I'm so sick of the hypocrisy of the far left. There is whining and gnashing of teeth about how Trump's economy isn't helping the working class. You show them that it actually is helping them, big time, and now all of a sudden big whoop-dee-doo, we don't care. So what, some poor people and middle class are making our. Who cares. What about the rich people?
When Trump announced the tariffs and the need to renegotiate our trade deal with China everyone knew some industries was going to take a hit for a bit. Trump took some of the billions our country took in on tariffs and gave it to people taking a hit to do them unil a deal was done. Now some of those are making our far better than before, and only phase one complete.
Remember when tariffs were first announced. Oh my gosh, this is horrible for our farmers! Trump is killing our farmers!
Now that phase 1 of trade deal is complete, China is purchasing, what, 50 billion, with a B, more of our agriculture then they were before.
None of these same people, like Seagull, was bitcng when we were losing our manufacturing jobs in droves to China and other countries. And they cheered on as Obama announced those jobs were gone forever and not coming back.
Oh, our steel industry took a hit because of Trump's tariffs did it? Really? Was it much more of a hit than previous policies which shut the industry down and left us with the rust belt? Give me a break. When the deal is all done it is going to be far better for those industries, and I think most everyone on the left knows it. They'really just sick of Trump making their policies look bad.
Re: Politics
1637Even though some leftists, like Seagull, would apparently prefer to see lower wage people just go on government assistance than make better wages, making better wages they are now doing. Exactly opposite of what democrat talking points say. Now 7 million people off food stamps since Trump became president. And this from CBS News, no less. - -
-
Low-wage workers are getting bigger raises than bosses
By Aimee Picchi CBS News
December 27, 2019
The 25% lowest-paid Americans enjoyed a 4.5% income boost in November.
That outpaced a 2.9% gain in earnings for the country's highest-paid workers.
Low-wage workers are benefiting from higher minimum wages and corporations that are increasing entry-level pay.
The country's lowest-paid workers are enjoying bigger income gains than managers and other top-earning professionals, according to new economic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
In November, median wage growth for the bottom 25% of workers reached 4.5% for the 12-month peiod, outpacing a 2.9% gain in median earnings for the top 25% of income earners. Rather than a short-term blip, it's a trend that has accelerated since 2014, when the lowest-earning workers began to outperform top wage earners.
To some extent, the boost is making up for lost ground. Following the recession, wages for low-wage earners suffered due to rising unemployment and a glut of workers pushed to the sidelines. With unemployment at a 50-year low and the minimum wage rising in states and cities across the country, employers are now opening their wallets to attract low-wage employees.
"The challenge of filling jobs requiring few skills is something we have been hearing about a lot recently from the businesses we talk to," wrote John Robertson, a senior policy adviser in the Atlanta Fed's research department, in a blog post about the data.
Robertson added, "However, several state and local governments have increased the minimum wage in recent years, which would also push up the relative pay for those in the lowest-paid jobs."
That's good news for the 53 million Americans who work in low-wage jobs, who represent about 44% of the country's adult, working-age population, according to a study earlier this month from the Brookings Institution. Their median wage is $10.22 per hour, or about $18,000 annually. That's above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour but well below what's considered the living wage for many regions.
State and local governments across the country are enacting new minimum wage laws, with about half of U.S. states set to boost their baseline wages in 2020.
Starting on or about January 1, the minimum wage will increase in 21 states, while another 26 cities and counties also boosting their baseline pay at year-start. Later in the year, an additional 4 states and 23 cities and counties will hike their minimum wages.
But even workers in states that haven't yet boosted their minimum wages are benefiting from pay gains, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found. That suggests "the increased tightness of labor markets, or some other factor than hikes in state minimum wages, is playing a role in pushing up the pay for those in lower-wage jobs," Robertson noted.
That could be due to corporations like Walmart and McDonald's voluntarily boosting their wages, which in turns makes it more competitive for other employers to attract workers.
That's not to say that low-paid workers have it easy. According to the Tax Policy Center, the bottom 20% of households are earning typical annual income of about $13,300. By comparison, the top 20% of U.S. households earn about $221,000 annually, or nearly 17 times more than the lowest quintile.
-
Low-wage workers are getting bigger raises than bosses
By Aimee Picchi CBS News
December 27, 2019
The 25% lowest-paid Americans enjoyed a 4.5% income boost in November.
That outpaced a 2.9% gain in earnings for the country's highest-paid workers.
Low-wage workers are benefiting from higher minimum wages and corporations that are increasing entry-level pay.
The country's lowest-paid workers are enjoying bigger income gains than managers and other top-earning professionals, according to new economic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
In November, median wage growth for the bottom 25% of workers reached 4.5% for the 12-month peiod, outpacing a 2.9% gain in median earnings for the top 25% of income earners. Rather than a short-term blip, it's a trend that has accelerated since 2014, when the lowest-earning workers began to outperform top wage earners.
To some extent, the boost is making up for lost ground. Following the recession, wages for low-wage earners suffered due to rising unemployment and a glut of workers pushed to the sidelines. With unemployment at a 50-year low and the minimum wage rising in states and cities across the country, employers are now opening their wallets to attract low-wage employees.
"The challenge of filling jobs requiring few skills is something we have been hearing about a lot recently from the businesses we talk to," wrote John Robertson, a senior policy adviser in the Atlanta Fed's research department, in a blog post about the data.
Robertson added, "However, several state and local governments have increased the minimum wage in recent years, which would also push up the relative pay for those in the lowest-paid jobs."
