Jump to content
Please support this forum by joining the SH Patreon ×
Sturgeon's House

Walter_Sobchak

Forum Nobility
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,497

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    139

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Walter_Sobchak

  5. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    8 hours ago, Donward said:

    Credibility with who?

     

    Credibility with people in a profession who stand in a mud puddle while on camera, making believe they're fighting off hurricane force winds?

     

    The profession that breathlessly reports on Nikki Haley's curtains and then has to grovel and issue a retraction because the narrative didn't match the carpet?

     

    He has credibility in an institution that relies solely on "unnamed sources" for even the most routine of stories and which can't even get the "Who" right when reporting on "Who, What, Where, When, Why"

     

    He has credibility in a profession whose trustworthiness with the American public consistently ranks below that of used car salesmen?

     

    He has credibility in the DC media/cable news/Sunday talk show crowd which has shown itself to be completely incapable of writing anything factual about the President whether its misreporting on when the Trump campaign having access to Wikileaks emails, or Trump removing the bust of mlk from the White House or even how he feeds a bunch of god damn sacred carp in Japan.

    Considering that the book is in its ninth printing and has been out for less than a week, I am guessing quite a few people find him credible.  

     

    Anyhow, public trust in journalism is failing, but mostly with conservatives.  https://news.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx

  7. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    40 minutes ago, Donward said:

     

    I love how people have the attention span of a goldfish in America, particularly the media, and the Left.

     

    Because it's not like THIS happened.

     

     

    Apples and Oranges.  The Trillion Dollar coin idea you mention was a gimmick response to the debt ceiling crisis and it was not taken seriously.  Watch the video you linked, Obama is very dismissive of the idea.  

     

    As to the references to the Woodward book, you can read it for yourself here.   Trump was not discussing the debt ceiling.  He was talking about the US government printing money to reduce debt, a concept everyone knows is a recipe for inflation.  


     

    Spoiler

     

    Jared Kushner invited Gary Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, to come talk to his father-in-law on November 30 about the economy. A meeting was arranged for Cohn at Trump Tower. Cohn was a legendary risk taker at the premier investment banking firm. He had an ego and sureness to match Trump’s. He was advised that Trump routinely kept meetings to 10 minutes.
    In Trump’s office were Bannon, Priebus, Kushner and Steve Mnuchin, also a former Goldman banker and hedge fund manager who had been Trump’s chief fundraiser during the last six months of the campaign. Mnuchin had been rewarded with the cabinet post of treasury secretary though the appointment had not yet been announced.
    The American economy overall is in okay shape, Cohn told Trump, but it was ready to experience a growth explosion if certain actions were taken. To achieve this, the economy needed tax reform and the removal of the shackles of overregulation.
    Cohn knew this was what Trump wanted to hear. Then the New York City Democrat told the president-elect something he did not want to hear. We’re a trade-based economy, he said. Free, fair and open trade was essential. Trump had campaigned against international trade deals.
    Second, the United States is an immigration center to the world. “We’ve got to continue to have open borders,” Cohn said. The employment picture was so favorable that the United States would run out of workers soon. So immigration had to continue. “We have many jobs in this country that Americans won’t do.”
    Next, Cohn repeated what everyone was saying: Interest rates were going to go up over the foreseeable future.
    I agree, Trump said. “We should just go borrow a lot of money right now, hold it, and then sell it and make money.”
    Cohn was astounded at Trump’s lack of basic understanding. He tried to explain. If you as the federal government borrow money through issuing bonds, you are increasing the U.S. deficit.
    What do you mean? Trump asked. Just run the presses—print money.
    You don’t get to do it that way, Cohn said. We have huge deficits and they matter. The government doesn’t keep a balance sheet like that. “If you want to do something that would be smart—and you actually do control this—I would add a 50-year and a 100-year bond from the U.S. Treasury.”
    With interest rates going down in recent years, Treasury had brought the duration of bonds down to 10 years as much as possible. That was the right thing to do, Cohn said. With rates increasing, the insurance companies and the pensions will lend the government money for 50 years or 100 years. And you could probably do it at 3¾ percent. That would be really cheap money over the next 50 to 100 years.
    “Wow!” Trump said. “That’s a great idea.” He turned to Mnuchin. “Can we do that?”
    “Oh, sure,” the designated treasury secretary said. “We can absolutely do that.”
    “Do you agree with him?” Trump asked.
    “Yeah, I agree with him,” Mnuchin said.
    “You’ve been working for me six months,” Trump said. “Why the hell have you never talked to me about this? Why’s he the first person to ever tell me that?”
    There was nothing in the world that was then yielding 3¾ percent risk-free, Cohn said. There would be a run on these bonds and plenty of buyers. The 50-year corporate bond was selling all over the place. Investors wanted high, risk-free yield.

