Sunday, December 29, 2019

Americans credit Trump for Great Economy? Reality paints entirely different picture!

So far, Trump cultists and former Democratic voters are happy with Trump's great economy, the same economy the media and GOP mislabeled as stagnant. They're still saying it, Fox News Dec. 28, 2019:


Great Recession denier Walker went on to blame the recessions high unemployment numbers on Obama and his predecessor Democratic Gov. Doyle. Yup, the media let him get away with it.

It's time to take a closer look, with facts that completely contradict Trump's ridiculous lies and tweets he repeats constantly at rallies.

1. President Trump's tariffs on imports ultimately led to 62,000 job losses and $7.1 billion in higher prices for consumers and business, a new study from the Federal Reserve has found:

2. Fewer Jobs Created than Obama, so not the best after all: Trump’s job growth falls short of Obama’s last three years


3. Corporate Welfare thanks to Trump Tax Cuts...still like his economy?
379 corporations paid effective fed tax rate of 11.3 percent. In total, 379 corporations enjoyed $73.9 billion dollars in corporate welfare ... ITEP says that 25 of the largest corporations made up half—$37.1 billion—of those pocketed tax dollars.
4. Trump Economy and Tax Cut Never helped "forgotten" Middle Class: 



5. Americans happy with Science Free Economic Future: Read below and you'll notice farming, mostly dairy farming, will ironically suffer most: Like journalist Jay Rosen tweeted, this is just one of many issues: 
"The refusal to be briefed, the attacks on the intelligence agencies, the put down of the diplomatic corps, the sidelining of science, the rejection of professionalism and expertise across government, the culture war against the press. It's all one thing."
"...relocated two key research agencies to Kansas City from Washington: The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, funds university research on topics like how to breed cattle and corn that can better tolerate drought conditions, and the Economic Research Service, whose economists produce studies for policymakers on farming trends, trade and rural America.

Nearly 600 employees had less than four months to decide whether to uproot and move. Most couldn’t or wouldn’t, and two-thirds of those facing transfer left their jobs.

Mick Mulvaney appeared to celebrate the departures. “It’s nearly impossible to fire a federal worker,” he said in videotaped remarks. “But by simply saying to people, ‘You know what, we’re going to take you outside the bubble, outside the Beltway, outside this liberal haven of Washington, D.C., and move you out in the real part of the country,’ and they quit. What a wonderful way to sort of streamline government..."

At the Economic Research Service, dozens of planned studies into topics like dairy industry consolidation and pesticide use have been delayed or disrupted.
6. Like Paul Ryan, Trump knows more than the Pope and is a better "Christian:"


6. Trump wasted "Best economy Ever" and never invested in Future
The nation wasted the major economic recovery, according to a new report by Harvard Business School on U.S. competitiveness.
“We had this wonderful recovery. It could have given us the chance to take some significant resources and devote them to some of our well-known challenges, like infrastructure or health care...none of that happened. Instead, we squandered a major economic recovery and didn’t use it to make things better,” said Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, a co-author of the study.

The overwhelming majority of business leaders surveyed in the report said lobbying primarily advanced company interests, sometimes at the expense of the public interest. More than half (56%) of the general public agreed. Corporations spent an estimated $2.8 billion on federal elections in 2018, according to OpenSecrets; 71% of business leaders surveyed in the report believe the overall business community’s election spending distorted the democratic process, while 60% of the public agreed, according to HBS.

“Employees are getting dragged into this game,” he said, adding: “We don’t see that as democratic principles. We think that’s not democracy where your employer is telling you how to vote and telling you where to give money.”

While unemployment is at a record low and stocks are at record highs, wealth inequality persists. In fact, 65% of HBS alumni ages 18-44 said the U.S. should use the tax system to undertake more redistribution toward lower-income individuals.

“There’s lots of areas where the narrative isn’t exactly right,” Porter said. “For example, we have a lot of people employed, but there’s a lot of data that shows that the people employed are often not getting a living wage, or they’re not being paid for their qualifications. A lot of college graduates in jobs that don’t really compensate them for what they know.”

Porter said the real unemployment rate is closer to 10%

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Government can't reduce Mass Shootings and Gun Violence, "that human beings have to fix"?

