Monday, August 28, 2017

FEMA administrator: Give money, find out how to get involved in Harvey recovery

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday said the government needs citizens to get involved where they can and give money to assist recovery efforts in Texas amid “catastrophic” flooding expected to last for days in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
“Helping Texas overcome this disaster overcome this disaster is going to be far greater than FEMA coordinating the mission [of] the entire federal government,” FEMA administrator Brock Long said at a news conference. “We need citizens to be involved.”
“This is a landmark event. We have not seen an event like this,” he said. “You could not draw this forecast up. You could not dream this forecast up.”
“This is a whole community effort from all levels of government, and it’s going to require the citizens getting involved,” he said.
He said people can go to nvaod.org if they want to give money, and urged the public in affected areas to stop driving into flooded areas to try to make things less dangerous for recovery teams.

Presidential Responses to Racial Unrest

President Trump’s initial response to the carnage in Charlottesville was criticized for being weak and equivocal. Two days later, he issued a second statement that explicitly condemned the racists and Nazi sympathizers who clashed with counter-protesters, resulting in one death and numerous injuries. But many of his critics were not appeased, saying that Trump had not risen to the occasion the way his predecessors had done when responding to racially tinged social unrest. RCP Assistant Editor James Hitchcock examines previous American presidents’ comments at moments of similar upheaval.

Trump on Charlottesville: The Hate And The Division Must Stop

 President Trump delivered remarks after violence erupted at a demonstration Saturday in Charlottesville, VA between 'white nationalists' and counter-protesters. Over a dozen people were injured and one person was left dead after a vehicle plowed through a group of protesters.

Trump said we are all Americans first and that the hate and division must stop.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, this has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America," the president said at a press conference Saturday.

"We have so many incredible things happening in our country, so when I watch Charlottesville, to me it's very, very sad," Trump also said.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/12/trump_on_charlottesville_the_hate_and_the_division_must_stop.html

'This Week' Roundtable: President Trump's Response To Charlottesville Violence

 https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/13/this_week_roundtable_president_trumps_response_to_charlottesville_violence.html

Trump: Racists Will Be Held Accountable, Justice Will Be Delivered

On Monday, President Trump condemned white supremacists, the KKK, and neo-Nazis in a statement delivered at the White House. Speaking about the Charlottesville tragedy, Trump said those who cause violence in the name of racism are "criminals and thugs."

"The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American, and wounded twenty others," Trump said of the Charlottesville demonstration. "To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend's racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered. As I said on Saturday, we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence. It has no place in America."

"As I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws," he said. "We all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God. We must love each other, show affection for each other, and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry, and violence."


https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/14/trump_racists_will_be_held_accountable_justice_will_be_delivered.html 


Hemingway: Trump Denounced Bigotry On Saturday; There Is A Problem On All Sides, Left And Right

Mollie Hemingway said it's like we are living in an "alternative reality," because people have chosen to ignore President Trump's remarks on Saturday where he denounced bigotry and violence. Hemingway also said Trump is right, there is a violence problem on "both sides," the left and right.
HEMINGWAY: It's like we are living in an alternate reality here. People are not listening to what Donald Trump actually said on Saturday and they are not reading the actual full comments that he gave where he was explicitly denouncing bigotry and violence, where he called on people to come together.

And the fact is there actually is a violence problem on both the left and right. In recent years, Americans have seen violent protests in everywhere from Portland, Berkeley, Ferguson, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Brooklyn, Baltimore. All throughout the country people have experienced violent protests, there was an assassination attempt against Republicans by a totally mainstream progressive leftist activist. And there is a problem on all sides. People need to come together to denounce all of those things, and not tar the entire Democratic party as being part of the leftist violence or the entire Republican party as being part of the rightist violence.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/15/hemingway_trump_denounced_bigotry_on_saturday_there_is_a_problem_on_all_sides_left_and_right.html

 

'Special Report' Panel: Are President Trump's New Charlottesville Remarks Enough?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/08/15/special_report_panel_are_president_trumps_new_charlottesville_remarks_enough.html

