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Senate The US Politics discussion

Discussion in 'Community' started by Ghost, Dec 6, 2012.

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  1. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    They've already denounced him and claim there is no way to kick him off the ballot. They're asking for write-ins.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2018
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  2. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Bannon is afraid that society is overthrowing the Patriarchy, afraid it will undo the last "ten thousand years" of history
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...history/ar-BBIW1Zm?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp



    Also, yet another Trump campaign chairman pleads guilty to sex trafficking

     
  3. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    LOL. There is an easy, one-sentence response to Bannon:

    “And the problem is...?”
     
  4. darth-sinister

    darth-sinister Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2001
  5. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    [​IMG]

    Just a reminder that the yas kween woke libs are the worst people to ever exist.
     
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  6. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    I don’t know what anything in your statement means after “the.” Including the point of your post.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2018
  7. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Further proof that the GOP is now the party of Trump.
     
  8. Vaderize03

    Vaderize03 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 25, 1999
    In other news, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf will announce on Monday whether or not he accepts the new redistricting map presented to him by the Republican leaders of both the state house and senate. They were drawn without any Democratic input, which has led Democratic leaders to urge their rejection. If the governor says 'no', then the Court will install a map. My home township, Upper Dublin, is ground zero for being placed in a new district. Looking at their map, several GOP seats will be at serious risk if it is adopted.

    Stay tuned.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2018
  9. Luke02

    Luke02 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2002
    @MrZAP

    All administrations kinda are trying to walk on ice the first year. The transition from political campaign to governing body can be messy and uneasy therefore some upheaval the first year as the administration tries to find it's bearings is expected. For example, Bill Clinton had one of the most successful modern presidencies but even he experienced some really choppy waters his first year that led to some staff upheaval. That said? Nobody has ever seen like this, not even close. I joke last year that they must have prozac in candy dishes throughout the White House as morale must be so bad. I hate to say this but I truly wonder if they just move on to cynaide pills at this point instead. I mean you can suspend your reality for so long unless your like Trump who has those closest said about him many years, "He believes what he wants about reality" hence why he will NEVER EVER testify before Mueller. They know this is an epic disaster of absolute Biblical proportions.

    There are so many reasons why this is happening we could honestly never go through them all but one reason that is being lost in the shuffle is the fact that Trump Inc. has more in common with a mob family business in terms of structure then pretty much any other company There are no shareholders. There is not even a board of directors. There is just DJT and his family. So how on earth did people expect him to understand what is like to be accountable when his entire business career has been without any accountability. How on earth did anyone think he was suddenly going to wake up one morning and go, "Gee as president I need to be accountable to all 300 plus million Americans and the Constitution itself" is beyond me.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2018
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  10. Adam of Nuchtern

    Adam of Nuchtern Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
  11. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    You’re not being fair. Some Nazis are very fine people and what about Antifa?
     
  12. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    also "independents," constantly reminding us that they've held no opinion on anything, ever. they promise. just don't get mad at them, they're independent.
     
  13. Diggy

    Diggy Chosen One star 8

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    Feb 27, 2013
    And the libs and cons are just as bad as each other when it comes to this sort of thing.
     
  14. Luke02

    Luke02 Chosen One star 6

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    Sep 19, 2002
    Where was the due process for former Secretary Clinton during the campaign trail when Trump and his minions chanted, "Lock her up" on every stop? Funny how that works.
     
  15. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    we'll fight and die for our freedom, our american dream, our long-standing ideals and beliefs [face_flag]

    as long as it's convenient.
     
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  16. blackmyron

    blackmyron Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2005
    Not surprisingly, the immediate results of the tax cuts were for companies to indeed invest in expanding their companies, and their employees.


    I'm just kidding. Companies have more than doubled their buybacks in their own stock in comparison with the same time last year, to the tune of almost $90 billion - which benefits wealthy shareholders, who were already getting massive tax cuts on a personal level.

    But enjoy your $1.50 a week tax cut! At least for a few years.
     
  17. Jedi Merkurian

    Jedi Merkurian Future Films Rumor Naysayer star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    May 25, 2000
  18. Vaderize03

    Vaderize03 Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 25, 1999
  19. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Tis might be of interest


    This might be of interest for this discussion
     
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  20. Bacon164

    Bacon164 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2005
    Embedded’s goooooood
     
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  21. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
  22. MrZAP

    MrZAP Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    One of the only non-drama/music podcasts I don't speed up.
     
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  23. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    This isn't new. You're just aware of it now.

    There's a good piece in the Economist, which I'll include below because of the paywall, that talks about the recently skittish equity markets. Relevant to your point, in a broader sense:

    https://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2018/02/cycle-times

    Cycle of the times
    Financial markets abhor an equilibrium


    Both the stockmarket and economic cycles seem to have lengthened. They are tied together by credit

    [​IMG]
    Buttonwood’s notebook
    Feb 9th 2018
    by Buttonwood
    THE recent volatility in the stockmarket has come as a shock in part because equities have been performing well for an extended period. Share prices have been on a broadly upward trend ever since the spring of 2009. That follows the long bull market of 1982 to 2000. As the chart shows (on a log scale), there has been a tendency for bull markets to be longer-lasting than they were in the 1960s or 1970s.
    [​IMG]


    The same can be said for the economy. The average business cycle since the Second World War has lasted around six years. By that standard the current expansion is elderly, at eight-and-a-half years. But it still has a way to go to outlast the longest post-war cycle, the ten years from 1991 to 2001. Indeed, that cycle was followed by a very shallow recession. In a sense, there was a long boom from 1991 to 2007.