    Turning to the Federal Reserve, Cohn noted that the U.S. had had an effective zero interest rate for years. There was only one way to go, interest rates would go up, for two reasons. The economy was getting much stronger and higher rates would tamp down inflation.

    “So if I’m running the Fed, I’m going to raise rates,” he said.

    Trump knew that presidents liked low rates to help the economy. He said, “Well, I’m not going to choose you to run the Fed ever.”

    “That’s fine,” Cohn said. “It’s the worst job in America.”

    Turning to taxes, Cohn said, “The 35 percent corporate tax rate has been great for my business for the last decade. We’ve been inverting companies to 10 percent tax jurisdictions and they pay us enormous fees.” He was speaking as a Goldman president. An inversion refers to relocating a corporation’s legal home to a low-tax country such as Ireland or Bermuda in the form of a new parent company while retaining operations and management as a subsidiary in the higher-tax country.

    Goldman had facilitated dozens of companies’ moves abroad. The company’s leaders and boards had a responsibility to shareholders to maximize profits and moving, inverting, dramatically raised earnings. Nearly all the drugmakers and insurance companies had moved.

    Cohn bragged, “Where else can I take a company doing X in business that does X tomorrow and has 20 percent more earnings just by changing their corporate headquarters?”

    Arguing against Goldman’s self-interest, Cohn added, “We can’t allow that to happen. We’ve got to get our corporate tax in line with the average, which is about 21, 22 percent.”

    Though there had been some restrictions imposed by Congress, there were ways to skirt the new laws. “We can’t allow companies to just keep inverting out of the United States. It’s just bad. It’s wrong for business. It’s wrong for jobs. I’m talking against my business. We made a ton of money.”

    Trump returned to printing money. “We’ll just borrow,” he said, enamored with the idea of heading the federal government, which had the best credit rating in the world, so they could borrow at the lowest interest rate.

    Cohn didn’t mention a report that had come out during the campaign which said the Trump Organization’s business credit score was a 19 out of 100, below the national average by 30 points, and that it could have difficulty borrowing money.

    You just can’t print money, Cohn said.

    “Why not? Why not?”

    Congress had a debt ceiling which set a cap on how much money the federal government could borrow, and it was legally binding. It was clear that Trump did not understand the way the U.S. government debt cycle balance sheet worked.

    Inflation would probably be steady. Automation was coming, Cohn said—artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics. We’ll manage the labor supply more efficiently now than we ever did in the history of mankind. So look, you’re in the most precarious time in terms of job losses. We now can create labor with machines.

    “If you’re here eight years, you’re going to deal with the automation of the automobile and truck. About 25 percent of the U.S. population makes a living driving something. Think about that.”

    “What are you talking about?” Trump asked.

    With the self-driving, autonomous vehicle, millions of people are going to have to reenter the workforce in different jobs. That would be a big change and possible large disruption.

    “I want you to come to work for me,” Trump said.

    “Doing what?”

    Trump mentioned deputy secretary of defense.

    “First of all, I don’t want to be deputy secretary of anything,” Cohn said.

    How about director of national intelligence?

    Cohn indicated no. He was not sure what the job did. He later learned it entailed overseeing the CIA and all the other intelligence agencies.

    “You trade commodities,” Trump said. “Why don’t you think about being secretary of energy?”

    No interest.

