US Politics : And the Finer Art of Grumbling

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

16 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

If you had access to a functioning brain would you be a goddamn redtard? It's really a Chicken or the Dolphin situation right here.

Jace filed her taxes, I got FUCKED! Like, I actually made more money this year and my returns are down...

 

ETA: I'm not a tax genius, and I guess some of my income this year is different. So that could be the reason, but reason's got nothin' to do with it.

You live in the Seattle area, right? My guess is you got hit from the loss of SALT deductions.

Meanwhile, the tax cuts look to be less than my increase in insurance costs, as expected. Thanks Drumpf!!!

16 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Last stock market post, at least until tomorrow!

Today was the first day on the job for the new Fed chairman, Jerome Powell. Apparently the markets have a history of welcoming the new Fed chair with a down market.

Jerome Powell. Remember that name. No one else has talked about him, what do you folks know about him, what do you expect?

A lot of the market action ($1.5 Trillion in value wiped out) is blamed on the uptick in interest rates, and another increase is expected in July. I've seen a few analysts say he's being tested, and he has to be careful the markets don't wag the dog.

Methinks we’re all going to be missing Janet Yellen. She’s more responsible for the recovery and stable markets than Obama or Trump.

16 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

Oh FFS!

Welcome to 'Murica, dude. 

[OldGimletEye]

23 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Methinks we’re all going to be missing Janet Yellen. She’s more responsible for the recovery and stable markets than Obama or Trump.

She certainly would be more willing and able to carry out unconventional monetary policy, than the current crew Trump has appointed at the FED, in the event the rate gets to 0 or near enough to make no difference. 

[aceluby]

Initial estimates on the cost of the tax cuts are in!  In a shocking revelation, the cuts are expected to cost more than presented to the public.  This year alone the deficit is expected to explode from $500 billion a year, Obama's last budget, to $900+ billion a year, Trump's first budget.

So much for those deficit hawks.  Oh wait, I forgot, tax cuts don't cost us anything ever.  We'll just have to save that $400 billion by getting rid of SNAP.  Just a fraction of that would be cut you say?  Say no more!  We'll get rid of Medicaid too!  If Fucking Poor People (TM) would just learn how to inherit hundreds of millions of dollars they wouldn't be in this situation.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

17 hours ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Trump: response of Democrats to his SOTU speech was unAmerican... "Can we call that treason? Why not?"

The sheer fucking gall of this shitstain on the ass of history.

Honestly this should have been a bigger story than the market’s one day crash. It’s rather frightening.

[Jace, Extat]

10 minutes ago, aceluby said:

Initial estimates on the cost of the tax cuts are in!  In a shocking revelation, the cuts are expected to cost more than presented to the public.  This year alone the deficit is expected to explode from $500 billion a year, Obama's last budget, to $900+ billion a year, Trump's first budget.

So much for those deficit hawks.  Oh wait, I forgot, tax cuts don't cost us anything ever.  We'll just have to save that $400 billion by getting rid of SNAP.  Just a fraction of that would be cut you say?  Say no more!  We'll get rid of Medicaid too!  If Fucking Poor People (TM) would just learn how to inherit hundreds of millions of dollars they wouldn't be in this situation.

See you have two kinds of people.

You got the takers.

And then you have another kind.

[Mexal]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Honestly this should have been a bigger story than the market’s one day crash. It’s rather frightening.

Eh. It's just one more thing Trump has said that leads to autocratic tendencies. None of the others seemed to matter so why does this one? It's the same dance as before. A few GOP guys will say that's not true, the media will talk/write about it and we'll move on. This isn't anything new. All this shit has been normalized in the Trump era.

[Jace, Extat]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

Honestly this should have been a bigger story than the market’s one day crash. It’s rather frightening.

Buried in the news was that North Korea has been getting nuclear materials through the German Embassy.

Why is the flag flying over Berlin not Red White and Blue right now?

[LongRider]

#CadetBoneSpurs is trending on Twitter at the moment.   Must go make a tweet.   