That's good news for the 53 million Americans who work in low-wage jobs, who represent about 44% of the country's adult, working-age population, according to a study earlier this month from the Brookings Institution. Their median wage is $10.22 per hour, or about $18,000 annually. That's above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour but well below what's considered the living wage for many regions.
State and local governments across the country are enacting new minimum wage laws, with about half of U.S. states set to boost their baseline wages in 2020.
Starting on or about January 1, the minimum wage will increase in 21 states, while another 26 cities and counties also boosting their baseline pay at year-start. Later in the year, an additional 4 states and 23 cities and counties will hike their minimum wages.
But even workers in states that haven't yet boosted their minimum wages are benefiting from pay gains, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found. That suggests "the increased tightness of labor markets, or some other factor than hikes in state minimum wages, is playing a role in pushing up the pay for those in lower-wage jobs," Robertson noted.
That could be due to corporations like Walmart and McDonald's voluntarily boosting their wages, which in turns makes it more competitive for other employers to attract workers.
That's not to say that low-paid workers have it easy. According to the Tax Policy Center, the bottom 20% of households are earning typical annual income of about $13,300. By comparison, the top 20% of U.S. households earn about $221,000 annually, or nearly 17 times more than the lowest quintile.
Re: Politics
1638Back in 2004, the Department of Defense released a report assuring the world Climate Change would destroy all of us by the year 2020.
Well, welcome to the year 2020! And welcome to yet another fake doomsday prediction number 42 from our renowned climate experts!
Yep, our so-called “climate experts” are now 0-42 with their doomsday predictions, and this latest one is a doozy.
As summarized by the Guardian in 2004, here’s what the so-called “experts” assured us would happen by now:
( https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... heobserver )
A secret report, suppressed by US defense chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
And that’s not the worst of it. Get a load of this:
‘Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,‘ concludes the Pentagon analysis. ‘Once again, warfare would define human life."
…
Climate change ‘should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern’, say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.
An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is ‘plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately’, they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions
This is from the actual report:
The Weather Report: 2010-2020
Drought persists for the entire decade in critical agricultural regions and in the areas around major population centers in Europe and eastern North America.
Average annual temperatures drop by up to 5 degrees Fahrenheit over Asia and North America and up to 6 degrees Fahrenheit in Europe.
Temperatures increase by up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit in key areas throughout Australia, South America, and southern Africa.
Winter storms and winds intensify, amplifying the impact of the changes. Western Europe and the North Pacific face enhanced westerly winds.
...
None of this happened.
None of it.
In fact, over the last ten years, global temperatures have remained remarkably stable.
Take a look at the full report for yourself. It’s literally filled with fake alarmism and fake hysteria, and it’s also filled with one completely wrong climate doomsday prediction after another.
( https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a469325.pdf )
Nothing in this report has come true. Not a single prediction was accurate. Not one!
But even after this, even after no less than the Department of Defense get it so horribly wrong, even after a 0-42 record of failed doomsday predictions, we’re still ridiculed by the fake media as “deniers” if we don’t take these partisan idiots seriously.
- - - - -
HB here ... and don't forget the ABC News special I posted about here several months back. Where they ran a special years ago that had climate " experts " predicting if we didn't do something about Climate Change by 2020 that both Miami and Manhattan would be under water. That we would have a huge food and milk shortage, famine. Riots and wars.
Well guys, it is 2020 now.
Hope you didn't put off that trip to South Beach or Broadway you had always wanted to make.
Well, welcome to the year 2020! And welcome to yet another fake doomsday prediction number 42 from our renowned climate experts!
Yep, our so-called “climate experts” are now 0-42 with their doomsday predictions, and this latest one is a doozy.
As summarized by the Guardian in 2004, here’s what the so-called “experts” assured us would happen by now:
( https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... heobserver )
A secret report, suppressed by US defense chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
And that’s not the worst of it. Get a load of this:
‘Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,‘ concludes the Pentagon analysis. ‘Once again, warfare would define human life."
…
Climate change ‘should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern’, say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.
An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is ‘plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately’, they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions
This is from the actual report:
The Weather Report: 2010-2020
Drought persists for the entire decade in critical agricultural regions and in the areas around major population centers in Europe and eastern North America.
Average annual temperatures drop by up to 5 degrees Fahrenheit over Asia and North America and up to 6 degrees Fahrenheit in Europe.
Temperatures increase by up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit in key areas throughout Australia, South America, and southern Africa.
Winter storms and winds intensify, amplifying the impact of the changes. Western Europe and the North Pacific face enhanced westerly winds.
...
None of this happened.
None of it.
In fact, over the last ten years, global temperatures have remained remarkably stable.
Take a look at the full report for yourself. It’s literally filled with fake alarmism and fake hysteria, and it’s also filled with one completely wrong climate doomsday prediction after another.
( https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a469325.pdf )
Nothing in this report has come true. Not a single prediction was accurate. Not one!
But even after this, even after no less than the Department of Defense get it so horribly wrong, even after a 0-42 record of failed doomsday predictions, we’re still ridiculed by the fake media as “deniers” if we don’t take these partisan idiots seriously.
- - - - -
HB here ... and don't forget the ABC News special I posted about here several months back. Where they ran a special years ago that had climate " experts " predicting if we didn't do something about Climate Change by 2020 that both Miami and Manhattan would be under water. That we would have a huge food and milk shortage, famine. Riots and wars.
Well guys, it is 2020 now.
Hope you didn't put off that trip to South Beach or Broadway you had always wanted to make.
