Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[lisa needs braces]

Republican candidate for Governor in Florida racially taunts his Democratic opponent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruaQzXNSHLQ

[Karl Henning]

How many norms can Trump and evangelical leaders break in one meeting?

They're tied at the hip — in a downward spiral.

[Karl Henning]

Unless it's about him, Trump doesn't give a darn

For President Trump, the scandals and careless errors pile up, especially when the media and voters are distracted by worse outrages and major historical happenings. So it has been this week as Trump freaks out over the outpouring of genuine affection for Sen. John McCain. A pair of events shows just how much damage a president who thinks only of himself can do.

Let's start with a disaster whose death toll exceeds that of Hurricane Katrina (and is nearly equal to 9/11)....

[Karl Henning]

Well, and there are still conservatives who (also) think better of McCain than of President Me-Me-Me.

McCain's Brand of Patriotism Is a Needed Alternative to Trump's Nationalism

[lisa needs braces]

Insightful twitter thread about the replacement of the rhetorical focus on disadvantage by focus on privilege. Sad conclusion.

https://twitter.com/lindsey_brink/status/1034910533848313856

[Karl Henning]

Even in death, the late Senator says a LOT:

McCain's choices for days of tributes deliver a symbolic final rebuke to Trump

An NFL player and a Russian dissident will honor the late senator, reflecting a not-so-subtle trolling of the president. Even a gospel reading is a final call to arms against autocrats.

[Karl Henning]

"I still give myself an A+, honestly.  Nobody throws rolls of paper towels better than me."

'Fantastic job': Trump defends Hurricane Maria response amid spike in deaths in Puerto Rico

[drogulus]

     There are a number of reason why the U.S. should support human rights vocally. One is so we know we do stand for them, and put negatively so we know we don't stand for the values of the dictators. Also this allows us to be hypocrites. How can you not live up to standards you don't have? So you have to take stands so you are embarrassed by not meeting them.

     People who live in countries that oppress them tell us that it helps when the U.S. upholds the values of human rights. They say don't stop doing that. That's important, that it matters to people what we say, so it should matter to us.

     The tyrants themselves don't want the U.S. to pressure them on human rights and act as though it matters greatly to them that we don't. Why this is must have something to do with why the dissidents want us to keep the pressure on. I judge that it's like the wars you didn't fight. You don't know very much about them.

[Karl Henning]

     There are a number of reason why the U.S. should support human rights vocally.

It says a LOT about this thread, and Trumpism at large, that it is necessary for you to state this.

[drogulus]

     There's one simple explanation for the wage stagnation 'puzzle' confounding top Fed officials

     Yes, the destruction of labor power has had the effect of lowering wages for decades. But it has another effect, on the Fed itself.

     The Fed is always seeing inflation on an acceleration model based on a misreading of the '70s. They decided that inflation would from now on mean more future inflation, so price friction that had been assumed before had disappeared. The normal view is that as the economy progressed prices would rise over time, but in the short term a rise or fall didn't indicate the direction wouldn't change, so 4% inflation didn't predict either 3% or 5%. Inflation couldn't accelerate or decelerate and also behave the way it was observed to behave.

     The price shocks of the '70s knocked the Fed and observers off course. Now there were wage/price spirals, not in the world but in the heads of policy makers. For decades inflation "expectations" have had very little to do with actually occurring inflation and we still expect more inflation than shows up. It's got so bad that the Fed announces "expectations" while simultaneously letting us know it's not to be taken literally. They publicly fret about why they are expecting and "deexpecting" all at once.

     Why not learn to expect better in the first place? Why not expect low inflation and stagnant wages? Because the Fed would need a model for that, and an accurate model would have to have expansion methods tied to expansion results, and that would tie the dismal results of austere economics directly to the shrinksters. I have said that the deflations like the one a decade ago don't turn politics fascistic on their own, it takes a deliberate program of undermining the recovery for the populace. Such a policy is implemented by the corrupt and idiotic. The corruption need not be financial. As far as I know McConnell values power over money and the degree to which he doesn't care what happens to millions of people isn't because he needs to be a zillionaire. The attack on Obama through the recovery process was overt enough that people remarked on how public his goal was. Articles were written and it was pointed out how incongruous it would be for Mitch to think his embargo was for the good if he was so clearly trying to make things worse.

[Karl Henning]

Voters don't buy 'No collusion!'

[...]

While Paul Manfort's conviction on eight counts bolstered faith in Mueller, it's surprising that the person who hurt Trump the most is none other than Michael Cohen. ("36 percent of voters said these convictions gave them more confidence in Mueller's ongoing investigation, while 21 percent said less, and 35 percent said they had no effect."). Voters seem to give a whole lot of weight to Cohen's pointing to Trump as the man who directed the illegal campaign scheme with "61 percent saying that such legal developments raise significant questions about the president's own behavior, while 27 percent said that the Cohen case has little to do with Trump."

