Welcome to Dem Land

[Jimaz]

... the central banks get a Federal pass at every gamble they do.
Invent a new market, lose billions, and claim "We are too big to lose"
They still get their million dollar bonuses....

There's your welfare queens right there. Yet they get a pass.

The parasitic saboteurs in power™: Break 'em up. Break 'em down.

[Richard]

Then there is Maxine Waters living in a 4.5 million dollar mansion calling out impeachment for Russian connections while being an honorary member of the Workers world party.

Which is ...

The Workers World Party is reportedly a militant left-wing group that sympathizes with many enemies of the U.S., including North Korea, Iran, and Cuba. It also supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and is a fan of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/26/maxine-waters-touts-trump-connections-to-russia-but-has-some-of-her-own

[Zacha341]

^^^ 4.5 ML? Shucks I thought only the far right lived lavishly.

Say it ain't so......

[Pam]

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/26/...evi-tillemann/

The secretly taped audio recording, released here for the first time, reveals how senior Democratic officials have worked to crush competitive primaries and steer political resources, money, and other support to hand-picked candidates in key races across the country, long before the party publicly announces a preference.

[Pam]

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/04...ing-primaries/

So to recap, the leadership of the Democratic party is no longer attempting to hide the fact that it deliberately stacks its own primaries against progressive candidates, and yet still has the gall to act like they’re the smart adults in the room who know how to win general elections. These are the same people who think telling the public “screw primaries, you’ll vote how we say” is sheer strategic brilliance. The same people who lost over a thousand seats under Obama.

[Pam]

Jimmy Dore-

Harvard Gives Hillary Medal For Absolutely Nothing

https://youtu.be/tiUC5nAlMic

[Zacha341]

^^^ It wont be the first time [[award/ medal for doing nothing). But at least everyone can 'feel' good and know that equality abounds......

At least among the elite, newly appointed. Or long on the tooth!

[oladub]

Intolerance seems to be gaining traction in Dem Land with unhinged Democrats [[not all Democrats are unhinged) feeling the need to be personally rude. There have been a couple of incidents involving Trump officials who get an earful in restaurants. Yesterday, a teacher from the Sidwell Friends School, annual tuition $40,800, where the Obama daughters were sent, scolded EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt while he was eating in a restaurant. White House press Secretary Sarah Huckabee was similarly entertained by demonstrators. Dem Senator Hassan's intern received only a slap on the wrist for yelling "F... Y.." at President Trump. Rudeness is becoming more and more the norm.

Meanwhile, Antifa has become the unofficial brown shirt Democratic thug unit holding up traffic and even tolerated by authorities in deep blue spaces like Portland, OR. Verbal rudeness can be tolerated to a point but when rudeness is allowed to spill over into violence by the right or left, we are in something approaching fascist territory.

Republican Senator Rand Paul has been in the news three times lately as the recipient of over the edge Democrats excesses-
-Yesterday, a Democratic activist from Berkely, CA was arrested for threatening to go after Rand Paul's family with an axe to spill out the guts of his children.
-Rand Paul's neighbor attacked Rand Paul and broke his ribs. He only received a 30 day sentence for doing so.
-Rand Paul was on the practice squad of a baseball team that was attacked by a gunman who shot a Republican Congressman and two others.

I wonder how this more normalized fascist like Dem behavior will effect voter behavior. [[Again, repeat, "many Democrats are not unhinged".)

[TKshreve]

Intolerance seems to be gaining traction in Dem Land with unhinged Democrats [[not all Democrats are unhinged) feeling the need to be personally rude. There have been a couple of incidents involving Trump officials who get an earful in restaurants. Yesterday, a teacher from the Sidwell Friends School, annual tuition $40,800, where the Obama daughters were sent, scolded EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt while he was eating in a restaurant. White House press Secretary Sarah Huckabee was similarly entertained by demonstrators. Dem Senator Hassan's intern received only a slap on the wrist for yelling "F... Y.." at President Trump. Rudeness is becoming more and more the norm.

Meanwhile, Antifa has become the unofficial brown shirt Democratic thug unit holding up traffic and even tolerated by authorities in deep blue spaces like Portland, OR. Verbal rudeness can be tolerated to a point but when rudeness is allowed to spill over into violence by the right or left, we are in something approaching fascist territory.