Re: Politics
1639Same people running the Iowa caucus tonight is the same people that want to run your health care system... 
In one district they had a tie, and they decided it with a coin toss!
Democracy at its finest...
Should we give this guy the life saving surgery he needs?
He’s at the age we stop caring about people so let’s flip a coin....
In one district they had a tie, and they decided it with a coin toss!
Democracy at its finest...
Should we give this guy the life saving surgery he needs?
He’s at the age we stop caring about people so let’s flip a coin....
Re: Politics
1640Hell, at this point I’m just waiting for liberals to say, hey, nobody won. And hand out participation trophies to all the candidates.
Re: Politics
1641I think the Iowa votes were mistakenly sent to the same place as Hillary’s 33,000 emails
Democracy dies in darkness, and there is some dark shit going on behind the scenes,. What a disaster for dems.
Trump had more people tonight then anybody in Iowa caucus history, breaking Obama’s 2012 record.
Turns out, he has won both the Republican and democratic caucus tonight.
Democracy dies in darkness, and there is some dark shit going on behind the scenes,. What a disaster for dems.
Trump had more people tonight then anybody in Iowa caucus history, breaking Obama’s 2012 record.
Turns out, he has won both the Republican and democratic caucus tonight.
Re: Politics
1642Private payroll added 291,000 jobs last month. Smashing the forecast of 150,000.
But Pelosi and Democrats think that’s a lie too.
But Pelosi and Democrats think that’s a lie too.
Re: Politics
1643Let’s get this straight.
Obama used the IRS to target Tea Party and Conservative groups.
He used the FBI and NSA to spy on journalists, James Rosen of Fox News and Sheryl Attkisson of CBS News.
And he used the FBI and a FOREIGN agent to target and spy on the opposing party candidate for president of the United States.
He also used the DOJ in a gun running scheme, Fast and Furious, in which one of the weapons wound up in a cartel members hands that killed Border Patrol officer, Brian Terry.
And he put Biden in charge of foreign policy for a number of countries, and just so happens his family members all get rich in schemes in every one. (Peter Schweitzer’s new book, “Profiles in Corruption” is excellent if you haven’t read it)
And Benghazi, so many lies, we still don’t know what happened. (Rumor is CIA was running a gun running scheme out of there too)
Yet Trump is the dangerous one, and there wasn’t a “smidgeon” of corruption in the Obama administration.
Obama used the IRS to target Tea Party and Conservative groups.
He used the FBI and NSA to spy on journalists, James Rosen of Fox News and Sheryl Attkisson of CBS News.
And he used the FBI and a FOREIGN agent to target and spy on the opposing party candidate for president of the United States.
He also used the DOJ in a gun running scheme, Fast and Furious, in which one of the weapons wound up in a cartel members hands that killed Border Patrol officer, Brian Terry.
And he put Biden in charge of foreign policy for a number of countries, and just so happens his family members all get rich in schemes in every one. (Peter Schweitzer’s new book, “Profiles in Corruption” is excellent if you haven’t read it)
And Benghazi, so many lies, we still don’t know what happened. (Rumor is CIA was running a gun running scheme out of there too)
Yet Trump is the dangerous one, and there wasn’t a “smidgeon” of corruption in the Obama administration.
Re: Politics
1644And Obama bribed Iran to sign a nuclear arms deal in return for
cash. And the nuclear deal really had enforcement teeth. Yeah right.
cash. And the nuclear deal really had enforcement teeth. Yeah right.
Re: Politics
1645Just makes me sick, Doc. There seems to be laws and justice for democrats, and a set for everyone else.
Hillary deletes 33,000 subpoenaed e-mails and nothing happens. Trump uses executive privilege and he gets impeached.
They wonder why GOP poll numbers are shooting up. People are fed up with this nonsense.
Hillary deletes 33,000 subpoenaed e-mails and nothing happens. Trump uses executive privilege and he gets impeached.
They wonder why GOP poll numbers are shooting up. People are fed up with this nonsense.
Re: Politics
1646And here is just one of a million reasons why people are fed up with the media, too.
-
CNN Politics @CNNPolitics 1 hr ago
Fact check: President Trump falsely claims former FBI Director James Comey admitted to leaking
-
James Comey admitted under oath that he leaked, with hopes of starting a special counsel. He was even referred for criminal prosecution for leaking and for document theft. It is well known.
-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... the-media/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jame ... -the-press
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-wi ... ral-source
-
This is why Fox News coverage of the State of the Union the other night got more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined. They have zero credibility left.
-
CNN Politics @CNNPolitics 1 hr ago
Fact check: President Trump falsely claims former FBI Director James Comey admitted to leaking
-
James Comey admitted under oath that he leaked, with hopes of starting a special counsel. He was even referred for criminal prosecution for leaking and for document theft. It is well known.
-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... the-media/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jame ... -the-press
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-wi ... ral-source
-
This is why Fox News coverage of the State of the Union the other night got more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined. They have zero credibility left.
Re: Politics
1647Joe Walsh: Challenging Trump for the GOP nomination taught me my party is a cult
Real conservatives think for themselves. Trump Republicans have been brainwashed.
Feb. 6, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. EST
When I announced my primary challenge to President Trump last year, I knew running against him for the GOP nomination was the ultimate long shot. Even now, after impeachment, after three years of vulgarities, inanities, betrayals and racist screeds, he has a 94 percent approval rating among Republicans in the latest Gallup poll.
My chances are slim — don’t worry, I know.