[Martell Spy]

48 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Eh. It's just one more thing Trump has said that leads to autocratic tendencies. None of the others seemed to matter so why does this one? It's the same dance as before. A few GOP guys will say that's not true, the media will talk/write about it and we'll move on. This isn't anything new. All this shit has been normalized in the Trump era.

Pretty much. Trump shatters norms, often using rhetoric, because he believes there is absolutely no cost to him in doing so. He profits from it, and there is no downside, certainly the law isn't going to act on it. The poorest person in America can call the FBI corrupt if they want. Trump's shattering norms outrages liberals and other opponents, but he likely believes that's a good thing. Many of Trump's base believe the whole point in the Trump Presidency is to troll such people.

 

[A True Kaniggit]

3 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

#Cadet Bone Spurs is trending on Twitter at the moment.   Must go make a tweet.   

Haha. And another way Benedict Arnold is different from Trump. Arnold actually fought for the country.

[IamMe90]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

You live in the Seattle area, right? My guess is you got hit from the loss of SALT deductions.

Meanwhile, the tax cuts look to be less than my increase in insurance costs, as expected. Thanks Drumpf!!!

Methinks we’re all going to be missing Janet Yellen. She’s more responsible for the recovery and stable markets than Obama or Trump.

Welcome to 'Murica, dude. 

The tax bill has no effect on 2017 tax returns. In other words, changes that would appear on a tax return won't show up until we file our tax returns next year. My guess is that Jace moved up into a higher tax bracket when her income increased. 

[A True Kaniggit]

1 minute ago, IamMe90 said:

The tax bill has no effect on 2017 tax returns. In other words, changes that would appear on a tax return won't show up until we file our tax returns next year. My guess is that Jace moved up into a higher tax bracket when her income increased. 

That ~$700 healthcare penalty I paid this year agrees with you.

[Mexal]

Another example the horrible mismanagement of the Puerto Rican recovery. This shit doesn't get nearly enough press. It's as bad or worse than Bush's response to Katrina.

Quote

The mission for the Federal Emergency Management Agency was clear: Hurricane Maria had torn through Puerto Rico, and hungry people needed food. Thirty million meals needed to be delivered as soon as possible.

For this huge task, FEMA tapped Tiffany Brown, an Atlanta entrepreneur with no experience in large-scale disaster relief and at least five canceled government contracts in her past. FEMA awarded her $156 million for the job, and Ms. Brown, who is the sole owner and employee of her company, Tribute Contracting LLC, set out to find some help.

Ms. Brown, who is adept at navigating the federal contracting system, hired a wedding caterer in Atlanta with a staff of 11 to freeze-dry wild mushrooms and rice, chicken and rice, and vegetable soup. She found a nonprofit in Texas that had shipped food aid overseas and domestically, including to a Houston food bank after Hurricane Harvey.

By the time 18.5 million meals were due, Tribute had delivered only 50,000. And FEMA inspectors discovered a problem: The food had been packaged separately from the pouches used to heat them. FEMA’s solicitation required “self-heating meals.”

“Do not ship another meal. Your contract is terminated,” Carolyn Ward, the FEMA contracting officer who handled Tribute’s agreement, wrote to Ms. Brown in an email dated Oct. 19 that Ms. Brown provided to The New York Times. “This is a logistical nightmare.”

 

[The Mance]

22 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Haha. And another way Benedict Arnold is different from Trump. Arnold actually fought for the country.

Also, he was popular in the UK.

[Paladin of Ice]

An overview of the small, daily, non-sensationalist ways that this admin is horrible and is doing horrible thing to the country.

