@izzythepush,
Epstein and Trump had been going on a longtime before they got around to Prince Andrew. Epstein had already been convicted of molesting underage girls in 2005. His sentence only required that he serve time on weekends. There is some speculation that Epstein was a spy and managed to get damaging information on important men. Epstein molested 100s of underage girls. Epstein was not prosecuted by local authorities he was instead by Federal Authorities almost all sex offenders are prosecuted by local authorities. Prince Andrew did molest one of Epstein' girls till 2010.
@Zardoz,
Prince Andrew is not a private citizen, he is a member of the establishment which does its level best to cover up the Royal's peccadillos.
God only knows what he was up to before the Epstein stuff came to light.
@Zardoz,
Zardoz wrote:Even though the Modern Conservative Movement began during the baby boomers generation as the an extremist political movement most American have no idea that many of the founders and even the father of the Modern Conservative Movement were communist intellectuals.
I knew about a lot of those figures but here's a new book by Daniel J. Flynn about an important one I'd never heard of:
Quote:The Man Who Invented Conservatism - The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer
Frank Meyer devised the blueprint for American conservatism—fusionism—championed by Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and so many to this day. Yet long before and far away, Communists in London chanted “Free Frank Meyer!” to block the deportation of a comrade who was their cause célèbre. Those fervent Marxists could never have predicted that their hero would one day provide the intellectual energy necessary to propel conservatives to political power.
The Man Who Invented Conservatism unveils one of the twentieth century’s great untold stories: a Communist turned conservative, an antiwar activist turned soldier, and a free-love enthusiast turned family man whose big idea captured the American Right. This intellectual migration coincided with a clandestine affair inside 10 Downing Street, service as a lieutenant to the man who later constructed the Berlin Wall, and neighborly chats with the pop-star and poet celebrity next door. Present at the creation of National Review, Meyer helped launch Joan Didion’s writing career. From H. G. Wells to Henry Kissinger to Milton Friedman, he rubbed shoulders with everyone who mattered.
Having discovered Meyer’s previously unexamined correspondence in an old soda warehouse, Daniel J. Flynn documents this saga in The Man Who Invented Conservatism, exposing the rivalries, jealousies, friendships, and fights that shaped the movement and what it means to be a conservative today.
The Man Who Invented Conservatism
The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer
by Daniel J. Flynn
Encounter, 544 pp., $41.99 (hardcover)
@hightor,
That should be an interesting book. Years ago, I stumbled across a number of communists who migrated to conservatism and were in fact leading lights in the conservative movement. These were not people that went to a few communist meetings on the weekend they were hard core communists that took orders from Moscow. The communist party picked their wives. The idea was the wife would watch her husband and report back to the communists. At that time period we had another group that wanted and American Hitler. I spent years researching the communists turned conservatives running down their books to see how the communist gave birth to the American conservative movement in America
It looks like paychecks are not keep up with inflation. Core inflation went up 2.9% since last year. Core inflation excludes volatile items such as food an energy. The inflation is just beginning as some small items are facing 100% tariffs.
The courts killed the Trump tariffs. The power to impose tariffs like other taxes belongs to congress and not the president. Trump is using emergency powers to put the tariffs on when there is no emergency. Now it looks like Trump will have to pay the tariffs back to the American people and foreign countries. The republican congress should have stopped this when president heel spurs started it. It will be interesting to see how many billions will have to be returned to the American people.
Did anybody get their $5,000 Trump check yet? When all the jobs were being cut by Musk, they said they were saving so much money they would issue $5,000 checks to all Americans. The weather men are gone along with the social security offices but still no checks.
Now the Tariffs have been overturned by the appeals court, they ruled that Trump has to return the money. That was about $2,400 per American. The court said only congress can put tariffs on. Trump only power to put tariffs was during an emergency like a war. You would never expect Trump to follow the Constitution. This ruling collapses Trump' entire agenda.
Trump in his takeover of Washington is doing away with the laws put in place to protect the citizens and is going back and turning the criminals that broke that laws lose. In Washington anyone carrying a long without a permit was arrested. Trump wants to make sure that school shooters are not harassed on their way to a school shooting they could not be arrested until they pulled the trigger. Trump owes NRA big time. The NRA wanted the law changed so that the mentally ill could own guns. There are people who cannot handle their own money, someone must be appointed to handle their money. The NRA did not care if they could handle their own money, they wanted to make damn sure they could own a AR-15. AR-15s are much simpler than money you just pull the trigger and people die.
Now it is coming to light from the national credit rating companies that the countries credit rating will have to be marked down if Trump has to refund the tariffs as has been ordered by the courts. The country did not have enough money to give the rich a tax cut. Trump had to put the tariffs on to fund his tax cuts for the ungodly greedy. Now that the tariffs have to be refunded there is no funding for his tax cuts the country's credit rating will suffer. Trump deliberately raised taxes on the working people to cut the taxes on the ungodly greedy. What is wrong with this picture is that the American people did not stand up say hell no this is not going to happen.
