**President Trump 2018 Thread**

[caulfield12]

"Many incredibly bad lower-level appointments have flown under the public’s radar. We only get a sense of how bad things are from the occasional story that breaks through, like that of Trump’s nominee to head the Indian Health Service, who appears to have lied about his credentials. (A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services says a tornado destroyed his employment records.)”

 

Even worse, the more qualified members of Trump's team are exiting in droves: "There has been a huge exodus of experienced personnel at the State Department; perhaps even more alarming, there is reportedly a similar exodus at the National Security Agency."

 

Checks and balances appear to be fleeing the scene, too. The GOP may have cared during Watergate, Krugman writes, "but these days they clearly see their job as being one of protecting the V.S.G.’s [Very Stable Genius] privileges, of letting him do whatever he wants."

 

Republican leadership is only too happy to do Trump's bidding. "Until now," Krugman recalls, "it wasn’t entirely clear whether pro-cover-up members of Congress, like Devin Nunes, who has been harassing the Justice Department as it attempts to investigate Russian election interference, were freelancing. But Paul Ryan, the House speaker, has now fully taken Nunes’s side, in effect going all in on obstruction."

 

Even worse, "two Republican senators made the first known congressional referral for criminal charges related to Russian intervention — not against those who may have worked with a hostile foreign power, but against the former British spy who prepared a dossier about possible Trump-Russia collusion."

 

The people who should be protecting Americans from the president's worst impulses are only encouraging them. Krugman leaves us on a bitter note: "We spent more than two centuries building a great nation, and even a very stable genius probably needs a couple of years to complete its ruin."

 

https://www.salon.com/2018/01/13/we-are-los...-house_partner/

 

[RockRaines]

Trump is not a Republican. The better question wouldn't be why are Republican posters silent but why are Trump supporters silent. Unless they actually believe what he said to be just.

 

I have to say, if you think it's OK for Trump to say things like that, you may just be clueless about politics.

Either are his policies or his closest advisors. Alt right and evangelicals have taken control and many of the actual republicans I know are basically lost or disenfranchised.

[Balta1701]

Either are his policies or his closest advisors. Alt right and evangelicals have taken control and many of the actual republicans I know are basically lost or disenfranchised.

And yet the Republican party overwhelmingly voted for him, and the Republicans in Congress and the Senate go along with him constantly, and yesterday we have a republican Senate candidate/current representative describing his remarks as "saying what we're all thinking"...

 

Maybe worth thinking about how that all happened. The people who said "We'll never vote for Trump!" are such a tiny minority of the Republican party that they don't matter at all.

[caulfield12]

Right now that Walmart has the ability to make money they need to fire more employees as a result. It can’t be that they’re following the rest of the industry is getting swallowed by Amazon and the e-commerce market. I’m sure once the BOD heard they were keeping a greater percentage of their profits they thought, “Great now we can fire more people to upset people who have never worked in the real world.”

 

I worked at a restaurant when Obamacare went into effect. They cut two salaried managers and made three assistant managers. This was so they would spend less on benefits. Clearly these payouts and layoffs are a result of Obamacare, that is one thing we can both agree upon. This healthcare legislation dramitcially hurt those lives and it’s 100% the fault of the left’s health care legislation.

 

Or....Costco is kicking our butts, and we need to be more competitive...and changing the structure of a misaligned strategic business model won’t be solved simply by injecting extra capital or bonuses.

 

Or...ObamaCare gives us a nice coincidental political cover to go ahead and get rid of some workers. It’s always better to blame someone or something else.

 

And can we really argue that the difference in your restaurant example overrides the benefits to 13 million people? Do you know anyone who didn’t have health care or couldn’t afford it previously who is alive today? ObamaCare is slowing costs in many markets. Study after study has also shown that health care costs on those with insurance increase when those without it continue to utilize emergency room services...or that CHIP actually pays for itself over time by preventing adverse long-term health consequences by providing proactive/preventive care in the earlier stages of life.

 

Finally, it was Romney’s health care plan, just more conservative than the Massachusetts version.

