***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[Belgium]

I agree that wages are not growing as you would expect in this robust of an economy, but 2.8% growth isn't nothing ... The only way your argument works is if you accept the great economy talking point ... This is a classic liberal dilemma where they argue in circles and nothing ever seems to quite flow logically ...

Much like advocating for more government dependence in the midst of apparently the most racist administration in our history ... lol it never stops with the libbies ...

2.8% isn't nothing but the tax cuts also blew a massive crater in the deficit. The pie in the sky promise of "trickle-down economics" has historically always failed in the US.
The economy is doing good of course, I don't think there's any debating that, but like many things you can't just look at something in a vaccuum.

The rough basis of trickle-down economics is that by drastically cutting taxes, folks will save a bit of money on their taxes and businesses will keep more of profits. And because of that, the rewards will trickle down from the top into the pockets of the workers and consumers. The tax cuts will pay for themselves due to accelerated growth. Like George H.W. Bush said, voodoo economics at its finest.

Wage growth in particular often plays a central role in the arguments for trickle-down economics. What is often not mentioned is that a vast amount of the increased corporate profits are simply spent on stock buybacks and bonuses for executives. Normally there will be at least some increased wage growth but again, you can't simply look at trickle-down economics' effect on wage growth or other aspects in a vaccuum.

The reason for that is that there are a number of other factors that also play key roles in assessing the impact of trickle-down economics on the average workers and consumers.
The most glaring factor obviously being the federal deficit. There's no getting around the fact that this will blow a gaping hole in the deficit and there is no way to get remotely close to recouping the drastic shrinking of federal revenue. "The tax cuts will pay for themselves" is a pie in the sky dream that has no basis in past history or reality in general, period.

Next, what comes hand in hand with massive deficit increases? Generally budget cuts and entitlement cuts. Whoever instituted trickle-down economics will now suddenly act surprised and outraged about the rapidly increasing deficit and push for entitlement cuts. Who is that going to hurt? The poor and the middle class of course, not the wealthy. Their corporate welfare will remain untouched.
That's one possible primary factor that could eat away at the financial benefits of trickle-down economics. There are a number of other key factors such as healthcare, inflation, trade policy, ... that could also have a major effect on those gains, even possibly eliminating those gains for some.

The question is not "how much more money am I getting from the tax cuts?", it is "how much money am I actually saving (or losing) when taking into account other factors that affect those financial aspects?"
Let's start with this example to illustrate why it is necessary to look beyond wage growth in a vaccuum. Inflation is just one example of a different factor that could eat away at those wage gains and/or savings on taxes.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-co...-at-fastest-annual-rate-since-2012-1531398709 (July 12)
Inflation Is Eating Away Worker Wage Gains
For the second month in a row, annual inflation fully offset workers’ average hourly wage growth
U.S. consumer prices rose for a third straight month in June, eating away at modest wage gains and sending inflation to its highest rate in more than six years.
The consumer-price index, which gauges what Americans pay for everything from veterinarian services to baby clothes, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in June from the prior month, the Labor Department said Thursday. Excluding volatile food and energy components, prices increased 0.2%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 0.2% uptick from May for both the overall index and so-called core inflation.

Last month’s price increases brought the CPI’s cumulative growth in June from a year earlier to 2.9%, the highest level since February 2012. Core inflation ticked up to 2.3% in June from a year earlier, the highest rate since January 2017.

For a second month in a row, annual inflation fully offset average hourly wage growth in June, leaving workers’ real hourly earnings flat from a year earlier despite falling unemployment and a generally strong economy. Production and nonsupervisory employees, a category which includes blue-collar workers, saw their real average hourly wages fall 0.2% in June from a year earlier after a similar slip in May.

“It’s the boiling-frog metaphor,” said Marc Hall, a 58-year-old communications specialist in Rockville, Md. “You notice it a little at a time, here and there, and then at the end of the year, you say, ‘Yeah, things went up a lot, didn’t they?’”

Mr. Hall said that while he received a 2% pay raise in the past year, he senses that his earnings haven’t kept up with the cost of living, adding, “It’s a net loss.”

While workers made up for higher prices by working slightly more hours per week, the stagnation of Americans’ purchasing power underscores questions about the extent to which workers are benefiting from an economy that by many other measures is booming.

Economists estimate gross domestic product grew in the second quarter at one of the fastest clips measured since the recession, while corporate tax cuts enacted at the end of 2017 likely fueled record earnings by publicly traded U.S. companies, analysts say.

“Wage growth remains surprisingly weak,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, in a note to clients earlier this week. “The remarkable ability of firms to lure more workers back into the labor force and get stronger productivity gains from them without raising wages is a clear positive for profits.”