Now 69 percent have confidence in Mueller and want to complete his investigation. Trump's effort to short-circuit the investigation likely will anger a large percentage of voters. By the same token, there is no groundswell for impeachment (47 percent don't favor impeachment, 44 percent do). If either side overplays its hand, the voters are ready to pounce.

The good news here is that Trump's ranting and raving have not befuddled those outside his core base of support. No matter how many times he hollers, "Witch Hunt!" most voters think "collusion." The disconnect here is with Congress, where GOP majorities control both the House and Senate. Republicans reflect the thinking of the 30 percent of the electorate Trump has bamboozled all along. That leaves them with the president and cross-wise with voters who have figured out who is credible and who is not. (Convictions and plea deals certainly make an impression on people.) [....]

[drogulus]

     Rubio's paid family leave bill would have serious Social Security implications

     In economics areas of agreement between the parties are where the most damage is done. Typically one party, the Repubs, plays it from zero to negative sum and the Dems from zero to mildly positive sum. The closer you get to a zero formulation the more likely agreement will be reached. Since a static zero policy is dynamically negative the result is an economy that peaks briefly and languishes in the mediocre zone so that demand doesn't raise productive capacity. Policy makers ask themselves "why?" like this lets them off the hook.

     The currency issuer adds and subtracts money for goals. It adds by deferring the tax on what it spends. In a money system a tax deferred is a nontax, only the future you with more money pays it. Subtracting is done by taxing the present you, the you with less money. If we want to argue about  the existence of abstract entities like dollars it would be best to posit their existence in time than in space.

      Rubio wants to tax away the advantage of more money/less tax so a present balance is maintained. This is the opposite position from creating a positive user balance through deferral nontaxing to the disadvantage of present and future taxees. The present value of future retirement is lowered, and I don't see where Rubio makes it up by instituting a benefit rise elsewhere. If he is trying to make paid family leaves a bad deal he succeeds. Why would he do that?

      People are permitted to work as long as someone will employ them. They can get retirement benefits, too. Both are good, and I don't see why a zero sum game has to be instituted about either the employment or benefit side. Neither are problems the way employment age limits or benefit cuts clearly are.

[drogulus]

     Thousands of Vietnamese, including offspring of U.S. troops, could be deported under tough Trump policy

      U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question

     Why would you throw into question the citizenship of some regular person doing regular person things? All it does is needlessly cause trouble. It can't do any good.

[JBS]

     Thousands of Vietnamese, including offspring of U.S. troops, could be deported under tough Trump policy

      U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question

     Why would you throw into question the citizenship of some regular person doing regular person things? All it does is needlessly cause trouble. It can't do any good.

This tweet popped up on my feed. Itm and some of the comments, make an interesting point about the Texas story: it is meant to suppress Latino votes in Texas.

[BasilValentine]

Another guilty plea in the Mueller probe. W. Samuel Patten, a lobbyist, plead guilty to funneling illegal money from a Russian and a Ukrainian into the Trump inauguration fund. Patten plead to being an unregistered foreign agent. Apparently the tickets to the inauguration were bought using the identity of an American to disguise the foreign origins of the money. Patten was a close associate of Constantine Kalimnik, Manafort's little GRU trained buddy and interface/translator with Ukraine and Russia, and the two of them did opinion research for Cambridge Analytica, the guys who stole information on 80,000,000 FB users for the Trump campaign. This mess is going to get a lot more interesting, but this is the first time the receipt of illegal Russian money has been  directly linked to the Trump administration.   

[Karl Henning]

The first time, yes.  I wonder if it will be the last?

[BasilValentine]

The first time, yes.  I wonder if it will be the last?

Not a chance!

[Karl Henning]

As for the issue of corruption, a 45 percent plurality think it has gotten worse under Trump, 39 percent say it's about the same, and only 13 percent say it has decreased. The man who was elected to drain the swamp has managed to convince voters that it is the same or worse.

Trump likes to say he keeps his promises. But his vow to drain the swamp might be one of the most egregious broken pledges in recent history. Trump built his campaign around "Crooked Hillary," and then launched an administration second to none in conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and convictions and plea deals by former officials and campaign aides.

Voters seem foursquare behind the Russia investigation (63 percent approve, while only 29 percent disapprove); 53 percent say that he has interfered with the investigation to such an extent that it amounts to obstruction of justice, while only 35 percent do not. A majority of Republicans still oppose the investigation and insist that Trump hasn't interfered with the special counsel's work.

A pack of Quislings who put party and power over the country and the Constitution.

[SimonNZ]

John McCain's Funeral Was a Council of War—Just as He Meant It to Be

[arpeggio]

John McCain's Funeral Was a Council of War—Just as He Meant It to Be

What a great article.