, but it appears he may even be leaking intellectual property to your competitors, helping them take market share from you.

Clearly, he has to go - and go now.

Problem is, many of the senior employees in your conglomerate are loyal to him. If you just fire him and put in your own chosen CEO, you know you could get a lot of backlash from disgruntled employees. And in your business, there is such a small profit-margin that you really can't afford anything at all that threatens performance. So what do you do?

In comes the hatchet man.

The hatchet man is someone you bring in for the sole purpose of slashing the problems and shaking things up over a very short period of time - but doing it in a way that deflects any blame or blowback away from you. As soon as the problems are hacked away, the hatchet man leaves - taking the ire and resentment with him, and leaving you free to bring in your new team for a fresh start.

This happens in the business world all the time. 

And Donald Trump is a businessman. 

[One of our jobs was as a Hatchet Man in the Intel Community (IC) many years ago; the process worked quite well there to eliminate "dead wood", and, of course, it is time to renew that process with today's IC.]

He knows this. He has lived this. We've seen him do it on "The Apprentice." We've read about it in his books. This is not a surprise to anyone. Except for liberals and never-trumpets.

Enter Scaramucci.

Scaramucci - Hatchet Man

Liberals and never-Trumpers see recent events as proof of a Hitler-clown-circus spectacle, as evidence that Trump is unhinged and our government is in the hands of madmen! 

Anyone who understands the business world and Donald Trump fully understands that what we just witnessed was a perfectly executed hatchet man maneuver.

When Trump won the election, he essentially performed the political equivalent of an acquisition and merger. He brought together different political factions - establishment Republicans, conservatives, tea party, religious right, moderates, independents, cross-overs - into one winning political coup. For some, it was a hostile takeover - and if they were going to be dragged in against their will, they would sure as hell resist.

This is where Reince Priebus came in.

Priebus - Dead Meat

Priebus, as the then-chairman of the Republican National Committee, was hired as White House Chief of Staff to be a sort of post-merger CEO. I

It was his job to bring all these political factions together and get them to work harmoniously. But he failed. Worse, there is ample evidence to suggest he not only failed, but worked against Trump and the Trump agenda. 

Look at the leaks. Look at all the chaos. Look at all the bureaucracy continuing to work at odds with the president. Priebus - and a number of other people around him - had to go.

Back to Scaramucci.

Donald Trump had known for some time that Priebus was a disaster. He was going to give him his six-month trial period - that's a fairly common thing in the private sector. After that, heads were going to roll. But Trump himself couldn't be seen as the hatchet man. He needed to be able to lead after the bloodbath. 

So what does to do? 

He turned to an old friend he had known for many years - someone with nothing to lose, someone who could step in with a hatchet and hack away, someone who can then just walk away from it all and leave the slate clean. 

He turned to Scaramucci.

So what did Scaramucci do? 

He came in swinging. He fired a few people to make a quick example and then told others they could "resign" immediately if they wanted to - but if not, they would be fired. Others saw what was going on and quit of their own accord.

                                     That problem CEO, Priebus? 

Mucci to Priebus: YOU'RE FIRED!

Oh, the new "structure" of the organization put Scaramucci in direct competition with Priebus - and Priebus threw up his hands and announced

 "fine, I'm out of here." And Scaramucci did it all in a way that is spectacularly visible to draw all the fire from Trump critics.

[Most notably, by drawing Priebus out from his position as Chair of the GOP, Trump eliminated Priebus' power as an adversary since the scramble of power brokers to replace Priebus ensured he could not return, and guaranteed that it would take years for Priebus' replacement to create a power base.]

So how did it all end? 

It ended up with Trump putting in his new CEO - the one he probably wanted from day one, but held back - and the new CEO says 

"OK, Scaramucci - you are no longer needed here."

New Chief of Staff: General Kelly

General Kelly now has a clean slate to start fresh - and Scaramucci takes all the heat. Where the Left and Never-Trumpers see a circus freak-show, realists from the business world see a perfectly executed post-merger hatchet-man job.

The political wonks see Kelly taking command as the first sane thing to happen in this administration. They don't realize they've been played, and played perfectly. And soon, we will likely see some other changes that move the Executive Branch further towards what Trump has wanted from Day One. 

And then watch the real swamp-drainer get to work. 

Oh, and Scaramucci? 

He got a sweet deal out of all this - no doubt, he and his friend Donald Trump talked it all out first.

