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President Donald Trump promised a $5,000 check for U.S. voters if the Republicans win both the House and the Senate in the looming midterm elections.

Why the hell not? Makes sense to me.

Such a payout could cost more than $1 trillion and break federal law.

Quit complaining. What's another trillion? Have you been to the supermarket lately?

offering or making a payment to induce someone to vote, withhold their vote, or vote for or against a candidate is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine, up to one year in prison, or both. A willful violation can carry up to two years’ imprisonment.

Has the author never heard of a little thing called presidential pardon?

At least more honest and direct than the subterfuge We're used to

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183 sats \ 19 replies \ @optimism 8h

If this would be instead of the cronies getting their 1tn, then it would be good, yes. However, I doubt that this is an exclusive 1tn. There's no rule on the printer that you cannot press the button twice.

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208 sats \ 8 replies \ @siggy47 OP 8h

As Jackie Gleason used to say, "a mere bag of shells."

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Who's that, a boomer...?

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129 sats \ 6 replies \ @siggy47 OP 8h

The show boomers used to watch as children that taught them their values:

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Och, wow, so it's the origin of their shite??

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244 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 OP 8h

That guy was my role model and hero. 😀

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177 sats \ 2 replies \ @freetx 7h

Honeymooners is legit funny to this day. Its sort of amazing how well its aged.

Iiiiiinteresting.

I shall do some investigating

You know there isn't really any printing going on, right? (Yet, anyway...)

Monetary base steadily shrinking; M2 up 7% in four years, e.g. invisible.

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109 sats \ 7 replies \ @optimism 8h

I know, the "printer" is just symbolic in this, what I try to symbolize is that there technically is no rule that prevents you from spending 2tn instead of 1tn, if you can just change the spending limit. There may be reduced appetite to buy that debt but all that means is you will pay higher interest. Greece could totes borrow unlimited moneys from Deutsche and BNP at 11%, and nothing bad ever happened there, because like those, EU will always bail out Belgian and French (oh hey BNP) systemic banks so they can just keep buying US debt, no problemo.

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Attaboy!

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140 sats \ 4 replies \ @optimism 7h

However, the toxic "government do something" crowd will only grow bigger with each handout, with each subsidy and with each bailout. And that crowd is by far the most retarded crowd, and the biggest, because they're volunteering for slavery.

I don't know if they can keep plugging the holes they make with the endless handouts forever or not, but what I do know is that I do not want to spend my old age as a slave to their system, even though it is costing me dearly.

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Bring on the decline!!

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28 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 7h

Best thing that can happen for anyone strong enough or capable of growing strong enough to not need handouts. Pity about everyone else though... not pretty.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 8h
oh hey BNP

Another satisfied Fortis customer

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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 3h -100 sats

Chevron have already gotten billions and The Zionists have too plus blood and territory in the name of The Greater Israel Project that Trump is enabling.

Go on vote Republican again and watch the world turn against America.

Many people will sell their freedoms and rights for the price of a Big Mac.

Some Americans will accept Trumps promise-bribe of $5000.

Trump knows he will not retain both houses and the bribe will never have to be paid, or if enough voters can be bought in such a blatant way American democracy is truly dead.

Either way he and his cronies win, and you lose.

88 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 5h

I suspect this will be like the tariffs -- he will talk it up bigly and then the only thing that will happen is that most people get screwed, but in some way that they don't even really talk about.

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Has the author never heard of a little thing called presidential pardon?

Also, how is this any different than the promises of freebies that everyone makes while campaigning?

Also, also, we all know those checks aren’t coming, so it’s not a real offer.

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159 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 5h

I think this is the big innovation of Trump: he realized that he can say absolutely anything and it doesn't have to have any bearing on what he or his administration actually does.

Sure politicians have always lied, but I feel like Trump has brought it to a new level (at least for my lifetime) and the reality is no one cares.

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I think it speaks of the depth to which a certain segment of the American population feels abandoned by the mainstream political class.

I can relate, except that Trump has arguably been even worse.