The year-over-year rise in prices was led by energy commodities, following a sharp rise in oil prices earlier this spring. The CPI report showed gasoline prices rising a seasonally adjusted 0.5% in June from May and 24% from a year earlier. Separate data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $2.89 last month, the highest price for June since 2014.

Prices for other goods and services also increased.

Shelter and rent costs, which account for about a third of overall consumer spending, rose 0.1% in June from May and were up 3.4% from a year earlier. Medical-care services rose 0.5% from May and 2.5% from June 2017. And food prices rose 0.2% last month from May, though the annual increase in this category was more muted at 1.4%.

For many economists, accelerating inflation suggests the economy is behaving more or less as it should after years of fitful expansion that has brought the jobless rate near its lowest levels since the 1960s. A separate inflation measure favored by the Federal Reserve, the personal-consumption expenditures price index, rose in May to 2.3% from a year earlier, the highest annual rate in six years and 0.3 percentage point above the central bank’s target.

This has bolstered Fed officials’ case for gradually raising short-term interest rates to keep the economy from overheating. They have lifted rates twice this year and penciled in two more increases by year’s end.

At their most recent rate-setting meeting, in June,Fed “participants generally agreed that the economic expansion was progressing roughly as anticipated, with real economic activity expanding at a solid rate, labor market conditions continuing to strengthen, and inflation near the Committee’s objective,” according to meeting minutes released last week.

Economists said Thursday’s data generally supported their view that inflationary pressures are gradually picking up.

But a key question going forward is how far the Trump administration will take its escalating trade dispute with China. The White House, which imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese exports of industrial goods like auto parts and electronic components, said this week it would assess 10% tariffs on an additional $200 billion in Chinese consumer goods.

The impact of those tariffs, should they take effect, won’t be negligible, economists say.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the goods subject to the proposed tariffs account for almost 6% of the core CPI, meaning that a 10% levy would lift the index by up to 0.6 percentage point.

“The Fed can’t stand back and ignore a hit of this size, given the tightness of the labor market,” Mr. Shepherdson said in a note to clients dated Thursday. “People will seek to be compensated for the squeeze on their real incomes as a result of higher prices, and their chance of being able to force employers to pay up is better now than at any time since the crash.”

We have now landed at healthcare, one of the most important and significant expenses for the American citizen. The US has significantly higher healthcare spending per capita than any other country, including those with full single payer universal healthcare systems. Whether it's a single payer system like in Canada or a multipayer system like in Belgium, those systems all operate at a lower cost than the US healthcare system, while at the same time providing many more benefits to many more people.
US health insurance premiums are skyhigh across the board, as are medical expenses in general. It is quite the financial burden, especially for the poor.
Fun fact: I recall that Trump has actually given high praise to the Scandinavian healthcare systems, I believe it was during a speech at Gettysburgh

Which brings to me to my point, healthcare expenses. This is something that also must be taken into account when examining the financial gains of trickle-down economics.
If someone were to 'sabotage' the existing healthcare system and insurance markets for example, that would lead to instability and further drive up premiums at an increased rate.
Kind of like what the Trump administration has been doing as they failed in their attempt to repeal the ACA. If you can't destroy it, fracture it.
The suspension of risk adjustment payments, slashing the CMS' funding of consumer enrollment assistance, the DOJ declining to defend key parts of the ACA, ...
Without any form of replacement for the ACA, disrupting the system and related markets through acts that could be described as sabotage will simply result in increased costs for consumers.
Premiums will rise either way but those actions, of which there are many, will only accelerate the rate of premium increases.
Those premiums were never negligible costs to begin with and the impact will be felt, as usual particularly by the poor.

We have now established 2 key factors that can eat away at wage growth and saving more money from taxes. Let's move on to a final key factor, one that is very much relevant at this time.


Lastly we have ended at trade policy. While normally this would probably be a pretty negligible factor, the current president believes trade wars are good and easy to win so there's that.
A trade war is bad for all involved parties, period. Everyone involved is going to take a financial hit, some more than others.
President Trump has taken a very aggressive approach, targeting allies and enemies alike. This has resulted in retaliatory tariffs against the US from various corners of the world.
China, the EU, Canada and Mexico have all fired back against the Trump administration with retaliatory tariffs. In large part those retaliatory tariffs seek to focus their impact on Trump supporter strongholds. Business sectors like farming have been a prime target for example. Business groups in various sectors have been protesting against Trump's unilateral trade war but the president has shown no signs of slowing down. Since the initial round of tariffs he has mostly further escalated the administration's approach on tariffs.
The administration is even pushing forward a multi-billion dollar welfare package for the farmers who have been hurt by the trade war Trump started. However farmers and other business sectors will continue to take financial hits from the continuation of the trade war, particularly if it escalates further. A welfare bandaid is just that, a bandaid.