A Balanced Threat Assessment of China’s South China Sea Policy

U.S. lawmakers and analysts see China’s efforts to control much of the South China Sea as a serious threat, endangering regional security, freedom of navigation, and the liberal world order. This paper finds that political leaders and experts exaggerate the dangers of China’s South China Sea policy.
As the world’s largest trading nation, China has a deep vested interest in ensuring that trade routes in the South China Sea remain open, and Beijing has no interest in military conflict with regional powers. Although China’s South China Sea policy is inconsistent with some of the norms and institutions of the rules-based liberal world order, Beijing does not seek to undermine this order as a whole and remains supportive of key elements of the international system.
To avoid needlessly entangling itself in the South China Sea dispute, the United States should not support the territorial claims of any state and should make clear that the U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty does not apply to disputed territory and waters claimed by the Philippines. In addition, the United States should encourage claimant states to agree on de facto jurisdiction over disputed areas and to jointly exploit resources while more permanent resolutions are negotiated. Finally, Washington should understand that ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will have little, if any, effect on the South China Sea dispute.

Trump Pardons America's Worst Lawman, Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Donald Trump pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, using the first official pardon of his presidency to clear the record of one of America's most abusive, racist, and divisive lawmen.
In pardoning Arpaio, Trump has given a free pass to an unrepentant and habitual abuser of power, a man with insufficient regard for the Constitution he swore to uphold or the separation of powers it enshrines. The move should come as no surprise. The two are kindred spirits.
A federal judge found Arpaio, who was notorious for jailing inmates in a sweltering desert tent camp, in contempt of court in July for flouting a 2011 order to stop the unconstitutional racial profiling and detainment of Latino residents.
Trump announced in an interview with Fox News earlier this month that he was "seriously considering" pardoning Arpaio, who endorsedTrump in 2016. "He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration," Trump told Fox. "He's a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him."
Civil liberties and immigration advocates loathed Arpaio, and his pardon, they say, marks another ugly moment of Trump using his office to prop up bigotry and nativism. In a statement earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said pardoning Arpaio would be "an official presidential endorsement of racism."

Protectionism Keeps the Swamp Full

Thomas Jefferson was an economic idiot. An import embargo he imposed as president cost the country something like 5 percent of gross domestic product, according to modern studies. But we remember his noble ideas, not his skills with a checkbook.
Abraham Lincoln was a protectionist, too. Nobody remembers this, in part because the economy of the times was so different from the modern system, but also because we don’t understand history as a math problem. We remember the characters, the causes, the conflicts, not the bottom line.
In the politics of our own day, we don’t even understand the math problems as math problems. We latch on to the social issues, the human matters, and tune out the wonkery to such a degree that we miss some pretty whopping contradictions.
Here’s one. Candidate Donald J. Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” a catchphrase that’s taken on a life of its own. He also promised to Make America Great Again, by means of tariffs and tougher trade deals and such.

Did America Surrender on 9/11?

It's been nearly sixteen years since that horrific Islamist terror attack in New York City on 9/11 where nearly 3000 Americans were murdered in the name of Allah.  That day that will forever live in infamy and etched into America's psyche.  While the bodies of those killed were still being counted, we recall former President George W. Bush holding a press conference and defensively proclaiming "Islam is a religion of peace" while half a dozen Muslims (among them Nihad Awad, the founder of CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood front group) stood directly behind him.  Since that fateful day, we have had numerous Islamist attacks (Boston, Orlando, Chattanooga, San Bernardino, Columbus, and countless lesser known attacks) while the number of Muslim immigrants permitted entry onto our shores continues to grow at an accelerated pace.

The proclamation uttered by President Bush is factually false.  Islamic doctrine, Islamic law (Sharia), and the Quran mandate Jihad against non-believers.  The question that needed to be raised then and now is why would a sitting President, who promised to secure our country from within and without, provide cover for those who perpetrated the attack against us?  Furthermore, in a telling moment gone unnoticed by most Americans, why were the representatives of Muslim Brotherhood front groups invited to stand behind him as he uttered that patently false statement?  Nihad Awad, a founder of the Council of American Islamic Relations, was a member of Hamas.  He formed CAIR to be the public relations arm of Hamas in the United States.  His organization, along with dozens more, is named in the Strategic Outline for North America known as an ‘Explanatory Memorandum,’ and was underwritten in 1987 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The manual describes a "civilizational grand jihad" waged against the United States by “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their own hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions."

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/08/did_america_surrender_on_911.html#ixzz4r3VFfW00 

It’s Time To Start Using The Communist Control Act Of 1954!