When Congress first let CHIP expire, it also allowed funding to expire for a network of 2,000 community health centers that were visited for primary care over 26 million times in 2016. When CHIP was funded again, the health centers weren't, and they've now gone over 4 months since that funding lapsed. And if you're wondering what the cost to fund these center would be, 7.4 billion would cover them all for 2 years. By comparison, 18 billion is estimated for the first stage of a potential border wall, and it's estimated that 1.5 TRILLION in revenue will be lost due the corporate tax cuts form the the tax bill alone.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, whose mission is to "create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination" is rapidly turning into a shitshow thanks to having a neurosurgeon as its head. It's looking to copy Trump's Medicaid plans and add work requirements to its conditions, and also to raise the rent rate people have to pay in subsidized homes. Lastly, Ben Carson has gotten his son significantly involved in HUD despite him not officially working there, and it appears Carson Jr. is using the opportunity as a way to enrich himself.

MIck Mulvaney has completely stripped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's fair lending department (which oversees and enact penalties against lenders who discriminate against borrowers) of its powers. He's also reportedly pulling back on looking into the Equifax hack. (Y'know, the security breach that involved the personal information of every American of working age and older, and then the company waited 6 weeks before telling anybody? No biggie, shit happens.)

Speaking of shady lenders, payday lenders appear to have won concessions from the administration, and are paying it back by having its events hosted at Trump properties. (Details below to save you a NYT click.)

Quote

In mid-April, hundreds of members of the payday lending industry will head to Florida for their annual retreat featuring golf and networking at a plush resort just outside Miami. The resort just happens to be the Trump National Doral Golf Club.

It will cap a year in which the industry has gone from villain to victor, the result of a concentrated lobbying campaign that has culminated in the Trump administration’s loosening regulatory grip on payday lenders and a far friendlier approach by the industry’s nemesis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Gone is Richard Cordray, the consumer bureau’s director and so-called bad cop, who levied fines and brought lawsuits to crack down on usurious business practices by an industry that offers short-term, high-interest loans that critics say trap vulnerable consumers in a feedback loop of debt. In his place is Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director and a former South Carolina congressman, who was chosen by President Trump to assume temporary control of the bureau and has emerged as something of a white knight for the payday lending industry.

“I think now we’re in a period that is relatively passive,” said Dennis Shaul, the chief executive of the Community Financial Services Association of America, the primary lobbying group for payday lenders. “I think it is advisable for us to largely draw a curtain on the past and try to go forward.”

Two weeks ago, Mr. Mulvaney put the brakes on a contentious rule, ushered in by Mr. Cordray, that was set to impose tight restrictions on short-term payday loans. He ended a case that the bureau initiated last year against a group of payday lenders in Kansas accused of charging interest rates of nearly 1,000 percent. Last week, Mr. Mulvaney scrapped an investigation into the marketing and lending practices of World Acceptance Corporation, a lender based in South Carolina that donated $4,500 to Mr. Mulvaney’s previous congressional campaigns through its political action committee.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, payday lenders have contributed more than $13 million to members of Congress since 2010, with the majority of that money going to Republicans who have made it a priority to roll back the financial regulations put in place by President Barack Obama after the financial crisis. That includes Mr. Mulvaney, who received nearly $63,000 for his campaigns from payday lending groups.

Mr. Mulvaney said that the donations were not an issue “because I am not in elected office anymore.”

The payday lending industry is cheering Mr. Mulvaney’s approach. “He seems extremely reasonable,” said W. Allan Jones, a founder of one of the industry’s top lobbying groups who operates about 900 payday lending stores across the country. “He’s figured this thing out that they’ve overstepped their bounds.”

Mr. Jones, the chief executive of the Tennessee-based Check Into Cash chain of payday lenders, has been scaling back his payday loan empire in recent years. He laid off about 300 employees last year, bringing his work force to about 3,000. This year he plans to shutter 100 more stores, despite the changes happening at the consumer bureau, because it remains unclear how far the move to deregulate the industry will go and because state lending laws have become increasingly strict.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was born out of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, immediately seized on the payday lending industry as one of its first targets, opening a complaint database, initiating investigations, filing lawsuits and formulating rules to prevent lenders from preying on consumers. According to the consumer agency, it has pursued more than 20 public enforcement actions against small-dollar lenders, many of which have resulted in large settlements.

