Gary Johnson: Trump's a pussy

[Excited Penguin]

I thought myself a Libertarian for a while there. But I'm not looking for that kind of society. People still need taxes.

Fair points. I was wrong.

[FatAndFaithless]

Why?  Because it falls more heavily on the poor than the rich?  Because that is what a consumption tax does.

Anyway, here is the Libertarian Platform section:

2.4 Government Finance and Spending

All persons are entitled to keep the fruits of their labor. We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and all federal programs and services not required under the U.S. Constitution. We oppose any legal requirements forcing employers to serve as tax collectors. Government should not incur debt, which burdens future generations without their consent. We support the passage of a “Balanced Budget Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution, provided that the budget is balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, and not by raising taxes.

You see something about a consumption tax?  I don't.

No..but you asked about Johnson's ideas, and said that "If Johnson agrees with that platform plank then he is a horse's ass, too."  Well..he doesn't seem to, and his idea involves a consumption tax.

[Minimalist]

Then why isn't it in their platform?

[FatAndFaithless]

Then why isn't it in their platform?

Er..because Gary Johnson =/= the Libertarian Party?  A candidate isn't just a copy and paste of their party. Otherwise every republican or democratic candidate would be identical to each other.

All I'm saying is, you wondered if Johnson accepted that party plank, and he doesn't. That's all I was responding to.

[Minimalist]

You think so?  A little later I'll post a story of how Drumpf manipulated the GOP platform to make things easier for his buddy Putin.  The candidate controls the platform.

Things to do right now.

[Alex K]

Armies are designed to kill people and break things.  They are not a House Cleaning Service.

I beg to differ.

If that's the Infantry, I wanna see the Artillery!

[GUBU]

Oh, horseshit.  The Libertarian party wants to abolish the income tax and how one funds the government after that seems to be no concern of theirs.  As I have challenged libertarians many times before, name me one modern state which could function under such fiscal constraints.

Why the fuck do you think this cartoon is so accurate?




If Johnson agrees with that platform plank then he is a horse's ass, too.

Just in response to this point specifically - I was curious myself so I went on his website.  Here's him on the income tax:

Governor Johnson advocates for the elimination of special interest tax loopholes, to get rid of the double-taxation on small businesses, and ultimately, the replacement of all income and payroll taxes with a single consumption tax that determines your tax burden by how much you spend, not how much you earn. Such a tax would be structured to insure that no one’s tax burden for the purchase of basic family necessities would be increased. To the contrary, costs of necessities would likely decrease with the elimination of taxes already included in the price of virtually everything we buy.

So basically Johnson is in favour of regressive taxes to keep the poor in the shitter. Wonder how anybody earning less than £500,000 per month and owning half a shire would want to vote for him?

[Minimalist]

Trump, Ukraine, and the GOP Platform

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...story.html

Trump campaign guts GOP’s anti-Russia stance on Ukraine

Still, Republican delegates at last week’s national security committee platform meeting in Cleveland were surprised when the Trump campaign orchestrated a set of events to make sure that the GOP would not pledge to give Ukraine the weapons it has been asking for from the United States.
Inside the meeting, Diana Denman, a platform committee member from Texas who was a Ted Cruz supporter, proposed a platform amendment that would call for maintaining or increasing sanctions against Russia, increasing aid for Ukraine and “providing lethal defensive weapons” to the Ukrainian military.
“Today, the post-Cold War ideal of a ‘Europe whole and free’ is being severely tested by Russia’s ongoing military aggression in Ukraine,” the amendment read. “The Ukrainian people deserve our admiration and support in their struggle.”

Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened. By working with pro-Trump delegates, they were able to get the issue tabled while they devised a method to roll back the language.

On the sideline, Denman tried to persuade the Trump staffers not to change the language, but failed. “I was troubled when they put aside my amendment and then watered it down,” Denman told me. “I said, ‘What is your problem with a country that wants to remain free?’ It seems like a simple thing.”

Finally, Trump staffers wrote an amendment to Denman’s amendment that stripped out the platform’s call for “providing lethal defensive weapons” and replaced it with softer language calling for “appropriate assistance.”

I'm sure Putin appreciates the gesture.