The most significant retaliatory tariffs came from China. Here is a graphic example that illustrates how its impact is rippling through America. (Source: WSJ)
Trump supporters undoubtedly love the look of Trump's electoral victory map but their wallets won't be very pleased with all the red on this map.
Note that this graphic only assesses the impact of China's retaliatory tariffs. The impact of the other countries' retaliatory tariffs must also be taken into account.

On top of that, the Trump administration is looking into both tariffs on auto imports as well as ramping up tariffs on Chinese goods to up to $200b worth of Chinese goods.
China announced a plan today to retaliate with tariffs on an additional $60 billion of US goods if the Trump administration further escalates tariffs against China.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-reins-in-yuans-rapid-depreciation-1533298628?mod=hp_lead_pos2
China Threatens to Impose Tariffs on $60 Billion of U.S. Products
Beijing also moves to rein in the yuan’s rapid depreciation


Trump and his economic advisers brushed off the threat and show no signs of slowing down. Additional escalation of the trade war will only further increase the economic impact on the US.
The trade war will continue to negatively impact various business sectors and drive up consumer prices of a variety of products targeted by tariffs.



To summarize, 3 key factors have been laid out that could and are already eating away at wage growth and tax savings. Healthcare, trade policy and inflation.
There are many outside factors that can affect an individual's finances of course, the aforementioned are simply a few rather obvious examples. Budget cuts and entitlement cuts that tend to go hand in hand with trickle-down economics could also chip away at those gains.

Let's not forget that the US median household income is around $57k (source: US census bureau 2016 survey)
So how much is the average American really gaining from wage growth and/or tax savings resulting from the trickle-down tax cuts?
More importantly, to what extent do other factors eat away at those gains? Perhaps nullifying them entirely for some.



On a final note, there is of course also the aftermath of trickle-down economics. As mentioned earlier, Reagan ushered in strong short-term growth but as a secondary result of the tax cuts, the deficit was also spiralling way out of control. It was then up to H.W. Bush to clean up the mess left by what he described as "voodoo economics". Thus he was forced to raise taxes back up again.
In fact, Reagan's first budget director has also echoed a similar sentiment, describing the concept of trickle-down economics as "dead wrong."

I don't think a history recap of the younger Bush's tenure is necessary. His tax cuts were part of the same branch of voodoo economics his father once stood firmly against and on top of that you had the wars and the economic crisis.

 

[InTheHallway]

So you want to bailout a corporation from paying a fair share in the equation while simultaneously bankrupting the country. Gotcha. Yea ignorant and uninformed people will continue to be so.

Wages should pace with inflation. You wouldn’t need a tax cut to feel an even larger amount of corporation we’re forced to compete more. But that’s a debate I won’t have with someone who wears blinders

My man, how was wage growth under your savior?

Also, please read up on th e stickiness of wages relative to inflationary economic indices ... I have crafted policy for inflation based wage adjustments and they lag by nature ...

 

[MalcolmNewton]

 

[RIP sleazyy]

I've basically come to peace with the idea that wages will never match up with inflation.

We just riding it out til the wheels fall off at this point. Or the robots take over.

 

[EddieDoyers]

Speaking on the labor market, I found this interesting tidbit on the current landscape:

Some see more meaningful wage gains ahead as whatever slack that remains in the labor market works its way out. Tuesday’s report offered “another sign that the labor markets are tightening and that compensation is going up as employers compete for workers,” says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum.

Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, says the steady pickup in employment present a brighter picture than relatively meager wage gains. “The main thing is it’s easier to find a job,” he says. “So if you don’t like the job you have, you can quit, and the penalty is much lower than you would have faced seven or eight years ago when you might have had a long search for the next one.”

And Holtz-Eakin says it is too soon to judge whether last year’s tax cut has yielded the kind of business investment that improves productivity, which measures worker efficiency. Productivity growth has lagged since the recession, for reasons economists don’t entirely understand. But most consider improving it a key to unlocking stronger wage growth: For most of the last century, the two climbed in tandem. Republicans pushed their tax cuts in part by arguing businesses would plow the money they saved into new technology, equipment, and training, laying the foundation for a productivity surge that would spread prosperity widely.
The early record suggests that’s not happening. Instead, companies are directing much if not most of their tax-cut windfalls to executives and shareholders. As Politico noted this week, public companies announced more than $600 billion in stock repurchases in the first half of the year, more than in any entire year prior.

