Politics 2017 Act 6

[Agiel]

I myself was partial to Jim Webb, whom unlike Trump was physically brave, having served with valour in the Marines in Vietnam, and _actually_ gets the plight of rural America, not to mention that decent and competent foreign policy and military thinkers like Mattis and McMaster would have taken a shine to his outlook on foreign and defence-related affairs. I honestly think were it him on the Democratic ticket against Trump we could have seen a 538 electoral sweep.

[Leferd]

 

For you Bruce

 

Trump says he's actively considering breaking up big banks

President Donald Trump is considering breaking up the nation's biggest banks, a vow he had made during the presidential campaign then seemed to put on the back burner.

 

In an interview Monday with Bloomberg News, Trump said he is "looking at that right now."

 

Major averages slipped as the news broke, then rebounded, while government bond yields hit their highs of the day.

 

Bank stocks rallied, with investors taking a win-win view: Breaking up the big banks would open business opportunities for smaller institutions, while the large Wall Street firms would be worth more as separate entities than they are combined.

 

"The theory has always been the sum of the parts is worth considerably more than the whole," said analyst **** Bove, vice president for equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets. "You might find a lot of investors who say that (if) they're going to break up these banks, they're more [valuable] in pieces than they are together, I'm going to buy them."

 

 

Ummm...I think someone is fibbing.

 

[ShadySands]

I  never expected Trump to go through with it but I found the reaction to it interesting compared to when others put forth the idea

[Valsuelm]

Some of you are greatly underestimating Hillary Clinton's pull with women voters (particularly middle aged women) and 'minorities'.

 

She had name recognition. Yes, for many familiar with her it was the kind of recognition that evokes images of a guillotine in a more perfect world, but for more that's all they knew. Her.

 

There are millions of near mindless out there, that make even the dumbest person in this thread look like Einstein. Issues to them never get deeper than 'he's black', 'she's a woman', 'I heard o dem', 'They said that guy gonna take my EBT card away!', etc. And they vote...

 

Worse than that, as each year goes by these folks make up a larger and larger percentage of the populace.

 

That said, I do think Bernie would have beaten Trump if he was a serious candidate. However I do not think, nor ever thought that Bernie was a serious candidate. (He was, what many mistakenly thought Trump was.) I was aware of his soul selling more than a decade ago, but most had never heard of him prior to ~2015. He;s anything but the independent he claims to be. He's just a typical self absorbed relatively easily bought off middle of the power structure IQ maybe ~115-120 dude, who believes much of his own bull****. At this juncture of the game the powers that be need someone smarter than that in the White House, that actually is a player. Hillary was (and likely still is) such a person. She is smarter than Bernie, capable of playing at a much higher level, and doesn't believe most of her own Bull****.

 

The truth is, that in 2016, there was no better candidate than Hillary for team evil to to put the blue shirt on and run. If you find that hard to believe, your assessment of the political landscape in the U.S. as well as the world is quite a bit awry. Worry not, you're among the vast majority.

 

And all that said, sometimes the powers that be, do miscalculate. But they also always hedge their bets...

Edited May 21, 2017 by Valsuelm

[Calax]

 

*randomly appears* I think the thing that says the most overall about how the administration is ever going to go is the fact that the WH staff (who are theoretically the most loyal) are currently leaking like a siv due to the level of incompetence they perceive above them. This is why the Times and Post are getting such delicious and juicy details. If you lose the loyalty of the very apparatus that you're supposed to he a piece of, you need to find another job.

 

I would agree if Trump would appoint all those people, but that is not the case. 

The problem is Obama appointed administration is lashing out because their candidate lost the election. 

All that this situation proves is democrats should not hold ANY position of any level in government, ever.

If they are so petty as to endanger their own country just to make it difficult for the guy they don't like who happens to be the president now.

 

For the most part, any incoming administration replaces everyone who's a political operator of the previous one. To the point that, as a practical joke, when Clinton's staff were moving out (Bill's) the staff went through every computer and removed the W key from every keyboard. The people who are in that white house as staffers are either A) the loyal operators or B) the staff who can't get involved in those sorts of politics. This is also why there's a "Transition team" that's created to make all the appointments necessary to have a government apparatus that will carry out the elected head of states political will.

 

What it means on trumps end is that he's managed to piss off the workhorses of his party enough that they feel they have to step outside of their positions to be able to get things done, or just to get the reality out there.