Communism is a foreign creation, that is specifically designed to displace an established system of government with a dictatorial form of government. The whole idea of Communism is directly in violation of our Constitution. People in the USA are indeed constitutionally allowed to talk about Communism, and call themselves Communists. But once they organize, or try to attain governmental power as a Communist, they then become a direct enemy of our Republic – with the goal of dissolving our democratic rule, and as such, they need to be dealt with as enemy combatants, and infiltrators.
The Communist Control Act (68 Stat. 775, 50 U.S.C. 841-844) is a piece of United States federal legislation, signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower on 24 August 1954, which outlaws the Communist Party of the United States and criminalizes membership in, or support for the Party or “Communist-action” organizations and defines evidence to be considered by a jury in determining participation in the activities, planning, actions, objectives, or purposes of such organizations.
The Communist Control Act was originally proposed as an amendment to the Internal Security Act of 1950, which had sought to combat the spread of communism in labor unions. Apart from its secondary focus which concentrated on the illegality of “communist front organizations” (i.e. labor unions), the bill was drafted with the intention of tackling the root of the communist problem in America: the Communist Party. In its second section, the CCA of 1954 portrayed the American Communist Party as an “agency of a hostile foreign power.” The Party was described as “an instrumentality of a conspiracy to overthrow the government,” and as a “clear, present, and continuing danger to the security of the United States.” The Act made membership to the Communist Party a criminal act and stipulated that all Party members would be sanctioned with up to a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for five years or both. Additionally, according to the third section, the Communist Party would be deprived of “the rights, privileges, and immunities of a legal body.”

http://www.commonsenseevaluation.com/2017/08/28/its-time-to-start-using-the-communist-control-act-of-1954/#sthash.Y4rYW6OU.fcNl6ZWe.dpbs 

Matters of Ecomomics 3

Liberals of all stripes have long vilified the rich for not paying their fair share.  This is just one more big lie they love to tell.  Trump's tax proposal has caused the left to jump out of its skin.  Quote: "Scores of liberals immediately responded to this with some variation of, it is absolutely accurate and you stupid conservatives are allergic to facts!  I replied that my point was that while it's obviously true that many high-income earners will benefit from the proposed reforms, the plan also helps millions of non-rich people -- a reality that the tendentious Times headline ignores, in favor of landing a partisan hit.  Lower tax brackets would be reduced and rates would be slashed, the standard deduction would be doubled, and a hugely simplified system could empower many Americans to file their taxes without feeling forced to pay experts to help them navigate and comply with the Kafkaesque existing code -- to say nothing of across-the-board benefits that flow from a growing economy and turbo-charged job creation.  One liberal blogger inveighed that that discussing the very real benefits of tax cuts to small businesses, which are America's economic engine, amounts to "spin:"     https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2017/04/28/do-the-rich-not-pay-their-fair-share-in-taxes-n2319837?  It has always amazed me of the perpetual ignorance the left displays when dealing with the subject of economics.  Most leftist are in love with Keynesian economics which is largely the cause of the economic mess we are in. This of course is not a full accounting of Keynesian economics but it in effect encourages government debt to stimulate economic activity.  To suggest debt is good is insanity.  Our national debt is $20 trillion and rapidly climbing and that does not account for the trillions more of unfunded government promises attributable to social security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare programs and government retirement programs, etc. that have been mismanaged for many, many years. It is impossible to ever repay this amount of debt...it's  most likely consequence will be a future global economic collapse of epic proportions...resulting in much pain and suffering of undetermined duration.  The global effect is reality because nations across the globe are likewise burdened with uncontrollable debt and economic uncertainty.

Star Parker hits the nail on the head.  Quote: "In 2013, Obama did what liberals claim needs to be done. Tax the rich. Taxes were raised on the highest-income earners and another new tax was levied on investment income of the highest income earners. This was supposed to bring in $650 billion over 10 years in tax revenue. Instead, because of slower economic growth, estimates are, according to former Senator Phil Gramm, that revenues will be five times lower than this.  Free people create and produce. Politicians and bureaucrats produce hot air. Does Schumer really want to help the poor do better under freedom? I invite him to stop sending federal money to Planned Parenthood abortion clinics and to start talking about the importance of family and traditional values that the welfare state has wiped out in inner cities."   https://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2017/05/03/trump-vs-schumer-on-taxes-n2321273?