The crackdown has had an effect. According to data from the Center for Financial Services Information, annual payday lending revenue dropped to $5.3 billion in 2017, from $9.2 billion in 2012. The number of payday loan stores dropped from a peak of 24,043 in 2007, to 16,480 in 2015, according to a recent report published by the consumer bureau.

The industry has long been a presence on Capitol Hill, but it spied an opening after Mr. Trump’s election and the Republican takeover of Congress. The industry pushed lawmakers to repeal the consumer bureau’s 2017 payday lending rule by using the Congressional Review Act to essentially kill it. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has sponsored such a resolution, though its viability remains uncertain. Since Mr. Trump’s election, the payday lending lobby has also made its voice heard at the consumer bureau, flooding the agency with comments expressing opposition to the payday rule.

And lenders have poured money into the coffers of influential Republican lawmakers. Lobbying donations peaked in 2012, when the bureau began to make payday lending a priority and have leveled off in the last year. Among the biggest recipients have been Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

In December, Mr. Hensarling, who has long accused the consumer bureau of overreach, said that “no unelected Washington bureaucrat” should be able to stop Americans from taking out the short-term loan that they wanted.

Payday lenders have also looked for inroads with the president. A lender based in Ohio, Community Choice Financial, was one of the first clients of Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump’s first campaign manager, who started a Washington consulting business last year. Over the summer, Mr. Lewandowski called on Mr. Trump in a television interview to fire Mr. Cordray.

In the spring, the industry will spend four days networking at the Trump National Doral Golf Club, which has event spaces like the Donald J. Trump Grand Ballroom and the Ivanka Trump Ballroom. Mr. Shaul said his group began looking at the Trump property as a potential site for its spring meeting well before the 2016 presidential election and ultimately chose it because it was cheaper than other East Coast resorts.

...

The payday industry is just one of many groups holding events at Trump properties in the wake of the election. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is holding an event for “an elite group” of its members at the Trump National Doral in March, according to its website.
 

Yay for open political corruption!

And lastly, political appointees inside the Department of Labor spiked a report showing that bosses skimmed billions of dollars from workers who gets tips.

[Jace, Extat]

36 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Haha. And another way Benedict Arnold is different from Trump. Arnold actually fought for the country.

Actually quite the soldier, as a matter of fact. It's a real shame he betrayed the young nation, because if he hadn't then he would be remembered as a hero of the Revolution.

Jace has wondered before if he could have been a major factor in the establishment of the American military considering his friendship with the original George W. and the fact that he genuinely was treated like shit by Congress.

20 minutes ago, IamMe90 said:

The tax bill has no effect on 2017 tax returns. In other words, changes that would appear on a tax return won't show up until we file our tax returns next year. My guess is that Jace moved up into a higher tax bracket when her income increased. 

Curses! A thousand curses upon you all!

[LongRider]

10 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Yay for open political corruption!

'tis all good because #CadetBoneSpurs is a multi-billionaire!  He and his rich cronies can do no wrong because they're rich!  I thought we had that established for us earlier in the thread.     

[LongRider]

2 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Curses! A thousand curses upon you all!

However, with #CadetBoneSpurs constantly lying about how the tax cuts are the awesomest of the awesome, Jace should air her grievances about her current taxes far and wide and blame them on the tax cuts.  Less sophisticated folks, like #CadetBoneSpurs voters and others, will believe her and perhaps it strike fear into their tiny little hearts.  She should at least get some satisfaction for her trouble.  

[Jace, Extat]

22 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

However, with #CadetBoneSpurs constantly lying about how the tax cuts are the awesomest of the awesome, Jace should air her grievances about her current taxes far and wide and blame them on the tax cuts.  Less sophisticated folks, like #CadetBoneSpurs voters and others, will believe her and perhaps it strike fear into their tiny little hearts.  She should at least get some satisfaction for her trouble.  

Yeah, I've actually already decided to do this. I plan to work tax talk into the routine the next time I cover the ER

[Mexal]

Just keep spending. Just keep spending.