[Balta1701]

Right now that Walmart has the ability to make money they need to fire more employees as a result. It can’t be that they’re following the rest of the industry is getting swallowed by Amazon and the e-commerce market. I’m sure once the BOD heard they were keeping a greater percentage of their profits they thought, “Great now we can fire more people to upset people who have never worked in the real world.”

 

I worked at a restaurant when Obamacare went into effect. They cut two salaried managers and made three assistant managers. This was so they would spend less on benefits. Clearly these payouts and layoffs are a result of Obamacare, that is one thing we can both agree upon. This healthcare legislation dramitcially hurt those lives and it’s 100% the fault of the left’s health care legislation.

Here's the basic problem - when you posted the original post about the raises, you totally ignored what I bolded. Guess who raised their wages before the tax cuts without giving them credit? Target. The wage raises that you bought into walmart crediting the tax cuts - they literally were matching raises by Target.$11/hr. And yet, you totally bought the "flatter the Republicans and this will go great!" BS, which is why you're getting called out. They were reacting to market conditions, but because you need to show that the Republicans are great, you have to accept the praise they're giving you even though they're playing you for a fool.

 

You are right about one thing - the health care legislation absolutely did hurt people. It also helped a helluva lot more people (it's literally the only reason I have my current job, and I have nothing to do with the health care field). I'll go ahead and accept that as something that was the best we could do and defend it because it was the best we could do. We really do need to do a better job of saying "people are being hurt by legislation we're passing and therefore we should also make more government benefits available to those who are hurt" - a statement that goes triple for trade deals. But you know what would be nice? If we could get one party on board with the idea that in the richest country in history, people who get sick should get access to treatment. If I could get one party on board with that concept, get you on board with that concept, I will give you a better health care bill that hurts fewer people.

[caulfield12]

The irony here is that Amazon is the big villain now. Because of Bezos and WaPo, etc.

 

But Wal-Mart and Costco and Sam’s Club wiped out how many jobs all across rural America....mostly family-owned/small businesses that used to be the backbone of a small community? Amazon is simply the digital version, the next evolution of Wal-Mart.

 

Btw, did Republicans, who received millions of dollars in donations from the Walton Family (Clinton’s got money, too)...target Wal-Mart?

 

Consumers aren’t always better off with the cheapest products...because you’re not accounting for quality and the job losses in domestic industries to get to that lowest possible cost. Of course, the other side of the coin is blue collar labor rates are still flat in the US, with one of the biggest factors being the evisceration of labor unions.

Edited January 14, 2018 by caulfield12

[RockRaines]

Right now that Walmart has the ability to make money they need to fire more employees as a result. It can’t be that they’re following the rest of the industry is getting swallowed by Amazon and the e-commerce market. I’m sure once the BOD heard they were keeping a greater percentage of their profits they thought, “Great now we can fire more people to upset people who have never worked in the real world.”

 

I worked at a restaurant when Obamacare went into effect. They cut two salaried managers and made three assistant managers. This was so they would spend less on benefits. Clearly these payouts and layoffs are a result of Obamacare, that is one thing we can both agree upon. This healthcare legislation dramitcially hurt those lives and it’s 100% the fault of the left’s health care legislation.

The way the ACA finally turned out definitely hurt some businesses, especially small ones. It was a decent start but it 100% could have been done better and still could.

[caulfield12]

Rock Raines is right.

 

It’s easier to fix the holes in the system instead of ditching it completely, trying to overreach with Medicare for all or just completely surrendering to insurance companies, hospital risk calculators and the pharmaceutical industry.

 

Odds are the country will be so frustrated in the next few years that it will be one of the top 2-3 campaign issues again in 2020.

 

This time, hopefully we’ll have people in place more interested in finding solutions than padding their own investment portfolio and riding on a private jet (Dr. Tom Price). Kennedy from LA is the Republican with the highest expertise, willingness to experiment and the most consistent ability to at least try to work across partisan lines.

 

 

 

After Trump Tax Break Pfizer Ends Funding For Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Research And Gives Billions to Investors

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-tax-break-...-130002411.html

 

I’m happy for my Pfizer stock, but this isn’t a good result for the country overall...