It’s been made even tougher by the party canceling primaries to shield the president from being challenged. And by Fox News, and the rest of Trump’s lap-dog conservative media, denying me airtime. But I’ve been on TV, I’ve served in Congress and I hosted my own talk-radio show. I don’t need the airtime. More than anything else, what’s made this challenge nearly impossible — to a degree that I didn’t fully realize when I first hit the trail — is how brainwashed so many of my fellow Republicans seem to have become. I’m not giving up, and I hate to say it, but the GOP now resembles a cult.
I was already sensing this, but I was slapped hard in the face this past week at the Iowa caucuses: Last Thursday, the president came to Des Moines for one of his narcissistic rallies. I was in Des Moines, too, so I tried to talk to some folks outside the event before they went in — makes sense, right? Here’s a captive audience of Republican voters. But it turned out to be one of the most frustrating (and frankly, sad) experiences I can recall. I asked dozens of people a very simple, straightforward question: “Has President Trump ever told a lie to the American people?” And every single person said, “No.” Never mind that thousands of his misstatements have been meticulously documented. No, they said, he’s never lied.
I brought up his years-old claims that, unlike President Barack Obama, if Trump ever became president, he’d be too busy to play golf. Most people responded by saying they don’t care whether Trump golfs. But three people said that Trump has never golfed since he’s been president. No one said that they thought he did anything wrong with Ukraine. No one knew that our annual deficits just blew past $1 trillion. Everyone believed hundreds of miles of new wall had been built. (Fact check: False!) When I asked whether they thought Mexico was paying for the wall, most people said yes but were at a loss to explain how. On and on it went: CNN was the enemy and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), along with the rest of the congressional Democrats, were lying traitors.
I also phone-banked this week, calling potential Republican caucus-goers throughout Iowa. I always knew it when I got a strong Trump supporter on the line by the language they used and the tone that they took: They’d say no president has been attacked like Trump has or no president has had to deal with such hatred and opposition. (Again: Not true!) They’d get defensive and throw out more lies and half-truths: China is paying for the tariffs, Joe Biden was covering up for his son, and Russia didn’t do anything in the 2016 election were all popular. On and on it went: I ended my two hours of phone time each day pretty bummed out by the mis- and disinformation I’d heard.
Then came Monday night: I went to a caucus and gave a speech to about 3,000 Iowa Republicans. I’ve never been to a MAGA rally, but it sure felt like one. The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, spoke first and underscored the Trump bottom line: Perfect phone call; Democrats bad; keep America great. Crowd goes wild. I then got up to make my pitch, and — as you may have seen — it didn’t go well. I got booed for saying that our party needed to do some soul-searching. I said the party is going to be a party of old white men unless we become more inclusive. More boos. I said we shouldn’t be okay with a president who lies all the time. I said we need a president who’s decent, not cruel. I said, you might enjoy Trump’s mean tweets, but most people don’t. I said we must be better than a president who makes every day about himself. Boos. And more boos. One woman yelled that she loves the president’s tweets. The crowd cheered her.
I reminded folks that I’m a conservative, but I said conservative policies aren’t good enough. Decency, honesty and compassion matter, too. But they wanted nothing to do with it. There was more booing, more yelling, and I caught a middle finger or two. I’m a big boy, and I can take a tough crowd, but leaving the caucus that night, I realized once and for all that nobody can beat Trump in a Republican primary. Not just because it’s become his party, but because it has become a cult, and he’s a cult leader. He doesn’t have supporters; he has followers. And in their eyes, he can do no wrong.
They’re being spoon-fed a daily dose of B.S. from “conservative” media. They don’t know what the truth is and — more importantly — they don’t care. There’s nothing that any Republican challenger can do to break them out of this spell. (Thanks, Hannity.)
Part of me was dejected. But part of me was still hopeful — that a conservative movement based on compassion, honesty, opportunity and inclusion can and will emerge someday soon. I may not always have appreciated that; I may not have always said it. But I’m not part of a cult! I try to learn from new information, and I think for myself. Clearly, that’s not the Trump GOP. I have faith, though, that there are enough principled conservatives out there who think like I do.
Real conservatives think for themselves. Trump Republicans have been brainwashed.
Feb. 6, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. EST
When I announced my primary challenge to President Trump last year, I knew running against him for the GOP nomination was the ultimate long shot. Even now, after impeachment, after three years of vulgarities, inanities, betrayals and racist screeds, he has a 94 percent approval rating among Republicans in the latest Gallup poll.
My chances are slim — don’t worry, I know.
It’s been made even tougher by the party canceling primaries to shield the president from being challenged. And by Fox News, and the rest of Trump’s lap-dog conservative media, denying me airtime. But I’ve been on TV, I’ve served in Congress and I hosted my own talk-radio show. I don’t need the airtime. More than anything else, what’s made this challenge nearly impossible — to a degree that I didn’t fully realize when I first hit the trail — is how brainwashed so many of my fellow Republicans seem to have become. I’m not giving up, and I hate to say it, but the GOP now resembles a cult.
I was already sensing this, but I was slapped hard in the face this past week at the Iowa caucuses: Last Thursday, the president came to Des Moines for one of his narcissistic rallies. I was in Des Moines, too, so I tried to talk to some folks outside the event before they went in — makes sense, right? Here’s a captive audience of Republican voters. But it turned out to be one of the most frustrating (and frankly, sad) experiences I can recall. I asked dozens of people a very simple, straightforward question: “Has President Trump ever told a lie to the American people?” And every single person said, “No.” Never mind that thousands of his misstatements have been meticulously documented. No, they said, he’s never lied.