Republican Senator Rand Paul has been in the news three times lately as the recipient of over the edge Democrats excesses-
-Yesterday, a Democratic activist from Berkely, CA was arrested for threatening to go after Rand Paul's family with an axe to spill out the guts of his children.
-Rand Paul's neighbor attacked Rand Paul and broke his ribs. He only received a 30 day sentence for doing so.
-Rand Paul was on the practice squad of a baseball team that was attacked by a gunman who shot a Republican Congressman and two others.

I wonder how this more normalized fascist like Dem behavior will effect voter behavior. [[Again, repeat, "many Democrats are not unhinged".)

Are your feelings hurt? Sorry.

Where is your empathy for the countless humanitarian lifelines that the Republicans continue to cut? Plenty of money for tax cuts to the top 1%, but wait - Medicare and Medicaid need to be hemmed because we can't afford their bloated budgets. Huge federal tax cuts to corporations who used the cash influx to buy back stock and NOT invest in their labor forces. Now that that's out of the way - we have to put planned parenthood on the chopping block - it's too expensive.

How about the senseless and unwarranted dismantling of financial protections and regulations that led to hundreds of thousands of people losing their life savings? The Right is at it again trying to toss us all down the same well. Who needs financial protections against too-big-to-fail corporate titans when the taxpayers can just bail them out? Did we not learn out lesson when this happened LESS THAN TEN YEARS AGO?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.ecb9ef5bae3a

I can come up with countless other ways the 'Pubs continue their venomous war on the middle and lower class, but let's focus on the fact that Sara Huckabee can't enjoy her ice cream in peace, or that Ajit Pai - the face of selling out the American people - can't walk to his car without being heckled. I bet they wish they could just sit 50 miles up in a tower and pass this legislation without having to confront their constituents... ever.

What your alluding to/ranting about is everyday American taxpayers finding their voice. The conservative supreme court said that corporations are people too [[while shockingly not holding them to the same criminal accountability as your everyday taxpayer). And those corporations are finding that they have a pretty big voice when it comes the direction of our country. Well - this is the middle class [[and under) finding their voice. If the Supreme Court and the GOP want to silence it over and over - you'll just be seeing more and more of these interactions [[less the horrific shooting you so purposefully assigned to the left).

[oladub]

Are your feelings hurt? Sorry.

Where is your empathy for the countless humanitarian lifelines that the Republicans continue to cut? Plenty of money for tax cuts to the top 1%, but wait - Medicare and Medicaid need to be hemmed because we can't afford their bloated budgets. Huge federal tax cuts to corporations who used the cash influx to buy back stock and NOT invest in their labor forces. Now that that's out of the way - we have to put planned parenthood on the chopping block - it's too expensive.

How about the senseless and unwarranted dismantling of financial protections and regulations that led to hundreds of thousands of people losing their life savings? The Right is at it again trying to toss us all down the same well. Who needs financial protections against too-big-to-fail corporate titans when the taxpayers can just bail them out? Did we not learn out lesson when this happened LESS THAN TEN YEARS AGO?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.ecb9ef5bae3a

I can come up with countless other ways the 'Pubs continue their venomous war on the middle and lower class, but let's focus on the fact that Sara Huckabee can't enjoy her ice cream in peace, or that Ajit Pai - the face of selling out the American people - can't walk to his car without being heckled. I bet they wish they could just sit 50 miles up in a tower and pass this legislation without having to confront their constituents... ever.

What your alluding to/ranting about is everyday American taxpayers finding their voice. The conservative supreme court said that corporations are people too [[while shockingly not holding them to the same criminal accountability as your everyday taxpayer). And those corporations are finding that they have a pretty big voice when it comes the direction of our country. Well - this is the middle class [[and under) finding their voice. If the Supreme Court and the GOP want to silence it over and over - you'll just be seeing more and more of these interactions [[less the horrific shooting you so purposefully assigned to the left).

My post was about the recent behavior of Democrats including violence. Everyday taxpayers have found their voice in Donald Trump who lowered their taxes and in doing so reduced unemployment to 3.8% For the third time I'll ask, your cliches aside, "When was the last time a Democratic President presided over 3.8% unemployment?"

"If the Supreme Court and the GOP want to silence it over and over - you'll just be seeing more and more of these interactions." -TkSshreve

Why, because Democrats don't believe in elections or like little children can't wait until November or are otherwise revealing their hand? Creepy. It sounds to me like you are an apologist for recent Democratic violence. I'm not.

By the way, under Obama, the 1% increased their share of national wealth at a faster rate than they did under Bush. By the way, speaking of "too-big-to-fail corporate titans", under Obama, the 1% increased their share of national wealth at a faster rate than they did under Bush. Didn't Senators Obama and Clinton both vote to bail out those too-big-to-fail banks?

