Trump II

[JoeKitchen]

A summation of this thread. 

[Alan Goldhammer]

One would think so... in theory, at least.

In practice, however: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-social-security-paying-millions-to-dead-people/article/2576250#!

So, there is that.

Thanks for posting a link to a throw away tabloid that is distributed at DC Metro stations.  BTW, the link in the article sends one to a page that doesn't exist.  I've looked through the OIG audit reports that deal with the death issue and it's more complicated than one would assume.  SSA actually requires proof that someone died though maybe in the Trump era it can rely on alternate facts.

[Rob C]

Well, in my country the USA, not only do we have the right to vote, we have to freedom and right to not vote.

Which, of course, is the same silly situation as in the UK: the right to be a citizen should include the requirement to play one's part in the nation's big decisions, not simply to bitch about them later, and blame everybody else who voted for voting the wrong way. You can imagine how I feel about the Brexit vote: I wasn't given the chance to air my opinion, despite being one of the people out in the fucking battle-zone-to-be.

Even more annoying: I watched Sky News' financial spot last night and they floated a graph indicating that today's pensioners are so much more wealthy than the younger people in their late twenties; it was claimed that the average pensioner earns about £24,000 a year. I just received a note from the Pensions agency telling me that from mid-April, my state pension will rise to £123.99 (note the generosity in the 0.99!) a week, which last time I wound up the calculator, made a yearly sum of £6447.48.

It would cost more to feed an Alsation (dog). The actual living shortfall means that whatever I happened to save during my working years is vanishing by leaps and bounds, the banks paying no interest beyond an insult. Was a time back in the 80s when interest was almost enough to keep a couple alive. And this one of the governments that keeps harping on about the joys of self-employment, one of the prinicipal reasons why pensioners I know in my situation are feeling the pain. In retrospect, far better to be Mr Joe Blogs and do the 9 to 5 and stop thinking. They will love you for it, even your income taxation is easier for them to collect. The truth is governments don't love small business; it consumes individual time and personal attention in some cases, all for not very much, and for access to fewer social services. No work for a couple of months? Tough shit: no unemployment benefits for you, you capitalist bloodsucker. But hey, thanks for keeping the unemloyment figures down, stupid lad!

Bah.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Thanks for posting a link to a throw away tabloid that is distributed at DC Metro stations...

Is that the best argument you can have? Ad hominem (or is it the 21st century equivalent: ad media?) - questioning the Inspector General report itself just because it was reported in a tabloid?

Fair enough. Just for you, I hope an unquestionable source, PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/death-stop-social-security-payments/

Social security numbers active for 6.5 million people aged 112...  One Social Security number was used 613 different times. An additional 194 numbers were used at least 50 times each... People in the country illegally often use fake or stolen Social Security numbers...

[Alan Goldhammer]

Even more annoying: I watched Sky News' financial spot last night and they floated a graph indicating that today's pensioners are so much more wealthy than the younger people in their late twenties; it was claimed that the average pensioner earns about £24,000 a year. I just received a note from the Pensions agency telling me that from mid-April, my state pension will rise to £123.99 (note the generosity in the 0.99!) a week, which last time I wound up the calculator, made a yearly sum of £6447.48.

Is that your government pension similar to our Social Security?

The actual living shortfall means that whatever I happened to save during my working years is vanishing by leaps and bounds, the banks paying no interest beyond an insult. Was a time back in the 80s when interest was almost enough to keep a couple alive. And this one of the governments that keeps harping on about the joys of self-employment, one of the prinicipal reasons why pensioners I know in my situation are feeling the pain. In retrospect, far better to be Mr Joe Blogs and do the 9 to 5 and stop thinking. They will love you for it, even your income taxation is easier for them to collect. The truth is governments don't love small business; it consumes individual time and personal attention in some cases, all for not very much, and for access to fewer social services. No work for a couple of months? Tough shit: no unemployment benefits for you, you capitalist bloodsucker. But hey, thanks for keeping the unemloyment figures down, stupid lad!

Bah.

While I am sympathetic to those who have retired (I am one of them myself), there is no written law that says interest rates have to be X%.  Yes, interest rates are low now and they certainly were much higher in the early 1980s.  But remember that because of the massive hike in oil prices in the 1970s when OPEC was formed, economies all over were hit hard.  Stagflation was huge in the US and the Volker, head of the US Fed (our central bank) raised interest rates big time.  Of course those with bank deposits were happy but those buying houses were certainly not with the mortgage rate at about 14%!  I remember my father-in-law buying our new born daughter a zero coupon bond that paid 14%/year and when it matured on her 18th birthday it was enough to pay for one full year at a private college.  So it cuts both ways and one has to adapt to the changing times.  Bank accounts are not going to give one a pleasant retirement any longer.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

It is important to distinguish between nominal interest rates (that all seem to remember and compare) from real interest rates, i.e., nominal minus inflation. In other words, interest rates could have been in the double digits, but inflation was just as well. Both are low today.