It continues a recent trend. A new study by the National Employment Law Project found from 2015 to 2017, the restaurant industry spent 140 percent of its profits on buybacks, “meaning that it borrowed or dipped into its cash allowances to purchase the shares,” The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey reports. “How much might workers have benefited if companies had devoted their financial resources to them rather than to shareholders? Lowe’s, CVS, and Home Depot could have provided each of their workers a raise of $18,000 a year, the report found. Starbucks could have given each of its employees $7,000 a year, and McDonald’s could have given $4,000 to each of its nearly 2 million employees.”

At the moment, workers in some industries are faring better than others. Andrew Chamberlain, an economist at recruiting site Glassdoor, tells me those in tech jobs are seeing faster wage gains, as are those in lower-end retail jobs, perhaps surprisingly considering the sector’s struggles. “Employers are just running out of people to hire, and it’s almost impossible to get people to move for those jobs,” he says. Those in manufacturing, telecom, and media are seeing some of the weakest pay raises, Glassdoor data shows.

Pay bumps are also stronger in big coastal cities — San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and New York — than in other top metro areas, Chamberlain says. But true to the trend, sharply rising costs of living in those places are swamping the gains.


So wow what a shock, companies are using tax cuts to fuel *gasp* buying up stocks instead of reinvesting in labor

 

[MalcolmNewton]

So wow what a shock, companies are using tax cuts to fuel *gasp* buying up stocks instead of reinvesting in labor

Remember this when Trump claims the stock market is "as high as its ever been".

 

[Cashflow]

 

[biggie62]

My man, how was wage growth under your savior?

Also, please read up on th e stickiness of wages relative to inflationary economic indices ... I have crafted policy for inflation based wage adjustments and they lag by nature ...

You’re acting as if I kneel in front of Obama or something like all y’all line up on your knees to blow trump.

In terms of deregulation and such both parties are at fault. But the republicans are by far the worse in terms of exacerbating the issue. Read up some Econonmics books.

 

[superblytrife]

This is gonna be a shocker for Trumpito.

 

[RustyShackleford]

My man, how was wage growth under your savior?

Also, please read up on th e stickiness of wages relative to inflationary economic indices ... I have crafted policy for inflation based wage adjustments and they lag by nature ...

 

[RustyShackleford]

You’re acting as if I kneel in front of Obama or something like all y’all line up on your knees to blow trump.

In terms of deregulation and such both parties are at fault. But the republicans are by far the worse in terms of exacerbating the issue. Read up some Econonmics books.

Don't even take dude on.

Obama's stimulus was to save the economy from a depression, not jump start it. Trump on the other had explicitly promised that his tax cuts would boost wages, the economy already relatively solid.

All the policies Obama was proposing to boost wage growth were blocked from the jump by the scumbag GOP.

Art Laffer doesn't ride for trickle-down economics are hard as this dude. He is trying to deflect because he knows he can't address the issue so just like his white supremacist lord Trump, he brings up Obama.

 

[Belgium]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...0e80e1fdf43_story.html?utm_term=.2b3470747e4e
Trump associate socialized with alleged Russian agent Maria Butina in final weeks of 2016 campaign

Maria Butina, the Russian gun-rights activist who was charged last month with working as anunregistered agent of the Kremlin, socialized in the weeks before the 2016 election with a former Trump campaign aide who anticipated joining the presidential transition team, emails show, putting her in closer contact with President Trump’s orbit than was previously known.

Butina sought out interactions with J.D. Gordon, who served for six months as the Trump campaign’s director of national security before leaving in August 2016 and being offered a role in the nascent Trump transition effort, according to documents and testimony provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and described to The Washington Post.

The two exchanged several emails in September and October 2016, culminating in an invitation from Gordon to attend a concert by the rock band Styx in Washington. Gordon also invited Butina to attend his birthday party in late October of that year.

Prosecutors have said Butina, 29, who became a graduate student at American University in 2016, attempted to infiltrate the U.S. political system at the direction of a senior Russian official. Her activities came at the same time that, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Moscow was seeking to interfere in the presidential election to help Trump.

During the campaign, Butina asked Trump at a public event in 2015 about his views on Russia and briefly met Donald Trump Jr. at a National Rifle Association meeting in May 2016.

U.S. investigators probing alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia have been examining dozens of contacts between Russians and Trump associates, including Trump Jr., former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as foreign policy advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

Gordon, 50, a former naval officer who served as a Pentagon spokesman under President George W. Bush before working on several Republican political campaigns, said his contacts with Butina were innocuous.

“From everything I’ve read since her arrest last month, it seems the Maria Butina saga is basically a sensationalized click bait story meant to smear a steady stream of Republicans and NRA members she reportedly encountered over the past few years,” he said in a statement to The Post, noting that she networked extensively. Gordon provided the same statement and some details of his interactions to the Washington Times, which published his account Friday afternoon after The Post contacted Gordon for comment.

“I wonder which prominent Republican political figures she hasn’t come across?” Gordon asked.