To avoid effective gun regulation, Republicans have focused all their energy on mental health treatment. Or so they wanted us to think. That ended abruptly when Republicans were asked to prove their case.

Note: Republicans want to make it perfectly clear they are not proposing mental health solutions for gun violence AFTER a mass shootings. Got that? It's always good to wait...
Rep. Paul Tittl, chairman of the Assembly’s mental health committee ... said a package of mental health bills that he and other Republican lawmakers and advocates unveiled was part of a years long push to improve mental health services and not a response to the shootings this month in Texas and Ohio that left 31 people dead.

“We have cared all along about mental health,” Tittl said. “This is not a reaction at all to any of the shootings. This is basically a reaction to what we’re working on.” 
Lie finally Revealed at fake stall tactic to do nothing at all: I could have searched out so many more past comments but you get the idea. Republicans latched onto this excuse because the press never confronted them about how phony their argument was; only 3 to 5 percent of gun violence has anything to do with mental health. Even worse, Republicans were making getting health insurance more difficult and unaffordable.

The Truth; Republicans were lying, again: Suddenly, Republicans realized they were already "throwing more money at the problem," so it's time to move on I guess:
WPR: The Republican leader of the state Assembly said Thursday GOP lawmakers won't vote to increase state mental health funding as a means of combating gun violence in Wisconsin ... GOP lawmakers have for months countered Democratic arguments for expanding background checks and instating a red-flag law with the possibility of increasing state mental health resources and programs. They have argued that mental health crises are often the root cause of shootings.
"We have already done a lot on mental health. I think there’s a lot of things that play into what’s happening. It isn’t as simple as snapping our fingers and putting more money into a problem." - Republican Speaker Robin Vos
After the fact Punishment, No Prevention. Get this...Robin Vos thinks government is not controlled by "human beings."
"An awful lot of these (shootings) come from a young person who’s in an incredibly bad place, either suicidal, lonely, disconnected ... ...those are things that human beings have to fix, governments not going to do it." 

Rest Easy, Republicans have a Plan: Vos admits, people will die, but those who commit crimes will be appropriately punished.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Trump Cultist challenge: Read the Transcript!

If Trump does win reelection, it should be comforting to know these brilliant "real American" Trump cultists are now in charge of our country. There may come a time when we won't think this is weird anymore!

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Ryan admits, Gerrymandering games elections, makes voting pointless, and forces "conservative principles" on everyone! Real freedom!

Republicans are convinced voters can't pick their politicians, so they're picking them instead. There's a danger in un-gerrymandered districts that could put families in danger from the sinister schemes spread by liberalism. Whatever happened to having better ideas that appeal to most voters?  
WSJ: Paul Ryan ... should support a nonpartisan process for drawing fair voting districts, such as Iowa’s good-government model. Instead, the former speaker of the House is doubling down on gerrymandering ... He’s joining the Republican State Leadership Committee’s fight to defend “RighLines 2020” initiative (with John Boehner and Newt Gingrich). Ryan will help raise millions of dollars “to protect Republican legislative majorities ahead of the decennial redrawing of federal and state district maps.” Seven states are being targeted, including Wisconsin.
Let's break Ryan's comments down...
“The threat this poses to the conservative principles that guide our country"

Those are OUR guiding principles? What were those again...and who thinks that?
"...and the policies that keep our families safe..."


Thoughts and prayers, because it works? It does? Like doing nothing about 40,000 gun deaths a year, refusing to discuss common sense gun laws, and heck, who doesn't love those active shooter drills in our schools? 
"...(keep our families) healthy..."
Like declaring the ACA unconstitutional, like trying to require work for Medicaid coverage, doing nothing about drug prices, allowing co-pays and deductibles to skyrocket, and adding to the confusing maze of programs no one in their right mind would understand much less utilize. 
...(and keep our families) working cannot be overstated." 

Like our dairy and ag farmers, factory workers, who are all threatened by tariffs, low pay and no benefits...not to mention doing nothing about a dramatically changing workplace tech driven economy? 

Ryan wants to protect states from.."liberal gerrymandering...” because liberal Americans are bad, should be silenced, marginalized, and never have a chance to be elected? And this sounds right to conservative voters. Ryan wants to make gerrymandering normal:
In the 2012 election, a majority of Americans voted for Democratic congressional candidates. But with the help of Republican gerrymanders in states in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other states Obama carried, the GOP won the overwhelming majority of those House districts and kept its majority. 

