U.S. Politics. Next?

[Mexal]

I hate these people so much.

 

[OldGimletEye]

Well this is interesting.

It’s almost like, if you’re worrying about people working, then you know maybe you should aggressively create tight labor markets, rather than you know, fixating on food stamps. Who would have thunk that?
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/december-jobs-report-tight-labor-market-sends-black-unemployment-to-historical-lows/

Quote

Payrolls rose by 148,000 last month and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent. While the headline payroll number was below consensus, this is another solid report. Persistently strong job markets are most beneficial to the least advantaged—privileged types do well even in weaker markets—and the December unemployment rate for African-Americans fell to 6.8%, its lowest on record going back to the 1970s. The black-white gap (black minus white unemployment), at 3.1 percentage points, is also the lowest on record.

 

Quote

I cannot overemphasize the importance of this result and how essential it is for the recovery to proceed apace so we can tap this long-awaited elasticity. Especially given the lack of price-pressures, the punch bowl is figuratively screaming at the Fed: “keep your hands off me!”

Yep.

Conservative sorts of people here is a tip: Whenever you're doing your DSGE modeling, every once awhile change out that privileged wealthy white person representative agent with somebody else.

[Morpheus]

10 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Oh Jesus fecking Christ.

 

Bannon as president was highly unlikely before, after this book it is impossible. He only appealed to the most extreme white nationalist sympathizers and apologists, and he has alienated them. As repulsive as Trump is, he was a reality TV star and had decades in the public eye. Bannon is still a fringe figure who looks to have squandered his influence on and access to the halls of power. Thankfully, he may have even sunk his potential as an influencer in the elections this year, probably the only good to come of this because Trump certainly won’t suffer any backlash.

[Morpheus]

4 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I hate these people so much.

 

We need more brain cancer in Congress

[Dr. Pepper]

So since the awesome tax plan that would create jobs immediately, Macy’s has laid off 5000 workers, Sears is closing 100 stores, Comcast is laying off 500 workers. And that’s just what I’ve read in the last hour. All that influx of cash...

[Mexal]

I still want to know what Trump et al has on Graham. I've never seen a faster change of someone's core beliefs.

[Werthead]

31 minutes ago, Morpheus said:

Bannon as president was highly unlikely before, after this book it is impossible. He only appealed to the most extreme white nationalist sympathizers and apologists, and he has alienated them. As repulsive as Trump is, he was a reality TV star and had decades in the public eye. Bannon is still a fringe figure who looks to have squandered his influence on and access to the halls of power. Thankfully, he may have even sunk his potential as an influencer in the elections this year, probably the only good to come of this because Trump certainly won’t suffer any backlash.

 I hope this is true but I keep recalling the mantra, "Trump hasn't a chance!", "It'll never happen!" from 2016. The US has a much greater capacity for screwing itself over than I would have believed possible (like us, in that sense).

[Fragile Bird]

40 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I hate these people so much.

 

So it's a political stunt, apparently. http://uk.businessinsider.com/dossier-author-chris-steele-referred-to-doj-by-grassley-and-graham-2018-1

Legal experts said the referral seemed politically motivated insofar as it did not appear to provide information to the FBI that the bureau did not already have. 

"A referral that offered evidence of lying to Congress would be more likely to give the FBI something new and would be more likely to carry some weight," said William Yeomans, a former deputy assistant attorney general who spent 26 years at the Justice Department.

"If they are giving the FBI information it already has that suggests Steele lied to the FBI, the referral has little import. The bottom line is that the referral only matters to the extent it gives the FBI relevant evidence or otherwise unknown and credible allegations," he said. "Otherwise, i t should be viewed as a political act."

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti largely agreed.

"This is either a PR stunt or an attempt by Senators who control DOJ funding to undermine the investigation," Mariotti said in an interview. "Either way, it's problematic, because it seems like an attempt to influence DOJ charging decisions."

Legal experts said the referral seemed politically motivated insofar as it did not appear to provide information to the FBI that the bureau did not already have. 

[Dr. Pepper]

So book claims that Kushner was a major leaker to MSNBCs Scarborough. Was this previously known?

[Frog Eater]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

So book claims that Kushner was a major leaker to MSNBCs Scarborough. Was this previously known?

the book also says that parts of it are untrue and in conflict with itself. Any quotes of the book are already admittedly false by the author.  

[Mlle. Zabzie]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

So since the awesome tax plan that would create jobs immediately, Macy’s has laid off 5000 workers, Sears is closing 100 stores, Comcast is laying off 500 workers. And that’s just what I’ve read in the last hour. All that influx of cash...

Actually, the tax bill is particularly bad for struggling companies, like Macys and Sears:

*  Limitation of interest deductions based on EBITDA creates a death spiral for a struggling companies where, ironically, as its taxable income increases even as its cash flow decreases.

*  NOL carryback limitation means that a ready source of cash (taxes paid in two previous years) is eliminated.

*  Lower rate only partially mitigates 1.  

*  80% limitation on ability to use new and hot NOLs will push companies into bankruptcy so that they can use the "bankruptcy" exception to COD income, rather than having to pay tax on any debt cancellation (used to be 90%), rather than out of court solutions.