I brought up his years-old claims that, unlike President Barack Obama, if Trump ever became president, he’d be too busy to play golf. Most people responded by saying they don’t care whether Trump golfs. But three people said that Trump has never golfed since he’s been president. No one said that they thought he did anything wrong with Ukraine. No one knew that our annual deficits just blew past $1 trillion. Everyone believed hundreds of miles of new wall had been built. (Fact check: False!) When I asked whether they thought Mexico was paying for the wall, most people said yes but were at a loss to explain how. On and on it went: CNN was the enemy and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), along with the rest of the congressional Democrats, were lying traitors.
I also phone-banked this week, calling potential Republican caucus-goers throughout Iowa. I always knew it when I got a strong Trump supporter on the line by the language they used and the tone that they took: They’d say no president has been attacked like Trump has or no president has had to deal with such hatred and opposition. (Again: Not true!) They’d get defensive and throw out more lies and half-truths: China is paying for the tariffs, Joe Biden was covering up for his son, and Russia didn’t do anything in the 2016 election were all popular. On and on it went: I ended my two hours of phone time each day pretty bummed out by the mis- and disinformation I’d heard.
Then came Monday night: I went to a caucus and gave a speech to about 3,000 Iowa Republicans. I’ve never been to a MAGA rally, but it sure felt like one. The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, spoke first and underscored the Trump bottom line: Perfect phone call; Democrats bad; keep America great. Crowd goes wild. I then got up to make my pitch, and — as you may have seen — it didn’t go well. I got booed for saying that our party needed to do some soul-searching. I said the party is going to be a party of old white men unless we become more inclusive. More boos. I said we shouldn’t be okay with a president who lies all the time. I said we need a president who’s decent, not cruel. I said, you might enjoy Trump’s mean tweets, but most people don’t. I said we must be better than a president who makes every day about himself. Boos. And more boos. One woman yelled that she loves the president’s tweets. The crowd cheered her.
I reminded folks that I’m a conservative, but I said conservative policies aren’t good enough. Decency, honesty and compassion matter, too. But they wanted nothing to do with it. There was more booing, more yelling, and I caught a middle finger or two. I’m a big boy, and I can take a tough crowd, but leaving the caucus that night, I realized once and for all that nobody can beat Trump in a Republican primary. Not just because it’s become his party, but because it has become a cult, and he’s a cult leader. He doesn’t have supporters; he has followers. And in their eyes, he can do no wrong.
They’re being spoon-fed a daily dose of B.S. from “conservative” media. They don’t know what the truth is and — more importantly — they don’t care. There’s nothing that any Republican challenger can do to break them out of this spell. (Thanks, Hannity.)
Part of me was dejected. But part of me was still hopeful — that a conservative movement based on compassion, honesty, opportunity and inclusion can and will emerge someday soon. I may not always have appreciated that; I may not have always said it. But I’m not part of a cult! I try to learn from new information, and I think for myself. Clearly, that’s not the Trump GOP. I have faith, though, that there are enough principled conservatives out there who think like I do.
Re: Politics
1648A Peter sighting! I thought he was busy volunteering, placing sandbags all around Miami and Manhatten. It is 2020, and that is when all his experts told us they would be under water!
(Now they are saying 2030. God willing I'll be here to laugh at the dopes buying this hoax then too)
(Now they are saying 2030. God willing I'll be here to laugh at the dopes buying this hoax then too)
Re: Politics
1649The lesson that Walsh and all the establishment donor class Republicans should take is how popular a GOP President can be when he actually fights for conservative ideas and traditions. Never Trumpers and haters can use words like "cult" or whatever, I don't care. All I can say is if you fight for me and what I hold dear, I will fight for you.
And another reason that gets over-looked, that I think a lot of us ignore many of Trump's warts and support him so strongly any way is because of how unfairly conservatives are treated.
Do not totally ignore and sweep under the rug all the dirty corrupt and illegal shit that Democrats do, and then expect us to bow down and join you in your outrage when Trump does something half as bad.
Like this ...
-
The FBI team investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election cultivated and maintained numerous sources close to Donald Trump during the election and the transition period when Trump was entering the White House.
The FBI sources include one person who was in direct contact with Trump and who was utilized by one FBI agent to, “obtain insight into the incoming Trump administration.” Another source was described as voluntarily providing the FBI team probing Trump with large volumes of documents.
Yet another FBI source held a position in the Trump campaign and another was described as a Trump “supporter.” Another source was documented as attending a private gathering with Trump.
These disclosures and others were made inside the Justice Department’s previously released 476-page Inspector General report on the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane.
Some of the generalities of the use of these sources were outlined in the executive summary at the opening of the IG report. The executive summary, however, states, “We found no evidence that the FBI placed any CHSs or UCEs within the Trump campaign or tasked any CHSs or UCEs to report on the Trump campaign.”
Both the summary itself and the larger section on the use of CHS’s deep inside the report detail a more complicated picture. While the FBI may not have officially tasked sources to report on the Trump campaign, it did accept information from sources who volunteered to provide the details, the IG report relates. Also an FBI agent contacted a source to “obtain insight” into the incoming Trump administration and another source provided information on Trump campaign officials. Another source was documented as being scheduled to obtain a briefing with Trump and it wasn’t clear whether that source reported back with any information.
The section of the report about the sources has not received significant news media attention.
The largely overlooked revelations raise major questions about the longstanding claim that the FBI did not spy on the Trump campaign, showing the extent to which the agency run by James Comey maintained a bevy of informants within Trump’ orbit. This in addition to obtaining successive warrants to spy on Carter Page, the energy consultant who temporarily served as a tangential Trump campaign adviser.
