Great profile of a Trump supporter that believes Trump speaks the truth!
Muller predicted a large convergence that would feature “not just bikers, but patriotic Americans.”
Muller, 74, a former Army sergeant who served in Vietnam, said he appreciates that Trump “speaks the truth” and said he considers Pelosi an “arrogant little bitch.”
via Rolling Thunder chief predicts biker descent on DC if Dems impeach Trump
Despite its high spending on health care, the U.S. has poor population health. [Exhibit 9]
On several measures of population health, Americans had worse outcomes than their international peers. The U.S. had the lowest life expectancy at birth of the countries studied, at 78.8 years in 2013, compared with the OECD median of 81.2 years. Additionally, the U.S. had the highest infant mortality rate among the countries studied, at 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011; the rate in the OECD median country was 3.5 deaths.The prevalence of chronic diseases also appeared to be higher in the U.S. The 2014 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey found that 68 percent of U.S. adults age 65 or older had at least two chronic conditions. In other countries, this figure ranged from 33 percent (U.K.) to 56 percent (Canada).13
via Spending, Use of Services, Prices, and Health in 13 Countries
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created an estimated 340,000 full-time equivalent jobs, but when you add up all of America’s enacted and threatened tariffs, plus China’s retaliatory tariffs, that could end up slashing more than 580,000 full-time equivalent jobs from the economy, according to one analysis released this month.
“This would completely wipe out any jobs from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” Nicole Kaeding, vice president of federal projects at the Tax Foundation, a conservative-learning, pro-growth think tank, told MarketWatch. Her organization calculates all tariffs could combine to carve $188 billion off the country’s gross domestic product in the long term.
via Trump’s escalating trade war with China could wipe out benefits from his tax reform – MarketWatch
William McKinley was a member of the Republican Party. During the late nineteenth century, Republicans strongly supported tariffs to protect growing industries within the United States from foreign competition. The McKinley Tariff was passed into law in 1890, and it dramatically increased the tax rate on foreign products. While many business owners supported this legislation, American consumers generally opposed it, as prices increased for goods. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party continuously battled over tariffs. American opposition to the McKinley Tariff was so high that President Benjamin Harrison, a Republican, may have lost reelection in 1892 partly because of his support for the tax.
via Tax History Lesson: The McKinley Tariff | Tax Foundation
According to the Tax Foundation model, the tariffs planned and imposed so far by the Trump administration would reduce long-run GDP by 0.21 percent ($52 billion) and wages by 0.13 percent and eliminate 161,751 full-time equivalent jobs. If the Trump administration acts on threats to place new tariffs on automobiles and parts and additional tariffs on products from China, GDP would fall by an additional 0.45 percent ($112 billion), resulting in 0.29 percent lower wages and 347,988 fewer full-time equivalent jobs.
Other countries have announced intentions to impose tariffs on U.S. exports. If these tariffs are fully imposed, we estimate that U.S. GDP would fall another 0.09 percent ($23.5 billion) and cost an additional 72,864 full-time equivalent jobs.
via Tracking the Economic Impact of Tariffs | China Tariffs | Trade Tensions
Madoff’s Ponzi scheme lured investors with the mirage of consistently strong returns Madoff presented his clients, and financial regulators, with the outward trappings of respectability and success.
Of course, it was just an illusion based on false promises. The impressive profits weren’t real — Madoff just shifted money from some investors to others in the hopes of fooling people into believing they were reaping the benefits of financial wizardry.
For quite a while, Madoff succeeded in making the illusion work. It took decades before his fraud was brought to light.
In this presidential election, only a few months are left to expose Trump’s con game — and the stakes, of course, are much higher.
via Why Donald Trump is the Bernie Madoff of politics – MarketWatch
My comment: Reading the New York Times article, I can’t help but think “He makes Bernie Madoff look like “Tinker Bell“!
Excerpt: The newly revealed tax information covers an earlier period of Mr. Trump’s business career. And The Times did not obtain Mr. Trump’s actual tax returns. But it obtained printouts from his official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, from someone who had legal access to them. They represent the fullest and most detailed look to date at the president’s taxes. And they show that during a tumultuous decade of fevered acquisition and spectacular collapse, Mr. Trump’s core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings — ran up $1.17 billion in losses.
via 5 Takeaways From 10 Years of Trump Tax Figures – The New York Times
Behenna acknowledged during his trial that instead of taking the prisoner home as he was ordered, he took the man to a railroad culvert, stripped him and then questioned him at gunpoint about a roadside bombing that had killed two members of Behenna’s platoon.
Behenna, a native of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, said the man moved toward him and he shot him because Behenna thought he would try to take his gun.
via Trump pardons former Army soldier who killed Iraqi prisoner
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump promised he would eliminate the nation’s debt in eight years. Instead, his budgets would add $9.1 trillion during that time. It would increase the U.S. debt to $29 trillion according to Trump’s budget estimates.
via Trump and the National Debt
But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.
It starts with your sitting silent while he lies, both in public and private, making you complicit by your silence. In meetings with him, his assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, because he’s the president and he rarely stops talking. As a result, Mr. Trump pulls all of those present into a silent circle of assent.
via Opinion | James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr – The New York Times
Old unionist 