 

And let's be fair here, During Obama's administration, the republican party was FAR more frivolous and petty about stuff. Or are you forgetting that the man currently sitting as our president spent 3 years fighting to get Obama's birth certificate released because of a rumor that their media arm manufactured? Or the fact that Mitch McConnell openly blocked everything he could to make Obama look bad to limit Obama to one term. No Negotiation, no suggestion of negotiation "Give us what we want, or we block it".

[Zoraptor]

 

What it means on trumps end is that he's managed to piss off the workhorses of his party enough that they feel they have to step outside of their positions to be able to get things done, or just to get the reality out there.

 

 

A lot of the leaks are coming from the 'Intelligence Community' though, and they aren't generally political appointees, apart from a few of the very top echelons.

 

Some of them do supposedly come from political appointees but, well, anonymous sources again. You have to take the media's word both that they said what they said and that they are in the claimed (always nebulous, since anonymous) position. Without a way to validate it every single leak could be coming from the career people either in the WH or the IC, rather than political appointees. And you still have to assume that the leaks are accurate and not spun, altered or made up.

[BruceVC]

 

You must have very low standards in Poland for leaders if you think Trump is so great ?

Again with the xenophobia Bruce?

 

Im confused?  Do you  have a good leader ...please stop being a drama queen,  you dont know a really bad leader so you should be thankful

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrzej_Duda

 

In SA  we have one of the most corrupt  and useless people I have ever seen in my life...Jacob Zuma 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Zuma

 

He has cost SA billions of Rands and still  wont step down. He has allowed a foreign family of Indians the Guptas to integrate themselves in tenders and government parastatals

 

 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-22513410

 

They control a faction within government that somehow  managed to remove our finance minister.....twice 

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/30/investing/south-africa-finance-minister-pravin-gordhan-ousted/index.html

[Valsuelm]

Ummm...I think someone is fibbing.

 

Not so much fibbing as acting like an immature teenage ****. Would have been great if she actually let the guy explain himself.

[Valsuelm]

A lot of the leaks are coming from the 'Intelligence Community' though...

Pretty much all....

 

... and just about all of them amount to nothing but dogs, ponies, smoke, and mirrors.

[BruceVC]

 

A lot of the leaks are coming from the 'Intelligence Community' though...

Pretty much all....

 

... and just about all of them amount to nothing but dogs, ponies, smoke, and mirrors.

 

Thats untrue, there have been leaks that have helped make people outside of the White House  aware of controversial decisions and developments by Trump and sometimes bad decisions by his advisors 

[Raithe]

On the mildly diverting, the question has to be asked... are they specifically trying to look sinister?

 

[Volourn]

Dude, the face the middle guy is doing is not the face of someone trying to be 'sinister'. LMAO

[Namutree]

On the mildly diverting, the question has to be asked... are they specifically trying to look sinister?

 

The Orb will give them the power to finally defeat the free people's and the world shall fall.

[Lexx]

Dude in the middle makes a face that reminds me more of Monty Python or something.

[Gromnir]

On the mildly diverting, the question has to be asked... are they specifically trying to look sinister?

 

perhaps an early audition as skeksis for the upcoming dark crystal remake.

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Meshugger]

On the mildly diverting, the question has to be asked... are they specifically trying to look sinister?

 

 

- The guy on the left seems to be embarressed to share energy with the two other guys

- The guy in the middle realizes that his energy isn't shared, it's fact depleting

- Trump is happily stealing their energy, what a bunch of bakas

 

What's this silly thing with glowing globes and chrystals? What's next? checking the milk from the cow? reading the future from the bottom of a coffee cup?

[Zoraptor]

The guy on the left is Egypt's president Al-Sisi, he probably is embarrassed to share a globe with the other two. I'd forgive King Salman for looking a bit off, he's widely rumoured to have Alzheimer's Disease. Trump looks like prequel era Star Wars' Palpatine in a fat suit and wearing a ludicrous hair piece.

[Gfted1]

Saudi Arabia’s $20 billion wager with Blackstone is record-sized bet on U.S. infrastructure.

 

#winning

[Guard Dog]

I meant to post this last week. The Great State on Tennessee, my home state, is now offering free college for qualifying state residents. You heard that correctly. If you are a citizen of the state of Tennessee of any age, you may attend college here tuition free. The requirements are that you have resided as a permanent resident of this state for one year. That you take enough classes to qualify as a pat time student. And that you maintain a 2.0 GPA. You mat then take any degree program offered at any community college for free, courtesy of the folks who buy lottery tickets. This state is as red as it gets. Except for just two counties and one congressional seat the Democrat Party controls nothing here. One wonders why this does not get more media attention?