Very important to read and understand.   http://click.e.independentlivingbullion.com/ViewInBrowser.aspx?

A giant step forward with making government expenditures more transparent.  We will have to wait and see how well it works.   https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/13/u-s-federal-government-spending-is-now-a-single-unified-data-set/ 

This item provides more background to substantiate the claim that is should be abolished.  Past notes have discussed this matter and offered extensive information documenting its abysmal performance in complying with its chartered missions.   https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/04/17/is-the-deep-state-creating-another-crash-of-1929/ 

Trump's tax plan brings the laffer curve back into being. Quote: "A white cloth napkin, now displayed in the National Museum of American History, helped change the course of modern economics. On it, the economist Arthur Laffer in 1974 sketched a curve meant to illustrate his theory that cutting taxes would spur enough economic growth to generate new tax revenue.  More than 40 years after those scribblings, President Trump is reviving the so-called Laffer curve as he announces the broad outlines of a tax overhaul on Wednesday. What the first President George Bush once called “voodoo economics” is back, as Mr. Trump’s advisers argue that deep cuts in corporate taxes will ultimately pay for themselves with an explosion of new business and job creation.    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/us/politics/white-house-economic-policy-arthur-laffer.html?    If the plan gets implemented we will have to wait and see if it works as advertised.  There are some legitimate nay sayers to the plan.  I sure don't know.

This is most disconcerting information regarding the economy.    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/03/29/the-market-has-its-head-buried-deep-in-the-sand/

This provides a visual representation of the burdens citizens bear at the hands of state government debts.  See how you stand within your state.   http://www.visualcapitalist.com/much-state-debt-rests-upon-shoulders/

George Burns

Matters of Ecomomics 2

This is an interesting discussion on why governments waste so much money.  Quote: "Maybe the reason fraud is so pervasive is that penalties are trivial or nonexistent. A 2011 DOD report found hundreds of defense contractors that defrauded the U.S. military subsequently went on to receive more than $1.1 trillion in new Pentagon contracts between 2000 and 2010. Shouldn’t criminal companies be barred from subsequent contracts? Shouldn’t crooked company officials be sent to prison? Or do these things not happen because the same folks are also campaign contributors? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but surely something is amiss. It’s almost as if government is simply a racket for the benefit of insiders."    https://fee.org/articles/the-real-reason-government-wastes-so-much-money/?

An assessment of the Trump tax plan. Quote: "What I love most about this plan is its real-world economic foundation. It embraces a truth that so many want to avoid. If you want jobs, rising wages, and economic growth, you have to stop the war on capital. You have to go the other way. You need to celebrate capital and allow rewards to flow to those who are driving forward economic progress.  It’s a simple but brilliant point. Finally, we’ve got a tax proposal that embraces it."  https://fee.org/articles/trump-s-tax-plan-is-brilliant-politics-and-even-better-economics/?

Most of us knew back then that the whole cash for clunkers idea was a loser.  Well some university types have recently confirmed that it was a loser.  Quote: "Three economists (from MIT and Tex A&M) have crunched the numbers and discovered that Obama’s Cash-for-Clunkers scheme back in 2009 was a failure even by Keynesian standards."    https://fee.org/articles/cash-for-clunkers-was-a-complete-failure/?

Quote: "Billionaire real-estate investor Sam Zell said President Donald Trump has an "extraordinary opportunity" to revive an economy that died under eight years of regulatory oppression under Barack Obama.  "I think we've had 8 years of kind of an anti-business administration with very little representation from the business community," Zell told TheStreet.  Zell wasn't fond of President Obama's nearly $1 trillion stimulus plan back in 2009, The Street noted. "I think President Trump has a similar stimulus opportunity but without the debt because he can achieve that goal by deregulation," the Equity Group Investments chairman added."   http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/Economy/Sam-Zell-Trump-Economy-Obama/2017/05/11/id/789622/?

