U.S. Politics 2016: It Can't Happen Here

[Galactus]

What's the difference between whether or not that life is inside your body or outside of it

A pretty big difference? It turns any unwanted operation into violence rather than a property dispute, for instance. 

[mormont]

There was a request to drop the debate on the principles of abortion in the last thread: please respect that and stick to more immediately relevant topics. Thanks.

[Dr. Pepper]

I've I were a worse person, I'd probably feel bad for Giulliani and Christie.  They were some of Trump's biggest ass sniffers during the campaign and they get no reward for it.  I guess Palin would be included to a lesser extent as well.  

[OldGimletEye]

Quote

Trump didn’t tell people that, though. When he spoke at our plant, he acted like no one was going to lose their job. People went crazy for him. They thought, because of Trump, I’m going to be able to provide for my family. 

All the while, I’m sitting there, thinking that’s not what the damn numbers say. Trump let people believe that they were going to have a livelihood in that facility. He let people breathe easy. When I told our members the next day, they were devastated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/08/im-the-union-leader-donald-trump-attacked-im-tired-of-being-lied-to-about-our-jobs/

[mormont]

That's Trump though. Wants to be admired. Tells people what they want to hear. Doesn't bother with details.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

8 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

I've I were a worse person, I'd probably feel bad for Giulliani and Christie.  They were some of Trump's biggest ass sniffers during the campaign and they get no reward for it.  I guess Palin would be included to a lesser extent as well.  

It seems that's one of the few redeeming qualities that Trump has. Pretty solid brown nose detector.

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, OldGimletEye said:

But, perhaps, the good news is that we don’t have worry about the next financial crises anyway, as we’re all likely to die of heat stroke first.

Sorry OGE, but nuclear winter trumps (sorry) global warming.  

[OldGimletEye]

Just now, LongRider said:

Sorry OGE, but nuclear winter trumps (sorry) global warming.  

LOL. Could be the case.

So instead of needing to save my money for some heavy duty air conditioning and sun tan lotion, I might need to save it for a really good jacket, some gloves, and oh a bomb shelter too.

Of course, can we be sure what will come first? Maybe, to be on the safe side, I need to buy the jacket, gloves, and bomb shelter and an air conditioning unit that uses a jet engine or something.

The fake news business is lookin better all the time.

[LongRider]

1 minute ago, OldGimletEye said:

LOL. Could be the case.

So instead of needing to save my money for some heavy duty air conditioning and sun tan lotion, I might need to save it for a really good jacket, some gloves, and oh bomb shelter too.

Of course, can we be sure what will come first? Maybe, to be on the safe side, I need to buy the jacket gloves, and bomb shelter and an air conditioning unit that uses a jet engine or something.

The fake news business is lookin better all the time.

What a quandary, do you need a nice snug little igloo, or just a cool shady tree and lots of lemonade?  So many important decisions to made soon, but where to put the emphasis?  Well, with fake news we can run one issue about penguins invading New York and the next about coconut palms growing wild in Minnesota.  What fun!

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

It seems that's one of the few redeeming qualities that Trump has. Pretty solid brown nose detector.

Which is why he has Flynn and Bannon on his staff, as well as Ben Carson filling a role that he has no knowledge about whatsoever? 

And 4 of his top 5 donors getting a job?

 

[Kalbear]

Also, lol. Most presidents at least wait until inauguration before breaking their campaign promises.

 

[Altherion]

3 hours ago, Suttree said:

But we just saw the largest median income jump in history in the Census Bureau report about a month or so back. Combine that with the continued  steady recovery in jobs and yet the average American either didn't care or ignored it. Will be interesting to see how much people pay attention when it becomes clear Trump was selling snake oil and they voted against their own self interests. I'm still absolutely gobsmacked that he managed to position himself as some sort of populist hero. That and the general sentiment of his supporters that he was honest and just told it like it is. Total disconnect between perception and reality there.

The average American didn't care because this is a statistical fluctuation. If you look at the recent history of this parameter, for some reason it is exhibiting more volatile behavior than usual during this recovery. That is, it bottomed out in 2012, went up by a lot in 2013, then went down in 2014 (which didn't happen during the past few cycles) and now has gone up by a lot again in 2015. This is behavior is curious, but, as the Washington Post article points out, ultimately not very relevant given that we're still below the 1999 peak as well as the lower 2007 peak.

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

On a separate note, how do you think Trump's pick for Labor Secretary is going to go over with the working class people who got him elected, considering Puzder's against the minimum wage and he's the guy that wants to lead the charge on putting people out of work via automation?

I don't know. It depends on what he does once in office. There's a variety of methods for improving the situation all of which have advantages and disadvantages and none of which is guaranteed to work in the long term. In principle, if we put enough people out of work via automation, we can move on to a different social structure (i.e. society will no longer be built around the vast majority of able-bodied adults expected to have a 9-5 job).