Robert Driscoll, an attorney for Butina, said the email exchanges show that Butina was a student eager to network with Americans who shared her interests and no more. Gordon and Driscoll both said the interactions were not romantic and the two had no additional contact after the birthday party in October 2016.

“A military guy who had been involved would have been a prime target, if that’s what she was about,” Driscoll said. “But the evidence is clear that there wasn’t any significant contact.”

Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Prosecutors say an American identified in court documents as “person 1” helped introduce Butina to people who had “influence in American politics.” The Post has identified that person as Paul Erickson, a GOP operative from South Dakota with whom Butina was in a romantic relationship.

The emails described to The Post show that Butina met Gordon at a party at the Swiss ambassador’s residence on Sept. 29, 2016. Gordon told The Post that he had been invited to the party by Faith Whittlesey, the prominent Republican and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland who died earlier this year.

Later that night, Erickson wrote an email to Gordon and Butina, offering to “add an electronic bridge” to the pair’s meeting earlier that evening.

Erickson wrote to Butina that Gordon was “playing a crucial role in the Trump transition effort and would be an excellent addition to any of the U.S./Russia friendship dinners to occasionally hold.”

He continued that Gordon’s view on international security was listened to by all the “right” people in the “immediate future of American politics.”

Erickson did not respond to a request for comment.

Erickson explained to Gordon in the email that Butina was living in Washington while she completed a master’s degree at American University. Erickson described Butina as a “special friend” of the NRA and said she was the special assistant to the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, according to the correspondence described to The Post.

Prosecutors have said the central banker, Alexander Torshin, helped direct Butina’s activities in the United States, including an effort to make contacts in the leadership of the NRA. NRA officials have not responded to requests for comment.

The emails show Gordon quickly responded to Erickson, sending Butina and Erickson a clip of a recent appearance he had made on RT, the Russian state-run English language television network. In the RT interview, Gordon said Trump took a “real common-sense approach to Russia.”

“We want to reduce hostility with Russia because, look, we have common interests,” he said.

Butina responded with praise, writing in an email to Gordon that he “looked very good” and had appeared smart and comfortable in the television appearance. She invited Gordon to attend a group dinner at the Army and Navy Club, hosted by George O’Neill Jr., the conservative writer and heir to the Rockefeller fortune, to discuss the relationship between the United States and Russia. Prosecutors cited the dinners organized by O’Neill, described in court documents as “person 2” as part of Butina’s efforts to influence thought leaders.

O’Neill did not respond to requests for comment.

Gordon responded that he could not attend the dinner, but he asked Butina over emails to get together for drinks and the concert. In one email described to The Post, Gordon included a link to a September 2016 Politico story reporting that he was a part of Trump’s growing transition effort. Gordon included a smattering of Russian phrases in his emails, beginning several notes “Privyet Maria,” with a Russian word for “hello.” In one email, he wrote “Kak di la?” The phrase is Russian for “How are you?”

In an emailed statement to The Post, Gordon said that Butina presented herself to “likely thousands of people” as a graduate student and founder of a Russian gun-rights group.

“It appears she sought out countless influential Americans in her steadfast efforts to strengthen relations with Russia. Recognizing that every single president since the Cold War tried to improve relations with Russia, including Pres. Obama, her Russian-American friendship efforts seemed in sync with a decades-old US foreign policy goal,” he said.

The contact was not Erickson’s first attempt to connect Butina and Torshin to the Trump campaign. In May 2016, he emailed Trump adviser Rick Dearborn and urged Dearborn to set up a meeting between Trump and Torshin at an upcoming NRA convention. Erickson described Torshin in the email as “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s emissary” for building warmer ties with the United States.

The campaign declined Erickson’s invitation but Torshin and Butina ultimately encountered the candidate’s son at a private dinner at the NRA convention, and they chatted briefly, Trump Jr. has said.

Gordon, who said he was never paid for his work on the Trump campaign and never performed any duties on the transition team, was assigned in March 2016 to serve as the point person for a newly named advisory group on foreign policy and national security. That committee also included Page, who has drawn interest from investigators for delivering a foreign policy speech in Moscow in July 2016, and Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and has been cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Gordon attended a March 2016 meeting of the group presided over Trump while he was a presidential candidate, where Papadopoulos introduced himself by announcing he could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin.

Page told the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017 that he had informed Gordon before visiting Moscow in July 2016, where he delivered a speech at a Russian university and exchanged brief greetings with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

While in Moscow, Page wrote Gordon and another Trump aide that he had received “incredibly insights and outreach” from a “few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here.” Page testified that he exchanged only brief greetings with one Russian official, Dvorkovich, who had attended his speech.

