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kpete
kpete's Journal
kpete's Journal
January 19, 2020
The church of magats
Watch here if you need a good laugh:
https://twitter.com/BlueR00n/status/1218623729682538497
January 19, 2020
..............
The only time I have seen anything like these declines in health—outside of war or epidemics—was when I was chief economist of the World Bank and found out that mortality and morbidity data confirmed what our economic indicators suggested about the dismal state of the post-Soviet Russian economy.
Trump may be a good president for the top 1%—and especially for the top 0.1%—but he has not been good for everyone else. If fully implemented, the 2017 tax cut will result in tax increases for most households in the second, third, and fourth income quintiles.
Given tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the ultrarich and corporations, it should come as no surprise that there was no significant change in the median US household’s disposable incomebetween 2017 and 2018 (again, the most recent year with good data). The lion’s share of the increase in GDP is also going to those at the top. Real median weekly earnings are just 2.6% above their level when Trump took office. And these increases have not offset long periods of wage stagnation. For example, the median wage of a full-time male worker (and those with full-time jobs are the lucky ones) is still more than 3% below what it was 40 years ago. Nor has there been much progress on reducing racial disparities: in the third quarter of 2019, median weekly earnings for black men working full-time were less than three-quarters the level for white men.
Making matters worse, the growth that has occurred is not environmentally sustainable – and even less so thanks to the Trump administration’s gutting of regulations that have passed stringent cost-benefit analyses. The air will be less breathable, the water less drinkable, and the planet more subject to climate change. In fact, losses related to climate change have already reached new highs in the US, which has suffered more property damage than any other country – reaching some 1.5% of GDP in 2017.
The tax cuts were supposed to spur a new wave of investment. Instead, they triggered an all-time record binge of share buybacks – some $800 billion in 2018 – by some of America’s most profitable companies, and led to record peacetime deficits (almost $1 trillion in fiscal 2019) in a country supposedly near full employment. And even with weak investment, the US had to borrow massively abroad: the most recent data show foreign borrowing at nearly $500 billion a year, with an increase of more than 10% in America’s net indebtedness position in one year alone.
MORE:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/grim-truth-about-trump-economy-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2020-01
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/18/1912481/-Saturday-night-owls-open-thread-Joe-Stiglitz-The-truth-about-the-booming-Trump-economy
The Truth About the Trump "Booming Economy" -by JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ
It is becoming conventional wisdom that US President Donald Trump will be tough to beat in November, because, whatever reservations about him voters may have, he has been good for the American economy. Nothing could be further from the truth...............
The only time I have seen anything like these declines in health—outside of war or epidemics—was when I was chief economist of the World Bank and found out that mortality and morbidity data confirmed what our economic indicators suggested about the dismal state of the post-Soviet Russian economy.
Trump may be a good president for the top 1%—and especially for the top 0.1%—but he has not been good for everyone else. If fully implemented, the 2017 tax cut will result in tax increases for most households in the second, third, and fourth income quintiles.
Given tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the ultrarich and corporations, it should come as no surprise that there was no significant change in the median US household’s disposable incomebetween 2017 and 2018 (again, the most recent year with good data). The lion’s share of the increase in GDP is also going to those at the top. Real median weekly earnings are just 2.6% above their level when Trump took office. And these increases have not offset long periods of wage stagnation. For example, the median wage of a full-time male worker (and those with full-time jobs are the lucky ones) is still more than 3% below what it was 40 years ago. Nor has there been much progress on reducing racial disparities: in the third quarter of 2019, median weekly earnings for black men working full-time were less than three-quarters the level for white men.
Making matters worse, the growth that has occurred is not environmentally sustainable – and even less so thanks to the Trump administration’s gutting of regulations that have passed stringent cost-benefit analyses. The air will be less breathable, the water less drinkable, and the planet more subject to climate change. In fact, losses related to climate change have already reached new highs in the US, which has suffered more property damage than any other country – reaching some 1.5% of GDP in 2017.
The tax cuts were supposed to spur a new wave of investment. Instead, they triggered an all-time record binge of share buybacks – some $800 billion in 2018 – by some of America’s most profitable companies, and led to record peacetime deficits (almost $1 trillion in fiscal 2019) in a country supposedly near full employment. And even with weak investment, the US had to borrow massively abroad: the most recent data show foreign borrowing at nearly $500 billion a year, with an increase of more than 10% in America’s net indebtedness position in one year alone.
MORE:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/grim-truth-about-trump-economy-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2020-01
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/18/1912481/-Saturday-night-owls-open-thread-Joe-Stiglitz-The-truth-about-the-booming-Trump-economy
January 19, 2020
Rand Paul SLAMMED.