This is a financial issue that has been known for some time by economists and many in government.  But, as usual the government does nothing.  Quote: "I have warned that whenever a government creates a solution to any crisis, that solution becomes the next crisis. This is what I have called the Paradox of Solution.The unfolding of the exit of the central banks from the Quantitative Easing monetary policy will become a much more serious threat to the financial markets than anyone suspects. The Federal Reserve has already exited and begun to raise rates while also announcing it will NOT be reinvesting the money when the government debt they bought expires. The Federal Reserve is already shortening their balance sheet. Bills of $426 billion will be due at the Fed in 2018, and again about $357 billion a year later. So the Fed will not repurchase that debt. The US economy is absorbing this because US dollars are effectively the only real reserve currency in the world right now."   And, "As central banks appeared as omnipotent purchasers of government bonds to the un-savvy trader, the yields of the debt by no means reflect the risk of a default in the country’s payments. The decline in yields masked the rising risks from fiscal mismanagement that has been widespread. While the Federal Reserve had recently announced that it would no longer reinvest its gains on government bonds that had matured into new US securities, the US bond market will need to find new buyers to absorb the additional supply. That may not be a problem right now, but as other government debt moves into crisis, we will see the capital flight from bonds to equities unfold."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/15/the-coming-central-bank-crisis/

This is what happens when government executives hook up with big business executives.  Quote: "Tim Carney gave his impressions of this budding relationship between GE and the Obama administration in the DC Examiner last July: First, there’s the policy overlap: Obama wants cap-and-trade, GE wants cap-and-trade. Obama subsidizes embryonic stem-cell research, GE launches an embryonic stem-cell business. Obama calls for rail subsidies, GE hires Linda Daschle [wife of former South Dakota Senator and Obama confidante Tom Dachle] as a rail lobbyist. Obama gives a speeeh, GE employee Chris Matthews feels a thrill up his leg. I could go on. And Carney does go on in a December 2009 Examiner piece: Look at any major Obama policy initiative — healthcare reform, climate-change regulation, embryonic stem-cell research, infrastructure stimulus, electrical transmission smart-grids — and you’ll find GE has set up shop, angling for a way to pocket government handouts, gain business through mandates, or profit from government regulation."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/06/the-audacity-of-corporate-cronies/   Obama always said he was for the little guys but actually always worked with the big guys.  Let's hope Trump does not follow that example.

And this item examines the consequences likely when our government kicks cans down the road because they are cowards and do not attack the real problems that they collectively over time have caused.   http://www.conservativezone.com/articles/fiscal-hawks-lose-on-budget-bill/  

Wonder what liberals will think about this?  North Carolina defied the dire predictions of the liberal left that rejectingimplementing.  Quote: "Yeah, that 3 percent corporate income tax rate was one of Governor McCrory’s campaign promises kept, as he slashed both corporate and individual income taxes.  The Prosperity Cup is different from the magazine’s Business Climate rankings, but even in that, the Tar Heel state ranked #2 (behind Georgia).  Among the factors that go into the Prosperity Cup: new and expanded facilities and the capital investment that goes along with them; new jobs created; Business Climate ranking; state tax climate as ranked by the Tax Foundation; and performance in the Beacon Hill Institute’s State Competitiveness Index. For factors such as number of facilities and new jobs, both total numbers and per-capita numbers were considered.  Yeah, that 3 percent corporate income tax rate was one of Governor McCrory’s campaign promises kept, as he slashed both corporate and individual income taxes.  The Prosperity Cup is different from the magazine’s Business Climate rankings, but even in that, the Tar Heel state ranked #2 (behind Georgia).  Among the factors that go into the Prosperity Cup: new and expanded facilities and the capital investment that goes along with them; new jobs created; Business Climate ranking; state tax climate as ranked by the Tax Foundation; and performance in the Beacon Hill Institute’s State Competitiveness Index. For factors such as number of facilities and new jobs, both total numbers and per-capita numbers were considered."   http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2017/05/09/defying-liberal-predictions-this-state-outperforms-all-others-in-economic-development-and-appeal/?   

This piece by Walter Williams begs the question: Is President Trump right about trade deficits?  Quote: "When we discuss international trade and balance of payments, there are two types of accounts. There is the current account, which includes goods and services imported and exported and receives the most political attention. In 2016, the American people imported $479 billion worth of goods and services from Chinese producers, and we sold $170 billion worth of goods and services to Chinese customers. That made for a $309 billion current account deficit. In other words, we purchase more goods and services from Chinese producers than Chinese consumers purchase from American producers.  How much of a problem is it when there is a deficit, or a negative imbalance, on current accounts? Let's look at it."    https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2017/05/03/trade-ignorance-and-demagoguery-n2320565? 