Scaramucci was already facing a nasty divorce that would result in the liquidation of his business to divide assets. A little-known law allows people who are legally required to sell a business as a condition of employment in the Executive Branch (to prevent conflicts of interest) to defer the taxes on their profits from the sale.

Scaramucci was going to have to sell his company anyway due to his pending divorce. Now he and his soon-to-be ex-wife just saved $80 million in taxes. So don't think for a moment all this was an unplanned mess that went awry. Scaramucci and Trump knew exactly what they were doing.

All of this was planned - and foreseen by folks in the business world. 

Scott Adams wrote before Trump was inaugurated that, to his critics, the first year of Trump would be a play in three acts:

Act One - Trump is literally Hitler.
Act Two - Trump is not literally Hitler, but Trump is incompetent.
Act Three - Trump is not incompetent, but we don't like his policies.

We've seen this play out.

From election night up through the first 100 days, the Left was out rioting and acting as though Trump taking office was literally the end of Western Civilization.

But after 100 days, when Trump had failed to do evil-dictator things like round up all the brown people and put the gays into camps and force women to stay home and have babies, it became farcical to continue the "Trump is Hitler" narrative.

And so from that 100 day point up until now, it has been the "Trump is incompetent" game. 

Look at all the chaos. 

Look at all the leaking. 

Look at all the tweets. 

Now, we begin Act Three. 

With Priebus out and Kelly in, things will settle down. Pretty soon, all the Left -- and the RINOs will have to say is "we just don't like Trump's policies."...Act Three.

And once that happens, the Left is dead, as will be the GOP if they don't get behind Trump. 

Because, Trump's policies are policies that most Americans actually agree with. 

We should put America first. 

Build back our economy. 

Create jobs. 

Strengthen the military. 

Protect the border. 

Outside of a few densely-populated liberal strongholds like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and - of course - Washington, DC, Americans in general agree with all of this. So when all the Left has to say is "Trump's policies are wrong," the Left, and Speaker Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell, will literally be telling most of America, "you people are stupid."

Trump will win 47 states in 2020. The Left will be scratching their heads and wondering what the hell happened. And you'll be able to look back and say, 

"hey, some of us told you all this back in 2017"

Consider this a free lesson in Advanced Business Administration as applied to Politics 401.

Reforming Congress - Drain The Swamp

[Although we are not a fan of Warren Buffett, we recognize that even scoundrels have good ideas.  We have added some additional comments below to support this concept.]

The BUFFETT Rule

Notable pressure points for our elected political representatives. 

Salary of retired US Presidents .. . . . .. . . . . .. . $180,000 FOR LIFE.

Salary of House/Senate members .. . . . .. . . .   $174,000 FOR LIFE.  [????]

Salary of Speaker of the House .. . . . .. . . . .     $223,500 FOR LIFE.  [????]

Salary of Majority / Minority Leaders . . .. . . . .  $193,400 FOR LIFE. [????]

Average Salary of a teacher . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. .  $40,065

Average Salary of a deployed Soldier . . .. . . ..  $38,000

[These are self-imposed salaries,

 voted BY Congress, FOR CONGRESS, 

and the American citizen has no say in the matter]

If you wish to end the deficit, you simply pass legislation that declares that if there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress [including the Senate] immediately become ineligible for re-election.

The 26th Amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only three months and eight days to be ratified! 

Why? Simple! 

The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven took one year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Does your political representative have any value?

Proposed 

Congressional Reform Act of 2017

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressional Respresentative or Senator will collect a 

    salary while in office and will receive no pay after leaving office; i.e., no retirement!

2. Congress (past, present, & future) must now participate in Social Security.

    a) All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system

       immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and 

    b) Congress participates with the American people. Social Security funds may not 

         be used for any other purpose.

3. Congressional Representatives can purchase their own retirement plan, 

     just as all Americans can do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise 

     by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same

    health care system as the American people - another incentive to end ObamaCare.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they have imposed on the American 

    people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressional Representatives and Senators 

    become are void on the passage of this legislation and its signing into law by the 

    President.

    [There is no existing contract with Congress that such legislation would violate] 

    a)  Congress made all these contracts for themselves. 

    b)  Serving in Congress is an honor, not a lucrative career. 

    c)  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their 

          term(s) then go home and go back to work.

This amendment eliminates The Establishment and Crony Politics.  Empowering politicians with lifetime careers and constant fund-raising [bribes] by Defense Contractors, Pharmaceuticals, and foreign powers is not acceptable, and has never been. 