But looks like Rob is right: in the eighties, the real rates were quite positive:

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

So, 18 days ago, President Trump was informed about Michael Flynn's talks with the Russian ambassador. Now, only after the media started reporting about it, Trump took action and suddenly fired Flynn. Why? Was it becoming too dangerous to deny involvement (with Russia)? What are the involvements?

I've said it before, the role of the media is becoming more important than ever before ...

Cheers,
Bart

[Rob C]

That £24,000 would of course include a working lifetime of contributions to occupational pensions for those in employment and a working lifetime of contributions to personal pensions for the self employed.

Indeed, that has to be the only way of coming up with figures like that.

But there was always a glitch regarding the self-employed: one never really knew what the hell one would be able to afford in a year or two's time. Long-term commitments were very dodgy deals, and it wasn't always possible to get pension plans that allowed you to up or down your contributions to suit fluctuating income, though I believe those are quite prevalent today, when it's too late. The thing is, in photography you're hot when you're hot - and you're not when you're not. Guess I never forgot that.

My accontant kept trying to get me to buy my cars on hire purchase, but I only let him talk me into it twice; every other time I stayed with what I had until I could sign a cheque and buy the thing there and then. It was a good discipline, but I still think I bought too many cars I didn't really need, other than to spend what would otherwise end up as tax. I disliked debt, and still do. I never sit on invoices, and settle everything right away, credit cards included. It's just how I happen to be.

Shares. I know enough about them from family experiences. Not for widows, old people hoping to leave something for ther kids, nor anyone else not prepared to lose the goddam lot in one night. Capital gains steals so much, and in the end I think the only people really making it work for them are the brokers themselves and the very rich who have access to the advice that lets them move very quickly indeed.

So, yeah, there are no certainties.

[Rob C]

So, 18 days ago, President Trump was informed about Michael Flynn's talks with the Russian ambassador. Now, only after the media started reporting about it, Trump took action and suddenly fired Flynn. Why? Was it becoming too dangerous to deny involvement (with Russia)? What are the involvements?

I've said it before, the role of the media is becoming more important than ever before ...

Cheers,
Bart

Did you see the WH spokesman addressing reporters today? It was comic. The guy was fired resigned not because he broke any law, but because of trust, telling a porkie, he said. Yeah, right, nobody in the clan knew what he was doing, right. Different reporters phrased the same question in different ways but the answer was ever the same recital. What a job. There must be something better to do with one's life than be an official apologist.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Did you see the WH spokesman addressing reporters today? It was comic. The guy was fired resigned not because he broke any law, but because of trust, telling a porkie, he said. Yeah, right, nobody in the clan knew what he was doing, right. Different reporters phrased the same question in different ways but the answer was ever the same recital. What a job. There must be something better to do with one's life than be an official apologist.

The one by Kellyanne Conway, his other spokesperson, on the morning news was worse if that can be believed.  I'm now of the opinion that Trump will be out before the end of the year.

[Chris Kern]

I've said it before, the role of the media is becoming more important than ever before ...

Yes, indeed.

The political system here in the States, which was designed in the 18th Century, may seem somewhat antiquated at times.  But we're currently taking advantage of a number of its "quaint" attributes: near-absolute freedom of the press and free assembly (i.e., public demonstrations), judges at the federal level who are essentially appointed for life and a system of federal courts that is not dependent on other agencies of the government, a national legislature composed of representatives whose primary responsibility is to the states and local voting districts that elected them rather than to any national party, and a libertarian tradition (albeit often unacknowledged) of skepticism toward government authority.  Plus some modern innovations, not least a professional federal bureaucracy which—although almost everybody here finds it infuriating at one time or another—is populated by employees whose primary allegiance is to the law rather than to their political masters, and which operates within a restrictive institutional regime that quite effectively discourages corruption.

[Farmer]

Well, in my country the USA, not only do we have the right to vote, we have to freedom and right to not vote.

Less a freedom and more a free ride - not participating in the democracy and complaining about results later?

It's easy to turn up and drop in a vote that has nothing on it, if you really don't want to vote here.  Active participation is important, and letting people have the "right" to just let it all slide by is not constructive to a democracy (or practical variations thereof).

[Schewe]

Well, in my country the USA, not only do we have the right to vote, we have to freedom and right to not vote.

Yeah, ya know, I wouldn't be real proud of that.

I know in the old days, a lot of people didn't register to vote because they thought that would keep them from getting called for jury duty. In many locals, that's no longer the case. Jury duty lists have been randomly selected from a general jury list which combines the names of all registered voters, drivers license holders 18 years of age and older whose licenses have been issued within the past 6 years, holders of Illinois Identification Cards, and holders of Illinois Disabled Person Identification Cards.

Personally, I avoided voting by not registering for years after moving to Illinois but was moved to register and vote in 2008 because I could not stomach a ticket that included Sarah Palin being one headset from the presidency. I actually liked and still liked John McCain and would have voted for him had he chosen Joe Lieberman as his running mate but the neocons shut that down.

Naw, I just can't see how anybody could be proud of having the freedom to not vote...