There are a few other things.  It's basically really bad

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Frog Eater said:

the book also says that parts of it are untrue and in conflict with itself. Any quotes of the book are already admittedly false by the author.  

Not really. Axios reported that Wolff has many of the conversations on tape. Some of it should be taken with a grain of salt, but it's not like he made up the entire book out of whole cloth.

[butterbumps!]

1 hour ago, Dr. Pepper said:

So book claims that Kushner was a major leaker to MSNBCs Scarborough. Was this previously known?

It was strongly suspected that the flattering stories about Jared and Ivanka that were being leaked were coming directly from Jared and Ivanka.  I guess this confirms them as the source?  (the leaks I'm recalling are the ones painting them as ever so earnest do-gooders, fighting tirelessly for liberal-ish causes, despite failing 100% of the time, in order to preserve their invitations to the Met Gala-- or are you talking about different leaks?).

[denstorebog]

2 hours ago, Morpheus said:

Thankfully, he may have even sunk his potential as an influencer in the elections this year, probably the only good to come of this because Trump certainly won’t suffer any backlash.

Except in a twisted way it's actually legitimately possible that this feud was a good thing for Republicans. The alt-right doesn't need Bannon and isn't really weakened by his downfall. But Bannon's meddling in the 2018 midterms was already shaping up to become a disruptive force. That looks to be canceled now. This could mean a lot fewer destructive primaries on the right and a lot fewer nutjob candidates. I'd have preferred an active troublemaker in the game, tbh.

[Mexal]

2 minutes ago, denstorebog said:

Except in a twisted way it's actually legitimately possible that this feud was a good thing for Republicans. The alt-right doesn't need Bannon and isn't really weakened by his downfall. But Bannon's meddling in the 2018 midterms was already shaping up to become a disruptive force. That looks to be canceled now. This could mean a lot fewer destructive primaries on the right and a lot fewer nutjob candidates. I'd have preferred an active troublemaker in the game, tbh.

The feud is dumb because it takes away from the core point of everything we've read over the last few days and everything we've seen for the last year; that the President of the United States is unfit for office and EVERYONE around him believes it.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Dr. Pepper said:

So book claims that Kushner was a major leaker to MSNBCs Scarborough. Was this previously known?

Everyone, sans the generals, was and still is probably leaking.

This book is impossible to get. I called five large book stores in my area and they were all sold out. I went in to Barnes & Nobles to pick up another book and the lady at the checkout said the Twin Cities warehouse is already out of stock.

Trump’s reaction helped market this freaking book……

[Week]

12 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Everyone, sans the generals, was and still is probably leaking.

This book is impossible to get. I called five large book stores in my area and they were all sold out. I went in to Barnes & Nobles to pick up another book and the lady at the checkout said the Twin Cities warehouse is already out of stock.

Trump’s reaction helped market this freaking book……

14.99 kindle -- https://smile.amazon.com/Fire-Fury-Inside-Trump-White-ebook/dp/B077F4WZZY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1515188565&sr=8-1

[Prince of the North]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Everyone, sans the generals, was and still is probably leaking.

This book is impossible to get. I called five large book stores in my area and they were all sold out. I went in to Barnes & Nobles to pick up another book and the lady at the checkout said the Twin Cities warehouse is already out of stock.

Trump’s reaction helped market this freaking book……

Yep.  What's the over/under on how long it'll take Trump to tweet about how he's responsible for the fantastic sales of this book?  Would it be measured in days...or hours?

[Dr. Pepper]

48 minutes ago, butterbumps! said:

It was strongly suspected that the flattering stories about Jared and Ivanka that were being leaked were coming directly from Jared and Ivanka.  I guess this confirms them as the source?  (the leaks I'm recalling are the ones painting them as ever so earnest do-gooders, fighting tirelessly for liberal-ish causes, despite failing 100% of the time, in order to preserve their invitations to the Met Gala-- or are you talking about different leaks?).

It wasn’t specific about the types of leaks, just that Jared was leaking stuff about the goings on at the White House.

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Everyone, sans the generals, was and still is probably leaking.

This book is impossible to get. I called five large book stores in my area and they were all sold out. I went in to Barnes & Nobles to pick up another book and the lady at the checkout said the Twin Cities warehouse is already out of stock.

Trump’s reaction helped market this freaking book……

I’m at a part that actually details how Trump himself was a major leaker. He’d spend hours on the phone in the evenings while in his rooms telling all these people this or that about his day and many had no reason to be loyal or keep quiet. 

I somehow keep getting an audible free trial so I’m listening to it. I hate audio books but the narrator is rather amusing. 

[Martell Spy]

Quote

Wolff’s penetration of the White House presents two equally damning conclusions about Trump—that’s he’s too much of an egoist to care who might be loitering around the White House, gathering string on him, and that he’s too incurious about the world to spot a potential danger to his presidency.

If ever there were a man who deserved to get Wolffed, it’s Donald Trump.

Trump Got Wolffed
The president should have known better. Michael Wolff does not mess around.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/04/donald-trump-michael-wolff-book-216245

EPA chief Pruitt is said to be eyeing attorney general job
A nomination would face strong resistance from Democrats over his weakening of environmental protections.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/05/scott-pruitt-us-attorney-general-position-326373