Gordon has described Page and Papadopoulos as “peripheral members of a relatively peripheral advisory committee.”

Gordon has also said he briefly met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention, in an exchange he has said was innocuous. And he was the Trump campaign’s point person for a Republican platform committee discussion in which he argued against language that would have endorsed having the United States send lethal weapons to Ukraine. The proposed provision, which was not adopted, was perceived as hostile to Russia.

Gordon has said he pushed the platform committee to reject the language, proposed by a Republican delegate, because he had heard Trump talk about his desire to forge better relations with Russia and considered the language to be damaging for that goal.

Because of those contacts, Gordon has said he was asked to testify before all three congressional committees that have investigated Russian interference in the election, as well as investigators working for Mueller.

Gordon said he disclosed his Butina contact in congressional testimony but was not asked about her by Mueller’s team. He said FBI agents in Washington who have been investigating Butina have not asked to speak with him.

 

[boris]

Its funny to me when people get excited about our current economy.

Unless you have a solid stock portfolio or already were in an economically advantageous situation you aren't seeing any of that growth.

About 3 weeks ago my company had a presentation about how tax reform saved us billions yet they cut jobs and changed the comp structure.

Yeah, unless you're working or investing in the right industries, you probably ain't seeing ****. My salary and earning potential only increased after switching careers.

 

[Belgium]

Who could have possibly seen this coming? It just seems inconceivable that they didn't find the millions of illegal voters (who all voted for Crooked Hillary by the way) Trump talked about.
It's almost like the entire claim was a ridiculous lie to begin with.
https://apnews.com/f5f6a73b2af546ee97816bb35e82c18d
Report: Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud
The now-disbanded voting integrity commission launched by the Trump administration uncovered no evidence to support claims of widespread voter fraud, according to an analysis of administration documents released Friday.

In a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who are both Republicans and led the commission, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said the documents show there was a “pre-ordained outcome” and that drafts of a commission report included a section on evidence of voter fraud that was “glaringly empty.”

“It’s calling into the darkness, looking for voter fraud,” Dunlap, a Democrat, told The Associated Press. “There’s no real evidence of it anywhere.”

Republican President Donald Trump convened the commission to investigate the 2016 presidential election after making unsubstantiated claims that between 3 million and 5 million ballots were illegally cast. Critics, including Dunlap, reject his claims of widespread voter fraud.

The Trump administration last month complied with a court order to turn over documents from the voting integrity commission to Dunlap. The commission met just twice and has not issued a report.

Dunlap’s findings received immediate pushback Friday from Kobach, who acted as vice chair of the commission while Pence served as chair.

“For some people, no matter how many cases of voter fraud you show them, there will never be enough for them to admit that there’s a problem,” said Kobach, who is running for Kansas governor and has a good chance of unseating the incumbent, Jeff Colyer, in the Republican primary Tuesday.

“It appears that Secretary Dunlap is willfully blind to the voter fraud in front of his nose,” Kobach said in a statement released by his spokesman.

Kobach said there have been more than 1,000 convictions for voter fraud since 2000, and that the commission presented 8,400 instances of double voting in the 2016 election in 20 states.

“Had the commission done the same analysis of all 50 states, the number would have been exponentially higher,” Kobach said.

In response, Dunlap said those figures were never brought before the commission, and that Kobach hasn’t presented any evidence for his claims of double voting. He said the commission was presented with a report claiming over 1,000 convictions for various forms of voter misconduct since 1948.

“The plural of anecdote is not data,” Dunlap said in his Friday letter to the shuttered commission’s leaders.

Pence’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Dunlap said he is unsure whether the administration has released all relevant documents, and said the matter is in litigation. He said he was repeatedly rebuffed when he sought access to commission records including meeting materials, witness invitations and correspondence.

Dunlap released his findings on a website .

Emails released by Dunlap and promoted by the nonprofit American Oversight, which represented Dunlap, include examples of Republican voting integrity commissioners emailing each other as they worked on information requests without including Democrats.

“Indeed, a very few commissioners worked to buttress their pre-ordained conclusions shielded from dissent or dialogue from those commissioners not included in the discussions,” Dunlap said in his Friday letter.

In a June 2017 email, commissioner Christy McCormick unsuccessfully tried to suggest that the commission hire a statistician she knew. “When I was at DOJ, we had numerous discussions that made me pretty confident that he is conservative (and Christian, too),” said McCormick, in reference to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The emails also show some commission members had planned to ask for an interstate database used to identify duplicate voter registrations, as well as lists of individuals deemed ineligible for federal jury service due to death, relocation, convictions or lack of citizenship. It wasn’t clear in the emails whether or not such requests ended up being fulfilled, Dunlap said.

In two November 2017 emails, Republican commission member and election lawyer J. Christian Adams emailed all members and said there hadn’t been any prosecutions for double voting or any non-citizen voting in years. “Understanding the extent of un-prosecuted and known election crimes can inform the commission’s recommendations,” Adams said.

Adams also called for U.S. Customs and Immigration Services to obtain metadata from citizenship applications as well as a list of individuals removed from the U.S. due to their unlawful participation in elections.

“Many applicants note they have been registered to vote and are voting,” Adams said.

Which reminds me of something similar that occured pretty early in the Trump administration.
Remember when Trump and his press secretary claimed to have the biggest inauguration crowd of all time? Faced against reality, the Don only saw one way out.
He concluded that the National Park Service must have altered the crowd size estimates to spite him.
And so began a months long investigation of the National Park Services to find out who did it.
The Interior Dept. Inspector General found no evidence to support any of Trump's claims.
http://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/
No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd
National Park Service (NPS) officials didn’t alter estimates of the crowd size at President Trump’s inauguration, according to the results of a months-long investigation.

The report, released Monday by the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, addressed the controversy that consumed the early days of Trump’s presidency.

The investigation began in February, when the Inspector General received a complaint alleging that a National Mall and Memorial Parks official had instructed NPS employees to alter records of crowd-size estimates. The agency also investigated claims that NPS public affairs employees had released unauthorized information to the press about a phone call between Trump and Acting NPS Director Michael Reynolds.

“We did not find evidence to substantiate any of these allegations,” the report said. “All of the witnesses we interviewed denied that the NAMA official instructed staff to alter records for the inauguration or to remove crowd size information. We also found no evidence that the public affairs employees released any information to the media about the President’s phone call.”

The tension began on Inauguration Day, when the National Park Service retweeted a post comparing the crowd size at Trump’s inauguration to the larger crowd at former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. The tweet was later removed, and the U.S. Department of Interior was temporarily ordered to suspend operations of its Twitter accounts.

In the days that followed, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely saidTrump’s crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” and the Washington Post reported that Trump personally called Reynolds and ordered him to produce additional photos of the crowd size.

A more recent report by CBS News, which cited National Park Service emails, found that Trump was “directly involved” in the search for the person who retweeted the side-by-side comparison.

 

[plansb]

this dude trying to find the person that tweeted the comparison pics. The mother****ing president of the united states looking for a lowly nps social media employee to destroy. Pathetic.

 

[RustyShackleford]

I must say that the debate about wage growth does beyond simple Dem vs GOP. On aggregate of course the Democrats practice better economics, I mean it is not even a competition at this point. But they still fall short of what we need to see sustained robust wage growth for workers. And we have to take it beyond nominal wage growth but improving the standard of living for the poor and middle class.

America needs the FED prioritizing workers, unions to be greatly empowered, wage theft to be stopped and stronger overtime rules, bigger companies to be broken up (which will help small and mid-size firms and workers), lower moving and transportation cost for workers, provide affordable health insurance through a public option or single payer system, affordable housing by using our land more efficiently housing, cheap schooling (investing in your human capital should not mean crippling debt), we need to bailout workers ready hurt by globalism and technology shifts, and ******* banning stock buybacks.

Firms have too much market power right now, to help workers you need to balance the scales. Liberals need to stop being struggle libertarians and acting like some new technology or entrepreneur will save the day. Uber is cool to make some extra cash when you need it, but no one should be really depending on it to make a living and support a family. Dems want to be pro-business, cool, be pro-small business and say enough to market consolidation.

If the Dems care about wage growth, they need to become a true workers party, plain and simple. The only pushback should come from the right, not within the party. Anything off the wall won't get by anyway because the majority of the wonk class in the left are not bought charlatans like their right-wing counterparts.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

So the fact I had about a $150 increase in take home pay wouldn't be captured ... Interesting ... Was rhetorical btw lol ...

Trump explicitly linked growing wages to companies being able to pay employees more. That’s how the extremely expensive plan was sold. The increase you may be experiencing as a result of the tax plan itself is a temporary one. What do we have to gain from making rich people richer if it doesn’t translate to the growing wages that be promised? Where is the fiscal conservitsvism in that?

 

[rexanglorum]

We got wages stagnating as stock markets climb. Businesses invest most of their windfall in stock buy backs and other rent seeking behavior. retailers focus more and more on either selling the bare essentials of living or ultra high end products for the super wealthy. Land lords, insurance companies and bosses collaborate to keep wages low and strip away what little money the workers do make.

It's almost as if capitalism is in crisis. It is almost as if it is in a late stage of itself.

Of Course, anyone who read the timeless, materialistic approach to history would have seen this coming. So comrades, read, reread and preach the word of the timeless dialects of...