Government imposed demands for minimum wage unhinged to the cost of doing business is a fooling thing to do.  People get hurt.  Quote: "Washington, D.C. will lose thousands of jobs as the district's plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 goes into effect, while the higher wages will primarily benefit workers in the surrounding suburbs, according to a new report by the city's chief financial officer.  D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spearheaded the effort for a $15 minimum wage, more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Analysis by the city's Office of Revenue Analysis, however, says the plan could cost the district 2,500 jobs by 2026, the Washington Times reports.  The district's minimum wage is currently $11.50 an hour and each year will grow by 70 cents until it reaches $15 in three years. After 2020, the minimum wage will grow based on inflation."   And, "D.C. restaurants lost 1,400 jobs in the first six months of 2016 and experienced their worst hiring period in 15 years. Suburbs in Virginia and Maryland added nearly 3,000 jobs over the same period."    http://freebeacon.com/issues/dc-report-jobs-lost-minimum-wage-hike-goes-into-effect/

Many economic experts believe the establishment of the Federal Reserve was one of the biggest mistakes our government has ever made.  That is my opinion, too.  This item provides help us understand why.  Quote: "There can be no doubt that, as the audit bill advances through the legislative process, the Fed and its allies will ramp up both public and behind-the-scenes efforts to kill the bill. Can anyone dismiss the possibility that Janet Yellen will attempt to “persuade” Donald Trump to drop his support for Audit the Fed in exchange for an “accommodative” monetary policy that supports the administration’s proposed spending on overseas militarism and domestic infrastructure?  While auditing the Fed is supported by the vast majority of Americans, it is opposed by powerful members of the financial elite and the deep state. Therefore, those of us seeking to change our national monetary policy must redouble our efforts to force Congress to put America on a path to liberty, peace, and prosperity by auditing, then ending, the Fed."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/04/17/the-federal-reserve-is-and-always-has-been-politicized/  

Matters of Ecomomics 1

This should open some people's eyes.  Quote: "Even though I write about our ongoing long-term economic collapse every day, I didn’t realize that things were this bad.  In this article, I am going to show you that the average rate of growth for the U.S. economy over the past 10 years is exactly equal to the average rate that the U.S. economy grew during the 1930s.  Perhaps this fact shouldn’t be that surprising, because we already knew that Barack Obama was the only president in the entire history of the United States not to have a single year when the economy grew by at least 3 percent.  Of course the mainstream media continues to push the perception that the U.S. economy is in “recovery mode”, but the truth is that this current era has far more in common with the Great Depression than it does with times of great economic prosperity."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/06/02/over-the-last-10-years-the-us-economy-has-grown-at-exactly-the-same-rate-as-it-did-during-the-1930s/ 

This is what Trump is doing that is making the political left unhappy.  But, many Americans and businesses are happy.  He is removing the Obama era shackles that were choking the economy.  See the results.  http://www.libertyheadlines.com/trump-deregulates-left-cries-foul/?  

This video reveals the truth about how bad big government is for small businesses.    https://www.prageru.com/courses/economics/big-government-kills-small-businesses

This item details a totally different banking concept that is taking hold.  Check it out.    http://www.wealthauthority.com/articles/is-it-time-to-hop-on-board-with-bofi-holding/

This former Goldman Sachs executive and Trump appointee believes the too big to fail banks need to be shrunk to size.  Lets hope that corrective action is taken to make it happen.  Quote: "In a private meeting with lawmakers, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said he supports a policy that could radically reshape Wall Street’s biggest firms by separating their consumer-lending businesses from their investment banks, said people with direct knowledge of the matter. Cohn, the ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive who is now advising President Donald Trump, said he generally favors banking going back to how it was when firms like Goldman focused on trading and underwriting securities, and companies such as Citigroup Inc. primarily issued loans, according to the people, who heard his comments. The remarks surprised some senators and congressional aides who attended the Wednesday meeting, as they didn’t expect a former top Wall Street executive to speak favorably of proposals that would force banks to dramatically rethink how they do business.   https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/04/07/destroy-all-monsters-cohn-said-to-back-wall-street-split-of-lending-investment-banks/