A section on page 336 of the extensive report reveals the IG’s team learned during its review that the FBI maintained Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s) who had “either a connection to candidate Trump or a role in the Trump campaign.” CHS’s are utilized by the FBI to gather information on a target.
One source was described as holding a position that was redacted from the public version of the report and another source was documented whose details were also redacted.
One of these sources surrounding Trump is described as voluntarily bringing the FBI vast sums of information and documentation that the source was not officially tasked with providing. The Handling Agent for that source, described in this article as Source #1, told the IG that this source regularly provides “a ton of information on all sorts of things” to the FBI without being tasked to do so. Source #1 also brings “reams of information” to into meetings with the handling agent.
In March 2017, Source #1 voluntarily provided his/her Handling Agent with five sets of documents on a series of topics. The Handling Agent said that Source #1 provided documents and information because he/she “thought it was of interest to the U.S. government.”
The documents and information from Source #1 were placed in FBI files and were provided to the Crossfire Hurricane team investigating Trump, the IG report documents. Regarding the materials from Source #1, the Crossfire Hurricane team did not find “anything significant” in something that was redacted from the public report.
One human source, referred to in this article as source #2, provided the Crossfire Hurricane team with what the IG report characterized as “general information” in August 2016 about former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and adviser Carter Page.
Page was the subject of government surveillance using successive FISA warrants that partially relied upon the infamous dossier as justification for the spying. The dossier was financed by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee.
Source #2 was described as someone who “knew candidate Trump and had been in contact with the candidate.” The Handling Agent claimed this source provided information about Page that was “open-source information” that could be found “[a]II over the Internet.” The IG report does not describe what Source #2 provided the FBI about Manafort.
The IG report further relates that an FBI agent contacted the handling agent for Source #2 immediately after Trump won the November 2016 election and asked for “a read-out from” Source #2 “regarding possible positions in administration.”
In late November 2016, the Handling Agent met Source #2 and penned an official document stating one purpose of the meeting was “to obtain insight regarding the incoming Trump Administration following the recent U.S. Presidential elections.”
The unnamed FBI agent who sent the Handling Agent to that meeting claimed to the IG that he made the request because he thought Source #2 could be given “a position somewhere in the administration” which would become a “sensitive matter that we would need to handle differently.”
The Handling Agent claimed in his interview with the IG that to him the phrase “obtain insight” into the incoming Trump administration was really just about asking Source #2 for his “[p]ersonal opinion,” and he was just making “small talk” with Source #2. The Handling Agent claimed the information he gleaned from Source #2 was “not investigative in nature” and wasn’t put into any FBI case file.
The FBI’s top counterintelligence agent, Bill Priestap, told the IG that if he had known about the contact with Source #2 to “obtain insight” into the incoming Trump administration such action would have raised concerns.
Referring to the phrase “obtain insight,” Priestap said he “hope[d] it was misstated [in the document], because we don’t, well, it’s not what we should be doing.”
The IG also discovered an October 2016 email written by an Intelligence Analyst on the Crossfire Hurricane team that contained information about another Confidential Human Source, described here as Source #3.
The email copied information from a case file for Source #3, stating the source was “scheduled to attend a ‘private’ national security forum with Donald Trump” in October 2016, after which Source #3 will provide “an update on the Trump meeting.”
The IG could not get to the bottom of what transpired with Source #3. None of the Crossfire Hurricane case agents told the IG they had any recollection of knowing that any source was scheduled to attend a gathering with Trump.
One FBI agent claimed he did not remember Source #3 “at all.”
The Handling Agent for Source #3 sought to clarify that the information in the email describing the source as going to attend a gathering at a hotel. The agent claimed the gathering was “more of a … campaign speech or campaign discussion” and “more like a campaign stop than a meeting.”
The Handling Agent claimed he could not recall if Source #3 actually attended the gathering with Trump, adding that he “would certainly not be tasking a source to go attend some private meeting with a candidate, any candidate, for president or for other office, to collect the information on what that candidate is saying.”
The IG could not find evidence that Source #3 told the FBI about any meeting or event with Trump.
Meanwhile, another FBI Confidential Human Source, characterized here as Source #4, was described as holding a position in the Trump campaign at one point. The IG report shows that by the time Source #4 told his/her Handling Agent about the campaign role that source was no longer part of the Trump campaign.
An FBI internal document says Source #4 would be utilized only as a “passive listening post regarding any observations [he/she] has of the campaign so far” and that the source would not be tasked for anything further at the time the document was written.
The IG report describes yet another source as being a Trump supporter.
The IG report says that although the Crossfire Hurricane team was aware of all these sources during the2016 presidential campaign, the FBI team felt the Trump informants would not have furthered the investigation and so they were purportedly not tasked further.
One FBI agent was quoted in the IG report as saying that members of the Crossfire Hurricane team “never [had] any intent, never any desire … to collect…campaign or privileged information with regard to the presidential election.”
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Can you imagine if Trump's FBI was spying on any of the democratic candidates right now?? Can you imagine the scandal??? Yet nobody on the left or in the media condemns this.
And Trump asks a country to look into actual corruption of Joe Biden. He is literally on tape telling Ukraine they have to fire the prosecutor looking into Joe's sons company, Burisma, or else they will not get the 1 billion dollars in guaranteed loans. And he brags, "son of a bitch, they fired him." An actual real quid pro quo in Biden's own words.
