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

[Tami]

If they could somehow convince Nikki Haley to agree to be on the ticket, the Democrats will have a problem countering that IMO.

Nikki Haley is more likely to run against Trump for the Presidency, than to be his VP candidate. At least she will if she is as smart as she seems.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump says approval rating would be 75 percent without Mueller

President Trump claimed Thursday that his approval rating would be 75 percent if it wasn't for special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"Without the phony Russia Witch Hunt, and with all that we have accomplished in the last almost two years (Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judge's, Military, Vets, etc.) my approval rating would be at 75% rather than the 50% just reported by Rasmussen," Trump tweeted.

Trump blasted Mueller's probe as "Presidential Harassment!"

Once again, IQ45 tweeted without knowing what the hell he was talking about. If memory serves, Trump's approval rating was around 40 percent (perhaps a tad lower) BEFORE the Russia probe began. It was clear early on his presidency was going to be a dumpster fire, starting from when he whined about the size of the crowd on Inauguration Day, and not much as changed since.

**********

Stocks plunge again as China trade worries mount

Stocks fell sharply Thursday as continuing fears over U.S.-China trade relations and concern over a possible global economic slowdown kept traders on edge.

The Dow was down more than 500 points after diving about 750 points earlier, briefly bringing its two-day losses to more than 1,500 points. The S&P 500 was off by 1.6 percent, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.75 percent.

[Gray Lensman]

Trump’s Team Considers Removing Mike Pence from 2020 Ticket



I doubt anyone could put a shine on the Trump tarnish. If Pence has any ambition to be President, his only chance is if Trump gets impeached. If Trump doesn't and he drops him from the ticket, that pretty much ends his political career without resolving any possible liability that came from being associated with Trump. not to mention if Muller has anything on Pence.

Makes me wonder if Pence is gonna start leaking to Mueller. Depends on how ambitious he is, and whether or not he thinks he can get away with it.

[BeastieRunner]

Stocks plunge again as China trade worries mount

Here's the situation the GOP are in for 2020:

1. We pass the Death Cross (where the 50 day outlook is lower than the 200 day outlook, it signals a long downturn in the economy). We are mere hours from this happening today. Most people think it will happen before FEB19.
2. We enter a major Recession, one with a big R.
3. Inflation climbs at 3-3.5%, instead of the goal of 2%. You think $4 milk is bad? Wait till you pay for $9 milk.
4. Stock market volume stays high and real returns become anemic at best.
5. Credit markets roll over with increasing defaults. Good luck get a credit card, home, car, etc. without 50-60% equity.
6. Risk premiums go up. Good luck getting a loan without high cash-on-hand. This will cause chaos in the bond market.
7. Investors give up. Retired, newly retired, and soon-to-be retired enter the job market and crash it.
8. Capital tightens with more staying on the schneid and hiring is pretty much frozen.
9. Venture down rounds (stock or convertible bonds are purchased from a company at a lower valuation than the preceding round) as the rate of recapitalization (exchange of one form of financing for another, probably stocks to bonds) spike.
10. Valuations reset. Lots of company layoffs, sell-offs, and mergers means less work available and less pay. Forget retirement.

If intervention occurs during 45's tenure, we won't see the gains till 2021 at best, 2023 at worst. I nothing is done till 2020, we won't see a turnaround till 2028 and it will most likely be a depression by then.

The price of non-intervention is the recession becomes a depression. With aggressive social programming, cuts, and debt payoff ... we could see a turnaround begin in 2025.

The last thing this economy needed was a pair of shitty tax-cuts to push it over the edge. WTG 45. I hope he gets the 86. Tax cuts are the last thing you do in a stable growth pattern. You hike them, not lower them. The GOP sucks at money stuff anymore.

Good job, Tariff Man!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Makes me wonder if Pence is gonna start leaking to Mueller. Depends on how ambitious he is, and whether or not he thinks he can get away with it.

I'm sure this had already been mentioned, but what if Pence was "Lodestar" from several months ago?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here's the situation the GOP are in for 2020:

1. We pass the Death Cross (where the 50 day outlook is lower than the 200 day outlook, it signals a long downturn in the economy). We are mere hours from this happening today. Most people think it will happen before FEB19.
2. We enter a major Recession, one with a big R.
3. Inflation climbs at 3-3.5%, instead of the goal of 2%. You think $4 milk is bad? Wait till you pay for $9 milk.
4. Stock market volume stays high and real returns become anemic at best.
5. Credit markets roll over with increasing defaults. Good luck get a credit card, home, car, etc. without 50-60% equity.
6. Risk premiums go up. Good luck getting a loan without high cash-on-hand. This will cause chaos in the bond market.
7. Investors give up. Retired, newly retired, and soon-to-be retired enter the job market and crash it.
8. Capital tightens with more staying on the schneid and hiring is pretty much frozen.
9. Venture down rounds (stock or convertible bonds are purchased from a company at a lower valuation than the preceding round) as the rate of recapitalization (exchange of one form of financing for another, probably stocks to bonds) spike.
10. Valuations reset. Lots of company layoffs, sell-offs, and mergers means less work available and less pay. Forget retirement.

If intervention occurs during 45's tenure, we won't see the gains till 2021 at best, 2023 at worst. I nothing is done till 2020, we won't see a turnaround till 2028 and it will most likely be a depression by then.

The price of non-intervention is the recession becomes a depression. With aggressive social programming, cuts, and debt payoff ... we could see a turnaround begin in 2025.

The last thing this economy needed was a pair of shitty tax-cuts to push it over the edge. WTG 45. I hope he gets the 86. Tax cuts are the last thing you do in a stable growth pattern. You hike them, not lower them. The GOP sucks at money stuff anymore.