This deals with the subject of government pushing the minimum wage.  A good or bad idea?  Quote: In fact, given all the talking points and media coverage the issue has received lately, it's not surprising that most people assume that approximately 30 percent of US workforce earns minimum wage. Presumably something that gets so much attention affects a lot of people, right?  It only affects 1.5 percent of the entire workforce."    https://fee.org/articles/the-minimum-wage-conspiracy/?   More bad news regarding the minimum wage.    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/26/new-study-casts-doubt-on-whether-a-15-minimum-wage-really-helps-workers/?    More.  Robots are replacing low waged workers.    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-27/minimum-wage-massacre-wendys-unleashes-1000-robots-counter-higher-labor-costs  And, http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-ex-ceo-takes-on-minimum-wage-2016-5    Liberals must be proud to have eliminated beginner jobs for teens.  They were starter jobs.  They were never intended to pay adult workers a living wage.

This despicable arrangement between crony capitalist and government is one of the reasons our country is in such deep trouble.  https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/08/15/corporate-welfare-how-big-business-lives-off-government-subsidy/

It is government that destroys jobs.  This item explains.   https://fee.org/articles/governments-destroy-jobs-not-automation/?


It is time for both Yellen and the FED to go the way of the do-do bird.   https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/07/10/janet-yellen-false-prophet-of-prosperity/

The political left proves over and over again that they do not understand even the simple basics of economic.  Take a look at this quick review of comments Obama made several years ago and those socialist Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly spouted.   http://www.wnd.com/2017/07/you-didnt-build-that-5-years-later/   No wonder socialist economies always fail.  To them individual initiative and hard work does not exist.  Government is the source of all things right and good - they think of government as a god.

Democrats and good fiscal management do not go together.  This item elaborates.  https://libertywriters.com/2017/06/democrats-destroyed-state-unbelievable-happens-next-sick/  That being said, Republicans are more responsible but not nearly as much as they need to be.

Quote: "In a column from December of 2015, the Wall Street Journal's Mary O'Grady unveiled an inconvenient fact that poverty warriors on the American left and right would perhaps prefer remain hidden: from 1980 to 2000, when the U.S. economy boomed, the number of Mexican arrivals into the U.S. grew from 2.2 million in 1980 to 9.4 million in 2000. The previous number is a clear market signal that the U.S. is where poverty has always been cured, as opposed to a condition that requires specific U.S. policy fixes. Economic progress always and everywhere springs from investment. O'Grady's statistics came to mind while reading a recent New York Times column by Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He writes that a "highly progressive agenda [from Democratic scholars and politicians] has been coming together in recent months, one with the potential to unite both the Hillary and Bernie wings of the party, to go beyond both Clintonomics and Obamanomics."  The problem is that the agenda that's got Bernstein so giddy has nothing to do with the very economic growth that is always the source of rising economic opportunity for the poor, middle and rich."     https://fee.org/articles/the-politically-hopeless-completely-incoherent-and-totally-lame-economic-agenda-of-the-democratic-party/?

We all need to consider the implications of the contents of this piece. Quote: "As part of its historical revision to GDP, the BEA also had to adjust personal income and spending, with the full results released in today’s July report. What it revealed was striking: over the revised period, disposable personal income for US household was slashed cumulatively by over $120 billion to just under $14.4 trillion, while spending was revised higher by $105 billion, to just above $13.8 trillion. There were two immediate consequences of this result."     https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/08/02/a-quarter-trillion-dollars-in-us-savings-was-just-wiped-away/

We can learn something from this guy. Quote: "For an excellent (albeit indirect) analysis of how Austrians and libertarians can advance their cause from a minority position, Taleb’s recent article The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority is a must-read. He reminds us that a small minority with courage—the most important form of skin in the game— can prevail over the slumbering masses. And he also reminds us that courageous individual actors, not 51% mass movements, drive real changes in every society: The entire growth of society, whether economic or moral, comes from a small number of people. So we close this chapter with a remark about the role of skin in the game in the condition of society. Society doesn’t evolve by consensus, voting, majority, committees, verbose meeting, academic conferences, and polling; only a few people suffice to disproportionately move the needle. All one needs is an asymmetric rule somewhere. And asymmetry is present in about everything."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/05/03/what-nassim-taleb-can-teach-us/#more-149453