Senator Rand Paul
With so many billionaires about, why not a private prize of $10 million for the scientist who genetically creates an O2 producing organism that will thrive in the frigid, methane lakes of Titan?
Rafi Letzter
Senator, science reporter here, do you believe humanity has the ability to create a whole new atmosphere on titan but not to alter the atmosphere on earth?
https://twitter.com/RafiLetzter/status/1218645004715020291
January 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1182328798076899328
This Parnas guy keeps showing up everywhere.
https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1182328798076899328
January 18, 2020
BONDY: Trump's Lawyers & others were updated about Parnas up until the day before his arrest -Why?
.@realDonaldTrump lawyers, @JaySekulow, @RudyGiuliani, Jane Raskin, and others were updated about Lev Parnas up until the day before his arrest. Why? Call the witnesses. Hear the testimony. Have a fair trial. #LetLevSpeak #LevRemembers #EveryoneWasInTheLoop
https://twitter.com/josephabondy/status/1218646875517149191
January 18, 2020
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Answer-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump.pdf
https://twitter.com/npfandos/status/1218666984193261576
Trump Team Response (Clown lawyering)
“The articles of impeachment submitted by House Democrats are a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.... President Trump categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation in both articles of impeachment”https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Answer-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump.pdf
https://twitter.com/npfandos/status/1218666984193261576
January 18, 2020
In it's brief House relies on several pieces of new evidence that have come in since the impeachment
IN ITS BRIEF the House relies on several pieces of new evidence that have come in since the impeachment vote: A document provided by Lev Parnas, the GAO report on Ukraine aid and the emails obtained in recent weeks by @just_security.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/18/trump-impeachment-response-house-charges-100791 …
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1218666176127098887
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/18/trump-impeachment-response-house-charges-100791
January 18, 2020
Lev Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, continues his attack on those who scorned his client.
This afternoon, he posted an email dated October 8, 2019 7:06 AM that John Dowd — then ostensibly representing Parnas and Igor Bondy — sent to update a bunch of lawyers that his clients will send, “a letter to the intel committee to eliminate any doubt that Igor and Lev will appear to answer questions because we are not prepared to do so.”
Dowd, of course, had already first called, on September 30, then sent a letter, on October 3, to convey the same message. But he seemed to feel the need to do so again on October 8.
He forwarded the email, with all recipients visible, to his clients a minute later.
According to public reports at the time, because they got arrested in EDVA, they needed a local lawyer to deal with their bail, so Paul Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing stepped in. Then, what must be the next day, Parnas fired both Dowd and Downing, because — he believed — they were telling him to take the fall for the President.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/01/18/kevin-downing-was-in-the-loop-of-silencing-lev-parnas-on-october-8/
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1218664369279700993
Emptywheel: Kevin Downing Was "in the Loop" of Silencing Lev Parnas on October 8
Lev Parnas appears to believe he was arrested because it was a better way to keep him silent than telling Congress no.
And the inclusion of Kevin Downing in that October 8 email suggests he may well be right.
Lev Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, continues his attack on those who scorned his client.
This afternoon, he posted an email dated October 8, 2019 7:06 AM that John Dowd — then ostensibly representing Parnas and Igor Bondy — sent to update a bunch of lawyers that his clients will send, “a letter to the intel committee to eliminate any doubt that Igor and Lev will appear to answer questions because we are not prepared to do so.”
Dowd, of course, had already first called, on September 30, then sent a letter, on October 3, to convey the same message. But he seemed to feel the need to do so again on October 8.
He forwarded the email, with all recipients visible, to his clients a minute later.
The next day, Parnas and Fruman met with Rudy Giuliani at Trump hotel for lunch. That afternoon, Bill Barr visited SDNY. Hours later, Parnas and Fruman tried to board a plane to go to Vienna to tape an interview between Sean Hannity and Dmitro Firtash. They were arrested on charges that had been processing away in SDNY for months, ostensibly because SDNY feared they would flee, even though they had left the country numerous times while that investigation proceeded. Then, probably after Parnas and Fruman were arrested, Barr visited Rupert Murdoch personally. Hannity never went to Vienna. Nor did Rudy, who was supposed to meet Parnas and Fruman the next day.
According to public reports at the time, because they got arrested in EDVA, they needed a local lawyer to deal with their bail, so Paul Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing stepped in. Then, what must be the next day, Parnas fired both Dowd and Downing, because — he believed — they were telling him to take the fall for the President.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/01/18/kevin-downing-was-in-the-loop-of-silencing-lev-parnas-on-october-8/
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1218664369279700993
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Member since: Fri Sep 17, 2004, 03:59 PMNumber of posts: 71,980