 

[RustyShackleford]

I feel like I need to go down the street to the dispensary and have one of the white Rastafarian dudes in there give me the proper strain for me to fully appreciate that Spongebob ****

 

[rexanglorum]

I feel like I need to go down the street to the dispensary and have one of the white Rastafarian dudes in there give me the proper strain for me to fully appreciate that Spongebob ****

One of my History professors was this white dude with dreadlocks. He taught History of the Caribbean and had done research in Jamaica and Barbados for a while so he learned the patois. Dude was a great teacher, taught most of us about Epistemological decolonization for the first time in our lives.

Dude was professional and dedicated as can be you know he got high as a kite when he wasn't teaching. I know because he'd mention Adult Swim cartoons here and there.

 

[whywesteppin]

 

[EddieDoyers]

We got wages stagnating as stock markets climb. Businesses invest most of their windfall in stock buy backs and other rent seeking behavior. retailers focus more and more on either selling the bare essentials of living or ultra high end products for the super wealthy. Land lords, insurance companies and bosses collaborate to keep wages low and strip away what little money the workers do make.

It's almost as if capitalism is in crisis. It is almost as if it is in a late stage of itself.

Of Course, anyone who read the timeless, materialistic approach to history would have seen this coming. So comrades, read, reread and preach the word of the timeless dialects of...

My whole life I didn't realize that Spongebob was a social commentary on capitalism and socialism until now

 

[EddieDoyers]

rexanglorum I found a good explanation of Mr.Krab's daughter

Pearl is an extension of the bourgeoisie archetype. She’s vain, self-centered, and largely unaware of others’ misfortune. She lives in a bubble, obsessed with clothes, makeup, and celebrities — because she has the leisure for such frivolities.

I think we know a male version of this.



I'm in too deep now
I need to re-watch the Spongebob episodes comrade

 

[kdawg]

Who could have possibly seen this coming? It just seems inconceivable that they didn't find the millions of illegal voters (who all voted for Crooked Hillary by the way) Trump talked about.
It's almost like the entire claim was a ridiculous lie to begin with.
https://apnews.com/f5f6a73b2af546ee97816bb35e82c18d
Report: Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud
The now-disbanded voting integrity commission launched by the Trump administration uncovered no evidence to support claims of widespread voter fraud, according to an analysis of administration documents released Friday.



Which reminds me of something similar that occured pretty early in the Trump administration.
Remember when Trump and his press secretary claimed to have the biggest inauguration crowd of all time? Faced against reality, the Don only saw one way out.
He concluded that the National Park Service must have altered the crowd size estimates to spite him.
And so began a months long investigation of the National Park Services to find out who did it.
The Interior Dept. Inspector General found no evidence to support any of Trump's claims.
http://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/
No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd
National Park Service (NPS) officials didn’t alter estimates of the crowd size at President Trump’s inauguration, according to the results of a months-long investigation.

The report, released Monday by the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, addressed the controversy that consumed the early days of Trump’s presidency.

The investigation began in February, when the Inspector General received a complaint alleging that a National Mall and Memorial Parks official had instructed NPS employees to alter records of crowd-size estimates. The agency also investigated claims that NPS public affairs employees had released unauthorized information to the press about a phone call between Trump and Acting NPS Director Michael Reynolds.

“We did not find evidence to substantiate any of these allegations,” the report said. “All of the witnesses we interviewed denied that the NAMA official instructed staff to alter records for the inauguration or to remove crowd size information. We also found no evidence that the public affairs employees released any information to the media about the President’s phone call.”

The tension began on Inauguration Day, when the National Park Service retweeted a post comparing the crowd size at Trump’s inauguration to the larger crowd at former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. The tweet was later removed, and the U.S. Department of Interior was temporarily ordered to suspend operations of its Twitter accounts.

In the days that followed, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely saidTrump’s crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” and the Washington Post reported that Trump personally called Reynolds and ordered him to produce additional photos of the crowd size.

A more recent report by CBS News, which cited National Park Service emails, found that Trump was “directly involved” in the search for the person who retweeted the side-by-side comparison.

As well as all the golf trips (hundreds of millions?) and other hugely wasteful expenses I’d love to see some costs for the spurious investigations such as these instigated by Trump’s paranoia. Fiscal responsibility much?

 

[Belgium]

As well as all the golf trips (hundreds of millions?) and other hugely wasteful expenses I’d love to see some costs for the spurious investigations such as these instigated by Trump’s paranoia. Fiscal responsibility much?

What I'd like to know is if those are calculated decisions to rile up the base and doesn't care about the result, or if he's so far gone to the point of actually believing those ridiculous claims to the point of ordering investigations to confirm what is obviously a ridiculous lie.

I really can't be sure with this man. If anything it's probably a mix of both.