The Trump Presidency: Part 20

[pgwenthold]

Never, afaics.

But I'd say there's a difference between slapping a few lines with a rogue apostrophe onto a forum like this and going to the effort of getting a t-shirt printed up.

Or, for example, in a presidential tweet (which is an official presidential statement)

 

[Andy_Ross]

If a whistleblower leaked to the media that Trump, Putin, and bin Salman were conspiring to raise the price of oil & gas to prop up the industry, it would be a huge scandal. Instead, Trump tweets it.

 

[blutoski]

If a whistleblower leaked to the media that Trump, Putin, and bin Salman were conspiring to raise the price of oil & gas to prop up the industry, it would be a huge scandal. Instead, Trump tweets it.

And I'm trying to figure out how telling the American consumer that he's pitching to increase prices at the pumps is going to reassure them he's their guy in the Whitehouse.

We had twelve years of oil barons presidents, maybe it's time for somebody who's not sitting on a pile of Koch shares to be working on energy policy.

 

[Stacyhs]

Never, afaics.

But I'd say there's a difference between slapping a few lines with a rogue apostrophe onto a forum like this and going to the effort of getting a t-shirt printed up.

One can often use a homonym or a grammar or punctuation mistake when writing because our thinking is usually just a bit ahead of what our fingers are actually typing. But to make up a T-shirt (let alone wear it) with a mistake like "suck's" is just lack of proper punctuation knowledge.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Why?

Right now folks in Outhouse Flats, Nebraska can send a birthday card to folks in Dingleberry Holler, North Carolina for 55¢. No private carrier is going to do that for less than 3 or 4 dollars. How does bankrupting the USPS help all those folks out in Gerrymander country?

GOP doesn't care, they represent lobbyists that want the USPS contract(s).

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

The US says it is sending warships to the Caribbean to stop illegal drugs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-52133500

Look at all the squirrels, so many squirrels.

 

[Stacyhs]

This is an interesting article on Trump's general use of the word 'hoax' to refer to things he wants to discredit and why it's so effective.

The president who cried hoax? Experts weigh in on Trump’s use of the word

Experts in political science told us that Trump uses the word — and others like it — to portray himself as a victim of injustices and inspire his supporters to fight for him and trust his word.

"Trump is trying to undermine the trustworthiness of any source but himself," said Margaret Levi, professor of political science at Stanford University. "The point is to make himself the only credible authority, to be fully trusted as a ‘war-time’ president."

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/apr/01/president-who-cried-hoax-experts-weigh-trumps-use-/

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Trump Retweeted

Brad Parscale - Text TRUMP to 88022
@parscale

Great idea!
Quote Tweet

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Congress must pass the old, and very strongly proven, deductibility by businesses on restaurants and entertainment. This will bring restaurants, and everything related, back - and stronger than ever. Move quickly, they will all be saved!

Something tells me there's a direct financial benefit here to incompetrumpetty.

 

[blutoski]

He's one of the 'undereducated' that Trump loves.

Though, in all honesty, I see a lot of non-Trumpers on this forum who don't seem to know the difference between a plural and a possessive.

This one is layered, because there's two subjects in the sentence: "Liberals and Islam" which collectively just 'suck' without an s on the end per plural subject -> verb conjugation.

The s on sucks was incorrect regardless of spelling, but somebody paid money to demonstrate incorrect grammar AND spelling on one T shirt.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Re suck's: TBF there might be another word after suck's on that shirt.

[/end sidetrack please, there are more important things to discuss, thank you]

 

[blutoski]

Trump Retweeted

Brad Parscale - Text TRUMP to 88022
@parscale

Great idea!
Quote Tweet

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Congress must pass the old, and very strongly proven, deductibility by businesses on restaurants and entertainment. This will bring restaurants, and everything related, back - and stronger than ever. Move quickly, they will all be saved!

My googling hasn't been very fruitful on this... Can anybody shed light on what 'deductibility' is being referred to here?

 

[Norman Alexander]

Something tells me there's a direct financial benefit here to incompetrumpetty.

All his hotels have restaurants that serve meals to the guests, and very expensive bars. Most of the people who stay in Trump's hotels are "business associates", formal and informal lobbyists and other klingons to the Trump empire and largess. Trump wants more of them all the time to stay there. He needs an incentive! If you stay at a Trump hotel and buy your super-expensive meals there, it's now a tax deduction. Nice, eh? Now maybe if the meals were delivered to your rooms...with hot and cold running maids...??

Note that he doesn't care about anyone else. That this is a rort and always was is beside the point.

 

[newyorkguy]

My googling hasn't been very fruitful on this... Can anybody shed light on what 'deductibility' is being referred to here?

Deducting meals charged to 'business' for purely entertainment purposes.

Taxpayers may continue to deduct 50 percent of the cost of business meals if the taxpayer (or an employee of the taxpayer) is present and the food or beverages are not considered lavish or extravagant. The meals may be provided to a current or potential business customer, client, consultant or similar business contact. IRS ​

What changed was that deductibles related to entertainment were nixed. Prior to the TCJA, a business could deduct up to 50% of expenses for things like sports tickets, golf outings, theater trips and casinos. Link

 

[blutoski]

Deducting meals charged to 'business' for purely entertainment purposes.

Ah, got it. Dispensing with the tired idea that business expenses should be... expenses for the operation of the business.

To be honest, I'd be willing to accept them as expenses if the recipient is expected to treat them as a taxable benefit.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Press briefing: They put Kushner out there to lie about why incompetrumpetty saw to it his buddy governors got all the supplies they needed over other states.

And he claimed NY has what it needs, we'll see if Cuomo agrees. Kushner claimed they weren't going by "projected" needs because the numbers keep changing.

Now they have military doing the briefing. Probably makes incompetrumpetty feel more like a war POTUS.

 

[newyorkguy]

That's not grammar. It's punctuation. In this case, the correct term would be "self-righteous punctuation snobs".

Eats, shoots, and leaves vs. Eats shoots and leaves is the classic example.

Let's eat, Grandma vs Let's eat Grandma.

Would you like more?

Nommed!

Re suck's: TBF there might be another word after suck's on that shirt. [/end sidetrack please, there are more important things to discuss, thank you]

I agree not a big deal but... I don't think so. Try and use it in a sentence without the apostrophe. Liberals and Islam suck is...? Liberals and Islam suck is fine. Nah. It's a mistake.

 

[Ladewig]

Never, afaics.

But I'd say there's a difference between slapping a few lines with a rogue apostrophe onto a forum like this and going to the effort of getting a t-shirt printed up.

Why is everyone calling that punctuation mark an apostrophe?

President Trump decided back in September of last year that it is a hyphen. That was right after the tweet about “Corrupt Congressman liddle’ [sic] Adam Schift.”

 

[Stacyhs]

Nommed!



I agree not a big deal but... I don't think so. Try and use it in a sentence without the apostrophe. Liberals and Islam suck is...? Liberals and Islam suck is fine. Nah. It's a mistake.

Not only that, but "Liberal" should have been "Liberals" and "suck's" should have been "suck". Whoever designed that shirt must have flunked third grade and not repeated it.

 

[Mader Levap]

Not only that, but "Liberal" should have been "Liberals" and "suck's" should have been "suck". Whoever designed that shirt must have flunked third grade and not repeated it.

How do you know it was not deliberate?

 

[Horatius]

One can often use a homonym or a grammar or punctuation mistake when writing because our thinking is usually just a bit ahead of what our fingers are actually typing. But to make up a T-shirt (let alone wear it) with a mistake like "suck's" is just lack of proper punctuation knowledge.

I like David Mitchell's take on such issues: