45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. (Vol 6)
Discussion
Butina has got 18 months, then deportation
Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina was sentenced to an 18-month prison term Friday in Washington after failing to register as a foreign agent for conspiring to infiltrate conservative U.S. political circles for the Kremlin.
Butina, 30, pleaded guilty in December to conspiring with a senior Russian official to access the National Rifle Association among other groups from 2015 until she was arrested and detained in July. She will be credited for the more than nine months she already has served.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/...
Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina was sentenced to an 18-month prison term Friday in Washington after failing to register as a foreign agent for conspiring to infiltrate conservative U.S. political circles for the Kremlin.
Butina, 30, pleaded guilty in December to conspiring with a senior Russian official to access the National Rifle Association among other groups from 2015 until she was arrested and detained in July. She will be credited for the more than nine months she already has served.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/...
Swamp news
Trump often says his resorts have no choice but to hire foreign guest workers — there just aren't any Americans to take the jobs. But government records obtained by BuzzFeed show nearly 60 U.S. residents applied for those jobs, and only one was hired.
trump rejects us citizens because they are too expensive. Instead of giving jobs to local workers, the Trump properties applied for permission to bring in more than 375 low-wage workers from abroad on short-term visas. All of the requests were approved by the Department of Labor, the records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/...
Trump often says his resorts have no choice but to hire foreign guest workers — there just aren't any Americans to take the jobs. But government records obtained by BuzzFeed show nearly 60 U.S. residents applied for those jobs, and only one was hired.
trump rejects us citizens because they are too expensive. Instead of giving jobs to local workers, the Trump properties applied for permission to bring in more than 375 low-wage workers from abroad on short-term visas. All of the requests were approved by the Department of Labor, the records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/...
Byker28i said:
Swamp news
Trump properties applied for permission to bring in more than 375 low-wage workers from abroad on short-term visas. All of the requests were approved by the Department of Labor, the records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show.
I would love to know how many of those workers returned after their visa expired and how many stayed illegally.Trump properties applied for permission to bring in more than 375 low-wage workers from abroad on short-term visas. All of the requests were approved by the Department of Labor, the records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show.
Sorry Paul for posting the tweet in all its glory.
This is astonishing. So obviously made up after the Otto Warmbier revelations that it’s laughable.
Only Trump supporters/voters would be taken in by this.
What the f
k has become of the office of the President of the United States that it reduced to this? I love America. I spent a significant part of my youth there. I am heartbroken by the state of the country now.
This is astonishing. So obviously made up after the Otto Warmbier revelations that it’s laughable.
Only Trump supporters/voters would be taken in by this.
What the f
k has become of the office of the President of the United States that it reduced to this? I love America. I spent a significant part of my youth there. I am heartbroken by the state of the country now.paulguitar said:
Gameface said:
It's startlingly pathetic isn't it.
Things have gone so totally 'Twilight Zone' that I think sometimes it is best just to shrug and try to appreciate that we are living in 'interesting times' and have hope that someday this will really be over.Just saying.....
Video of Lindsey Graham explaining that a president stonewalling Congressional oversight is an impeachable offense. Oh wait that was about a democrat, completely different
https://mobile.twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1121...
https://mobile.twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1121...
Seventy said:
I love America. I spent a significant part of my youth there. I am heartbroken by the state of the country now.
I feel the same way. I occasionally try to joke about what is happening but I am heartbroken too. When I was a kid in the '70s, my uncle had a huge model of the Saturn V rocket which I came to see as what the USA represented to me. I looked up to the USA and adored the whole idea of the place.I have worked and mostly lived in the states for 17 years now. I'm appaled and truly shocked by what it is right now. The optimist in me believes and hopes that there will be better days ahead, and that this will come to be looked back on as a nightmare blip in history.
Fantastic salesman talk to the NRA today. He told them what they wanted to hear. If there was another shooting 7 days hence and 100 people got killed he will tell them what they want to hear. He's just a salesman, no more no less, has been for all his life, does not matter what he is selling.
A great US president has to tell the people sometimes what they don't want to hear.
Got to admire the man for his chutzpah. Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
I secretly love the phoney for pulling it off for so long. He will, in his own mind, be the best US president ever when it comes to an end.
A great US president has to tell the people sometimes what they don't want to hear.
Got to admire the man for his chutzpah. Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
I secretly love the phoney for pulling it off for so long. He will, in his own mind, be the best US president ever when it comes to an end.
Gandahar said:
Got to admire the man for his chutzpah.
Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
There is truly nothing to admire.Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
Yes, it is a shame. It's only around 35% but that, to me, is the true tragedy here. There will always be worthless
s like trump, but I truly pity the weak-minded folks taken in by the spiel.paulguitar said:
Gandahar said:
Got to admire the man for his chutzpah.
Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
There is truly nothing to admire.Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
Yes, it is a shame. It's only around 35% but that, to me, is the true tragedy here. There will always be worthless
s like trump, but I truly pity the weak-minded folks taken in by the spiel.The main note of course is that reducing corporate tax so much has also helped the Trump business
So he will have something nice to go back to. It has a slight whiff about it all.Somebody else can pay back the massive budget deficit when he has retired .... he seems to have forgotten he promised to eliminate it during his term in office. It's just getting bigger and bigger.
The White house has agreed to let Kline testify, but on the same day as Barr. Hoping to bury bad news from one of them?
Edit: Limited questioning but we'll see what Cummings has to say about this. trump was refusing to let his people testify, but seems to have folded on that as well. So much for the greatest negotiator
Edit: Limited questioning but we'll see what Cummings has to say about this. trump was refusing to let his people testify, but seems to have folded on that as well. So much for the greatest negotiator
Edited by Byker28i on Saturday 27th April 07:16
Marco Rubio confirms to the NY Times that the Russians did indeed penetrate the Florida voting systems, a claim also made last year by Bill Nelson. Rick Scott at the time said Nelson's remark was irresponsible.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/florida-russ...
In an interview on Friday, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida took it one step further, saying that Russian hackers not only accessed a Florida voting system, but were “in a position” to change voter roll data.
Mr. Rubio said in the interview that there was, in fact, an intrusion, but the target or targets were never notified. The information was gleaned through an intelligence operation, not a criminal investigation, said Mr. Rubio, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In order to protect intelligence methods, he said, national security officials chose to issue a general warning to everyone.
“Everybody has been told what it is they need to do to protect themselves from the intrusion,” Mr. Rubio said. “I don’t believe the specific victims of the intrusion have been notified. The concern was that in a number of counties across the country, there are a couple of people with the attitude of: ‘We’ve got this; we don’t need your help. We don’t think we need to do what you are telling us we need to do.’”
Florida has long been one of the very important states in the election. In 2016 Governor Ron DeSantis were both behind in the polls, and won so narrowly, their respective races that both had to be recounted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/florida-russ...
In an interview on Friday, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida took it one step further, saying that Russian hackers not only accessed a Florida voting system, but were “in a position” to change voter roll data.
Mr. Rubio said in the interview that there was, in fact, an intrusion, but the target or targets were never notified. The information was gleaned through an intelligence operation, not a criminal investigation, said Mr. Rubio, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In order to protect intelligence methods, he said, national security officials chose to issue a general warning to everyone.
“Everybody has been told what it is they need to do to protect themselves from the intrusion,” Mr. Rubio said. “I don’t believe the specific victims of the intrusion have been notified. The concern was that in a number of counties across the country, there are a couple of people with the attitude of: ‘We’ve got this; we don’t need your help. We don’t think we need to do what you are telling us we need to do.’”
Florida has long been one of the very important states in the election. In 2016 Governor Ron DeSantis were both behind in the polls, and won so narrowly, their respective races that both had to be recounted.
Edited by Byker28i on Saturday 27th April 07:02
FBI Director Wray is warning again about Russia's continued meddling in U.S. elections, calling it a "significant counterintelligence threat." The warning comes just days after Jared Kushner called 2016's election interference 'a couple of Facebook ads.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/politics/fbi...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/politics/fbi...
Gandahar said:
Fantastic salesman talk to the NRA today. He told them what they wanted to hear. If there was another shooting 7 days hence and 100 people got killed he will tell them what they want to hear. He's just a salesman, no more no less, has been for all his life, does not matter what he is selling.
A great US president has to tell the people sometimes what they don't want to hear.
Got to admire the man for his chutzpah. Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
I secretly love the phoney for pulling it off for so long. He will, in his own mind, be the best US president ever when it comes to an end.
The NRA are under real pressure now over he money they took from the russians and redistributed it to help the GOP and trump in 2016.A great US president has to tell the people sometimes what they don't want to hear.
Got to admire the man for his chutzpah. Shame the USA populace is falling for it.
I secretly love the phoney for pulling it off for so long. He will, in his own mind, be the best US president ever when it comes to an end.
The Wall street journal is reporting that NRA leader Wayne LaPierre has told the group's board he is being extorted and pressured to resign by NRA president Oliver North over allegations of financial improprieties.
That might have somethign to do with Maria Butina was sent to prison after having reportedly cooperated with the federal government on, among other matters, the NRA’s criminal ties to the Russian government. There was nothing much in the Mueller report, nothing came out of Butinas court case, which suggests thee's an active federal criminal investigation into the NRA
Edited by Byker28i on Saturday 27th April 06:57
After yesterday, it looks like Rosenstein also fell uner the spell of trump. The Washington Post revealed that when Rod Rosenstein’s job was in jeopardy several months back, he managed to keep it by telling Donald Trump that he was on his “team” and that he could “land the plane” in terms of protecting Trump from the Mueller investigation’s findings.
Obstruction of justice anyone?
Rosenstein knew the story was coming out, so he gave a praising Trump’s honesty, blamed the Trump-Russia scandal on President Obama, and attacked the media.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-secu...
Obstruction of justice anyone?
Rosenstein knew the story was coming out, so he gave a praising Trump’s honesty, blamed the Trump-Russia scandal on President Obama, and attacked the media.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-secu...
Edited by Byker28i on Saturday 27th April 07:17
3.1% Growth is higher than expectations, bullet point summary in the link: https://economics.td.com/us-real-gdp
Primary drivers of growth are a reduction in the trade deficit, increase in inventory (goods produced minus goods sold) and increased government spending, particularly military at federal level and infrastructure at state level. What's conspicuously absent from the growth figures is consumer spending.
The trade deficit and inventory are neither here nor there. In short people imported raw materials last year to avoid potential tariffs so in Q1 this year they are importing less and have been turning those raw materials in to finished goods which are now sitting in warehouse inventories. Looks good in today's headline growth numbers but not important for the person on main street.
GDP growth via government spending has pros and cons but if you want this kind of growth then you've got to pay your taxes... or run up vast quantities of government debt.
Consumer spending, this is where it gets interesting. The theory is that if you lower taxes people will spend more and the economy will grow. For this to be true there must be increased consumer spending however it's not showing up in the numbers, instead what we're seeing is increased savings:
What all this suggests to me is that the tax cuts are not reaching people who will actually go out and spend more in the economy, you know, that thing which is the entire premise of what tax cuts are meant to do in the first place. We'll need another year or so of data to call this for sure but this is my impression of where we are now.
<><><>
Note 1 - Consumer spending will have taken a hit due to the government shutdown but that doesn't affect what I'm saying which is that tax cuts have been aimed at people who will save rather than spend so the stimumus effect on main street is muted.
Note 2 - When the tax cuts were passed I said that any stimulus which doesn't increase productivity will end up as inflation. The fed were on the ball and countered with rate rises but until reading in to this quarter's data I was actually quite confused about how little CPI inflation had been caused by the tax cuts. Seeing saving vs spending I now understand that what's being inflated is stocks and assets as banks invest the extra money people are saving.
Primary drivers of growth are a reduction in the trade deficit, increase in inventory (goods produced minus goods sold) and increased government spending, particularly military at federal level and infrastructure at state level. What's conspicuously absent from the growth figures is consumer spending.
The trade deficit and inventory are neither here nor there. In short people imported raw materials last year to avoid potential tariffs so in Q1 this year they are importing less and have been turning those raw materials in to finished goods which are now sitting in warehouse inventories. Looks good in today's headline growth numbers but not important for the person on main street.
GDP growth via government spending has pros and cons but if you want this kind of growth then you've got to pay your taxes... or run up vast quantities of government debt.
Consumer spending, this is where it gets interesting. The theory is that if you lower taxes people will spend more and the economy will grow. For this to be true there must be increased consumer spending however it's not showing up in the numbers, instead what we're seeing is increased savings:
article said:
Much of the weakness in domestic demand was due to soft consumer spending. As expected, PCE rose only 1.2%, less than half of the fourth quarter's pace. Durable goods fell 5.3%, after rising 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Spending on nondurable goods (+1.7%) and services were also soft (+2.0%).
At the same time, personal disposable income growth remained sturdy (3.0%), so weak spending lifted the personal savings rate to 7.0% from 6.8% in Q4.
Someone earning £100,000 who gets an extra £1,000 isn't going to change their spending pattern much, whereas someone who earns £15,000 will. What the £100,000 earner will do is bank the money which means the bank can then loan out a multiple of the extra £1,000 it has, however access to credit is really not an issue in today's economy (UK or USA) so there's nothing there to stimulate.At the same time, personal disposable income growth remained sturdy (3.0%), so weak spending lifted the personal savings rate to 7.0% from 6.8% in Q4.
What all this suggests to me is that the tax cuts are not reaching people who will actually go out and spend more in the economy, you know, that thing which is the entire premise of what tax cuts are meant to do in the first place. We'll need another year or so of data to call this for sure but this is my impression of where we are now.
<><><>
Note 1 - Consumer spending will have taken a hit due to the government shutdown but that doesn't affect what I'm saying which is that tax cuts have been aimed at people who will save rather than spend so the stimumus effect on main street is muted.
Note 2 - When the tax cuts were passed I said that any stimulus which doesn't increase productivity will end up as inflation. The fed were on the ball and countered with rate rises but until reading in to this quarter's data I was actually quite confused about how little CPI inflation had been caused by the tax cuts. Seeing saving vs spending I now understand that what's being inflated is stocks and assets as banks invest the extra money people are saving.
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