As soon as the conservatives came to power under Reagan, they raised the social security tax five times to fund a 75% cut in taxes for the rich. There is a pattern here. There was no money to cut taxes, so somebody had to pay more so the workingman got shafted. Of course, the conservatives always borrow money to fund tax cuts for the rich. Reagan' tax cut was so big that he had to triple the national debt. Under Trump the deficit is so out of control he can't borrow anymore without sinking the country so what could Trump do raise the taxes on working people to fund his huge tax cut. Name one thing the conservatives did for the workingman. The republicans say it is "trickledown economics." If you give the rich enough money some will trickle down to the workman but that is just a lie.
This generation stopped a war but unfortunately most of that generation is in the process of dying or spending their days in a nursing home. We have stood by and watched as the rich have manipulated us by distracting us from the most important function of our government creating economic fairness. The rich actually pay a lower percentage of their income than the middle class when all taxes are taken into account. Most state and local taxes are regressive. We have watched as the rich literally take the food out of baby's mouths and the college education from our teenagers. Most Universities are built by states and supported by the states, but our universities are unaffordable. It can be reversed it was in the 30s but it will take a movement along the size of that ended the Vietnam war.
There is saying in racing, "that you can beat cubic inches, but you can't beat cubic dollars. In my lifetime I saw the sport change from mechanics who built their own cars to professionally designed and built cars. The money class showed up in a new semitruck and with two cars, a short car, and a long track car. They had spare $35,000 motors. The money ruined the sport. The typical pay out was a $1,000 to win. It made no sense to have a $100,000 car for weekly dirt track racing.
We are up not against to cubic dollars we are up against dollars to the 10th power. They want it all and they are doing a good job of getting it. They will continue to take until there is nothing left. There is a movement in America called eat the rich. That actually happened during the French revolution. The rich know what the end game is, and it has happened throughout history. I thought survivalists were just plain nuts, but it is the greedy rich who making homes in missile silos. They are building survival compounds in New Zealand. So many Americans are building there the locals want to stop them. They know what is coming.
Trump spends most of his time looking for someone to blame for his screw ups. Trump tried blaming the Bureau of Labor statistics for the dismal job statistics. Once he fired the head of that department and replaced her with a hand-picked temporary the figures got worse and had to be marked down again. Especially the manufacturing sector which is in the negative figures. We are paying $2,400 in extra taxes to watch Trump destroy manufacturing in America. Many factories have already closed because of the Trump tariffs.
Trump approval ratings dropped from 56% to 38% two months after announced he the tariffs. A number of Trump voters were interviewed on CNN and were extremely upset with Trump. Since Trump implemented the tariffs, we have lost 42,000 manufacturing jobs and 8,000 construction jobs. Trump now says that it will be year before we see the effects of the Trump tariffs, but we will be paying for the tariffs now. One Trump voter said he use to spend a $40 a week now he spends $140. I don't know how he gets by with a $140 I spend $200 a week on groceries for 2 people and that is not the good cuts of meat.
The drawing that Trump sent Epstein for his birthday was released today and of course Trump said who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes? Trump said he didn't draw women, and he is right he just drew a couple of shapely lines, but it is in Trump's style. When compared to other Trump drawings that were auctioned off for charity they have the same style. Since Trump singed the drawing, his signature can be authenticated. This was 3 years after Trump said he threw Epstein out of his club.
Trump ended the exemption on goods under $800 from his tariffs today and absolute chaos took place. An order for a $300 computer case was billed for $650. There was a 200% Trump tariff added. Trump might as well be standing there with a gun he is robbing the American people. Trump is a reverse Robin Hood robbing the middle class to pay for a tax cut for the rich. Small businesses that depend on ordering from overseas are seeing the price of products they handle doubling. They have only one choice that is to close their businesses they can't double their prices and stay in business. One business got handbags from Spain worth $600 and a bill from DHL for the Trump tariffs $1,041.44. Just think when your package is delivered you will be billed for the tariff.
A conservative gun pusher was killed today. If your political is to push gun even to the mentally and make sure they have the best military weapons of war fight red flag laws if you get killed, you reaped what you sewed. You asked for and your political philosophy probably provide the very guns you were killed with. 100s of school children were innocent victims and had no part in their slaughter. Somebody's political has to take the blame and that is the conservative political philosophy it has real world consequences.
Does anyone mourn a child molester killed when they go to arrest them? A Drug pusher when he is killed. When the republican party was bought out by the NRA, they became complicit in thousands of mass murders in America. They scape goat the mentally ill when the facts shows that 80% of Americans are mentally at some point in their lifetime. Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses that most people experience in their lifetime. There are different causes for depression. You could lose a loved one and want to share your misery with others. Depression is associated with many mass murders, and we are all subject to depression.
@Zardoz,
Mandelson has been sacked as US Ambassador due to Epstein revelations.
Starmer was slow to act as always. He should have been sacked right away.
He should never have been given the job in the first place. This is the third high profile job he's left because of scandal.
@izzythepush,
More and more information is coming out daily. In the electronic age it is harder to hide secrets. I suspect many more men will be ruined for doing things that they thought would never see the light of day. Now 1,000s Epstein's emails have been released and it may provide the client list that they have been looking for. The forbidden fruit is always the sweetest but may also be the deadliest.