Forcing Congress to restrain themselves and to be held accountable eliminates such egregious creatures as Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan, Harry Reid, John McConnell, Al Franken, 

Drawing on the words of Andrew P Napolitano, writing for the Washington Times, we have to wonder if there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats; probably not.

The laws they have written are too arcane for the average citizen to understand, and, as with ObamaCare, the law was written into 2,500 pages into which egregious violations of the Constitution were written -- unchallenged in Obama's eight year tenure.  We have to ask why no one in Congress challenged these measures, but we need only look to the Patriot Act or the National Defense Authorization Act, both of which were jammed through in record time to strip the American citizens of their Constitutional rights 

-- to "protect us from Terrorism", which we have created in the Middle East compliments of our "allies" there who created, funded, manned, armed, and are wreaking havoc in formerly peaceful lands -- and now, the Media condemns Trump for taking action against them.

It is clear that our Congress has become a self-perpetuating Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, it serves itself, and not the voters; it gives the voters limited options for candidates, and if the candidate doesn't suit their tastes -- or dictates, both Parties join together to defeat that candidate, no matter how popular they are.

Cases in point include former Governor McDonnell of Virginia who was scandalized by the Washington Post, tried and convicted of "corruption" in a small kangaroo court in Virginia, and forced out of politics based on a bogus "felony conviction".  In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction referring to as the greatest example of legal manipulation they had ever witnessed.  

                      
Why did this happen?

Governor McDonnell

McDonnell was a Conservative, retired Military officer, dynamic, good looking, brilliant, with a charming, attractive wife, and would have been a shoo-in for the GOP Presidential candidate.  

The problem was, McDonnell couldn't be dictated to, and was thus unacceptable to the GOP.  The Chosen One was Jeb Bush, a limp-wristed intellectually impaired stalwart of the Party who could be depended upon to follow in the path of his brother George W Bush and do precisely as he was told.  Thus, the GOP and the Democrats joined together to destroy McConnell to keep him out of the 2016 election process.  

The American people were so disgusted with the GOP candidates they jumped on the Trump bandwagon because it was clear he would not take orders from the political parties and would march to his own tune.  Trump has not disappointed in that promise although the RepubliCrat Press constantly attacks him.

But, let's take another case which you might have missed in which a highly popular GOP candidate in Nevada was the hands-down favorite among Nevada voters.  She had easily beaten all her Primary candidates and would easily have defeated Harry Reid, the incumbent Democrat Senate Majority Leader.  

But, the GOP had already cut their deal with the Democrats and vowed their support for Reid, even though they officially "condemned" Reid for his corruption and opposition to all proposals made by the GOP.

The GOP candidate, Sharron Angle, as a member of the Nevada Assembly, had challenged GOP Governor Kenny Guinn and filed suit [Angle v. Guinn] against the Legislature to nullify the State's Constitution provision allowing a simple majority to pass the Governor's $836 Million tax increase.  

She carried the suit to the US Supreme Court which ruled against the Nevada Governor's gambit.  The State Legislature then reversed its position and formalized a 2/3 vote to pass tax legislation -- and the Governor was defeated, and highly embarrassed.

Angle further upset the Nevada Legislature by attempting to reform the Nevada Prison System. In 2006, she lost her race for a Congressional seat by roughly 325 votes, and challenged the election since poll workers mysteriously were absent in Washoe County, her strongest supporter.

In 2010, once it appeared Angle was positioned to beat Reid, the GOP joined forces with the Democrats funding TV and Newspaper opposition to her candidacy -- to include was cited by Senator Robert Menendez as "racist and despicable" propaganda against Angle.  Her lead until then was 50% to 39%, clearly a victory; but, instead the GOP had turned against her since she was clearly and independent thinker, and most clearly would not be dictated to in the US Senate by the GOP.  Obviously, a trouble-maker.

Bottom Line on all this is that the US Congress consists of a single Party with two official designations: The Republicans -- who bear no resemblance to the original Republican Party, and The Democrats, who are clearly Socialists/Communists.  

Together, they are the RepubliCrats -- representing only their own self-interests, 
and certainly not Mainstream America.

Trump's biggest challenge will be to 
Drain The Capitol Hill Swamp.

His greatest enemies are Speaker of the House Ryan and Senate Majority Leader McConnell, both of whom have made it clear they will undermine Trump at every opportunity.