This has been said before but is worth a repeat.  Paul Craig Roberts knows of what he speaks.  Quote: "For 66 years the Glass-Steagall act reduced the risks in the banking system. Eight years after the act was repealed, the banking system blew up threatening the international economy. US taxpayers were forced to come up with $750 billion dollars, a sum much larger than the Pentagon’s budget, in order to bail out the banks. This huge sum was insufficient to do the job. The Federal Reserve had to step in and expand its balance sheet by $4 trillion in order to protect the solvency of banks declared “too big to fail.”   And, "The enormous increase in the supply of dollars known as Quantitative Easing inflated financial asset prices instead of the consumer price index. This rise in bond and stock prices is a major cause of the worsening income and wealth distribution in the United States. The economic polarization has undercut the image and reality of the US as a land of opportunity and has introduced political and economic instability into the life of the country.  These are huge costs and for the benefit only of the rich who were already rich.  So, what we can say about the repeal of Glass-Steagall is that it turned a somewhat egalitarian democracy with a large middle class into the One Percent vs. the 99 percent. The repeal resulted in the destruction of the image of the United States as an open prosperous society. The electorate is very much aware of the decline in their economic situation, and this awareness expressed itself in the last presidential election."    And, "Not only must Glass-Steagall be restored, but also the large banks must be reduced in size. That any corporation is too big to fail is a contradiction of the justification of capitalism. Capitalism’s justification is that those corporations that misuse resources and make losses go out of business, thus releasing the misused resources to those who can use them profitably. Capitalism is supposed to benefit society, not be dependent on society to bail it out."    https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/06/10/without-glass-steagall-america-will-fail/

Friday, August 25, 2017

George Soros Floods Local DA Races With $1.7M in Philadelphia

Liberal billionaire George Soros gave nearly $1.7 million to a political action committee run by his longtime treasurer to aid a Democrat who is running for the district attorney position in Philadelphia, Pa., the latest in a series of such expenditures.
Soros has generously funded a number of district attorney races throughout the United States in recent years via political action committees that tend to shut down after each election.
Soros cut a $1,450,000 check on April 28 to the Philadelphia Justice & Public Safety PAC, a super political action committee established on May 5 that lists its address at the D.C. office of the Perkins Coie law firm. Whitney Tymas, who has been involved with a number of Soros PACs, is listed as the PAC's operator, records show. The PAC's purpose is to back progressive attorney Larry Krasner, the Democratic nominee for district attorney in Philadelphia.
Soros made a second donation to the Philadelphia Justice & Public Safety PAC on May 23 for $214,000, bringing the total amount that he has pushed into the Philadelphia district attorney race to nearly $1.7 million dollars. This is the first time a super PAC has supported a candidate for district attorney in the city.
Beth Grossman, a prosecutor who is the Republican nominee for district attorney in Philadelphia, said it is disturbing that Soros, an outsider who "knows nothing" about public safety issues in the city, is throwing massive amounts of money behind her "far-left" opponent.

Update: New Comey FBI Lawsuit

Former FBI Director James Comey sits in a firestorm of his own making.  By his own admission, he created and then leaked memos to ensure that a special counsel would be appointed to investigate President Trump.  It looks as if Comey broke government rules and laws as part of his machinations.  Special Counsel Mueller is unlikely to investigate his friend Comey, and so it is up to your Judicial Watch to do the work of the Justice Department, FBI, Congress, and the media.
For that reason, we have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice for all non-disclosure agreements pertaining to the handling, storage, protection, dissemination, and/or return of classified information that were signed by or on behalf of former FBI Director James Comey (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01624)).
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Justice Department failed to respond to our June 13, 2017, FOIA request seeking “any and all non-disclosure agreements pertaining in full or in part to the handling, storage, protection, dissemination, and/or return of classified and/or sensitive information that were signed by or on behalf of former FBI Director James Comey.” Such records would include:
  • All SF-312 (Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement) forms
  • All FD-857 (Sensitive Information Nondisclosure Agreement) forms
  • All FD-597 (Receipt for Property Received/Returned/Released or Seized) forms
  • All FD-291 (FBI Employment Agreement) forms
  • All Case Briefing Acknowledgement forms
In June, Judicial Watch sent the FBI a warning letter concerning the FBI’s legal responsibility under the Federal Records Act (FRA) to recover records, including memos Comey subsequently leaked to the media and unlawfully removed from the bureau by Comey. Judicial Watch later filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Justice for information about Comey’s memorandum written after his meeting with President Trump regarding potential interference by the Russians in the 2016 presidential election (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-01189)).