I'm no financial expert, but, the way I see it, the problems here are two-fold. You can't tell me Republicans aren't fully aware the economy is fast tracked on the highway to hell, but they aren't about to do a goddamn thing and risk upsetting the apple cart that's those juicy tax breaks for their billionaire overlords, never mind pissing off Trump who's hellbent on winning his unwinnable tariff war with the Chinese. As for Trump, he clearly doesn't give a flying ****. By the time the **** really hits the fan in the mid 2020's, he'll be long out of office and fat-catting it full time down at Mar-a-Lago, playing golf seven days a week on the taxpayer's dime with a full presidential pension.

[Gray Lensman]

I'm no financial expert, but, the way I see it, the problems here are two-fold. You can't tell me Republicans aren't fully aware the economy is fast tracked on the highway to hell, but they aren't about to do a goddamn thing and risk upsetting the apple cart that's those juicy tax breaks for their billionaire overlords, never mind pissing off Trump who's hellbent on winning his unwinnable tariff war with the Chinese. As for Trump, he clearly doesn't give a flying ****. By the time the **** really hits the fan in the mid 2020's, he'll be long out of office and fat-catting it full time down at Mar-a-Lago, playing golf seven days a week on the taxpayer's dime with a full presidential pension.

Because the GoP has become Littlefinger. "He would burn the realm to the ground, so long as he could be king of the ashes."

[Tami]

Making President Trump’s Bed: A Housekeeper Without Papers

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — During more than five years as a housekeeper at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Victorina Morales has made Donald J. Trump’s bed, cleaned his toilet and dusted his crystal golf trophies. When he visited as president, she was directed to wear a pin in the shape of the American flag adorned with a Secret Service logo.

Because of the “outstanding” support she has provided during Mr. Trump’s visits, Ms. Morales in July was given a certificate from the White House Communications Agency inscribed with her name.

Quite an achievement for an undocumented immigrant housekeeper.

Ms. Morales’s journey from cultivating corn in rural Guatemala to fluffing pillows at an exclusive golf resort took her from the southwest border, where she said she crossed illegally in 1999, to the horse country of New Jersey, where she was hired at the Trump property in 2013 with documents she said were phony.

She said she was not the only worker at the club who was in the country illegally.

Sandra Diaz, 46, a native of Costa Rica who is now a legal resident of the United States, said she, too, was undocumented when she worked at Bedminster between 2010 and 2013. The two women said they worked for years as part of a group of housekeeping, maintenance and landscaping employees at the golf club that included a number of undocumented workers, though they could not say precisely how many. There is no evidence that Mr. Trump or Trump Organization executives knew of their immigration status. But at least two supervisors at the club were aware of it, the women said, and took steps to help workers evade detection and keep their jobs.

[BeastieRunner]

Team Mueller Updates:

Friday is going to be .... yuuuuge.

The Mueller Russia Investigation: A Full Docket Of Developments Set For Friday.
Mueller poised to reveal new details on Russia probe in Manafort, Cohen filings.

On Friday, we will have:
- Mueller's office detail Paul Manafort's breach of the plea deal,
- Mueller's office file a memo with its recommendations for Cohen's sentencing,
- the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee interview Comey again, with a full transcript being released after the meeting, asp er the agreement they made with Comey,
- Papadopoulos will be released and his year of supervised release will commence.

The Mueller investigation has gotten closer to Donald Trump.

More and more, recent updates include Trump's name. HMMMMMmmmmm ...

Michael Flynn re-emerges as major witness in Robert Mueller's inquiry – and at least two others.

Flynn appears to be the linchpin. Manafort was the driver. Junior and Kushner the bagmen. Trump the fall guy.

[worstblogever]

Louie Gohmert was a guest on Fox Business Channel today, and as he is infamous for... went on a delusional, paranoid, conspiracy theory-laden rant. This time, taking discussion about Google's business practices with China to instead start making anti-Semitic attacks against George Soros. How bad was it? Fox Business host Stuart Varney apologized to viewers for Gohmert's remarks after the interview.

[worstblogever]

Meanwhile, over in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District... signs show that Leslie McCrae Dowless is likely to have been committing absentee ballot election fraud on a massive scale since 2010. Several local candidates seemed aware of the abnormalities (which inquiries were already still in place about the 2016 election), and recommended Dowless to work for Mark Harris (knowing that the absentee ballot results were potentially fraudulent on campaigns he'd worked on).

[BeastieRunner]

Meanwhile, over in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District... signs show that Leslie McCrae Dowless is likely to have been committing absentee ballot election fraud on a massive scale since 2010. Several local candidates seemed aware of the abnormalities (which inquiries were already still in place about the 2016 election), and recommended Dowless to work for Mark Harris (knowing that the absentee ballot results were potentially fraudulent on campaigns he'd worked on).

It was noted when the Trump's Voting Fraud commission was disbanded that all they could find were fraudulent GOP systems, votes, and voters.

[worstblogever]

It was noted when the Trump's Voting Fraud commission was disbanded that all they could find were fraudulent GOP systems, votes, and voters.

Kris Kobach couldn't find a drop of water in the ocean, the racist dumbass that he is.

[BeastieRunner]

Kris Kobach couldn't find a drop of water in the ocean, the racist dumbass that he is.

They found that Kusnher, Junior, and Ivanka were fraudulently registered.

[numberthirty]

This was interesting, to say the very least...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...paign=trending

Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez pull back the curtain on corporate CEO-driven 'bipartisan' House orientation