All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[Trey Strain]

It's a Republican standard.

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"Trump trillion-dollar-plus deficits are putting America on a path to fiscal ruin"

"It became very clear this month that neither the Trump White House nor its allies on Capitol Hill want you to know that the federal budget is already in very bad shape ... and getting worse.

It happened when the U.S. Treasury, the official keeper of Washington’s financial results, issued its monthly statement for the first 10 months of fiscal 2018 about federal revenues and spending and, therefore, the budget deficit. The Treasury showed what no president ever wants to admit: the deficit is spiking. The federal government’s red ink this year is already 21 percent above what it was in 2017 and there are few prospects that the bottom line will improve anytime soon.

Except with infrequent and unsubstantiated platitudes about how the situation is going to get better, the Trump White House and Republicans in Congress have been doing everything possible not to talk about the budget this year. To avoid tough questions and politically embarrassing votes, the House and Senate have even refused to consider a budget even though they are required by law to adopt one.

But this year isn’t the real issue.

Trump's deficits are permanent -- unlike the trillion-dollar budget deficits that occurred during the Obama administration that were temporary and largely the result of the Great Recession, the Trump deficits that will soon reach and exceed $1 trillion are permanent and will only get worse in the years ahead. The Trump deficits are the result of changes in federal spending and revenues that will continue to be in place until some president and Congress decide to reverse them, that is, to increase taxes and make cuts to popular programs.

Not only has there been little appetite to do that, many in Congress and the Trump administration seem to be hell bent on ignoring the current deficit and national debt and increasing spending and reducing revenues even further. For example, the White House last week proposed a new Space Force that would likely add billions, if not hundreds of billions, to the Pentagon’s budget.

Trump has asked for $25 billion for the wall he wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico. His much talked about but still unseen infrastructure plan would cost countless billions more...

The White House [is] actually refusing to comment on three key issues:

First, it obviously doesn’t want to talk about how big the annual deficit could get in the years ahead. The Congressional Budget Office is already projecting it will exceed $1.5 trillion by 2028, and that assumes no changes from existing taxes and spending laws and no recession.

Second, it also doesn’t want to talk about how it will pay for more tax cuts, a Space Force, the wall, infrastructure or anything else ... including reducing the deficit.

Third, the Trump administration doesn’t want to explain how it’s going to manage the U.S. economy out of a recession if one happens on its watch. The traditional federal response of tax cuts and spending increases might not be as politically palatable as it has been in the past given that it could drive the annual deficit to close to $2 trillion.

The budget policymakers on Capitol Hill and in the Trump White House obviously aren’t focusing on much beyond 2018 and 2020. But they should at least be willing to admit that there’s a problem that will continue long after the votes have been counted in those elections."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...umn/986236002/

The great event of our age is class warfare. It's being fought by the very wealthiest against everyone else, and nobody is paying the slightest attention to it.

The idea behind the tax cut was to deliberately transfer money from the sick and the elderly to the wealthy. It's appalling, and nobody is speaking out about it or even recognizing it.

[PaulBullion]

The great event of our age is class warfare. It's being fought by the very wealthiest against everyone else, and nobody is paying the slightest attention to it.

The idea behind the tax cut was to deliberately transfer money from the sick and the elderly to the wealthy. It's appalling, and nobody is speaking out about it or even recognizing it.

Dude, you need to get out of your echo chamber. People like Joy Reid were talking about it as the tax cuts were happening.

[PaulBullion]

The overlap between the GOP, alt-right and other neo-nazi groups continues to grow:

AZ GOP Sen candidate Kelli Ward will go on a bus tour w/ Mike Cernovich, an alt-right activist associated w/ the PizzaGate conspiracy.

"I don't really know what Mike Cernovich's views are. I know he's got an audience and I want to serve everyone" Ward said

[Trey Strain]

Dude, you need to get out of your echo chamber. People like Joy Reid were talking about it as the tax cuts were happening.

Sir, what do you see in the media EVERY DAY? All I see is a lot of wild squaking about what Trump just tweeted. It was the same way during the campaign. Now THERE is an echo chamber for you. Trump tweets, and the media salivate like Pavlov's dogs.

Everything is about what he tweets. All he has to do is take out his car keys and dangle them, and reporters are stupefied by the shiny objects. Trump didn't spend nearly as much money in the campaign as Clinton did, because he didn't need to. He got all the free coverage he wanted, simply by tweeting, and he continues to.