So nobody on the left or the media cares about the scandal of Biden doing the quid pro quo, but oh the weeping and gnashing of teeth when Trump asks them to look into it.
Oh but Biden had another reason for asking for the prosecutor to be fired. He is supposedly corrupt too. We are to totally believe that. But God no, we do not believe that Trump had any other reason to ask to look into the corruption, like it's his job, or that he had any other reason to withhold the aid. Like he has done with so many other countries not involving Biden.
Whole thing stinks to hell, and the left and their media dogs can stick it. We're no longer having two sets of rules. We'll fight for Trump as long as you cover up all your shady shit.
Democrats are just disappointed that Trump actually has the GOP fighting back instead of laying down like dogs as they always have in the past. No, we are not lying down in the face of ridiculous accusations, we are confirming Kavanaugh anyway. No, we are not laying down, we are going to fight for our President. One of the many reasons they hate him.
The regular economy job numbers released this morning. Added 225,000 jobs. 160,000 was expected.
And another reason that gets over-looked, that I think a lot of us ignore many of Trump's warts and support him so strongly any way is because of how unfairly conservatives are treated.
Do not totally ignore and sweep under the rug all the dirty corrupt and illegal shit that Democrats do, and then expect us to bow down and join you in your outrage when Trump does something half as bad.
Like this ...
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The FBI team investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election cultivated and maintained numerous sources close to Donald Trump during the election and the transition period when Trump was entering the White House.
The FBI sources include one person who was in direct contact with Trump and who was utilized by one FBI agent to, “obtain insight into the incoming Trump administration.” Another source was described as voluntarily providing the FBI team probing Trump with large volumes of documents.
Yet another FBI source held a position in the Trump campaign and another was described as a Trump “supporter.” Another source was documented as attending a private gathering with Trump.
These disclosures and others were made inside the Justice Department’s previously released 476-page Inspector General report on the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane.
Some of the generalities of the use of these sources were outlined in the executive summary at the opening of the IG report. The executive summary, however, states, “We found no evidence that the FBI placed any CHSs or UCEs within the Trump campaign or tasked any CHSs or UCEs to report on the Trump campaign.”
Both the summary itself and the larger section on the use of CHS’s deep inside the report detail a more complicated picture. While the FBI may not have officially tasked sources to report on the Trump campaign, it did accept information from sources who volunteered to provide the details, the IG report relates. Also an FBI agent contacted a source to “obtain insight” into the incoming Trump administration and another source provided information on Trump campaign officials. Another source was documented as being scheduled to obtain a briefing with Trump and it wasn’t clear whether that source reported back with any information.
The section of the report about the sources has not received significant news media attention.
The largely overlooked revelations raise major questions about the longstanding claim that the FBI did not spy on the Trump campaign, showing the extent to which the agency run by James Comey maintained a bevy of informants within Trump’ orbit. This in addition to obtaining successive warrants to spy on Carter Page, the energy consultant who temporarily served as a tangential Trump campaign adviser.
A section on page 336 of the extensive report reveals the IG’s team learned during its review that the FBI maintained Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s) who had “either a connection to candidate Trump or a role in the Trump campaign.” CHS’s are utilized by the FBI to gather information on a target.
One source was described as holding a position that was redacted from the public version of the report and another source was documented whose details were also redacted.
One of these sources surrounding Trump is described as voluntarily bringing the FBI vast sums of information and documentation that the source was not officially tasked with providing. The Handling Agent for that source, described in this article as Source #1, told the IG that this source regularly provides “a ton of information on all sorts of things” to the FBI without being tasked to do so. Source #1 also brings “reams of information” to into meetings with the handling agent.
In March 2017, Source #1 voluntarily provided his/her Handling Agent with five sets of documents on a series of topics. The Handling Agent said that Source #1 provided documents and information because he/she “thought it was of interest to the U.S. government.”
The documents and information from Source #1 were placed in FBI files and were provided to the Crossfire Hurricane team investigating Trump, the IG report documents. Regarding the materials from Source #1, the Crossfire Hurricane team did not find “anything significant” in something that was redacted from the public report.
One human source, referred to in this article as source #2, provided the Crossfire Hurricane team with what the IG report characterized as “general information” in August 2016 about former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and adviser Carter Page.
Page was the subject of government surveillance using successive FISA warrants that partially relied upon the infamous dossier as justification for the spying. The dossier was financed by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee.
Source #2 was described as someone who “knew candidate Trump and had been in contact with the candidate.” The Handling Agent claimed this source provided information about Page that was “open-source information” that could be found “[a]II over the Internet.” The IG report does not describe what Source #2 provided the FBI about Manafort.
The IG report further relates that an FBI agent contacted the handling agent for Source #2 immediately after Trump won the November 2016 election and asked for “a read-out from” Source #2 “regarding possible positions in administration.”
In late November 2016, the Handling Agent met Source #2 and penned an official document stating one purpose of the meeting was “to obtain insight regarding the incoming Trump Administration following the recent U.S. Presidential elections.”
The unnamed FBI agent who sent the Handling Agent to that meeting claimed to the IG that he made the request because he thought Source #2 could be given “a position somewhere in the administration” which would become a “sensitive matter that we would need to handle differently.”
The Handling Agent claimed in his interview with the IG that to him the phrase “obtain insight” into the incoming Trump administration was really just about asking Source #2 for his “[p]ersonal opinion,” and he was just making “small talk” with Source #2. The Handling Agent claimed the information he gleaned from Source #2 was “not investigative in nature” and wasn’t put into any FBI case file.