    Trump tried to convince Cohn to become director of the Office of Management and Budget.

    No. Cohn knew it was a horrible job.

    “You know what?” Trump said at the end of what had become an hour-long meeting. “I hired the wrong guy for treasury secretary. You should be treasury secretary. You would be the best treasury secretary.”

    Mnuchin, right there, didn’t say a thing or show any reaction.

    “Come back and tell me what you want,” Trump said. “You’d be great to have on the team. It’d be fantastic.”

    Five minutes later while Cohn was still in the building, he saw a television flash breaking news: President-elect Trump has selected Steve Mnuchin as treasury secretary.

    “That’s crazy,” Jared said. “Mnuchin just put that out. You freaked him out so badly in the meeting.”

     

     

     

     

     

    As to the idea that Trump was just joking, I don't believe the man jokes.  If there is one thing I have learned, it's that Trump means everything he says.  It's just that much of what he says is so outlandish or off the wall that reasonable people assume he must be joking.  He is not.  As far as I can tell, the only time he exhibits a sense of humor is when he is mocking or belittling other people.  

  16. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    34 minutes ago, Donward said:

    And the birth certificate thing could have been put to rest in 24 hours, or 3 business days tops.

     

    But Obama WANTED the Republicans to chase that red herring for six years.


    Really?  You really believe that?  He released his birth certificate in 2008, before he was even elected.  Then, in 2011, he released his "certificate of live birth", also known as the long form birth certificate as well as accompanying birth announcements from Hawaiian newspapers.  And yet, the conspiracy theories continued, despite the complete lack of any evidence.  This bullshit should have ended in 2011.  In no way did this crap benefit Obama.  The ones who benefitted were the ones pedalling this bullshit to their gullible believers.  You know, Donald Trump.

     

     

  17. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    Anyhow, it seems pretty obvious to me that this anonymous op-ed is an attempt from within Trump's own administration to prepare the ground for implementation of removing him under amendment 25, section 4.  It is not an accident this was timed with the release of the Woodward book.  Plenty of people were willing to talk to Woodward, he didn't make this shit up.  This administration has been the leakiest ever seen.  You can't blame this on Democrats or "deep state" for that.  These are the people Trump picked himself.  And they all seem to hate working for him.  Whether or not they collectively have the guts to do something about it other than whine anonymously remains to be seen.    

  20. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Ramlaen said:

    Rosenstein is allegedly under investigation for the Carter Page FISA warrant and is barred from the FISA process.

     

     

     

    Hardly.  According to the Chicago Tribune "63 percent of Americans support Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, with 52 percent saying they support it strongly; 29 percent oppose the probe."  More people support the Mueller probe than support Trump at this point.

  21. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    The fact that a senior white house official feels compelled to write an anonymous op ed is pretty startling.  Frankly, I think it's a bit cowardly to hide behind the "anonymous" label.  If they think Trump is really that much of a danger, then resign and state it publically.  That said, I don't doubt that Trump is "not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making."  

     

    Also, comparing him to Grant is just wrong and an insult to Grant.

  24. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    47 minutes ago, Donward said:

    Counterpoint. The American voters put Trump into office as the last ditch hope to reclaim our Republic from the Oligarchy which has burrowed itself into the hide of Washington like so many ticks, and whose only concern is engorging themselves on the public trough. 

    How is Trump not an Oligarchy of one?  Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

  25. Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

    in Open Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Donward said:

     

     

    HOW DO YOU SEE INTO THE FUTURE? ARE YOU A WIZARD PRESIDENT TRUMP????

     

    Pretty sure liberals don't love Jeff Sessions.  Not at all happy with his misguided, antiquated war on pot.  That said, Sessions seems to have enough integrity to know, at least at the barest minimum, of the proper role of the Attorney General as the head of the Justice Department.  He is not the lawyer for the President.  He is not there to protect the President or the Republican party.  He is there to lead the Justice department. The "libtards" are not cheering for individuals such as Sessions or Comey, they are cheering for the institutions they represent to survive the threat posed by the would be dictator King Donald.  

×
×
  • Create New...