[OldGimletEye]

Just for a few more laughs:

https://www.amazon.com/Bush-Boom-Misunderestimated-President-Economy/dp/1594670870

Quote

Jerry Bowyer confronts the critics and offers clear and convincing evidence that the Bush Administration fixed a broken economy, boosting the fastest economic turnaround since President Ronald Regan.

But, the best part is the guy that wrote the forward for the book also works for Trump.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

Which is why he has Flynn and Bannon on his staff, as well as Ben Carson filling a role that he has no knowledge about whatsoever? 

And 4 of his top 5 donors getting a job?

You agreed with me that Bannon kisses his ass in a manner that bypasses Trumpy's bullshit detector. I'm not sure what his relationship with Flynn is like, but I kind of doubt Flynn is a brown noser. He doesn't strike me as the type. Carson baffles me. He is so socially awkward that I can't get a bead on him. Did he even want a cabinet position really? 

 And donors are another deal. That's a straight up transaction, not an ass-kissing. 

[TrackerNeil]

9 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Also, lol. Most presidents at least wait until inauguration before breaking their campaign promises.

 

Political scientists say that most politicians really do try to keep their promises, but in this as in many other things, Trump may be the exception. And I'll bet his followers will lap it up anyway.

[OldGimletEye]

Yes, Republicans and the guys Republicans appoint, often spew dubious nonsense.

Any questions?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-labor-idUSKBN13X1TD

Quote

Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc, which operates the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has frequently argued in the media that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close.

Except, as has been discussed, we have good reasons to believe that raising minimum wages won't cause the disaster that rich Republican guys like to warn us of.

If anyone would likely get hurt from raising the minimum wage, it would be guys like Puzder.

Quote

Trump, in a statement released by his transition team, praised Puzder for a "record fighting for workers" and said he would ensure occupational safety standards.

LOL.

Quote

"He will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages,” Trump said.

Yes, yes. it's the good old Republican regulation story again. If Obama had just done it like Ronny did it!!!

Except, here is one question I have: If Republicans Presidents were so awesome with economy cause of their regulation cutting ways, then why don't Republican Presidents have a better record with economic growth?

Also, between 1870-1912 real GDP per capita growth averaged around 2.2%. This was the era before the rise of the American administrative state. There were not as many regulations around in those days. And it turns out that between about 1947-1999, during the rise of the administrative state, GDP per capita growth averaged about, you guessed it, 2.2%.

And finally, when one of the problems we've had has been to little inflation, it is hard to take Republican claims about "too much regulation under Obama" even remotely seriously. If we had low real growth with high inflation I might be more receptive to that argument.

 

Also, it looks like more conservative nonsense from Putz, oops, I meant Puzder:

http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/sorry-mr-puzder-no-correlation-between-exchange-premiums-and-restaurant-employment/

Quote

My colleague Ben Spielberg made this neat scatterplot today in reference to a claim by Labor Secretary designee Andrew Puzder. Puzder claimed that a “government mandated restaurant recession” was caused by rising premiums in the Obamacare exchanges. The idea is that consumers, after paying for health coverage, didn’t have enough left to go out to eat.

 

[all swedes are racist]

Yeah, lol at that fuck. Know what hurts workers more? Replacing them with fucking robots

[LongRider]

2 hours ago, r'hllor's dirtbag lobster said:

Yeah, lol at that fuck. Know what hurts workers more? Replacing them with fucking robots

Puzder apparently likes immigrants as they are willing to take his low wages.  He might have a problem with the wall his boss wants to build.  O_o trouble in paradise?

[Little Scribe of Naath]

So, the PEOTUS does not believe his own nation's intelligence agency, who will be reporting to him in 40 odd days.

Is this for real?

[Mexal]

14 minutes ago, Little Scribe of Naath said:

So, the PEOTUS does not believe his own nation's intelligence agency, who will be reporting to him in 40 odd days.

Is this for real?

Yes. It's real. Trump is the type of person who will believe whatever fits with the narrative in his head. He cannot be swayed by evidence or facts simply because he does not care. He creates his own truth. In the last few days, he's tweeted about everything but this and avoids press conferences (seriously, a PEOTUS not having a press conference in over a month since election?) so no one can ask him directly. Additionally, the Republican Congress, who should hate Russia because they always have, continues to cast doubt on this and refuses to investigate. This is the same party that was just a few years ago saying Russia was our biggest security threat and now when proven correct, they try to buddy up with them. 

Here's another wrinkle. NYT (think it was them) is reporting that there is evidence Russia hacked the RNC as well. If that's true, and they chose not to release that information, they can and will likely use it as blackmail to keep the RNC pushing a pro-Russia agenda. That's probably the scariest part of all this; that a nation is doing their very best to upend our democracy and the party in power has no issues with it.