One estimate found that Democrats would have needed to win the popular vote by more than 7 points to gain a House majority. The RSLC bragged openly that its 2010 efforts made that happen. 

Boehner warned that "President Obama and Eric Holder failed to transform America into a socialist utopia when they were in office, but they’ve clearly not given up just yet. They’ve recruited liberal billionaires, labor unions, and left-wing activist groups to join them in a coordinated program to rig our nation’s legislative boundaries in favor of Democrats."

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Trump's Booming Jobs Numbers are fake, a lie, unbelievable, total nonsense?

We all saw the headlines...


The economy seems to be chugging along without any threatening tech or housing bubble. Even Trump's mindless tariff debacles don't seem to be moving the needle much either.

But then something jogged my memory...

I completely forgot the following Trump claim that Obama's job creation numbers were made up, phony, and just more fake news. All in with Chris Hayes did an entire piece on this Friday night.

Here's candidate Trump's lies about Obama's phony jobs numbers. Also remember Sean Spicer was asked about Trump's lies at a press conference, which he was ready for with this quoted supplied by Trump: "They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now." Ha, ha? Yes, the truth seeking press core just laughed it off.


The video proof...still believed today:



So I thought, what if I confronted my Trump cultist friend in Milwaukee with the same rhetoric? What would he say. Here's our text conversation, with my comments in blue...:


And yes, I will continue this line of bullshit until he catches on, or even maybe reads my blog. Try it out on someone you know too, it's fun.

Friday, December 6, 2019

Republicans think U.S. Health Care is Normal and should be Profitable?

While my Trump cultist friend in Milwaukee is as happy to see Wall Street and black employment up "like never before," he's one of millions being told; be happy, this is normal and will be protected by Republicans only if we do nothing.

The U.S. Health Care Horror: The surreal idea Republicans have for our private health care system: It's good now but could be better if free market competition and profits were allowed to flourish. It's supposedly normal to have only one month to shop for insurance, pay higher monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles, all the while trying to decide if you can afford to use your insurance when you finally need it. Does that make sense, seriously?

Here's a great summary from an actual doctor and medical journalist, Elisabeth Rosenthal, from Kaiser Health:
There’s one issue that nearly every American can agree on: Our health care system is a mess and in need of dramatic overhaul. That’s not just because it is absurdly expensive compared with the systems of other developed countries. It’s also because it is so dauntingly complex ... driven significantly by profit, rather than by measures of health. Countless providers, companies, consultants and intermediaries are trying to get their piece of the $3.5 trillion pie that is U.S. health care. That has led to a maze-like system — with twists and turns and barriers and blind alleys and incomprehensible signposts — that ordinary people are expected to navigate. We say ... our system gives consumers choices. We tell people that to benefit they just need to be smarter shoppers. What we are really telling them is to perform the impossible.
Any adult whose seen a doctor, whether for themselves or their kids, has experienced much or all of the following "choices:"
"Choose an insurance policy; endless permutations involving personal budget calculations and modeling that would defy a post-doc in economics; in-network deductible and an out-of-network deductible; copays and coinsurance (yes, they’re different); as well as an annual maximum personal out-of-pocket outlay; choose between a PPO and an HMO; a tax-advantaged flexible spending account or health savings account; rigged against patients thanks largely to its opacity and complexity; Insurance plans can refuse to pre-certify a prescribed treatment or decide it was not medically necessary and deny coverage after the fact; complexity grew out of financial considerations; All the players are effectively licensed to reach into our wallets when they can’t get the money they want from one another."
A few more important final thoughts: 
"We’ve turned somersaults not to do what almost every other developed country has done; restrain charges by setting prices or by large-scale national negotiations. “Innovation” in our profit-oriented system is not just about developing lifesaving treatments, but also about inventing new ways to bill and new charges that don’t exist elsewhere.

Americans trying to be smart shoppers are understandably confused about navigating the open enrollment season, as they are doing currently. And just when they have figured it out for one year, they have to do it all over again. The odds of success are small."

The reason the Deer kill is down again...


Vos' petty Holiday Wishes...


Ain't room enough for the two of them...