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/11/pf/college/tennessee-free-community-college/

[Ben No.3]

I meant to post this last week. The Great State on Tennessee, my home state, is now offering free college for qualifying state residents. You heard that correctly. If you are a citizen of the state of Tennessee of any age, you may attend college here tuition free. The requirements are that you have resided as a permanent resident of this state for one year. That you take enough classes to qualify as a pat time student. And that you maintain a 2.0 GPA. You mat then take any degree program offered at any community college for free, courtesy of the folks who buy lottery tickets. This state is as red as it gets. Except for just two counties and one congressional seat the Democrat Party controls nothing here. One wonders why this does not get more media attention?

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/11/pf/college/tennessee-free-community-college/

a red state indeed.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I meant to post this last week. The Great State on Tennessee, my home state, is now offering free college for qualifying state residents. You heard that correctly. If you are a citizen of the state of Tennessee of any age, you may attend college here tuition free. The requirements are that you have resided as a permanent resident of this state for one year. That you take enough classes to qualify as a pat time student. And that you maintain a 2.0 GPA. You mat then take any degree program offered at any community college for free, courtesy of the folks who buy lottery tickets. This state is as red as it gets. Except for just two counties and one congressional seat the Democrat Party controls nothing here. One wonders why this does not get more media attention?

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/11/pf/college/tennessee-free-community-college/

Because the media is run for profit and stories about Trump holding a globe with a king will get more clicks and thus more ad revenue than free community college in Tennessee.

[Hurlshort]

I always thought the entire point of community colleges is that they are as close to free as possible. Of course, here in the super expensive Bay Area, that isn't the reality.  

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I always thought the entire point of community colleges is that they are as close to free as possible. Of course, here in the super expensive Bay Area, that isn't the reality.  

They're certainly inexpensive compared to a university, but tutition is still fairly expensive of you're making minimum wage and paying rent.

[Gromnir]

I meant to post this last week. The Great State on Tennessee, my home state, is now offering free college for qualifying state residents. You heard that correctly. If you are a citizen of the state of Tennessee of any age, you may attend college here tuition free. The requirements are that you have resided as a permanent resident of this state for one year. That you take enough classes to qualify as a pat time student. And that you maintain a 2.0 GPA. You mat then take any degree program offered at any community college for free, courtesy of the folks who buy lottery tickets. This state is as red as it gets. Except for just two counties and one congressional seat the Democrat Party controls nothing here. One wonders why this does not get more media attention?

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/11/pf/college/tennessee-free-community-college/

hmm.  gd sounds a bit like trump complaining 'bout media lack o' terrorism coverage.  is maybe not sooper convincing to use a cnn link to convince lack o' coverage, eh?  

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=tennessee&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS699US699&oq=tenn&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.4854j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=tennessee+community+college+free&tbm=nws

 

btw, the original TN program got plenty o' attention 2.5 years ago on these boards and elsewhere.

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69988-obama-to-propose-free-community-college/?p=1555052

 

regardless, as much as we support these kinda programs, the tn approach would also get more attention if the numbers o' college graduates were better.  most stories proclaim how many folks attended college, but the numbers o' actual grads has been disappointing. need to get folks degrees as 'posed to simple getting 'em a bit o' college. am knowing amentep is annoyed by the misrepresentation o' the benefits o' a college education.  he is correct, but one needs be extreme myopic to ignore the correlation 'tween long-term monetary success in the US and the possession o' a college degree.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 22, 2017 by Gromnir

[Wrath of Dagon]

This is a very interesting article. Too bad it's so long I'm too lazy to read it all: https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/05/new-class-war/

 

George Orwell provided a succinct summary of Burnham’s thesis:

 

Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing it. What is now arising is a new kind of planned, centralized society which will be neither capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic. The rulers of this new society will be the people who effectively control the means of production: that is, business executives, technicians, bureaucrats and soldiers, lumped together by Burnham, under the name of “managers.” These people will eliminate the old capitalist class, crush the working class, and so organize society that all power and economic privilege remain in their own hands. . . . The new “managerial” societies will not consist of a patchwork of small, independent states, but of great super-states grouped round the main industrial centers in Europe, Asia and America. These super-states will fight among themselves for possession of the remaining uncaptured portions of the earth, but will probably be unable to conquer one another completely. Internally, each society will be hierarchical, with an aristocracy of talent at the top and a mass of semi-slaves at the bottom.