[Richard]

Lmao,it took you this long to find your voice? Where was it at before,hidden in the sock drawer?

No voice when the previous administration was giving billions to musk while people were getting kicked out of thier house,but that was overlooked because of hope and change which brought on desperation and little change.

People whine about big corporations but yet provide fluff service when they are bringing jobs and investment to their city.

Not happy about corporate America?start your own and show them how it should be.Be the example.

The current president has been in office for two years but it is his fault that the country has been screwed up for the last 30,if you are just finding your voice now,you are part of the problem and not a part of the solution and are looking for somebody else to place blame on instead of excepting personal responsibility.

Everyday taxpayers are still going about thier business of daily life,when it comes to election time they vote in office those who they believe will create change,that is thier voice,they do not need to find it and they never lost it.

Those who need to find thier voice have bigger personal issues then thier voice.

[TKshreve]

You can ask me that question for a first time if you want to, but if you want to act like you've been waiting for me to answer your loaded question, you may be sitting there for a bit. I believe it was addressed before, and quite succinctly in my opinion.

The current unemployment rate is by far a terrible indicator of how Trump has been performing as a president. In fact, any trend in jobs should be attributed to the cyclical pattern of our economy. One that Obama rescued from those corporate vultures whom "guess who" allowed to prey upon the middle class.

[oladub]

I just pointed out that Senator Obama voted to bail out those "corporate vulture" banks and was better for the 1% than even Bush. If you want to claim that "The current unemployment rate is by far a terrible indicator of how Trump has been performing as a president.", good luck with that. When his tax cut passed, all the naysayers were telling us that the the end was nigh.

If "any trend in jobs should be attributed to the cyclical pattern of our economy", then why did Obama assign the average family of four an extra $120,000 in federal debt?" I'm sort of with you on this one.

I forget which Democratic president you cited in a previous post as being the last Democratic president under whom national unemployment fell to 3.8%.

Post #194 you are still responding to had to do with my observation that Democrats are getting ruder and even more violent. We are straying from that point.

[Bham1982]

I just pointed out that Senator Obama voted to bail out those "corporate vulture" banks and was better for the 1% than even Bush. If you want to claim that "The current unemployment rate is by far a terrible indicator of how Trump has been performing as a president.", good luck with that. When his tax cut passed, all the naysayers were telling us that the the end was nigh.

Every sentence here is complete nonsense.

Economists agree the bank bailout saved the economy, no one thinks Trump is horrible specifically because of the unemployment rate [[which doesn't make any sense because the unemployment rate was the same under Obama yet Trump claims the economy was a "disaster"), and no serious commentator ever claimed that the reckless/idiotic tax changes would somehow sink the economy a year before they came into effect.

Countries don't fall within months. It took Germany 10 years of incremental bumbling by a madman to get to the cusp of WW2. It will take years of Trump's best efforts to kill this country. Hopefully Mueller does his job before its too late.

[Richard]

They are showing patterns of Democrats being forced out for financial reasons from blue states to the cheaper red states,I guess the question is while forming purple states are the Dem going to turn the red states into a mirror of what they left or by mingling with republicans are they going to end up leaning that way.

Are states like Arizona and Texas in a better spot now with a large influx of blue moving in then they were 10/20 years ago?

[oladub]

Everything I wrote was correct. I like your "Economists agree the bank bailout saved the economy" cliche. Its a classic example of a repeated lie being believed. Maybe you meant Robert Reich and other corporate cheerleaders. Reich was unable to predict the 2009 recession but he retains a special spot on the front page of the NY Times promoting the corporate line. TKShrive spoke of "too-big-to-fail corporate titans"and "corporate vulture"s". Yet here you are joining TK in supporting Bush's Wall Street bailout. Welcome to the New Democratic Party that promotes socialism for the rich! Iceland sent its bankers to prison. Obama and Hillary voted to give our bankers taxpayer money instead and sent no bankers to jail. President Harding, faced with higher unemployment than Obama, cut federal taxes and spending. Within two years, Harding's policies had turned the Country around with lower unemployment than Obama left us with after running the U.S. $10T into debt. The unemployment rate was not the same under Obama as you claimed even after blowing all that money which hasn't yet been repaid. My question was, for the fifth time, when was the last time unemployment was 3.8% under a Democratic President.