The FBI’s top counterintelligence agent, Bill Priestap, told the IG that if he had known about the contact with Source #2 to “obtain insight” into the incoming Trump administration such action would have raised concerns.
Referring to the phrase “obtain insight,” Priestap said he “hope[d] it was misstated [in the document], because we don’t, well, it’s not what we should be doing.”
The IG also discovered an October 2016 email written by an Intelligence Analyst on the Crossfire Hurricane team that contained information about another Confidential Human Source, described here as Source #3.
The email copied information from a case file for Source #3, stating the source was “scheduled to attend a ‘private’ national security forum with Donald Trump” in October 2016, after which Source #3 will provide “an update on the Trump meeting.”
The IG could not get to the bottom of what transpired with Source #3. None of the Crossfire Hurricane case agents told the IG they had any recollection of knowing that any source was scheduled to attend a gathering with Trump.
One FBI agent claimed he did not remember Source #3 “at all.”
The Handling Agent for Source #3 sought to clarify that the information in the email describing the source as going to attend a gathering at a hotel. The agent claimed the gathering was “more of a … campaign speech or campaign discussion” and “more like a campaign stop than a meeting.”
The Handling Agent claimed he could not recall if Source #3 actually attended the gathering with Trump, adding that he “would certainly not be tasking a source to go attend some private meeting with a candidate, any candidate, for president or for other office, to collect the information on what that candidate is saying.”
The IG could not find evidence that Source #3 told the FBI about any meeting or event with Trump.
Meanwhile, another FBI Confidential Human Source, characterized here as Source #4, was described as holding a position in the Trump campaign at one point. The IG report shows that by the time Source #4 told his/her Handling Agent about the campaign role that source was no longer part of the Trump campaign.
An FBI internal document says Source #4 would be utilized only as a “passive listening post regarding any observations [he/she] has of the campaign so far” and that the source would not be tasked for anything further at the time the document was written.
The IG report describes yet another source as being a Trump supporter.
The IG report says that although the Crossfire Hurricane team was aware of all these sources during the2016 presidential campaign, the FBI team felt the Trump informants would not have furthered the investigation and so they were purportedly not tasked further.
One FBI agent was quoted in the IG report as saying that members of the Crossfire Hurricane team “never [had] any intent, never any desire … to collect…campaign or privileged information with regard to the presidential election.”
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Can you imagine if Trump's FBI was spying on any of the democratic candidates right now?? Can you imagine the scandal??? Yet nobody on the left or in the media condemns this.
And Trump asks a country to look into actual corruption of Joe Biden. He is literally on tape telling Ukraine they have to fire the prosecutor looking into Joe's sons company, Burisma, or else they will not get the 1 billion dollars in guaranteed loans. And he brags, "son of a bitch, they fired him." An actual real quid pro quo in Biden's own words.
So nobody on the left or the media cares about the scandal of Biden doing the quid pro quo, but oh the weeping and gnashing of teeth when Trump asks them to look into it.
Oh but Biden had another reason for asking for the prosecutor to be fired. He is supposedly corrupt too. We are to totally believe that. But God no, we do not believe that Trump had any other reason to ask to look into the corruption, like it's his job, or that he had any other reason to withhold the aid. Like he has done with so many other countries not involving Biden.
Whole thing stinks to hell, and the left and their media dogs can stick it. We're no longer having two sets of rules. We'll fight for Trump as long as you cover up all your shady shit.
Democrats are just disappointed that Trump actually has the GOP fighting back instead of laying down like dogs as they always have in the past. No, we are not lying down in the face of ridiculous accusations, we are confirming Kavanaugh anyway. No, we are not laying down, we are going to fight for our President. One of the many reasons they hate him.
The regular economy job numbers released this morning. Added 225,000 jobs. 160,000 was expected.
Re: Politics
1650It was announced a couple days ago that the United States is leading the World in total emission decline. Since 2000 the U.S. has reduced it's emissions by 2.9%, or over 140 million tons.
The left has used the same talking point for the last year, about how much of an "existential threat" Global Warming is. So they are so excited about this decline that they are all running to the nearest microphon .... uhhh .... no .... not a word from Pelosi. Not a word from Schumer. Not a word from Bernie or AOC.
And the reason is two fold. They don't want to lose that scare tactic talking point that so many have bought into. And, what I have always said. The left does not give a shit about Co2 emissions. Bernie screams about it at a speech, then jumps on a private plane to his next event. Obama preached about it and how sea levels are going to rise to cataclysmic levels, then bought a mansion right on the coast as soon as he left office.
They don't believe their own bullshit, they just want you to.
Every environmental solution they put forward is about getting power, social engineering, and wealth redistribution. That is it. Xerox that and put it on your fridge at home. You can live by it.
The left has used the same talking point for the last year, about how much of an "existential threat" Global Warming is. So they are so excited about this decline that they are all running to the nearest microphon .... uhhh .... no .... not a word from Pelosi. Not a word from Schumer. Not a word from Bernie or AOC.
And the reason is two fold. They don't want to lose that scare tactic talking point that so many have bought into. And, what I have always said. The left does not give a shit about Co2 emissions. Bernie screams about it at a speech, then jumps on a private plane to his next event. Obama preached about it and how sea levels are going to rise to cataclysmic levels, then bought a mansion right on the coast as soon as he left office.
They don't believe their own bullshit, they just want you to.
Every environmental solution they put forward is about getting power, social engineering, and wealth redistribution. That is it. Xerox that and put it on your fridge at home. You can live by it.