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I’m not sure. I kind of think of Trump as ripping the bandages off of a bunch of stuff that wasn’t really healing anyway.

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235 sats \ 1 reply \ @billytheked 8h

That's a lot of money to pay so that we forget about the war that never happened, cheaper prices at the pump and <redacted>.

It's so damn retarded it might just work.

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I like money. Who cares why or what I'm supposed to forget? I don't remember anything anyway.

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224 sats \ 1 reply \ @optimism 8h

Also: #1567004

My retarded take:

Since inflation is anyway going to happen, might as well get some capital to try and beat it. You'll always have better chances to successfully hedge with capital than without, even if it means that the acquisition of said capital will inevitably create even stronger inflation. 😂

Edit: ah, you edited in the supermarket point, so you're as retarded as I am, however much that may be.

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147 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 8h

At this point? Give it a shot.

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257 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 7h
democrats did insert conspiracy theory so why Trump shouldn't do much worse?

retarded comment section

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103 sats \ 2 replies \ @fiatbad 6h

Didn't he promise a tariff dividend a few years back also?

How many times has he claimed that Iran has been totally obliterated?

No one is going to take this new dividend payment seriously. He never follows through on stuff like this. Ever.

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103 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 OP 6h

You dare doubt the Donald?

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yes

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I saw in the FT article covering this...

Trump focused much of his speech, which lasted nearly two hours, on casting the Democratic Party and its insurgent socialist wing as “far-left lunatics and fanatics”.

Wait, two fucking hours?
(And vague promises of cash handouts were all you could muster...?)

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He despises those leftists. He wants control of congress so his administration can buy stakes in private companies (https://www.cato.org/blog/government-ownership-stakes-companies-becoming-routine-under-trump), control the bond market, dictate interest rates, destroy free trade, and distribute free shit to the people.

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79 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 6h

Can I get a 6000 from the Dems.

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best I can do is $100 and a sex change

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137 sats \ 1 reply \ @ahmedtuli1 6h

$5k sounds great until you start thinking about where that money is actually coming from.

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Thinking? Nope, just deposit check, send to exchange. Buy bitcoin. Send to cold storage. No thinking required.

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Nice, I will buy BTC stash in one wallet, and forget I ever got that $5k, I will look at that wallet in 10 years. We shall see what will be there then... :-) (will also need to remember where do I put that key) :-)

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108 sats \ 1 reply \ @coffeebadger 8h
offering or making a payment to induce someone to vote, withhold their vote, or vote for or against a candidate is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine, up to one year in prison, or both. A willful violation can carry up to two years’ imprisonment.

How dare Trump distribute cash directly instead of smuggling it through overly complicated forms that only Democrat voters qualify for and are practiced in filling out! This is an outrage.

Oh wait a minute. Stimmy payments are obtained through tax filings! Oh! This is a double outrage.

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Incredible

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Such promises are very common in india. We call it "revadi" - a kind of sweet and cheap pill - here!

We have multi-party politics and a tri-level government so elections are almost every year for some or the other. Politicians were so used to promising these before Modi. But Modi made it a campaign slogan and made people aware that such promises were made to just fool the public..and it struck so hard ..Modi will be the PM of India until he dies.

But what Modi did was amazing when COVID, he mandated free ration to more than 800 million people. He did it when it was required not when he wanted votes.

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Brilliant, 4D chess.

Pivot the decades long narratives away from free healthcare, transportation, housing, college... blah blah... things that have actual markets that get distorted and broken, and turn it into market liquidity.

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37 sats \ 1 reply \ @ealvar39 5h

If Hugo Chavez or some other leftist populist had done this, the USA Republicans would be screaming about it.

This is clearly wrong in either case.

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Left? Right? How passé.

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Putin makes every government employee when casting the vote to take a photograph of the ballot. Only those voting in favor of his party get to keep the job. Trump can save some cash and improve the results by doing the same. Why stop half way?

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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 4h

more sats for us

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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @Yermin 1h

He is the white Idi Amin.

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