[Schewe]

An investigation would show if there's voter fraud and how bad it is if it does exist.

Uh huh...you know that Trump is simply trolling the nation, right? He's sending tweets claiming something that has been repeatedly debunked. He sends his surrogates out to out right lie and you somehow have fallen for the troll.

Sure, go right ahead, demand an investigation...and while we're add it let's add voter suppression to the mix. Naw, I thought not...the right don't liked to be accused of supporting voter suppression or redistricting or other political efforts of exerting influence and control of who votes. This article is kinda scary...Trump Threatens to Make the GOP the Party of Permanent Voter Suppression
.

"Whatever his motives, Trump’s persistence in alleging — without a shred of evidence so far — massive voter fraud even after the election is most unfortunate. It will reinforce the fatal temptation on the political right, extending from non-ideological partisan hacks to the most race-crazed of white nationalists, to declare permanent open season on voting rights. And once universal suffrage stops being a principle to which both major parties subscribe in theory if not always in practice, reestablishing it could become as difficult as it was in the darkest days of the southern struggle for civil rights."

So, continuing the call for investigation because clearly Trump lost the popular vote is ignorant and foolish.

Yes, let's all work together to improve the accuracy of voter registration. Yes, let's all work together to make voting easier and more accurate. Yes, let's all work together to have minority and disabled voters exercise their right to vote. Let's all work to make sure each and every US citizen gets registered and actually vote...let's do that rather than let Trump troll us into investigating a fantasy because it doesn't fit with his distorted world view.

[Schewe]

But, I would be interested in reading your opinion on the statement you made.

That wasn't something I wrote, I was quoting the article I linked to: WHY ARE 51 MILLION ELIGIBLE AMERICANS NOT REGISTERED TO VOTE?.

But I agree with the Pew Report: Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient–Evidence That America’s Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade

From the report (and I'm quoting the report, this isn't something I'm writing although i agree with it).

Our democratic process requires an effective system for maintaining accurate voter registration information. Voter registration lists are used to assign precincts, send sample ballots, provide polling place information, identify and verify voters at polling places, and determine how resources, such as paper ballots and voting machines, are deployed on Election Day. However, these systems are plagued with errors and inefficiencies that waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections.

Voter registration in the United States largely reflects its 19th-century origins and has not kept pace with advancing technology and a mobile society. States’ systems must be brought into the 21st century to be more accurate, cost-effective, and efficient.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

...something that has been repeatedly debunked....

Nope.

[Schewe]

Nope.

Open your eyes and read some of the links I've posted. The Pew report says ZERO about voter fraud...

The wingnut, Gregg Phillips claimed 3+ million has repeated failed to show any data but hey Trump believes it so it must be true: Trump’s Voter Fraud Numbers Are Apparently From a Random Guy With an App.

3000 voters bussed from Massachusetts to New Hampshire (a state that just instituted voter ID requirements) to vote for Hillary is the difference in Trump loosing New Hampshire? Think that's true? Stop it. NH voter fraud claims are completely bogus.

In spite of all the unfounded claims, the House republicans saw fit to ignore fraud claims. The House Administration Committee voted to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an agency formed specifically to ensure the integrity of elections.
Despite Trump Voter Fraud Claims, House Committee Votes To Eliminate EAC, Agency In Charge Of Election Integrity.

I guess the GOP isn't too worried about wide-scale voter fraud...huh?

[laughingbear]

So, 18 days ago, President Trump was informed about Michael Flynn's talks with the Russian ambassador. Now, only after the media started reporting about it, Trump took action and suddenly fired Flynn. Why? Was it becoming too dangerous to deny involvement (with Russia)? What are the involvements?

....and now!.... Trump demands that Russia returns the Krim to Ukraine. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-ukraine-idUSKBN15T2IY

I think you do ask questions that would make sense under normal circumstances. Not so with Caligula Trump, as it is chaos and fascist ideology that reigns in DC.

I wonder, will we see the first 100 days of this "administration" without major military escalation? Honestly, I would not place a bet on it.

[laughingbear]

Interesting:

...Flynn should be one focus of the investigation, and that he should be called to testify before Congress.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

[Otto Phocus]

Did you see the WH spokesman addressing reporters today? It was comic. The guy was fired resigned not because he broke any law, but because of trust, telling a porkie, he said. Yeah, right, nobody in the clan knew what he was doing, right. Different reporters phrased the same question in different ways but the answer was ever the same recital. What a job. There must be something better to do with one's life than be an official apologist.

I truly can't imagine why anyone would want to be a White House Press Secretary.  You are just a talking dog being told what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.  The only opinions a press secretary has are those given to him/her by the president. I assume that the job pays millions of dollars per year. But I know that ain't true.  Is the pay off the ability to write a book after you retire or are fired?

But then I also can't understand why anyone would want to be president these days, but at least as president you have the power to get things done.  As a press secretary all you do is spin.

Perhaps press secretaries don't cast a reflection in the mirror so they don't have to actually face themselves every morning.