Another question- How are Democratic calls for open borders going to work in combination with socialism now that the new face of the Democratic Party is a socialist "from the Bronx"? Obama ran up the federal debt $120,000 for the average family of four. That hasn't been repaid yet but democrats seem to be calling for immigration, legal or otherwise, for everyone who wants a better life here while promising a cornucopia of freebees. This is like racing a boat with a hole in its hull. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will get his $250,000,000 investment in the NY Times back before our government is reimbursed for Bush,Hillary, and Obama's bankers' bailout by taxpayers.

I didn't want to be responding to Democratic cliches though. I'm more interested in your response to my post #194. TKShreve seemed to be ok with more Democratic rudeness and violence: "If the Supreme Court and the GOP want to silence it over and over - you'll just be seeing more and more of these interactions." -TkSshreve. Do you agree that we will be seeing more of these interactions, presumably including antifa acting like fascist bownshirts, if democrats don't have their way?

[bust]

I'm just going to respond to this part for now:

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will get his $250,000,000 investment in the NY Times back before our government is reimbursed for Bush,Hillary, and Obama's bankers' bailout by taxpayers.

The fact is, not only has the federal government been fully reimbursed for the bailout, due to interest, dividends, and other revenues it saw a $86,500,000,000 profit. That's on top of staving off an economic collapse.

Bailout Tracker
Tracking Every Dollar and Every Recipient
http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/

It's frustrating how many right-wing talking heads keep repeating the exact opposite, and how many people fall for it.

[oladub]

I'm just going to respond to this part for now:

The fact is, not only has the federal government been fully reimbursed for the bailout, due to interest, dividends, and other revenues it saw a $86,500,000,000 profit. That's on top of staving off an economic collapse.

Bailout Tracker
Tracking Every Dollar and Every Recipient
http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/

It's frustrating how many right-wing talking heads keep repeating the exact opposite, and how many people fall for it.

You wrote that "the federal government been fully reimbursed for the bailout, due to interest, dividends, and other revenues it saw a $86,500,000,000 profit". That $86.5B profit included $292B of dividends according to your article. It sounds like only $200B of principle got lost in the shuffle. You are implying that had the government not dumped all that money into bailing out banks, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, etc., then the dividends it could have made elsewhere compensated for not getting its principle back. My guess is that there were similar or better returns elsewhere in the market had the government not gone into debt to smooth out corporatist wrinkles.. Instead, the federal government distorted the market by loaning and giving money to the failed instead of the worthy. Repeat: Obama and Hillary were right in there with Bush and not one banker went to jail for the trouble. In any case, what you are saying is that if the government hadn't made some dividends, the federal debt would have been even worse under Obama.
You too are propagating this lie that debt is an asset. it didn't work of FDR and it didn't work for Obama. On the other hand, Unemployment is now at 4% after Robert Reich assured us that Trump's tax plan would result in the obliteration of the economy. Instead, African American and Hispanic unemployment is at record lows. I still haven't heard which Democratic president last had unemployment down to 3.8%.

[bust]

African American and Hispanic unemployment is at record lows. I still haven't heard which Democratic president last had unemployment down to 3.8%.

OK, I'll bite. I was curious so I looked into it.

Do you trust data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as reported by the St. Louis Federal Reserve?

They chart unemployment since Truman. I overlaid colors indicating the duration of each presidency, blue if he was a democrat, red if he was a republican. Grey indicates an official period of recession, as defined by the Fed.

Presidents can only take partial credit for the economy. But this much seems indisputable: unemployment has tended to decrease sharply under democratic presidents, and increase sharply under republicans.

Every single democrat started with much higher unemployment numbers than he finished with except for Carter. He left office with unemployment at the same rate it was when he started.

Every single republican started with much lower unemployment numbers than he finished with except for Reagan. And he didn't turn things around until after unemployment increased under his watch to its worst point since the Great Depression.

9 out of 11 recessions began during republican presidencies.



Let's see how Trump does. Thus far he has been incredibly lucky to have inherited an economy propelled forward by strong positive momentum. For that we can thank President Obama. It was about a year into his presidency that he turned around the economy in collapse he inherited from G.W. Bush. Since then we've enjoyed the longest period of continuous job growth in U.S. history. People of all races have benefited.

In other words, yes: unemployment is low. But don't forget how big a role momentum plays in the economy. Give credit where credit is due. When Trump inherited Obama's economy he hadn't been so lucky since he won the birth lottery. [[OK, I can think of another example.) There's still some steam in that train engine, even after the change of conductor. Unemployment continues to drop, except for last month, even as the rate of job growth has decreased under Trump compared to Obama's last four years in office. Trump hasn't derailed the economy. But he still has 2 and a half years to go.