    Given the shift from a manufacturing-dominated to a service-dominated economy, a longer cycle makes sense. The manufacturing sector has long lead times. Strong demand for cars or washing machines causes the manufacturer to order more commodities and components; perhaps to take on more staff. At the peak of the boom, this demand will push up prices and inflation will start to edge up. The central bank will respond by tightening monetary policy. At some stage, this will cause demand to slip and manufacturers will be left with surplus staff and inventories. They will abruptly cut their orders and lay off workers; suppliers and commodity producers will be forced to do the same. A rise in unemployment will cause demand to slip even further until the central bank cuts rates and the cycle can start again.

    To an extent, the service sector is not subject to the same cyclical pressures. In part, this is because it has underlying growth behind it; it is taking a greater share of output. But it is also true that Microsoft does not need to stockpile software before it can sell it. So most services companies are less prone to an inventory cycle.

    But I think the broader explanation of these longer cycles lies in monetary policy. Under the Bretton Woods system which lasted until the early 1970s, countries were obliged to peg their currencies to the dollar. If the trade deficit started to widen, then the central bank had to step on the monetary brakes; this was the stop-go cycle that bedevilled Britain. The one country that was not tied down by this system was America. In the 1960s, under Lyndon Johnson, America financed both the Vietnam War and social reforms. The country had an eight-year boom, from 1961 to 1969 but this eventually broke the Bretton Woods system. Markets then suffered an inflationary shock in the 1970s owing to floating exchange rates and the oil embargo.

    Order was eventually restored by Paul Volcker at the turn of the 1980s. Both financial markets and the economy were then able to benefit from the steady decline in inflation and interest rates. But the length of the cycle should not disguise the enormous amount of change that was going on underneath the surface.

    The feedback loop
    When the market crashed in 2007 and 2008, the work of the economist Hyman Minsky enjoyed a revival. One can restate Minsky's work as the principle that

    Financial markets abhor an equilibrium


    Investors try to analyse the economic and financial conditions and adjust their portfolios accordingly. Often there is a lot of disagreement. But sometimes there seems to be a consensus that a climate has been established and will continue. Think, for example of "stagflation" in the 1970s, the "great moderation" in the 1990s and the early 2000s or indeed "secular stagnation" in recent years. They adjust their portfolios and their behaviour accordingly and, crucially, the fiscal and monetary authorities respond to their actions.

    So the bitter experience of bond investors in the 1970s led them to demand very high real bond yields to compensate them for the inflation risk. These high real yields in turn caused politicians to be cautious about running up fiscal deficits and to rely on monetary policy to manage the cycle. Falling rates boosted asset values, including equities and house prices, and made executives rich from share options. The potential rewards of equities helped fuel the dotcom boom. Two sectors that benefit from leverage, hedge funds and private equity, flourished as never before. Credit expanded and that credit was used to buy assets; rising asset prices persuaded lenders to extend more credit. All this was helped by developments in the real economy, as falling commodity prices and the addition of China and eastern Europe to the capitalist world, held down inflation.

    Investors got carried away, first in tech-sector equities, and then, more seriously in mortgage-backed securities in the lead-up to 2007. When markets crashed, central banks were forced into drastic measures, cutting rates to zero (and below) and unleashing quantitative easing.

    Financial markets then adjusted to this new equilibrium. They learned that rates and bond yields would stay low, while profits recovered sharply from the 2009 downturn; equities were the asset to hold. But a populist backlash emerged. There was a sense that the banks had escaped the consequences of their actions. And the strength of profits was down to the stagnation of real wages. The result was the electoral rebellions of 2016.

    Being led by a billionaire, American populism has been good for the plutocrats. But the main policy response has been a big tax cut for the better-off. While this initially seemed good for the equity markets, doubts are starting to emerge. The general feeling of euphoria has emboldened central banks to talk about further tightening while the prospect of trillion-dollar budget deficits may require higher bond yields to tempt investors.

    The long and the short of it
    If this is a turning point towards a period of more “normal” rate levels, then the tendency to long cycles may not last. For the first time since the 1970s, the secular direction of rates and yields may be up, not down. That is a problem for those who borrow to buy assets. And it is also a problem that has even more debt, relative to GDP, than it did in 2007. After years of being encourage to borrow by shareholders and the tax system, the average corporate credit rating is much weaker than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

    The new cycle may be based, not on the inventory cycle, but on the credit cycle. Even modest steps on the monetary brake may have quite rapid effects on markets and on the broader economy. The last week or so of volatility may reflect the fact that investors are waking up to this issue.​
     
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  24. SateleNovelist11

    SateleNovelist11 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 10, 2015
    Why Trump’s tax plan may spur more divorces
    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/04/tax-plan-divorce-alimony-marriage-389074

    When I initially read this title, I almost assumed it was due to all the arguments between couples, as reported by some of my girl friends. Turns it this has been caused by the end of alimony write-offs. As such, attorneys are advising their clients to divorce during this year, as opposed to the following one.
     
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  25. DANNASUK

    DANNASUK Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    Starting to sound like 1960s/70s Britain...

    Is There a Deep State?
     
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