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

This was announced September 25th, at least 3 months before anyone had certainty about the GOP tax cuts.

IKEA, Costco, Whole Foods (Amazon), GAP...have all taken the same steps to increase wages.

 

Conservative companies can retroactively turn around and curry favor by crediting the administration...but the facts on the ground don’t support that particular conclusion. In a tight labor market, in certain industries, wage hikes were bound to occur eventually. There’s been pressure in that direction for the last 2-3 years.

 

 

Thousands of Target employees are about to get a raise.

 

The big-box retailer said Monday it will start raising its minimum wage next month from $10 an hour and will eventually reach $11 for all its U.S. stores.

 

The pay raise will outpace Wal-Mart's recent increase in its minimum wage. The two retailers have been engaged in a quiet wage war for years.

 

Target raised its hourly minimum pay rate in April 2015 to $9, up from the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour at the time. That move came in response to an announcement by Wal-Mart in February, where Wal-Mart promised to lift its base pay to $10 an hour by 2016.

 

While Wal-Mart has touted past pay increases, using earnings conference calls to circulate the news, Target has moved more stealthily, only saying earlier this year that it would be investing billions of dollars back into the company.

 

When asked on a call with media about Target's decision to make Monday's news considerably more public, CEO Brian Cornell said he wants to be "very definitive" and "very declarative" about Target's commitment to, and investment in, its employees.

 

"Target has always offered market-competitive wages to our team members," Cornell said in a statement. "With this latest commitment, we'll be providing even more meaningful pay, as well as the tools, training, and support ... that set Target apart."

 

Target also reiterated its sales and earnings outlook for the third quarter and full year. That means the increased salary expenses aren't expected to affect the retailer's bottom line, since Target baked the wage hike into its $7 billion investment plan.

 

"This is our continued focus of investing in the Target team," said Cornell.

 

Target said the wage increases will begin in October and will apply to the 100,000 temporary workers that the retailer plans to hire ahead of the holidays. Only two states in the U.S. — Massachusetts and Washington — currently have a minimum wage of $11 per hour. All others fall below that threshold, but many states already have plans in place to further hike pay in the coming years.

 

Target also committed to boosting its minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/25/target-to-r...nimum-wage.html

Edited January 14, 2018 by caulfield12

[Dick Allen]

Also this $1000 one time bonuses are based on service time. Most lower waged employees will get around $200. MAGA.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Dick Allen

[RockRaines]

Also this $1000 one time bonuses are based on service time. Most lower waged employees will get around $200. MAGA.

There was a time when companies always gave their employees annul bonuses.....

[Middle Buffalo]

That post regularly anymore? Hard to think of any. Admitting to the R word in today's world can cost you your livelihood.

Admitting on a Chicago White Sox message board that you are Republican can cost you your livelihood?

 

Um, ok.

[pettie4sox]

Admitting on a Chicago White Sox message board that you are Republican can cost you your livelihood?

 

Um, ok.

 

pretty sure he forgot the /g

[Balta1701]

What are you even talking about with that first paragraph? You do this thing where you misrepresent someone’s argument and then tear it down. Like what world do you live in where there’s some interaction with me and these mysterious republicans are trying to cajole me and praise me and are playing me for a fool? I don’t speak for a party. I don’t have people trying to dupe me on how things work in the world. I haven’t taken a liberal arts class in years and if anyone’s being made a fool it’s the person who thinks the government is the solution to every problem in the world.

Did you or did you not post this?

https://t.co/3goQfjM7vC

 

Country’s top employer raises minimum wage and gives bonuses as a result of GOP tax plan.

So, you have:

 

1. Bought into the idea that this is the result of the GOP tax plan

2. Ignored the fact that their competition did the exact same thing without the GOP tax plan

3. Been willing to give the GOP tax plan credit for things you like and ignore the things you didn't like.

 

If you "don't speak for a party" and you "don't have people trying to dupe me on how things work in the world", well I give you your own words.