Wealth is being transferred to to poor to the rich, but who cares? The media won't talk about it until Trump tweets about it, which he won't.

[PaulBullion]

Sir, what do you see in the media EVERY DAY? All I see is a lot of wild squaking about what Trump just tweeted. It was the same way during the campaign. Now THERE is an echo chamber for you. Trump tweets, and the media salivate like Pavlov's dogs.

Everything is about what he tweets. All he has to do is take out his car keys and dangle them, and reporters are stupefied by the shiny objects. Trump didn't spend nearly as much money in the campaign as Clinton did, because he didn't need to. He got all the free coverage he wanted, simply by tweeting, and he continues to.

Wealth is being transferred to to poor to the rich, but who cares? The media won't talk about it until Trump tweets about it, which he won't.

It seems l like you only have the attention span to look at tweets.

Sad.

[Iron Maiden]

Dude, you need to get out of your echo chamber. People like Joy Reid were talking about it as the tax cuts were happening.

Everybody knew this. With Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand fixation. it became his main goal as Speaker. Now he's gonna get outta Dodge and leave the mess for others to clean up. Like Obama was left with the crap from the Bush Administration. But most of the Trump zombies forget that.

paul-ryan-lustfully-eyes-welfare-reform

People need to get off of social media and read something from actual journalists. I've been reading Vanity Fair for years and their political reports have been digging into this kind of thing. They had Trump's number for years also, going back to their piece on the fraudulent Trump University about 5 years ago. And his reputation as a doofus in NYC circles. There's a reason why Trump lost NY bigly....they knew him all too well.

[aja_christopher]

[BeastieRunner]

Manafort Trial Update:

The jury asked to deliberate into the evening today.

[aja_christopher]

[Iron Maiden]

She's probably right too. Just about every news outlet except Fox linked it to Trump's now infamous news conference where he asked the Russian's to hack Hillary's emails. A month prior to that was Donald Jr. meeting in Trump Tower. Coincidence? we think not.

[Tazirai]

These are the stories I'm gonna focus on when I post now.

Notice how the "Liberal" media is all over this?

Yeah, me neither.

So Conservatives tell me, what freedoms are we fighting for again?
Hell, Liberals, tell me why are we doing this again?

But RT is a Puppet of the Russian government, but our media isn't?

The United States' Perpetual War in Afghanistan
Why Long Wars No Longer Generate a Backlash at Home

[BeastieRunner]

Manafort's jury will continue to deliberate tomorrow.

Defense thinks it is great because it means the jury can't agree.

Team Mueller thinks it is great, too, because it means the jury is looking at all the evidence in detail.

Sandusky's trial went 3 days for unanimous guilty (which was quick considering how long it went).

Personally, I wouldn't put too much stock in length. You're looking at least at 1-2 hours per day plus 1-2 hours per charge, so that puts them at 30 - 60 hours. That's not counting breaks. They're hovering around the 30 hour mark right now.

[aja_christopher]

These are the stories I'm gonna focus on when I post now.

Notice how the "Liberal" media is all over this?

Yeah, me neither.

So Conservatives tell me, what freedoms are we fighting for again?
Hell, Liberals, tell me why are we doing this again?

But RT is a Puppet of the Russian government, but our media isn't?

The United States' Perpetual War in Afghanistan
Why Long Wars No Longer Generate a Backlash at Home

I get your point but the "liberal" media has been questioning our place in international warfare since the Declaration of Independence (via Benjamin Franklin).

Likewise, many have been critical of the Obama administrations drone strikes in said regions -- especially where civilian casualties are involved -- which is one of the main reasons that we even knew (and still know) said strikes are happening.

Criticism is understandable, but at least be fair to the outlets you are criticizing, and given the fact that there is no one "liberal" media platform, it seems biased to claim that the "liberal" media doesn't see these things as issues.

It's more likely that there are more immediate concerns to deal with that tie directly into ratings for the major networks -- how many people are going to tune in to a decades old story on Afghanistan or Iraq while Trump is tweeting about Robert Mueller, NFL players and porn stars?

[worstblogever]

Personally, I wouldn't put too much stock in length.

Story of my life.

[BeastieRunner]

Story of my life.