Trading Economics Employment Data and Analysis
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-...mployment-rate

PS: The answer to your question: Clinton. Unemployment was 3.8% in April 2000. A year later, under Bush, we were in a recession. Before that, Johnson. Unemployment was down to 3.4% by the end of his term. It was at that rate when Nixon inherited it. It hovered around there for Nixon's first few months, then started to creep up. A year into Nixon's term we entered a recession.

[bust]

Unemployment is now at 4% after Robert Reich assured us that Trump's tax plan would result in the obliteration of the economy.

Here's what Robert Reich said about the Trump tax cuts:

A Guide to Why the Trump-Republican Tax Plan is a Disgrace
[[for When you Confront Your Republican Uncle Bob During the Holidays)
http://robertreich.org/post/168596241350

He predicted that Trump's big cuts to corporate taxes would not lead them to invest and create jobs, but to buy back shares of their own stock and increase executive salaries.

And that's what happened. Reuters, Time Magazine, CBS, NBC, CNN, The New York Times, Vox, USA Today, The Street, the Wall Street Journal, and so many others have said so.

Reich also wrote this:

Patriotism, Taxes, and Trump
http://robertreich.org/post/167432996625

He said the tax cuts will overwhelmingly benefit large corporations and the very rich, burden the middle class and the poor, explode the deficit, lead to cuts in government programs, increase interest rates, and damage the economy. But not right away.

Just wait. It's coming.

No don't wait. You said you're against corporate welfare and exploding deficits. Let's work to stop it!

[oladub]

Finally, an answer to my question. 3.8% under Clinton and Gingrich and 3.4% under Johnson. Johnson's Vietnam War was good for the economy. Thank goodness for Nixon eventually ending Johnson's war. But credit should be given to Clinton's 3.8%. Too bad that Clinton sewed some seeds for the eventual housing and banking collapse by reducing housing down payments partly to attain diversity lending goals.

You fail to comprehend the magnitude and significance of our $20T federal debt 1/4 of which was created by Bush and 1/2 was created by Obama. That's the other half of the equation. Until that gets paid off, our children are burdened with an economic ball and chain servicing Bush and Obama's debt. Obama's economic legacy includes that debt. My analogy is that if the average family of four had borrowed $120,000, an amount equal to new federal debt Obama assigned to the average family of four, to buy a new luxury car, add a room to the house, and take a round the world cruise, Democrats living on the block would say "That family is doing really good". The problem for this average American family of four is that they still owe $120,000 to the bank. Paying it off will crimp their style for a decade. Obama went out and created $120,000 of debt for that same family now having to service that amount of federal debt. Wait until interest rates go back to at least their historic norm. Our choices will be cutting government spending, raising taxes, or more "quantitative easing" [[printing money).

Robert Reich predicted all sorts of bad things would happen. Some companies buy back their stock. Other companies will instead choose to expand and put more money into R&D. The latter will have the future competitive edge. Robert Reich said wage earners wouldn't benefit. Instead, unemployment and wage earners taxes went down. Reich was afraid corporations would be guilty of bailouts after he supported Wall Street bailouts. He's like a street preacher dressed in sackcloth telling everyone "the end is nigh". Maybe that appeals to Democrats. I'm not masochistic enough to think like Democrats. Being a Democrat must be a little like being a victim of beaten wife or Stockholm syndrome. Never consider how we got into Vietnam or a housing mess. Only consider how Clinton, Johnson, Obama bought some flowers to make up for their messes. Caveat: I didn't like Bush or Reagan either.

[Pam]

Democrats flip flop on taking donations from fossil fuel companies.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0530743c9ca67

The

Democratic National Committee

passed a resolution Friday afternoon that activists say effectively reverses a ban on fossil fuel company donations.

[Honky Tonk]

Democrats flip flop on taking donations from fossil fuel companies.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0530743c9ca67

DEMS be a joke. All the whining that goes on about Trump and his minions. Now watch how the Hillarians start defending this bold move.

[Pam]

Article from 2016:

https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the...iper-strategy/

An email recently released by the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks shows how the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party bear direct responsibility for propelling the bigoted billionaire to the White House.In its self-described "pied piper" strategy, the Clinton campaign proposed intentionally cultivating extreme right-wing presidential candidates, hoping to turn them into the new "mainstream of the Republican Party" in order to try to increase Clinton's chances of winning.

[Pam]

Corporate Dems Plan Social Media Censorship & Troll Campaign For Midterms

https://youtu.be/UCvie7pmiGk