[caulfield12]

Apparently you must be a Democrat if you take a liberal arts class. Ugh.

Republicans are either doctors, engineers, lawyers and MBA grads.

 

Let’s not forget that the majority of immigrant groups majoring in STEM subjects are definitely not GOP voters...nevertheless, all Millennials majoring in humanities are unemployed/don’t pay taxes, live in their mom’s basement and voted for Sanders.

 

I guess the corollary is that all white/male non-college graduates voted for Trump, but are never duped or uninformed. The wonders of groupthink. College graduates (especially women) are brainwashed by liberal professors. Everyone else by Facebook, Russian bots, FOX News and Breitbart.

 

Since the majority of SoxTalk has at least a BA/BS, and are disproportionately white and male, compared to the general US population, shouldn’t they be voting or identifying with the GOP following that line of logic?

 

Perhaps the solution is to invite some Ricketts-worshipping Cubs’ board posters to the Filibuster to make for livelier debates?

 

No stereotypes there at all, right?

Edited January 14, 2018 by caulfield12

[greg775]

Apparently you must be a Democrat if you take a liberal arts class. Ugh.

Republicans are either doctors, engineers, lawyers and MBA grads.

 

Let’s not forget that the majority of immigrant groups majoring in STEM subjects are definitely not GOP voters...nevertheless, all Millennials majoring in humanities are unemployed/don’t pay taxes, live in their mom’s basement and voted for Sanders.

 

I guess the corollary is that all white/male non-college graduates voted for Trump, but are never duped or uninformed. The wonders of groupthink. College graduates (especially women) are brainwashed by liberal professors. Everyone else by Facebook, Russian bots, FOX News and Breitbart.

 

Since the majority of SoxTalk has at least a BA/BS, and are disproportionately white and male, compared to the general US population, shouldn’t they be voting or identifying with the GOP following that line of logic?

 

Perhaps the solution is to invite some Ricketts-worshipping Cubs’ board posters to the Filibuster to make for livelier debates?

 

No stereotypes there at all, right?

 

[greg775]

Hmmm. Lots of people at the meeting now saying Trump never said 's***hole'. Interesting. Libel suit?

[BigSqwert]

Hmmm. Lots of people at the meeting now saying Trump never said 's***hole'. Interesting. Libel suit?

 

By lots of people, you mean his allies?

[Dick Allen]

Hmmm. Lots of people at the meeting now saying Trump never said 's***hole'. Interesting. Libel suit?

He said s***house.

[Dick Allen]

Hmmm. Lots of people at the meeting now saying Trump never said 's***hole'. Interesting. Libel suit?

Give them lie detector tests.

[BigSqwert]

Hmmm. Lots of people at the meeting now saying Trump never said 's***hole'. Interesting. Libel suit?

 

https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/952667648084578304

[caulfield12]

Perdue and Bolton couldn’t recall last week.

 

Now for the Sunday morning political shows, one of their memories is miraculously clearer?

 

And Durbin/Lindsey Graham are clearly wrong? Graham didnt deny anything. Trump himself hasn’t walked back the characterization about Africa, only the Haiti stuff.

 

Durbin, btw, said Trump’s s***house/hole comment was made repeatedly.

[RockRaines]

Hmmm. Lots of people at the meeting now saying Trump never said 's***hole'. Interesting. Libel suit?

[caulfield12]

Greg, put it this way.

 

Trump has lied literally 2000 times since taking office.

 

If Durbin could be proven wrong, he has a LOT more to lose. Imagine the headlines from conservative media for weeks and weeks. Limbaugh would spend on a month on the left’s efforts to discredit the president and prevent America from being great again.

 

Keep in mind, Cotton and Perdue represent Arkansas and Georgia, as well.

 

They, and, Trump has made patently clear...can lie with zero consequences from their base. I’m not sure Durbin could survive such a firestorm, if there were tapes, as Trump’s always asserting he should have. Surely, there are copious notes somewhere.

[greg775]

How can we assume the first source is correct when several people are saying Trump didn't say the word? Trump is gonna have a field day with the "fake news" charges he likes so much.